Chapter 2623 — Let's Just Have Instant Noodles

Guan Xin watched as the White Leader's wife went to answer the door, and hurried to stand demurely off to one side. She eyed the parade of fragrant dishes on the table and laughed to herself: heh heh heh, so he's finally here? Tonight I'll make sure you taste every flavor life has to offer—sour, sweet, bitter, spicy!

The door opened, and the White Leader and Wei Zhao walked into the villa one behind the other, while the White Leader's wife set out a pair of slippers for Wei Zhao.

"Wei Zhao, this is my wife—which makes her your master's wife." The White Leader hesitated a moment, then decided to treat Wei Zhao as his disciple; Wei Zhao had said before, after all, that he would always hold to the identity of disciple. "Xinxin, come over here and meet your... senior fellow disciple!"

Wei Zhao had come in last, so by rights he ought to be the junior fellow disciple, but the White Leader, wary of his other status as a grandmaster, dared not truly make him the junior—and so arranged for him the position of senior.

"It's... it's you?" Guan Xin's eyes went wide, and she stared in disbelief at this so-called outstanding young talent, this disciple of the White Leader's! She was at a loss, her mind in utter disarray. How could it be like this... oh heavens, just let me die!

To make the very same mistake twice—Guan Xin, oh, Guan Xin, how could you be so foolish?

"Xinxin, I never imagined you were Teacher Bai's final disciple?" Wei Zhao was astonished too; he had never dreamed that the White Leader's disciple would turn out to be Guan Xin. It caught him quite off guard.

"You... you're the outstanding young talent my master spoke of?" Guan Xin looked at Wei Zhao, then at the table full of dishes that were neither pleasing in color nor complete in flavor, and felt like weeping but had no tears.

"That 'outstanding young talent' again?" Wei Zhao too recalled the scene of their meeting at Guan Xuemin's house and could not help but find it rather amusing.

"Xinxin, you and Wei Zhao know each other?" The White Leader was somewhat taken aback; he had not expected Wei Zhao and Guan Xin to be acquainted. But on reflection, Wei Zhao had certain unspoken ties to Guan's Medical, and if that were so, knowing Guan Xin was hardly impossible. It was only that he had never known exactly what relation Wei Zhao bore to Guan's Medical, nor whether he knew Guan Xuemin personally—so he had never thought much of it.

After all, he was one of the few privy to the inside story: Guan Xuemin was merely the name on the sign at Guan's Medical, while the operations were run by someone else entirely. So if Wei Zhao knew Guan Xin, he must be on very close terms with Guan Xuemin—which rather surprised him.

"Mm..." Guan Xin nodded, cheeks reddening, and said with a hint of reproach, "Master, why didn't you say so earlier..."

"Say so earlier?" The White Leader studied Guan Xin's bashful look and narrowed his eyes slightly, thinking to himself: there's something going on between these two! So Wei Zhao really is a ladies' man—if there's a beauty, she's bound to have some connection to him. "I didn't know you were acquainted with Wei Zhao either; how could I have said so earlier? But since you two already know each other, that saves me the introductions. Wei Zhao, come and eat—you must be familiar with Xinxin's cooking, and she's improved a great deal lately. Ever since she learned to condense pill fire, she even uses it to cook, which lets her control the cooking temperature with far greater precision!"

"..." Wei Zhao was rather speechless. Pill fire could cook food too?

"Never heard of that, have you? It's Xinxin's own invention! Here, have a taste!" the White Leader said smugly.

"All right." Wei Zhao nodded, accepted the slippers the White Leader's wife handed him, slipped them on, thanked her, and went inside the villa.

As for Guan Xin, at this moment she hardly knew what to do with herself! Oh, if only she had said one more word earlier and asked the White Leader the name of that outstanding young talent—then none of this would have happened! But she had been so averse to the very idea of that young talent at the time; how could she possibly have taken the initiative to ask his name?

Looking at the food on the table, Guan Xin grew frantic and paced in circles. Seeing that Wei Zhao, the White Leader, and his wife were all about to sit down, she hurriedly said, "These dishes have gone cold, haven't they? How about I go heat them up?"

"Cold?" The White Leader's wife was briefly puzzled. "They were just made, weren't they? They're still steaming—how could they be cold?"

"Then... actually, I have a great idea. We eat these same dishes every day and we're tired of them. How about we have instant noodles instead? What do you think?" A flash of inspiration struck Guan Xin. "There's a new braised-pork noodle flavor out—it's really good. I bought a whole lot of packs. Let's dump all this out and have braised-pork noodles!"

"?" The White Leader stared at his prized disciple, baffled. What on earth had gotten into her? Throw out perfectly good food? Had seeing Wei Zhao excited her so much that her brain had short-circuited?

"?" The White Leader's wife was equally perplexed. Instant noodles—of all things? Even if some braised-pork noodle flavor was tasty, you couldn't serve that to a guest.

Wei Zhao, however, smiled a peculiar smile and lifted his head to look at Guan Xin. He had already figured something out; recalling the meal at Guan Xuemin's house, he understood that tonight's dinner was likely much the same as that one had been.

"Wei Zhao... I'm sorry, I didn't know it was you coming..." Seeing Wei Zhao look her way, Guan Xin knew he had guessed, and she grew embarrassed at once.

"Heh, these dishes really do seem to have gone cold. I'll put them back in the wok!" Smiling, Wei Zhao picked up the sweet-and-sour mustard fish—the last dish Guan Xin had set down—and carried it into the kitchen.

Now the White Leader was even more baffled. Why was Wei Zhao joining Guan Xin in this madness? But Wei Zhao and Guan Xin were not in the same position; Wei Zhao might be a disciple, yet he was also a grandmaster, and the White Leader could only let it be.

"Forget it, I'm starving. This isn't cold at all—I'll have a bite first!" With that, the White Leader picked up a slice of pork with preserved mustard greens and put it in his mouth—but after only a couple of chews, he spat it right out! It nearly made him sick to his stomach!

"Leader, what's the matter?" The White Leader's wife was startled. Seeing him spit out the pork slice, she frowned.

"It's cloyingly rich—the fat in this pork hasn't been fried out at all, and there's no flavor whatsoever. It smells nice enough, but that's just the scallions and preserved mustard greens; the meat itself has no taste at all... Xinxin, did you forget to add the other seasonings?" the White Leader asked, puzzled.

"That... I..." Guan Xin did not know how she ought to explain.

But just then Wei Zhao came quickly out of the kitchen. The sweet-and-sour mustard fish from before had been reworked by him into a cold dish—a tossed mustard fish with a sweet-sour, numbing-spicy dressing—and its flavor had changed at once.

Then Wei Zhao carried another dish, stir-fried celery with pork, into the kitchen, and so it went, one dish after another, the pork with preserved mustard greens coming last of all.

By now the White Leader and his wife had caught on as well. The White Leader asked, "Xinxin, is there something wrong with every dish you made?"

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