Mr. Melancholy Wants To Live A Peaceful Life

CHAPTER 72

"Time replay" had been blocked by the natural law power. Yu Hua didn't rush to chase after Cen Xiao and You Zhengping. Instead, he strolled to the dining table and lifted of the lid off the pot of crayfish. A strong smell of crayfish hit him in the face.

Before coming through the door, Yu Hua had smelled hot and spicy crayfish, but he had thought that it was floating from upstairs or downstairs through a range hood. He hadn't expected it to be coming from his own home.

There was a note stuck next to the pot, written in You Zhengping's handwriting: After my patrol ended, I came back early to make you dinner. Cen Xiao taught me how (I'd have blown up the kitchen on my own). I was planning on giving you a pleasant surprise, but unfortunately I got another last minute assignment, so I'll probably only be able to come home tomorrow. Sigh.

There was a little sighing person draw at the end, adorably ugly. Yu Hua lifted the other lids. There were hot fried clams, crabs in clear soup, fresh oysters in minced garlic... Everything You Zhengping liked to eat.

They had left less than ten minutes after making everything. The food was still steaming hot. Yu Hua took off his jacket, tied on his little bear apron, slowly put on a pair of single use gloves, peeled the crayfish and ate them.

"Tastes all right." Yu Hua smiled faintly.

When he ate out or ate his own cooking, Yu Hua couldn't taste any flavor. He could only judge from You Zhengping's enjoyment level whether food was all right, good, or very good. Today, he unexpectedly tasted flavors. 

Heat, spice, sweetness, and the particular flavor of crayfish exploded in his mouth. It was so good he couldn't stop eating. So this was how the crayfish Xiao You liked tasted. It really was good. Yu Hua, who never had much appetite, thought of You Zhengping busily cooking while slowly and elegantly eating up the whole pot of crayfish.

While he was still wearing the gloves, Yu Hua also ate all the crab. Then he threw away the single use gloves, cleaned up the kitchen waste on the table, used dishwashing liquid to wipe away the grease stains on the tabletop, then at last served himself a bowl of white rice and ate the hot fried clams and fresh oysters in minced garlic with it.

You Zhengping had made a lot of rice. He hadn't measured out the water well, so the rice was only partially cooked. But there was just the right trace of sweetness when Yu Hua chewed it. Saliva in the oral cavity breaks starch down into maltose. Maltose is faintly sweet. Chewing rice or flour for a while lets you taste a faint sweetness. But Yu Hua couldn't taste anything even when eating man-made fruit drops. Today, he could suddenly sense this bit of sweetness.

With the bitterness of the chili peppers, the sweet pungency of the onions, the flavor of the garlic, accompanied by the sweetness of the maltose in the rice, Yu Hua ate all the dishes on the table without noticing.

There was still quite a bit of rice left. You Zhengping hadn't known how much to make and produced an entire big pot of half-cooked rice. Yu Hua covered the leftover rice with freshness preserving wrap, planning to make congee out of it in the morning. It would be a pity to throw out such good half-cooked rice.

He took out another pair of single use gloves and cleaned up the leftover clam and oyster shells. He carefully wiped the table and the kitchen range three times, until they were bright and clean as new, without a trace of grease.

He scrubbed the dishes and the pots, washed the cleaning rag, and rearranged the messy cupboards. When he had pretty much cleaned everything up, Yu Hua opened the fridge, saw the vegetables that You Zhengping had messed up, laughed lightly and closed the refrigerator door, letting the vegetables remain disorderly.