123: The development and ambition of "mind bug" abilities

He Jingrui listened to the clanging of pots and pans in the kitchen, and his stomach instinctively started rumbling again.

“It’s only 10:30, and he’s already starting to cook?”

He wiped his saliva, a bit confused.

But thinking about it, eating earlier isn't so bad.

Hehe~

Until a suppressed laugh came from the kitchen.

He Jingrui curiously peeked into the kitchen from the doorway.

He found Lu Chuan standing in front of the stove, holding a bowl of hezhou stuffed three treasures, his shoulders shaking with laughter.

Seeing this, He Jingrui scratched his head and asked in confusion:

“A Chuan, what’s wrong with you?”

Lu Chuan turned his head, coughed, then handed the bowl of hezhou stuffed three treasures to He Jingrui, smiling mysteriously.

“Want to try it?”

He Jingrui’s eyes lit up, and he excitedly took it, then ran to get chopsticks, picked up a piece of vibrant green and tempting green pepper, and eagerly popped it into his mouth.

As he bit down.

“Crunch.”

A crisp and delicious sound clearly rang in both their ears.

Chew, chew, chew.

He Jingrui’s eyes widened.

He then picked up eggplant and bitter melon separately, experiencing two completely different textures and flavors.

Lu Chuan watched He Jingrui’s increasingly expressive face and asked expectantly.

“How is it?”

He Jingrui nodded repeatedly.

“Delicious, truly delicious.”

Lu Chuan was not satisfied and continued to ask:

“Besides that?”

He Jingrui’s hand holding the chopsticks paused.

“Extremely delicious?”

Lu Chuan’s face darkened, and he was about to snatch the bowl back.

“Don’t eat it! Giving it to you is just wasting food!”

He Jingrui quickly protected the bowl.

They say a cornered dog will jump over a wall.

To protect his food, He Jingrui blurted out all sorts of words, none of them repeated.

“This bowl of hezhou stuffed three treasures, the taste is truly... layered...”

“...a feast for the senses... a narrative of temperature... a gift from nature...”

“...a precipitation of time... a contradictory aesthetic... a cultural imprint... a solace for the soul...”

This string of words left Lu Chuan stunned.

The key was that while He Jingrui spoke, his chopsticks never stopped picking up food.

By the time he finished speaking, the entire bowl of hezhou stuffed three treasures was eaten.

“...”

Lu Chuan carefully recalled the long string of words He Jingrui had said, and finally, he laughed in exasperation.

“So all that talk was just nonsense!”

He Jingrui seized the moment and started licking the bowl.

Lu Chuan was speechless again.

“You’re really... disgusting!”

After scolding him, he shook his head, turned around, made another bowl of hezhou stuffed three treasures, then brought it to the dining table and began to taste it.

hezhou stuffed three treasures is a classic home-style dish in the Guangxi cuisine.

Its charm lies in using common, simple ingredients like bitter melon, eggplant, and green peppers to create the most complex layers of flavor.

As a local delicacy, this dish has long transcended food itself, becoming the most direct confession of life for Guangxi people.

As an outsider, Lu Chuan naturally couldn't feel the deep emotions that Guangxi people poured into the hezhou stuffed three treasures.

Even though his cooking skills were second to none, no matter how hard he tried, he still couldn't get a single “authentic” evaluate from a Guangxi person.

After all, judging whether a dish is “authentic” is truly a complex and subjective issue.

After all, it involves multiple dimensions such as historical heritage, regional culture, ingredient craftsmanship, and personal experience.

Sometimes, even a local chef finds it difficult to gain recognition from the local people.

And why was Lu Chuan so insistent on He Jingrui giving a fair evaluation?

That was naturally because He Jingrui was a Guangxi native.

A Guangxi native who could help him judge whether the hezhou stuffed three treasures was truly authentic!

And this would further verify Lu Chuan’s conjecture about the Mind Bug ability!

Just now, while observing the ingredients in the refrigerator, he had a flash of inspiration.

He wondered if there would be some different gains in the process of making these ingredients into dishes.

Sure enough, when he decided on the dish he wanted to make and was ready to start cooking.

A tremor immediately appeared in his heart, and his entire perspective changed accordingly.

It became both transparent and bizarre.

It was clearly an ordinary green pepper, but when he held it, Lu Chuan seemed to see its internal cavity walls and seeds.

And as his perspective went deeper, he even saw every fiber that was difficult to observe with the naked eye... Startled, Lu Chuan couldn't help but shake his head.

When he looked at the green pepper again, he found that it had become unremarkable again.

Just when Lu Chuan thought he was hallucinating, shook his head, and was about to continue cooking, the strange perspective appeared again.

At this moment, he finally understood that this was the Mind Bug ability starting to work.

Both surprised and delighted, Lu Chuan immediately began to explore.

He first repeatedly switched between the two perspectives, and after finding that it would not cause any burden on his body, he began to cook the ingredients.

The traditional method of hezhou stuffed three treasures is to pan-fry first and then braise, pan-frying the bitter melon and chili, and then adding a seasoned sauce for further braising.

To make this dish both authentic and traditional, the key lies in the processing of the ingredients and the cooking techniques.

Lu Chuan found that with the aid of the strange perspective, he gained more insights and thoughts on how to make hezhou stuffed three treasures.

This insight and thought might not be helpful for cooking skills.

But for the understanding of the historical heritage and regional culture of local delicacies, it was as if he had divine assistance.

When cooking hezhou stuffed three treasures, Lu Chuan seemed to truly feel the rich humanistic sentiment contained in this dish.

It was as if the original founders, and generations of inheritors, were standing behind him at this moment, teaching him hand in hand.

Under this silent “teaching,” Lu Chuan vaguely had a realization.

This hezhou stuffed three treasures had an authentic taste that could conquer the senses of any Guangxi person!

At this moment, Lu Chuan looked at the drooling He Jingrui, suddenly shook his head, and added another sentence:

Except for He Jingrui, that rascal!

He came back to his senses, examined the dish in front of him, and began to taste it.

hezhou stuffed three treasures, that is, stuffed bitter melon, stuffed eggplant, and stuffed chili.

The three are different in color, beautiful in shape, and unique in taste.

The clear bitterness of bitter melon, the softness of eggplant, and the fresh spiciness of chili, combined together, achieved a balance of hot and cold and complementary nutrition.

It not only verified the “doctrine of the mean” wisdom of the ancients but also embodied the essence of Chinese cuisine’s “wisdom in simplicity.”

After tasting it carefully, Lu Chuan smiled contentedly.

Just developing one aspect of the Mind Bug ability had already completely amazed him.

It was hard to imagine how astonishing his cooking skills would become when the Mind Bug ability was fully developed and perfected.

If that day ever came, would he be worthy of being called—the God of Cooking?!