"Who said we can't afford meat?" Xu Zixi said. "Baby, don't worry. Mommy is very good at making money. I can earn a lot of money. You don't have to be afraid of not having clothes to wear or meat to eat in the future. Mommy will surely let you live a life that many people will envy. So, you should get used to it soon!"
"Really?" Yuan Xiaoxu's eyes sparkled. "Will baby really have meat to eat every day in the future?"
"Of course!" Xu Zixi rubbed his chubby cheeks. "Tonight, Mommy will make sweet and sour spare ribs for you. Hmm... And a miso soup! I'm going to raise my two little babies to be chubby and healthy!"
Yuan Xiaohan was infected by the determination in her words and no longer felt worried.
"Okay! Hanhan also wants to eat Mommy's custard omelette!"
"Okay, Mommy will make it for you~"
The mother and her two children hugged each other tightly, kissing one another. It couldn't be more heart - warming.
In contrast, next door was a bit miserable.
"Lord, this dish was personally cooked by the head chef of the most famous seafood restaurant in Haicheng. Please have a taste and see if it suits your palate."
Yan Yincheng took a bite but immediately spat it out.
"Disgusting! They put so much salt in seafood. Do they want to salt me to death?!"
Wei Shu quickly replaced it with another dish. "This was cooked by Lord Pei's private chef. He once studied under Master Xie, a famous chef in Fengcheng. Knowing that you're not used to the food in Haicheng, he specially cooked it in the Fengcheng style for you."
Yan Yincheng's brows relaxed slightly. He took the spoon and took a mouthful, almost spitting it out.
"It's so tough. He can't even control the heat properly. How dare he claim to be Master Xie's disciple? Take it away!"
Wei Shu had no choice but to take the dish away. Then, he replaced it with more than a dozen different kinds of food for Yan Yincheng, but none of them could make it past his lips.
Their lord had an extremely sensitive sense of taste. He could tell the subtle differences in a dish, from the quality of the ingredients, the way they were processed, the cooking time to the seasonings, just by taking one bite. Since coming to Haicheng, Lord Yan hadn't had a proper meal. He had lost a lot of weight from hunger. Moreover, since he had just been discharged from the hospital, his taste buds were even more picky than before. Wei Shu had visited all the restaurants, big and small, in Haicheng in the past few days but still couldn't find anything that Lord Yan could swallow.
If this continued, Lord Yan's stomach would probably act up again!
"Forget it. Bring up the three - treasure duck cooked by Uncle Pei's chef."
Biting the meat in his mouth like chewing wax, Yan Yincheng felt an uncontrollable nausea welling up in his throat. His taste buds simply couldn't accept such lousy food, but his stomach was already aching from hunger.
Just then, a tempting aroma suddenly wafted in through the window. With just one sniff, Yan Yincheng could tell the ingredients used. It was the aroma produced by boiling sea bream, red and white radishes, fish bones and miso together. The person was making miso soup.
"Growl—"
Yan Yincheng's stomach reacted faster than his brain. His already hungry stomach was stimulated by the aroma and secreted digestive juices, making the pain in his empty stomach even more obvious.
Spitting out the unpalatable meat in his mouth, Yan Yincheng looked at Wei Shu. Although he didn't say a word, Wei Shu immediately understood his intention.
"I'll go and see whose family is cooking!"
Wei Shu followed the aroma out of the door. He walked around several times before confirming that the aroma was indeed coming from next door, from Xu Zixi's place.
Brilliant! He had been thinking about how to find an opportunity to get Lord Yan closer to Miss Yuan today so as to carry out their plan to snatch the children. He didn't expect the opportunity to come so soon!
However, when Wei Shu went back into the room and told Yan Yincheng about this, Yan Yincheng's face darkened.
"I'd rather starve to death than take a single bite of the food she makes! You can forget about it!"
Wei Shu had no choice but to bring up the almost cold three - treasure duck again. Yan Yincheng forced himself to swallow a piece of meat despite the nausea, but he couldn't eat any more after that.
He wasn't unfamiliar with the experience of being so hungry that his stomach ached. He just had to endure it. Lord Yan comforted himself like this.
Who would have thought that after a while, another aroma wafted in through the window.
It was sour and sweet. One could tell just by smelling it that they were making sweet and sour spare ribs. The meat smelled delicious without a trace of fishy smell. The sour and sweet aromas were perfectly balanced, easily whetting one's appetite.
A moment later.
It was the aroma of eggs mixed with fresh milk, with a faint hint of osmanthus fragrance.
It was custard omelette.
A vein on Yan Yincheng's forehead twitched. He pressed hard on his aching stomach.
It just smelled good. It must taste terrible. After all, in two lifetimes, he had never heard that this fake daughter of the Yuan family had such cooking skills. He endured!
Five minutes later, the annoying aroma finally subsided. But Yan Yincheng's mind couldn't help imagining:
Are they eating? That woman's cooking skills must be terrible! Last time, she even made the two children end up in the hospital! No, for the sake of the two children's health, he should taste her cooking first to prevent her from poisoning his two children with her cooking skills again.
"Wei Shu!" Yan Yincheng said coldly. "Go and ask."
Wei Shu was puzzled. "Ah? Ask what?"
Yan Yincheng found it hard to say. After all, it was he who had said that he'd rather starve to death than eat the food she made.
Fortunately, Wei Shu had been with him for so many years and had already learned to fathom his "will". He quickly realized what he meant. A relieved smile appeared on his face. "Okay! I'll go and ask!"
Inside the room, Xu Zixi had finished cooking. Just as she was putting bibs on her two little babies, there was a knock on the door.
"Baby, wait a moment. Maybe it's the deliveryman from the mall again. Mommy will go and open the door. Wait for Mommy to come back before you start eating!" Xu Zixi said as she walked over to open the door. But instead of the deliveryman from the mall, she saw Wei Shu who lived opposite and whom she hadn't seen for several days.
Although there had been a bit of an unpleasant incident with Yan Yincheng last time, considering that the other party had helped her and her two children before, Xu Zixi's attitude was still quite gentle.
"Sir, may I ask what's the matter?"
"I'm really sorry, but there is indeed a little trouble that I need to bother you about." Wei Shu was begging for food for the first time in his life. He tried to make his attitude as natural as possible. "It's like this. Our cooking pot suddenly broke, so we can't cook. But my... my friend has a rather serious stomach problem. It's too late to buy a new pot now, so I'm here to ask..."
Did she look like a fool? His family didn't even have a bowl, let alone a pot!
Xu Zixi deliberately said, "Do you want to borrow a pot?"
Wei Shu was taken aback and thought to himself why he had been so quick - tongued to say that the pot was broken!
"Borrow... It's too late to borrow a pot!" Wei Shu said. "It's just... well... If you've already cooked, could you spare a little for us? Not too much, just enough for one person!"
Having finally said it all in one breath, Wei Shu felt relieved.
However, Xu Zixi tilted her head in embarrassment. "But I only cooked enough for my two babies and myself."