"Mmm..."
"Happy but also a bit unhappy." After reading the letter, Aqing showed a hint of helplessness.
The little fox was liked by everyone, and she was very happy.
But Aunt Lin seemed to have declared her sovereignty, as Aunt Lin appeared to really like the little fox, willing to even drop her business just to accompany him to Chang'an.
Aqing was happy yet a bit unhappy.
She saw Ansheng's delighted face, proudly raising his head as if he had done something great for the family, and couldn't help but pinch his cheeks.
Then.
Under Mo Yiqing's watchful eyes, the little fox and Aqing began a race in the guesthouse.
The little fox dashed across the coffee table, sofa chairs, and the backrest, while Aqing followed reluctantly behind him. Eventually, Aqing pinned Ansheng on the stairs, grabbed his two paws, and started absorbing the fox's Yang Qi.
"Hey..."
"Aqing! The mouse grouper is nearly dead. Should we check out the surfing spotted garoupa?"
While Aqing was being playful and cute, Mo Yiqing squatted in front of the fishing box, examining the ingredients inside and asking Aqing.
"Save two red mantis crabs for me, I'll make a Fujian-style red mantis crab rice cake for you later." while holding the little fox, expressing her emotions, Aqing thought for a moment and said to Momo.
"Red mantis crab rice cake? That sounds great!" Hearing the dish Aqing suggested, Mo Yiqing licked her lips, recalling the red mantis crab rice cake she had in Jiule City before.
Red mantis crab rice cake involves steaming fragrant sticky rice with red mantis crab.
In the soaked sticky rice, add mushrooms, dried shrimp, and either preserved meat or pork belly, stir-fry, then mix with crispy fried shallots, place it in a steamer, and steam with red mantis crab, allowing the sticky rice to absorb the crab roe and crab oil.
Just imagining it made Mo Yiqing salivate.
Mo Yiqing checked the time and took out her phone to call the bank.
"Hello? I need express delivery service, five pounds of tiger prawns, two pounds of sticky rice, and one pound of either pork belly or preserved meat, also bring a barbecue grill, and don't forget scallops the size of a one-yuan coin, along with scallions, ginger, and garlic."
Mo Yiqing sat in front of the fishing box, phoning a delivery without a care in the world.
Ansheng and Aqing glanced outside, the sky hadn't yet brightened, and they looked at Mo Yiqing with puzzled expressions.
"Momo... can you buy ingredients now?" Aqing asked.
"Ever been to a fish market? Most fish markets and seafood farms open at one or two o'clock, now it's nearly five, the ingredients are at retail stores," Mo Yiqing said confidently:
"Don't worry! You pay the majority, and I'll handle the rest and the cooking!"
In the past, making Momo gut fish and crab, she'd surely call herself a hell's chef, capable of concocting terrifying concoctions that bubble like molten lava, and would never mention her chef certification.
But!
Drawn by the lure of ingredients, Momo cared less about the details.
Mo Yiqing carried the fishing box into the kitchen.
Ansheng and Aqing leaned by the door, watching Momo holding a cleaver, gripping a mouse grouper in one hand, slashing through its throat, and then tossing the live grouper back into the water for bleeding.
The Eastern star grouper was treated just like the mouse grouper.
Mo Yiqing boiled water on the stove and also placed a basin of cold water in the fridge's freezer.
Even though the school observation activities didn't lack food and drink.
The standard of meals was mediocre, students could forage in the mountains to enhance their meals.
However.
Having seen the fate of a student who transformed into a monkey swinging away after eating a wild banana, none of the students from the Agricultural Research Institute or the School of Animal Science harbored mundane desires anymore.
Starving, Mo Yiqing personally cooked.
"Aqing, there's a luxury car at the doorstep, can you help me grab the ingredients I bought inside?"
"So fast?"
"Charging me five hundred for delivery, could it not be fast?" Mo Yiqing complained.
The bank provides 24/7 comprehensive service to its customers, but some manpower-related services come with significant charges.
Yet it was beneficial that the bank had wide connections, able to cater to any legal requirements, however bizarre.
...
"Charcoal Grilled Eastern Star Grouper, Phoenix Fat Steamed Eastern Star Grouper, Mouse Grouper Ocean Drift, Puning Bean Paste Grilled Red Mantis Crab, and Aqing's homemade authentic red mantis crab rice cake."
Mo Yiqing showed a satisfied expression, looking at the eight dishes and one soup laid on the table. Besides the ingredients the little fox obtained through cuteness, she also bought some shells, chervil, tiger prawns for soup, and some ready-to-eat food.
The classmates staying in the same guesthouse looked at the dishes on the table, then at the just-lit dawn, feeling a strange sensation in their hearts.
They glanced at each other, seeming to ask each other if they heard any news.
Wondering if the course had changed, leading to the last meal.
"Why are you all standing still?" Mo Yiqing took off her apron, rubbed it in her hand to wipe off the oil stains from holding the plates, and tossed the apron into the kitchen sink:
"Let's eat! But first! This meal is courtesy of the little fox. His aunt saw that a holiday was approaching and sent him some ingredients for cooking, but you all will have to wash the dishes!"
Cooking but not washing, washing but not cooking.
Momo, who loves to eat, enjoys cooking but won't do dishwashing things.
"Say thank you to Lord Fox, then let's eat!" Mo Yiqing sat at the table, joking slightly, mimicking the dialect from Aqing's family to prompt everyone to prepare for the meal.
"Good fox! Extraordinary fox!" Looking at the exquisite dishes on the table, Lingren gave a thumbs up:
"Thanks for Lord Fox's benevolence, let's eat!"
"Ying Ying——" Among the twelve people in the room, Lord Fox, receiving compliments from the girls, instinctively displayed a pleased expression and said: "Don't be polite, just support Aqing's business more after you get your money, hugging and kissing are extra charges..."
With Mo Yiqing's opening remarks, Lord Fox could not only sit and eat but even join the table.
"Huh!? Unbelievable!"
A student researching Chang'an City's pot helmet and the ancient province's wooden baton difference, passing by Aqing's guesthouse, accidentally glanced at a room full of people sitting neatly at the table with candles lit.
He thought the room was holding a mysterious ceremony, trying to compare the pot helmet and the baton's durability, and took another look.
But that one glance nearly stunned him.
The candlelight he saw wasn't a candle, but a little alcohol lamp warming a casserole.
On the table, shrimp and crab shells were stacked into a small mountain, with the white fox holding a crab shell sucking the red roe inside.
"Clang——"
The pot helmet in his hand fell, collided with the granite floor in front of the guesthouse, echoing powerfully, like the heavy bread manufactured during the revolutionary era.
"Damn!"
He opened the takeaway app, glanced at the over one hundred delivery fee there, cursed, picked up the pot helmet from the ground, and ran back to the dormitory, dragging out those dead pigs in the pen to Aqing's doorstep.
"Wow! Early morning so exciting?" Seeing the feast in Aqing's room, the students who had lacked worldly desires due to high delivery fees and long hours could only feel their cosmos burning.
"Let's share! Today, no one will hesitate, must share! Just a hundred delivery fee, ten bucks each, and add twenty more for four bottles of iced cola!"
Seeing the feast inside, the students gritted their teeth.