CHAPTER 87 - TOAST-SITIVELY AWESOME AT COOKING BREAD

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“Cursed? How? Why? And who would curse me?” I was confused by Kharli’s words.

“I don’t know, Teacher, have you stepped on any bread?” asked Kharli.

I took a sip of my lemon-lime soda. I was getting kind of addicted to the fizzy drinks already. “Stepped on bread? No, not that I remember. Why?”

“Because that could get you cursed by the kitchen gods,” said Mo.

“If you step on bread, you have to say ‘sorry’ nine times,” said Lari.

“No, I don’t think that’s it. Besides, I already had a cleansing ritual done at the Fox temple,” I said.

“The curse wouldn’t be by the Fox god, though. Maybe you accidentally dropped some food and didn’t pray for forgiveness from the kitchen gods? Have you ever thrown food away?” Kharli really seemed to think that I was cursed.

“Hmm.” In fact, I don’t believe that I had ever wasted food in this world, but back on Earth, it was pretty common to throw away leftovers, especially if it was just a bite or two.

“Teacher, why don’t you just try praying to the kitchen gods? They put up an altar in the kitchen,” said Kharli.

“Well, okay, I guess it wouldn’t hurt.”

I was skeptical about it, since anything that went wrong was considered a “curse” by the people of this world. For example, when a wound got infected, they called it a “cursed wound.” The world I was living in now seemed to be a very superstitious one indeed.

After lunch, I asked Fengying for help and she showed me the altar. She directed me to pray for the kitchen gods’ blessing and forgiveness for any offenses I might have made. When I finished doing that, I rushed over to the [Majestic Oceanfront Sanctuary] to check if the so-called curse had been removed.

I was just about to start baking when I heard a cough. To my surprise, Deming and his three assistants were at the door of the kitchen.

“Oh, hello. Do you need this kitchen, too? The supplies are that way.” I pointed at the doors to the larder and walk-in refrigerator.

Fengying appeared from behind them and said, “They’re here to watch.”

“Ah.” They were here to watch me make a fool of myself? I sighed. I guess that was fine. Maybe they could even help! “Okay.”

They walked over to the kitchen island and silently observed me pour water from a jug and into a bowl of [Flour]. The assistants made exclamations of surprise when they saw how the [Flour] and water combined themselves without any intervention from me. I did the same thing to seven more bowls that I had previously prepared. Then I popped four [Bread Doughs] into the two double ovens and said, “That’s it. Now I just wait.”

Deming nodded and turned to his assistants. Pointing to the bag of [Flour] I had left on the counter, he said, “Cursed flour, no grade.”

No grade? But all of my cooking ingredients were legendary grade! Of course, I already knew that the items from my inventory were all bound to me and, therefore, appeared “cursed” to other people, but surely the Demon Chef should be able to tell that they were the highest grade possible.

Seeing my shocked expression, Fengying explained it to me. “Cursed items are ‘no grade’ until they are uncursed.”

“Oh.” I guess that explained it.

While we waited for the [Bread] to finish baking, the Demon Chef and his assistants checked the refrigerator and larder to see if there was anything they wanted. Deming ordered them to take the best of the beef, pork, and seafood to the other resort.

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The System notified me that the [Bread] was ready. Unfortunately, I could tell from the smell that at least one of them had burned. I opened the oven doors one by one, pouting at the lumps of coal-like items.

I failed again, but I didn’t let that stop me. I made four more [Bread Doughs] and tried again. This time, I didn’t bother to hang around waiting for it to finish baking. Instead, I put on a coat and went outside for a walk. I asked the chef and his assistants to not interfere and let me check the bread myself when I got back.

Though it was a cold winter day, the sun was shining, and the sea air was fresh and inviting. The sound of the waves crashing against the shore was almost hypnotic. As I headed towards the beach, I saw that my apprentices were waist-deep in the water.

I ran towards them and yelled, “Get out of there at once! It’s too cold,” as soon as I was within shouting distance.

“Teacher, look! We’re fishing!” Kharli yelled back.

When I was close enough, I saw that they were using nets, as Mo and I had done on our previous visit to the Emerald Cove. “Everyone, get out of the water! You’ll catch your death.”

The three of them emerged from the frigid waters, water dripping from their cotton robes and hair. They immediately started shivering and I was greatly alarmed to see that their lips had turned bluish. The cold winter wind made their teeth chatter, which made me worry that they would get sick from walking up the slope to the hotel while dripping wet.

I threw some blankets over them before hurrying them up the slope to where there was a bit of flat land big enough for me to place a large hot springs facility with separate male and female bathing areas.

“Quickly, go inside, take your clothes off, and heat your body up!” I said.

It would be a huge problem if they got a cold right now since the “curse” of the desert lands supposedly made illnesses much worse than normal. I’d have to stop working on [Greening the Desert] to bring them back to the forest to recuperate.

“Teacher, it’s not my fault. They made me do it,” said Mo.

“Hey, that’s because you boasted night and day about learning a secret ocean fishing technique,” said Kharli.

I rolled my eyes at that. Kids!

After a few minutes, their teeth stopped chattering, and I heaved a sigh of relief.

“How do you feel?” I asked them.

“Eh, we’re used to being cold,” said Kharli.

“Yeah, it was this cold when I was on laundry duty at the orphanage during the winter,” said Mo.

“Let me know right away if you feel sick,” I said.

I made them stay in the hot spring for half an hour. Thankfully, they all seemed fine.

“Whew, you guys scared me.” Suddenly, I remembered something. “Oh no, I forgot I was baking bread! Ahhh!”

I ran all the way to the kitchen, fearing the worst. When my three apprentices arrived, they exclaimed at the smell of burning bread.

“Ah, poor Teacher,” said Lari.

“It’s a curse,” said Kharli.

“Aw, that’s too bad,” said Mo.

Glumly, I opened the first oven door and retrieved the black burnt bread. The other two ovens yielded the same, but when I saw what was in the fourth oven, I could hardly believe my eyes.

“It’s… it’s not burned!” I took out the loaf tin, with the bread inside, and showed it to them. “Look.”

“Wow, you did it, Teacher!” said Lari.

“Congratulations,” said Kharli.

“May we try some?” asked Mo.

“Uh, I think it needs to cool first,” I said.

Deming and his assistants, who were silently watching, all nodded their heads in unison. To my surprise, they seemed to have settled down in this kitchen and had taken over all but one aisle to prep food. Pots and pans were bubbling away on the stoves with various types of stews, soups, sauces, and frying food. They got back to work while I sat on tall stools with my apprentices and discussed our future vacation plans while waiting for the bread to cool enough for us to eat.

The bread, still inside the tin, looked perfect. I poked it a little and it was satisfyingly springy.

“I hope it tastes good,” I said.

“I’m sure it will,” said Lari. “It smells nice.”

“Hmph, don’t try to distract me. You’re in for a huge scolding when I tell Fengying what you all did,” I said.

Deming, ever solicitous when it came to food, sent over one of his assistants to serve us a nice snack of hot tea and biscuits.

“Teacher, why don’t we show our catch to the chef?” suggested Kharli.

“Good idea!” I said.

The three of them put their offerings in buckets and showed them to Deming, who chose the ones he wanted and then gave the buckets back. By this time, of course, he was quite familiar with how our inventories worked and knew that we would be able to keep food fresher than the best refrigerator.

When they were done, they sat back down, and I said, “I think maybe we should cancel the trip to the Lake of Clear Ripples. I didn’t realize it would be this cold. We won’t be able to fish much.”

Kharli leaned over to Mo and whispered in a voice loud enough for all of us to hear, “You know, she wanted to camp outside in a flimsy tent, so she could have an excuse to share body heat with the Prince.”

Mo giggled and blushed charmingly. “Shh, we’re not supposed to know about that.”

“Hey! Don’t gossip about your own teacher,” I said to Kharli. “And for your information, I would’ve placed a heater inside the tent.”

Lari stopped devouring the biscuits long enough to say, “Why use a heater when you have the Prince?”

“Hush, stop it. Anyway, are we all agreed? We’ll cancel the lake trip,” I said.

They nodded.

“I guess I’ll just go to Hongzhen and Wukan then,” I said.

We were talking about the details when Fengying arrived with a letter from the Fox clan.