I'll give my daughter one more second.

"I didn't expect you to come to your senses so quickly?" Wu Shen was quite surprised that Yukino had put aside her pride and come to him so quickly.

He thought Yukino would need to try at least five or six times before she could find an excuse to hesitantly come to him for help next week. He hadn't expected Yukino to act so quickly; she had already overcome her mental hurdle by the afternoon and came to Wu Shen for advice without any hesitation.

"Thinking about it carefully, my goal was to make Amane happy. It would be incredibly foolish to worry about my cheap pride at a time like this." Yukino smiled self-deprecatingly, seemingly despising her past self's pointless so-called pride.

“Being an older brother or sister these days isn’t easy either. Anyway, it’s good that you have this intention. Since you’ve asked me for help, I will naturally do my best to share everything I know.” Wu Shen opened the door wide, making room for Yukino to enter, and gestured for her to enter.

After Yukino entered the house, Wu Shen first made up an excuse to let Mai go to another room to play with Amane, and secretly told her not to reveal this matter. After Mai gave her assurance, the two went to Wu Shen's kitchen and began their work.

"First, do you have a picture of the shumai you made for lunch? If you can show it to me, I can find out what you're lacking and make up for it more quickly."

"Yes, I brought the leftovers." Yukino placed the small lunchbox she was carrying on the table, inside which were several neatly arranged shumai.

"As expected of Yukino, she's really thoughtful." Wu Shen casually picked up a piece and put it in his mouth. Yukino's cooking skills are quite good, so he can rest assured that she won't make any powerful biological weapons or culinary disasters.

"How does it taste?" Seeing Wu Shen chewing slowly, Yukino leaned forward and asked him with concern.

"The taste is alright. For a beginner, to be able to achieve this level simply by looking at the recipe is already quite impressive," Wu Shen nodded after tasting it.

This isn't meant to be flattering. I have to admit, Yukino's cooking skills are truly impressive. While the shumai wrappers had some issues, the seasoning ratio of the filling was a little off, and the pleats were slightly misshapen, it was still very good for an average household.

Even many people in China might not be able to achieve this level.

"Then why doesn't Amane like to eat it?" Yukino frowned, puzzled.

"The problem must be with the filling. For example, just like dumplings with different meat fillings, although they are all called dumplings, changing just one ingredient can create a completely different taste. The same applies to shumai." Wu Shen said, picking up another one to savor the taste.

"This should be a fairly standard pork and mushroom filling, right?"

"That's right, is there a problem?"

“There’s no problem, but Yuyin is still young and picky about food. She might not like the texture and taste of shiitake mushrooms?” Wu Shen guessed.

Everyone has things they don't like to eat, which is perfectly normal. For example, Mai doesn't like green peppers.

For stay-at-home parents, forcing children to eat what they don't want to eat is a rather low-level approach. The real skill lies in making something someone doesn't want to eat taste undetectable, or even something they like.

For example, Wu Shen used to hate eating cabbage. But when his mother made it into stewed flatbread, stir-fried cabbage with bread slices, or added it to boiled pork ribs, he would love to eat it.

Upon hearing Wu Shen's words and recalling Yu Yin's reaction, Yukino seemed to understand something.

She had tasted her own shumai, and it wasn't as bad as she had imagined. She was puzzled as to why Yuyin didn't like her shumai. In the end, she concluded that it was because her cooking skills were poor.

However, after Wu Shen's analysis, it seems that other reasons may be more significant.

"As expected of someone who knows their stuff, they figured out the reason so quickly." Yukino couldn't help but sigh with admiration.

"Actually, it's nothing much. Cooking, in essence, is simple. It's about wholeheartedly considering the needs of your diners, putting yourself in their shoes, and thinking from their perspective," Wu Shen said modestly. "I'm not a professional chef, so I only need to consider my own family. Their tastes, their likes and dislikes, and their health are all factors that need to be taken into account."

"..." Yukino remained silent, but Wu Shen's unintentional words touched her deeply.

Previously, she was only focused on completing the production and did not want to ask Wu for instruction. In fact, it was just to satisfy her own selfish desires. It was all due to her pride.

"So how should we deal with this problem?" Yukino had completely put aside all her silly thoughts and was now earnestly asking for advice.

"Hmm...actually, I don't know how to handle it either. After all, I don't know Yuyin very well, and I don't know what kind of food she likes." Wu Shen gave a wry smile.

He could teach Yukino the tricks and techniques for making shumai, but when it came to the most important part—the filling—Wu Shen really had no idea. This was because he knew almost nothing about Yukino's taste.

"Ame-ne's favorite flavor..." Yukino began to recall the scattered conversations she had with Ame-ne in their daily lives, trying to find some clues.

She vaguely remembered that Yuyin seemed to have mentioned that her father's best cooking method was often the one that made her favorite flavor.

"Wu Shen, what flavor of shumai are you best at making?"

"Me? How did the topic suddenly shift to what I'm best at? Isn't the key right now to figure out what Yuyin likes the most?"

"No, just teach me what you're best at."

"But what I'm good at isn't necessarily what Amane likes the most."

"No, Yuyin was only satisfied with the clothes that you chose. So I think your tastes should be similar."

"This logic is clearly untenable," Wu Shen said, embarrassed.

He tried to persuade Yukino several more times, but she remained stubborn. Helpless, Wu Shen could only begin to teach her what she was best at.

Before the formal instruction began, Yukino seemed to have one more question, so she asked first, "By the way, when I was looking for recipes online, someone said that the highest level of Chinese cuisine is when it 'glowings' after being opened. Do you know what the principle behind that is?"

Author's Note:

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Live as a human ticket, die as a ghost ticket.

o(*￣3￣)o

Chapter 117 Plan

"Glowing cuisine?" Wu Shen was taken aback.

"Yukino, tell me about your glowing dish. Don't confuse reality with anime. Even the best food in real life can't have a glowing effect." Wu Shen paused, "Hmm... unless you put some fluorescent agent in it."

"So it was fake after all?" Yukino asked, somewhat surprised.

"Of course it's fake. Where did you hear that from?"

“Yuyin told me that her father told her that the highest level of Chinese cuisine is ‘glowing cuisine’.”

"Who is Yuyin's father? Is she obsessed with watching Master Boy? What an irresponsible father she is!" Wu Shen complained.

How could anyone deceive such an innocent and adorable little girl? Wu Shen strongly condemns this!

Because of what he had just said, Yukino looked up and silently stared at Wu Shen with a reproachful expression. Wu Shen was completely bewildered, not knowing what he had said wrong or why Yukino was looking at him like that.

"Anyway, hurry up and tell me how to make your best shumai. It's really annoying that you have such an ape-like brain but your cooking skills are much better than mine," Yukino said somewhat unconvinced.

"Let me think about what I'm best at..."

Wu Shen already knew the recipes for these dishes by heart. The reason he needed to think about it was because he was skilled at making shumai with two different fillings, and he needed to decide which one to teach Yukino. After all, you can't get fat in one bite, and you can't chew too much at once.

The first type is called Four Happiness Shumai. It uses spinach juice to make the dough, resulting in a vibrant green wrapper. This wrapper is then shaped into a square opening, allowing you to place four different fillings inside. You can customize the filling to your liking, adding whatever you like – it's very flexible.

It tastes good, but the downsides are obvious. It's time-consuming and laborious to wrap; it's extremely strenuous. Even with Wu Shen's incredibly fast pace, it would take him a full half-day to prepare enough for a family of three. It's simply not suitable for family consumption.

By the time you finish cooking, the daylily buds will be cold, and because they're open, they're inconvenient to refrigerate. So he doesn't plan to teach Yukino how to make them.

The second method is much simpler. The method is the most traditional one, except that the filling recipe is a family tradition. Since everyone in his family likes it, Wu Shen naturally learned this recipe as well.

"This is probably the method I've used the most, so it's the one I'm most familiar with and best at. However, I'm not sure if Yukino will like this flavor." Wu Shen took out the necessary ingredients and kindly reminded Yukino one last time before starting.

"It's okay, I believe Ayane will like it." Yukino still didn't change her mind.

"Yukino, why are you so stubborn? Let me make this clear beforehand: if Amane doesn't like it, I won't take the blame."

Wu Shen still doesn't know where Yukino's mysterious confidence comes from, but since she has a need, Wu Shen can't refuse.

So Wu Shen began to explain to Yukino the ingredients needed and the proportions. This filling wasn't actually that difficult to make: black fungus, scrambled eggs, minced pork, and shrimp.

Soak the wood ear mushrooms in water until softened, then chop them finely. Stir-fry the eggs directly with chopsticks until they are in small pieces from the start. Add the largest amount of pork, and then the chopped shrimp. Mix all these ingredients together in a large bowl, then add the seasonings one by one.

Actually, it's not that difficult to do; the key secret lies in the proportions of these ingredients. With Yukino's skill, you can easily complete it as long as you remember them.

Seeing all this, Yukino initially thought she was about the same skill level as Wu Shen. However, when they were wrapping the dough, Yukino witnessed Wu Shen's skillful and fast movements, and she once again realized the difference in their experience.

The rolling pin kept turning without rest, and the other hand twisted along with the wrist, constantly turning the dough. What was originally a small piece of dough was flattened and transformed into a uniformly thick and round dough sheet in just a few seconds.

The process of wrapping the shumai is even quicker. The dough is spread in the palm of your hand, a piece of filling is added with chopsticks, then the palm is cupped, and the other hand is used to deftly pinch and grab, instantly forming the flower-like shape of the shumai.

The speed at which one can accumulate skill through practice is definitely not something that can be caught up with in a day or two.

"Alright, Yukino, you can take over now. You're not lacking in skills, and I'm sure you'll be able to make delicious dishes once you memorize the recipe."

Since it was just a demonstration, Wu Shen only prepared a small portion of both the meat filling and the dough. He probably made about a dozen before running out of ingredients and stopping.

Yukino nodded and immediately got to work. The other steps were fine because she remembered the recipe. However, she was a little clumsy when rolling out the dough. Without a word, Wu Shen came up behind Yukino and reached out to hold down her small hand holding the rolling pin.

"Remember to keep the speed constant here, don't go fast or slow suddenly, adjust it according to the rotation of your other hand. Watch me demonstrate." Wu Shen said, grabbing her other hand and demonstrating hand-in-hand, quickly rolling out two or three dough sheets for her.

"Did you understand?" Wu Shen was so focused on teaching and demonstration that he didn't even notice how daring his actions had been.

The position just now, pressing down on the other person's hands from behind, was almost no different from holding Yukino in one's arms.

"..." Yukino lowered her head and did not respond.

Wu Shen stopped guiding her hand, intending to maintain this posture and continue watching Yukino's movements, correcting her if anything was wrong. However, after a while, he noticed that Yukino's movements had become even stiffer and slower.

"Yukino, what's wrong with you? Why are your movements even worse than before?" Wu Shen found this phenomenon puzzling.

"Use your ape-like brain to think carefully about what you're doing right now," Yukino said in a cold, slightly annoyed tone, seemingly too embarrassed to give a direct warning.

Yukino tried to struggle a few times, but Wu Shen's strength was extraordinary. Even though he didn't use much force, Yukino really had no way to break free from his grip.

"I've never seen this guy have this much strength before," Yukino thought, puzzled.

"What am I doing? Aren't I teaching you how to roll out dough? What's the problem?" Wu Shen was completely bewildered, wondering why Yukino had suddenly become so sarcastic.

"You bastard, were you doing this on purpose or did it intentionally?"

Yukino couldn't believe that even after being reminded to this extent, Wu Shen still hadn't reacted. Clearly, she had underestimated Wu Shen's focus and passion for cooking.

With nowhere else to turn, Yukino suddenly had a brilliant idea and stepped on Wu Shen's shoe. However, perhaps out of pity, she didn't use much force. She just hoped that the momentary pain would make Wu Shen loosen his grip.

Wu Shen was concentrating on teaching when he suddenly felt a pain in his toe and instinctively staggered backward a few steps.

"Hiss... Yukino, what are you doing?" Although the pain was only momentary, Wu Shen couldn't help but ask.

"What am I doing? Why don't you ask yourself what you were doing just now?" Yukino held a rolling pin in her hand, looking like she was about to swing it down.

"Ah..." Coming back to his senses from the frenzy of teaching, Wu Shen suddenly realized just how daring he had been, and cold sweat poured down his forehead.

"Wasn't that what you did just now intentionally?" Yukino turned to face Wu Shen and asked coldly.

"Of course not, even if you gave me a hundred lives, I wouldn't dare take advantage of Yukino." Wu Shen quickly waved his hand, "I was just too engrossed in my thoughts. I forgot to consider that, sorry!"

"Never mind, after all, I asked you to teach me. Just be more careful in the future." After a moment of silence, Yukino spoke up.

Perhaps recalling how Wu Shen had dragged her out the door when they last talked about cooking, Yukino realized that he hadn't done it on purpose, and her anger gradually dissipated, allowing her to regain her composure.

The lesson continued smoothly and quickly. Yukino's hands were very dexterous; after observing Wu Shen's method, she began wrapping the dumplings quite skillfully, and her speed increased considerably. The probability of perfectly formed dumplings was increasing, with only one mistake made out of eight or nine dumplings.

After she finished making two batches, Wu Shen stopped her and started the steaming process for Xue Nai. He told her the appropriate heat and timing, and the two of them had some free time to wait for the shumai to be ready.