It was the weekend, so Gan Lan woke up a little late. She usually got up at six or seven, but today she slept in until almost eight-thirty.
She hurried to wash up, then stir-fried the river snails and prepared the bone broth. Only then did she let out a sigh of relief.
Sitting in her chair, she enjoyed a breakfast of cake and milk. She wasn’t too fond of sweet breakfasts; it felt as if she hadn’t eaten anything at all, and her stomach still felt a bit empty.
DING DONG. "You have a visitor."
Gan Lan took a sip of milk and stood up to open the door, wondering who would visit so early in the morning.
"Hehe, surprise!" Wen Ningyue and Wang Bin appeared outside the door, and Wen Ningyue greeted Gan Lan with a bright smile.
"What brings you two here?" Gan Lan asked, feeling a bit confused as she stepped aside to let them in.
"We wanted to see the Wolf King with our own eyes. We were afraid that if we came too late, you would have already shipped it out," Wang Bin chuckled, walking in with familiar ease.
"Exactly! I really wanted to see the Wolf King in person. I even brought my camera to take photos with it!" Wen Ningyue raised the camera in her hand. "The Wolf King is the subject of my next article. I’ve even thought of the title! I’m calling it ’My Sweet Time with the Wolf King’."
Lines formed on Gan Lan’s forehead. "Sweet time," indeed; she knew they clearly just wanted to eat it!
"Wang Bin, stop wiping your drool. I saw that! How could you want to eat such a cute little wolf?" Gan Lan teased.
"It just smells too good. It smells like Tian Tian, with a milky aroma, and I wonder what it tastes like."
Hearing this, Gan Lan knew exactly what they were after. She went to fetch the leftover cake trimmings from yesterday and offered them to the two who were practically salivating over the Wolf King.
"This is some extra meat from the wolf. Do you want to eat it?" Gan Lan asked, tempting them as she pushed the plate forward.
Wen Ningyue put down her camera, picked up a small square of cake, and stuffed it into her mouth. "Mmm! It’s so delicious—sweet but not cloying, soft yet a bit chewy. This is amazing! I can’t believe wolf meat tastes this good! I need to eat more so I can include my thoughts on eating the Wolf King’s meat in my article," she added, grabbing a second cake square.
Meanwhile, Wang Bin was popping the cake squares into his mouth one by one. He nodded continuously as Wen Ningyue spoke, and Gan Lan wondered if his neck was getting tired from all that nodding.
Seeing them eat so furiously, Gan Lan worried they might choke and went to pour them some milk. "Did you guys not have breakfast? You look like you’ve been starving for days."
"We did, but for some reason, the moment I walked into your dorm, I suddenly got hungry," Wang Bin said, patting his chest as he swallowed a large mouthful of cake.
"Yes, exactly! I feel the exact same way!" Wen Ningyue quickly agreed.
Gan Lan fell silent for a moment before asking, "Then do you guys want a bowl of snail rice noodles later? Or BBQ pork rice noodles and beef rice noodles are fine too."
"Are the beef rice noodles and BBQ pork rice noodles new dishes? I want to try both! I can eat them all!" Wang Bin said sheepishly.
"Me too, me too! I want two bowls as well! Is that okay, my dearest Gan Lan?" Wen Ningyue set down her cake and leaned in, acting coy.
What else could Gan Lan do? When a gorgeous woman acted this cute with her, she had no choice but to agree. She glanced at Wang Bin, who was grinning foolishly, and let out a soft chuckle. "I’ll go make them now. It won’t take long."
Since she was cooking for these two friends, she figured she might as well make portions for her other four friends too. After all, she was a fair and gentle person.
She sliced the braised beef into thin pieces and set them aside, followed by the BBQ pork. Then, she blanched the rice noodles and placed them into the prepared bowls. She cooked the washed greens in the broth, added them to the bowls, and layered the braised beef on top of the rice noodles. After pouring two ladles of rich, savory bone broth over everything, she garnished it with a pinch of cilantro. The braised beef rice noodles were done. The BBQ pork rice noodles followed the same process. She just added some pickled green beans, poured the broth over, and sprinkled chopped green onions on top to finish.
In total, she made thirteen bowls. One of them was a mixed beef and BBQ pork bowl just for herself, since she could only stomach one bowl and decided to combine both meats.
She had the robot package the remaining portions to ship to her other four friends. Then, she called out from the kitchen, "Food is ready!" Picking up her own bowl, she walked out and told the two approaching her, "Eat one bowl first, and put the other one in the temperature-controlled box. If you just leave it out, the rice noodles will soak up too much broth and get too soft, which won’t taste good."
"Got it!" The two bolted straight for the counter where the rice noodles were set.
WHOOSH. A gust of wind brushed past Gan Lan’s face, blowing her long hair back.
Gan Lan was utterly ignored. She wondered, "Am I no longer their beloved goddess?!"
"This smells absolutely incredible!" Wang Bin picked up his bowl and took a huge gulp of the broth. The delicious, savory liquid warmed his entire body.
Wen Ningyue was completely focused on slurping her noodles. "This beef is so good. The more you chew, the more flavorful it gets!"
Meanwhile, at the training grounds.
"Commander, you have a package!" a tall, burly guy with a dark complexion shouted at Yan Yifei. He walked into the room carrying a temperature-controlled box and waved it in front of him. "Commander, is this another loving bento sent by one of your fangirls? Do you want it?"
Yan Yifei, who was wiping his sweat, paused for a moment. People often sent him things in the past, but he always rejected them and had them returned to the sender.
"Didn’t I say not to accept these things? Return it."
"But the robot said his name was Yi, and that you’d know who sent it if I told you. He also said you definitely wouldn’t refuse it, so I brought it back."
Hearing this, the corners of Yan Yifei’s lips curled up slightly. He took the temperature-controlled box from the dark-skinned guy’s hands. "Understood. If there’s nothing else, you can leave."
"Commander? Don’t we still have one more training session? Are we skipping it?" the dark-skinned guy’s eyes lit up as he asked.
"Push it to the afternoon. Go get something to eat first," Yan Yifei said nonchalantly.
The others who were training looked at Yan Yifei in surprise. Was he usually this easy to talk to? Could this package be from his sweetheart? He was hiding it too well!
"Is the Commander in love? That’s the first time I’ve ever seen him smile like that!" the dark-skinned guy whispered to the muscle guy behind him.
"You said it! Who in the world managed to capture our Princess Yan’s heart? That poor soul," the muscle guy said sympathetically.
Yan Yifei’s smile froze as he cast a cold glare at the two idiots. Did they really think he couldn’t hear their whispers? And why would the person who captured his heart be considered "poor"?
"Xie Yi, Xie Si! You two have extra training this afternoon!" Leaving those words behind, Yan Yifei leisurely walked away with the temperature-controlled box in hand.
"Just extra training? The Commander really has gotten gentler!"
"Looks like our Commander is finally taken. Tsk, tsk, I wonder who the poor girl is."
"Alright, stop gossiping, you two. You’re almost as bad as Lu Ziyu! Are you trying to take his spot as the gossip king just because he’s not here?"
Xie Yi and Xie Si both raised their fists and shook them. "You want to fight?"
The tall guy who had just spoken snorted. Putting on an expression that said he couldn’t be bothered with them, he simply walked outside.
Meanwhile, Yan Yifei was enjoying the loving bento supposedly sent by his admirer. Hearing them say Gan Lan was his admirer didn’t make him feel repulsed at all; instead, it made his face feel a little hot.
He thought he was truly sick.