Beauty and the Beasts

“Parker, you’re not done yet? The fire is ready.” Bai Qingqing’s voice rang from the house.

 Parker quickly replied, “Oh, I’m done.”

 He randomly scooped up the rice and walked briskly to the river to wash it. He also took the chance to retrieve the fish baskets from the river. Using the hollow bamboo, he easily poured out the prey inside the fish basket.

 As the saying goes: in the rising tide, the fishes are caught, and in the falling tide, the prawns are caught. With the rising tide this time, the lack of oxygen in the water caused the fish to float to the surface. The fish baskets at the bottom of the river basically only managed to capture the river prawns and three to four small fishes that had suffocated to death.

 Parker cleansed the fish and prawns and came back all wet and dripping.

 “Wah, so many prawns today!” Bai Qingqing was overjoyed. This type of river prawn was most suited for steaming.

 Bai Qingqing tossed the burnt bamboo pole into the fire. In a bid to be more environmentally-friendly, she steamed the rice together with the prawns.

 After heating up the stone pot and adding water, she used a few logs to construct a stand, then placed the rice-filled bamboo, bowl of eggs, and bowl of fish and prawns into it to steam.

 After Bai Qingqing placed the newly made lid over the stone pot, Parker asked in a doubtful manner, “Separated by water and bamboo, will the rice be cooked this way?”

 It didn’t matter so much for the fish and prawns, for they tasted delicious even when raw. Parker sniffed the fishy smell in the air and slurped his saliva greedily.

 “Don’t worry. So long as the temperature is high enough, it’ll be cooked,” Bai Qingqing said confidently.

 Parker stopped asking, very much looking forward to the outcome.

 After steaming for over ten minutes, Bai Qingqing realized she had made a mistake.

 By now, the eggs, fish, and prawns should already be cooked, but the rice would take much longer to finish steaming. If she took them out of the pot together, everything other than the rice would be overcooked.

 “Mm… never mind. I’ll bring the rest out first.”

 “Okay.” Parker instantly acted on her instructions. He quickly removed the scalding lid from the stone pot, causing Bai Qingqing to gasp as she watched him.

 “Be careful, it’s really hot!”

 Parker rubbed his fingers, seemingly not bothered at all. He then reached into the stone pot and quickly took out the two dishes.

 Bai Qingqing quickly layered tree leaves under and over the lid, lest Parker touch it with his bare hands again.

 After Parker was done with his chores, he started wrinkling his nose rapidly, widening his eyes.

 “What smell is this?” Parker turned his head towards the food rapidly, staring passionately at the fish and prawns.

 “You like it?” Bai Qingqing glanced at the food, then gazed dubiously at him.

 Doesn’t smell special or anything. Didn’t I merely steam it? Aren’t his reactions too exaggerated? Parker is simply trying to flatter me, isn’t he!

 “Growl—” Parker swallowed his saliva, his stomach growling loudly.

 Speechless, Bai Qingqing thought to herself that Parker must really like this dish.

 “Here, try it.” Bai Qingqing handed Parker a pair of chopsticks.

 Parker responded by grabbing a prawn speedily and stuffing it into his mouth. He swallowed it in one gulp without chewing.

 His actions were so swift that it made Bai Qingqing suspect he didn’t actually taste the food at all.

 Is this fellow a cat?

 “These prawns… need to be dipped in sauce,” Bai Qingqing said after a moment’s hesitation.

 Parker was so excited tears had welled up in his eyes as he carefully licked the corners of his mouth, a look of relish on his face. “It’s so yummy!”

 He liked to eat fish, to begin with, and he had even secretly eaten it raw before. Although the fish steamboat that Bai Qingqing cooked previously tasted good, the heavy flavors of the seasonings hid the natural sweetness and odor of fish. For those reasons, it had felt somewhat lacking.

 1However, steamed only with crushed garlic, this dish of steamed fish and prawns perfectly brought out the natural flavors of these ingredients.

 This top delicacy was so easy to make. At the thought of how he would frequently get to eat this in the future, Parker got so excited he had an urge to transform into a leopard and roll about on the floor.