"You don't know how to cook, right? You want to eat cooked meat, right?
Don't worry, I can do it!
No matter what kind of meat, I can cook it all!"
Lin You'an was so excited he could barely contain himself from jumping up and down. Now he was genuinely grateful for his life experiences over the past few months. If he hadn't been treated like a slave at the Zhou Family for several months, he wouldn't have learned these life-saving survival skills!
"I know how to make this snake meat soup. I can not only make soups, but I can also stir-fry dishes, make corn cakes, pan-fry flatbreads, wrap dumplings, and roll noodles! You have to believe me, the food I cook tastes especially delicious! It's so good that you'll want to swallow your own tongue!"
Even if the taste wasn't actually good, he had to praise himself as a culinary god descending to earth! Given the other person's current state of confusion, they probably couldn't tell the difference between good and bad flavors anyway.
Moreover, under the Zhou Family's forced labor and beatings over the past few months, his culinary skills had indeed improved significantly.
The surprise came too suddenly!
Chu Chi was so happy she felt dizzy.
Indeed, everything in this world was wonderful, not only was her new body good, but there were also so many different food choices!
"Eat! Eat! What... to eat...?"
She started to stutter when anxious, a side effect of being a zombie. She could only anxiously wave the raw food ingredients in her hand. Fortunately, Lin You'an, who was carefully interpreting her thoughts, maintained an unusually high level of synchronicity with her mental processes.
"Snake meat soup!"
"Yes!"
"Let's go back to that ruined temple we saw earlier! I saw that those people seemed to have left some fire starters behind. We can make snake meat soup for you to eat right away!"
In front of a hungry foodie, nothing could resist the longing for food. Chu Chi held the snake meat in one hand, picked up the young child with the other, and then ran at full speed towards the direction of the ruined temple.
As a high-level zombie with speed and strength as her main attributes, one should never underestimate her explosive power. When not concerned about energy consumption, her running speed could be described as swift as the wind and quick as lightning!
The journey that had taken them over half an hour earlier now only took five minutes to reach their destination.
She put down the young child and then eagerly shoved the small snake, which had been wrapped around her wrist several times, in front of him.
"Snake meat soup!"
"I, ugh, I'll make it right now, ugh, right away."
Dizzy and nauseous from being carried and swung around, Lin You'an still mustered up his spirit and carefully placed his sleeping sister on a pile of tattered curtains nearby.
Then he scoured the inside and outside of the ruined temple, looking for anything that could be used. In the face of survival against all odds, no difficulty could be called a difficulty!
No pots or utensils in the ruined temple?
No problem!
Find a broken tile with a suitable curve, take it to the small ditch to wash it clean, and it would do in a pinch.
It had rained outside, so there was no dry firewood?
No problem!
Search around the ruined temple for any decayed and abandoned door frames, window frames, or broken furniture. Rotten wood was easy to break into small pieces, which was convenient for him to use.
The fire starter those people left behind was gone?!
Well... still no problem!
His father had once told him that according to ancient records, the earliest method primitive people used to obtain fire was called friction fire starting.
If those primitive savages could do it, how could Lin You'an, being so clever, not be able to?
Friction fire starting?
He could do it!
He carefully pulled out a piece of tattered curtain from under his sister's bottom and very carefully stuffed it into a pile of wood chips he had already prepared in a hollow between some stones.
Then he took out a relatively sharp piece of wood and, on top of another dry piece of wood, desperately used his tender little hands to rub back and forth continuously.
Time passed bit by bit, but between the two pieces of wood, there wasn't even a hint of a spark.
Lin You'an went from being initially full of confidence, to later disappointment and frustration, and now to pleading and choking up.
"Please catch fire, come on, smoke, I'm begging you! I must make her delicious snake meat, I must keep her here to protect me and Wan Wan! Wood, wood, please, quickly make some sparks!"
The small boy, with his messy hair and tattered clothes, crouched there with his thin body curled up into a tiny ball, looking even more pitiful. But through the dirty grime, one could still see that his features and eyes were quite beautiful.
From a young age, Lin You'an had always been a proud little boy. He was the happy child carefully protected in the palm of his father's hand, the best father in the world. But in the short few months since his father's sudden death, he had tasted the coldness of human nature.
But he always remembered his father's teachings.
A real man should not shed tears easily.
From last winter when his father went to the capital for the imperial examination, to the arrival of the terrible news, to his life being completely turned upside down. He cried less and less, and since his sister was born, he had basically not cried again, staying strong.
But now, with survival right before his eyes yet possibly slipping away, this eight-year-old boy, even with his dream-like experience, was almost about to be crushed by the enormous psychological pressure!
"What are you... doing?"
Chu Chi, who had just returned from another hunting trip, was squatting at the door with a puzzled look on her face, eyeing the young child's actions while holding some colorful objects in her hand.
"I'm sorry, really sorry!
I can't find the fire starter, even though those people definitely left it under the altar, I saw it with my own eyes!
But I just can't find it.
Without fire, there's no way to cook the meat. I'm not lying to you, my cooking really is very, very delicious..."
He stood up looking helpless as he faced her, knowing himself how weak and unconvincing his explanation sounded.
Fire starter?
What was that thing?
However, the direction the young child had just pointed...
Chu Chi rummaged in her pocket and pulled out a small round cylinder. When she was lying here earlier, she saw that the patterns carved on this object were very beautiful, so she had picked it up and put it in her pocket.
After all, she was a noble zombie, and it was normal for her to like some exquisite little things.
"So it was with you!"
Lin You'an's worry instantly turned to joy.
Thank his father for blessing them from the underworld!
Their path to survival was open again.
He nimbly walked forward to take the fire starter, opened the lid, and blew hard on the tinder inside until it glowed a very obvious red, then quickly brought it to the bundle of rags underneath the wood.
He fanned the flames while carefully blowing air.
After all, he was somewhat of an experienced cook now, and within just ten to twenty breaths, he successfully started the fire.
Next came Lin You'an the chef's moment to shine.
Due to the curve of the tile, it was impossible to make snake meat soup, but that was okay. Grilled snake meat would do, and once cooked, it should taste good. At least, well, it should taste much better than when it was raw, right?
Chef Lin's face showed complete confidence, but inside he was panicking badly.
Chu Chi put the already strangled food aside and sat quietly next to the snake meat, waiting. She watched as the food, which she had torn into pieces, slowly changed from a nauseating bloody smell to an indescribable aroma.
She leaned in and took two big sniffs.
Hmm, it seemed alright.
