When the Top Chef Transmigrated into a Scum Alpha (GL) - Chapter 11

“What, are you afraid I’ll harbor improper intentions toward you?”

“You’re a Qianyuan, and I’m a Kunze. If anyone should be afraid, shouldn’t it be me?”

Li Yuyan spoke half-truthfully, half-jokingly, and the way she looked at Shang Wumian carried a hint of teasing.

Every Qianyuan in the village wished they could find a chance to say a few words to her. Only when it came to Shang Wumian did she refuse to even visit more often.

This inevitably made Li Yuyan wonder. Had her face stopped being pretty?

Why could she not attract the other party at all?

Shang Wumian felt it was inappropriate, so she would not agree. She tried to discuss it with her. “Would lunch be all right?”

Li Yuyan thought about it, then chose to compromise. “Then you’ll have to add one more day.”

Shang Wumian agreed.

After watching her leave, Li Yuyan was in such a good mood that even when feeding the chickens, she scattered an extra handful of rice.

“Come, come, eat more rice and lay more eggs.”

“If you don’t lay eggs, I’ll stew you and eat you instead~”

Inside the simple chicken coop enclosed by a fence, the flock of chickens, unaware that they were currently being “threatened” by their owner, rushed to peck at the rice, occasionally fluttering off a few feathers.

They drifted lightly down to the ground.

As noon approached, the sun shone high overhead, though the heat falling from it was not especially fierce.

Holding the money she had borrowed, Shang Wumian did not hurry home. Instead, she found a shaded spot beside an old tree and sat down.

After coming here, she knew neither the people nor the place. Aside from Li Yuyan, whom she had met by chance, and Qu San, who often came to help around the house, she had no other familiar faces.

Shang Wumian sat in a daze for a while, then thought of Li Yuyan and Qu San’s settings in the original book.

Setting aside Li Yuyan’s entanglement with that scummy Qianyuan later on, she was actually someone with a hard life too.

Like Shang Wumian, she was not from this village.

Li Yuyan’s parents were greedy for money. When they heard that a wealthy Qianyuan family in Xihe Village wanted to buy a wife, they set their sights on their daughter, who had only just differentiated into a Kunze.

Coaxing and deceiving her, they actually tricked Li Yuyan into the bridal sedan.

But on the way to the wedding, Li Yuyan heard the people outside talking and realized that the person her parents wanted her to marry was actually an old male Qianyuan over sixty years old.

Naturally, she was unwilling. As she cried and made a scene, that wicked matchmaker stuffed a cloth bundle into her mouth and had her tied up and taken away by force.

But perhaps heaven had eyes. Li Yuyan’s so-called marriage partner drank too much wine on the wedding night and directly kicked the bucket.

With her Qianyuan-jun newly deceased, his matched Kunze was not allowed to remarry within three years.

After becoming a widow, Li Yuyan not only gained freedom, but also naturally inherited all the property he had left behind.

In a way, this could be considered a blessing in disguise.

As for Qu San, there were three brothers in his family, each more honest and simple than the last. The three brothers’ parents had died early. Before Qu Da came of age, they could only rely on the aid of kindhearted villagers and live together in mutual dependence.

Later, after Qu Er and Qu San grew up, the burden on Qu Da lightened a little, and he could occasionally buy one or two books to read.

Although their life was still poor, the good thing was that the brothers were united, and the household was harmonious.

When she had read the book before, she had only glimpsed a little of them. It was not the same as seeing flesh-and-blood people standing before her. Only after transmigrating here and interacting with them face-to-face did she realize that they were actually all very good people.

Just as Shang Wumian was lost in thought, a lively voice suddenly came from above her head.

“Sister Wumian, what are you sitting here thinking about~?”

Shang Wumian lifted her head and saw Ah Fu making a face at her.

She could not help laughing and stood up, rubbing the little girl’s head.

Ah Fu was used to it and did not dodge. Her whole heart and eyes were set on dragging Shang Wumian home to eat. “Let’s go home and eat! Let’s see what tasty food Sister Qingwan made this time.”

When she said this, she even secretly glanced at Shang Wumian.

Although Sister Wumian’s cooking was tastier…

Still! She definitely liked Sister Qingwan’s cooking more!

Lin Qingwan had steamed some rice, then copied the way Shang Wumian had previously mixed shredded radish by slicing the cucumbers Qu San had brought over that night into thin strips and tossing them with salt.

Cutting vegetables into strips and mixing them with salt counted as a method she had never tried before.

The village people’s usual method was to cut vegetables into chunks and boil them, or simply eat them raw.

The same had gone for last night’s eggs. Most people simply rolled them a few times in boiling water, then dipped them in a little soy sauce before eating them. Lin Qingwan had also never seen the method Shang Wumian used, frying them in oil.

Those strange and unusual ways Shang Wumian cooked—who knew how she had figured them out?

“Sister Qingwan, I brought Sister Wumian back!”

After Ah Fu entered from outside, she happened to see Lin Qingwan had already served the rice and was about to bring it to the table.

Without thinking, she walked over to help.

Since the little girl was so sensible, Shang Wumian naturally could not just stand there and wait to be served, so she joined in too.

When they were eating, Lin Qingwan especially praised Ah Fu. “Ah Fu is very sensible and helped carry the rice. So Sister will give you a reward.”

Ah Fu’s eyes sparkled, full of anticipation and curiosity.

Lin Qingwan smiled soundlessly in her heart, then took out a boiled egg as if performing a magic trick.

She tapped the egg against the corner of the table, dipped it in a small amount of soy sauce, and handed it to Ah Fu.

“Eat,” Lin Qingwan said softly.

The fried egg Shang Wumian had made before had tasted too stunning, so a simple boiled egg dipped in soy sauce seemed inferior by comparison.

But eggs were rare, and as Ah Fu tasted that familiar flavor, she still ate with great delight.

Lin Qingwan lifted her eyes to look at Shang Wumian, then took out another egg and placed it beside the other party’s bowl.

“Thank you for making the washboard. It’s very convenient.”

She did not say anything more, and her tone was ordinary, but it still could not stop Shang Wumian’s good mood.

This should count as… the female lead’s first show of goodwill toward her.

As Shang Wumian ate the egg, she thought.

One entire night in exchange for making the other party lower her guard toward her a little. Very worth it.

As the saying went, take a walk after meals, and longevity is yours.

After eating, in order to avoid indigestion, Shang Wumian decided to go out for a walk.

She had never been someone who liked sitting around waiting for death.

Even now that she had transmigrated into a book, she would not keep placing her hopes for survival on others.

The fact that Lin Qingwan had not yet proposed driving her away was undoubtedly a good thing.

But Shang Wumian did not think that, as a Qianyuan with no relation to the other party, she could forever cling to someone else’s home.

Now that her injuries had healed, her departure was only a matter of time.

Lin Qingwan might drive her away today, tomorrow, or even right now.

Once the other party opened her mouth, and Shang Wumian truly could not prove the value of her own existence, then she would have to leave.

The original book was the original book. Now was now.

There was no longer that despicable, vile scummy Alpha “Shang Wumian.” There was only her, Shang Wumian, who had accidentally transmigrated into a book and knew neither the people nor the place.

That scummy Alpha had taken a fancy to Lin Qingwan’s beauty and racked her brains trying to cling to her home.

Afterward, she had even gone so far as to take advantage of the female lead’s heat and forcibly mark her.

Shang Wumian would not take advantage of someone in danger, nor would she get involved with anyone the way things happened in the original book.

But out of instinct, she needed to find a way to survive in this unfamiliar world.

Without realizing it, Shang Wumian had walked to the east of the village.

The vendor selling “qiang cakes” still remembered her. Seeing her come over, he greeted her warmly.

“Qianyuan-jun, want to buy a few qiang cakes? They’re wrapped tightly in this cloth, still warm!”

Shang Wumian lifted her head at the sound, paused slightly, then answered, “Mm. Wrap two for me.”

Two cakes, two coins. Money in one hand, goods in the other.

During this, an idea suddenly came to Shang Wumian.

She thought she knew how to use the money she had borrowed from Li Yuyan.

Qiang cakes were thin and crisp, and they did not take up much room in the stomach.

But Shang Wumian had only just eaten lunch. She had gone out for a walk to digest, so naturally, she had not bought the cakes for herself.

She had bought them for Ah Fu.

In her eyes, Ah Fu was a child.

And since she was a child, she ought to have snacks from time to time.

After Shang Wumian returned home from outside, she went straight to the stove and busied herself.

Using the tools available, she mixed the rice liquid, then combined it with flour.

After thinking about it, she felt she should add an egg too, but in that case, the cost would rise by quite a bit.

After hesitating for a while, she decided not to add it for the first attempt and test the results first.

Shang Wumian’s hands were extremely nimble when cooking. In no time at all, she kneaded out a large lump of dough.

Afterward, she worked hard to press the dough flat, picked up a knife, and began cutting it into strips of equal width.

Once the noodles were cut, Shang Wumian put them into the pot, poured in hot oil to fry them, and calculated the heat in her heart.

Seeing Shang Wumian busying herself at the stove, Lin Qingwan did not know exactly what she was making, but she did not bother with her either and went straight back to her room.

When Shang Wumian worked, she was always completely focused, so she did not see the meaningful look in the other party’s eyes before she entered the room.

By now, she had already figured out the prices here and knew which ingredients were cheap and which were expensive.

Using those easily obtained, inexpensive ingredients, after spending quite a bit of time, Shang Wumian finally succeeded in drying several kinds of vegetables.

The results of her several hours of tinkering were first boiled that evening for Lin Qingwan and Ah Fu to try.

Ah Fu half-propped her chin in her hand and sniffed, feeling that the bowl of who-knew-what in front of her smelled very fragrant.

Shang Wumian handed her a pair of chopsticks. “I tried making a few instant noodle cakes. They taste very good after being boiled.”

“…Instant noodle cakes?” Another thing she had never heard of.

Ah Fu watched Sister Qingwan taste a bite first and saw a trace of surprise appear in her eyes, so she also picked up a large chopstickful and put it into her mouth.

After that, she did not speak again at all. She only focused wholeheartedly on eating the noodles, not leaving even the slightest bit of soup behind.

Only after finishing the entire bowl of noodles did Ah Fu lift her head, somewhat satisfied, and sigh. As usual, she stuck out her thumb and praised with a smile, “The ‘instant noodles’ Sister Wumian made are so yummy!”

This time, even Lin Qingwan nodded along, expressing approval.

It really was delicious. Not only were the noodles springy and firm, even rarer was the taste of the soup, which had an indescribable savory freshness.

Shang Wumian tasted it herself and likewise felt that it had relatively met her expectations. In her heart, she considered it. It seemed this homemade method could work.

Then the next step was to make more and think of a way to sell them to the people in the village.

After eating, Shang Wumian felt she had no energy, so she returned to her room first.

Ah Fu sat at the little wooden table where she usually did her homework and unconsciously furrowed her brows.

When Lin Qingwan saw this, she came over and asked her, “Ah Fu, what’s wrong? Did you run into another difficult question?”

Ah Fu shook her head. “No. I wanted to go find Sister Wumian to teach me calligraphy, but…”

“Sister Wumian seems very tired today. She’s been yawning the whole time.”

“Mm. Then let her rest early.” Lin Qingwan thought of the washboard the other party had stayed up all night polishing, then said softly to Ah Fu, “Tonight, I’ll accompany you while you practice calligraphy.”

Ah Fu nodded obediently. “Okay.”

Sister Qingwan’s writing was beautiful too.