Chapter 24: Learning to Cook From the Old Lady Selling Chestnuts

"The old lady selling chestnuts?"

This familiar and ethereal voice no longer frightened Chen Ye, but instead made him feel surprised.

I’ve been looking for it all day, and now it’s finally here!

Since the weirdness value has continued to increase, the Suona attainments have become more and more proficient, and the level of music theory has been improved...

Chen Ye noticed that his sense of hearing had become stronger and he was able to judge the direction of sounds more accurately.

Be still and listen carefully, and you can even roughly hear the distance between the sound source and yourself.

at this time.

Night has fallen quietly on the earth.

Unknowingly, the night of the second day of the strange era has arrived.

The light in Xining's alleys is very dim. Looking across the low old buildings in the alleys, you can see the neon lights of the city in the distance lighting up the night sky, but they cannot shine here.

"Roasted chestnuts with sugar, does anyone want to buy them?"

“Fresh roasted chestnuts with sugar…”

The ethereal and illusory cries kept coming from the alley. Sometimes they seemed to be far away, and sometimes they seemed to be nearby.

Chen Ye remained in a state of high nervousness and concentrated on observing the roads around him. His eyes seemed to be able to pierce the darkness. He skillfully walked around the chaotically placed trolleys and around several maze-like alleys. He suddenly paused slightly.

The shouting has disappeared.

The sounds coming and going from behind made it even more difficult for Chen Ye to follow.

Sometimes it seems to appear here, and sometimes it suddenly appears there...

Chen Ye pondered for a moment and was about to turn around and head to another alley...

The moment he turned around, a figure suddenly appeared in front of him!

Kick, kick, kick!

Almost instantly, Chen Ye took a few steps back like a cat with exploding hair, and a chill ran down his spine.

But soon, he saw a familiar trolley in the blurry outline in front of him.

Those pale hands slowly opened the lid of the pot, and the aroma of roasted chestnuts hit the nostrils.

"Can you please stop being so scary..."

Chen Ye almost cursed, but thinking that this old lady might become his cooking teacher later, he still had to understand the principle of respecting the teacher.

Life teaches people to be humble and polite.

He stepped up his feet slightly and stopped his stumbling figure with the extraordinary mobility granted by the [Wanderer's Boots].

When getting along with others, first of all, don't be afraid, and secondly, integrate into normal conversations.

As long as you follow the rules and get along normally, you'll be fine.

A friendly smile suddenly appeared on Chen Ye's face, as if he had found his long-lost biological mother. He expanded his arms and chest, making a hug, and greeted:

"The weather is really nice today!"

"It's just that the road was a little slippery and I almost fell."

"Grandma, you are old, so you have to be careful when walking."

The old woman selling chestnuts laughed and said: "Young people sometimes have slippery feet and slippery mouths. Unlike the old woman, I am older and my movements are not smooth even when frying sugar-fried chestnuts."

As soon as she finished speaking, she slowly picked up the spatula next to her, shoveled the roasted chestnuts in the pot into the oil paper bag, and said with a smile:

"Young man, it's so late at night, you must be very hungry, right?"

"Would you like to try some roasted chestnuts for free?"

The voice became ethereal again, as if it had some kind of magic power, and seemed to be spinning in my mind.

Chen Ye felt this dizzy feeling again.

But surprisingly, Chen Ye didn't feel unable to control his sinking consciousness this time, he just felt a little dizzy in his head.

However, the aroma of roasted chestnuts is not so fatally tempting, making it easier to remain rational.

"Is it because my weirdness value has increased?"

"Or...my hunger is not that strong, so my appetite is reduced."

"I've already eaten roasted chestnuts today, so naturally it's not that attractive."

Chen Ye found that compared to the last time, the bewitching power of this voice was no longer as strong.

He waved his hand and said with a smile: "Grandma, I have already eaten, but I haven't finished the bag of sugar-roasted chestnuts yet."

Before the old lady could speak, Chen Ye added:

"Your roasted chestnuts are so delicious, so naturally they can't be wasted. I'm afraid I won't be able to finish them, and it will be a pity to throw them away if they go bad."

The old woman selling chestnuts paused for a moment, then laughed and said:

"Yes, saving food is a virtue. There are not many young people who cherish food like you now."

Chen Ye smiled and changed the topic to today's main purpose:

"Grandma, you said last time that I had the ability to cook, so I could come to you to become your apprentice. Now, I feel like I already have this ability."

Hearing this, the old woman selling chestnuts squinted her eyes, seeming to observe Chen Ye carefully, and then nodded slightly:

"You do have the ability to cook."

But before Chen Ye could say anything, the old woman selling chestnuts suddenly sighed and said, "But there is a saying that goes well - it's hard for a clever woman to make a meal without rice."

"Today's ingredients have been stewed by me in one pot. Now they are all in the pot. There are no extra ingredients."

“If you want to truly learn to cook, you still need to use real ingredients so that you can control the heat and master the details of making different ingredients.”

"It's a pity that I don't have the ingredients now to teach you my true skills."

"Business has been really bad these days. I haven't sold a single bag of sugar-roasted chestnuts... Haha, you young people don't like to eat these healthy foods anymore. You all like to eat all kinds of messy things. If this continues, we will have no money to buy more."

This is a side quest for me... Do I have to find the ingredients first?

Chen Ye touched the three copper coins in his pocket. With his current assets, even if he wanted to buy ingredients, he probably couldn't buy much... What's more, coins are universal in "Strange Era", and he wants to keep some for emergencies.

What's more, where to buy ingredients, will it bring danger to himself, and whether the money on him is enough...

Even if it seems to be enough, it may not be an equal exchange. As long as this law is violated, it may bring fatal crisis to himself!

All kinds of problems made Chen Ye fall into silence about how to get ingredients.

But what is certain is...

The old lady selling chestnuts at least sincerely wants to teach her real skills.

He remembered that before the bloody countdown, many technical schools that mainly trained "chefs" did not even prepare ingredients for students, and they practiced cooking pots in the school all day long.

They still cooked a pot of sand.

After graduating from school, they were no different from ordinary apprentices. They needed to work in restaurants for a year or two before they had the opportunity to qualify as chefs.

At this moment, Chen Ye suddenly heard light footsteps not far away in the alley of Xining.

There were more than one person's footsteps!

There were at least four or five people!

Although he deliberately slowed down his movements and walked very lightly, there was not even a dog barking in the alley of Xining in the middle of the night. It was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

Chen Ye's hearing was several times more sensitive than before. He could distinguish these tiny footsteps in the dark. They should be people.

Moreover, judging from the frequency of their walking steps, they were too similar to ordinary people and too normal. In this world, they seemed a little abnormal.

Not surprisingly, they should be players!