Chapter 16: Going Out With Brother
The third morning.
Xiang Chuan got up early again, not because she liked getting up early—if conditions allowed, she wished she could sleep until twelve o’clock. But it was because she was going out with Xiang Qi today, so she had to first check if the yeast in the guest room on the third floor had successfully developed.
Opening the door to the guest room, warm air rushed towards her face.
The fleet mothership was currently in spring, with indoor temperatures mostly stable between fifteen and twenty degrees Celsius, so the thirty-degree room felt a bit stuffy.
But Xiang Chuan didn’t care about that; she went straight to the two glass bottles in the center of the room. To distinguish them, she had pasted labels yesterday.
The newly made yeast embryo from yesterday afternoon had already begun fermenting; the stirred dough had changed color slightly, and tiny air bubbles could faintly be seen on the dough. To prevent mixed mushrooms from entering, she had slightly opened the lid, and a faint sour smell could be detected. Fortunately, the sterilized glass bottle also showed slight changes, but perhaps because it had been sterilized, the fermentation speed was slow, and even slightly opening the bottle yielded no smell.
She opened the terminal and issued instructions to the kitchen AI and servant.
“Servant, if I don’t return in the afternoon, take the No. 1 glass bottle from the leftmost guest room on the third floor to the kitchen. After Little Chef completes my instructions, safely return the glass bottle containing the thing to the guest room… No, return the glass bottle containing the thing safely to the guest room. Little Chef, after the servant brings the glass bottle, re-stir the dough inside according to yesterday’s method and seal it with the lid.”
[Beep—Understood.]
[Beep—Captured new command “Little Chef,” associating with kitchen AI, matching association… Association complete. Instruction received.]
After arranging everything, Xiang Chuan finally relaxed, yawning as she walked to the dining hall, where she ran into her parents and Lin Yu coming downstairs, along with their secretaries and guards.
“Father, Mother, Uncle Lin, good morning.” She greeted them instinctively, then paused and realized something was off: “Huh? Why is Uncle Lin here so early?”
Xiang Weiguo and Lin Minzhi looked at her with wry smiles: Had this child gotten muddle-headed from sleep?
“Hahaha, good morning, Xiao Chuan. I got up early on purpose to mooch a meal.”
Lin Yu looked at Xiang Chuan’s dazed expression and couldn’t help laughing heartily as he teased her.
“Ah… You got up really early then. The hotel is pretty far from here, right?”
As she spoke, Xiang Chuan couldn’t help recalling in her mind the scene yesterday when she and her sister took the car to leave. Although she had an impression in her “memory,” actually seeing her home in the villa area on the outer side of the government area still made her click her tongue in amazement. That anti-gravity vehicle had even driven for 10 minutes before reaching the city edge.
“Did you get muddle-headed from sleep, kid?” Lin Minzhi patted her head. “Didn’t we say at dinner last night that Uncle Lin would stay at our house until the diplomatic mission returns?”
“Ah? Oh… Yeah, it seems like it was mentioned…”
Xiang Chuan felt embarrassed. Last night’s memory was occupied by her sister’s urging for more episodes of Empresses in the Palace and the matter of making yeast herself, so she really didn’t remember the dinner clearly.
She glanced at the kitchen; the kitchen AI had already prepared hand grab cake and egg pancake, and also milk. Xiang Chuan nodded: Not bad, at least it looked like a normal breakfast.
“Mother, you all go sit at the dining table first. I’ll make an extra bowl of soup.” With that, Xiang Chuan dove back into the kitchen. “Little Chef, prepare peeled tomatoes, beaten eggs, boiling water, and salt for me.”
[Beep—Understood.]
Lin Minzhi watched Xiang Chuan bustling about in the kitchen and couldn’t help showing a gratified smile: This child was much livelier than before.
Before bed yesterday, Xiang Qi had told the couple that he was taking Xiang Chuan to apply for personal use certification for information turbulence today, startling them both. After all, getting this certification was equivalent to publicizing one’s personal privacy to the entire fleet, and it might even attract attention from other fleets—everyone who accessed information turbulence was very low-key. This made Xiang Weiguo and Lin Minzhi feel very guilty, thinking the children were doing this for their sake.
If Yue Xiang Group wanted to use Xiang Chuan’s recipe, it would definitely involve information turbulence. If they didn’t file it at the government port before launching related products, not only would Yue Xiang Group be shut down if discovered, but it would also affect Lin Minzhi’s work.
Thinking of this, Lin Minzhi felt gratified yet somewhat guilty.
Those fortunate enough to enter information turbulence gained varying degrees of harvest, and from the current perspective, Xiang Chuan’s harvest was enormous—enormous enough that once Xiang Weiguo rolled out Yue Xiang Group’s production line, it would have an inestimable impact on the entire Third Fleet, and might even affect the agricultural structure and dietary habits of the other eleven fleets. Xiang Chuan, who brought all these changes, would undoubtedly be seen as the government’s top focus, affecting her entire life.
When the kitchen AI brought the tomato egg drop soup to the table, all six adults couldn’t help casting curious glances.
It had to be said that this soup looked much better than the noodle soup they usually ate: light white broth, scattered egg flowers, and small pieces of tomatoes—clearer than the previous dough drops, yet more fragrant.
The kitchen AI ladled the soup into four bowls and placed them in front of the four people. Lin Minzhi scooped up a spoonful and put it in her mouth.
Unlike the sticky noodle soup, the smooth soup slid down like a hot drink, its sweet-and-sour flavor instantly arousing hunger. She took the hand grab cake, bit into it twice, then drank another sip of soup; the salty fragrance of the hand grab cake paired excellently with the sweet-and-sour tomato egg drop soup, making her drink several more sips.
“By the way, Father, Mother, between the apples and oranges I cut yesterday, which did you prefer? I considered bananas, but since your lunch already had fried bananas, I didn’t include them.”
Xiang Chuan swallowed a bite of egg pancake and suddenly remembered the fruit she had added yesterday.
“Apples? Oranges?”
Xiang Weiguo and Lin Minzhi looked at each other: Were there such things?
“Ah!”
Lisa reflexively let out an “Ah,” then quickly covered her mouth, but everyone had already turned their gazes to her. She slowly stood up and bowed in apology:
“Sorry, Director, the meal box you gave us yesterday did contain a few pieces of cut food.”
The couple blinked: How come they themselves hadn’t eaten any, yet their subordinates had gotten them first?
Sensing their gazes, Lisa shrank her neck even lower.
It wasn’t intentional! In the lounge, the three were eating heartily, and she herself had nothing to eat, only staring straight at the wall—how could she notice if the two had eaten the extra things Miss prepared!
Xiang Chuan looked at Lisa, who was almost shrinking into her shell, then at her wide-eyed parents, and roughly understood what happened.
“How about I have Little Chef prepare some more? It’s just peeling and cutting anyway, uh…” As she was about to issue the command, Xiang Chuan felt a blazing gaze; looking up, it was Lin Yu. “…Uncle Lin, do you want a portion too?”
“Haha, since Xiao Chuan says so, I’ll humbly accept.”
Lin Yu’s face immediately broke into a grin.
Could she refuse? Xiang Chuan complained inwardly but could only respond with a polite smile.
After seeing off her parents and Lin Yu’s car, Xiang Chuan returned alone to the restaurant and browsed recipes on Geegle. The more she saw the required ingredients and seasonings, the more despairing she felt, until she simply rested her forehead on the table leg and zoned out.
It wasn’t that she couldn’t cook without scallion ginger, soy sauce, oyster sauce, yeast, and so on, but…
Xiang Chuan looked wordlessly at the ceiling.
She had clearly transmigrated to a future world with technology developed countless times more advanced, so why did she feel more exhausted than novel protagonists who transmigrated to ancient times?
Ginger! Scallions! Where are you!
As someone who didn’t eat scallions, Xiang Chuan never imagined she’d one day miss them so much.
“Xiao Chuan? Up so early again today?”
Lifting her head, she saw Xiang Qi and Xiang Xue coming downstairs together.
“Morning, Brother Xiang Qi, Xiao Xue. Breakfast is ready. If you want soup, have Little Chef make a fresh portion.”
“I don’t want noodle soup… Huh? There’s new stuff on the kitchen menu? I want this!”
Xiang Xue bounced over and sat next to Xiang Chuan. Xiang Qi looked at his lively sister and smiled wryly.
“Sister Xiang Chuan, can we continue watching Empresses in the Palace today?”
“Didn’t we say yesterday? You can only continue after we get back, or the network monitoring might issue a warning.”
Xiang Qi advised.
“Sigh, what a hassle.”
Seeing Xiang Chuan shake her head with a wry smile, Xiang Xue gave up coquetry and boredly fiddled with her terminal. “You’re both going out soon, so won’t I be super bored?”
“You could rewatch yesterday’s… TV series? That’s the term, right.” Xiang Qi said awkwardly. “If it’s short content, network monitoring probably won’t notice.”
“I just watched it yesterday, and I quickly rewatched it this morning. I still remember the content; it’s not fresh anymore.”
“It’s not fruit; what’s fresh or not…”
Xiang Chuan couldn’t help complaining. She “thought for a moment” and proposed: “How about watching it together with your friends using the regional space-time network? Watching and complaining… Ah, no, discussing the plot together won’t be boring.”
“They’re all rushing homework; no time.”
Students in every era loved cramming homework before school resumed! Xiang Chuan smiled wryly.
“How about just doing a live stream of watching the drama.” Xiang Chuan said casually.
“Drama watching live stream? What’s that?”
Hearing the new term, Xiang Xue perked up immediately.
“It’s watching drama on a live stream platform. You provide commentary or complain about… uh… explain illogical or interesting parts of the plot, and other audience interact with you via text. That shouldn’t be boring, right?”
This was truly a novel thing! Xiang Xue’s eyes lit up, and she immediately turned to Xiang Qi: “Brother Xiang Qi, these two episodes from Sister Xiang Chuan can be used this way, right?”
“Uh…” This really hit Xiang Qi’s blind spot. “Theoretically, local broadcasting should be fine, as long as you don’t upload this drama to the space-time network and set up anti-monitoring and anti-recording protections on your live stream… ? Network monitoring shouldn’t intervene.”
“Yay!” Xiang Xue cheered, opened her terminal screen, tapped several contacts in succession, didn’t forget to mute voice, and animatedly discussed something with her mouth opening and closing.
After finishing breakfast, as Xiang Qi took Xiang Chuan into his anti-gravity vehicle, the siblings suddenly heard Xiang Xue’s “Yay!” cheer from the mansion.
The two exchanged a glance and smiled helplessly yet indulgently.
With such a restless sister, what could they do?
