Chapter 14: The First Diner Under The Eaves
Xiang Weiguo’s and Lin Minzhi’s return trip was somewhat embarrassed. The two originally intended to follow the troop to attend the banquet prepared for the First Fleet diplomatic mission, but the rumor of lunch spread faster than the two imagined. As soon as the afternoon speech ended, people around them came up to greet them one after another, hinting in their words that they wanted to visit, including even members of major families whom the two rarely contacted, which flattered them. They could only pretend to have family matters and leave early, and Lin Yu naturally followed closely behind when leaving.
“You two became the most popular today.”
Lin Yu laughed heartily.
The three had already returned to the Xiang Family gate, and their secretaries and guards were driving the anti-gravity vehicle to the garage under the servant’s guidance.
“I didn’t expect it to cause such a sensation.”
Lin Minzhi smiled wryly and shook her head. If she had known it would be like this, she would have had the three eat directly in the lounge.
“After all, it’s the first new type of food to appear in over thirty thousand years. Naturally, our fleet is the most concerned both emotionally and rationally. But I didn’t expect those major families to take action so quickly.”
Xiang Weiguo recalled the several unfamiliar faces who came to greet him at the venue just now. The family badges they wore had already indicated their identities. If not for Xiang Weiguo’s good self-control, he definitely wouldn’t have been able to suppress his smug little expression.
“Captain, your luggage is here.”
Daiken walked side by side with a servant steadily holding a high-end luggage case. Lisa and Xiao Ye followed behind with embarrassed expressions: They’re really staying overnight?
“Take Captain Lin’s luggage to the guest room.”
Xiang Weiguo ordered. The servant acknowledged and entered the gate first. Xiang Weiguo and his wife then led Lin Yu to the dining hall.
“Ah no no, this one needs ketchup!”
“Xiao Xue! Don’t sneak eats!”
“Brother, you sneaked some too! I’m watching!”
As soon as the three entered the dining hall, they were hit with a rich meat aroma and faint black pepper scent, along with the three siblings shouting and clamoring noisily.
“What are you doing? It smells so good.”
Xiang Weiguo’s appetite was whetted, and he laughed heartily while greeting the children.
“Dad and Mom? You’re back so soon? Eh, Uncle Lin, you’re here too?”
Xiang Qi was the first to come forward and couldn’t help but be stunned upon seeing Lin Yu.
“Good evening, little Qi. I’m here to mooch food and drink.”
Lin Yu greeted him while his eyes couldn’t help glancing toward the kitchen. Needless to say, they must be making new dishes.
“Uncle Lin, you’re really interesting.”
Xiang Qi was stumped by his greeting for half a day before squeezing out this response. He took it as Lin Yu joking, not expecting the other to really intend to mooch a meal at his home.
“What is Xiao Chuan making? It smells so good.”
Lin Minzhi looked toward the dining table. Today, the central food basins had been unusually removed, making the dining table look much larger. Servants were setting out knife and fork, with no chopsticks in sight. What were they going to eat?
“As soon as Sister came back, she said she wanted to eat meat. She’s making beef now.”
Xiang Xue giggled and smoothly greeted Lin Yu.
Oh? Beef?
The three elders became interested. The chicken breast eaten as an ingredient in the hand grab cake during the day was already very delicious. Tonight’s meal was clearly treating beef as the main dish—this was the first time, and they didn’t know what it would be made into.
“Um… this is medium rare, this is rare… right?”
[Beep—Miss Xiang Chuan, please input the accurate value.]
Damn it, how was she supposed to know the exact doneness!
Xiang Chuan really wanted to throw down the knife and fork in her hand.
Making steak is simple—just pepper, oil, and salt. The problem was recording the menu. She wanted the kitchen AI to remember the doneness, but actual attempts revealed it was as hard as ascending to heaven. When working outside before, she always ate ready-made medium-well steaks and wasn’t sure if the chef’s were truly medium-well, so now entering the data was difficult.
Forget it, she’ll check Geegle later.
She pointed at the steak that tasted medium-well to her earlier.
“Prepare dinner based on this one’s serving state as the benchmark. Record it as ‘Simple Black Pepper Steak’, make five portions… Eh? Dad and Mom, you’re back?”
Xiang Chuan saw her parents approaching and hurried over to greet them. Seeing Lin Yu and the three secretaries and guards behind them, she quickly added portions for them.
“Yes, it ended early over there, so we came back first. This is tonight’s dinner?”
They looked at the steaks sizzling on the heating plate, mixed with the stimulating pepper aroma, which was very appetizing.
“Yes, still preparing…”
Seeing the fatigue on her parents’ faces, Xiang Chuan thought for a moment and still had the kitchen AI prepare a few more hand grab cakes, and doubled the steak portions.
“I thought there was only meat. Meat isn’t very filling.”
Xiang Weiguo laughed heartily.
Of course I know it’s not filling, but the problem is there’s no yeast to make bread! Xiang Chuan complained inwardly, only able to mask it with a dry laugh on the surface.
The problem was that yeast. Tonight she took out the glass bottle and looked at it for a long time, finding the dough completely inactive. After repeatedly confirming with the kitchen AI, she discovered the warehouse had an automatic sterilization light function.
Good grief, the yeast just sprouted and got killed, huh?
Xiang Chuan had to find an unused guest room and adjust the room temperature to 30 degrees Celsius. Just in case, she prepared another yeast culture bottle, worried the original one wouldn’t ferment anymore due to the sterilization light’s influence.
Fortunately, she discovered it early; otherwise, it would have wasted a whole day in vain.
“Eh, what’s this?”
Lin Yu saw a large pot of oil on the other side of the heating plate. The kitchen AI was continuously adding cut thick potato strips and potato wedges—this was naturally french fries and potato wedges, but the fried potato aroma wasn’t as enticing as the beef and really didn’t draw much attention.
“Just some casual snacks. When Xiao Xue came back this afternoon clamoring for something not sweet, I made some on the spot.”
The fried french fries and potato wedges, after filtering off the bottom oil residue, were placed on serving plates. The golden coating looked quite tempting, but its taste was somewhat hard to imagine.
“Little chef, prepare a bowl of ketchup for each portion of french fries… Forget it, prepare a few more bowls.”
[Beep—Understood.]
Ketchup?
The three exchanged glances.
What had this child come up with now?
Twenty minutes later, dinner preparations finally wrapped up. The ravenous crowd, stomachs growling, eagerly sat down, eyes gleaming at the gourmet food before them.
Since she couldn’t make black pepper sauce, Xiang Chuan could only simply sprinkle some black pepper, but the kitchen AI put all the juices from pan-frying the steaks into the plates, giving it somewhat the look of black pepper steak. Of course, this was already delicious enough for modern people. As decoration, Xiang Chuan also had the kitchen AI prepare sliced cucumbers and tomatoes, as well as the essential semi-cooked fried eggs.
What Xiang Chuan didn’t expect was—modern people didn’t know how to use knife and fork to eat meat!
Seeing Xiang Xue eagerly skewer a large piece of beef toward her mouth, she quickly stopped her and taught her hand-in-hand how to use knife and fork to cut the beef into pieces before eating.
The crowd suddenly realized: It’s just like cutting solid food.
So they started eating on their own.
Medium-well beef was already fragrant enough for modern people new to pan-fried steak. Lin Yu also tasted the rare and medium-rare ones specially left by the kitchen AI, unable to believe that beef just lightly seared could have such a perfect pairing of aroma and tenderness.
Seeing these six people practically wanting to lick the plates clean, Xiang Chuan had good reason to suspect that if not for preparing two portions per person according to the numbers
