Chapter 36: Arrived at site, first display of talent
(Part 1)
As she walked, Ji Ling remorsefully hung her head down, it was also too late to appreciate the unusual trees along both sides of the road, her entire head was filled with matter of her own saliva on Lu Anran’s clothes, “Sorry…… Anran…… how much is your clothes…… I’ll compensate you……”
“No need la!” Lu Anran grinned and said, “It’s originally clothes that cannot be worn for long!” During the transition between spring and summer, this kind of long sleeved blouse can at best be only be worn for another month before replacing it with a short- sleeve. Next year, she definitely would have grown taller and mature so, she would not wear this outfit again. In other words, this outfit would not be worn again after this time.
Seeing the guilt on Ji Ling’s face, Lu Anran truly do not know how to reassure her. If she is bothered by this matter for the entire day, this rare excursion would be ruined. After thinking about it, Lu Anran patted Ji Ling on her shoulder and said, “If you want to, when we get back after the excursion, you can treat me to a few cups of coffee at that café!”
“Sure!” After Ji Ling heard Lu Anran’s request, she hurriedly agreed and said, “I’ll accept however many cups you request! Also, treat you to cake!”
“Okay!” Noticing the melancholy between Ji Ling’s eyebrows cleared off, Lu Anran was also in a much better mood.
Ji Ling put aside this worrying matter, and her gait became a lot more relaxed as she changed back to the original her. One moment ridiculing how ugly this tree was, the next moment imitating the stance of another tree, making everyone roar with laughter.
Seeing Lu Anran’s generous attitude, she left a very good impression among her classmates again. When Chu Yao saw this, she could not help gnashing her teeth.
After walking for nearly an hour, everyone finally reached the cookout site. Although this distance was not considered to be far, but it was challenging to these students who mostly stayed home to read.
“We have reached!” Qin Shuhan brought everyone to the place for the cookout and said, “Everyone rest here for a moment. In a while, the staff will set up the grill and cooking utensils and also bring over the ingredients. At that time, everyone must cook for themselves! Everyone don’t go too far off now!”
“Okay!” Everyone found wooden blocks and sat in groups of twos and threes. These wooden blocks were most likely prepared by the staff. Some of wooden blocks were circular, and others were square. A single wooden block can seat about 3 to 5 people. Four wooden blocks form a single circle. There was a small space in the middle which should be where the stove would be set up.
Lu Anran, Ji Ling and Linda sat on a square wooden block and directly opposite Lu Anran was Chu Yao who sat next to Sun Shasha and another girl in the class, Liu Jiao. On Lu Anran’s left was Wu Gang, and 3 other male students from the class. On her right was a small round wooden block which gauging by estimation, could only sit one person, and Qin Shuhan sat on top of it.
“The scenery in this place is not bad ah!” Ji Ling looked around. In front of her was the boardwalk that was lined with towering trees on both sides. It was separated by guardrails, leaving a safe distance to prevent any fire disasters. At the back was a quiet river that meanders from a far- off point to their left. Although it was not gentle at all, it was not very rapid either, just that the river water will probably rise above the river bank during the midsummer’s rainy season. On the right were endless mountain ranges that appeared black when distant but emerald green when near. Under the azure blue sky, it seemed to be peaceful and secluded.
“Yes!” Lu Anran squinted into the distance, enjoying this moment of peace. This was indeed a good place! Today was a Saturday, there were many people who came to have a cookout. The whole area for cookouts was very large and was reasonably divided according to advantages of its natural geographic features.
This cookout Area C was practically full of third years of Ying Hua Middle School. Other than them, there were only two to three tables of outsiders. One was a table of family. Perhaps it was because they have never seen so many students going to an excursion cookout that they kept looking over. The other table seems like a gathering of colleagues or university students, young adults of both genders were present, and the atmosphere was lively.
The last table was located very closely to Lu Anran’s table and was only occupied by a single male with a crew cut. He was about 180cm tall, had a sturdy and robust body and had obviously undergone specialised training before. He was dressed casually and appeared to have just arrived too. He ordered a lot of meat, and placed slice by slice onto the fire to grill, each of it sizzled and its aroma wafted over to Lu Anran’s table, making everyone salivate.
“Anran, he’s so handsome!” Ji Ling said starry- eyed. It just so happens that from where she was seated, she could see face of that man. He had a healthy wheat- coloured skin which was different to those bookworms in the class, dashing eyebrows that was full of valour, his eyes were focused on his own barbequed meat, and the corners of his mouth rose to form a good- looking curve. He seemed to be about twenty- odd years of age but felt as though he was wiser, and more masculine compared to men of the same age.
“Really?” Lu Anran glanced at the man Ji Ling was talking about and was subconsciously wary at once. Why would a man who had obviously undergone specialised training be here all alone to grill meat?
“En en en!” Ji Ling happily swayed Lu Anran’s arm, “Really handsome ah!”
The other people followed Ji Ling’s line of sight and were more or less stunned. Truly a very handsome man, the feeling that the strong biceps that were exposed by the rolled- up sleeves gave felt different to those from other men. The look when this man smiled was exceptionally beautiful, not only was there a man’s maturity, but also the sunshine of a boy.
When that man saw Lu Anran and others looking at himself, he politely smiled at everyone and again lowered his head to grill his meat while dipping it in the sauce, eating it with relish.
Chapter 36: Arrived at site, first display of talent
(Part 2)
Although his body looked strong and robust, he was very elegant when he eats, causing the group of 15- year- old girls to stare in rapture. Just when everyone was in a daze, the staff members carried over the portable stove, cooking utensils and raw ingredients. “Ladies! Ladies!” Seeing everyone looking so foolish, Qin Shuhan could only shake her head and let out a helpless sigh, “We can start to barbeque and eat now!”
“Uh……” The girls were completely unable to shift their eyes away, and the boys shrugged indicating that they did not know what to do. Qin Shuhan could not help shaking her head again. Why does this group of girls act as if they have never seen a man before ah! Does each and every one of them not know how to spell the word ‘reserved’?
“Ay……” Sighing, Lu Anran rolled up her sleeves, stood up and started cooking skilfully. The staff brought two portable stoves, on top of one was a grill and the other had a frying pan on top of it. There was also a pot of warm cooked rice. Lu Anran first brushed the oil on the grill, arranged the meat skewers and vegetable rolls on it, and also folded the aluminium foil into box shape and placed it on top of the grill. Brushing on oil, she then put in food like the sliced eggplants, potatoes, and enoki mushrooms which can be cooked in aluminium foil. After these were done, she took up the frying pan, put in oil and skilfully making several stir- fried dishes with flavours that were suitable for a barbequed meat cookout.
“Wow!” Seeing Lu Anran’s natural movements, the four boys who were seated and Qin Shuhan were astonished. She was indeed the Eldest Young Miss of Lu Food and Beverage Corporation, even when cooking, she had style.
The other girls who smelled the delicious aromas finally came back to reality and were momentarily stunned when they saw Lu Anran actually managing everything by herself. The other students in the neighbouring tables also caught sight of Lu Anran’s actions and looked up in succession…… It must be so great to be on the same table as the Eldest Young Miss of Lu Food and Beverage Corporation!
In her previous lifetime, Lu Anran snapped her hand muscles, so there were a lot of dishes that she could not learn, but this kind of simple stir- fry cannot stump her. Recalling her previous lifetime where her wrist slightly ached every time she cooked, Lu Anran could not help hating Chu Yao. With her left hand controlling the frying pan, her right hand directly poured the wine in, and a cluster of flames leapt and scurried ending abruptly at about 10cm away from Chu Yao’s face.
“Ah!” Chu Yao screamed and fell backwards on to the ground, appearing to be frightened out of her wits. Just a moment ago, she distinctly felt a touch of heat at the tip of her nose, as if that flame was really going to burn her face.
“Oi! Lu Anran! Be a little more careful!” Sun Shasha could not help yelling. It was really scary a second ago. She was just next to Chu Yao and had felt that touch of heat. Truly frightening!
“I can’t help it!” Lu Anran placed all of the cooked vegetables onto a paper plate. “I haven’t used this grill before, so the fact that I can cook until this standard is already very good! If you feel that there’s some problems with the way I am cooking, why didn’t you say anything earlier? Now that I have already finish frying all the vegetables, what are you complaining about? Are you trying to find fault with me?”
The moment Lu Anran finished her sentence, everyone all resentfully looked at Sun Shasha, Lu Anran was right, she spent so much effort roasting all the meat and frying all the vegetables all by herself, they did not even lift a single finger to help, and she still wants to raise a big fuss over Lu Anran’s small mistake. Also, it was obviously only Chu Yao who got frightened all by herself! They did not even feel any danger just now ah! Not a single spark of the flame touched Chu Yao! Is there a need to act so exaggeratedly and pretend to fall down?
Actually, it was not Chu Yao’s fault. Lu Anran’s perfect control over the flames led everyone to only see the flames flare up for a second before dying down, and even then, the flames did not flare up very far. It was only Chu Yao and Sun Shasha who was sitting next to her who knew how dangerous it was just now. Even Liu Jiao who was sitting next to Sun Shasha did not notice anything and at the moment was looking disdainfully at both Sun Shasha and Chu Yao.
“That’s enough! You guys can even quarrel when eating?!” Qin Shuhan injected to mediate between the dispute that just happened. “Everyone should each take a step back! We can all start eating now!” She was so damn hungry!
“…….” Both of Chu Yao’s hands were covered in mud after the fall. Frowning and constraining the fury in her heart, she said, “I’m going to wash my hands!” Chu Yao was still silently laughing at Lu Anran’s clothes a moment ago, but now she looked even more dishevelled than Lu Anran. The hem of her skirt was soiled with droplets of mud, and even her hair that she had loosely draped over her shoulder was stained with some mud, indeed she looked very dishevelled. Just now she also twisted her ankle a little, so she currently could only limp towards the right-side banks of the stream to wipe clean her hands and skirt hem with a wet handkerchief.
“We can start eating.” Lu Anran said with an inconspicuous smile at the corners of her mouth.
“Hooray!” As soon as everyone saw all the food they all felt terribly hungry, and in rapid succession, each used a paper bowl to take some rice and then reached out to frantically grab and gobble down the meat skewers and vegetable rolls cooked by Lu Anran. Even Lu Anran herself only ate one vegetable roll and a few mouthfuls of the chilled stir-fried seasonal vegetables. The large pile that she just cooked disappeared until there was practically nothing left, everyone then stared at each other, and finally directed all of their stares towards Lu Anran.