Little Cooking Saint – 0309 – Fragrant Dew Rice (e)

Chapter 309 – Fragrant Dew Rice aka Flower Dew Rice (e)

Translated by Gumihou

Edited by Gumihou

 

Day	Novel	Chapter update per week
Monday	Higher Level Wife	2 chapters
Tuesday & Thursday	Tondemo Skill de Isekai Hourou Meshi	2+1 chapter per day 2+2 if there’s a 1000> bonus
Wednesday & Friday	Little Cooking Saint	1 chapter per day
Saturday	New Japanese novel*	To start in February
Sunday	Do other stuff day, like my original novel, ahem.

 

Compared to the hearty meals served by the cooks, the thing that everyone looked forward to most was the rice that was still cooking on the fire.

Indeed, today’s rice was a little special. Instead of regular water, Shiyu had used flower dew collected from the flower field behind them to cook the rice.

The flowers blooming in the field were all medicinal flowers. Therefore, the dew collected from them were different from ordinary dew.

Speaking of which, this was Shiyu’s first attempt at making Fragrant Dew Rice.

The Fragrant Dew Rice was something she accidentally saw when she casually flipped through books on ancient recipes in the past. These recipes were usually passed down orally from master to disciple and, even then, the descriptions were often very vague. In fact, the book she saw mostly gave vague hints of exquisite dishes served in the ancient past.

In her previous life, not only was life very hectic and fast pace but some ingredients were just too difficult to procure. Things like natural flower dew, for example, is difficult to collect. Even if one manages to collect it, with the amount of dust and pollution in the air, it is likely that no one would dare to drink it.

Fortunately, in this time and space with the emphasis on Cultivation, humans are more in tune with nature. Now that she has a much longer lifespan, though, of course, she wanted to get stronger faster, it did not mean that she would refuse the opportunity to slow down and enjoy life’s little pleasures.

Since the amount of dew was relatively small, the amount of rice cooked in dew was small too. After portioning out one bowl per person, the whole pot of rice was gone.

“If you’re not full, just eat side dishes,” said Shiyu.

Liu Eleven stared at the bowl of rice in front of him with its thin curling steam. The misty scent of flowers rushed to his nose when he inhaled.

The scent of flowers was very faint and did not overpower the rice at all. It felt as though the rice had been wrapped in flower buds and steamed together.

After breathing in the wonderful scent, Liu Eleven impatiently tasted the rice.

If he had to describe the flavour, there was really nothing too unique about it. He could only say that it has a much higher impact on his Spiritual consciousness.

After all, no matter how fancily one cook rice, it could not become meat.

To Shiyu, this was just lunch was just an ordinary meal. However, for the newcomer, he felt a little flattered to be treated to such a lavish meal.

Though he could not understand why the previous guy had left such a good position where the monthly salary was not only better than most restaurants, the owner was even generous enough to give them such good food for their meals.

Still, since he’s still new, it’s better to ask fewer questions.

This meal was meant for everyone to get to know each other. After lunch, everyone should understand their duties and go off to tend to their individual matters.

Liu Eleven and Ling Xiaoxiao went out to play again, leaving only Shiyu to house sit. She spent the time sifting through the rumours and gossips collected by Gan Ping these past few days.

Since most of the stories from the mountains are passed on through word of mouth, the version they get at the end tended to be more dramatic as people like to embellish the stories they had heard.

Because of this, Shiyu had to study the stories carefully and discern the truth from the embellishments and work out the fact behind the rumours.

Fortunately, no matter how dramatic the stories, in the end, the inner workings of a story remained the same. [1]

Shiyu poured herself a cup of black tea, sat down on a bamboo chair and studied these stories carefully. After she was done reading one, she placed the volume on the shelf and reached for the next one.

The light of the afternoon sun filtering through the leaves overhead was not particularly bright but gave off a leisurely feeling.

Before they knew it, as the temperature rose with the afternoon sun, their customers also increased.

Just then, a customer was narrating a story to [2] Gan Ping. The details of the tale caught her attention.

[2] “…this couple had a very seriously ill daughter and brought her to a large city to seek treatment. There, they were told by the doctor that the little girl’s illness could only be cured with special immortal medicinal herbs. Unfortunately, the herb needed costs a lot of money. The couple took out all they own but it was not enough to buy even a fraction of what was needed.

[2] In despair, the couple sought help from some good-hearted citizens and begged them for assistance. And… would you know it? The citizens were so moved by this little girl’s plight that, in addition to donating what they can, they spread her story throughout the city and begged the help of their friends and family, collecting the million silver taels required to buy the herbs needed to cure the little girl.

[2] The story should have ended here, with the cure of the little girl and much rejoicement from her family and the people who had contributed their help. Unfortunately, greed took hold of the parents’ hearts and, instead of purchasing the necessary herbs to cure her, they bought the cheapest of precious herbs to prolong their daughter’s miserable life to extract more silver from the people around them.

[2] Unfortunately, the girl’s body was too weak. The precious herb used on her body was not potent enough and eventually, she passed away. As for the parents, they returned to their original hometown after burying the girl in a tomb by the city…”

The story attracted a lot of attention. More and more customers gather around to listen to this sad tale.

Some of the more temperamental customers slapped a hand on the table and exclaimed, “Those parents are too black-hearted! How could they treat their own flesh and blood this way? The child is dead and they walked away with a whole pile of silver taels for no reason. Too hateful, ah.”

“With this kind of people around, it would be very difficult for people to do good in the future,” murmured someone.

Beside the narrator, Gan Ping was busily recording the story. He could not help but speak up, “There should be a follow up to this story,” He had not forgotten what his true purpose was. [3] No matter how interesting the story, his purpose was to collect them as well as any follow-ups behind the story.

The old farmer, the narrator of this story, enjoyed the curious eyes of the people hanging upon his words took a leisurely sip of his tea before continuing.

“Of course, there is a follow-up. The Heavens are just, though its net might be loose, people who committed evil cannot escape it. After the couple left, they carried with them huge amounts of silver. However, they were so worried that their very worry became the thing that attracted the attention of bandits. The next I heard, all three members of the remaining family, the parents and their remaining son were killed at an inn and all the money they carried with them disappeared.”

The people around the farmer sighed.

One must admit, this sudden stroke of fortune might not be such a fortunate thing after all.

If the couple had spent the money on treating the daughter, there might be a different ending altogether.

However, there are too many what-ifs in this world. Everyone should be responsible for their own fate. What the parents had suffered was well-deserved karma.

[2] Shiyu paused in her readings. This story… such a familiar story. To think the matter that had happened just a few months ago would have such an ending. Who knows where the poor little girl’s soul is now? [4] She sighed and closed her eyes.

[4] Then again, she thought, for news from Eastern Empire to reach all the way here… Surely she had made the right choice to camp on this spot?

Opening her eyes, Shiyu’s gaze fell upon the teahouse opposite them.

It has already been a few days, yet no one from the other side had come to pay a visit. The one on the other side must be very cautious.

Could it be that she must also grab all their business before the people behind that teahouse would show themselves?

She tapped her fingers on the table and thought, well, the other side might have all the time in the world but she doesn’t. Somehow, she must force that person out.

If that’s the case, then she could only take the initiative to attack.

 

[Gumihou: Gumi is getting a lot of ‘CLUE HERE’ signals in blinking neon lights. It’s rather insulting. Also, there’s a specific line in the chapter that revealed Shiyu’s lower middle-class thoughts, which makes all her ‘elegant’ actions seems even more pretentious in contrast]

 

We now have Glossaries for Character, Cultivation Terms, Clan Names, Restaurants & Places

 

[1] That’s… not exactly how you find truth from rumours but whatever. It’s not like Shiyu is particularly good at critical thinking.

[2] Added Details for Dramatic Purpose: It was plain ‘author desperate to let people know certain things’, fixed it so that it’s more subtle. Also, did not immediately reveal that ‘Shiyu was very familiar with the story’ right off the bat.

Gumi also reworked the story so that it’s more fairy-tale like and less ‘author desperate to let you know, like, omg’.

[3] Added Details for Logistic Purpose: Author did not supply the ‘true purpose’ behind Gan Ping’s collection of stories in relation to his dialogue. So Gumi obliged.

[4] Why the 不過?

There’s really no reason to use ‘however’ in this instance. Gumi has to add a whole lot more stuff to justify the second ‘on the other hand’ type of vocab.

 

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