The thought of making just one last dish to complete today’s all-shrimp banquet made Gan Lan breathe a sigh of relief.
The final dish was a Meat and Crab Casserole. With so many helpers, it was easy to make, though it required significantly more steps than the previous shrimp recipes. For this dish, Gan Lan had even specially borrowed several Big Crabs from the spaceship’s warehouse.
In fact, aside from the Big Crabs, every single side ingredient, spice, and seasoning was borrowed. Even the shrimp had been scavenged. Gan Lan found it hilarious when she thought about it. How had she turned out like this? She was never like this before; she used to be incredibly generous, spending one or two hundred million a day and falling into debt without so much as blinking an eye.
It was that hotpot banquet that had bled her dry. Now, she racked her brains to avoid spending a single penny whenever possible, pinching every cent. This was all for the future Huaxia Cuisine Star. Thinking of this made her feel much better. Naturally, she also hoped that after Dean Chu and the others ate her all-shrimp banquet, they would wipe the slate clean regarding the ingredients and seasonings she had borrowed.
To make her deluxe Meat and Crab Casserole, Gan Lan first began simmering the bone broth. The chicken feet were chopped in half and blanched. The pork ribs were also blanched, and then she used a blood-absorbing patch to extract every last drop of residual blood.
The shrimp were the same sashimi-grade ones from earlier, which had already been cleaned and prepped, saving her from having to process them again.
After scrubbing the Big Crabs clean, she cracked open their shells and cut the crab meat into quarters, coating the exposed cuts in starch to keep the meat from falling apart.
Gan Lan only prepared one as a demonstration, leaving the rest to her senior assistants. She heated up a wok with oil, tossed in the quartered crabs, and stir-fried them until they turned bright red before transferring them to a plate to set aside.
She poured a little more oil into the wok, then tossed in scallions, ginger, garlic, cinnamon, star anise, dried chilies, bay leaves, and Sichuan peppercorns. After stir-frying them over low heat until fragrant, she added the chicken feet and ribs, continuing to stir-fry. Next went in rock sugar and a secret chili sauce. She tossed everything together until the spicy red oil evenly coated the chicken feet and ribs.
She transferred the meat into a clay pot waiting on the side. Not wanting to waste the sauce left in the wok, she ladled in a scoop of boiling bone broth, swirled it around to mix with the residual sauce, and poured it all into the clay pot. She then added more bone broth until it completely covered the chicken feet and ribs, followed by a splash of dark soy sauce and cooking wine. Bringing it to a boil over high heat, she then reduced the heat to low to let it simmer for about an hour.
Just as Gan Lan placed the lid on the pot, she heard Dean Chu calling her from outside the kitchen. He wore a rather complicated expression.
Gan Lan hurried out to meet him. "Dean, did something happen?"
As he walked outward, the Dean spoke to Gan Lan in a complicated tone, "Someone specially flew a starship over just to find you. They’re currently requesting to link communications with our spaceship. Are you... already on such good terms with them?"
Gan Lan was a bit confused. "Who are they? Who else would be looking for me? Hasn’t our spaceship been moving this whole time? They can still track me down like this?"
Gan Lan was utterly shocked. She didn’t know much about these technological things, but it sounded incredibly impressive.
"Come with me and you’ll see. Once you see who it is, you can decide whether or not to let them board." Chu Yuanyi was also completely baffled. Instead of attending classes properly at school, these people had actually flown over in a starship far more prestigious than the school’s own spaceship. Were they just trying to flaunt their wealth? Mingzong had starships too! They just preferred to keep a low profile!
Gan Ganlan didn’t ask any more questions. She wouldn’t understand all this high-tech jargon anyway, so she obediently followed the Dean to the communication room.
The Combat Robots stationed aboard the spaceship were on full standby, looking as though they were ready to go to war at a moment’s notice. This made Gan Lan feel a bit nervous. Had some mad scientists come to slice her up for research? Especially considering she had just cooked more than a dozen new dishes in one go, her situation felt incredibly precarious.
"Patch the communication through. Let Gan Lan talk to them. She’ll be the one making the decision." Chu Yuanyi waved a hand in resignation.
When he got back, he would definitely have to file a complaint with those students’ parents. To brazenly fly a starship out to rendezvous with them right in the middle of the school term—they really had some nerve! If they ran into interstellar pirates and this starship got hijacked, those pirates would make an absolute fortune, though they probably wouldn’t live long enough to spend it.
The moment the connection went through, Wu Mingyu’s magnified face filled the screen. He was grinning so widely that all his pearly whites were on display. Although he was undeniably handsome in person, having his face blown up several times its normal size wasn’t exactly a flattering look.
"Junior, are you surprised? Did you expect this? Isn’t it exciting?" His massive face practically monopolized the entire monitor. He patted his cheeks and added, "Have I gotten even better looking? Junior, I’ve missed you to death! I skipped class specifically for you, so hurry up and let us onto the spaceship!"
No sooner had Wu Mingyu finished speaking—and before he could even strike his most handsome pose—than his image was swapped out, and another peerlessly beautiful face took over the screen. Yan Yifei offered Gan Lan a gentle smile and said softly, "Gan Lan, long time no see."
Gan Lan felt like she was being seduced by Yan Yifei’s beauty. Smiling so wonderfully at her was practically a foul!
"Boss, it’s my turn! Let me talk to our junior! I feel like I haven’t seen her in years, I missed her so—" Gao Haiyang was jumping up and down excitedly in the background. But before he could even finish his sentence, Lu Ziyu clamped a hand over his mouth. Lu Ziyu simply didn’t want to see his friend sporting a bruised, swollen face the next day—it would be too tragic. He just didn’t have the heart for it.
Gan Lan had been thoroughly dazzled by that unrivaled handsome face, only snapping back to reality when Gao Haiyang’s voice rang out. The sheer lethality of Boss Yan’s smile was terrifying. She truly hoped he would smile less in the future; otherwise, she feared she might not be able to resist the urge to lick the screen.
Snapping out of her daze, Gan Lan instantly reverted back to being a perfectly rational master chef.
"Why... are you guys here? Don’t you have classes?" Gan Lan asked in surprise as she looked at her six friends, neatly gathered on the screen.
"Hehe, we mainly just missed you, so we hitched a ride on a starship to come see you." Wang Bin scratched his head, looking noticeably uneasy. That was because the moment he finished speaking, Boss Yan shot him a seemingly unintentional glance. It was terrifying.
"Junior, you have no idea how shameless they are! Originally, I was planning to come out here all by myself, but I was ambushed halfway by Princess Yan. You don’t know how shameless he is!" Wu Mingyu exclaimed angrily and excitedly, pointing a trembling finger at the calmly standing Yan Yifei.
"He! He actually—"
"Wait, wait, wait... Stop right there. My dish is going to turn to mush." Gan Lan quickly interrupted Wu Mingyu. Although she desperately wanted to hear the rest of the story, she had assumed she would only be stepping out of the kitchen for a few minutes. To her surprise, almost half an hour had already passed. She hadn’t left any instructions before stepping out, and if she didn’t hurry back now, the meat was going to melt right off the bone.
"Dean, you just said that I could make the decision, so how about we let them board first?" Gan Lan turned to look at the helplessly resigned Dean beside her. "Actually, you decide. My dish really can’t wait any longer!" With that, she jogged hurriedly back to the kitchen.
"Alright, let them on board." Chu Yuanyi waved a hand, feeling somewhat drained.
Aside from Wen Ningyue and Wang Bin, who came from relatively affluent families, the other four hailed from ultra-powerful, elite aristocratic clans. Chu Yuanyi felt drained because he couldn’t guarantee their safety. However, with their backing, Gan Lan’s future path would undoubtedly be much smoother.