Despite his results being less than optimal so far, Li Shui didn’t give up. When he had managed to make the mush, he showed it off to the camera, and then turned back to the video, grimacing when he realized that it had already continued to where goddess Tao was getting the almost finished quenelles out of the tray and onto the other one to bake them.

He scratched his head and then shrugged his shoulders. “Well, no need to worry. I remember this one! Anyway, even though I might not be doing this too well, it looked like a fairly easy recipe in general. I think after this, she just put these in a mold and then put that in the fridge.” Saying so, he started to do exactly that, taking the mush that he had made and putting it into the silicon tray that he had taken out before.

Meanwhile, there was a lull in the comment section before one of them couldn’t help but pipe up again.

Cat Dancing on a Wire: [Didn’t he forget something?]

Food Enthusiast: [Sure, he did. See the blender next to him? He didn’t prepare the fish. Goddess Tao even especially remarked on how she might have been able to do that earlier in the mini-episode. I can’t believe he actually forgot about that.]

Cuddly Lion: [Truth be told, I also only remembered when you said it just now. Li Shui put the fish so far to the side of the counter, I didn’t even see it. It really looked like he used up all of his ingredients.]

Food Enthusiast: [That is why if you don’t know the recipe by heart, you consult it. Really, he has three hours, and even though he was slow at the start, the time would be enough to make two portions even for him. He could’ve rewound the episode once again, and taken another look just to make sure. I’m afraid that if Xiao Ming already said in the mini-episode that goddess Tao’s dish was a little bland, then Li Shui’s will be even more so.]

Little Butterfly: [Is there even anything in there that would give this any taste?]

For a moment, nobody knew what to say. Then, the viewers started laughing again.

Cat Dancing on a Wire: [I feel like Li Shui is me. Just that I actually look at the recipe but then go ‘Nah!’ and that is why it turns out shit. He just refuses to look at the recipe in the first place, thinking that he already knows how it’s done.]

Cuddly Lion: [Well, he seemed fairly certain. Anyway, he did watch the episode yesterday and also should have gotten a glimpse at what goddess Tao did in between since it was running all the time in the background. He really just forgot though. With the stress of doing all of this in front of the camera, I can somewhat understand.]

Cat Dancing on a Wire: [Yeah, I’ll give him that much. Usually, he’s behind the camera so right now, he probably feels unaccustomed.]

Meanwhile, Li Shui put everything in the fridge and then heaved a sigh of relief, leaning against the door for a moment before he turned back around. “Well, I remember that I have half an hour now. In that time, I guess I should look at the video again to see what else I have to do.”

Xiao Ming nodded, looking a little concerned as well. He certainly remembered that there had been some fish inside the quenelles that Tao Jin made. Even though that was optional as she had said, they already had the fish standing there. So it should go in the recipe. The fish was fresh so it might keep for a bit but not long and he’d rather use it up today.

Then again, looking at how Li Shui had done so far, maybe he should be happy that he hadn’t actually used it. It would be a pity about the fish. Instead, it would be better to use to himself to make something tasty after they were done with the live stream. He could make a fish soup or maybe some baked fish. Not that he thought that Li Shui would care. In any case, as long as it was tasty, it was something that he would be delighted about it. Li Shui was really easy to make happy in that regard.

Li Shui rewound the video directly to the point where goddess Tao took the quenelles out of the fridge again. Then, he just watched the rest until the point where she took them out of the oven as well and then carried them out of the room.

He didn’t think that he needed to watch the rest. Anyway, his only task was making the quenelles, not making them with the adjustments that Xiao Ming and Mister Yu had suggested.

After he got through that part, he nodded slowly. “Seems like there isn’t much else left to do. I just have to wait for now and then bake them after the half an hour is up.” He looked at Xiao Ming, clearly hoping that he would help him out by at least telling him whether he was right or wrong so far.

Xiao Ming smiled but didn’t comment on that. Anyway, Li Shui was supposed to do this on his own. If he told him what he had done wrong, that wouldn’t be right. “Well, I guess in that case, you deserve to take a little break. In the meantime, I’ve thought of something else I would like to do. After all, we can’t fast forward in our live streams as it was done in the mini-episode. We’ll really have to wait this half an hour.”

Li Shui slumped down on a chair with an exaggerated sigh before he sprawled on the counter. “Honestly, whatever you want to do, just go ahead! I just need a break.”

Xiao Ming chuckled and then turned back to the camera. “Well, I guess he really deserves that one. Our Ah Shui’s been working really hard. Now, as for what I’ve planned, maybe you can already guess.”

Back at the house of the ninjas, everyone had gathered in the hall, watching the live stream together on the big screen- Well, everyone save for Si Jin and Si Yi that was. Those two were in Si Jin’s room to watch it in silence because, as it turned out, when the other ninjas came together, things could get a bit loud. Even if they tried to keep it down for their Master, he still preferred to watch alone.

Anyway, seeing as Xiao Ming seemed to be giving his viewers a riddle, Si Shi Qi couldn’t help but pipe up over in the hall. “Who can guess what he’s doing? Not Si Er!”

Even though the news had traveled fast that Si Er had needed to give up his beloved gadgets, neither of them trusted that he wouldn’t still have some kind of way to tap into what Bright Yellow Water was currently doing so he wasn’t welcome to join in any guessing games.

The first one to give a guess was Si Liu. “Ah, they only have half an hour or even a little less since Li Shui already looked through the video. So it should be something that can be done in twenty minutes tops. I guess for Xiao Ming, that wouldn’t be such a difficult thing though. He might be able to make a small assortment of dishes in that time.” Si Liu was somebody who usually liked guessing games but with nothing much to go off, and not a lot of time either, he figured that there wasn’t much of a point this time around.

Si San turned to him, clicking his tongue. “That much is obvious, they’re a cooking channel. Anyway, he mentioned that those French thingies were too bland when he tasted goddess Tao’s dish. Of course, he will do something adventurous to go along with it.”

Si Shi Qi gave him an annoyed look in response. “Could you not call my wife goddess Tao while we’re in the same room?”

The other ninjas turned to the two of them, looking from Si Shi Qi to his wife. The latter was looking on quite happily as if she did not mind at all. Anyway, just the fact that she was able to have a quiet evening with her husband and his friends was very good. Whatever somebody called her while she was here … she didn’t mind too much.

The ninjas couldn’t help but figure that maybe this was indeed a problem though.

Si Shi Er was sitting the closest to the two of them. He furrowed his brows and leaned a little closer. “Say, what would you like to be called?” Considering that in the Si clan, all of them just used their ranking to address each other, it didn’t really seem right to call her ‘Madam Fan’ while calling her ‘Miss Tao’ seemed even worse since she was already married. But they couldn’t very well call her ‘Madam Si’ since that was the surname they all shared in the clan, right? It would be too awkward!

Tao Jin looked up with a smile, clearly not thinking too much about it. “Oh, just call me Tao Jin, Ah Jin, or sister-in-law. Whatever you prefer to use.” Anyway, she knew how the Si clan was after being married to her husband for several years. Not making trouble was one of the priorities. She could give suggestions without problem but she wouldn’t insist on just one thing. After all, how would she know if it would interfere with something else?

The ninjas gave a collective hum and turned back to the screen.

“Sister-in-law it is then.”

Anyway, in the future, they would have many siblings-in-law. It was best to have a universal name that they could use to address them. That would make things so much easier.

Meanwhile, Xiao Ming had taken out a few ingredients, giving the camera another smile. “Well, you will have guessed it already but we are going to make a sauce to go along with the quenelles and two side dishes.

“Now, as Mister Yu and I said on the mini-episode itself, quenelles are a foreign dish. So there are two ways to go about this. The first one is to go with other foreign dishes to accompany them and have a composition that most people here will likely be unfamiliar with.

“I will readily admit that that isn’t my strong suit though. For all my life, I’ve only ever really cooked Chinese food and maybe tried some dishes that are still close to Chinese cuisine in the way they are prepared or taste. Anything else I’ve only done on the odd occasion or if Ash Shui and Qian Huang request it but that is very, very rare. So I’m not that good at it.

“As a result, I figured that we could just go with the second option and pair the quenelles with some of our traditional recipes. I think this is the perfect idea, especially when trying to introduce this dish to somebody who isn’t that well-acquainted with foreign cuisine. This way, they might be more easily convinced to give it a try since there will be something familiar to fall back on.”

Seeing as Xiao Ming was about to start cooking, Li Shui revived. He looked up, observing carefully just what Xiao Ming was doing. Clearly, he was already looking forward to getting something tasty after all his hard work.

Xiao Ming turned to look at him and smiled, shaking his head. “I’m afraid that you will still have to wait a bit. I’m going to make the side dishes and a sauce so that they are ready when your main dish is. And the quenelles will stay in the fridge for half an hour, and then they will also need to be baked. So, you know how long it’s going to be.

“Now …” He turned back to look at the camera and motioned at the ingredients. “What I want to make are Sepen sauce, hot and sour soup, as well as Ma Lai Gao. The sauce and soup don’t take long to prepare so I will do those later and start with the sponge cake as that needs more time to prepare. Then, while the quenelles are in the oven later on, we can make the other two. I hope that this will make for a tasty meal!” He smiled, tilting his head a little.

The ninjas of the Si clan all nodded, feeling that this idea had been expected.

Meanwhile, their master … succinctly pressed on the screenshot button, wanting to immortalize this beautiful moment. That smile, it had been too captivating to not keep a memento.