Chapter 327 – Fragrant Noodles (h)
Translated by Gumihou
Edited by Gumihou
Gumihou: … the amount of cringe is…
After she reached the end of the letter, Shiyu felt a lot more relaxed.
So the two of them are fine.
As for the person who had specially come to send this letter, she made sure to memorise his face.
“It’s about time, I should take a look at the noodles.”
The noodles that had just been kneaded had been drying in the sun for about a quarter of an hour now. Because the noodles are very thin [1] the water within the noodles evaporated very quickly after a short amount of time.
Also, because it had been placed by the flower field, the fragrance of flowers [2] and pollen had adhered itself onto the noodles. When Shiyu collected the noodles, she could smell the faintest scent of medicine on them.
Now that the noodles have been sundried [3], they were dry and hard to touch. A little strength is enough to break it.
Next, it was time to cook the noodles.
Noodles are very simple to make, all one has to do is cook them in salt and water and the world’s simplest dish would be done.
The water had to be boiling hot before the noodles are added. As soon as the noodles touched the boiling water they would soften.
Once the noodles could be stirred easily with chopsticks and looked like floating grasses in the water, Shiyu quickly fished them out of the boiling water and set them aside to dry [4].
The cooking time for noodles cannot be too long or too short. If cooked too long, the noodles would be too soft, if too short they would be too hard. However, compared to the 10 seconds needed to decide on the victory or defeat of the Double Crisp, the margin of error for noodles could be considered relatively generous. [5]
Shiyu preferred spicy flavour. Thus, while the noodles were drying [5], she poured out all the water from the pot and added onion, garlic and ginger and fried herself a small pot of chilli oil [6].
The noodles were almost ready by this point. Once she placed the noodles on the plate and the red chilli oil was poured over. The once spotlessly white noodles were immediately stained with a layer of sauce that made one’s fingers twitch to try it.
At the same time, a hot white mist, along with the aroma of the noodles floated up. The spicy scent of the chilli oil along with the scallion and garlic were particularly attractive.
It was relatively easy for her to make this. Quickly Shiyu grabbed Fat Cat out and urged, “Go on, try it quickly!”
She couldn’t wait to blow past all these levels!
After popping out of the Saint’s Dwelling, Fat Cat approached the bowl of noodles but did not eat it. Instead, he slowly walked towards the cooling plate of plain sumien [7] instead.
Fat Cat clawed out one piece of noodle and tasted it, his whiskers twitching. “The flavour is ordinary, the texture is moderate, heat control is acceptable. It should be considered a pass.”
Shiyu was not at all discouraged. “If the flavour is lacking, it must be because I haven’t added salt. [8]” She quickly boiled another pot of water, added salt and boiled the sumien in the saltwater. Now that the sumien has been boiled in saltwater, the flavour broke through like a butterfly bursting from a cocoon.
Sometimes, seasonings are like bridges, just a little sprinkled at the right time and the right amount would be like crossing the gap between heaven and hell.
“This is yours,” Shiyu pushed the bowl of noodles to Fat Cat.
This time, Fat Cat did not disdain it as much. It ate it in small bites.
Qing Chen was also not used to heavy flavours and ate the same thing as Fat Cat. For the rest, they all enjoyed the spicy food, especially now that they were in the middle of winter. Eating something spicy was always a good way to keep the cold away.
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Elsewhere, Jin Ming had returned to his residence. He twisted his neck and stretched his body.
When the Grand Elder left, he looked around at his followers who were all hanging upon his word and said, “That surname Shi from Eastern Empire… I remember we have someone at the Central Trading House with the same last name. Go and investigate this.”
He had never paid much attention to that fellow, however, he had once heard that the man was from Eastern Empire.
It was quite rare to meet people from such a faraway place, which was why he had taken note of the man. When coupled with the fact that these two Eastern Empire people shared the same surname… well, it’s fine to investigate the matter a little more. It’s always good to be more cautious.
Better to kill by mistake than to let an enemy escape.
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As for what Jin Ming was thinking, Shiyu did not care at all. After a few days of waiting, an invitation from the Rainbow Sparrows she had been waiting for finally arrived.
They invited Shiyu to come to Spiritual Beast Mountain Range and the one who brought the message was Que’er, who had been locked up and then released.
Shiyu did not hesitate. Nor did she put on airs but went directly to Spiritual Beast Mountain Range.
On the way, the three Panda Brothers informed Shiyu why the Rainbow Sparrows had waited three days before contacting her.
On the day that Shiyu left, the Rainbow Sparrows wanted to have nothing to do with humans and never gave any thought to Shiyu’s offer to work together.
However, while they did not wish to cause trouble, it did not prevent others from making trouble.
In short, the Rainbow Sparrow clan was beaten up.
The group that beat them up was none other than the Golden Venomous Bee clan who had poisoned Que’er’s grandfather.
“Are the Golden Venomous Bees really that powerful?” asked Shiyu.
“Not really, about the same as the Rainbow Sparrows, only two Divine Transformation masters in command.”
Since the strength of both clans was equal, the Rainbow Sparrows did not suffer too many casualties. However, a lot of them had been injured or poisoned.
The injured could eventually recover, but the poisoned members were in a slightly more awkward situation. [9a]
Que’er’s grandfather had been poisoned for many years before he was finally cured by a human.
Now that dozens, perhaps even hundreds of clan members had been poisoned, they could think of no way to solve the problem themselves. In the end, after much thought, they concluded that there was only one solution to their plight. [9b]
They reconsidered the possibility of negotiating terms with Shiyu
and let Que’er out of her cage.
When Shiyu heard this, she had to snicker. Looks like even God is on her side, ah.
Once they arrived at the Rainbow Sparrow’s territory, Shiyu noticed that they looked a bit worse off than before. Some of them were even looking at her with a hint of hope in their eyes.
Sometimes, life could take a dramatic and dizzying dive for no reason.
After entering their territory, Shiyu found herself warmly received by the senior members of the Rainbow Sparrow clan and were invited to participate in their banquet.
Shiyu did not reject their invitation and went with them. The venue of the banquet was set in a place surrounded by swaying bamboo. A gentle breeze blew in the air, birds sang and the flowers bloomed fragrantly. It was nothing like the human world. Privately, she felt that her understanding of these bunch of Spiritual Beasts had grown just a little deeper.
She sat down and found that the table was covered in all kinds of fruits and nuts. From the smallest pine nuts to the largest watermelons and dozens of varieties in between were there.
A little touched, she ate a few slices of melon before saying, “Everyone, surely you haven’t invited me here just for tea and fruits, right? If there’s anything to say, we should say it straight. We humans have a saying, ‘Even if a business falls through, there will be no hard feelings.’ So there’s no need to be so wary.”
As soon as Shiyu mentioned this, the heads of those seated at the high table twisted around to look at each other. Finally, the one seated at the most honourable position opened their mouth to say, “Little friend… didn’t you mention that you wish to speak to us about something? We old man have discussed the matter and felt that this business has some cooperative potential.”
“Oh? Is that so? After waiting for so many days I thought you guys have decided not to cooperate. I was on the verge of finding a different feathered beast clan.
When they heard this, they quickly shook their heads and waved their hands at her, “No such thing, no such thing, it just took us a little time to think.”
“So it’s like that,” Shiyu did not bother to expose their lies. “If that’s the case, let’s go straight to the point.”
[Gumihou: … … I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I don’t know why but I feel like I have to say… I’m so sorry…I’m so sorry…]
We now have Glossaries for Character, Cultivation Terms, Clan Names, Restaurants & Places
[1] …even so, 15 min is… you might as well not hang it out. Also, shouldn’t your conversation and stare off with that Jin Ming character stretch the time beyond 15 min?
[2] This is the real reason why you’d even bother to hang it out, isn’t it?
[3] for the whole of 15 min.
[4] … wait, set the boiled noodles on the side to DRY? Are you making LUMP NOODLES? If your raw noodles are really so thin that they dried into stiffness within 15 min, it would turn into a LUMP in, like, 5 seconds!!!!!
[5] …wh-what is this nonsense?!!? You carefully cooked the noodles only to set them aside to turn into a LUMP!!!
[6] …frying herself some chilli oil with neither oil nor chilli…
[7] …okay, the reason why it’s SUMIEN (or somen, it’s the same thing) here, it’s because this is the first time it was Ever Mentioned. Although Gumi already had some suspicion when the noodles were set out to dry. Although it generally takes 1.5 to 2 days to dry, not 15 min if made from scratch, by hand.
Listen NO ONE makes sumien by hand now. Because it’s difficult. It would certainly be impossible for Shi-I-can-certainly-make-some-of-the-simplest-noodles-yu. It’s mostly machine-made now.
If ‘sumien’ is cheap and easy to cook, that’s all thanks to MACHINES. MACHINE made sumien is cheap! As cheap or cheaper than the cheapest pasta noodles.
[8] …if you made the ‘sumien’ according to the proper steps, the noodle itself would have contained enough salt to flavour the soup, let alone when served plain fresh off boiling water (salted or no)
[9] Okay, TWO glaring plot holes.
[a] Why, in all these years, if the clan is on equal footing, did the Venomous Bee Clan not fight and poison these stupid Rainbow Sparrows earlier?
[b] Why, are these bird brain idiots still alive if they are so stupid?
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Have a Grilled Rice Ball
Cooking St – 328 – Steamed Pork with Rice Flour (a)
Grilled Intestines are Yummy!
Cooking St – 329 – Steamed Pork with Rice Flour (b)
A Bucket of Crawdads
Cooking St – 330 – Steamed Pork with Rice Flour (c)
Cooking St – 331 – Steamed Pork with Rice Flour (d)
Grilled Matsutake
Cooking St – 332 – Steamed Pork with Rice Flour (e)
Cooking St – 333 – Steamed Pork with Rice Flour (f)
Cooking St – 334 – Steamed Pork with Rice Flour (g)
Cooking St – 335 – Steamed Pork with Rice Flour (h)
Cooking St – 336 – Steamed Pork with Rice Flour (i)
໒( ́ ́ )७
“She did she put on airs but went directly to Spiritual Beast Mountain Range.” >> “Nor did she put on airs” or “She did not put on airs”
.
…at least, I assume she did not put on airs…unless Dracula-Shiyu popped out again…
Dracula-Shiyu: “Let us now enter the lair of the Bird-Beasts! Their misfortune shall be our pleasure!”
Eh…: ::shudder::
‘Nor did she put on airs’
Because the great and awesome Shiyu is also humble, down to earth, supports LGBTQ, war orphans and downtrodden creatures.
Pray to the Divine Shiyu! Praise Shiyu!
Ha, ha, as said in past chapters, the author writes web novel WN chapters to make Shiyu look good and the logic may suffer. It’s the light novel LN chapters that should have these problems corrected first by the author and then the editor before publishing.
I guess noodles are removed from drying racks before totally dry and then folded into bundles before final drying followed by packaging for sale.
Noodles drying in the sun: https archive.ph/99eu9
15 min is too short a time for anything but dragon beard noodles, lol