Chapter 31 – Grilled Rice Balls
Kirindas: I'm afraid the number of annoyances have grown in numbers…
In the next few days, Shiyu was given the responsibility to take care of Liu Yi.
Once she had bandaged up his wound, again, Shiyu said curiously, "What happened to your friends? Isn't it odd that they rarely turn up?"
Though everyone was supposed to be travelling together, she had a strange feeling that there was some sort of misunderstanding.
"It's possible that they did not want to disturb us, ba." Liu Yi said without batting an eye.
Again with the oddly intimate words, Shiyu could not even muster up the energy to answer. If she had been one of those girls who had not tasted love before, she would probably have eaten up his words. After all, this guy was both rich and handsome, and knows cultivation, things that were most essential to a novel's Male Character.
"You just rest." She stuck her head out from the carriage window, and saw that it was almost dark. However, their surroundings were mostly trees and rolling hills, so it looked like they would have to camp out again tonight.
As expected, when night fell the travelling carriages stopped and people began to set up camps.
The carriage drivers began to prepare the dinner. However, the conditions were not very good and the food taste more like wax. Shiyu only took one bite, and did not want to take another.
Her actions were seen by the others, and all felt like she was criticising them. Though their reactions were minute, but Shiyu was not an idiot. She could clearly sense that there was something not right.
She swept her eyes carefully across this group of people, and could clearly see their hidden scorn.
Without saying a word, she took out a flat bottom pot from the carriage. The pot was something that she had bought just before they left the last town. Aside from this, she also took out several other things from her carriage.
Once the fire was lit and the pot was set on it, she waited for it to heat up before putting a layer of oil at the bottom. She had some leftover rice from their last meal, which she sprinkled some salt and sesame seed on, pounded into a sticky paste and rolled into several small balls. Once the oil started to get spitting hot, she placed the rice dumplings into the flat bottom pot.
The moment the rice ball touched the hot oil, it quickly made [Zi Zi] sounds.Shiyu used a spatula to squash to dumplings flat, waited until they were golden brown before flipping it over to grill the other side. In a short while, the Grilled Rice Balls were done.
Shiyu used a pair of chopsticks to pick up the Grilled Rice Balls[1] onto her plate. The scorched surface were still bubbling from residual heat. Once this set of Grilled Rice Ball was done, Shiyu started to make the next batch.
Naturally, if dinner were just a bunch of grilled rice, it would get boring pretty soon. Since the pot was still hot, Shiyu took out a few pieces of air-dried meat, which only needed to be heated until the outside was an attractive colour. Once wrapped in raw lettuce leaves, they were ready to be eaten.
Though the food selection was a little dry, Shiyu had no interest in making soups or any soup type of thing. She simply took out a coconut like fruit, cut open the top and stuck a bamboo 'straw' in.
With this, the simple breakfast was completed. She picked up one of the Grilled Rice Ball and took a large bite. The grilled surface cracked under her teeth, its crunchy fragrance released most pleasantly as she chewed. Paired with some meat wrapped in fresh vegetable leaf, the combination at once refreshing and delicious. Between bites of rice and meat, she would sip at the fresh and sweet fruit juice, creating a perfectly balance sensation.
The people next to her eyed her movements, and looked down at their own food. Suddenly whatever they had been eating tasted like dust in their mouths.
At this point, Feng Luo had helped Liu Yi down from the carriage. When he saw the food in front of the Shiyu, Liu Yi's eyes suddenly lit up, "Little Shi, did you make those especially for me?"
How could anyone be so thick faced?
This Liu Yi was getting more and more shameless each day. However, he did not seemed to harbour any ill will against her, also that Feng Luo had always been very polite, she ventured to say, "I've made quite a bit, please try some."
She had not actually made too much, but she could still let them have a taste.
Feng Luo saw that Shiyu had been sitting a little apart from the rest and thought he understood the situation a little. After helping Liu Yi to Shiyu's side, he said with some embarrassment to Shiyu, "You guys eat first, Meng Li is waiting for me."
Shiyu knew that he and Meng Li were all but engaged to each other, and did not mind.
However, the moment Feng Luo reached the side of his friends, he could hear them gossiping, "Really know how to adapt to situations, look at how she sucked up to the two of you but treat the rest of us like we owe her money. Really disgusting."
Feng Luo frowned, "You guys were the ones who rejected her presence first, I still felt that she's a good person."
His words immediately attracted dissatisfaction. Among the disgruntled murmur, a female voice pitched up, "I say, surely you're not attracted to the likes of her! With so many of us say that she's a bad character are you saying that all of us here are blind? Meng Li, you better look after that guy of yours well, otherwise some shameless hussy might just snatched him away, when that time comes even crying won't save you!"
Meng Li promptly pulled Feng Luo down next to her, "We've all known each other for so long, would you really quarrel with us over an unknown girl? You've been with us all this while, are you really unsure of our character?"
Feng Luo could only keep his mouth shut.
When Feng Luo saw that Feng Luo had been convinced, he felt happy. Turning to Mo Yin, he said, "I say, if you continue this way you might just ruin your own chances from playing games, you should just go over and grab Liu Yi tonight, ba! If you delay too long you might regret it."
Mo Yin turned red, she looked at the pair eating happily together and her heart stuttered.
In the middle of the night, Liu Yi did not managed to sleep thanks to his overstuffed stomach. Thinking of the food he had eaten today, he really looked forward to his next meal.
He still pondering about food when the curtain to his carriage was lifted up. It was his 'good brother'.
The moment Mo Yin laid eyes on his injured state, something in her heart clenched. However, her smile did not waver. "Looks like you've really been well looked after, ah! Surely you haven't fallen for her for real?"
When she said these words, her heart pounded. When she heard Liu Yi's scornful'Impossible', her smile grew brighter.
"Haha, I knew you won't be so easily tricked." Mo Yin laughed heartily, "Ever since she came here, that idiot Feng Luo have been butting head with us over her. He even dared to be cheeky with Meng Li, though he used to place her first in his heart. At this rate those two might eventually breakup. I really don't want to see you turned into an idiot like that and quarrel with us over an outsider."
"Rest assure, how could I put love over my comrades?" Liu Yi smiled.
However, when he heard that Feng Luo had some special interest over Shiyu, he felt a little uncomfortable. The next day, he deliberately acted even more dotingly over Shiyu in front of Feng Luo. Whenever he thought about Shiyu's good food that really suited his taste, he grew even more possessive and warm with her.
His change of attitude did not go unnoticed, his friends faces grew long, especially Mo Yin. A certain sense of danger lurked over them…
[Translator's Note: I really want to murder some people, author-san, please make sure to humiliate them nicely] [1] Grilled Rice Balls – Who else thinks this rice balls looked good? I almost licked the screen…
I get the feeling that a number of Shiyu’s recipes are pseudo Japanese or Korean, rice balls and meat rolls etc
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