I woke up to find myself transmigrated into a disabled child.

Chapter 47 Lunch and Dinner

With a chuckle, Lezhi quickly ate a berry to suppress the taste in her mouth. "Why are you all so stubborn? This stuff isn't meant to be eaten plain; it's meant to be used to season meat."

"Oh, then that means this is one of the seasonings you're looking for."

"Yes, this is very useful. With this, we can cook meat in more ways in the future."

Lezhi was embarrassed to admit it, but he was getting really tired of eating grilled meat and meat patties every day for the past two days. He really missed braised pork, stewed pork, and steamed pork with rice flour. If he could have some rice or steamed buns with it, that would be heavenly.

However, one must eat one bite at a time. Now that he has the soy sauce, he can start making a simple version of braised pork or stewed meat when he is short of ingredients. He believes that as long as he doesn't give up, he will eventually find the otherworldly versions of wheat and rice plants, and then his rice and steamed buns will be taken care of.

With a delight, Lezhi and Yueyou picked enough slippery fruit and strange-flavored fruit. Taking advantage of their rare outing, they searched the surrounding area again. In a dark and shady spot, Yuezhi was pleasantly surprised to find familiar scallion leaves and sweet crystals, which would be a good way to replenish his depleted stock.

Besides scallion leaves and sweet crystals, there were many lichens around. With the spirit of "better to miss than let go", I picked all the ones that showed they were non-toxic, and will try them out later to see how they taste.

As Lezhi was searching for lichens in the grass, Leyou suddenly called out, "Lezhi, come quick, look what I found!"

Curious, Lezhi got up and went to Leyou's side. Leyou took the fruit Leyou offered him. Leyou gave him a strange smile and urged, "Smell it..."

Without hesitation, he put the fruit under his nose and smelled it. A pungent odor rushed into his nasal cavity, and Lezhi couldn't help but cough out, caught off guard.

"Ugh, cough cough cough... what's this?"

"Hehe, this is a Stinky Fruit, hahaha, it's stinky enough, isn't it? Let me tell you, a cub's life isn't complete without being tormented by a Stinky Fruit. All of us cubs have been tricked by adults with Stinky Fruits before, and you can't be left out, wahahahaha~"

Glancing irritably at Leyou, who was laughing triumphantly after his prank, Lezhi couldn't help but laugh out loud. Shaking his head, Lezhi didn't know how to tell Leyou that although it was a prank, he had indirectly helped him find an important ingredient. Stinky fruit—wasn't it just a stronger version of garlic?

"This stinky fruit does have a rather pungent smell, but if used properly, it can be a great seasoning," Lezhi said.

Hearing Lezhi's leisurely explanation, Leyou suspected that Lezhi was just lying to him because he was unwilling to accept being pranked. Leyou glanced at Lezhi suspiciously and decided to test him.

"So, there are still a lot of these over there. Do you want to go pick some?"

"Of course, it's a rare opportunity, I want to stock up on more."

Following Leyou's directions, Lezhi excitedly ran over and indeed found a large patch of stinky fruit growing huddled together in this area.

Leyou, who was picking stinky tofu with Lezhi, was having some existential questions. He finally realized that Lezhi's happiness was genuine and that he wasn't lying to him. He pouted, a little disappointed that his prank hadn't worked, but he quickly cheered up. They'd been out for a while, and it was almost lunchtime. He could then see what delicious dishes Lezhi would create with these new seasonings.

After a few smug nods and swaying of their heads, Leyou and Lezhi had exceeded their harvest quota. Since they hadn't joined a group harvesting team, their harvest didn't need to be handed over. They returned to Lezhong's home just before the sun reached its zenith.

By this time, the crowd in the front room had dispersed, leaving only Le Zhong sitting behind the table, kneading an unidentified object in his hand.

Upon seeing Leyou and Lezhi enter, Lezhong's tense and serious expression softened considerably. He paused what he was doing and asked, "You're here. Did you just go out of the clan to play?"

"Yeah, we picked some slippery fruit and strange-flavored fruit outside the clan's territory. Lezhi said we could use them to make food."

Lezhi, who had been hiding to the side pretending to be invisible, was called upon by Leyou. He nodded shyly, indicating that it was indeed his request.

Le Zhong asked this only incidentally; his main purpose was to make sure the two boys weren't in any danger. Seeing their rosy complexions, Le Zhong nodded and pointed towards the kitchen, "Alright, you two can rest for a bit, then you can go make lunch. By the way, you can make a larger batch at once, so you don't need to come over tonight."

This was originally Lezhi's idea. He wanted to wait a couple of days until they were more familiar with each other before making this request. However, now that Lezhong had taken the initiative to bring it up, Lezhi felt that Lezhong was an easy-going and considerate adult, and he had a new judgment about his character.

"Okay, thank you, Le Zhong." This time, before Le You could speak, Le Zhi immediately thanked him.

Leyou glanced at Lezhi, a smile flashing in her eyes, and nodded in return, "No problem, thank you."

"Alright, alright, it's no big deal, go on your way."

After being waved away from the studio by Le Zhong, Le You and Le Zhi exchanged a smile and went to the kitchen. The dishes and chopsticks that Le Zhong had used that morning had already been washed and were placed in a wicker basket to drain, ready for the next use.

Lezhi checked the pot and found it completely cleaned. Clearly, Lezhong had done it all himself. With a relaxed smile, Lezhi began preparing lunch and dinner.

Now, besides the basic salty, sweet, and sour seasonings, he also had ginger to remove fishy smells, citrus fruit for complex aromas, and garlic to enhance flavor. With these, he could try making most kinds of dishes. Lezhi looked around at the ingredients at hand and roughly drafted a menu in his mind.

Since the main dishes are only rock fruit and sweet fruit, the focus of the meal still needs to be on meat. After thinking about it, Lezhi decided to make steamed pork slices with rock fruit, a simplified version of braised pork, and a delicious and easy-to-make pan-fried pork. For vegetables, she would make stir-fried amaranth and steamed eggplant with garlic, plus a meatball soup, and that would be all.

"Leyou, could you help me process these vegetables and meats over here? Let's get started now."

"okay."

Following Lezhi's instructions, Leyou quickly got to work. Thanks to the abundance of kitchen utensils and pots at Lezhong's place, Lezhi made the most of the situation.

First, blanch and clean all the meat. Then, put the simplest pan-fried meat into the pot, instruct Leyou to stir it frequently, and Lezhi started preparing the side dishes himself.

Peel and slice the rock fruit into thick slices, then layer them with the equally thick slices of marinated meat and put them in a pot to steam. Using the heat, Lezhi also added a few clean, unpeeled sweet rice fruits and insect eggs to the steamer.

The pork used for braised pork is cut into chunks, and the side dishes are chopped. First, the pork is seared until each side is crispy and fragrant, then it is removed from the pan. The remaining oil is used to stir-fry the sauce, and then the sauce is stewed together with the seared pork chunks.

After all that was done, the water in the pan-fried meat had evaporated. Lezhi checked the meat's condition and instructed Leyou to turn it frequently until each side of the meat was almost cooked through by its own fat. Then it was ready to be taken out of the oven.