Recipe page 1

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You can see Yunlan in the kitchen only during one occasion - when Shen is cooking, but you will never ever see Yunlan preparing something.  He mastered the snatching tactics to steal something from under Shen Wei's hands when Shen is cutting some food, yet Yunlan manages to cut his finger even when opening the cupboard, reaching for the knife. Yunlan can help you to install a new kitchen device, but do not ask him to wash the dishes as it never survived without some cracks or shards on the ground. To put it simply - you do not want Yunlan to prepare a meal for you unless you want him to get hurt or your kitchen destroyed. 

But there are times when even the strangest thing happens. And it somehow occurred to Yunlan that the best gift to give Shen Wei for their one year anniversary is to cook a proper full dinner to him. And it was the best timing possible because Shen Wei was out of the city for a full week on some university conference. Yunlan had the whole kitchen only to himself. 

He dedicated one whole day to pick the desired recipes. It took him another day to fully understand the ingredients list and buy the correct ones. The third day was the day of Shen Wei's return and Yunlan could not sleep well for he was so excited and way too afraid to start cooking on his own. But since he set his mind to it, there was no turning back.

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"Okay, let's do it!" Yunlan clapped his hands in the air to cheer up the atmosphere. "You can do it, Zhao Yunlan, the most handsome chief of SID!"

Two hours after starting, Yunlan was still not finished. The kitchen area was filled with flour dust, opened food packages, splashes of oil, broken plate, first aid kit's supplies,  and a lot of grumpy words.

"So, what is next..." he focused his eyes to the cookbook in his left hand again. "Put the blanched vegetable to the baking pan." 

Yunlan put aside the book and poured the vegetable into the baking pan, where a fat chicken already rested ready to go to the oven. Yunlan took the book again. "It is not that hard... Shen Wei is only making up excuses to not let me cook..." 

He proceed to reading the next step in the recipe: "Make sure to add only a little bit of the broth to the chicken. If you add it all, the potatoes will soak in all the broth leading to an unsatisfying taste... Sh*t!" The chicken was bathing in broth with vegetable pieces and potatoes swimming around it in a silent mockery. 

Yunlan took the baking pan and poured out most of the broth, making a few carrots and potatoes flying out of the pan to the kitchen sink or floor, but who cared. His eyes shot to the clock on the wall, it was around three, still a lot of time before Shen Wei's arrival.

"OK, broth, almost none... now... Put the boiled potatoes around the chicken and... boiled potatoes?!" He glanced to the pan... the potatoes were nicely cut to uneven pieces, but not boiled. "How the heck do I boil potatoes? This cookbook is a total nonsense! It does not explain the basics at all!" Yunlan threw the book to the corner and took out his phone. He typed in "how to boil potatoes" and watched a video for dummies. "Now, that is called a proper explanation!"

Yunlan put the water to boil and added potatoes to it with a pinch of salt. Wiping away the sweat rolling down his forehead he had to admit that cooking is not the easiest thing on Earth. He reminded himself that Shen Wei has the power to easily obtain any knowledge or skill. "That must be it. Shen Wei is cheating all the time!"

"Potatoes are potatoe-ing so what now..." Yunlan snapped his fingers in the air. "Need to pre-prepare the gift!" He disappeared to the bed room and came back only to see the foam raising from the pot, lid hopping madly and water splashing everywhere. 

"What the heck-" When Yunlan wanted to put the lid aside, he only burned his fingers, so he put the heat to low which finally caused the foam to disappear and the pot to calm down. "Now it should be fine." He checked the area again. "Pot on the stove, low heat, no danger. Chicken resting with vegetables, waiting for potatoes, no danger. Mess in kitchen, unavoidable, can be cleaned out later."

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