Chapter 437: Do You Want to Try and Overcome It?
In the blink of an eye, two days had passed.
January 11th—
The day of Kagami Biraki (Mirror Opening) had arrived.
This morning, Ryohei brought everyone to the kitchen of the Stardew Valley Ranch hilltop villa.
The Kagami Mochi was placed right here—
More than ten days had passed, and it hadn't deteriorated at all. It was still as white as snow, not even a single mold spot had grown—thanks to Hokkaido's severe cold climate.
Currently, the average daily high temperature in Furano is -3.7°C, and the average daily low is -14.4°C.
It snowed basically every day, with very few sunny days.
"Eighty, eighty..."
Holding a wooden mallet, Ryohei rhythmically pounded the Kagami Mochi, breaking it open in a few strikes.
"Onii-chan, what does 'eighty' mean?"
Second stood aside with her small hands behind her back, a touch of thirst for knowledge appearing on her cute face.
"It's a meme from China."
Jashin-chan turned sideways, raised a slender white finger, and preempted: "Large hammer eighty, small hammer forty."
"Mn?" Second blinked at her, obviously not getting the meme.
The others also looked bewildered.
"I'm surprised you know this." Ryohei looked at Jashin-chan with a bit of surprise.
"Hmph hmph~, occasionally when I'm bored, I watch Chinese comedy sketches."
Jashin-chan put one hand on her waist, lifted her chin slightly, and said smugly.
Then she raised her finger to point at the smashed Kagami Mochi on the stove and asked: "How are we going to eat these? Cook Zenzai (red bean mochi soup)?"
A hot bowl of Zenzai in Hokkaido's climate is truly comfortable.
"Mmm... I suddenly have a bit of a craving for Egg Ciba."
Looking at the Kagami Mochi pieces, Ryohei said on a whim.
Egg Ciba is a special snack from his hometown.
When going to the market in his childhood, he often bought a piece of Egg Ciba by the roadside for breakfast.
The sliced Ciba is pan-fried over low heat until both sides are slightly yellow and puffed up. A large spoonful of egg wash is ladled into the flat pan and spread out, topped with minced meat and ham sausage, and then the Ciba is placed on top.
Then another large spoonful of egg wash is ladled to wrap the other side of the Ciba.
—Super fragrant, savory and savory, never getting tired of eating it!
"This is delicious."
Lucoa, who had been to the morning market in his "hometown" with Ryohei, said while holding her full chest.
"You've eaten it?"
Yurine looked sideways in surprise.
Even she hadn't eaten it—she couldn't help looking at Ryohei with a playful "when did you take her to secretly eat" smile.
"It was that morning I went to the morning market in my 'hometown' with her, and she ate from the beginning of the street to the end."
Ryohei hurriedly explained.
"Oh, it was that time!"
Yurine remembered immediately. When Ryohei and the others came back that day, they even brought Wenling Qian Gao (stuffed rice cake) and Tofu Brain (soft tofu).
Because that way of eating rice cake was very novel, she remembered it quite deeply.
"Mn."
"Ate from the beginning of the street to the end..."
Elma, with broad shoulders, fair skin, a voluptuous figure, and a thick dark blue finned tail trailing behind her rear, looked at Lucoa with a face full of envy, almost drooling:
"That sounds amazing!"
(´﹃｀)
"You big glutton dragon!" Ryohei couldn't help but look at Elma with amusement.
"If you want to eat, just make it."
At this time, Jashin-chan waved her hand, pulled the topic back on track, and suggested: "For breakfast today, let's eat Egg Ciba and Zenzai!"
"That works too."
Ryohei looked at her, then turned his gaze to Lucoa and requested: "Lucoa, trouble you to run an errand and buy some 'rice cake' back."
Because today was Kagami Biraki, he reminded the others yesterday to stay overnight here—except for Tohru, who wanted to spend alone time with Kobayashi, everyone else was present.
The Kagami Mochi Ryohei made wasn't small, but it couldn't withstand the large number of people.
If they only made Zenzai, it would be enough, but adding Egg Ciba, it wouldn't be enough.
"Okay, leave it to me."
Lucoa responded reliably, her body flashed, and she disappeared from the kitchen.
Poporon was stunned for a moment, tilted her head, and wondered: "Shouldn't she be buying Ciba?"
This was also the doubt of Pekola, Little Binchou-tan, and others.
Ryohei, taking out a stainless steel basin and putting the Kagami Mochi pieces into it, casually explained: "Where we are from, those made of pure glutinous rice are called Ciba, and those mixed with japonica rice are called rice cakes."
"But Japanese rice cakes don't mix japonica rice; they are called rice cakes, but they are actually no different from Ciba."
"Oh, souka—! Knowledge increased!"
Minos crossed her arms, wagging her silver-white cow tail, looking suddenly enlightened.
Ilulu suddenly thought of a phrase she learned from watching TV recently and couldn't help blurting out: "Knowledge is entering the brain in a despicable way!"
"Uh... what's despicable about it?"
Ryohei, who was just about to ask Pekola to open a spatial passage to the complex building, was stunned for a moment and looked over with a strange face.
"I learned it from watching TV recently; felt it was very interesting to say." Ilulu tilted her face up slightly, looked at Ryohei with dot eyes, scratched the back of her head, her face full of innocence.
(,,･ω･,,)ゞ
You brat, what kind of programs do you usually watch!
Ryohei couldn't help roasting in his heart.
"Those who say this are usually idiots who don't like studying." Jashin-chan lightly covered her lips with her hand, leaned over with a wicked smile, her eyes curving into crescents, and looked at Ilulu.
"..." Ilulu frowned, puffed up her cheeks, and looked at her dissatisfiedly.
"Alright, let's go to the complex building."
Ryohei spoke up to smooth things over, his gaze turning to Pekola, signaling her to open a spatial passage to the complex building.
And Pekola immediately understood, raising her hand to unfold a spatial passage.
"By the way, Kyon-Kyon, Ran-Ran, can you eat Ciba?"
While walking towards the spatial passage, Ryohei looked at Kyon-Kyon and Ran-Ran standing at the outermost edge of the crowd.
"Mmm... don't like eating things containing glutinous rice." Kyon-Kyon said a bit embarrassedly: "Later my sister and I will just eat a small cake, and that'll do."
"Mn." Ran-Ran nodded from the side.
"Do you want to try and overcome it?" Ryohei stepped through the spatial passage, arrived at the kitchen of the complex building, put the stainless steel basin on the stove, and turned his head to suggest.
He remembered watching Mr. Vampire before, and the jiangshi inside didn't seem to be afraid of cooked glutinous rice.
Moreover, Kyon-Kyon just said—"don't like eating things containing glutinous rice," which is a dislike, not an inability to eat.
"Can this be overcome?"
Yurine, who followed over, asked curiously.
"Of course."
Ryohei took out a basin of soaked red beans from his storage space, put it on the stove, and analyzed with sound reasoning:
"Aren't they high-level jiangshi? And they've already overcome their movement style, this shouldn't be a problem either."
"Makes sense."
Yurine was persuaded and nodded.
"Overcoming weaknesses is a very interesting thing; after succeeding, you will reap wonderful joy and emotion!"
Minos clenched her fists, looking at Kyon-Kyon and Ran-Ran with an encouraging expression.
"You can do it!"
Second and Pekola also clenched their fists aside to cheer them on.
"If it's food containing glutinous rice made by Ryohei-kun, perhaps overcoming it will be simpler than imagined," Yusa said with a gentle tone.
Hearing this, Kyon-Kyon and Ran-Ran's expressions moved.
"That's truly possible."
Yurine raised her hand and pinched her chin, expressing her agreement.
"If you really don't want to overcome it, then forget it. Overcoming weaknesses is a very troublesome and painful thing. Besides, in your situation, even if you don't overcome it, it won't have any impact on your daily life."
The person holding them back appeared; naturally, it was Jashin-chan!
However, Kyon-Kyon and Ran-Ran were already tempted at this moment. The two jiangshi girls looked at each other, then at Jashin-chan, and refused in unison:
"No, let's try and overcome it!"
"Actually, you don't need to force yourselves..."
Smack—!
Yurine couldn't listen to this from the side anymore. What does "don't need to force yourselves" mean?
She slapped the back of Jashin-chan's head, making her stagger, and scolded: "Stop misleading others here; believe it or not, I'll slaughter you?"
"What are you doing? I was just saying, why get physical?" Jashin-chan raised her hand to cover the back of her head, looked at Yurine, muttered softly, and even felt wronged.
"Because you need a beating!" Yurine said unceremoniously.
"Makes one unable to sympathize even a little bit."
Poporon put one hand on her waist aside, looking at Jashin-chan somewhat gloatingly.
"That's right," Second nodded repeatedly.
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