Uneasy daily life

"...Where are the stones?"

The white-clad figure, engrossed in her work, succinctly stated: "A set meal."

"Oh."

Paji...

Bai Ying, his heart pounding, tore the pig intestines apart. He looked down at the shattered exoskeleton armor on his hands—Damn it! Not again? Who on earth is plotting against me?!

I sighed deeply, looking around, and suddenly realized there were countless skilled hands, many scoring 80 points, but few 90. Only the hands of the brave achieved perfection—the water-soaked tomato trembled between my fingers, like a heart pounding with joy. Even when sliced ​​by a sharp blade, it would still let its bright red coolness stain its beauty. I lingered there for a long time, until the flow of time washed away that lingering affection. My beloved, I couldn't bear to part with even a trace of tenderness…

Why is Bai Jun looking at me like this?

Yukino Yukinoshita lowered her head to wash her hands, her heart a little uneasy. She used the movement to cover herself and secretly glanced at the sink.

The white figure tore a lump of fatty lymph nodes, white with yellow spots, off the large intestine, brought it close, and smelled it.

The girl nearly lost her Dao heart.

……

……

[Insomnia: Huh? I haven't checked the group for a few days, and the group admin actually unbanned Bai Liang and Bai Ying?]

[Puppet: The Emperor is merciful, granting a general amnesty.]

[Crow: @BaiLiangBaiYing, come out and give us some laughs, we've all been so bored lately.]

[Crow: Nothing happened. The netizens just disappeared while chatting. It's quite sad.]

[Puppet: With Mai Sakurajima retiring from the fandom, our anti-fan group is facing a transformation crisis. It seems Prime Minister Dong has already retired to the mountains.]

[Little Mako: Sakurajima-san, waaaaah... Sakurajima-san...]

The classroom seats, during break time.

Sakurajima Mai looked at the messages in the group chat. Even though she had unbanned the account, Bai Liang Bai Ying's account remained completely silent.

I could feel the gazes of other classmates around me from time to time—they were on the other side, and I was all alone on this side… This feeling of being the center of attention easily brought back some unhappy memories.

The atmosphere was set in stone, and if I tried to join in, I might be able to, but I was feeling very irritable and had no interest in trying to blend in.

A sense of exhaustion washed over me. Rather than being the center of attention, I'd rather the school not pay too much attention to me.

Mai Sakurajima maintained a proper sitting posture, propping her cheek up with her hand, and looking down at the messages that popped up on the screen from time to time.

I tapped an account lightly with my finger, then went back to the previous screen.

Read a book, do your homework, or preview your lessons... In my experience, when you're feeling down, it's best to find something to do and not let your mind wander.

Mai Sakurajima turned off her phone, took out a book, and felt that she was being watched less.

When a celebrity retires from the entertainment industry, a hater retires from the hater's career, just like a decisive charge, a commotion, and a passing fad.

Hmph, I hope you get a toothache from drinking cold water.

Chapter Forty-Seven: An Unexpected Encounter

Cooking is a magical thing, which is why so many amazing chefs have emerged.

Some people aren't interested in cooking at all, but are very interested in cooking classes that offer a temporary respite from studying and are more like fun activities. They chat while cooking—this is optimism. Some people cook with great care, occasionally feeling they're not adding enough seasoning, so they add more, only to find they've added too much—this is intuition. Some people cook precisely according to recipes, strictly using grams to measure ingredients and seasonings—this is bookishness. Some are experienced cooks at home, cooking methodically and confidently—this is empiricism.

The white figure that performs an "Ora Ora" motion on a pig's large intestine until it spits out all its mucus is clearly a terrorist.

Theoretically speaking, people at other cooking stations can't smell the odors because the visual impact stimulates their sense of smell. Not to mention Bai Ying's erratic cooking style, she twirls a pig intestine like a magic ribbon, occasionally having to bend her head down multiple times as if to kiss the intestine, confirming the taste with a spirit of practicality, achieving a contradictory unity of being disgusting and appetizing.

Fortunately, the pork intestines, after being braised in a pressure cooker and cooked with spices, no longer look the same and no longer attract attention.

After the white-clad figure suppressed the rebellion, a small fire shook the pot, causing several reddish-brown cylindrical objects to sway back and forth inside.

After a series of processing steps, a pile of pig intestines shrank to a degree comparable to the bubble crisis.

After making another round of inspections, the culinary instructor stopped with great interest and asked, "Is there anything special about this dish?"

"It's like refining elixir; you have to use the right temperature, simmering it slowly over a low flame while gently blending it with the five flavors of sour, sweet, fragrant, spicy, and salty into the large intestine, creating a unique and even flavor. The finished product is tender, delicious, and incredibly fragrant."

Bai Ying said confidently, "Teacher, Nine-Turned Intestines is different from other cooking methods; it has a very unique aroma."

The culinary instructor cautiously fanned the steam around the edge of the pot, frowning slightly: "Why does it still smell a little bit off?"

"Teacher, according to scientific research, indole and skatole, which are chemical substances in feces that make us smell bad, are actually important ingredients in many perfumes. From this perspective, the unique aroma of the Nine-Turned Intestine is due to a reasonable chemical reaction that transforms the chemical elements from smelly to fragrant..."

"You're making this sound pretty convincing," the culinary instructor said, puzzled. "Why does it smell even worse to me?"

"The smellier it gets, the sooner it will smell good..."

Holy crap! It's overcooked!

Bai Ying quickly turned off the heat, picked out the large intestines from the pot one by one and put them into a lunchbox, drizzled them with thick sauce, sprinkled them with cilantro, put her hands on her hips and let out a long sigh: "Phew, this dish is really troublesome to make. The luxurious ones usually only use the thick end of the intestine, while the practical ones are like this, where the intestines are stuffed inside. Teacher, would you like one?"

Green cilantro garnishes the reddish-brown large intestine, revealing its distinct layers from above. The thick sauce coats it, reflecting a subtle sheen, making it look quite appetizing, at least visually.

When Bai Ying invited him, he had already picked up a piece with his chopsticks and put it in his mouth. He chewed it a few times with relish and sighed, "After all, it's my first time making it, so it's not perfect. It's not tender enough. If I had used the pressure cooker for an extra minute, it would have been better. The cooking time wasn't right. I should have taken it out three seconds earlier. I also need to figure out how to use the bitterness of the cardamom powder to bring out more flavor. The sugar was also a little burnt... Sigh, it seems I can only get 98 points in this cooking class. I can't continue my perfect score streak."

“I don’t remember ever giving you a perfect score, you’ve always just passed.” As a food enthusiast, the cooking teacher has a higher acceptance of ingredients than average. She picked up a pair of chopsticks, took a piece, put it in her mouth, and moved her chin.

Yukino Yukinoshita walked over while taking off her apron: "Is Shiro-kun done?"

The white-clad figure confidently extended his hand and said, "Please."

Yukino, standing beneath the snow peak, observes with vigilance.

It is indeed a very appetizing dish, but it's not served in slices like before, but rather in individual pieces... It would be a bit impolite to just lean in and smell it.

"Hmm... no wonder you're from a culinary powerhouse, the aftertaste is truly lingering." The cooking instructor praised with a smile, "If you hadn't messed with the recipe, getting full marks in the previous classes wouldn't have been a problem..."

good?

Yukino Yukinoshita took out a pair of chopsticks, picked up a piece, put it in her mouth, chewed it, and her brows furrowed even more.

Seeing this, the culinary instructor dropped the pretense and immediately began to interrogate her: "Bai Ying! Why is this dish so hard to chew?"

Bai Ying: "Because the pressure cooker didn't cook it long enough."

"Why does this dish taste so strange? Wasn't it supposed to be a 'five-in-one' dish?"

"Because the heat and time were not properly controlled, the flavor was not harmonious and unified, and the Nine-Turn Golden Elixir was refined into Nine-Turn Golden Powder."

Why does my mouth taste bitter after eating?

"Because too much cardamom powder was used, the temperature caused the white sugar to caramelize to a certain extent, resulting in a lingering bitter taste that becomes more and more bitter the more you think about it."

Bai Ying answered clearly and logically.

Cooking teacher: "?"

So you were just pretending to fail?!

The cooking instructor asked suspiciously, "Did you do it on purpose or by accident?"

"Unintentionally or deliberately."

"?"

Bai Ying argued confidently, "Failure can be due to unforeseen circumstances. I wanted the teacher to taste the dish and give feedback, so I specially adjusted my answer. I felt that only in this way could the teacher realize that my dish had failed, and only then could I feel ashamed and motivated to improve. After all, a failure that no one knows about cannot become the motivation to overcome difficulties."

Cooking teacher: "?"

"Teacher, there's no need to argue with Haku-kun," Yukino Yukinoshita suggested coldly. "Just give him a grade."

"Unqualified."

"Wait! Teacher, I have one more dish!" Bai Ying gestured for a pause, then turned and shouted, "Too long to read, open the lid!"

Angelina, who had been diligently tending the pot and timing her scooping out the leftovers and adding fresh ingredients, quickly lifted the lid with a "heave-ho!"

Stir-fried dishes are unmatched since they came out of the cave; one should be lenient when possible.

The key is to be quick, decisive, and powerful; once it's off the heat, you've won everything.

Stewed soup dishes are like a fork in the road, attracting many disdainful glances; the peak is the highest, and I am the sky.

The key is to take a long, slow, and deliberate approach to build momentum, and then lift the lid and win completely.

It was almost noon, a time when everyone was hungry. The chicken soup, simmering slowly over a low flame, exhaled its first breath, and the oxygen level in the entire cooking classroom immediately dropped rapidly.

Bai Ying was very confident; it seemed that she had carried forward the skills passed down from her mother.

The culinary instructor drank a bowl, savoring the taste, and said with satisfaction, "It's really great. Anxinyuan's cooking skills are excellent, full marks."

The white shadow turned to stone.

Angelina raised her hand and said, "Teacher, I just checked the fire. Bai Ying prepared all the materials and the process."

"Alright, for the sake of this bowl of soup, I'll give it a barely passing grade."

……

……

After the cooking class, Shirakage and Yukino Yukinoshita carried their creations in lunchboxes to the activity room to have lunch.

"Brave ones, let's experience the colors that are essential to youth."

As soon as Bai Ying sat down, she took out a lunchbox containing braised pork intestines and solemnly said, "This is my bargaining chip!"

Yukino Yukinoshita silently placed her rather tall lunchbox on the table, pulling out each layer one by one.

Rice, pickles, soup, grilled salmon, fried shrimp, diced fruit, tomato and egg soup, beetroot consommé...

"As expected of kaiseki cuisine, which features small portions and a wide variety of dishes, the authentic way to eat it is said that the chef prepares the food while the guests eat, starting with the appetizer soup, then the pickled vegetables, and finally the refreshing clear soup, eating it from beginning to end, until you're about 80% full."

Bai Ying hinted, "That's not fair of you. I should be eating while you serve the dishes in order..."

"Haku-kun." Yukino Yukinoshita put her chopsticks down on the table and asked calmly, "Did you do it on purpose or by accident?"

There are good reasons to suspect that this guy definitely saw through my intentions before he even started cooking.

"Thunder suddenly breaks the clear sky, the bright moon suddenly appears and then turns into a shadow. The gentle breeze cannot untangle the knot in my heart, for it stirs up troubles in the waves."

Bai Ying sighed softly, speaking in a very youthful, literary style: "Exchanging lunches, tasting the joys and sorrows of another person, who cooked the food for you? Who steamed the rice for you? Who prepared every little detail for you? Thinking about it like this, a hundred feelings swirl in my heart, but none can compare to that obvious, yet carefully concealed joy..."

"..."

Yukino Yukinoshita took a small breath, barely managing to control her expression from her turbulent emotions, and smiled slightly, "Haku-kun, what do you think about right now?"

"I was thinking of turning me into Shakyamuni Buddha to accumulate great merit."

Bai Ying laughed and took out two servings of chicken soup and a serving of shredded chicken with dipping sauce from the lunchbox: "Let me guess—"

Bai Ying drawled out her words.

As Yukino Yukinoshita listened, she glanced at the newly taken-out items and belatedly realized that if Haku-kun was deliberately avoiding her, there was no need to make chicken soup. Although Anshin-in was watching the pot, Haku-kun had prepared the process and ingredients.

The nine-turn large intestine was indeed an accident. Bai Jun also mentioned that due to the limitations imposed by the culinary instructor, it was the first time he had made this kind of dish...

"You must feel a little apologetic now, since you're planning to become my cook."

The second half of the sentence, elongated by the white shadow, floated out.

Yukinoshita Yukino: #!

Annoying white fungus growth, especially after it grows in my heart.

"Unfortunately, Shiro-kun only guessed half right." Yukino Yukinoshita pulled out the last compartment of the lunchbox and took out a full bowl of white rice. "My solution is to eat together—where's the rice that Shiro-kun prepared?"

Bai Ying took a large bowl of rice out of the lunchbox.

Yukino Yukinoshita squinted and said, "You should know how much I eat, right?"

"Man is made of iron, food is made of steel; eating is a major life event," Bai Ying said seriously. "I have to consider the possibility that you haven't prepared for me, or that you've prepared for me but haven't given me the food, right?"

"Humph."

After lunch, Yukino Yukinoshita rarely felt so full, and she was in a good mood because she could watch someone eat the whole plate of braised pork intestines with an exaggerated expression.

……

……

After school, because Sakuta Azusagawa didn't give her the key and warned Kaede Azusagawa not to open the door for Hakukage alone when she was home, Hakukage had no choice but to take the train to Kanagawa, where she pondered the increasingly frequent Stand rebellions these days.

First, rule out the possibility of Alzheimer's disease. Then, find something that causes memory lapses and mental disturbances, which leads to the resurfacing of the doppelganger that has been suppressed.