Cultivating Immortality by Raising a Cat (GL) Chapter 12

If one had to say who was suffering most in the venue at this moment, it was not Tian Xiaoyu, lost and helpless with no idea what road lay ahead. It was not Ying Fu, whose face was half covered in dirt after the white rabbit kicked him. It was not even Lin Mianmian, who had misunderstood and thought she was about to become rabbit food. It was Yuan Zhaoyang, who had run the heart-clearing mantra so many times that she had already used two spirit stones to replenish her spiritual energy.
Yingxian City was a city of the mortal world, and its spiritual energy was extremely thin. When cultivators cultivated or used spells in the city, they usually had to rely on spirit stones to replenish the spiritual energy consumed inside their bodies. But Yuan Zhaoyang had never imagined that this time, she would begin spending spirit stones not to fight an enemy, not to cultivate, but to run the heart-clearing mantra, a mental method almost never used in daily life.
Truly, fragrance led people astray.
To keep her distance from the source of that fragrance, Yuan Zhaoyang had not dared step forward. She had entrusted the matter to A-Bai. The two warnings in a row had added two more flames to the torment of that scent. Only when the little girl personally said, “I am willing to enter the Five Elements Sect,” did Yuan Zhaoyang, who was holding the third spirit stone, finally let out a breath.
The overall situation was settled. Yuan Zhaoyang did not stop A-Bai from bringing the girl toward the noodle stall instead of the house. It was only the time for one bowl of noodles. After she finished eating, there would still be time to test her aptitude. Yuan Zhaoyang could just replenish some spiritual energy.
Yuan Zhaoyang’s thinking was good. But after waiting until now, how could A-Bai be satisfied with only the time for one bowl of noodles?
As for Lin Mianmian, perhaps because she remained deeply concerned about her grass body, when the little white rabbit on her shoulder said it was time to eat, the association in her mind was not pleasant at all.
Before she could think more carefully about the issue of rabbit food, Lin Mianmian felt her feet slide. Her body drifted forward as if out of her control. She lowered her head and saw that she seemed to have stepped on something crystal clear and as thin as a cicada’s wing. Before she could look carefully, it had already carried her to the noodle stall not far away.
Her shoulder lightened. The little white rabbit hopped onto a wooden table and waved rapidly at the Qiao family’s young man in the distance. “Time to eat! Hurry back!”
And so, Lin Mianmian watched with her own eyes as the Qiao family’s young man, who was still far away murmuring to Tian Xiaoyu with lowered head, lifted his head. Two thin sheets that looked like glass or ice appeared under his feet and quickly delivered him over.
The Qiao family’s young man stopped in front of the bubbling sauce pot and worked hard to steady himself so he did not fall headfirst into it.
“Do not be afraid. I would not watch you fall in,” A-Bai said kindly, as if she had sensed the shock still lingering in him. She raised the thin ice to his eye level and waved it. “Time to eat. First, two bowls of sauce-braised meat noodles! And whatever other tasty things you have, bring them all!”
After saying that, A-Bai hopped aside on the table and made room. Her little paw patted the tabletop on Lin Mianmian’s side. “Come, eat noodles together!”
At this point, even if Lin Mianmian cared very much about her grass body, she had to admit she had been overthinking things. Thinking again of the grilled fish the female immortal before the little house had mentioned, a grass-type plant like herself probably would not be on this little rabbit’s menu.
Thinking of that female immortal, Lin Mianmian glanced toward the wooden house. No one stood by the door now. For some reason, she could still clearly remember the female immortal’s sorrowful, lingering gaze and the way it had seemed as if her eyes held only Lin Mianmian. For no reason, her heart felt a little empty.
But soon, when the Qiao family’s young man swiftly served up the fragrant sauce-braised meat noodles, even those small thoughts that Lin Mianmian herself found strange gradually faded.
Sauce-braised meat noodles.
In the rich broth, neat white noodles lay beneath a large piece of sauce-braised meat. The slab of pork belly was evenly fat and lean, thick and wide. The sauce on the meat melted into the broth, and the full fragrance of meat mixed with the clean sweetness of fine grain rushed into her nose.
Lin Mianmian looked at the rough porcelain bowl filled to the brim before her and felt rather emotional. The sauce-braised meat noodles she had smelled for years, craved for years, and followed all the way here were now truly in front of her, free for her to take.
“Delicious!” As soon as the bowl arrived, A-Bai impatiently took a big bite. Her eyes shone, and she waved at the Qiao family’s young man. “Bring a big plate of this sauce-braised meat too!”
Lin Mianmian turned her head at the sound and saw the little white rabbit sitting properly on a large ice brick that had appeared from who knew where. The porcelain bowl before the rabbit looked… bigger than the rabbit herself. A rabbit eating meat was not the most impressive thing. The impressive thing was that in the porcelain bowl, there was an ice spoon that showed no signs of melting at all, and above the bowl floated a pair of ice chopsticks. On the chopsticks was a slice of sauce-braised meat with one bite taken out of it.
“Eat. Why are you not eating? This sauce-braised meat is really good. The lean meat is soft and tender, and the fat is crisp and rich. Even eating it directly without mixing it with noodles is not greasy.” A-Bai warmly urged Lin Mianmian to eat. When she noticed Lin Mianmian’s gaze circling her bowl’s spoon and chopsticks, she proudly controlled the ice spoon to scoop up a mouthful of soup and gulped it down before explaining, “I am good at ice arts. These ice spoons and ice chopsticks will not melt when they touch hot water from the mortal world, and they can take away some of the heat in the food. They are perfect for eating hot things like this. Want to try?”
Lin Mianmian felt that such lofty things were better left for her to look at.
A-Bai did not insist. After all, Lin Mianmian had not yet begun cultivating. The ice A-Bai condensed carried some cold energy, and to an ordinary person, it was a bit too cold.
After A-Bai interrupted her thoughts, Lin Mianmian no longer dwelled on her years of connection with the sauce-braised meat noodles. She picked up her chopsticks and began to eat.
The sauce-braised meat had been stewed wonderfully. One bite was so soft and tender it seemed about to melt in her mouth. Eating a bite of dense, rich meat, then following it with a mouthful of fine white noodles, satisfied her so much that her heart felt full.
Lin Mianmian swallowed the food in her mouth and drank a mouthful of hot soup. The sauce-scented meat broth was hot, burning from her throat all the way to her heart, then gathering in her belly. Her whole body warmed and settled.
This was being alive.
The seasonings of this era, or perhaps Yingxian City, or perhaps the Qiao noodle stall, clearly were not as numerous as what Lin Mianmian had known before the apocalypse. The sauce-braised meat noodles were delicious in a simple, rustic way. Lin Mianmian could imagine that if the meat had a few more spices, and the broth had a few more ingredients, the flavor might rise another level. But right now, Lin Mianmian was truly already very satisfied.
Perhaps these noodles were not the best flavor Lin Mianmian had ever eaten, but the satisfaction they brought her was unprecedented.
In the apocalypse, never mind eating well. Even eating full had rarely been a lucky thing. Moreover, back then, Lin Mianmian had been wholeheartedly devoted to public good. Even when she received extra subsidies, most of them went to support people weaker than herself. Every day, she moved between barely filling her belly and hunger. No matter how hard she tried to keep her heart strong, her body’s longing for food had remained unsatisfied, making her thinner day by day.
After coming to this time and space, the hundred years as grass did not even need to be mentioned. As for the things Tian Xiaoyu had kindly given her, Lin Mianmian almost did not dare remember them.
After going through so much, to Lin Mianmian, saving more people and gaining more power could not compare to this mouthful of hot soup. It made her feel that she was still alive, and that being alive had meaning.
If a person did not deliberately hide it, their joy and satisfaction were actually easy for those around them to notice.
A-Bai knew that since Yuan Zhaoyang was this tense about the little girl, the girl must be unusual in some way. When getting along with Lin Mianmian, A-Bai still carried some alertness. But… whether it was Lin Mianmian’s embarrassment over the old clothes earlier, or her undisguised satisfaction now because of one bite of noodles and one spoon of soup, A-Bai felt a little emotional.
So…
Lin Mianmian had just picked up a piece of sauce-braised meat and was about to take her second bite when she heard the little white rabbit beside her say, “Two more plates of sauce-braised meat!”
She could really eat. Lin Mianmian could not help glancing at the large plate of sauce-braised meat in front of A-Bai, which she had not yet started eating. It was filled with the same thick slices from the noodles, ten full pieces on one plate.
“For you. Eat with me. I have plenty of money.” A-Bai patted the golden bell, and a neat row of gold ingots appeared on the table.
A-Bai’s way of being good to people had always been simple and forceful. Lin Mianmian could not get used to it at once. She froze, and the slice of sauce-braised meat already held between her chopsticks slid back into her bowl.
Far away, Ying Fu, who was answering people’s questions, suddenly felt that something somewhere seemed bright enough to dazzle him. When he turned, he discovered what A-Bai had done and almost fainted from anger.
Never mind how Ying Fu came over and quietly lectured A-Bai that wealth should not be displayed and that she should not invite trouble for the Qiao family. Never mind how A-Bai turned the attack back on him and made Ying Fu obediently take out the fried dumplings he had bought earlier as compensation.
As for the plates of sauce-braised meat A-Bai ordered, Lin Mianmian had thought that so much meat could not be finished by one person and one rabbit. Unexpectedly, as they ate, not only did the meat plates empty, they refilled the noodles twice.
While eating fried dumplings with A-Bai as an after-meal snack, Lin Mianmian tried hard to remember how much she had eaten just now. Of course she could not compare to the rabbit, whose stomach seemed to open into another dimension after eating five bowls of noodles and six plates of meat. But Lin Mianmian calculated that at least three bowls of noodles and two plates of meat had entered her own belly.
The key was that Lin Mianmian still did not feel full. If A-Bai, who ate quickly, had not put down her chopsticks first and made Lin Mianmian suddenly realize she seemed to have eaten too much, she could have kept eating. Lin Mianmian was very clear that her appetite had already far surpassed that of a normal child in her teens. Most likely, it was because she was… a grass demon? She had exposed something strange the moment she stopped paying attention.
But… Lin Mianmian looked at A-Bai beside her, who was eating fried dumplings while complaining that the Qiao noodle stall had too few varieties and that otherwise she could eat more. Perhaps in this rabbit’s eyes, Lin Mianmian’s appetite was only normal.
A-Bai truly had not paid attention to how much Lin Mianmian ate. To her, when there was enough food, she would not care how much someone else took.
When the meal was almost done, A-Bai suddenly remembered that the two of them had not introduced themselves. She put down the fried dumpling in her paw, tilted her head, and asked the little girl’s name.
Lin Mianmian naturally had no reason not to say it.
“Lin Mianmian. That name sounds soft and cottony. Interesting. Speaking of which, the Five Elements Sect happens to have a Core Formation Master with the surname Lin. If she has not broken through by the time you reach Core Formation, disciples under you would have to call you… Master Mianmian. Hahahahaha!” A-Bai spoke until she laughed so hard she collapsed on the table.
A little rabbit rolling on the table and giggling was truly quite cute. But once Lin Mianmian remembered that this was teasing her name, she could not help making an awkward face.
After the rabbit laughed enough and lay flat on the table like a furry handkerchief, Lin Mianmian could not help asking the rabbit’s name too.
At this, A-Bai climbed up with a serious face.
“My name is Siji. I am of the Phantom Silver-Haired Rabbit clan of the Northern Territory’s Great Snow Mountain.” A-Bai lifted a paw and smoothed the ear fur that was not messy at all, speaking seriously.
“Pfft… Tuzki? Hahahaha… uh… cough, cough…” Lin Mianmian, who was eating a fried dumpling, never expected the rabbit’s name to be so powerful. She could not help laughing. Then, because she was careless, the dumpling slid into her mouth and stuck in her throat.
“My surname is Le. Le Siji. Not Tu…” A-Bai had no idea what was funny about her name. She only saw the little girl laughing, grinning, coughing, and turning red, as if she were about to laugh herself to death. So what exactly was funny?
One person and one rabbit had eaten so much that they had long gone past Yuan Zhaoyang’s estimate of the time needed for one bowl of noodles.
Yuan Zhaoyang had used two more spirit stones inside the house and still had not seen the person come in. Although she could sense that the fragrance remained very close and the little girl probably had not left, she inevitably grew anxious.
She came out to look.
Good. What was with that table full of empty bowls and plates, and that whole pot of fried dumplings?
No. Wait. Was that little girl about to choke to death? Yuan Zhaoyang widened her eyes, almost unable to believe what she was seeing.