ARLQLCC chapter 66

In the Demon King Palace, there was no fixed place for palace attendants to eat. Many of them had irregular meal times, so everyone would come to the kitchen at mealtime, take dishes from the long table, and after getting their food, where they ate was up to themselves.

Because the kitchen was large enough, many seats were also set up to make it easier for the palace attendants to eat.

Those who had worked hard today would sit here to eat, while those who couldn’t sit still would carry their trays outside to eat. The Demon King Palace had all kinds of ways of eating.

But today was different. Today, the Demon Queen cooked braised dishes. The moment the pot lid was lifted, the aroma burst out, and everyone didn’t really want to leave the kitchen, afraid they wouldn’t get enough of the braised food if they took too little.

Two wide-eyed little demon beasts were squatting at the doorway, whispering softly to each other.

“That’s the Demon Queen. So beautiful. It’s different from the beauty of our demon race.”

“The Demon Queen’s waist is so thin, sob.”

“Speak quieter, don’t let His Majesty hear you!”

“I heard from Protector Tu that His Majesty gets jealous very easily. He even gets jealous over anything.”

“It’s normal though, the Demon Queen is that beautiful.”

“The Demon Queen can even cook. That smell is even better than Chef Pig’s cooking!”

“So jealous of His Majesty. He has a partner like a divine being. The Demon Queen even touched Young Master Bai’s ears just now. I also want my ears touched.”

“You’re dumb, you’re a sparrow. You don’t have ears!”

“I do! You just can’t see them clearly. Don’t slander me!”

The two little demon beasts started arguing as they spoke. Since they were closest to the kitchen, all their whispers reached Su Ji’s ears.

Su Ji looked at Bai Zhaonan, who was pretending he hadn’t heard anything, and said worriedly, “They seem to be arguing. Won’t they start fighting?”

Bai Zhaonan’s deep blue eyes glanced toward the doorway and said lightly, “They’re only at Qi Refining realm. They can’t kill each other.”

Su Ji: “……” I’m not worried about that.

The little sparrow demon and its companion went to argue outside the kitchen instead, and their original spot was taken by other demon beasts. Everywhere outside the kitchen, stomachs could be heard growling.

Hu Sansan was seriously tending the fire. From the iron barrel came continuous bubbling sounds of the braising liquid. Perhaps because the fox fire carried spiritual energy, its efficiency was even higher than ordinary fire.

It seemed they would soon be able to eat steaming hot braised duck dishes.

All the prepared duck parts had already gone into the iron barrel. Chu Zhaoye and Tu Yan hadn’t used any spiritual power the entire time, so after handling so much duck, they were slightly out of breath.

Tu Yan washed his hands and, like a bird returning to its nest, flew to Bai Zhaonan to ask for praise. Chu Zhaoye also washed his hands and sneakily glanced toward Su Ji’s direction.

He was currently pursuing someone, but as someone who had always been the object of desire and a thousand-year single man, Chu Zhaoye actually didn’t really know how to pursue someone.

He didn’t know, but even if he hadn’t eaten pork, he had seen pigs run. When Tu Yan pursued Bai Zhaonan, he used methods like shameless persistence, pretending to be pitiful, and showing sincere devotion.

In the end, he finally moved Bai Zhaonan with sincerity and successfully won the beauty.

Although Chu Zhaoye didn’t know whether it was really sincerity that worked, or whether he simply annoyed the other party into agreeing.

But as his only reference, Tu Yan did give him some inspiration.

For example, right now, Su Ji saw Chu Zhaoye standing still, looking enviously at Tu Yan, his eyes full of longing for love, then looking at him again with disappointment, as if questioning why he hadn’t come over yet.

It was somewhat amusing.

Halfway through pretending to be pitiful, Chu Zhaoye was waiting for Su Ji to soften and come to him first. But the other party clearly saw it and just stood there with a faint smile, not moving at all.

In the end, Chu Zhaoye couldn’t hold it back. With the mindset of “if the mountain won’t come to me, I’ll go to the mountain,” he walked over to Su Ji’s side.

Su Ji raised his eyebrows, his peach-blossom eyes filled with laughter, and asked knowingly, “What were you doing just now?”

Chu Zhaoye wasn’t sure of his reaction and said dejectedly, “Nothing…”

He lowered his head, looking at his still-damp hands, thinking whether pretending to be pitiful had already stopped working on Su Ji.

When he was still a little cat, one soft meow would get him comforted for a long time. Even after transforming into a human at Yunxian Sect, Su Ji still treated comforting him as a daily task.

But ever since the heat cycle, he seemed much colder than before.

Could it really be like the other said—he would never like him, so he simply ignored his emotions?

Just now, he even secretly touched Bai Zhaonan’s ears behind his back, and after being seen, he ignored him.

The more he thought, the more wrong it felt. The fake sadness gradually turned into real sadness, and Chu Zhaoye’s head visibly lowered even more.

Su Ji watched this change and didn’t know whether to laugh or sigh.

He had always known that Chu Ma Tuan was a very sulky little cat who liked to overthink all kinds of messy things.

Just like now—he clearly hadn’t said anything, but he had already made himself feel sad.

He didn’t know if, when he was still a cat, he also got angry with himself like this.

In Chu Zhaoye’s vision, aside from his own tangled hands, there were only his feet standing on the floor.

Just when he thought Su Ji wasn’t going to bother with him, a familiar pale hand suddenly entered his vision and lifted his still-wet hand.

Su Ji’s fingertips carried a faint teasing pink color, like the color of his lips. It wasn’t intense, but it was extremely eye-catching.

The moment that hand touched him, Chu Zhaoye’s gaze seemed glued to it, and the shattered glass heart he had imagined slowly pieced itself back together.

A handkerchief wiped away the remaining water droplets. Seeing him become happy again, Su Ji silently thought he was really easy to appease and was about to withdraw his hand.

But halfway through, Chu Zhaoye grabbed it.

With Su Ji’s hand in his, Chu Zhaoye felt at ease.

He liked holding Su Ji’s hand. The young man’s fingers were well-defined, pale and slender. When holding a sword, he could be fierce and powerful, but in his grip, they felt soft and boneless.

Sometimes Chu Zhaoye even felt that his hands were born only for cultivation, eating, and holding Su Ji’s hand.

Once his hand was caught, Su Ji didn’t struggle and even scratched his palm lightly, laughter almost overflowing from his voice.

“Not pretending to be pitiful anymore?”

Chu Zhaoye was about to scratch back but froze, “I didn’t. Don’t make things up.”

Su Ji ignored him and asked again, “Who did you learn it from? Tu Yan?”

Chu Zhaoye stiffened even more, thinking how he could see through it, and murmured, “…No.”

“Stop pretending.” Su Ji said faintly, “Your expression just now was exactly the same as his when he was acting like that toward Zhaonan.”

Chu Zhaoye: “……”

What kind of lousy method is this? It got seen through immediately.

If Su Ji could see through it, how could Bai Zhaonan, as the young master of the Heavenly Fox clan, not see through it?

Bai Zhaonan agreeing to him was simply absurd!

…

During their conversation, the braised duck was almost ready.

With Su Ji’s hand still held and unable to move, he could only use his free left hand to open the lid.

Inside the iron barrel, the duck pieces were fully soaked in braising liquid and glistening with a very tempting sheen. When he poked the top duck leg with chopsticks, the meat easily broke apart.

The braised dishes were ready. Hu Sansan withdrew the fox fire, and with Tu Yan’s spiritual power, the full barrels of braised duck were moved onto the long table.

As the lid was lifted, the aroma of the braising liquid could no longer be contained. It filled not only the kitchen but also drifted out through the windows, spreading fragrance throughout the courtyard.

The cooks’ dishes were also almost ready, placed one by one on the long table, forming a spectacular scene.

Some managing palace attendants had already started organizing the queues, beginning with the little demons closest to the door and extending from the kitchen entrance all the way into the corridor.

It was mealtime, and more and more palace attendants arrived, almost lining up outside the courtyard.

To ensure there was enough braised duck, Su Ji later added many fried eggs inside. After the meal was distributed, everyone got at least two pieces of braised duck.

This was the first time the kitchen had finished serving food and no one had left. Instead, everyone chose to stay and eat.

The kitchen was noisy and lively, the aroma of braised food mixed with the chatter of the palace attendants, almost indistinguishable from an ordinary cultivation world cafeteria.

Su Ji and the others gathered around a table, each holding a duck leg.

Hu Sansan took two—one in each hand—and still had a tiger-skin egg buried in his rice bowl.¹Tiger skin eggs are Chinese hard‑boiled eggs that are fried until blistered and wrinkled, then braised in a soy‑based sauce for a savory, slightly sweet flavor.

Except for Tu Yan and Chu Zhaoye, Bai Zhaonan and Hu Sansan were tasting Su Ji’s cooking for the first time. One ate elegantly, the other eagerly, but the moment the braised flavor entered their mouths, both showed astonished expressions.

The braised duck was sweet, spicy, and savory, the braising liquid fully absorbed into the meat during cooking.

The texture was just right, most of the fat had been removed, so even big bites weren’t greasy.

Hu Sansan ate happily and wanted to give Su Ji a thumbs-up, but had no hands free, so he could only chew and praise vaguely, “So… so so good, Brother Su Ji. After your cafeteria is expanded in a few days and the teleportation array is still there, can I come eat every day?”

His big eyes were full of amazement. Su Ji thought that if he also had ears like Bai Zhaonan, he would definitely be unbelievably cute.

For someone like Hu Sansan asking to come eat, Su Ji happily agreed, “Sure. I can also introduce some friends who like eating to you. You can become cross-race meal buddies.”

“Okay okay!” Hu Sansan’s eyes lit up even more as he stuffed his mouth full of meat, already imagining his future life of free meals.

Tu Yan thought the same. Now that Bai Zhaonan also knew Su Ji, he could bring his dear wife to eat together. They could help Su Ji out and eat together lively—how wonderful.

He happily took a bite of duck and glanced at Chu Zhaoye.

The latter was picking out a tiger-skin egg yolk into his bowl and putting the egg white into Su Ji’s bowl.

Tu Yan suddenly understood.

So Su Ji doesn’t like egg yolk.

But he remembered that the boss didn’t really like it either?

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  Tiger skin eggs are Chinese hard‑boiled eggs that are fried until blistered and wrinkled, then braised in a soy‑based sauce for a savory, slightly sweet flavor.