There's a lot of meat, too much for one stewing, so Yu Sheng processed them into several different dishes.
The saying goes: "First-timers are clueless, second-timers familiar, and on the third, add green onions, ginger, and cooking wine"—ancient humans likely followed this process exploring and experimenting with nature's gifts in the early days of civilization.
Yu Sheng hummed a tune, cutting the largest portion of meat into big chunks, blanched them to remove the scum, then added star anise, fennel, cloves, cinnamon, and other stewing spices to a clay pot. After adding the meat, he poured in enough water, salt, soy sauce and deodorizing cooking wine, then let it slowly stew on the stove.
While the meat was stewing, he stir-fried the remaining pieces with chili peppers and garlic shoots, making two dishes. After tasting, he found the flavor fresh, fragrant, and well-balanced, the meat neither overcooked nor underdone, tender and smooth. But the specific flavor couldn't be likened to any known type of meat. If based on texture alone, it was somewhat similar to extremely tender beef.
The rest, he planned to process into cured meat for storage after confirming it wasn't problematic to consume... or maybe, after pickling and maturation, use an air fryer to dehydrate it into jerky? He hadn't tried that before and didn't know if it would work...
Yu Sheng was brimming with all sorts of ideas in his mind. He felt like a daring scientist exploring uncharted territories, delving into the realm of possibilities.
So, he stayed in the kitchen for nearly two hours, bustling about. Finally, after a lot of work, he opened the door and moved the plates, bowls, and the clay pot of stewed meat to the dining table, trip by trip.
Erin, from within the painting, looked on with a horror-stricken gaze at Yu Sheng bustling about, her face simultaneously displaying an "oh well, let him be" and a "No, you can't, you f*cking can't" contrasting expressions. After a while, she couldn't help but burst out, "You're not seriously thinking of eating that, are you? That's something brought from the Exotic Realm! Don't eat yourself to death!"
Yu Sheng looked up at Erin: "What if I told you I've already eaten it twice 'over there'?"
The conflicted expression on Erin's face instantly vanished, replaced only by horror: "…What?!"
"You see I'm still alive and kicking, so it should be fine. It would be a waste to throw away these hard-won spoils," Yu Sheng said matter-of-factly, "Do you know about hunting? This is my catch—I'll eventually bring back the entire thing and let it understand who's at the top of the food chain!"
Erin didn't respond, and Yu Sheng glanced at the stunned look on the doll-like lady's face, and out of curiosity, he probed further, "But seriously, has no one 'tasted' the 'entities' from the Exotic Realm? You said there are all sorts, right? There must be things that look edible."
"Who would try that!" Erin was frantically exasperated, "It's already good if it's not poison with some weird properties, let alone putting it in your mouth! And you've eaten it twice… You really ate it twice?"
"Yeah, but the first two times were raw slices. It was an emergency and no time for cooking, it was the kind of urgent situation where I would lose my life if I didn't eat it right away." Yu Sheng casually spoke while sitting down opposite Erin. He picked up a piece of meat with his chopsticks and threw it into his mouth, savoring it delightedly.
Erin was baffled, "Then... what was your reaction after eating it?"
"I died after eating it," Yu Sheng said very frankly.
"You still…" Erin instinctively exclaimed, then felt something was off—but she didn't know about Yu Sheng's resurrection, so she thought he was teasing her and glared angrily, "I'm serious!"
Yu Sheng grinned, finding the frantic state of the doll in the painting utterly amusing.
He realized he was starting to enjoy bantering with this doll-like figure.
Anyway, she couldn't jump out of the painting to headbutt him.
He still hadn't explained his resurrection to Erin, partly because at this stage Erin couldn't detect the process of his death, making it seem like a hoax, and also because there were many speculations about his changes that he wanted to confirm. He hoped to discuss these with Erin after understanding more.
However, Erin had no idea about the multitude of chaotic thoughts behind Yu Sheng's roguish smile. She couldn't help but glance again at the sumptuous spread on the table and then stared blankly at Yu Sheng as he chewed.
It looked... quite appetizing, and the color, after processing, was indistinguishable from regular meat, showing no signs of its initial eerie appearance.
"…Is it good?"
The painted doll-like figure couldn't hold back anymore and casually asked.
Yu Sheng immediately laughed, as if he had expected this moment, and nonchalantly picked up an empty bowl and plate from the table, serving a portion of the meal and soup for Erin and placing it in front of the painting.
"I didn't say I wanted…" Erin grumbled.
"You can't eat it anyway, so you don't need to care about the ingredients of these things, do you?" Yu Sheng interjected.
Erin pondered and felt it made sense, "Yes, right?"
So, she regained her composure, once more adopting a jovial expression as if her voice and smile persisted in front of the bowl and chopsticks arranged by Yu Sheng.
As they were halfway through their meal, the conversation inevitably turned back to their prior discussion about "professionals."
"Actually, no one has come looking for you yet, there's another possibility," Erin said, holding a teddy bear and sitting close to the edge of the frame, pondering aloud, "which is that some organization or official has already noticed something's off here, but they, using their professional judgment, have decided not to act immediately, or they haven't precisely located the connection point to the Exotic Realm and the related intelligence, so they can only arrange surveillance for now."
"Surveillance?"
"Yeah, maybe there's a bunch of plainclothes officers keeping watch outside your house right now. After all, you escaped back from the Exotic Realm on your own without waiting for a rescue. Whether it's because of your strength or luck, the professionals who handle these situations didn't have time to intervene, let alone locate you, so naturally they'd set up surveillance in the vicinity... These next couple of days, keep an eye out for any unfamiliar faces around here, maybe it's undercover agents, plainclothes detectives, investigative officers and such. It's just a matter of being vigilant, it won't stop you from checking out the small ads on nearby telephone poles..."
Yu Sheng ignored what she said about "small ads on the telephone poles" and lifted his eyes to glance outside the window.
Erin made it sound easy, just watch out for unfamiliar faces around here—how could he know who's unfamiliar! He had only been staying here for two months, and spent one of those months practically holed up at home all the time, plus his own slight face-blindness, there must be at least half the people around this place he would regard as strangers!
"Do you think the guy selling pancakes at the intersection looks like a plainclothes officer?" After suspiciously staring out the window for quite a while, Yu Sheng muttered to Erin.
"How would I know? I can't see."
"Oh, right, I forgot," Yu Sheng came to his senses, quickly got up to pick up Erin's frame, and moved it to the window nearby to face outside, "that one over there..."
"Doesn't look like it."
"So certain?"
"Nonsense, fifty seconds for a pancake with extras like sausage and egg. If it really was a plainclothes officer, in fifty seconds they'd barely get the oil brushed on right."
"...Sounds about right. What about the one putting screen protectors on phones next to him?"
"Doesn't look like it either—hand movements are too slick."
"Oh... Okay then, what about..."
"Stop guessing, it's pointless suspecting everyone. Plus, if there really was a professional tail, you definitely wouldn't be able to tell," Erin cut Yu Sheng off, "You'd be better off going out more in the next few days. You've got the scent of the Exotic Realm on you. Any of those professionals would notice it right away if they got close."
"...Alright, makes sense."
Yu Sheng sighed, unable to argue with her, and turned around to start clearing up the dishes on the dining table.
But just as he turned his head, he heard Erin yelling behind him, "Put me back first! I'm still lying here at the window!"
Yu Sheng sighed helplessly again, muttering as he moved Erin down from the windowsill, "Tsk, such a hassle."
"Then make me a body sooner so I can move on my own," the Erin from within the painting raised her eyelids, looking at Yu Sheng as he placed her on the dining table, and then added, "I feel like I'm more familiar with you today, so I'm asking again..."
Yu Sheng's mouth twitched upon hearing this.
Erin had mentioned that they weren't familiar enough to discuss "escape plans" before, so cooperation on this matter would have to wait until they got to know each other better. But he did not expect this mannequin to have such a flexible standard for "familiarity."
"Let's talk about it some more, I've got a ton of stuff to deal with now, at least wait until I've gotten through this period..."
"Yeah, sure," Erin was easy to persuade. She just nodded her head with a slight sense of loss, "Just don't forget about it!"
Then she went quiet for a little while, watching Yu Sheng tidying up the dishes on the table before starting to chatter again: "What are you going to do next? Ready to head out and look for telephone poles?"
"You really have a thing against telephone poles, huh?" Yu Sheng instantly gave her a glare, "I'm going upstairs to sleep now! After going through so much, I'm nearly dead tired!"
Erin gave an "Oh" and pointed towards the television set opposite the frame.
"Could you fix the TV first, the signal suddenly cut off, can't watch anything..."
Yu Sheng: "..."
Shortly after, he let out an especially heavy sigh.
Having been in such brief contact with this Beeper, he already started to miss his carefree, joyful solitary life.