Word count: 1986
Stir-fried Waist Flower
“That……That……”
Lin Ke Song wanted to say that those were crumbs that had accidentally fallen from the biscuit bag when she’d accidentally ripped them open. But with the kind of person that was Jiang Qian Fan, there was no point in lying to him ah!
Jiang Qian Fan pushed the blanket away, and stood up, “today you’ll oversee the hay smoked eggs, I’ll make the stir-fried waist flowers.”
“You’re going to make stir-fried waist flowers!” Lin Ke Song’s eyes lighted up, her cheeks started to salivate, her mouth feeling greedy.
“Yeah.” Jiang Qian Fan lifted his hand, reaching out towards the direction of where Lin Ke Song spoke from, giving a direct hit to her forehead.
Lin Ke Song closed her eyes and smiled, “I’ll help you!”
After all, Jiang Qian Fan wasn’t familiar with the kitchen here.
Lin Ke Song stood behind him, took his hands, and slowly got him familiar with all the things in the kitchen.
“this is the stove, the knife stand is here, the cooking wine is next to the soy sauce, followed by the fish sauce and vinegar……”
This kitchen was very small, totally incomparable to the kitchen in Jiang Qian Fan’s villa. But it wasn’t all that easy to get used to this place. Jiang Qian Fan gave all the ingredients, even the sesame oil a taste. Most of these ingredients were bought from the supermarket, totally unable to be on par with those fresh and costly ingredients in Jiang Qian Fan’s food library. Lin Ke Song was a little worried that Jiang Qian Fan’s perfectionism would work up and didn’t think that he wouldn’t even bat an eyelid.
“Let’s start ba.” Jiang Qian Fan turned towards Lin Ke Song, lifting his sleeves.
She was stunned for a couple of seconds and finally understood. She got a relatively clean apron, tiptoed and hung it around his neck, Lin Ke Song was a little 囧. She could smell the oil stains on the apron. The chef uniform and apron he usually wore were so white they were fluorescent……
Jiang Qian Fan didn’t say anything and only leaned towards Lin Ke Song. His lips were so close they were about to touch her forehead.
Lin Ke Song’s arms were wrapped around his waist, this hugging position made her feel inexplicably warm. She could feel his breath, and for no reason was anticipating him kissing her.
“did you have ice cream on the way back from buying the things?” Jiang Qian Fan’s voice winded into her ears.
She lifted her eyes to look into the other party’s, “Ah…… yeah ah……”
He even knew what she ate, in the future, will she really not be able to have any tiny secrets anymore ah!
“Hazelnut cream flavour.”
“Yeah ah.”
“Greedy cat.” Jiang Qian Fan turned around, to face the stove.
What did he call her? Greedy cat?
“Is the rice wine prepared?”
“Yes!”
“Turmeric?”
“Prepared too!”
Lin Ke Song had to do all prior preparations for him. Like cleaning the pork waist, slicing, and seasoning according to Jiang Qian Fan’s directions. After all, he couldn’t see, and the places where he was really at ease was limited to places that had the same layout as his kitchen.
When Lin Ke Song put on a big fire and when she saw that Jiang Qian Fan was circling his hands in the pot of hot oil, she got very nervous.
And looking at Jiang Qian Fan extending his palm over the oil to measure its temperature made her more anxious than ever before, afraid that he would scald himself accidentally.
But Jiang Qian Fan adaptive ability was far greater than Lin Ke Song’s expectations. Stir-frying, flipping, his posture was elegant as if he were playing golf, a totally different style from this small and narrow kitchen.
A few minutes later, the waist flowers were ladled into a plate, there wasn’t any plating, but with only the fragrant smell and vibrant colour, one can know that it is definitely delicious and well-seasoned.
Lin Ke Song’s hay smoked eggs were done too.
And Uncle Lin and Xiao Xue were standing at the door. Lin Xiao Xue wanted to go in to have a look, because Jiang Qian Fan’s back was really tall and straight, every time he made the action of flipping the pan wasn’t rough, and instead the muscles on his back tightened, his hair lightly lifted off, that demeanour made it impossible to turn your gaze away.
Lin Xiao Xue wanted to go forward to get a clearer look, but Uncle Lin stopped her, indicating that Lin Xiao Xue shouldn’t make a mess.
After all, the kitchen was tiny, and if Lin Xiao Xue were to go in, there wouldn’t even be space to turn.
Even though Lin Xiao Xue wasn’t happy, she didn’t go back to her room in indignance but took out her phone to record the view Jiang Qian Fan’s back.
Quickly, the stir-fried waist flowers, chives fried eggs and arugula soup were done.
The atmosphere at the table wasn’t all that lively, but it was obvious that everyone was happy. Lin Xiao Xue had only had her first bite of the waist flower, when her eye lighted up, wishing that she could pour the whole plate into her mouth, but she couldn’t help that Uncle Lin was there, and could only eat small bites at a time. As she ate, she assessed Jiang Qian Fan curiously, she found it unbelievable, and wondered how could a blind person cook such delicious foods?
And Uncle Lin had only tasted a mouthful and could feel the skill that was out of the ordinary. No matter if it were the seasoning, the texture of the waist flowered or the feeling that was left on the tip of the tongue, there was no stink, and in fact, the tenderness of the waist flower was totally presented. All the seasoning that Jiang Qian Fan had used was obviously what he normally had, but the end results were worlds apart. Uncle Lin couldn’t help but start investigating on the spot.
But these things depended on feeling and the control one had on what was happening, these things, even if Jian Qian Fan told Uncle, Uncle Lin wouldn’t be able to understand them in a moment.
After dinner, Miller picked Jiang Qian Fan up.
Lin Ke Song hummed while washing up, Jiang Qian Fan made her feel like he peeked of his world today.
The norm doesn’t mean a fall from up high, instead, it will help him expand his world.
While drying her hair, she walked to the table, and she picked up her phone realising that there were countless notifications. And they were all calls from Mayer.
What happened? Did something happen to Jiang Qian Fan?
Lin Ke Song hurriedly called back, “Mr Mayer, I’m Ke Song! Did something happen?”
“go online now and enter your cousin’s social media.”
Lin Ke Song suddenly had a bad feeling, when she saw Lin Xiao Xue’s Facebook, she realised that Lin Xiao Xue had snapped the scene of Jiang Qian Fan giving her a kiss under the lamppost, and put it on her feed. There was even the video of Jiang Qian Fan cooking in the kitchen.
And, the views had already reached the thousands.
“I’ll get her to immediately take the pictures down!”
“It’s already too late, take a look at ‘stroll to mars’.”
“I see it.”
“She is a reporter for 《Diner in New York》. This magazine doesn’t simply introduce fine foods, they frequently use stars and gimmick for coverage, to attract readers to those restaurants, and receive high reporting fees. All in all, the essence of this magazine isn’t in the fine foods, but the soft advertising. Many restaurants will advertise in this magazine. And their speciality is to advertise like it’s not an advertisement, full of ‘professionalism’.”
“Then…… what do we do now?”
“I will try to follow 《Diner in New York》to make sure that they won’t freely put the picture up. But I think…… that no matter what happens, when you compete in the following day, everyone might know the relationship between you and Jiang Qian Fan, you need to be prepared.”
Lin Ke Song’s heart froze a little.
Hanging up, she moved quickly to Lin Xiao Xue’s door, and knocked: “Xiao Xue, are you in there?”
“I’m here ah, what’s the matter?” Lin Xiao Xue opened the door a little annoyedly, with her headphones, the music playing loudly.
“I know you posted some pictures on Facebook, including…… me and Jiang Qian Fan in front of the house……”
“what?” Lin Xiao Xue had an expression that she hadn’t heard properly.
Lin Ke Song knew that she was doing this on purpose, and directly plucked off the headphones, “Do you know what is called personality rights? What is personality rights ah?”
Lin Xiao Xue saw Lin Ke Song’s angry expression, and even though she knew obviously that she had done wrong, she still lifted her chin: “What personality rights?”
Lin Ke Song felt that she had been too polite to this girl, but at this critical moment, she still needed to get tough.
“It’s fine that you took photos of me. But do you think that after posting photos of Jiang Qian Fan online, no one would come after you?”
“What will he do? He isn’t even some celebrity……”
“He is my ‘Master show’ mentor. According to the rules of ‘Master show’, the top 3 participants will have the competition committee announce the mentor’s names. But at this point, without the mentor’s approval, you cannot share news of your mentor.”
“Then you guys shouldn’t have kissed on the streets ah!”
“Then you too shouldn’t have posted the pictures ah.” Lin Ke Song shrugged, she knew that continuing to talk will only make Lin Xiao Xue lose face.
She turned around to return to her room, sat on the bed, the internet page paused at the image of her and Jiang Qian Fan kissing. She knew that once this gossip was caught on by the media, it will be quickly spread to all of Master show.
Jiang Qian Fan was still Jiang Qian Fan, he could calmly ignore everyone’s gaze.
The crucial thing was, whether she had the strength to take this on.
At this time, the music at some party was noisy and thick, Kevin carried beer to the window, leaning on his good friend’s shoulder, “Hey…… looking at your expression, failed at your confession?”
“I didn’t confess.” Song Yi Ran leaned on the window, looking at the cars moving.
“what this is your style ah! it should be, confess in the afternoon, kiss in the late afternoon, roll around in bed at night……”
Song Yi Ran closed his eyes and laughed helplessly: “this isn’t even some game……”
Kevin paused and leaned against the window with Song Yi Ran, “I’m not curious about your failed confession. Remember the saying you Chinese have, ‘how can you not get your shoes wet if you walk by the river (T/N: be affected by your environment)’. Maybe she is your river.”
“this isn’t how you use that saying.” Song Yi Ran gave him a push, “Go have fun ba.”
“I’m curious about why you didn’t say anything. This isn’t like you. Your personality…… no matter, if it were a loss, would be vigorous.”
“Because I can lose to my brother, and can lose to anyone. But in front of her, there’s no win or loss. I knew that it wasn’t the right time to say the words I wanted to say then. I would have given her a burden. And she wouldn’t have been soft-hearted just because of the past 10 years because I understand how she thinks better than anyone.”
“Do you regret it? Letting me arrange for her to follow you to New York.”