Reborn-Super Chef – 054 – Must Give 32 Commendations

Reborn – Super Chef – Chapter 54 – Must Give 32 Commendations

Ma Lan Hills is totally different from the small Feng Ye Hill. The scenery was exceptionally beautiful, worthy of its reputation as a famous sightseeing spot. Three large buses stopped at the foot of the hill. 32 students from Xizhou got out. After some quick discussion, they split into smaller groups, and made their way up the hill.

Ye Chui led their group, consisting of Lin Wei and his two sisters as they cheerfully made their way up.

Little Wang Shiyu was the happiest among them all. The season was at the edge of spilling from spring to summer, and the hills were bursting with life. Butterflies swirled with the winds, the little girl ran about noisily chasing after the colourful flutterings. Ye Chui had to keep reminding her not to run too far away. At this time, sightseers out to enjoy the last spring air was quite numerous, who knows if they would meet any more suspicious fatties out to kidnap innocent little girls…

He, Lin Wei and An Jing walked steadily from behind Shiyu. The sun was bright and enchanting. As they breathed in the sharp mountain air, they could feel the quiet beauty surrounding them. However, this quiet, happy atmosphere was soon ruined by the appearance of a Sticky Shoe [1] called Zhao Hongyu.

“An Jing, let me help you carry your bags. I’m pretty strong,” clearly approaching An Jing with suspicious intentions (in Ye Chui’s opinion).

Ye Chui’s response was to hand over his own bag. “Strong guy, eh? Thanks, ah.”

Zhao Hongyu, “… I didn’t say I’ll carry anything for you,”

After a while, Zhao Hongyu , the irrepressible brat, said to An Jing. “An Jing, let me tell you a joke. It’s really funny…”

“Ha ha ha ha ha!” Ye Chui interrupted him. “That’s really funny! Not bad, not bad,”

Zhao Hongyu, “… I haven’t say it yet.”

“An Jing, are you thirsty? I brought drinks.” Seeing the sweat on An Jing’s face, Zhao Hongyu rushed to take out canned drink.

Ye Chui shamelessly extended his hand and grabbed it over, popped the lid and ‘gulu gulu’ finished it in one go. Once the drink was gone, he turned to Hongyu, “This is actually not bad, do you have any more?”

Zhao Hongyu, “… no more,”

It’s obvious that this kid had been pushed by Ye Chui to the edge of his tolerance. Right now, he’s probably imagining himself as a Main Male Character in a TV drama or movie. As for Ye Chui, he’s clearly the No. 1 Villain obstructing the path of love between the Male Character and the Female Character. His face was red with suppressed rage. Just as he was about to spectacularly explode, Little Wang Shiyu suddenly reached out and tugged at his shirt.

When he looked down, the expression in Little Wang Shiyu eyes made him curious enough that he allowed himself to be led to the side to hear what she has to say.

“Little Rain, at the bus just now, why did it seem like you don’t have a good eye for people?” He had noticed this earlier and was just a little distrustful of her intentions.

Wang Shiyu gave him wide eyed look, glowing with innocence and puzzlement. “I am a little girl, so I don’t know what ‘having a good eye’ means.”

“…” Zhao Hongyu also has similar thought. Perhaps his expectation that this little girl could help him in his quest to woo the girl he liked was too high, although he did have a nagging feeling somewhere that what Wang Shiyu just said was just a little too fishy.

Looking at Wang Shiyu, he decided to go straight to the point. “Do you have a reason for pulling me out here?”

“That’s right, that’s right! I just thought of a way for you to make a good impression on big sister.” Wang Shiyu raised her cute face as she said this.

Zhao Hongyu’s eyes sparkled, “Is that so, I understand!”

Following this consultation, the Sticky Shoe immediately called over a few of his trusty comrades. “You guys help me to catch some butterflies. The prettier the better, as many as you can. After this, I’ll treat you guys to a big feast!”

This Zhao Hongyu enjoyed a certain amount of fame at school. When they heard about the ‘big feast’ lure, a whole lot of people roared their support. After that a whole herd of boys were seen chasing after butterflies all up and down the pathway. Little Wang Shiyu was all smiles at this beautiful sight…

Ye Chui, Lin Wei and An Jing could finally enjoy themselves in a leisurely way.

It was closed to midday when the sightseeing students reached the peak. The top was actually a flat space, covered with lush green grass and blooming flowers. The very best part about this hill was that it actually has a little brook that bubbled and spilled over into several little pools. A glance into the clear waters and one could see fat tender fishes floating in the depths, large prawns peeping from behind rocks and crabs buried in the sand at the edges. These fishes, prawns and crabs were all placed there by workers who looked after this place.

The most plentiful type of fish species has to be the cruician carp[2], followed by regular carps and breams, as well as a mixed bag of other types of fish. The types of prawns found here is naturally the river prawns, all fresh, fat and tender. Crabs were found in every pool, hidden in the sand or tucked away between the grasses. Each were as large as a man’s palm. Customers may catch as many aquatic creatures as they like.

Because of the Vegetarian Movement, even though sea creatures were now considered safe to eat, people were still hesitant due to their appearance. This mountain top with its brook and pools filled with especially bred fish, prawns and crabs could be considered as one of the government projects to encourage the eating of meat. Ma Lan Mountain is advertised as a scenic spot with the added attraction of catching your own meal for a mountain top picnic.

[Translator’s note: Ooh, I want to do this! How cool is this?]

However, what’s the best way to prepare fish, prawns and crabs in order to bring out their best flavour was still a question that gourmets around the world had been investigating and experimenting in this world. Trying to use crude tools to cook a barbecue…or more like to be able to eat grilled fish, grilled prawns, or grilled crabs, would not be easy.

Of course, for Ye Chui, this posed no problem at all.

“So many fishes, ah, and large prawns, crabs! Ye Chui, Ye Chui, let’s start as soon as possible.” Lin Wei, this foodie, has entered into a state of excitement. Both hands having latched onto Ye Chui’s arm and shaking him non-stop.

Ye Chui looked at Lin Wei’s charming, dewey little face. “What are we starting?”

“Meanie!” Lin Wei rolled her eyes, then gave the lazily floating fishes another glance. “How do we catch the fish, ah, and the prawns and crabs?”

“There should be a place that sells fishing tools nearby.” Ye Chui gave the clearing a quick look around, and soon spotted a simple looking shop not far away. Before coming up the mountain, Ye Chui already looked up details on Ma Lan Mountain in a tourist handbook, and knew that the shop also sold fishing equipment in addition to snacks and drinks. Leaving Lin Wei and An Jing to wait outside, he quickly went into the shop and bought fishing poles, nets, bait and a bucket for their expedition.

Even now, there were other sightseers who were happily fishing at various pools, scooping up prawns and catching crabs. However, the number of people coming up to enjoy the scenery far outstrips those who came for the fishing. Clearly this activity was not a very popular one.

Ye Chui found a quiet spot and gave both An Jing and Lin Wei a mission, “I’m going to just fish here. An Jing and Wei Wei, the two of you go and catch some crabs and prawns near the pool side. Be careful not to fall into the water. As for Little Rain…where’s Little Rain?”

Ye Chui hurriedly looked around for a glimpse of their little lolita, and just happened to see Zaho Hongyu running and his group of friends a little distance away running about chasing after butterflies. Little Wang Shiyu was standing among them with her hands on her hips, obviously the one in command.

“Quickly, quickly, that butterfly almost escape…aiya, why are you so dumb, ah, so dumb and you still want to chase after sister…”

Seeing this performance before them, Ye Chui, Lin Wei and An Jing became speechless. Deep in his heart, Ye Chui gave Wang Shiyu a commendation…no, this deserves at least 32 commendations. This peculiar little kid not only managed to help them get rid of an unwanted sticky person, but at the same time she managed to recruit a whole herd of boys to catch butterflies for her. No need to compare her with other small children, even most adults couldn’t pull off tricks like this.

Ye Chui quickly landed a fish. It’s a fat and tender cruician carp, just a little more than half a jin (5oo g). Ye Chui quickly cleaned and gutted the fish in the clear pond water. Then he started a charcoal fire in a brazier — The little shop also sold charcoal. As for the rest of the barbecue tools, they were all personally prepared by Ye Chui himself. From his backpack came all kinds of seasoning in their own little packages. Pickled chillies[3], peppers, chive sauce[4], dried chillies, salt, msg etc. He stuffed the belly of the fish with these seasoning, stabbed it with a toasting fork, and started to slowly roast the fish over the charcoal fire.

Anyone could roast a fish. However, to achieve an even heat through the cooking process, ensuring and even char while maintaining the meat’s tenderness was where true skills came into play. There was no need to question Ye Chui’s skills, it wasn’t long before the fragrance of grilled fish started to waft about.

Meanwhile, a tired and sweaty Zhao Hongyu approached Wang Shiyu with a large plastic bottle filled with butterflies. The bottle originally contained snacks, but now over 10 gorgeously coloured butterflies fluttered about in it. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and handed the bottle over to Little Wang Shiyu. “These should be enough, ba. Little Rain, please quickly give these to your sister and say that I especially got them for her.”

Wang Shiyu happily accepted the bottle. When she heard what Zhao Hongyu said, she raised her head curiously, and innocently asked. “Why must I take these to big sister?”

“Didn’t you say An Jing likes butterflies?” Zhao Hongyu asked uncertainly.

“When did I say this? Just now meant that if you catch butterflies for me, I’ll be really, really happy. If big sis sees that I’m really, really happy, she’ll also be really, really happy.” Wang Shiyu’s face was really, really earnest as she continued to explain.

“Ah, but big sis really don’t like butterflies. She really, really hates people who catches butterflies the most. If she sees butterflies stuck in a bottle, she really, really wants to let them go.”

“… …”

Zhao Hongyu was completely stunned. His face was all 0.0.

Just now, the reason he had led a group of boys to catch butterflies was to butter up this silly little girl? Had they all been tricked by a little girl?

Anger was about to explode from Zhao Hongyu, when just then a wonderful aroma wafted over. Nearly everyone on the summit had their noses in the air, sniffing around, unable to help themselves as they sighed dreamily.

“Just what is this fragrance? It’s so yummy…”

PS from Author: The recipe Ye Chui uses for this grilled fish is called Hot and Fragrant Grilled Fish (Xiang La Kao Yu). The author recommends everyone to try it!

[1] A pun for tong xue (student) and tong xie (same shoe), didn’t sound quite right in context, so became Sticky Shoe…

[2] Cruician carp

[3] Pickled Chillies

[4] Chive sauce

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