ARLQLCC chapter 65

Tu Yan brought Bai Zhaonan and Hu Sansan all the way to the kitchen. The air still carried the fragrance of the seasoning used for pickling snacks earlier, making Tu Yan’s mouth water.

After spending time with Tu Yan, Su Ji already knew exactly what kind of expression he would make when he was craving something.

He took out a few packets of pre-packaged snacks from his storage artifact and stuffed them into Tu Yan’s arms. Only then did Su Ji notice that besides Tu Yan and Hu Sansan—both familiar faces—there was also a cold beauty with white hair standing behind Tu Yan.

The cold beauty had two snow-white fox ears in his hair. When he noticed Su Ji’s curious gaze, the ears moved slightly, a little awkwardly.

Bai Zhaonan and Su Ji met each other’s eyes, and both of them couldn’t help but sigh inwardly at the same time.

‘Seeing him up close, he looks even better.’

‘What is this, it even moves? So cute!’

Chu Zhaoye, who had been watching Su Ji closely, narrowed his eyes and pulled him a little closer with one hand.

Su Ji turned back and saw Chu Zhaoye pouting.

“…I have ears too.”

Seeing his dissatisfied expression, Su Ji couldn’t help but laugh.

Maybe because he had spent an entire heat cycle accompanying him, Chu Zhaoye’s possessiveness had become even stronger—he even got jealous over looking at someone else’s ears.

But Su Ji didn’t have much patience for him recently and casually coaxed him.

“Mm-mm, impressive.”

Chu Zhaoye: “……”

So angry.

Watching their interaction, a hint of interest flashed in Bai Zhaonan’s eyes.

His Majesty clearly looked like he was being completely controlled.

He didn’t expect His Majesty in love to look like this—somehow a bit silly.

Just as he was thinking this, a few packets of snacks were stuffed into his arms.

Tu Yan kept one for himself, gave one to Hu Sansan, and gave the rest to Bai Zhaonan.

“Ah Zhao, these are all really tasty. Try them. If it’s not enough, I’ll go ask Su Ji for more.”

Bai Zhaonan took the bags of spicy beef strips and felt a little helpless.

Tu Yan usually ate these snacks quite often, and the few packs Su Ji gave him weren’t even enough to stuff between his teeth. Yet he kept only one for himself and gave the rest to that cold beauty.

Their relationship definitely wasn’t ordinary.

Su Ji looked at them curiously, already forming a guess in his mind.

“You two are…”

Tu Yan nodded immediately.

“Yes, yes, exactly what you’re thinking! Ah Zhao is my Dao companion, and also the young master of the Heavenly Fox clan.”

Bai Zhaonan nodded at Su Ji politely.

“Bai Zhaonan.”

Although Su Ji was visiting the demon race for the first time, he had heard of the Heavenly Fox clan. He glanced again at the fluffy fox ears and introduced himself.

“I’m Su Ji.”

Then he was pulled again by Chu Zhaoye.

So petty.

Su Ji thought. He won’t even let me look at ears.

He turned back unhappily, ready to reason with him, but saw that suddenly a pair of black furry cat ears appeared in Chu Zhaoye’s hair. They twitched slightly toward him, looking soft, springy, and very nice to touch.

“Wow!”

Tu Yan, Bai Zhaonan, and Hu Sansan: “……”

Their Boss’s strange possessiveness.

……

As the sky darkened, the chefs in the demon king palace began preparing dinner for all the palace attendants.

Su Ji was assigned a dedicated stove, with several palace attendants assisting him. Because there were so many people in the demon king palace, he planned to make a dish that everyone could eat.

There was a large stock of duck meat in the kitchen. This type of spirit beast meat was common but not easy to cook—if handled poorly, it would leave a fishy smell.

Every time duck was cooked here, the feedback from palace attendants wasn’t good, so over time the meat had been left unused.

After expanding the Linggu Mountain cafeteria, Su Ji planned to sell different kinds of dishes, including various braised foods.

Coincidentally, there was a lot of unused duck meat in the kitchen, so rather than wasting it, Su Ji decided to make braised duck offal for everyone.

The duck had already been processed whole. Su Ji set aside the duck legs, gizzards, feet, head, wings, neck, and tongue for later braising.

The remaining parts were given to the head chef in charge of the kitchen, along with his method for removing the fishy smell. Those parts could be made into braised dishes or stir-fried dishes.

The chefs in the Demon King Palace had long been troubled by this duck meat. They didn’t expect Su Ji to directly share his cooking method with them, and they were almost moved to tears on the spot before rushing off to cook according to his instructions.

The parts that were kept needed to be washed and blanched. Earlier when Su Ji explained the deodorizing method, Chu Zhaoye had also listened nearby, so he told Su Ji to focus on making the braising liquid while he handled the blanching.

After all, husband-and-wife teamwork makes work easier.

He didn’t dare say this out loud and only enjoyed it secretly in his heart.

Because they were preparing braised duck offal for the entire palace, there was a lot of meat, and Tu Yan was also called over by Bai Zhaonan to help.

Two tall men surrounded a mountain of duck parts, tirelessly blanching pot after pot, then cutting each piece to help it absorb flavor.

While they were busy, Su Ji also started preparing the braising liquid. With so much duck offal, just boiling water in a large pot wouldn’t be enough.

Palace attendants brought several large deep iron buckets. Since the stove couldn’t be used, Su Ji decided to use fire talismans instead.

Just as he took out the talismans, Hu Sansan came over, a flame leaping from the little fox’s hand.

“Brother Su Ji, I can control fire. Let me help you.”

Su Ji’s eyes lit up and he happily agreed.

Hu San San’s fire control was indeed very helpful. Fire talismans worked, but they didn’t last long—you had to replace them frequently. Besides their power, they were basically no different from adding firewood while cooking. Now that Hu Sansan offered to help, Su Ji was relieved.

Before making the braising liquid, they first needed to caramelize sugar first. The pot on the stove wasn’t big enough for the liquid, but it was enough for this step.

Oil was added to coat the pan, then a bag of rock sugar was poured in. As the temperature rose, the sugar slowly melted and began forming red bubbles as it was stirred.

Su Ji added water and mixed it evenly, then divided it into several equal portions and poured them into iron buckets.

Water was added to each bucket, along with chili, Sichuan pepper, cooking wine, oil, and several slices of ginger.

As the ingredients went in, Hu Sansan carefully tended the fire to simmer the broth. He was already thinking about the plump duck legs and secretly hoping to get one later after helping out.

During the wait, he shyly told Su Ji about this idea.

After Su Ji agreed, he happily spun in place.

While they were busy, Bai Zhaonan could only stand aside and watch.

His spiritual energy was cold, so he couldn’t control fire. He also knew nothing about cooking, and even though he recognized the names of seasonings, he couldn’t match them to the ingredients. If he insisted on helping, he might only mess things up.

As the young master of the Heavenly Fox clan, he had been raised in luxury, with servants taking care of everything. After forming a Dao companion bond with Tu Yan, even more aspects of his life were handled for him.

He realized that aside from fighting, he didn’t seem to be good at anything else.

He never thought much of it before, but now, in this atmosphere where everyone was busy while he could only watch, he felt restless for the first time.

Just as he was sitting uneasily, Su Ji quietly slipped over to him.

Chu Zhaoye was currently clumsily scoring the duck legs and didn’t notice Su Ji had already sat beside Bai Zhaonan.

Su Ji took out a few bags of crispy pork cracklings from his storage artifact and placed them in Bai Zhaonan’s hands.

For some reason, he felt the other would like this texture.

Bai Zhaonan took them, then heard Su Ji whisper:

“These are for you…”

“Also… can I touch your ears?”

“……”

A rare flash of shock appeared on Bai Zhaonan’s cold face. He looked at Chu Zhaoye who was busy, then at Su Ji whose eyes were bright with curiosity. Somehow, he nodded.

Su Ji’s eyes lit up even more. He gently reached out and touched the soft, trembling fox ear.

It felt exactly as he imagined—soft beneath the fur, springy when pressed, bouncing back on its own. Extremely cute.

Su Ji carefully touched it.

The strange sensation made Bai Zhaonan feel something unusual. Apart from when his parents touched his ears when he was young, only his Dao companion Tu Yan had ever done so.

Yet now, despite just meeting Su Ji, he didn’t feel resistant to the contact at all.

If it were anyone else—demon king or devil king alike—he would never agree to such a request.

It could only be said that fate was something truly mysterious.

After touching enough, Su Ji reluctantly withdrew his hand.

Bai Zhaonan thought to himself: I hope His Majesty doesn’t turn around, or he’ll be furious.

But the next second, a deadly gaze from the stove area locked onto them with overwhelming presence.

Su Ji and Bai Zhaonan both turned around.

Chu Zhaoye stood there holding a knife in one hand and a duck neck in the other, staring at them full of resentment.

More precisely, staring at Su Ji’s hand that had just been removed.

For the first time in a long while, Bai Zhaonan felt guilty toward his own king.

He looked at Su Ji, who patted his hand to reassure him, then ignored Chu Zhaoye’s accusing gaze and happily went back to continue preparing the braising liquid.

Chu Zhaoye, holding his knife, turned back to cooking duck meat with a suffocated expression.

The braising liquid was almost ready. Su Ji lifted the lid, and the liquid inside had already changed color, releasing a spicy aroma.

He added salt, MSG, light soy sauce, and dark soy sauce—using a large amount of dark soy sauce, turning the entire broth into a deep reddish-black color.

Fearing it would be too spicy, he added a few pieces of rock sugar.

A sweet-and-spicy braising flavor would also be excellent.

While the braising liquid simmering, Su Ji wrapped various spices in clean gauze, tied them tightly, and dropped them into the iron bucket as a simple spice bag.

The meat was still being processed; the harder-to-cook parts were put in to braise first, while the easier-to-cook parts stayed in the basin until they were almost done.

The braising liquid was fragrant with a hint of spiciness, spreading throughout the entire kitchen. Even though many other dishes were being cooked at the same time, none could overpower its aroma.

When palace attendants heard that the Demon Queen was personally cooking for them, those who had finished their tasks secretly came over to watch. The fragrance drifted all the way to the kitchen entrance, making them nearly drool.

At this moment, all the little demons could only hope dinner would come quickly. They couldn’t wait to try the braised duck offal made by the Demon Queen.

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