Gan Lan opened the streaming room and waved to the viewers pouring in. "Hello, everyone. A single day apart feels like three autumns."
Immortal Barbecue: [Sob sob, I didn’t get to eat barbecue yesterday, and now my whole body feels awful. Junior, I finally get to see you again. This is great!]
Love Ugly Shellfish, Love Kale: [Junior! Why did you refund my Credit Points? That was pocket money I specially saved up for you. I’m so sad you returned it.]
My Life is So Hard: [Yeah, Junior, why did you refund it? That was my pocket money to buy you snacks! You actually refunded tens of thousands of Credit Points!! I’m angry, so angry!]
Retreat: [She even refunded my five hundred Credit Points. At first, I thought she felt it was too little!]
Sky Blue: [You guys got your hundreds refunded, but she even refunded my tens of millions! Tens of millions can’t be considered a small amount, right?]
Feiran: [Why the refund?]
...
Gan Lan looked at the densely packed bullet screen, which was full of people asking about the refunds. Feeling a bit helpless, she said, "I appreciate the thought, thank you. I just don’t want you to spend so much money. Money is hard to earn!"
Barbecue Rice Bowl: [But we want to spend money on you. These Credit Points weren’t stolen or robbed; I earned them myself!]
Feiran: [I earned these myself. I didn’t ask anyone for them.]
In Love With Spicy Crab: [Although I didn’t earn this myself, it’s my pocket money that I scrimped and saved. How can spending it on you be considered spending too much?]
Gan Lan was speechless. She thought it actually made a lot of sense.
Gan Lan stopped trying to explain and just leaned into it, acting shamelessly. "Anyway, I refunded it! What are you going to do about it!?"
Everyone: [...]
Immortal Barbecue: [When our Junior acts shamelessly, she’s actually... quite cute?]
Blooming Beauty, Moonlit Grace: [Upstairs, be confident, remove the question mark! She’s explosively cute!]
Binbin: [Yeah, not only is she cute, but she also cooks so well. I want to be sisters with you!]
Feiran: [...Yeah.]
Seeing the shift in the streaming room’s tone, Gan Lan smiled smugly. "Then let’s start learning how to cook." Just as she took out the squid, she saw the screen explode with gifts again.
System Notification: [Streamer ’Come and have some barbecue!’ received twenty Cosmic Starships from ’Feiran’.] Broadcasted across the entire network.
Network Broadcast: [’Feiran’ says to ’Come and have some barbecue!’: If you refund it, I’ll send it again, doubled.]
Immortal Barbecue: [Haha! Beautifully done, boss!]
Binbin: [Front row to watch the big boss! Junior got slapped in the face, didn’t she? Hehehehe.]
Gan Lan was dumbfounded. "What’s going on? Didn’t I close the gifting channel for anything over one hundred Credit Points? How can they still send them? This isn’t logical!"
System Notification: [Streamer ’Come and have some barbecue!’ received twenty-one Cosmic Starships from ’Sky Blue’.] Broadcasted across the entire network.
Network Broadcast: [’Sky Blue’ says to ’Come and have some barbecue!’: Junior, although you closed the streaming room’s gifting channel, Crown Users who spend over ten million are not restricted! Hehe.]
Gan Lan’s expression turned slightly sour as she wondered why there was such a rule and why she hadn’t known about it.
Love Ugly Shellfish, Love Kale: [Although I haven’t upgraded to a Crown User yet, I’m almost there.]
System Notification: [Streamer ’Come and have some barbecue!’ received ten million Skateboard Flying Cars from ’Love Ugly Shellfish, Love Kale’.]
System Notification: [Congratulations to ’Love Ugly Shellfish, Love Kale’ on upgrading to a Crown User.]
Gan Lan cupped her fists and bowed. "...Bosses, I was wrong! I was really wrong. Stop sending gifts. Look, the number of viewers in the room is almost at a hundred million. What if it crashes again!"
System Administrator: [The streamer doesn’t need to worry. Your streaming room has been upgraded to the highest level, enough to accommodate ten billion viewers.]
My Life is So Hard: [Hahaha, this face-slapping came way too fast! Junior, your current expression goes so well with a meal!]
Love Ugly Shellfish, Love Kale: [Actually, I don’t really want to laugh either... hahahahahaha!]
Gan Lan rubbed her stiff cheeks, adjusted her expression, and restored her gentle smile. "Hello to the new viewers. Let’s learn how to cook together! As the old saying goes, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach! This saying applies to both men and women, so make sure you study hard!"
My Life is So Hard: [You’ve already successfully captured my heart!]
Love Ugly Shellfish, Love Kale: [Even though I’m a girl, my heart is already yours! You don’t need to capture it; I’ll personally offer it to you! Love you, sending hearts~]
Sky Blue: [I’m done for, I’ve been captured too. What do I do, what do I do!?]
Feiran: [...]
Hot Pot Balls: [I’ve also... been...]
Just Looking: [Hmm... I’m a newbie and don’t understand, but it seems very impressive!]
Gan Lan... Gan Lan felt mentally exhausted. She didn’t even want to talk anymore, but she still had to explain the food.
"Today, our menu features three items: grilled squid, Chinese Herbal Jelly, and flower pastries." Gan Lan pointed to each ingredient, seasoning, and spice, introducing them one by one. "Those who want to cook along can go to the Star Network to buy them now. I’ll wait for you for five minutes."
Gan Lan tidied up the kitchen. "Have you bought them? Let’s start cooking now. First, we’ll make the filling for the flower pastries since it needs to be refrigerated. Mix the rose jam and cooked glutinous rice flour evenly, then put it in the fridge to chill. After that, we just have to wait."
Gan Lan cleaned a squid on the spot, explaining as she went so the viewers could see clearly.
"Alright, this is how you clean it. Remove the internal organs and the top layer of black film, then just wash it." She placed the squid into a large, clean basin nearby.
"We’ll let the robot clean the rest. Now, let’s start making the Chinese Herbal Jelly.
"Wrap the herbal jelly seeds in cheesecloth, rinse them briefly under the tap, and then place them into the basin of cooled boiled water we prepared earlier to wash. Put on your gloves and gently rub and knead it with your hands until the seeds no longer produce any sticky liquid, until they feel dry."
Gan Lan set the raw herbal jelly mixture aside. "Next, dissolve the lime powder in cold boiled water and let it settle.
"After the lime water has settled, discard the cloudy water and residue. We only need the clear water on top. Slowly pour it into the raw herbal jelly mixture we just kneaded, stir it clockwise, and let it sit to solidify.
"This Chinese Herbal Jelly is now complete. By the time we finish the other two dishes, the Chinese Herbal Jelly will have fully solidified."
Gan Lan looked at the bullet screen. "Have you finished?"
Everyone: [...It looks so hard. We don’t want to make it at all; we just want to eat.]
After asking, Gan Lan didn’t bother checking the bullet screen anymore. Honestly, if even one in a thousand people actually tried cooking along, she would be completely satisfied. She really didn’t dare to expect too much.
"Now, add the brown sugar we prepared earlier into the boiling water in the pot. Turn the heat to low and stir slowly to prevent it from burning." Gan Lan stirred continuously with one hand. "Do you see the small bubbles in the pot? At this point, you can turn off the heat, scoop it out, and let it cool. The syrup is ready! This syrup is meant to be paired with the Chinese Herbal Jelly.
"Of course, you can also pair it with milk, fruit, honey, or anything like that! However, my favorite is syrup paired with Chinese Herbal Jelly, so I only made one type. You can try other flavors; they’re also very good."
Gan Lan placed the syrup next to the Chinese Herbal Jelly to let them sit together.
"Next, we’ll start marinating the cleaned squid! Add the spices and seasonings we prepared earlier, mix them evenly, and marinate for an hour. Since you guys are missing the barbecue sauce, you can use oyster sauce as a substitute. The taste is also quite good.
"Now we’re going to start making the flower pastries. Add white granulated sugar and lard to the all-purpose flour, then pour in hot boiled water. Knead it into a dough, and then place it in a plastic wrap bag to rest.
"After it has rested, add the shortening, mix it evenly, and knead it into a dough. Divide it into small portions. Take a piece of the water-oil dough, flatten it, wrap the shortening inside, and use the webbing of your hand to rotate and seal the edges."
...
"Wrap the refrigerated rose filling we made earlier inside, seal the edges, flatten it, and bake it in the oven for twenty minutes. Then it will be done."
Everyone: [...It’s too hard. We really can’t make it, sob sob~]