Her delicate brows instantly furrowed into a deep frown.
Why...
This thought was like a seed, wildly taking root and sprouting in her mind.
Why was the cake's structure still so firm when the sugar content didn't match the recipe at all? This completely violated the physical principles of baking!
Why was the texture still so soft and moist, instead of dry and hard as expected?
Countless question marks exploded in her mind, giving this professionally trained pastry chef an unprecedented shock.
With a head full of questions and a trace of panic she was unwilling to admit to herself, Yue Yiqing turned and rushed into the kitchen.
In the kitchen, Chu Miaomiao had just taken off her apron and was leisurely tying a ribbon on the cake box.
"You!"
Yue Yiqing's voice sounded a bit shrill from anxiety. Pointing at Chu Miaomiao, she couldn't help but question:
"Why is your cake able to stand up? With that ratio, how can the texture still stay soft?!"
Facing the almost hysterical questioning from this Le Cordon Bleu pastry chef, Chu Miaomiao just blinked and thought seriously.
"Oh, that."
She calmly stated a fact, "I failed a total of sixty-five times at home. I adjusted it a little bit every time, and I only succeeded a few days ago."
After saying that, a hint of smugness appeared on her face as she added, "I think my teacher was right. True knowledge comes from practice."
"Teacher?" Yue Yiqing seemed to have caught a lifeline, urgently pressing, "What teacher?! What secret recipe did they teach you?"
To be able to teach a student who breaks the rules like this, it must be some reclusive baking master!
Looking at her eyes full of a thirst for knowledge, Chu Miaomiao spoke as if it were a matter of course.
"My language teacher!"
Yue Yiqing was stunned.
Lin Mo had already walked over, briskly picking up the birthday cake next to Chu Miaomiao.
"Alright, it's about time, we should go."
The cake was finished, so there was no point in staying any longer.
As soon as he finished speaking, he grabbed Chu Miaomiao's wrist without explanation and walked straight toward the door.
Just as the two stepped out of the kitchen, urgent footsteps came from behind. Yue Yiqing chased after them, her face showing an earnest desire to seek advice.
As soon as they left the kitchen, Yue Yiqing followed them out.
"Could you leave your contact information? You're right, I shouldn't just stick to the recipes I've learned. I need to adapt to local conditions and adjust according to the locals' tastes..."
These words were spoken quite sincerely.
Lin Mo's gaze swept across Chu Miaomiao's slightly bewildered face, a faint, imperceptible smile flashing in his eyes before he slowly turned his head back.
"Sure," he agreed readily, then changed the subject. "But next time I bring her here to make a cake, you're not allowed to charge money."
Yue Yiqing paused for a moment, then nodded vigorously. "No problem!"
Lin Mo casually grabbed a pen and paper from the counter and wrote down his name and phone number.
After doing all this, he pulled Chu Miaomiao and stepped out of the shop without looking back. His movements were dashing and crisp, without the slightest hesitation.
The sunlight outside was just right, stretching their shadows out long.
Then, brushing off his sleeves, he left without taking a single cloud with him.
Inside the shop, Yue Yiqing solemnly picked up the piece of paper. Looking closely, the name on it made her a bit dazed.
"Lin Bei?"
System: Lin Bei feels that you are not Lin Bei.
In the car.
Chu Miaomiao put away her phone. Just now, her bank had sent a text saying someone refunded her fifty thousand. It should be the money she transferred to Yue Yiqing earlier.
She didn't expect Yue Yiqing to actually return it.
"At least she's sincere. If you want to learn how to make desserts in the future, you can go to her."
"No, I don't like going out." Chu Miaomiao refused directly without thinking.
However, after thinking for a moment, she grabbed Lin Mo's arm and pulled it closer to her embrace.
"If you take me out, then I'm willing to go."
Gentle ocean wave attack!
"Thank you. If you hadn't helped me find this shop, I might not have been able to make a cake for my mom."
As she spoke, the ocean wave attack grew stronger, and Chu Miaomiao pressed her whole body against him.
She rubbed gently against Lin Mo's arm like a little kitten.
During this exclusive time, she just wanted to snuggle with Lin Mo.
She really envied Yu Ling and Yun Lu for being so brave, while she could only scheme for a long time in small matters just to get a chance to be alone with him.
The car soon arrived at the destination.
It was a standalone small building hidden in a deep alley of the old city, with grey bricks and dark tiles. A quaint lantern hung at the door, but there was no signboard.
This was also the birthday banquet venue that Chu Lintian had carefully selected and booked in advance, just to prevent the kind of disruption that happened last time.
Private kitchens at this time were still very private.
Lin Mo and Chu Miaomiao got out of the car, walked to the heavy vermilion wooden door, raised a hand, and knocked on the brass door ring.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
The dull sound echoed in the quiet alley.
A moment later, the door creaked open from the inside. An auntie wearing a plain long gown appeared at the door. Her posture was straight, and her temperament was calm. She didn't look like a waitress, but rather the hostess of the house.
Her gaze swept over Lin Mo and Chu Miaomiao, her eyes peaceful but carrying weight.
"Do you two have a reservation?"
Chu Miaomiao felt a little nervous under this aura and subconsciously leaned closer to Lin Mo.
Lin Mo, however, acted as if nothing was wrong, calmly meeting the other party's gaze, and spoke concisely.
"Yes, under the name Chu."
Hearing this, the last trace of scrutiny disappeared from the auntie's eyes. She nodded and stepped aside.
"Miss Chu hasn't arrived yet. You two are her friends, right? Would you like to come in and wait?"
"Then we'll take a seat," Lin Mo said, adding, "Are we the only ones here right now?"
"Yes, only you two have arrived so far."
The auntie led the two through a small and exquisite courtyard to a resting area that looked like a living room.
A set of glossy rosewood tables and chairs was placed here. Several ink wash landscape paintings with profound artistic conception hung on the walls. The faint scent of sandalwood permeated the air, making one feel calm upon smelling it.
Not far away was Yangcheng's famous Temple of the Six Banyan Trees. It seemed the owner of this place also believed in Buddhism, which explained the elegant fragrance filling the room.
"You two can rest here first. What would you like to drink?" the auntie asked with a gentle voice and elegant posture.
"Cola, iced."
Lin Mo stretched out his long legs and unceremoniously sat down on the rosewood chair that clearly looked very expensive. He leaned back slightly, his posture as lazy as if he were in his own home.
He casually handed over the cake box he had been carrying all the way.
"Please put this in the fridge, thank you."
In this antique environment where even the air breathed Zen, ordering a glass of iced cola was truly a bit of an eyesore.
But Lin Mo simply liked this feeling.
Hearing this, the experienced and knowledgeable auntie merely lifted her eyelids very quickly, then returned to her calm and unruffled demeanor, respectfully taking the cake with both hands.
"Alright, please wait a moment."
Her demeanor was absolutely impeccable, as if what Lin Mo had just ordered wasn't a simple glass of cola, but some top-tier Da Hong Pao tea from Wuyi Mountain.
As the woman's figure disappeared behind an embroidered folding screen, the surroundings fell into a profound silence, leaving only the faint, gentle babble of flowing water from the courtyard.
Only then did Chu Miaomiao let out a long sigh of relief, her tense little shoulders finally relaxing.
She looked around curiously, her big, dark eyes brimming with a sense of wonder. Leaning close to Lin Mo, she marveled in a hushed voice:
"It's so beautiful here, just like a movie set. Every single thing is so exquisite."
lanned to earn money steadily and take life at a slower pace. But he never expected... his father's remarriage, and the stepmother bringing along a dependent, would completely disrupt his life's plans...
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
lities. One day, Qi Yuan was buying groceries when he unfortunately came face-to-face with a monster. Just when he thought he was going to die on the spot, he suddenly heard the monster's thoughts... "This aura, he's definitely not an ordinary master!" "So terrifying, so terrifying." "A fight with my back against the wall, I can't take it anymore." Qi Yuan: Ah, no one told me that my awakened ability isn't telepathy, but rather the stronger my enemies imagine me to be, the stronger I truly become. PS: Zhou Hai in the first chapter is not the protagonist.
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
