The green-haired guy, who was leisurely wiping his face, glanced sideways at the bald guy across from him. The bald guy averted his gaze and mumbled softly, “Come on, I didn’t really hit him.”

“Sorry, he’s got a bit of a temper,” the green-haired guy turned to Qi Huan with a smile, much more polite than the bald guy. “We fought stone beasts all night last night, and we’re really exhausted and hungry now. We just rushed over when we saw this restaurant.”

Qi Huan pointed to the right, following the direction in his memory, “If you two are really hungry, there should be a vending machine selling nutritional agents about two or three hundred steps ahead. You can choose the heating mode.”

The green-haired guy gave a wry smile, “We’ve been eating nutritional agents in the hunting area for twelve days now. If we eat any more, we’re going to throw up.”

“But the shop hasn’t been open for business these days, so we haven’t prepared any ingredients…” Qi Huan glanced at the menu on the wall. When he roughly checked yesterday afternoon, he found a few pieces of frozen meat and half a board of eggs in the freezer in the back kitchen, but there were no vegetables or shrimp.

The bald guy’s face turned cold, just about to speak, but the green-haired guy quickly pulled out a drawstring bag from somewhere, grabbed two handfuls of silver coins, and clattered them onto the table. “No need for complicated dishes, just something quick to fill our stomachs. The rest is to compensate for your table.”

“Alright then, why don’t you two rest here for a bit? I’ll see what I can whip up.” Seeing that the two of them were sitting firmly with no intention of leaving, clearly determined to eat, Qi Huan had no choice but to compromise.

The bald guy had a fiery temper, and with just himself here, it would be a loss to confront them head-on. Besides, there were still a lot of bills to pay. The most expensive dish on the wall, Kung Pao Meat, only cost sixteen silver coins, and the pile of money the green-haired guy pulled out was enough to try all the signature dishes. It would be a waste not to earn this money.

“Alright.”

“Any dietary restrictions?”

“No.”

After this little commotion, Qi Huan was fully awake. He returned to the kitchen, opened the freezer, and took out two pieces of beast meat to defrost. Then he went to the staple food cabinet to have a look. On the top shelf were two transparent rice barrels. The one on the left seemed to be rice, and the one on the right was round, looking a bit like millet, but it was a light red color. On the lower shelf, there were three types of flour: white, green, and light yellow. He sniffed each one and tasted a bit on his tongue. The white one tasted like wheat flour, the yellow one had a faint bean smell, similar to soybean flour, and the green one had a subtle milky sweetness, unlike any ingredient he had encountered before.

He used the white flour as a base and added a few scoops of the green one, mixing the batter in an orderly manner.

Cooking porridge or rice wouldn’t be as fast as making some batter pancakes, so he had already decided on his way back to the kitchen to make some beast meat and mixed grain pancakes for the two outside.

Once the batter was almost ready, he took the half board of eggs and cracked two into the mix. The eggs were two sizes larger than goose eggs, and from the brown star-shaped spots on the shells, they were most likely the star eggs mentioned in the original owner’s recipe.

With the ingredients mostly prepared, Qi Huan faced a dilemma with the unfamiliar kitchenware.

He hadn’t had a chance to look closely before, but now he realized that more than half of the things around him were quite different from what he was familiar with.

The tableware and knives were fine, not much different, but the cookware was quite strange. On the rack, the most noticeable items were a row of iron footballs!

These things were round, made of pentagonal iron plates pieced together like a football, with a crescent-shaped bracket on the right side, looking oddly like a globe. Qi Huan tried picking one up. From the weight, it was clearly hollow, but he couldn’t find a way to open it.

There were seven of these ‘iron footballs’ on the rack, from small to large, like Russian nesting dolls. The smallest was about the size of a single-person rice cooker, and the largest was two sizes bigger than the traditional iron pot used in rural areas.

Qi Huan frowned at the row of things that looked like a cosmic seven-star alignment. Had the pots of this era evolved into such bizarre shapes?

While he was studying the new kitchenware, the kitchen door was pushed open, and the bald guy anxiously poked his head in, “How much longer until we can eat?”

“Almost there,” Qi Huan pushed him out, silently finishing the sentence in his mind, just about to start cooking.

In a pinch, he reluctantly pulled out a square metal tray from something resembling a steam oven to use as a frying pan.

The stove was also powered by energy stones, feeling much like an induction cooker. There was no visible flame, but the temperature control was excellent. Qi Huan tried frying two pancakes on the thick tray, roughly gauging the heat needed.

After that, things were simple for him: frying the pancake skins, frying the star eggs, frying the beast meat, all done in one smooth motion.

Just as the bald guy was about to get up for the second time, the kitchen door finally opened, and Qi Huan pushed out a serving cart.

The cart was actually a rack for storing prepared dishes, with wheels for easy movement, temporarily repurposed by Qi Huan, who had an inconvenient hand, to serve the food.

Seeing the bald guy and the green-haired guy sitting at the table closest to the kitchen door, Qi Huan was a bit surprised. These two had moved directly to the four-person table closest to the kitchen to eat as soon as possible.

Without further ado, Qi Huan swiftly served the dishes. The first plate held twelve thin, light green pancakes, followed by four small dishes of condiments, two dry and two wet. The dry dishes contained cumin powder and chili powder, while the wet dishes had soy sauce paste and sesame paste. There were some condiments on the rack he didn’t recognize, so he picked a few familiar flavors.

The second plate was piled high with steaming hot fried eggs and meat.

The sunny-side-up eggs had a beautiful golden-brown edge on the outer layer, with a runny orange-red yolk in the center, smooth and enticing. The semi-solidified egg whites glistened with a watery sheen, tender and delicate, ready to burst at a touch. The evenly thick beast meat was quickly seared over high heat, forming a crispy amber crust, with bright oil glistening between the rich textures, exuding a fragrant aroma that whetted the appetite.

The bald guy took a deep breath, just about to grab the meat, but the green-haired guy tapped his hand with the back of a pair of chopsticks.

“Just dip the beast meat or egg in your favorite condiment, spread it evenly on the pancake, and roll it up to eat. If you prefer a lighter taste, you can skip the condiment dishes.” Seeing the green-haired guy looking at him, Qi Huan gestured to the two plates and explained the eating method.

The green-haired guy first picked up a poached egg, glanced at the condiment dishes, and ultimately didn’t dip anything, placing it directly on the pancake. Then he added a few pieces of beast meat, rolled it up, and tentatively took a bite.

The beast meat was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, chewy but not tough, fragrant but not greasy, perfectly paired with the tender egg whites and the soft, chewy pancake skin, a full score for texture. Lin Jian immediately squinted his eyes in satisfaction.

A rotten egg six-egg rating was the worst rating for interstellar cuisine. If he weren’t starving, he definitely wouldn’t have walked into a restaurant with a six-egg rating. Moreover, the ingredients were the most ordinary star eggs and D-grade beast meat. To be honest, before tasting it, he didn’t have any expectations for the food here, at most hoping it wouldn’t be too bad.

However, unexpectedly, the taste was actually quite good.

Maybe he was just too hungry, Lin Jian thought self-deprecatingly, taking another bite.

He thought the first bite was already the best, but the second bite was even more surprising. When the runny yolk of the fried egg broke, the smooth yolk instantly seeped into the beast meat below, becoming a natural sauce. The egg aroma mixed with the beast meat’s oil and the pancake’s natural wheat fragrance, fresh and rich, simply indescribable.

Seeing his satisfied expression, Qi Huan, standing by the table, also secretly breathed a sigh of relief. The ingredients were unfamiliar, the kitchenware was awkward, and he wasn’t sure about the local taste, but at least he didn’t mess up.

Across from him, Xue Ke imitated the process, just adding twice as much beast meat and boldly adding all the condiments, haphazardly rolling it into a ball and eagerly stuffing it into his mouth.

After chewing a couple of times, Xue Ke’s eyes lit up, his cheeks bulging as he said, “This is amazing, your bā luó is delicious!”

Bilu? No, it should be bā luó. Qi Huan was slightly taken aback, remembering the complex and obscure name. Many people in later generations believed that bā luó was actually a pancake with fillings popular in the Tang Dynasty, considered the ancestor of the modern trend of ‘big pancakes wrapping everything.’

“Spring Wind Bā Luó.” Qi Huan looked at the light green pancake skin and calmly made up a name.

Xue Ke nodded, wolfing down the remaining half of the pancake in his hand.

In less than two minutes, the food on the plate was devoured by the two like a storm, and seeing it wasn’t enough, Qi Huan quickly returned to the kitchen to make another batch. The star eggs were gone, so he could only make a pure beast meat version.

In the end, everything on the table, except for the condiments, was eaten clean.

“This is the best meal I’ve had since coming to No. 7 Waste Star.” Xue Ke patted his belly, laughing heartily.

Qi Huan: …

So, the reason Human World Restaurant could continue doing business with a rotten egg six-egg rating was because all the restaurants on No. 7 Waste Star were making dark cuisine?

“Could you please restock some ingredients? We want to bring two friends over for dinner tonight.” Lin Jian pulled out the drawstring bag of silver coins again, not even counting, and handed over the remaining half bag to Qi Huan, “Consider the extra as your tip.”

“But…” Qi Huan hesitated, glancing at his arm in a splint. In his current state, he really couldn’t make any complicated dishes.

“Just the Spring Wind Bā Luó.” Lin Jian saw his difficulty and explained.

“Alright then.” Considering his current penniless situation, Qi Huan reluctantly agreed. He quickly handwrote a reservation slip, listing the preparation of four servings of Spring Wind Bā Luó, asking Lin Jian to sign for confirmation, so both parties had a record.

After sending the two off, it was still early, so Qi Huan turned back to the kitchen.

He had just noticed that the lights at Quan Hai’s place across the street weren’t on yet, probably not up, so he planned to use the remaining ingredients to make some beast meat pancakes for himself and Quan Hai’s siblings for breakfast.

‘Bang!’

While frying the beast meat, a noise suddenly came from upstairs, as if something had broken in. Qi Huan quickly turned off the heat, picked up the chair leg he had previously thrown in the corner, and quietly went upstairs.

Upstairs was quiet, as if the noise just now was an illusion. The only unusual thing was a red, broken iron can that had fallen on the floor.

Qi Huan frowned, looking at the slightly open back window and the bed almost buried in clutter. If he remembered correctly, this can should have been among that pile of clutter.

It seemed like something had crawled into the attic through the window.

Could it be a stone beast? Qi Huan was startled.