“Duck intestines? Duck blood?”
“Tripe? Leaf tripe? Thousand-layer tripe?”
“What is yellow throat?”
“There is even pig brain?”
Including Si Lingxi, the three women looked at Lu Zheng with open distaste, as if asking how people could eat such things.
“Ahem!” Lu Zheng cleared his throat twice and hurriedly explained, “I steer clear of pig brain myself, but duck intestines and tripe are worth trying. The texture is quite good.”
“Pig brain is also a speciality in our shop. It tastes very good. You can order one portion first and give it a try. If you like it, order more.” A Sichuan girl spoke in thick Sichuan accent as she recommended.
“No thanks. Even before I took human form, I never ate anything like that. I’ll pass.” Liu Qingyan waved her hands vigorously.
Lu Zheng, Lin Wan, Shen Ying, and Si Lingxi all turned to look at Liu Qingyan.
The waitress blinked, thinking she had misheard. “What did you say?”
“I… I mean I have never eaten this since I was little.” Liu Qingyan quickly corrected herself.
“Everyone has a first time. Shall we start with one portion?” The Sichuan girl looked at Liu Qingyan with a big smile. “Pig brain is smooth and slippery. It’s great for skin and beauty. With skin as good as yours, miss, you definitely need to try pig brain.”
Beautiful women are not only admired by men; women enjoy looking at them too. Especially when the beauty is so far above comparison that jealousy does not even arise, women become completely uninhibited. Lu Zheng felt the girl was recommending pig brain only as an afterthought; her real aim was simply to chat with Liu Qingyan.
“No, really, no need!”
Just seeing the picture of a whole pig brain flower on the menu killed any appetite Liu Qingyan might have had. “One portion of yellow throat will be fine.”
Lu Zheng took the menu, removed pig brain and a few items that overlapped in texture or lacked distinction, then ordered one of everything else. The Sichuan girl stared in bewilderment. “Sir, we are currently promoting the Clean Plate campaign. This much…”
“Don’t worry. Anything we can’t finish, we’ll pack to take away,” Lu Zheng said with a laugh. “We all work out regularly. We may look slim, but our appetites are far from small.”
“Alright, alright!” The girl nodded repeatedly and left.
The customers had promised to take leftovers home. What more could she say? She could hardly refuse to let them order.
Lin Wan took the three women to prepare dipping sauces and brought one back for Lu Zheng too. One waiter brought cold dishes and drinks, another delivered a yin-yang pot, and a third arrived with several plates of beef and lamb.
“The pot is still cold?” Liu Qingyan asked.
A waiter switched on the induction hob and turned it to maximum. “The broth is freshly boiled. Please wait a few minutes.”
Once the waiters left, Si Lingxi flicked a tiny thread of fire energy onto the copper pot.
Glug glug glug…
The broth boiled instantly. They could begin.
Lu Zheng tipped in a plate of premium fatty lamb and one of sirloin beef, stirred with his chopsticks, then deftly scooped up a slice of lamb that had changed colour. “Eat, eat, eat!”
The women exchanged smiles and picked up their chopsticks.
…
Waiters kept bringing dishes, Lu Zheng kept adding food to the pot, and other staff cleared empty plates. The women ate elegantly, yet their speed was deceptively fast. Not once did the table run out of space for new dishes.
The Sichuan girl watched from the side. She saw the five of them consume what looked like enough for ten people, yet strangely she felt no sense of gluttony. Instead, there was an air of refined grace.
“I must be dizzy. Beautiful women really do have privileges!”
…
“The texture of these duck intestines is so crisp and chewy. Not bad at all.”
“Thousand-layer tripe is good too.”
“Duck blood is average.”
“Yellow throat is alright.”
The women commented as they ate, their views of offal markedly improved. Shen Ying touched her chin thoughtfully. “Shall we order some pig brain to try?”
Lu Zheng, “…”
Lin Wan, “…”
Liu Qingyan considered that, as a doctor accustomed to life and death, she should not be so timid. She gave a small nod. “I think we can.”
Si Lingxi said calmly, “I don’t mind either way.”
Shen Ying and Liu Qingyan immediately agreed and ordered a portion of pig brain. They were told it needed ten to fifteen minutes. Shen Ying added a trace of magic to ensure it would not fall apart.
Lin Wan sent a spiritual message to Lu Zheng. “Who would have thought using magic would be so convenient in the modern world.”
Lu Zheng raised an eyebrow. “For private conversations, for example?”
The women all laughed. Even Lin Wan smiled. “That really is extremely handy.”
While they chatted and joked, another ten minutes passed. Shen Ying fished out the pig brain and prepared to offer some to Si Lingxi first.
Si Lingxi gently lifted her sauce bowl. “No thank you.”
Shen Ying, “…”
So Shen Ying and Liu Qingyan divided it between them and cautiously tried a little.
It melted softly in the mouth. After savouring it carefully, Shen Ying’s eyes brightened. She exchanged a glance with Liu Qingyan, and they both nodded. “It’s actually quite nice!”
“Exactly! Exactly!” Liu Qingyan took another small bite and turned to the other three. “Are you sure you don’t want any?”
Lu Zheng, Lin Wan, and Si Lingxi shook their heads in unison. “No!”
…
After finishing the hotpot, the women had not even broken a sweat. The Sichuan girl could only marvel. “Are you ladies all mukbang streamers? I didn’t see you filming just now.”
“Mukbang?”
“Streamers?”
“Filming?”
Si Lingxi and the others had not yet encountered these concepts, so they did not understand the girl. They simply waved a hand without answering and let her guess.
At the counter, they paid by phone. As they stepped out, they saw across the suspended walkway several large doors leading to a dark space that flashed with coloured lights. Screams of men, women, and children occasionally rang out.
“What is that place?” Shen Ying asked.
“That’s an amusement arcade,” Lu Zheng said. “Inside there are all kinds of electronic games. Things like racing and shooting games for boys, claw machines and dance machines for girls, plus coin-pushers and fishing games that are a bit like gambling.”
Lin Wan grabbed Liu Qingyan and Shen Ying and headed straight over. “Why explain so much? Let’s just go in and see!”
“You’re absolutely right!”
Lu Zheng nodded and followed with Si Lingxi. They soon crossed a connecting walkway to the other side.
The moment they entered, upbeat, energetic music hit them. Young couples, groups of girls, lone men, and families with children each chose their preferred entertainment and threw themselves into it.
