"Ah-"
He Yunzhou sneezed in his own home.
"It feels like someone is thinking about me." He rubbed his nose, turned his head and smiled at the ball of orange fur that was dedicated to guarding the kitchen door, and said, "However, it might be melon, What do you think?"
"Meow."
The pumpkin sat on the threshold with its front paws together, and its big, fluffy tail came around from behind, the tip of the tail just encircling the two balls of paws. After hearing He Yunzhou's question, it squeezed out a delicate murmur from its throat, and its orange pupils became round because of being too focused. The pumpkin stared straight at He Yunzhou, as if it could really understand what He Yunzhou said, and even that face seemed a little rounder than usual.
Obviously knowing that the pumpkin is only attracted by the neatly sliced fresh meat on the sink, but the appearance is still so cute that He Yunzhou can't help but smile.
The scene of a person and a cat looking at each other and laughing should be very warm, but if outsiders can see this scene, they will probably feel a little horrified. There is a faint smell of blood in He Yunzhou's kitchen, and the apron he is wearing is full of blood. It was even more blood-stained, and those dark red bloodstains all came from the pieces of meat that were stacked on the counter... No, it should be described as pureed meat now.
Be it beef brisket imported from Australia, mussels from New Zealand, or salmonella-free fresh eggs from a Japanese grocery store that is also ok for raw food... Those meats that Huo Zheng couldn't help but smile at, this He Yunzhou has cut it into pieces with a skillful knife technique, added a fixed amount of calcium powder, vitamin E, vitamin B and other trace elements, and stirred it into a large pot of deep red color with a special large-capacity meat grinder. of meat puree.
Next, He Yunzhou needs to divide the meat paste into small packets as quickly as possible and freeze them in the refrigerator. go. In fact, the whole process is quite troublesome (even with his love for pumpkins, He Yunzhou can't deny this), but troubles are troublesome, He Yunzhou has to do this: the imported staple food cans of pumpkins are broken again. The stock is ready, and during the time when reliable stores are stocking up, He Yunzhou can only make cat rice by himself as a ration for pumpkins.
However, He Yunzhou's subpackage work can not be called easy.
"Meow meow meow… "
Pumpkin seemed to know that the minced meat carefully prepared by He Yunzhou was his dinner. After waiting for a long time, the whole fat cat raised its voice a little restlessly, and let out an eager begging sound.
"You still have to wait a while, classmate Pumpkin."
He Yunzhou could only give a wry smile and comforted the pumpkin.
"Meow-meow-"
Pumpkin shivered into the kitchen, shaking its fat. After so many years of getting along, it also knew that if it sneaked up on the counter to eat it, it would be knocked on the head, but so what? It has also figured out its unique way of begging in the process of fighting wits and courage with humans many times.
The more or less sweet meowing before quickly turned into a piercing howl of tractors. Not only that, but the pumpkin rubbed against He Yunzhou's feet without any shame, and would slam after a while. He fell to the ground, showing his chubby hairy belly wriggling on the ground, flirting and acting coquettishly.
Although it was a scene he was used to seeing, He Yunzhou was still dumbfounded by the appearance of the pumpkin.
"Stop barking, please, you are really noisy! All the meat is yours, so why worry, now there will be no cats to grab your food..."
Guaji has passed away, so no other cats will come to steal your food.
He Yunzhou suddenly got stuck in the middle of his words, and a strong sadness hit him overwhelmingly, making his eyes blush.
These days, whenever He Yunzhou felt that he was about to get out of the pain of Gua Ji's death, he would be pulled into the abyss of grief again because of a certain segment or a certain passage.
He Yunzhou sniffled, trying to calm down his mood, but the extremely depressed mood still weighed on him like a dark cloud, even though he had finished all the cat meals and even cleaned the kitchen, it didn't subside.
It was at this time that He Yunzhou heard a beep from his mobile phone.
After turning on the phone, a message with an unfamiliar name popped up—
[Huo Zheng: Actually, you don't have to worry about it that much, ordinary side dishes are fine.]
He Yunzhou hadn't figured out exactly what Huo Zheng's words meant, and the next second Huo Zheng's new news appeared again.
[Huo Zheng: I saw that you prepared a lot of meat dishes, so how about drinking Barolo at night?]
It has to be said that Huo Zheng was very careful about this dinner (although he himself would never admit it), the Italian wine king Barolo has a complex, deep and rich taste, and has always been paired with various flavorful wines A perfect match for red meat dishes - very suitable for (Huo Zheng thought) the dinner prepared by He Yunzhou.
"..."
Standing in his own kitchen, He Yunzhou's movements were sluggish, and his expression was unpredictable.
Although no matter how you look at it, you will feel that Huo Zheng's news is random, but He Yunzhou feels very strange that he seems to understand Huo Zheng's meaning.
He opened his circle of friends silently, staring at the photo of the cat meal material he had posted for a while.
Immediately afterwards, the scene of himself agreeing to Huo Zheng's invitation to dinner in the morning came to He Yunzhou's mind.
["That's all right - I will treat you to dinner!"]
"No?"
He Yunzhou frowned and murmured in horror.
His original intention was to treat Huo Zheng to a meal in a high-end restaurant to make up for the loss of that expensive shirt, but judging from the current situation, that person seems to have misunderstood.
"This is how to do?"
He Yunzhou glanced at the seeds on the wall, because it took a lot of effort to clean the kitchen, and it was almost five o'clock in the afternoon.
The advantage of being a freelancer is that you have free time and are not bound by work. But at this point in time, no matter if you go to the vegetable market or supermarket, you basically can’t buy any fresh vegetables. Not to mention cooking at home also takes time. What's more, Huo Zheng specially prepared red wine for dinner tonight.
He Yunzhou even bit the bullet and searched for the price of the red wine that Huo Zheng said.
Then, his pressure was even greater.
As if he thought he wasn't dazed enough, Huo Zheng quickly sent another message.
[Seven o'clock in the evening, I will be there on time.]
He Yunzhou: "..."
I don't know how to speak, and I don't know what expression to use to face all this.
"Meow… "
Pumpkin didn't know when it slipped to He Yunzhou's feet, it raised its head, and made a sweet coquettish sound at He Yunzhou. This is because He Yunzhou felt that the snacks He Yunzhou gave him were not enough, so he continued to beg for food.
He Yunzhou picked up the pumpkin, buried his face in the fine and soft hair, and let out a long sigh.
"I said before that no one will grab meat from you..."
He Yunzhou whispered to himself softly.
…
Huo Zheng sat in the car, unconsciously took out his phone, and glanced at the screen again.
There was only one message from He Yunzhou, and it was sent dozens of minutes ago.
[Okay, I'll wait for you to eat.]
An ordinary, bland reply, not to mention ambiguous or seductive, with just six words and two punctuation marks, there was even a vague indifference.
In this reply, there is not a single extra word, not even an expression.
But Huo Zheng sent three messages to He Yunzhou in a row! He stared at He Yunzhou's message and narrowed his eyes.
Is it this kind of playing hard to get
He couldn't help slandering in his heart.
But soon, he shook his head again, denying his speculation about He Yunzhou.
He clicked back to the circle of friends that He Yunzhou sent in the morning, and after reading it for a while, his expression was slightly relaxed.
If it's that person... it's more likely that they don't know how to deal with themselves
Huo Zheng smiled slightly, and put the phone back, completely oblivious to the fact that his driver was carefully watching him through the rearview mirror.
Well, of course he didn't know that the way he frowns and smiles on the way is actually a bit scary in the eyes of the people around him.
But to Huo Zheng, all of this was irrelevant.
Even though they live in the same building, the experience of slowly knocking on other people's doors with red wine in hand like today is quite a special experience for Huo Zheng.
He Yunzhou quickly opened the door, he was still wearing a cloth apron.
"Ah, you're here!"
After seeing Huo Zheng, he smiled habitually and said.
A strong fragrance came towards Huo Zheng as he opened the door.
"It smells good."
Huo Zheng subconsciously said.
The smile in the corner of He Yunzhou's eyes deepened.
"Well, after all, I'm baking something." He said as he brought Huo Zheng into the room, "...it'll be ready in a while, and we can eat right away."
Huo Zheng put on the slippers that He Yunzhou had prepared for him somewhat unfamiliarly, and with a slight stiffness, stepped into He Yunzhou's house again.
Although it was not the first time to stay here, compared to the drunkenness in the morning, Huo Zheng's mind is much clearer now, and the furnishings of He Yunzhou's house are more clearly reflected in his mind.
It is indeed the home of "ordinary people".
This was Huo Zheng's first impression.
It is even more messy than the homes of "ordinary people" in the data.
The yellowish light is a little dim, and there are a lot of books, sundries, and all kinds of cat utensils scattered around the house. The furniture is half old, and if you look closely in many places, there will be traces of cat's claws and cat hair. If Huo Zheng's housekeeper in the old house had seen this scene before, he might have wiped his forehead and shouted that the place is dirty and messy, but at this moment, amidst the strong aroma of spices and butter in the air, Everything that came before Huo Zheng's eyes was filled with an inexplicable sense of warmth.
And then at the dinner table, Huo Zheng knew the source of that fragrance.
"Sorry, I don't know what you like to eat, I just made some very simple dishes."
Huo Zheng couldn't help but look at He Yunzhou more, he always felt that He Yunzhou seemed a little nervous at this moment.
First served was a dish of vegetables.
A dish of boiled asparagus. But it was no ordinary asparagus—green asparagus that looked just blanched in broth, some golden curly fries resting on top of the asparagus, and on top of the fries, the cover There is a poached egg that can be broken by blowing.
In terms of appearance, this dish is already close to the recipe in a western restaurant, but what Huo Zheng doesn't know is that it is actually just a hodgepodge made by He Yunzhou with the leftover ingredients of cat rice in a panic. That golden fry, which contrasts with the asparagus, is really nothing more than chicken skin.
The weight of the pumpkin is a bit too high, and the fat content of the chicken skin is too high, so every time He Yunzhou cooks cat rice, he will debone the chicken thighs and remove the chicken skin.
These extra chicken skins are slightly marinated with white wine, then coated with thin flour and slightly fried, and naturally become a crispy and delicious snack. In order to understand the tiredness, He Yunzhou also sprinkled a thin layer of sour plum powder on the fried chicken skin
This is actually quite a Chinese way, but when the chicken skin and asparagus are placed on the plate together, it always looks a little awkward.
I remembered that I saved a few eggs when making cat rice, and the soft, sticky, and sweet taste of poached eggs can perfectly combine the crispness and refreshing taste of asparagus with the aroma of fried chicken skin.
However, Huo Zheng will never know how He Yunzhou puts all his energy into using the leftovers of the cat's meal when cooking.
When he was still thinking about the dish of asparagus and poached eggs, He Yunzhou put on his gloves and hurriedly took out the things from the oven.
It was several long strips wrapped in tinfoil. When you put it on the plate with a clip, you can clearly feel that the things wrapped in tin foil are quite hard.
"This is… "
"It's roast beef bone marrow."
While explaining, He Yunzhou tore off the tin foil in front of Huo Zheng.
A milky white steam rose up, and the fragrance in the air suddenly became more intense.
The tiny crackling sound of boiling liquid and oil echoed in Huo Zheng's ears. Huo Zheng lowered his head, and what he could see was the thick beef stick bone that had been cut horizontally and split in the tin foil—the inside of the hard bone that was baked white was a large mass of soft bone marrow that was constantly bubbling due to the scalding heat.
Above the bone marrow, traces of minced garlic and black pepper are clearly visible, along with many bits of herb.
He Yunzhou took out a small bowl of rice and put it by Huo Zheng's hand, and then put a small spoon next to the roasted beef bone.
"I know that many western restaurants serve baguettes with roasted beef bone marrow, but I think it's best to dig out the beef bone marrow and the soup inside and mix it with rice."
Indeed, roasted beef bone marrow is not a novel Western food, but Huo Zheng has never experienced the combination of roasted beef bone marrow and rice before.
"this… "
"That...you can try it, it doesn't matter if you don't like it."
He Yunzhou said a little stiffly.
In fact, he doesn't have much confidence in the dishes he cooked today. After all, this combination is just his personal hobby, and he has never tried it for outsiders.
But... every time he made this dish at home, it would attract prying eyes.
The big cat with silver fur seems to like the taste of bone marrow quite a lot, but He Yunzhou has only made roasted bone marrow without any seasoning as its extra meal a few times.
Thinking about it now, He Yunzhou still has some regrets.
If he had known that Guaji would leave him so quickly, he should have let Guaji eat more.
He Yunzhou couldn't help thinking about Guaji again, Huo Zheng inadvertently turned his head to meet his gaze, and his heartstrings couldn't help but twitch slightly.
He picked up the spoon, and spooned the bone marrow and the thick soup from the beef bones into the rice.
The rice was white and fluffy before, but after being soaked in the marrow of the beef, it turned into a kind of oily light brown, and every grain of rice stretched out under the light, shining brightly.