Chapter 87: Love You Most
Xian Niao and the others were simply too impressive. When they picked mushrooms, they picked them with perfect accuracy.
Ying Kongtu rolled up his sleeves and said, “This won’t do. We’re definitely going to lose like this.”
Wen Zhongshan gave him a puzzled look.
Ying Kongtu took off the back basket and stuffed it into his hands. “You hold this. I’ll release my wings.”
Ying Kongtu quickly released the enormous wings formed from divine power, and the color of his eyes also became deeper and more shadowed.
He had borrowed the “eagle” ability.
Carrying a basket, Ying Kongtu said eagerly to Wen Zhongshan, “I’ll fly slowly above the forest. If I see mushrooms, I’ll call you. Hurry over and pick them.”
Wen Zhongshan looked back and said softly with a smile, “If Tiaozhu and the others see this, they’ll protest.”
“It’s fine. We’re picking mushrooms by our own ability.” Ying Kongtu walked in place, found the airflow, and flew up with a beat of his wings. “Hurry, or we’re going to lose.”
When they walked through the forest trying to find mushrooms, it was easy for miscellaneous debris to block their view, or for the mushrooms to be buried among fallen leaves of similar colors. But once he flew into the sky and looked down from above, finding mushrooms became much clearer.
“Wen Zhongshan, over here—”
“There are some here too. A huge clump!”
“Green russulas! Check under the leaves. Is there a whole patch of green russulas there?”
Ying Kongtu flew above and directed him, while Wen Zhongshan followed his instructions to pick mushrooms. Every spot was accurate.
The two worked together with perfect tacit understanding. In no time, the basket was almost full, and they had to put some into the back basket.
Ying Kongtu’s figure flying in the sky with his wings spread was extremely conspicuous. The furry ones also discovered him and chased after him, crying “awo awo” below in protest.
“This doesn’t count as cheating. This is my ability.” Ying Kongtu said with a smile, “Shuangzhong can fly too. Why don’t you say it’s cheating?”
Shuangzhong protested even louder. “Kiki!”
Dart looked at Ying Kongtu with great curiosity. While the other furry ones were busy protesting, it walked forward, raised its head, and looked for a long while. Suddenly, it jumped and hooked its claws onto Ying Kongtu’s pants while he was flying low, standing on the ground only with its hind legs.
Last time, Ying Kongtu had almost had his pants pulled down by it. This time, it tugged at him again.
He lowered his head and met the eyes of this big fat orange tabby. Dart’s round eyes looked at him curiously, and it even meowed.
Suddenly, Ying Kongtu became interested. He abruptly scooped up Dart, held it in his arms, and quickly flew upward with a beat of his wings.
“Meow-ao!” Dart cried out in terror, and all the long fur on its body puffed up at once.
Seeing it turn into a sea urchin, Ying Kongtu’s smile deepened. He held it and circled above the treetops once, just about to put it down.
Dart came back to its senses, lowered its head to look at the forest, and meowed in astonishment.
When Ying Kongtu was about to put it down, it loudly meowed at him several times, clearly wanting to fly again.
Ying Kongtu had no choice but to take it flying two more circles.
Since he had already taken Dart flying, Tiaozhu wanted a turn too. It directly squatted on the ground and looked up at Ying Kongtu, even standing on its hind legs with its two front paws hooked in front of its chest, waiting for Ying Kongtu to come and hold it.
Ying Kongtu had no choice but to treat everyone fairly and also picked up Tiaozhu to fly two circles. Tiaozhu’s body was full of firm muscle. It felt warm and springy to hold, and its ears were extremely cute. Ying Kongtu secretly inhaled it a little.
Next was Jingwei.
Jingwei was still manageable. It was just the size of a large wolf, and with Ying Kongtu’s strength, holding it was not particularly difficult. He could even play with its wolf paws.
It was also frightened for a while, then looked at everything below with amazement. Its paws even moved unconsciously, gently paddling as if it were swimming.
“Awoo—” Jingwei gave a long cry and could not help turning its head to lick Ying Kongtu’s face.
“All right.” Ying Kongtu smiled and turned his head away, carrying Jingwei to fly another circle. “Happy now?”
Only Xian Niao remained.
Ying Kongtu stood on the ground and clapped his hands toward Xian Niao. “Xian Niao, it’s your turn.”
Xian Niao slightly lifted its right front paw and tilted its head, somewhat hesitant. “Awo?”
“It’s fine. Come on.” Ying Kongtu opened his arms with a smile. “I’ll take you flying. I won’t drop you. I can even lift Wen Zhongshan.”
So Xian Niao also walked forward.
Ying Kongtu gathered it into his arms and flew straight up.
Xian Niao was a bit heavy, but still acceptable. When they flew, its long fur billowed up, looking incredibly cool. Unlike Jingwei, its soft long fur carried a faint scent of plants and trees, which smelled very pleasant.
Ying Kongtu could not help secretly inhaling the wolf too.
Xian Niao’s fur felt far too good, so Ying Kongtu seized the chance to rub it a couple more times. Xian Niao did not mind at all. It only turned its head and looked at him with gentle eyes.
After flying two circles with Xian Niao in his arms, Ying Kongtu placed it on the ground and was just about to rest.
Shuangzhong also walked over, half-raising its wings and looking at Ying Kongtu excitedly.
“You’re a golden eagle. You can fly!” Ying Kongtu looked at Shuangzhong.
“Jiu jiu.” Shuangzhong looked at Ying Kongtu pitifully, making another sound in its throat. “Gu gu.”
Ying Kongtu was melted by how adorable it was and surrendered. He picked up Shuangzhong. “Fine, fine. We’ll fly.”
Shuangzhong curled up in Ying Kongtu’s arms, experiencing the feeling of not needing to fly itself. Its expression was very smug. “Kiki.”
Ying Kongtu also flew two circles while holding Shuangzhong, then put it down, landed on the ground, and opened his arms toward Wen Zhongshan, indicating that it was Wen Zhongshan’s turn.
Wen Zhongshan could not help laughing.
Ying Kongtu simply walked forward, picked him up directly, found the airflow, and flew up with flapping wings. Compared with the first time he took him flying, Ying Kongtu had now found the balance point, so he flew much better.
Wen Zhongshan held Ying Kongtu’s neck and said softly, “You really don’t have to.”
“I love you most, so of course I have to take you flying.” Ying Kongtu held his waist, quickly kissed his face, and said with a smile, “It’s fine. We’ll fly for a little while.”
Ying Kongtu carried Wen Zhongshan and flew three circles. The furry ones ran below, but none of them protested.
“All right.” Ying Kongtu greeted them while slightly out of breath. “Let’s go back. We’ll stop picking here for today.”
They brought seven large baskets of mushrooms down, and Ying Kongtu and Wen Zhongshan’s back baskets also held some.
When so many mushrooms were poured into basins, Ying Kongtu glanced at them and said with a headache, “Let’s buy a bubble vegetable washer.”
“Buy it.” Wen Zhongshan gently pushed him. “Didn’t you say you wanted to make mushroom soup hotpot? You prepare the ingredients. I’ll wash them.”
“I’ll wash with you for a while first, then make it later.”
Ying Kongtu had ordered a free-range chicken. After cleaning it, he placed it into a clay pot to stew, preparing to use it for cooking mushroom hotpot.
In order to make a divided hotpot, he also specially chopped off a large section of the cured ribs hanging in the kitchen. After washing them with warm water, he boiled them briefly to remove the excess salt, then also placed them into a clay pot to simmer into soup.
It was perfect for hotpot. Once it was cooked, Tiaozhu and the others could also eat it.
They would just pair it with dipping sauces according to everyone’s own tastes and preferences.
After the soup was set to simmer, Ying Kongtu hummed a song and went to mix the dipping sauces.
He and Wen Zhongshan liked sour-spicy dipping sauce, with minced scallions, mashed garlic, cilantro, bird’s eye chili, beef sauce, oyster sauce, soy sauce, mountain raspberry vinegar, and so on. The resulting sauce was both sour and fragrant.
Tiaozhu, Xian Niao, and Shuangzhong ate the same kind of dipping sauce as them, but theirs had to have slightly less salt. Tiaozhu’s sauce had reduced spiciness, Shuangzhong’s sauce was made extra spicy, and Xian Niao’s sauce kept the same level of heat.
As for Dart and Jingwei, plenty of beef cubes in the dipping sauce would be enough.
The fragrance from the clay pots gradually drifted out. The pots bubbled and simmered, the kitchen full of steam, and the meaty aroma was extremely rich.
Ying Kongtu picked out the mushrooms that were to be cooked in the soup.
Among today’s mushrooms, green russulas, chanterelles, big red mushrooms, milk-cap mushrooms, coral fungi, and the like were all suitable for soup. They could add more of those into the hotpot.
Other mushrooms were suitable for stir-frying, so they could add fewer of them to the hotpot.
He evenly divided the mushrooms into the two clay pots and only waited for them to cook through before pouring them into the divided hotpot as soup bases.
While the mushrooms cooked in the pots, Ying Kongtu and Wen Zhongshan chatted outside.
The mushrooms in the pots grew more and more fragrant, and their voices as they chatted outside grew quieter and quieter.
At some point in their conversation, the two fell into a suspicious pause, neither knowing what they had been talking about.
Immediately after, they realized it, looked at each other, and could not help laughing at the same time.
“Honestly—” Ying Kongtu said with a smile, “It’s way too fragrant. So fragrant that people don’t even feel like chatting anymore.”
“Can we eat it?”
“It should be fine. Let’s go take a look. In any case, we won’t get poisoned from eating mushrooms, so it’s not a big problem.”
They really could not keep chatting on this day. The two simply stood up and went to check the soup in the clay pots.
Tiaozhu and the others also all stood up with them.
Ying Kongtu used a cloth as padding and lifted the pot lid.
The fragrance of mushroom soup inside rose up with the steam all at once.
Not only Ying Kongtu and Wen Zhongshan, but the little fellows also smelled it.
Dart and Jingwei especially had two trails of drool hanging from the corners of their mouths with a swish, almost dripping onto the ground.
“We can eat.” Ying Kongtu turned to look at them and announced, “Ladle the soup.”
“Awoo—” Jingwei could not hold back. It jumped high in place and ran to the living room to carry its food bowl.
Dart’s feet slipped as it rapidly pattered after it.
Ying Kongtu had only just stirred the soup base when Jingwei and Dart returned with their food bowls in their mouths, obediently sitting in front of the doorway.
“You two are exaggerating.” Ying Kongtu waved his hand. “Go back, go back. You can only eat after the soup cools a little. I’ll carry it out and pour it for you.”
Jingwei and Dart refused to leave. They held their bowls in their mouths, eyes shining as they sat at the kitchen doorway.
Ying Kongtu brought out his ultimate weapon and turned his head to call, “Xian Niao!”
Xian Niao was right beside them. Hearing the call, it walked to Jingwei and Dart’s side. “Awoo.”
The two little ones were unwilling, dragging their feet in place.
Xian Niao looked at them with authority. After dawdling for quite a while, they could only hold their food bowls and stand up, continuing to wait outside.
Shuangzhong and Tiaozhu were still there.
Shuangzhong eagerly poked its head toward the kitchen.
So Ying Kongtu called again, “Tiaozhu, Shuangzhong.”
Upon hearing their names, they could only stand up and leave too.
Ying Kongtu ladled out the soup for the little fellows, then also scooped out mushrooms and meat, placing them to the side to cool first.
When the mushroom soup had been in the pot, its fragrance had still been somewhat restrained. Once it was ladled out, it became even more fragrant. The misty aroma enveloped the entire kitchen, tempting one’s appetite fiercely.
Ying Kongtu could not help scooping out a spoonful, blowing on it, and preparing to drink. “I’ll taste a mouthful first.”
Wen Zhongshan looked at him. “Stealing while guarding?”
“A cook who doesn’t sneak a taste won’t have a good harvest.” Ying Kongtu pressed the soup spoon against Wen Zhongshan’s lips. “Hurry and drink.”
Wen Zhongshan tasted a small mouthful.
“Now you’re my accomplice. You’re not allowed to talk about me.” Ying Kongtu said, then drank the remaining large half-mouthful of soup in the spoon in one gulp.
After drinking it, he could not speak for quite a while and only felt his heart filled with shock.
No wonder Wen Zhongshan was not speaking either!
This soup was far too fragrant!
Author’s Note:
Dart occasionally accompanies Jingwei to attract people.
It lies down on the ground and exposes its belly, and humans are unable to resist.
Until one day, a human said: “Wow, what a big pig-cat!”
Dart raised its head in disbelief and glared at this fellow whose vicious words had wounded a kitty’s heart.
For quite some time after that, it did not accompany Jingwei outside to attract people again.
