Chapter: Expanding the Menu
The carriage rolled to a stop outside the restaurant. After tasting Cheng Yu's egg fried rice, Mina had become considerably more cooperative. She hopped down from the carriage and started hauling bags of rice and flour into the kitchen without being asked.
In the warm afternoon sunlight, Cheng Yu sat at a table outside, eyes half-closed as he soaked in the rays.
He couldn't help but think: There's no such thing as a peaceful life—just someone else carrying the weight for you.
Sweat dampened Mina's clothes by the time she finished moving everything. She collapsed into a chair at the table, breathing hard.
Cheng Yu leaned back in his wooden chair, legs crossed, fingers steepled together like some corporate CEO. "Work hard, and your boss won't let you down."
Empty promises—a core skill of every unscrupulous employer. Great for boosting worker morale.
"I will work hard," Mina said earnestly.
Her logic was simple: work for Cheng Yu, get unlimited egg fried rice.
Long live egg fried rice!
"By the way, Mina, do you like steamed buns?"
Cheng Yu was planning to expand his menu. Time to test the market.
"Steamed buns? What are those?"
The Celsis Continent didn't have steamed buns. Mina's face scrunched up in confusion.
"It's a food made from dough and meat," Cheng Yu explained.
"Meat and dough... mixed together? That's a weird way to eat."
Mina had never heard of such a thing.
"I'll make some for you to try."
"Okay!"
Mina was curious about this food called steamed buns.
"Follow me."
Cheng Yu headed into the kitchen, and Mina trailed behind him.
He opened a bag of flour, scooped half a basin's worth into a large bowl, then added yeast and water. He started kneading it into dough.
"Go wash your hands," Cheng Yu said. "You're going to knead this. I need to go buy meat."
After washing up, Mina returned to the counter and dug both hands into the dough, kneading vigorously.
"Knead it for a while. The longer you work it, the better the buns will taste," Cheng Yu said.
"Got it."
To make the most delicious buns possible, Mina imagined the dough was an evil slave trader and absolutely brutalized it.
Cheng Yu left the restaurant and headed to the Bailu Town market.
At a meat stall he frequented, he bought several pounds of beef.
Back at the restaurant, he got to work. First, he boiled the beef briefly to remove any blood. Then he diced it into cubes, seasoned it with dark soy sauce, salt, MSG, sweet bean paste, and other spices. Finally, he tossed the cubed beef into a wok with sesame oil and stir-fried it until the aroma fully blossomed.
The smell of the cooked filling wafted through the kitchen. Mina swallowed hard. It smells amazing! I can't even imagine how good these buns are going to taste.
After kneading, the dough needed to rest and ferment for half an hour.
When fermentation finished, the dough had puffed up, soft and airy.
"Now we wrap the meat filling inside the dough."
Cheng Yu walked Mina through the process step by step.
Mina wasn't exactly detail-oriented. Delicate work like wrapping buns didn't come naturally to her. Even after practicing for a while, the buns she made looked... rough.
After a long session of work, they'd made over twenty buns, each about the size of an adult's fist.
Cheng Yu pulled a steamer from the system storage—something he'd exchanged from the shop earlier.
He added water to the pot, set the steamer on top, arranged the buns inside, and started steaming.
Mina crouched in front of the stove, feeding wood into the fire.
The water in the pot soon came to a boil.
Another half hour passed. A basket of piping-hot steamed buns emerged.
"Beef buns. Try one," Cheng Yu said with a grin.
Mina didn't care that they were still scalding. She grabbed one and shoved it into her mouth.
The dough was wonderfully chewy. The rich beef flavor mixed with the fragrance of sesame oil and the subtle sweetness of sweet bean paste. All the flavors combined in perfect harmony, each one elevating the others. It was pure bliss.
"How is it?"
"Delicious! So delicious!"
In the culinary wasteland that was the Celsis Continent, buns made with max-level cooking skills were like a delicacy fit for royalty.
Mina's eyes narrowed in satisfaction. Like a happy dog, her tail started wagging unconsciously.
The best way to tame a wild beast wasn't with gold or jewels—it was with food. Feed them well, and they'd be loyal forever.
The same principle applied to beastfolk.
Cheng Yu was full after two buns. He pushed the steamer toward Mina. "The rest are yours."
"Th... thank you."
Even though Mina hated humans as a rule, she couldn't bring herself to hate Cheng Yu after eating his egg fried rice and buns over the past two days.
She tossed the buns into her mouth one after another, chewing happily, her cheeks bulging like a hamster's.
Why does food this delicious even exist?!
[Host has gained +10 Favorability from Mina]
Cheng Yu and Mina's favorability had climbed to 20 points.
"We're getting up early tomorrow to sell buns. Limit of a hundred."
"Why would you sell such delicious food?" Mina thought delicious things should be kept for yourself.
"To make money."
"What a waste. Such a waste!"
Mina clutched her chest dramatically, as if her heart was bleeding.
The sky was just beginning to lighten when Cheng Yu and Mina arrived at the restaurant.
Like yesterday, Mina handled kneading the dough while Cheng Yu prepared the filling.
Together, they wrapped the cooked filling into the buns.
Max-level cooking skills covered everything. Cheng Yu didn't just cook amazing food—his knife work was impeccable, and his bun-wrapping technique was both fast and precise.
By comparison, Mina's movements were much clumsier.
Out of the hundred buns, Cheng Yu wrapped seventy—all perfectly shaped. Mina wrapped thirty, and they looked... creative. Lumpy and lopsided.
They used a five-tier steamer, twenty buns per layer.
Once the buns were steamed, Mina carried the steamer outside and set it up by the shop entrance to start selling.
There weren't many people on the streets of Bailu Town in the early morning.
About a hundred cavalrymen rode past.
The riders wore silver armor, helmets covering their faces, and held long conical spears—classic European medieval cavalry.
Cheng Yu had heard from the grocery store owner yesterday that the Black Sun Empire was preparing for war with the demons.
These cavalrymen were probably heading to the battlefield.
One of the riders approached the stall and eyed the fist-sized white buns in the steamer curiously. "Friend, what are these? How much?"
"Beef buns. Twenty copper coins each."
Cheng Yu hadn't had time to make a sign yet.
The cavalryman looked surprised. "Twenty copper coins each? That's expensive."
Twenty copper coins could almost buy half a pound of beef.
"The value of something is determined by what it's worth. If you don't try one, how will you know if it's worth twenty copper coins?" Cheng Yu smiled.
The cavalryman thought that made sense. He pulled out twenty copper coins and handed them over. "Give me one to try."
Cheng Yu exchanged a hundred small paper bags from the system shop and used one to package a beef bun for the cavalryman.
The soldier took a bite. His eyes went wide. "This is incredible!"
He usually ate roasted potatoes, boiled potatoes, fried potatoes—potatoes in every form. He'd never tasted anything this good.
[Positive Emotion Value +5]
The system chimed.
"See? I wasn't lying," Cheng Yu said.
"This is totally worth the price. Give me five more."
The cavalryman pulled out a silver coin—equal to a hundred copper coins—and handed it to Cheng Yu.
Cheng Yu bagged five more buns for him.
The cavalryman munched on the buns as he rejoined his unit.
"Charles! What are you doing? Leaving formation during a march violates military discipline!"
The cavalry captain rode over, his tone stern.
"I was a little hungry, so I went to that shop and bought some buns. They're really good," Charles said.
"Buns? What are those?" The captain frowned.
Worried about being punished, Charles didn't bother explaining. Instead, he pulled out one of the buns and handed it to his captain. "Captain, just try it. You'll understand."
The cavalry captain took the bun and examined it. This food called a "bun" was round, white, and soft. Why does it look kind of... suspicious?
He took a bite.
Flavor exploded in his mouth. His eyes widened. "This... this is amazing!"
He'd dined at nobles' estates before. Compared to this, their fancy dishes tasted like garbage.
"Charles, where did you buy this?" the captain asked.
"That shop over there."
Charles pointed back at Cheng Yu's little restaurant.
Too intrigued to care about marching discipline, the cavalry captain turned his horse around and rode back to the shop entrance. "Shopkeeper, I'll take ten buns."
"Twenty copper coins each. Two hundred total."
Cheng Yu bagged ten buns for the captain.
The captain handed over two silver coins and started eating while still mounted on his warhorse.