Sixth Meow

“Ah-choo —” He Yunzhou sneezed at his home.

“It feels like someone is thinking about me.” He rubbed his nose, turned his head to the orange furball that was intently guarding the kitchen door, and said with a smile, “But maybe it could be Guaji oh. What do you think?”

“Meow wu.”

Nangua’s front paws were placed together as he sat on the threshold. Its big fluffy tail came around from behind him, and the tip of his tail circled the two balls of paws. After hearing He Yunzhou’s question, it squeezed out a delicate mutter from its throat, and its orange pupils became round from being too preoccupied. Nangua stared straight at He Yunzhou as if it could really understand what He Yunzhou was saying, and even its face seemed to be a little rounder than usual.

He knew Nangua was only attracted by the neatly cut meat on the table, but this look was still so cute that He Yunzhou couldn’t help smiling.

The scene of one person and one cat looking at each other and smiling should have been quite warm, but if an outsider could see this scene, they would probably feel a little frightened — He Yunzhou’s kitchen is filled with a faint scent of blood, the apron he wore was stained with blood, and those dark red bloodstains came from the pieces of meat on the kitchen counter… No, it should now be described as pureed meat.

Whether it’s the good beef brisket imported from Australia, mussels produced in New Zealand, or special salmonella-free fresh eggs exclusively in Japanese food shops that can be eaten raw… Those meats that Huo Zheng couldn’t help but smile for have been cut into pieces by He Yunzhou’s knife skills at this time. Mixed with a fixed amount of calcium powder, manganese chloride, Vitamin E and Vitamin B, and other micronutrients, it was stirred into a large pot of crimson meat puree with a special large-capacity meat grinder.

Next, He Yunzhou also needs to pack the meat puree into small packages as quickly as possible and freeze them in the refrigerator. In fact, the whole process is still quite troublesome to say the least, (even with his love for Nangua, He Yunzhou can’t deny this) but troublesome is troublesome. He Yunzhou has no choice but to do this: the imported staple food can that Nangua usually eat are once again out of stock. When the goods are available, he’ll buy them at a reliable store. Thus, He Yunzhou can only make homemade cat food to serve as Nangua’s rations.

However, He Yunzhou’s packaging work can’t be called easy.

“Meow… meow… meow…” Nangua also seemed to know that the meat puree carefully prepared by He Yunzhou was its dinner. After waiting for a long time, the fat cat stretched out its voice somewhat anxiously, letting out an urgent plea for food.

“It will take a while oh, Student Nangua.” He Yunzhou could only give a forced smile to soothe Nangua.

“Meow wu wu—meow —”

Nangua shook its fatty meat and got into the kitchen. After living together for so many years, it also knows that if it rushed to the kitchen counter to steal food, it would be knocked on the head; but so what? It has also figured out a unique way of begging for food in the process of fighting wits with the human many times.

The previous sweet meow that could be called more or less sweet soon turned into an ear-splitting tractor howl. Not only that, but Nangua also has no shame in rubbing around at He Yunzhou’s feet, and every once in a while, it will fall to the ground with a thud, showing its fat furry belly squirming on the ground with all sorts of flattery and coquettishness.

Although he was already used to seeing this scene, Nangua’s appearance still made He Yunzhou not know whether to laugh or cry.

“Stop screaming, please, you’re really noisy! All the meat is yours, why are you still in a hurry? There will now be no cat to snatch food with you either…” Guaji has passed away, so there will never be another cat to snatch your meal anymore. He Yunzhou suddenly got stuck halfway through his words, and a heavy wave of sadness overwhelmingly came, making his eyes red.

These days, whenever He Yunzhou felt he was about to get out of the pain of Guaji’s death, he would be pulled into the abyss of grief once again because of a certain fragment or words.

He Yunzhou sniffed and tried to calm himself down, but the unusually depressed mood still weighed on him like a dark cloud. Even when he had finished cooking all the cat food and even when the kitchen was almost cleaned up, it did not subside.

It was also at this time that He Yunzhou heard a beep from his cell phone.

After turning on the phone, a message with an unfamiliar name popped up —

[Huo Zheng: Actually, you don’t need to bother that much, ordinary small dishes are very good.]

He Yunzhou hadn’t yet figured out what exactly Huo Zheng meant by this statement when in the next second, a new message from him appeared again.

[Huo Zheng: I saw that you prepared a lot of meat dishes, so how about drinking Barolo in the evening?]

It must be said that Huo Zheng is very attentive to this dinner (although he himself would never admit it). Barolo, Italy’s king of wines, has a complex, deep, and rich flavor. It has always been a perfect match for various flavorful red meat dishes — very suitable (Huo Zheng thought) for the dinner He Yunzhou prepared.

“……” Standing in his own kitchen, He Yunzhou’s movements were dull and his expression was unpredictable.

Although no matter which way he looks at it, he would think that Huo Zheng’s message was brainless. However, He Yunzhou felt very strangely as if he could understand what Huo Zheng was saying.

He silently clicked on his Moments and stared at the photos he had previously sent of cat food materials for a while.

Immediately afterwards, the scene where he personally promised Huo Zheng to invite him to a meal in the morning came to He Yunzhou’s mind.

[Then it’s a deal — I will definitely invite you to a meal!”]

“No way?” He Yunzhou’s brows wrinkled as he murmured in horror.

His original intention was to treat Huo Zheng to a meal at some high-end restaurant to make up for the loss of that expensive shirt. But judging from the current situation, that person seemed to have misunderstood.

“What are we going to do?” He Yunzhou glanced at the clock on the wall. Because it took a lot of effort to clean up the kitchen, the time was already close to 5 pm.

The advantage of being a freelancer is that time is very free and not bound by work. But at this point in time, whether running to the vegetable market or supermarket, he could hardly buy any fresh vegetables. Besides, cooking at home also takes time. Not to mention, Huo Zheng also specially prepared red wine for dinner tonight. 

He Yunzhou even braced himself and search for the price of the red wine Huo Zheng said.

Then, his pressure became even greater.

As if he wasn’t bewildered enough, Huo Zheng quickly sent another message.

[At 7 pm, I’ll be there on time.]

He Yunzhou: “……” 

I don’t know what to say and I don’t know what expression to use to face this.

“Meow…”

Nangua, who he didn’t know when it slipped to He Yunzhou’s feet, raised its head and made a sweet coquettish sound at He Yunzhou. This was because it felt that the snacks He Yunzhou had given before weren’t enough, so it continued to beg for food.

He Yunzhou picked up Nangua, buried his face in the fine and soft fur, and let out a long sigh.

“I said before that there was no one snatching meat from you…” He Yunzhou muttered to himself.

……

Huo Zheng sat in the car, unconsciously took out his cell phone, and took another look at the screen.

There was only one message from He Yunzhou that was sent a few minutes ago.

[Good. I’ll wait for you to eat.]

An ordinary and bland reply; not to mention ambiguous or seductive, just six words ^[1]I used 7 words here. and two punctuations, it even faintly revealed a kind of indifference.

In this reply, there is not a single superfluous word, not even an expression. But Huo Zheng had sent three messages to He Yunzhou in a row! He stared at He Yunzhou’s message and narrowed his eyes.

Is this the kind of playing hard-to-get trick again?

He couldn’t help but curse in his heart. But very quickly, he shook his head again, denying his speculation about He Yunzhou.

He clicked back on the Moments that He Yunzhou sent this morning. After looking at it for a while, his expression was slightly relieved.

If it was that person… It’s more likely that you won’t know how to deal with yourself, right?

Huo Zheng smiled faintly and put his phone back, completely unaware that his driver had been cautiously peering at him through the rearview mirror.

Well, he naturally didn’t know that the way he frowned and smiled for a while along the way was actually a bit terrifying in the eyes of the people around him.

However, all of this is irrelevant to Huo Zheng.

Although he lives in the same building, the experience of slowly knocking on other people’s doors with red wine in his hand like today is still a pretty special experience for Huo Zheng.

He Yunzhou quickly opened the door, still wearing an apron. “Ah, here you are!” He said with a customary smile after seeing Huo Zheng.

A strong fragrance accompanied his opening of the door, rushed towards Huo Zheng.

“Smells good,” Huo Zheng subconsciously said.

The smile at the corner of He Yunzhou’s eyes deepened.

“En, after all, I’m roasting something,” As he said, he brought Huo Zheng into the room, “… It’ll be ready in a minute and you can eat soon.”

Huo Zheng put on the slippers that Huo Zheng had prepared for him somewhat unfamiliarly. With a trace of stiffness, he stepped into He Yunzhou’s house once again.

Although it wasn’t the first time he had been here, Huo Zheng was much more sober now than when he was drunk in the morning, and the furnishings of He Yunzhou’s house were more clearly reflected in his mind. 

It is indeed the home of “ordinary people”.

This was Huo Zheng’s first impression.

It’s even messier than the homes of “ordinary people” in the information.

The yellowish lights are a little dim. There are a lot of books, sundries, and all kinds of cat equipment lying around the house. The furniture is half-old, and if you look closely in many places, there will be traces of cats’ paws and cat fur. If Huo Zheng’s housekeeper in the old residence had seen this scene before, I’m afraid the housekeeper would have wiped their forehead and yelled that it was dirty and messy. But at this moment, in the strong aroma of spices and butter in the air, everything that greeted Huo Zheng’s eyes revealed an indescribable sense of warmth.

Then at the dinner table, Huo Zheng knew the source of that fragrance.

“Sorry, I don’t know what you like to eat. I only cooked some very simple dishes.”

Huo Zheng didn’t hold back taking a few more looks at He Yunzhou. He always felt that He Yunzhou seemed a bit nervous at this time.

The first thing served on the table was a vegetable dish. 

White charred asparagus, but it wasn’t just any asparagus — the verdant asparagus seemed to have only been blanched quickly in the broth, and some golden curly fried things were placed on top of the asparagus. Moreover, at the top of the fried things was covered with a poached egg that wanted to flow but didn’t, and can be broken by a blow.^[2]Dish pictures, see below.

In terms of appearance, this dish is close to what is made in Western restaurants. But what Huo Zheng doesn’t know is that it’s just actually just a hodgepodge made from He Yunzhou’s panic-stricken selection and casually matched it with the remaining ingredients of the cat food. The golden fried things that sharply contrasts with the asparagus are actually nothing more than just chicken skin.

Nangua is a little overweight, and the fat content of the chicken skin is too high. Thus, every time he cooks cat food, He Yunzhou debones the chicken thighs and removes the skin.

These excess chicken skins are marinated slightly with white wine, then wrapped in thin flour, and fried lightly, which naturally becomes a crispy and delicious snack. To remove the greasiness, He Yunzhou also sprinkled a thin layer of sour plum powder on the fried chicken skin.

This is actually quite a Chinese practice, but when the chicken skin and asparagus are placed on a plate together, the appearance always looks a bit abrupt. 

He remembered that he also saved a few eggs when making the cat food, and the soft, sticky, sweet texture of poached eggs can perfectly combine the crispiness and refreshing taste of asparagus with the scorched and sesame oil aroma of the fried chicken skin.

However, Huo Zheng will never know how He Yunzhou exhausted^[3]to exhaust one’s thoughts and ingenuity (idiom); to rack one’s brain himself to use the remaining ingredients of the cat food when cooking.

While he was still pondering what dish this asparagus with poached egg was, He Yunzhou had already put on his oven mitt and hurriedly took out what was in the oven.

It was a few long strips wrapped in tinfoil. When placed on the plate with a clip, it was obvious that the contents wrapped in the tinfoil are quite hard.

“This is…”

“It’s roasted beef bone marrow,” He Yunzhou explained while tearing open the tinfoil in front of Huo Zheng.

A milky white heat rose up, and the aroma in the air abruptly became more intense.

The small crackling sound of liquid and grease boiling reverberated in Huo Zheng’s ears. Huo Zheng lowered his head and could see the thick beef stick bones that had been cut and split across in the tinfoil — inside the hard bones that had been roasted white, was a large mass of soft bone marrow that was constantly bubbling due to the boiling heat.

On top of the bone marrow are some traces of minced garlic and black pepper, as well as several crushed aromatic herbs, that can clearly be seen.

He Yunzhou brought out a small bowl of rice and placed it on Huo Zheng’s hand, and then put a small soup spoon next to the roasted beef bones.

“I know that many Western restaurants use roasted beef marrow with baguettes, but I think it’s best to scoop out the beef bone marrow and the soup inside, then mix it with rice.”

Indeed, roasted beef bone marrow is not a novelty Western food, but Huo Zheng has never experienced the combination of roasted beef bone marrow with rice before.

“This…”

“That… you can try it. It’s ok if you don’t like it,” He Yunzhou said somewhat stiffly.

He actually didn’t have much confidence in the dishes he made today. After all, this combination was only his personal hobby and has never been tried by outsiders. 

But… At first, every time he made this dish at home, it would attract the prying eyes of Guaji.

The big cat with only silver fur seems to like the taste of bone marrow quite a lot. But He Yunzhou has only cooked roasted bone marrow without any seasoning as extra food to its meal.

Now that he thinks about it, He Yunzhou still has some regrets.

If he had known Guaji would leave him so quickly, he should have let Guaji eat more at first.

He Yunzhou once again couldn’t help but miss Guaji. Huo Zheng inadvertently turned his head to meet his gaze, and his heartstrings couldn’t help but move slightly.

He picked up a spoon and scooped the marrow in the beef bones that had been roasted close to a semi-liquid state and the thick soup into the rice.

The rice was previously snow-white and fluffy, but after soaking it through the beef bone marrow, it turned into an oily light brown, and each grain of rice stretched out under the light, shining brightly.

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White Charred Asparagus:

T/N: I really can’t find accurate pictures based on the descriptions. Just imagine that there are also some fried things on it.

Chicken Skin: