Gan Lan looked at the stream of adorably silly comments flooding her live room. Being defended by so many people truly left her feeling moved and warmed.
In truth, she had already earned a lot from the one-hundred-point gifts alone. Almost everyone who entered her stream would tip hundreds or even thousands of Li Credit Points, making her live room’s overall revenue quite substantial.
She now had over six hundred million fans. Of course, this couldn’t compare to the mega-stars whose fan bases were counted in the trillions, or even tens and hundreds of trillions.
"I’ll take you all calling me silly as a compliment," Gan Lan chuckled. She then walked over to the pot where the pig skin was boiling, lifted the lid, and peeked inside. "Our pig skin is ready."
She took out the pig skin, ran it under cold water, scraped off the excess fat, and sliced it into strips.
[Mutton Skewer Lover]: *AWOOO! The junior’s knife skills amaze me every single time. The cuts are so neat!*
[One Bite Roast Shrimp]: *I feel like even the streamer’s cooking is full of artistic flair. I really love it.*
Putting down her knife, Gan Lan needed to boil the pig skin strips for another half hour. However, she utilized some advanced futuristic tech to finish the boiling process in just three minutes. She didn’t know if this would affect the taste, but half an hour was simply too long to wait. She had no choice but to test out the tech.
She poured out the rich broth from the boiled pig skin and once again used the futuristic tech to flash-chill it for three minutes.
Gan Lan pressed her finger against the chilled pork jelly. It was soft, tender, and perfectly bouncy.
She diced the pork jelly, added it to the meat filling she had marinated earlier, and stirred everything evenly. Then, she rolled the dough into a long strip, cut it into small portions, and rolled each portion into a flat circular wrapper—thick in the middle and thin at the edges. She flattened a wrapper and placed a scoop of filling in the center.
Using her thumb and index finger, she deftly pinched and pleated the edges to seal the soup dumpling.
Resting the finished dumpling on her palm, Gan Lan held it right up to the camera for her live room audience to see. "Alright, this is the soup dumpling we’ll be making today."
[Crispy Tender Chicken Wings]: *The junior has such nimble hands! Just a few quick swooshes, and she folded a perfect dumpling. It’s so pretty!*
[Pig Trotters Are True Love]: *I gave it a try, but as someone who is all thumbs, I just folded it into a lumpy mess. I clearly followed the junior’s technique, too. SOB SOB.*
[Sky Blue]: *How could an ordinary person possibly make something like this properly?*
Gan Lan had the robots scan the soup dumpling so they could follow along and make them too. Immediately, her workload lightened significantly.
The dumplings made by the robots were just as perfectly standardized as Gan Lan’s. It seemed she would be able to produce larger batches of these kinds of foods in the future!
[Hot Pot Balls]: *Robots really are on another level! They made them so beautifully. I can’t even compare to a robot anymore!*
[Feiran]: *...*
[Sky Blue]: *Hahaha, the Captain definitely messed up again! Did you turn it into a giant, ugly, unrecognizable lump of garbage? The culinary disaster lives up to his name!*
[Hot Pot Balls]: *You’re dead. The Captain just left and is heading toward your dorm. A moment of silence for you.*
"We’ll steam one basket first. Put them in the steamer with cold water and steam for ten minutes. While we wait, we can continue folding the rest of the soup dumplings."
Gan Lan left robots Yi, Er, and San to fold the dumplings, while the remaining two were sent to skewer beef.
[My Life Is Too Hard]: *I feel like I can already smell the aroma! I wonder if these soup dumplings will taste good considering how many steps they require. Looking forward to it!*
[Binbin]: *Nonsense! Anything produced by our junior is a guaranteed masterpiece. They’ll definitely be delicious! I’m going to line up at her stall right now.*
[Moonlit Grace]: *Doesn’t your department have classes this afternoon? I can’t believe a model student like you is skipping class! Bring a portion back for me!*
[Handsome Mingyu]: *Junior, here I come! I’m already at your stall. I’m first in line!*
[The green of the Qingtuan is really beautiful]: *Why am I not a student at Mingzong? T.T*
[Love Good Food]: *I’m so jealous! I don’t care, I’m applying to Mingzong for university too. I want to be the streamer’s schoolmate!*
[Immortal Barbecue]: *Mingzong welcomes you all! Not only can you be schoolmates with the streamer, but you can also eat all sorts of delicious foods made by her!*
Gan Lan had been keeping track of the steaming time. Seeing that there were only two minutes left before the dumplings were done, she happened to catch the comments about wanting to attend Mingzong. Somewhat pleasantly surprised, she said, "You are all welcome to become my schoolmates! When you do, I’ll teach you how to cook delicious dishes, and you can also eat the food I make!"
Gan Lan casually gave her school a wave of free advertising.
"Our soup dumplings are ready!"
Gan Lan took down the basket of steamed soup dumplings, added more cold water to the pot, and continued steaming the next batch.
[Sky Blue]: *AWOOO! So hot, so hot! I feel like my tongue has been burned! But it’s so delicious and savory! There’s actually soup inside! This is amazing!*
[My Life Is Too Hard]: *HISS... so hot! Even though I’m burning my mouth, I still can’t resist swallowing it!*
Reading the comments, Gan Lan laughed in amusement. "You aren’t supposed to bite directly into a soup dumpling like that. Of course you’ll burn yourselves if you eat it that way, and you’ll get juice all over your hands. That’s such a waste! The soup is the absolute essence of this dumpling!"
As she spoke, Gan Lan picked up a small saucer to prevent the dumpling skin from breaking. She then carefully picked up a soup dumpling with her chopsticks, demonstrating the proper way to eat it to her live room audience.
She gently bit a small hole into the dumpling wrapper, blew on it to cool it down, and slowly sucked out the broth. Instantly, the piping hot, savory, and aromatic soup completely conquered her taste buds!
Gan Lan narrowed her eyes in pure enjoyment. After drinking all the broth, she devoured the rest of the dumpling in two bites. It was rich and savory without being greasy. Life was truly worth living!
[Flower Pastry Is True Love]: *Ahhh! What kind of heavenly dumpling is this? I’m absolutely in love with it!*
[Feiran]: *Delicious ^^*
[Hot Pot Balls]: *So delicious ^^. Our junior has never let me down. It’s too good!*
[Sky Blue]: *I’m going to cry! WUWU, this is incredibly tasty. I could die happy at this very moment!*
[Surprised Beggar Chicken]: *Junior! I’m already in line. Hurry up and come out! So many people are waiting for you. Can’t wait to try the real thing!*
[The green of the Qingtuan is really beautiful]: *Junior, could you sell a few in the live room? Let’s see who has the fastest hands!*
"I will now sell two hundred soup dumplings in the live room, with two dumplings per portion and a limit of one portion per account! Good luck, everyone!"
Prompted by the viewer’s suggestion, Gan Lan figured she might as well start selling a small batch in her live room from now on. After all, her viewers from other galaxies were quite pitiful—they could only watch but never taste. Even though two hundred portions were barely anything, at least someone would get to eat them, right?
[My Life Is Too Hard]: *Junior, you are the best! My goddess is so understanding and considerate!*
[Immortal Barbecue]: *Even if she sells them in the live room, you guys won’t be able to snag one anyway! I’m off to line up in person! Hmph, eat your hearts out!*
[Spicy Crab Is The Best]: *I’m so mad! I want to transfer schools! I’m going to Mingzong! I want to eat soup dumplings too!*
Gan Lan packed a total of two hundred and eight portions. Two of those portions were meant for the Dean and Professor Ye, each containing six dumplings.
Her six friends also received boxes of six. Gan Lan planned to always include them whenever she cooked anything in the future. After all, they were considered friends now. They had helped her out a lot, and their virtual gifts were always calculated in the hundreds of millions. The only decent thing she could offer in return was her own handmade food.
"For the viewers who managed to buy a portion, please send me your addresses via private message now, and I’ll ship them out to you. Be quick, though! Send them within five minutes, or the offer expires!"
Gan Lan had the robots handle the shipping while she gathered all the tools and ingredients she needed for her food stall. She smiled at her live room audience and said, "Alright then, let’s head out and set up the stall!"
[My Life Is Too Hard]: *I think my screen name is cursed. Why, oh why, did I fail to snatch a portion again?!*
[Immortal Barbecue]: *I’ll eat it for you later! I’m already in line! I’m number ten, hahahaha! Be jealous!*