Chapter 5: Chapter 5
Ch5 – That's my egg cake!
Headquarters of the Blue Star Empire's First Army
"Adjutant Li, there is an express delivery for you."
The communication device in the office rang out and Li Kai calmly replied, "Very well, I'll be there immediately." Afterwards, he quickly left the office. One his way, there were a lot of people who greeted him and he greeted each of them back. He then entered the elevator and pressed the button for the first floor.
Li Kai was adjutant to the youngest marshal of the empire, He Yun Chen. It is said that a prime minister's gatekeepers are equal to seventh rank officials. Although he was an adjutant to Marshal He, he enjoyed all the privileges of a middle ranking officer. In the base, his status was second only to the marshal's.
The elevator opened with a "ding". Li Kai confirmed that there was no one around before he dared to pass.
Intergalactic express delivery couldn't directly enter the headquarters. All express deliveries to headquarters would be received and inspected by security. It is only after that the recipient can come down and claim his package.
When the petty officer from the security division saw Li Kai's cold face at their door, he immediately handed over the package without waiting for Li Kai to say anything. "Adjutant Li, here is your delivery!"
"Thank you" Li Kai nodded to him and left with his package.
"Is it just me or did Adjustant Li just smile?" the petty officer whispered to his companion, "Seems like this is the first time he's received a package. He looked so happy. Could it be from his girlfriend?"
"Shhhh!" His co-worker jumped in fright. He was on guard and looked towards the door. Seeing that Adjutant Li was already quite far away, he relaxed. "Who do you think you are to speculate on the adjutant's situation as you please? Do you have even a bit of career accomplishment?" As he said this, he, who had been with the security division for much longer, gave a sly smile to his companion. "The contents of the package was written as 'food'. I'm guessing it's a lunchbox that his partner made for him. Hehehe!"
Li Kai held the package in one hand and went all the way back with a cold expression on his face, the same as normal. On his way back, an officer he was acquainted with was passing by and saw that he was holding a delivery. The officer couldn't believe his eyes. Li Kai was the sort who was cut off from others, his character was very serious. He'd already been in the army for many years but he had never seen Li Kai receive any delivery.
"So even you get deliveries, huh? What's this?" The other was evidently very amazed. But soon after, blurted out, "Oh, is it a package for the marshal? Is it a gift from his fans? But the marshal has never once accepted any of those, right?"
Li Kai glanced at him and tightened his hold on the package. "It's mine. I left some documents at home and had the smart butler send them over."
The elevator came and he bid the officer goodbye. He walked in with his package and waited until the elevator door closed. When he was finally alone, he couldn't wait to unseal the package, revealing a transparent preservation box with a yummy, golden egg cake and a small serving of sweet sauce floating peacefully in it.
Li Kai, also known as, Barely Passing, recalled that wonderful taste that he had sampled in the live broadcast, making him gulp.
The current situation was very stable and even the military had time to spare. So Li Kai got himself a new secret hobby — watching live broadcasts on Jinjiang. Actually, what Li Kai usually watched were mech battle type of broadcasts. Entering that food broadcast today was purely because he had followed a link from the recommendations. He never thought that he would be able to experience some never before tasted delicacies!
This package, was one of the three egg cakes that were given out.
Ding–
The elevator stopped at the eighth floor. Li Kai saw it but didn't pay it any mind. That was until the elevator slowly opened and revealed a tall and straight figure.
"M-marshal He, hello, sir!"
While holding unto the preservation box, Li Kai faced the approaching man and gave a respectful salute. Afterwards, he stared as the other walked in and pressed the button for the 12th floor.
He couldn't help but hide the preservation box behind his back, carefully looking at the youth beside him out of the corner of his eye. The marshal was in complete uniform and had on a tired and serious expression.
He Yun Chen was the youngest marshal of the Blue Star Empire. This year, he was just 48 years old. With people nowadays maturing at 30 and with life expectancy normally reaching 300 years, he was still very young. Both his physique and his spiritual strength were ranked as double S. After graduating from the military academy, he began to fight on the battlefield and earned brilliant military success. He was known as the imperial war god. Although his character was slight aloof, it didn't hinder people from worshiping him. However, this model of human perfection was completely disgusted with natural food.
The doors of the elevator closed, and Li Kai's heart jumped. He could only pray that the packaging of the preservation box was tight enough and would not reveal any smell that would cause the marshal's aversion. However, his wish was obviously for naught. In less than half a minute, he heard the marshal's cold voice ask him, "What are you holding?"
Li Kai's forehead broke out in a cold sweat and he honestly replied: "Reporting to the marshal, it is an egg cake."
"Egg cake?" He Yun Chen's brows tightened even more. "Is it a new product from the Chefs' Association?"
The empire has recently vigorously promoting the use of natural foods instead of synthetic nutrient solutions. The use of nutrient solutions had been a last resort. Humans sacrificed appetite in response to the long war, but there were subtle influences on the people's psyche, such as depression and emotional instability, irritability and insomnia, etc. Now that they had entered peacetime, mankind no longer needed to sacrifice their desire for good food.
However, the way He Yun Chen saw it, this was a waste of time. As a SS-ranked mech-class warrior, these nutrients have no way of affecting him. Moreover, his five senses were several times more sensitive than that of normal people's, which of course, included taste. The ingredients cooked by the Chefs' Association tasted like wax and was even disgusting. It was better to drink the flavorless nutrient solution, at least the nutrient solution didn't make him want to vomit.
And if natural ingredients were used, the army not only had to waste manpower to build a canteen, but would also waste an hour every day to let the people eat. Like rowing a boat upstream, if you stop moving forward you fall back. They were gravely mistaken if they thought they could now sit back and relax after repelling those invaders.
Having said that, he can't ignore the psychological hazards to and personal wishes of his men. He doesn't object to his people eating natural food but he does not want these things to appear before him.
However, in order to better promote natural ingredients, the Academy has invested a lot of manpower and resources to carry out food restoration, and had joined hands with the Chefs' Association to introduce new food from time to time. Every time there was a new product launch, they would send a sample to the royal family and the other major powers. The He family was naturally on the list. He Yun Chen just didn't expect that this time they would actually send things directly to the military.
"Take it and throw it away." His brows wrinkled tightly. "If more of these things are sent in the future, you don't need to consult with me. You can handle it yourself."
"Ah, but…" Li Kai said, the Major General seemed to have misunderstood the recipient of the package? His fingers subconsciously tightened, "Marshal, this is my-"
There was a crisp "crack" sound from the box, which rang clear in the closed elevator. Its thin lid was actually accidentally cracked by Li Kai's A+ ranked strength.
"What is this smell -" He Yun Chen's eyebrows rose, smelling a strong fragrance sweeping the entire elevator carriage. His eyes glanced down and he saw that the box was cracked by his adjutant, and the fragrance was seeping out from there.
The unusual thing was, the smell of this dish wasn't like the smell from the dishes before. There wasn't any of that vomit-inducing smell from before, rather, there was an unfamiliar, alluring scent.
He felt that his stomach which had been silent for decades suddenly seemed to come alive and inside his stomach was an indescribable sense of emptiness.
"Wait." He Yun Chen raised his hand and finally changed his mind. "I will accept this package."
"Ah…?" Li Kai stared at He Yun Chen with a panicked and stricken expression.
He Yun Chen's warmth-less gaze met his head-on and caused Li Kai to quiver. He quickly handed over the box.
Seeing that the elevator door was closing once again, Li Kai finally remembered what he had been about to say.
"Marshal, that's my egg cake…"
"My…"
***********
Ruan Tang had no idea that one of the egg cakes he had sent out had been seized so forcibly. After he had drank and eaten his fill, he took a nap and slept to his heart's content. It wasn't until three in the afternoon that he woke up. Afterwards, he went to research dinner.
The potatoes he had bought before were still there, all piles up. Although the refrigerator could keep it fresh, it will inevitably affect the taste if kept for a long time. And one the potata sprouted buds it could no longer be used.
Ruan Tang tapped his chin and decided to use the potatoes for dinner.
As the saying goes, eat well in the morning, eat until you're full in the afternoon and eat less at night. However, nowadays, people's night lives were exceedingly rich, eating only a little obviously wouldn't be able to sustain these online night owls.
Currently, he could still only eat easily digestible foods. That ruled out rice, and he didn't want to continue eating congee. That only left noodles.
After making a decision, Ruan Tang logged into the live broadcasting platform. He was preparing to transfer funds to purchase ingredients when he was amazed by what he saw. His live broadcast from this morning earned him no less than 1,900 GMs.
–These future people were simply too cute!
Ruan Tang was in a good mood as he transferred the money to his account. Then he went to the shopping site to continue his purchase. In order to repay his viewers' enthusiasm, he was preparing a meat dish for dinner. One cannot eat without meat, and one cannot reside without bamboo. The happiness that meat gave to humanity truly was irreplaceable. There were potatoes and meat, with these the recipe for tonight can be set — potato and beef belly noodles.
He chose a block of beef belly. It had both tendons and fat. The taste from this part which was partly fat and partly lean would be good. He also bought carrots, onions, flour and tomato sauce.
Unfortunately ingredients like star anise, cinnamon or cooking wine weren't available for sale in the shopping site. Without the star anise, he thought to use rich-tasting tomato sauce as for braising instead. The flavor should definitely be good.
Shortly after, Ruan Tang's purchases arrived.
After finishing his preparations for cooking, Ruan Tang once again put on the live contact lenses and got ready to start his broadcast.
However, just when he was about the start, he caught sight of a twinkling golden light on the upper left side. He realized that these were internal website messages. Worried that he had missed some important news, Ruan Tang hurriedly opened them up.
There were two messages from the site. The first was the message letting him know that since he had used potatoes in his broadcast, he would be included in their recommendations in the gourmet channel page. This placement among the recommendations garnered him quite a bit of popularity.
The second message was to inform him that his anchor level has reached level 2. An anchor's grade level was intimately bound with his popularity and his popularity was determined not only by the number of viewers but also by the gifts given.
This rise in level was a good thing for Ruan Tang. He remembered that the tutorial stated that upon reaching level 2 the 'follow' functionality would become available for his viewers. After following his channel, subscribers could be immediately notified on their light brains whenever he opened a live broadcast. It was truly a very useful tool in accumulating popularity.
Ruan Tang opened his broadcast in an exceedingly good mood. "Good Evening, everyone. I'm your anchor, Ruan Tang. This time I will be making potato and beef belly noodles for you guys."
Along with the start of his broadcast, tons of visitors who had been following Ruan Tang's broadcasts were sent notifications after which they entered the broadcast room with the utmost speed.
The author has something to say:
Li Kai: Marshal, that's my lunch box. That's my egg cake. qwq!!
He Yun Chen: Hm? [Looking down at the sender name, he pointed it out to the adjutant.] My wife, mine.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone