Chapter 32 Cooking

In order to openly gain cooking experience, Yun Qing was naturally willing to let others know about her “talent.”

Imitating Aunt Six Ye’s method of preparing fish, Yun Qing placed her hand on the tainted chicken meat and silently recited, “Purify!”

A few seconds later, she saw a notification of gained experience, and Aunt Six Ye exclaimed joyfully, “Wonderful, Miss Yun Qing! The relief station is very busy—how about you stay and help?”

Yun Qing glanced at her recently topped-up ten taels of silver, which had now become eight. She wanted to ask Aunt Six Ye if there was any pay, but since the relief station had taken care of her and she was still living there, it was hard to bring up the matter of money.

Aunt Six Ye’s mantra was always about donating food, so working here would certainly be unpaid.

Seeing Yun Qing hesitate, Aunt Six Ye persuaded her, “Most people left in the village have to join the purification team—that work is exhausting, bitter, and dangerous.”

Before Yun Qing could protest, Aunt Six Ye pulled her into the kitchen, saying, “You can purify tainted food ingredients—surely you can also make food that heals. Many villagers have minor injuries and urgently need healing food. You wouldn’t bear to watch everyone’s wounds worsen for lack of timely treatment, would you…”

For the sake of cooking experience, Yun Qing wanted to stay at the relief station as a chef; experience was hard to come by.

But at present, using her purification skill consumed silver—if only she could get paid!

“Ordinary dishes can be handled by others; you just focus on making healing food,” Aunt Six Ye said, handing Yun Qing two pieces of meat: one already purified, the other not.

In the modern world, Yun Qing could cook. Yes, she could make things edible, and basically knew how much salt to use.

The usage of modern kitchenware and Ye Family Village’s utensils differed greatly. Looking at the two chickens placed before her, Yun Qing confessed, “I’ve never cooked this before.”

Aunt Six Ye pointed to several busy chefs by the stove, saying, “They’re roasting chickens—you’ll learn just by watching.”

Following her gesture, Yun Qing saw several chefs handling roast chicken. They brushed prepared sauce onto the chicken, which emitted a faint black aura. As they worked, wisps of white energy from their hands seeped into the meat, driving away the darkness.

After seasoning, they fixed the chicken onto a metal spit, suspending it over refined charcoal to roast. While cooking, they used their inner force to gradually dispel the remaining black aura.

After several minutes of turning, the once pale chicken turned golden. The chef removed it from the refined charcoal.

Freshly roasted chicken—Yun Qing saw: “Roast Chicken, Taste Value 1, restores 60 satiety, restores 8 health.”

It seemed quite simple. Yun Qing was eager to try.

Aunt Six Ye, busy, patted Yun Qing’s shoulder and said, “See? It’s easy. The seasonings are over there—just use the prepared ones.”

Yun Qing nodded. It was indeed easy; she didn’t even have to adjust for saltiness. She picked up the purified chicken and brushed the sauce over it.

During the process, she tried using her purification skill, but since the chicken had no black aura, it failed.

She grabbed a roasting spit—metal, pointed at the tip for piercing food, with a wooden handle at the bottom for turning.

After skewering the chicken, she placed it over the refined charcoal. The process was simple; just turn it occasionally, making sure it didn’t burn.

The temperature was high near the charcoal, the heat oppressive, but for Yun Qing, who had worked part-time at the smithy, it was no problem.

During roasting, she tried purification again, but it still failed.

The charcoal’s heat was intense; every few breaths, Yun Qing had to turn the chicken. Gradually, she adopted the method of a modern oven, rotating the spit evenly so the chicken turned slowly.

Through her careful turning, the seasoned chicken skin transformed from pale to light yellow, then golden, oil dripping onto the charcoal with a sizzling sound.

It was her first time roasting chicken. Yun Qing felt a bit excited—if she mastered roast chicken, her mother would never have to worry about her meals again.

“Liuliu, do you like roast chicken?”

“I’m so hungry. I want meat.”

“If you won’t eat, then forget it. I don’t get any of this roast chicken myself. The ones with special attributes, I can’t bear to buy. I need silver to purify tainted things and earn more silver.”

When the whole chicken turned golden, Yun Qing wondered how much longer it needed to cook. Then she saw a system notification:

Cooking experience +5;
Obtained Roast Chicken *1;
The system truly was a cheat—it gave a prompt when finished.

The experience reward was a bit small. Still, Yun Qing, who had just succeeded in roasting a chicken, happily removed it from the grill and exclaimed, “Liuliu, it’s done!”

The roast chicken in her hand was steaming, the rich aroma wafting out, the golden skin looked crisp, and Yun Qing couldn’t help but swallow. This was free-range chicken from the village, imbued with attributes. She had purified and roasted it herself—it looked delicious.

Focusing on her masterpiece, she saw the attributes:

“Roast Chicken, Taste Value 1, restores 50 satiety, restores 4 health.”

She was a little disappointed—her roast chicken’s attributes were far inferior to those made by the chefs, which restored 60 satiety and 8 health.

The chefs had infused their inner force into the roast, boosting its properties. She had none, so hers was lacking.

Aunt Six Ye came over, glanced at Yun Qing, and seemed to realize the girl knew her roast chicken was subpar. Not wanting to discourage her, Aunt Six Ye critiqued gently, “You got the heat just right—any more and it would burn, any less and it’d be undercooked. Miss Yun Qing, you truly have a talent for cooking, but your use of inner force is a bit inexperienced.”

“Aunt Six Ye, you flatter me. I didn’t do well—I wasted ingredients.” Actually, she wasn’t inexperienced with inner force—she simply didn’t have any.

It was indeed a waste. With the coming of the dark night, many poultry mutated, and the relief station desperately needed cooks who could purify ingredients. Aunt Six Ye pointed at the other, unpurified chicken and said, “It’s fine, try again.”

Purifying grants 10 experience, roasting grants 5. Yun Qing nodded, “Alright!”

This time, she didn’t purify in advance, but brushed on the sauce and only used the purification skill during roasting.

As expected, she still couldn’t produce a roast chicken with better attributes, and spent another tael of silver on purification.

The frugal Aunt Six Ye felt a pang, but since the relief station currently had plenty of supplies, she continued encouraging, “Miss Yun Qing, try once more.”

“Aunt Six Ye, maybe I should try an ordinary roast chicken—I think my cooking skills might be the issue.”

Aunt Six Ye pointed to another grill, “That’s fine. For ordinary roast chicken, just use regular charcoal.”

“Alright! Thank you, Aunt Six Ye.”

With this, Yun Qing wanted to test whether simply making food granted cooking experience, or if it had to be tainted ingredients.