While a certain ninja was busy, Xiao Ming got busy as well. “The good thing about making a steamed pastry, in this case, is that Li Shui will have the oven all to himself to put the quenelles in there later on. Thus, we can make the two dishes at the same time without getting into each other’s way so we don’t need to take the time into consideration as much. Now, let’s get going!”

He started off with the batter, explaining while he went along. “Man Lai Gao isn’t that difficult to make. What is important is that you mix the ingredients well in the beginning but later, when adding the baking powder and flour, you need to be gentler. The softness of the cake depends on how well you let your batter rest and develop. If you are too rough, you might destroy your previous effort.”

Since they had almost half an hour, Xiao Ming slowed down while doing the first steps, showing in detail how it was done, pretty much like Tao Jin had done in the mini-episode. “For now, I am going to explain a little more so you can follow along with making the dish since we’ve never made Ma Lai Gao on the channel before. Later, when we get to the hot and sour soup, I’ll speed up a little. If you are interested in how to make that dish, you can always refer back to the older videos. Qian Huang will link those for you.” He glanced up from where he was currently folding the batter, giving the camera a faint smile.

After just a few more moments, he already raised his hands and put the bowl to the side. “Well, with that, we’ve already finished preparing the batter. As I promised, that wasn’t all that difficult, was it?”

He gave the camera another smile and especially the longtime viewers in the comment section couldn’t help but agree. Compared to some of the other dishes they had watched him make before, this steamed cake really seemed quite simple. It almost made them want to give it a try themselves.

Qian Huang smiled when he saw their comments but didn’t want to interrupt Xiao Ming while he was busy with making the dishes. Since he had been worried about not cooking enough for a cooking channel, it was better not to disturb him for the time being while he was finally doing again what they were used to.

Letting Li Shui take over and cook for a change was certainly a nice gimmick and it worked well with the review of the mini-episode since it contrasted nicely with Tao Jin’s way of doing things but it wouldn’t be able to alleviate Xiao Ming’s worries for long. Thus, having him cook for at least part of the live stream was still for the best.

Xiao Ming was completely focused on his current task and didn’t see Qian Huang’s expression so he didn’t even think of the comments online. Instead, he focused on his explanation. “Now, the batter will have to rest half an hour as well so that the ingredients can react with each other. If you are cooking several dishes, that is always time that can be used to work on something else. Otherwise, you can use the downtime to already tidy up a bit.”

Saying so, he looked around the counter that seemed quite messy. Originally, Li Shui had paid attention to that but with the first batch of mush for the quenelles not working out, things had gotten more chaotic. By now, there was indeed quite a lot to tidy up. But then, this wasn’t his mess so he felt that he should stay out of it for now. If Li Shui was looking for something later and couldn’t find it because he had put it away, that’d be unfair to him.

Thinking of that, he turned back to the camera, explaining his thoughts. “I guess we still have about ten minutes before Li Shui needs to take back over. There would be more than enough time afterward to make the second dish and sauce but I don’t want to mess Li Shui’s side of things up so I suggest we start with preparing the ingredients we’ll need later and then stop afterward so Li Shui will have the counter to himself when it’s time for him to get the quenelles out of the fridge.”

He grabbed the ingredients that he had taken out before starting on the Ma Lai Gao and processed them as well. Just as he had said, he didn’t explain as much this time around. He just speedily worked so he’d finish on top without getting into Li Shui’s way.

At the time he was done, there was still a bit of time until the quenelles would need to be taken out of the fridge. It wasn’t enough time to start making either the sauce or the dish though so he put them to the side for now.

“Well, with that, we’ve done the preparations for our second side dish and the Sepen sauce. I guess that means we can wait until Ah Shui decides that it is time to take the quenelles out of the fridge and finish them up. You’re going to tell us when it’s time, won’t you?” He turned to the side, smiling brightly at Li Shui who had been eagerly observing as he processed the ingredients, clearly imagining the tasty dishes he would get to eat later on.

When Xiao Ming’s words sunk in though, Li Shui was startled out of those pleasant thoughts and straightened up, turning to the fridge as if it would be able to tell him just how long the quenelles would still need to stay in there. Of course, nothing of the like happened. He just stared for a moment before he turned back, and then looked around for the clock with the countdown, trying to figure out just how long they had already waited.

Over in the comment section, the viewers were having their fun watching this exchange.

Cat Dancing on a Wire: [Xiao Ming is really teasing Li Shui today. I hope he really makes more dishes for him later on. I’m afraid poor Li Shui will not be able to take this otherwise.]

Little Butterfly: [At least it’s just teasing with him. If this was Qian Huang, then I would worry more if I was Li Shui.]

Qian Huang chuckled to himself when he saw these comments but once again, he didn’t bother to read them out loud. Today, the comments they got were really mostly about Li Shui’s cooking skills and the perceived feud between the two of them.

And, well, there was some praise for goddess Tao as well but right now, that wasn’t really the right time to read those out loud. No, he’d keep those for a little later when the cooking was finished or if they had some downtime in-between. Then, he could do something of a highlight reel of those comments. He had made sure to copy all of them while reading so he wouldn’t have to look around for long and could jump in at a moment’s notice.

Back at the counter, Li Shui finally decided that even if Xiao Ming didn’t say anything, it should be about time to take the quenelles out of the fridge. He scratched his head and then motioned at the door. “Well, you said a while ago that it was just ten more minutes and then you cut all of these ingredients so I guess it should be a time. Anyway, I’m sure that a few minutes more or less won’t make a difference.” With that, he opened the fridge and took out the quenelles.

Putting the mold down on the counter, he took them out one by one, giving them a scrutinizing look. To be honest, they didn’t look that bad. Since he had also used a mold tray, getting the shape right hadn’t been that difficult. And now that he was taking them out, it seemed that they had pretty much stayed that way even though they still looked somewhat different from the ones Tao Jin had made in the mini-episode.

Well, that much was a given considering that he hadn’t actually kept to the recipe. Not that Li Shui had noticed that yet.

He looked the quenelles over from all sides and then nodded, looking quite proud of himself. “Well, not as good as goddess Tao’s, of course, but I think this is already pretty well done for my first try.”

Xiao Ming smiled when he saw him like this and actually forgot about being a judge for a moment, giving him a nod of approval. Yes, to be honest, considering that Li Shui never cooked, this really wasn’t all that bad. He might not have gotten everything right but, in general, it seemed that the most important steps had been followed.

Li Shui scratched his head again and then looked around, finally picking up the baking tray. “If I remember correctly, then the quenelles are supposed to go in here now.” Once again, he picked them up one by one, slowly setting them down and making sure that they were close together. “I think goddess Tao said that you could put some things on top but she didn’t actually do that. In this case, since I’m supposed to follow her lead, I guess I’ll also just make them like this. Also, Xiao Ming is making something tasty to go with it so I’d better not screw this up.”

He laughed awkwardly and then turned to the small oven behind him, needing a moment to figure out how it was actually used. Then, he turned it on, pushed the deep dish baking tray inside, and heaved a sigh of relief as soon as the door was closed. Turning back, he looked at Xiao Ming in the hope of another nod of approval.

This time though, Xiao Ming didn’t say anything and just smiled. “Well, will we just have to wait now?” He made it sound like a question, putting the onus on to Li Shui to say whether that was true or not.

Li Shui pursed his lips but then nodded. “Yes, and if I remember correctly from the video, then it’s about half an hour as well. So … there’s a lot of time.” Saying so, he hastily turned around to the clock with the countdown. There was still more than enough time and he made sure to remember when exactly he would have to take the dish out. If they got burned, that’d be too much of a pity after going through all that trouble!

Xiao Ming smiled and then motioned over to the ingredients he had prepared before. “Well, in that case, I guess it’s time for me to make our Sepen sauce and the hot and sour soup. Actually, in half an hour, we could probably make some more dishes but I don’t want this to be too heavy.

“Anyway, waiting for a little bit after I finish shouldn’t be that much of a problem. Maybe there were some questions from our viewers that we should answer?” He only now remembered that they hadn’t heard from the viewers at all so far and hastily looked up at Qian Huang. This wasn’t a bad sign, was it? Could it be that they had already lost a ton of them over just this one week?

Qian Huang took this as his cue to finally rush to the count as well, seating himself on Xiao Ming’s other side. “Well, I don’t think there really were any questions today. Everyone is much too preoccupied with how well of a cook goddess Tao is. I have to say, I was surprised as well so I can understand why people are reacting like this.”

The other two turned to look at him quizzically and Qian Huang waved his phone. “Don’t believe me? You should. I have all the proof here. There really were some people fangirling about her in the comment section the whole time. It started off pretty much at the beginning.

“Let’s see …” He turned the screen on and scrolled to the beginning of his list. “Just when Xiao Ming introduced today’s episode and said we were going to do this to honor goddess Tao, there was a user called ‘Violet Clockwork’ who wrote ‘Goddess Tao is amazing! She can do anything and everything! She can act, she can sing, she can cook as well! Goddess Tao is the best!’.” He looked up at the camera and smiled, waving his phone once again. “Now, tell me that this isn’t a fangirl of our goddess Tao? Clearly, she deserves the praise though.” He smirked at that, before turning back to his phone.

Since seeing the mini-episode yesterday and how Xiao Ming had dared to criticize something that Tao Jin did, he had been incredibly worried. Even though Tao Jin had said her thanks directly in the mini-episode and then also shown on Weibo that she had taken the feedback really well, he just couldn’t help himself.

Sometimes, with those stars that were too famous and had a massive following like goddess Tao, it could happen that some of their fans would get overzealous. Then, there was no saying what they were able to do. Attacking a small streamer like Xiao Ming was really the smallest thing. Some would even dare to try and go up against other big names in the entertainment industry after all. And from what he knew, some of them didn’t play nice in that regard either.

Just think of that guy who had exposed that Misses Youya after she had dared to say something negative that was only slightly related to goddess Tao Jin! Just that little bit had managed to pull somebody out of the woodwork who was willing to dig up private information about her and expose her online.

They had experienced firsthand just how scary that type of thing could be this week. But that had been a friend of Si Jin’s, not somebody who was against them. He definitely didn’t need one of Tao Jin’s fans with bad intentions to do the same to them. So, right now, he was pretty much just trying to butter them up.

Yes, he knew that this was a bit unethical and he should probably be ashamed of himself but seriously, he was pretty much working as an assistant and manager for Xiao Ming. And from a working standpoint, he knew that this was the right decision.

There were some people you couldn’t offend. No matter how you really thought about them, no matter if that aligned with your values or not, you just had to play nice with them. Otherwise, you wouldn’t know what hit you.

And in this case, where the livelihood of all three of them, as well as the fulfillment of their dreams, depended on this channel, he wasn’t willing to take the risk. No, if it had to be done, he would do it.

Better him than Xiao Ming anyway. After all, he knew that when it came to these things, Xiao Ming would be more reluctant to do it. He, on the other hand, … Well, he had to admit that he was probably made to do something like this. He didn’t feel reluctant or had trouble to read these things out and add a comment that showed that yes, he was definitely a fan of goddess Tao Jin as well!

Never mind that actually, he wasn’t all that much. While, yes, he had to admit that she was a good actress, but it had never been one to be a crazy fan. But nobody needed to know that, right? It wasn’t like he would ever have to do with her personally.