Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei Returns from Sekiro

There are three people who need to eat: Chu Zihang, Lu Mingfei, and Fingel. If each person makes 20, then 60 pieces need to be made. But Fingel is so fat that 60 pieces are definitely not enough, so she prepared four dough balls, which can make eighty pieces.

She didn't include herself in the calculation because there wouldn't be enough time. Chu Zihang's lunch time was always very punctual, 12:15 PM. Unless there was an emergency, he always ate lunch at this time.

Knock, knock, knock—that's the sound of knocking on the door.

Susie put down the kitchen knife and went to open the door.

"Hello, senior." Lu Mingfei greeted her with a smile, holding a large book.

"Come in." Susie pulled him into the house and quickly closed the door.

If the other members of the Lionheart Society found out that she and Lu Mingfei were doing this kind of thing in the office, who knows what kind of joke it would be.

Yesterday, she told the cadres that she was inviting Lu Mingfei to join the Lionheart Club, but little did they know that the two of them were making dumplings in the chairman's office.

All the documents on the desk were pushed under the desk, replaced by an induction cooker and an iron pot full of water.

Three dough balls were placed in a transparent glass bowl, covered with plastic wrap, along with a large piece of raw meat and two bunches of chives with water droplets on them.

"Do you know how to make dumplings?" Susie asked.

"Yes, but I haven't done it in a long time," Lu Mingfei said.

He often helped with housework at his aunt's house, such as peeling garlic cloves, shelling green beans, chopping scallions, and rendering lard.

He can also make dumplings. During winter break, when his chubby brother went to piano lessons, his aunt would ask him to help make dumplings, but that was a long time ago for him, and he doesn't know how much of his skill he still has.

Chapter 114 The Girl Who Didn't Have Enough Savings

"Then could you help me chop the minced meat? There's a cleaver and a cutting board over there," Susie said, pointing to the pork in the bowl.

This is the simplest job; all you need to do is chop the fresh meat into mince with a sharp knife. However, it is quite physically demanding, so it is usually done by a machine. Unfortunately, the Lionheart Club does not keep a meat grinder on hand.

This induction cooker was also brought by Susie from her dormitory. She would occasionally buy some side dishes and cook them with hot pot broth brought from her hometown with Nuonuo, chatting as they ate.

"Okay, leave it to me." Lu Mingfei went to the private bathroom in the office to wash his hands, picked up a kitchen knife, and pressed the meat onto the cutting board.

With a swift movement, the blade fell, and the rapid, rhythmic chopping sounds filled the air.

Susie nodded, turned around and continued cutting dough strips, arranging the neat little round balls into two rows of ten.

She picked up a rolling pin and pressed the small dough balls into thin, round wrappers. This was a skill; if the technique wasn't good enough, the dumpling wrappers would easily become asymmetrical, making the dumplings look unsightly. They also had to be rolled out evenly, otherwise the dumplings would break during cooking.

Susie didn't do it well the first time she tried, and she had to learn from her mother many times before she could roll out the dough perfectly like she does now.

Concentrating on rolling out the dough, she quickly prepared eighty dumpling wrappers.

At 11:40, Susie had only 45 minutes left. She needed to allocate 10 minutes to cook the dumplings, season the meat filling, wrap the dumplings, pack them into boxes, prepare the dipping sauce, and deliver them to room 201 of the school hospital.

All of this had to be completed before 12:15, and she didn't want any delays.

She certainly couldn't finish all this work by herself, but today she has help.

Turning around, I saw that the chopped minced meat and chives had already been put into a bowl.

The minced meat and chopped chives were mixed together and were so finely ground, as if they had been machine-pounded, that there wasn't a single large particle in them.

Susie was somewhat surprised, because it usually takes a long time to achieve this kind of skill by hand, since the speed at which a person swings a knife is nowhere near that of a machine that spins hundreds or thousands of times per minute.

But when she considered who was doing the job, she felt relieved.

The threshold for emotions is not fixed. The first time you watch a pornographic film, you will naturally blush and feel excited. But as you watch it more often, you will gradually lose the thrill and may even start to abandon the types you used to like and join the ranks of minotaur warriors.

Susie is in a transitional phase, and right now, no matter what outrageous things the S-class does, her emotions won't change much.

You must know that the one in front of us is a Dragon King slayer who appears only once in a thousand years, and it is no exaggeration to say that he appears only once in four thousand years.

"Leave the seasoning to me. Go turn on the induction cooker and boil some water first." Susie found sesame oil, pepper, and other seasonings.

Susie's mother has a secret recipe: scallion and ginger juice. Put four scallions (cut into 5cm pieces) and four slices of ginger into 150ml of cold water, knead to extract the juice, and add it to the minced meat for a very fragrant flavor.

Susie poured one-third of the scallion and ginger juice into the minced meat, followed by sesame oil, sugar, and pepper. She then stirred the mixture in one direction with chopsticks until it was well combined and the minced meat absorbed the water, becoming plump and translucent.

This process was repeated three times, with one-third of the scallion and ginger juice added each time. No starch was added, but the result was still very tender.

Prepare the meat filling, and then it's time to wrap the dumplings.

The water in the pot gradually boiled and bubbled. The two sat facing each other on either side of the desk, using chopsticks to put meat into the middle of the dumpling wrapper. Then they rubbed the oiled chopstick tips along the edge of the dumpling wrapper, symmetrically pressing the wrappers together to create pleats.

Wrap one, cook one.

With their tacit cooperation, the dumplings were quickly put into the pot one by one. Susie took out the prepared lunchbox and used clean chopsticks to pick out the dumplings that floated to the surface one by one.

Although they were roughly the same, Lu Mingfei's dumplings had a noticeably larger belly, like a middle-aged man, while Su Xi's dumplings were very well-proportioned, like a graceful young girl.

Susie picked out 20 dumplings from the first layer of the lunchbox, all of which were dumplings she had made. After that, she stopped picking and put them into the next layer one by one.

Lu Mingfei took care of the scene, and Su Xi prepared the dipping sauce. Then the two of them took their lunch boxes and went out.

There was still a little bit of minced meat left. Lu Mingfei asked Susie if she could give him the rest, as he wanted to make some more and deliver some to Professor Mans and Professor Guderian tomorrow at noon.

Susie agreed, saying she would give it to him after lunch.

This time, Lu Mingfei was finally able to walk down the street with his head held high, because next to him was Su Qian, the most popular figure in the academy, the vice president of the Lionheart Club, and Chu Zihang's rumored girlfriend.

No one bothered them. Even those who had thoughts about it left when they met Susie's cold gaze.

"Senior, do you usually glare at people like this?" Lu Mingfei asked.

“I wasn’t like this before.” Susie shook her head. “But I’m not as popular as you, so not as many people chase after me. Usually, when I meet younger students, I chat with them for a while.”

"Sigh, I really don't know what to do," Lu Mingfei sighed.

"Have you forgotten how you glared at me that day?" Susie strode forward, her long hair flowing, leaving behind a sharp silhouette. "Take out that look from your eyes that day, and I guarantee no one will dare come within 10 meters of you."

...

At 12:13, Lu Mingfei and Su Xi arrived at the ward smoothly.

"Today's filling is pork and chives." Susie sat by Chu Zihang's hospital bed, opening the lunchbox and taking out the first layer, just like yesterday.

The remaining dumplings were on the second floor, shared by Lu Mingfei and Finger.

"Don't bring me food tomorrow." Chu Zihang picked up a piece of food and put it in the dipping sauce. "The doctor said my condition has improved a lot. If there are no problems after the check-up tomorrow morning, I can be discharged and go back to my dorm to recuperate."

"Mmm." Susie tossed her hair and silently watched Chu Zihang's profile as he put the dumpling in his mouth.

This man is always like this; he never praises her cooking skills, even though she practices and adjusts her techniques again and again, trying her best to make the taste the best. In Chu Zihang's mouth, it all tastes the same.

Even if you bring back a bucket of instant noodles and make it for him, he will only say "Thank you" with a blank expression, and then silently finish the noodles.

Chu Zihang never makes verbal promises. If you help him, he will definitely repay you and do something for you when needed.

This is his strength; you don't have to worry about him forgetting things. He keeps everything in mind perfectly. But this is also his weakness, because he's too clear-headed. You can't let him owe you a favor, and you never know what he's thinking.

Two years into her studies, Susie never felt she truly understood Chu Zihang.

He's a handsome guy with a blank expression, very cool. He's like a book that hasn't been opened yet; you don't know what's inside, when he's happy, or when he's sad.

But you still think about him and desperately want to open that book and read the story inside.

Sometimes she really wanted to run to the bookstore, empty her wallet, show the owner her savings, and ask if it was enough to buy that book.

If the shop owner says it's enough, she'll buy the book, open it, and read it over and over again, for five or ten years. She'll write her notes in the pages, and then the book will belong solely to her. Others will recognize her name just by looking at the cover.

But if the shopkeeper said it wasn't enough, she would pick up the coins that had fallen off the table little by little, put them back in her wallet, and quietly leave to find another book that would capture her heart in the next bookstore.

But it was just a thought, because she knew very well that her savings were too little.

She's still saving up little by little, waiting for the day when she can happily run to the store and take away her favorite book.

It may take a very, very long time, but she is willing to wait. At least for now, she feels she can wait indefinitely.

Just then, a noisy commotion came from next door.

"Let me guess, this one was made by you, and this one was made by Qianmeizi, right?" Fingel picked up a small dumpling, which looked rather delicate under his big mouth.

"Now that you've figured it out, which one do you prefer?" Lu Mingfei also picked up a large one and put it in his mouth.

They were chewing noisily, seemingly enjoying themselves immensely.

"Do you even need to ask? My looks completely blow you away, okay?" Fingel stuck out his tongue and licked his lips. "Have you ever heard of 'chewed sake'? Young and beautiful priestesses use enzymes in their saliva to ferment and brew sake. I heard it tastes amazing."

"Could it be... that you put it in your mouth, chew it, and then spit it out?" Lu Mingfei leaned back tactically, taking a deep breath. "I'm not kidding, you actually dare to drink this?"

“That depends on the person.” Fingel picked up another dumpling. “If it’s Qian’s chewed rice wine, I’m willing to give up all my possessions.”

"Pervert." Susie looked at Fingel with disgust, as if she were looking at a cockroach that had crawled out of a garbage dump.

"Agreed!" Lu Mingfei raised his hand to vote.

"Just kidding, don't be angry, Qian." Fingel waved his hand. "Besides, how could I dare to compete with Chu Zihang? If there's such a good thing, I'll definitely give it to him first."

"Don't talk nonsense." Su Qian frowned slightly. "Chu Zihang is not as vulgar as you."

"Hehe." Fingel grinned, seemingly unfazed. "Chu Zihang, I see there aren't any dumplings made by Lu Mingfei in your bowl. Do you want to try his cooking? Your evaluation is fair and just. Tell me, who makes the best dumplings?"

Fingel instructed Lu Mingfei to bring the lunchbox over.

Chu Zihang hesitated for a moment, then picked up a plump dumpling and put it in his mouth, chewing it slowly.

Lu Mingfei swallowed hard. "Senior brother, how is it?"

Chu Zihang closed his eyes and lowered his head in deep thought.

Susie pursed her lips and straightened her skirt with her hand.

"Susie tastes better." After a long while, Chu Zihang opened his eyes.

Susie felt a huge weight lifted off her shoulders. Last night, after lab class, she went to the cafeteria kitchen to pick out fresh meat, searched for chives among the vegetables, and secretly smuggled the induction cooker to her office...

All the hard work was worth it.

A bright smile appeared on her face, like a winter plum blossom in the cold wind, still blooming, waiting for the young master to turn around and come through the snow to pick a branch and smell its fragrance.

...

After lunch, Susie and Lu Mingfei returned to the Lionheart Club with their lunchboxes.

She made some more dumpling wrappers and, together with Lu Mingfei, finished wrapping the remaining meat filling.

A total of 30 were made, and Lu Mingfei took them all. Susie restored the scene, took out a pineapple bun from her desk drawer, ate it with a carton of milk, and dealt with some Lionheart Society documents.

Lu Mingfei returned to his dormitory and sent a message to Caesar.

"Brother Caesar, I have something I'd like to ask for your help with. I wonder if you're free this afternoon? I'd like to meet you to discuss it in detail."