Beauty and the Beasts

Winston then dug up other colored stone fruits from the vicinity.

Through Bai Qingqing’s observations, she noticed that the leaves of the bushes that had purple bark gave off a purple color, those that had red bark emitted a red color, while those with green bark emitted an intense green color. The bush that the yellow stone fruits grew from was the sturdiest.

After digging up a small bag of them, Winston carried Bai Qingqing and headed back.

The stone fruits that Parker cooked had a nice fragrance drifting out by now, and several beastmen crowded around in the direction of the wind flow.

It was now widely-known that the newcomers who had just moved in were good at cooking. Each time they came up with new stuff, young beastmen would come over to peep, then imitated them to cook for the females they liked.

Bai Qingqing jumped down from Winston’s arms and shook her legs. Thankfully, her boots were tied tightly together, and the snow hadn’t fallen into her shoes.

Parker quickly asked, “Are your feet cold? I’ll warm them up for you.”

“It’s fine. They are plenty warm.” Bai Qingqing jogged up to the fire, took a look at the stone pot, and said, “They should be ready.”

“Have a taste.” Parker opened up the lid, and white steam gushed out. After the steam dissipated, a pot of colorful boiled stone fruits could be seen.

Bai Qingqing took a whiff, then poked a yellow stone fruit with a branch, blowing at it while eating. She then felt relaxed as if she had just put down a heavy burden.

“Thank goodness, thank goodness, the taste is the same.”

Parker also poked one up and had a taste, feeling that it was very tasteless. When he saw how happy Bai Qingqing was, he really couldn’t understand the omnivorous beastmen’s sense of taste.

After finishing a stone fruit, Bai Qingqing walked up to the tree and took out the hotpot that they had cooked in the morning.

“It’s just nice that it’s time for food. I’m thinking of adding stone fruits into the pot to cook. Parker, help me bring it up. It’s so heavy!”

Parker brought down the cooked stone fruits. Before he could walk over, Winston had picked up the pot for her.

“Thanks.”

Winston threw her a glance and then placed the pot on the simple stove.

Both the hotpot and stone fruits were cooked, so Bai Qingqing was able to eat very quickly.

The yellow stone fruits tasted almost the same as potatoes, it was just that their colors were different.

The green stone fruits had the texture of vegetables, cucumbers, or cauliflowers. The red stone fruits tasted slightly sweet, and it balanced out the salty taste, so it wasn’t bad. The purple-colored one tasted a little tough, but they were very fragrant. It was just that their plant fiber was thicker.

Bai Qingqing liked all of them a lot and couldn’t wait to cook them in different methods. Before she finished her meal, she was already discussing the different cooking methods with Parker.

Winston didn’t leave but listened quietly. After Bai Qingqing finished talking, he took all the stone fruits to the waterhole to wash them, taking care of the first step.

Seeing that, Bai Qingqing gave it some thought and decided to not stand on ceremony with him.

They were already so familiar with each other, so if they were to stand on ceremony with each other, they’d just be hurting each other’s feelings.

Although, she had no idea what she could do to Winston.

Since Winston took care of the stone fruits, Bai Qingqing got Parker to make a perforated ladle.

She recalled that there was a shop selling delicious hot and sour noodles. Their business was very good as well. Their greatest dish was the sweet potato noodles that they made at the shop’s entrance. When customers watched and found it interesting, they’d enter the shop to have a taste.

The method was very simple as well. They’d use a perforated ladle to sieve the starch. When the starch landed into the hot water in strips, their shapes would be fixed from cooking.

She decided to do the same.

Parker washed the dishes and immediately got to work.

Bai Qingqing had originally wanted to cut up the stone fruits into small pieces, then soak them to make starch. However, beastmen had great strength. Winston put the clean stone fruits in the stone basin and pressed down on them to make them into a paste.

After rinsing in water, the starch scattered out in the water.

The yellow stone fruits contained an extremely high level of starch. The remnants of the stone fruits had reduced by half. This meant that the starch content was at least 50% or higher.

After pressing down on the entire bag of stone fruits, the sediments in the water formed a thick chunk.