Just as Gan Lan returned to her dorm after closing her stall, she received a comms call from the dean.
"You need to get ready. You’ll be leaving for Banan Star in five days."
She froze upon hearing his words. "Dean, don’t I still have ten days left?" she asked in confusion.
"You do have ten days, but you need to go early to participate in a friendly match. After that, the official competition will be held at a different location. I haven’t received the exact details yet, but the friendly match is definitely confirmed."
"Okay. I understand, thank you for the heads-up, Dean."
Since she still had five days, there was enough time. She could stream for another two days and then spend three days making the Phoenix Cake she had promised Wu Mingyu. The timing would be perfect. A Phoenix wasn’t as easy to make as a wolf, which could be finished in a single day, so it would likely take a bit longer. That meant she needed to put a little more effort into her streams over the next two days.
Early the next morning.
Gan Lan grabbed a quick breakfast and immediately got to work, simmering bone broth and stir-frying spices for her snail rice noodles. After reading for a while and eating a bowl of noodles, she started browsing the ingredient shops.
She had already decided on the menu: the "Four Heavenly Kings" of Cantonese morning tea—Crystal Shrimp Dumplings, dry-steamed siu mai, barbecue pork buns, and egg tarts. She also planned to add sticky rice chicken and soy milk. Since there was such a wide variety, she would dedicate the remaining two days to making Cantonese morning tea dishes.
She placed an order for egg tart molds at a hardware store, which would take an hour to produce the quantity she needed. Once she had purchased all the ingredients, she turned on her stream.
Waving to the viewers flooding into the channel, she chuckled softly. "Good afternoon, everyone. We have quite a lot to make today. I expect this will take up your entire afternoon and evening."
[Immortal Barbecue]: Junior, what’s the special occasion today? An afternoon and an evening stream... Are you making a giant cake? Wahhh, I want one so badly!
[Roast Meat Bibimbap]: Sigh, didn’t the streamer say she wasn’t taking any more cake orders this month? Changing from one order a day to one order a month is pure torture.
"I won’t be taking orders for 3D cakes next month either," Gan Lan said. Seeing the viewers discussing the cakes, she realized she had been so busy that she forgot to announce the suspension of her orders. "I’ll probably have to take a leave of absence from streaming as well because I’m heading to Banan Star for a competition. Today, we’re making six different types of food. Let’s start with the simplest: a sweet soy milk drink. That way, you can sip on some soy milk while you wait for the rest of the dishes."
[Choubei is Delicious]: What! You won’t even stream during the competition? Ahhh, this channel is my life support right now! What will I do without you?
[Love Gan Lan Love Choubei]: Junior, last year’s competition lasted for half a month. Does that mean we won’t get to eat your food for two whole weeks? Life is hopeless!
"First, we’ll soak the soybeans. Once they’ve absorbed enough water, we can blend them into soy milk. For now, we’ll set them aside to soak." After dealing with the soybeans, Gan Lan took out the other ingredients that needed to be hydrated in advance. "Next, we’ll wash the sticky rice clean and soak it in fresh water as well."
By the time she finished washing a large bucket of sticky rice, her hands were a bit sore. Three of her robots were out selling snail rice noodles, while the remaining two were busy washing ingredients. She was severely short-handed. Her two apprentices were currently in class and likely wouldn’t arrive until later, which left her doing all the heavy lifting.
[Hot Pot Balls]: Ah! Today is such a feast. I can’t wait! Junior, how do you fit so many recipes in your head?
[Feiran]: Are you really comparing yourself to her? Your head is just full of garbage.
[Sky Blue]: Hahaha, well said! His head is full of garbage!
[Feiran]: And yours is full of mysterious fluids!
[The green of the Qingtuan is really beautiful]: The big shot seems to be in a bad mood today! He’s actually roasting people! Front row seats to the civil war!
Gan Lan brought out the peeled and deveined shrimp, using the back of her knife to mince the meat into a paste. There was simply too much, so she called over robot San to help her chop. She then diced and minced some fatty pork, having robot Wu scan her movements and take over the task.
She chopped some washed scallions and added them to a container along with the minced shrimp paste and fatty pork. After tossing in a pinch of sugar, chicken bouillon, and salt, she stirred everything evenly in a clockwise direction. She also marinated some whole shrimp with a little salt, mixing them well.
In a clean container, she combined wheat starch, cornstarch, and salt, mixing them thoroughly before pouring in boiling water. She stirred continuously while adding the water until no dry flour remained, then covered it with a lid to let it rest for a few minutes. Once rested, she took the dough out, kneaded it until smooth, and added lard, working it into a uniform ball.
Wheat starch was essentially processed flour. By washing flour in water, the gluten and other substances were separated. The gluten became seitan, and what remained was wheat starch.
She rolled the dough into a long strip, cut it into small pieces, and flattened them into thin wrappers.
[Did You Eat Today]: This feels like making standard dumplings. Didn’t the dumplings from last time have this exact same step?
Gan Lan had a robot take over rolling out the wrappers so she could rest for a moment. Spotting the comment, she replied, "That’s right. Today, we’re making Crystal Shrimp Dumplings. Although they’re both called dumplings, the ingredients and methods used are completely different, and the textures are wildly different too!"
Pulling up a chair across from robot San, Gan Lan picked up a wrapper, scooped in the prepared filling along with a whole shrimp, and sealed it. She quickly folded fifty of them, placed them in a bamboo steamer, and set them to steam over high heat for about five minutes before returning to fold more. Robot Wu also came over to help assemble the dumplings, leaving San to handle rolling out the wrappers.
[The Silk Tree Blossoms Have Bloomed]: Me, me, me! I can smell it! It smells like shrimp, so fragrant.
[Surprised Beggar Chicken]: Junior, the aroma is wafting out. Are they almost ready?
[Binbin]: I’m so excited! It feels like Junior never makes the exact same dish twice on stream. Right now, I’m really craving lamb skewers!
Gan Lan was thoroughly engrossed in wrapping the Crystal Shrimp Dumplings. The process was surprisingly addictive. Suddenly, a massive Cosmic Starship special effect exploded across the screen, snapping her back to reality.
Server-Wide Broadcast: [Hearing the Sound of Rain] said to [Come and have some barbecue!]: "Streamer, the shrimp dumplings are ready! I’m so nervous sending my first Cosmic Starship."
"Our Crystal Shrimp Dumplings are ready. Thank you for the reminder, but please make sure you only send gifts within your financial means." Gan Lan stood up, walked over to the steamer, and swapped it out for a fresh batch. "If you accidentally send the wrong gift, or if you secretly used your parents’ hard-earned money, I will issue a full refund as long as you provide sufficient proof," Gan Lan said gently to her viewers as she placed the finished steamer directly on the table.
[Hearing the Sound of Rain]: Hehe, don’t worry, streamer. These are Credit Points I earned myself. I can still afford to eat! I just like you so much and wanted you to notice me!
"I can see you whenever you talk in the chat. I have a photographic memory, you know! You’ve sent exactly one hundred and sixty-two messages in total. There’s no need to send huge gifts just to get my attention—I’m always keeping an eye on you guys!"
Gan Lan lifted the lid of the steamer, revealing the translucent, gleaming Crystal Shrimp Dumplings. "Quick, quick, let’s taste test together." She picked up a dumpling with her chopsticks, blew on it, and eagerly bit off half. She then held the remaining half right up to the camera lens to tempt her viewers.
[Feiran]: Beautiful and delicious ^^ Junior, you are truly amazing.
[Blooming Beauty, Moonlit Grace]: I’m in love! The aesthetics, the taste! It’s so wildly different from the last batch of dumplings, but equally delicious!
[Handsome Mingyu]: Holy crap! What kind of immortal shrimp dumplings are these? I was a little repulsed when I saw the pork fat earlier, but... so damn good!
Gan Lan popped the remaining half of the dumpling into her mouth. It was smooth, tender, and incredibly savory. The richness of the lard perfectly complemented the sweet, fresh taste of the minced and whole shrimp. It was absolute culinary perfection!