Since putting on makeup was too troublesome and there was no opportunity for it right now, Yin Lin went to the meal as the Magical Girl, not using Yao Ruoning’s identity.
This “meal” wasn’t at a restaurant.
Jin Luan had procured a gas stove and was cooking in the little room inside the building.
She was just cooking rice.
Then she pointed at the wok.
“What’s the meaning? Eating the pot?”
“Didn’t you say 30 points? Your turn.”
Jin Luan explained.
Understood.
Still holding a grudge over last time’s eel rice incident.
Last time, she said the eel rice Jin made was only worth 30 points, not even worth one of Yin Lin’s…
No wonder she insisted on dragging Yin Lin over for a meal today.
It was a Hongmen Banquet after all.
Yin Lin thought about it.
‘I’ll show off a bit, display some of that “old man” cooking skill.’
There are several ways to show off when cooking.
After some consideration, she went to buy some ingredients.
Going to the fresh food supermarket to buy groceries caused another round of stares from the Spectator Crowd.
Everyone seemed quite surprised—Magical Girls need to eat?
And they come to buy groceries?
When checking out, the cashier didn’t take her money, saying it was complimentary.
Yin Lin didn’t want to take advantage, insisting on paying, but the cashier gave her no opportunity.
The two sides were at a standstill.
Until the Spectator Crowd grew larger and larger.
Yin Lin finally couldn’t hold out and had to give up.
Returning to the building’s little room, Yin Lin began processing the vegetables.
Just three dishes.
One was Cai Xin, a type of vegetable with a very thick stalk.
Why could Yin Lin use this to “show off”?
Because there’s a preparation method that requires using a knife to cut cross-shaped slits into the thick stalk of the Cai Xin: cutting it smaller allows the flavors to penetrate better, makes it easier to chew, and more importantly, after cutting, it has a very aesthetic look.
Yin Lin cut the Cai Xin into several segments, then cut a whole bunch of cross-shaped slits into each segment.
The aesthetic appeal wasn’t fully visible yet; it would have a visual effect once it hit the wok.
Besides the Cai Xin, she also bought a lot of Tilapia, a fish many people look down on.
The innards had already been cleaned by the supermarket staff.
Yin Lin did some simple processing, making neat cuts into the Tilapia’s body, then evenly sprinkling salt into the cuts.
The last dish was Minced Pork, which looked quite simple.
After everything was prepared, she finally turned on the heat and started cooking.
Jin Luan watched from the side, looking down, studying what was so special about this kind of high-heat stir-frying.
She usually didn’t engage with this simple, rough cooking method.
Most of the time, she used an induction cooker to slowly pan-fry things.
She felt high-heat stir-frying was too crude, not ladylike enough.
While she herself didn’t like doing it this way, she didn’t object to others using this method.
Especially watching Yin Lin’s small frame holding a wok for high-heat stir-frying was particularly funny, creating a strong sense of contrast.
The sight of Yin Lin wanting to flip the wok but being unable to was even more amusing.
“Hair! Your hair!”
Jin Luan suddenly noticed Yin Lin’s hair was about to get too close to the gas stove.
She quickly reached out, grabbing and lifting up those slender strands.
Holding that head of smooth hair, Jin Luan couldn’t help but bring her face close and take a deep sniff.
Then she found some hairpins, rolled up Yin Lin’s hair, and pinned it up on her head, using several pins to secure it.
Yin Lin also finished stir-frying the Cai Xin.
After plating it, looking at each little Cai Xin piece that had split open in a cross shape from the stir-frying, Jin Luan was instantly captivated.
It was like the little octopus-shaped sausages often seen in anime.
While Yin Lin washed the wok and started pan-frying the Tilapia, Jin Luan quietly reached out and stole a bite of the Cai Xin.
It was a bit hot, rolling around in her mouth over a dozen times before she could chew it up and swallow.
The taste… it was slightly worse than the family’s professional chef, mainly due to the ingredients and her long-cultivated taste preferences not quite adapting.
If she had to give it a score, it would be about 100 points.
Eighty points for flavor, and another twenty points for “Magical Girl bonus.”
Jin Luan secretly reached out again to eat a little more, but Yin Lin knocked her hand away with a chopstick, directly swatting off that restless little hand.
After cutting slits into the fish and sprinkling salt, the fish skin becomes very fragile, easily tearing when flipping the fish while pan-frying.
This is actually another little “show-off” trick.
Yin Lin skillfully flipped the fish, always keeping that thin, cicada-wing-like skin perfectly intact.
By the time it was ready to plate, Jin Luan was already drooling.
The presentation of this fish was just too good—even though it was just a ten-dollar Tilapia, it made one reluctant to pick it up with chopsticks.
The final dish was a pork soup, simple and straightforward.
Three dishes and a soup were all placed on the dining table.
A slight problem arose when preparing to serve the rice.
Looking at that pot of dry, parched rice, it was obvious too little water had been used.
Jin Luan, responsible for cooking the rice, gave a dry laugh.
“Hehe…”
Even with too little water, it was still edible.
The color was just a bit strange.
Yin Lin immediately had some bad premonitions.
She picked up a bite with her chopsticks, tasted it, frowned, and her voice rose several notches.
“You didn’t even wash the rice before cooking it, did you?”
Jin Luan: “Huh? You have to wash rice?”
‘Sigh, that’s just how a young lady is.’
It could now be basically confirmed—in that eel rice, only the eel part was something she actually made.
Yin Lin first tried the Tilapia.
The first chopstick pick finally broke that nearly perfect exterior.
The fish wasn’t overcooked, the texture was tender and fresh.
Not the tenderness of steaming, but the fresh tenderness carrying the aroma of pan-frying.
If scoring, it was also 80 + 20, a full 100 points.
Finally, the seemingly ordinary pork soup.
The surface of the soup had almost no visible foam, clear like it was transparent.
The taste… hard to say.
Could only give 60 + 40, 100 points.
On one hand, Jin Luan didn’t eat pork much normally.
On the other hand, she wasn’t very used to this flavor.
This was more of a street stall style, the seasonings used were quite “wild,” very different from the light, mellow style of a master chef.
Regardless, the level of these two dishes and soup, even if they didn’t match Jin Luan’s taste preferences and the raw materials were cheap, she could still give a fair evaluation of “delicious.”
At the table, neither of them spoke much.
Jin Luan wasn’t used to chatting during a formal meal, feeling it involved etiquette issues.
Yin Lin simply had no topics to discuss.
It wasn’t until after the meal, when Yin Lin habitually started washing the dishes, that Jin Luan finally brought up the serious matter neither of them liked.
“I hope you won’t get involved with the Star Summoning Society’s affairs.”
She voiced her concern.
“Demonic Creatures aren’t very scheming. They’re straightforward, like fighting us head-on. Even Executive-level Fiends mostly only engage in frontal combat, rarely using tactics. But the Star Summoning Society is different. They might be Human.”
Simply put, she wasn’t worried about Yin Lin competing with enemies in terms of strength.
Instead, she was worried she’d be played for a fool in terms of strategy.
For example, using an Absorption Barrier to conceal Mana aura, then commanding a Senior Demonic Entity within the barrier to launch a full-power sneak attack on Yin Lin.
Or turning a Magical Girl against her.
These non-confrontational tactics were what Jin Luan feared greatly.
She was very worried this little sister Yin Lin would be deceived.
Yin Lin understood her meaning.
Using gaming terminology, it was the difference between PVP and PVE.
Fighting Demonic Creatures was PVE.
Fighting the Star Summoning Society was PVP.
Where’s the difficulty?
The difficulty lies in that when fighting against people, you’re contending with the wisdom Humanity has accumulated over thousands of years—and the part of it that remains even under the limitations of mortal bodies.
Why do some people think PVP is simple, while others find it extremely exhausting?
The reason lies right here.
It was normal for Jin Luan to look down on little Yin Lin.
At this age, fooled into going home with just a few words, what’s there to talk about when it comes to fighting people?