24: Chapter 24 Battlefield Michelin

Li Li placed the black backpack on the coffee table and ripped the zipper open with a sharp sound.

A pile of energy bars, nut packs, and cookies swiped from the plane were roughly pushed aside, revealing five vacuum-sealed bags buried at the bottom.

They were square, khaki-colored, palm-sized, and each bag felt heavy.

He took all five bags out and lined them up on the expensive marble coffee table.

Jiang Rumu leaned over from the sofa, her gaze sweeping across the five packaging bags.

The first bag—Meal, Ready-to-Eat (MRE). The Stars and Stripes.

The second bag—Ration de Combat Individuelle Réchauffable (RCIR). The Tricolor.

The third bag—24-Hour Operational Ration Pack (ORP). The Union Jack.

The fourth bag—Индивидуальный Рацион Питания (ИРП). The double-headed eagle.

The fifth bag—UN standard field ration. The blue olive branch.

Four national flags, one olive branch.

No China.

Li Li twisted his left wrist; the system didn't pop up any text, but he felt that broken system was gloating in some corner.

"... There are rations from the five permanent members on the plane?" Jiang Rumu's hand slid down from her knee, her voice tinged with uncertainty.

"I didn't swipe them."

"Then where did they come from?"

"I brought them."

Jiang Rumu stared at him for three seconds and didn't press further.

The livestream chat had gone completely crazy.

[Five permanent members' military rations??? A regular person has the individual rations of four countries plus the UN in his backpack, and you're telling me he's an architecture student???]

[I now seriously suspect this guy's resume is fake starting from the very first word!]

[Is this backpack a four-dimensional pocket? What else is hidden in there?]

[Russian IRP! I've been looking on Taobao for three months and haven't been able to buy an authentic one! Is the streamer selling?]

"One bag is enough for two people to eat a meal." Li Li picked up the US military MRE, flipped it over to scan the nutritional information, "1250 calories, it has protein, carbs, and fat. It's healthier than takeout."

Jiang Rumu picked up the French bag and gave it a squeeze.

"How heavy is it?"

"About a kilogram."

"Five bags is five kilograms. Plus that pile of snacks from before—"

She put down the ration and looked at him.

"You rode an e-bike for twenty kilometers carrying over ten jin of stuff?"

"I didn't carry it."

Li Li tore open the MRE's outer packaging.

"You carried it."

Jiang Rumu's hand stopped in mid-air, and she subconsciously touched her shoulder.

The scene at the parking lot surfaced; she had taken the backpack herself, carried this bag weighing over ten jin—which she thought only contained snacks—and bumped along for twenty kilometers on the back of the Yadea.

She didn't respond and silently pulled her hand back.

"Eat this bag first."

Li Li pulled the contents of the MRE out one by one and spread them on the coffee table.

The main course was spicy vegetarian pasta, with a heater included. The sides included peanut butter, thin crackers, jam, instant coffee, and a small pack of M&M chocolate candies. There were also salt, pepper, Tabasco sauce, and even a piece of gum, a pack of tissues, and a match.

"All set."

He poured some mineral water into the heater, stuffed the main course in, and leaned it against the coffee table leg. The chemical reaction started, and the heater hissed, emitting white steam.

Jiang Rumu sat cross-legged, chin in her hands, staring motionless at the steaming heater.

Earnest and focused.

Exactly the same as when she was staring at that roasted lamb leg on the cooking show earlier.

The number of viewers in the livestream had surged back to 3.6 million.

[I'm watching two people unpack US military rations in the presidential suite of the Burj Al Arab. Is this a Dating Reality Show or a military channel?]

[The look Mumu has while watching the heater, she must be starving, sister!]

[Eating MREs in a five-star hotel, this is true contrast appeal!]

3.6 million.

The mission requires higher heat for higher rewards. Just unpacking military rations wasn't enough.

Li Li's gaze fell on the match.

Match. Fire. Candle.

Candlelight dinner.

A candlelight dinner at the Burj Al Arab, eating US military rations.

This contrast was powerful.

He dialed the front desk.

"Send some candles up, the nice kind."

After hanging up, he stood up and scanned the room, pushed the black walnut round table in front of the floor-to-ceiling window forward by half a meter, and set up two chairs facing the blue and white lights scattered on the sea surface outside the window.

Seeing this, Jiang Rumu also stood up, her slippers making a soft pattering sound. She didn't ask what he was doing, just picked up the peanut butter and crackers from the coffee table and placed them on the round table. Then she went back, carefully picked up the still-hissing heater, and brought it over too.

Li Li fixed the livestreaming equipment on the vase stand on the side of the round table, aiming the lens at the two chairs and the entire sea view behind them.

The doorbell rang. The butler pushed in a silver tray with six ivory-white taper candles standing on it.

Li Li took them, placing three on the table and three on the windowsill.

He struck the match from the MRE; the flame shot up, igniting the first candle wick.

The scent of candle wax, mixed with the salty, fishy sea breeze from outside and the plastic smell of the spicy vegetarian pasta from the heater, stirred together in the air into a strange yet harmonious aroma.

All six candles were lit.

The warm yellow light hit the black walnut tabletop, the khaki packaging of the MRE, and the collarbone exposed at the neckline of Jiang Rumu's bathrobe.

The night of the Persian Gulf poured in from outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, and on the distant skyline, a streak of black smoke still hung, not yet dissipated.

Burj Al Arab. Candlelight. Military rations. Gunsmoke.

Li Li pulled out a chair and lifted his chin toward Jiang Rumu.

"Please."

Jiang Rumu swept a glance over the tabletop: candles, peanut butter, crackers, a bag of steaming spicy vegetarian pasta, and two hotel silver spoons.

She couldn't help but let out a soft hum and sat down.

The pasta was perfectly heated. Li Li tore open the bag, stirred it with a silver spoon, and the sauce shimmered with a dark red oily sheen; the scent was somewhere between "edible" and "must eat."

He scooped a spoonful and placed it on the plate in front of her.

"Try it."

Jiang Rumu picked up the spoon, blew on it, and put it into her mouth.

She chewed twice, her face expressionless, but she swallowed much faster than she chewed.

"How is it?"

"It's edible."

Li Li scooped a spoonful for himself.

Spicy, salty. The texture of the noodles was like overcooked dried noodles mixed with undercooked instant noodles, and the sauce had a chemical plastic smell from the heater.

He spoke to the camera.

"Dear viewers, I'm now going to give you a live review of the US military MRE individual ration."

He paused.

"First, the conclusion—back when I was laying bricks at a construction site, the cafeteria lady's big-pot stew for fifty people was better than this. At least the lady was generous enough to add chopped green onions."

[Hahahaha, woken up by the saltiness!]

[Construction site cafeteria lady, I'm dead!]

[Brother Li, just how many jobs have you had!?]

"The noodles themselves have no flavor; it's all in the sauce. The spiciness is about 0.3 times that of Lao Gan Ma, and the saltiness is twice that of Lao Gan Ma. If the US military brothers can still fight after eating this, it only proves one thing—they were woken up by the saltiness."

"But to be fair, the calories are sufficient, and there's enough protein. When there's no other choice in a forty-degree desert, this is the optimal solution."

He took another bite.

"And there's one advantage—it doesn't pick people. No matter who you are, when you tear open the bag, the taste is exactly the same."

He paused for half a second.

"Equality."

[Damn, this sublimation!]

[He turned a bag of MRE into a philosophical experience. The word "Equality" paired with the candlelight of the Burj Al Arab—this scene is incredible!]

He spread peanut butter on the crackers, broke them in half, and gave one piece to each.

"This is actually okay." Jiang Rumu was clearly more interested in the peanut butter, spreading it twice as thick as his.

"The dense peanut butter and the thin, crispy crackers explode in the mouth—" Li Li switched to food blogger mode, speaking to the camera with cadence, "Rich layers, three-dimensional texture, the mellow fragrance of peanuts interwoven with the charred crispness of the wheat..."

Jiang Rumu bit the cracker and shot him a side-eye.

"That's enough."

"... In short, it's a peanut butter flavored cracker." Li Li instantly switched back to his normal tone.

The instant coffee wasn't brewed; Li Li called the butler and had two cups of coffee made with the machine, with Burj Al Arab shapes in the latte art.

"Burj Al Arab butler making coffee, paired with US military rations." Li Li raised his cup, "It belongs to the category of Michelin three-star plating with Shaxian noodles."

Finally, there was the pack of M&M chocolate candies.

Li Li poured the candies into Jiang Rumu's palm.

She counted them.

"Fourteen pieces."

"Split seven-seven."

She looked down and carefully picked for a few seconds, pushed seven to him, and clutched the rest in her own hand.

Li Li looked down and saw that the ones in his hand were all blue, green, and brown.

The ones in her hand were all red and orange.

"You're picking colors?"

Jiang Rumu tossed a red one into her mouth without answering, her actions speaking for themselves.

[Hahaha, red and orange are Mumu's favorite colors! Kill Li the dog, protect Mumu!]

Fine.

Li Li tossed all seven cool-toned chocolate candies into his mouth and swallowed them in one go.

It was just at this moment that blue text floated on the inside of his left wrist—

[Detected that the host has completed the [Take female guest for a candlelight dinner] mission.]

[Livestream heat combined exceeds 20 million concurrent viewers, heat is exploding.]

[Reward: Piano Mastery.]

[System assessment: Eating US military rations for a candlelight dinner at the Burj Al Arab, the host's creativity has exceeded the system's aesthetic tolerance.]

Piano Mastery?

Li Li tapped his fingers on the tabletop unconsciously; C major, the distance between his index and middle fingers was exactly a third interval, muscle memory had already been written in.

Before he could digest this new skill, the phone in his pocket suddenly vibrated.

Not WeChat, not a call.

It was that harsh, continuous, impossible-to-ignore—

Alarm sound!

In the same second, the phone Jiang Rumu had placed on the corner of the table also exploded with sound.

Same sound, same frequency.

Both of them looked down at the same time.

The red warning box that popped up on the phone screens illuminated their faces.