One morning, Susu received a call from Lily asking her for a favor to teach her how to cook garlic and ginger stir fried crab. Lily knew that Susu was a good cook and compared to hiring chefs, she would rather learn everything by hand with personal guidance in a comfortable environment.
"Happy New Years honey!!! Even though I've texted you that already~"
"Happy New Years to you too. Now, what's up? It's rare for you to call so early in the morning."
"Can you teach me how to make garlic and ginger stir fried crab? It's Lin Que's favorite dish."
Susu chuckled on her side when she saw Chen Mu struggling with his own tie, so she walked to him. "Ummm.." Susu responded unsurely to her request.
"Please, please, please~ I'll buy every ingredient and learn from scratch. I really want to impress Lin Que with my first time cooking!"
"Lily... remember what happened the last time we were making ramen noddles at your place?" Susu shivered when she thought of how little Lily knew about cooking that she almost burned her hand.
"That was different! It's a whole new year, and I'm a new me. I've improved..." She sounded unsure though it was words coming from her mouth.
"I heard uncertainty in your voice. Are you sure you want to learn this dish? You will have to shop for live crabs and choose the fattest one with the most meat. You will have to kill it in your kitchen by yourself...You will.." Susu went through the basics with her to make sure she understood what she will be doing and her responsibilities as the chef.
"No problem! I can even give them scrubbing shower!" She patted her chest reassuring herself that she could do it.
"Well, that part too. You need to make sure the crab is thoroughly cleansed before killing it. Scrubbing them is not necessary, but washing them, yes." Hearing Susu's words, Lily gulped nervously.
"A..Alright. I'll be over around twelve to pick you up. I never bought any of the ingredients before so you need to give me some pointers in choosing the best ones."
"Sure. I'll be good to go by then. By the way, why did you suddenly decide that you wanted to cook for him? Didn't you hate oil splashes and preparing the dishes?" Susu wondered what could have changed her mind so quickly. Just the other day Susu was listening to her talk about hiring a chef or something.
"Well...you see..wasn't there a saying that in order to keep a man's heart, you need to get a hold of his stomach? That's exactly the route that I'm taking."
"But you and Lin Que were all cuddly and over each other the other day we met. Does he need an ass spanking with a ruler? Is he looking at someone else? Do I need to get your secret whip collection and help you tie him up to interrogate his ass?"
"No, no, no. Hun, did you think he would still be in one piece if he dared to cheat on me or look at others? It's just that the other night, we had dinner over at a friend's place and he commented that the hostess cooked very well. He looked pleased and even said that whoever could marry a great cook is very fortunate. Obviously that girl was pleased to hear it with her single status." Lily scoffed when she recalled the girl's expression.
"Uh huh, so our family's Lily is a little jealous of a rival. Okay, good enough. Don't worry, one session of cooking and I can guarantee that you can win his stomach over as long as you don't skip a step or end up using ingredients that are not washed. He won't have to visit his hospital as a patient, mhmm." Susu fixed Chen Mu's tie as he held the cellphone to her ears.
"Okayyyy. I'll see you in a bit~ Mwahhh!" Lily hung up and hurriedly got ready while Susu took her sweet time fixing Chen Mu's tie.
"It's rare for Lily to call you this early in the morning." Chen Mu said as he hugged her waist and watched her skillful fingers straighten up his tie.
"Mhmm. Lin Que is extremely lucky to have her as his fiance. She's willing to step foot in the kitchen and fight oil for him. Hehe, your tie is done~" She patted his tie and tiptoed for a kiss.
"Uh huh, I'm a very lucky man too." He bent down slightly to meet her soft lips.
"Hmm? You are? Hmm?" she chuckled and rested her head on his chest.
"Of course!" He kissed her forehead.
After Chen Mu had left for work, Susu got dressed and did some last minute edits to her sketches. She was almost done with her design with just a few details to touch up. Then she would have to convert the sketch on her most updated design system to see how it will look in real life.
Lily arrived to pick her up at exactly twelve. After a whole supermarket and crab picking shopping session, they went back to Lily's place to prepare the dish. The girls wore their aprons and washed their hands.
"Okay. First thing is first. Wash all ingredients before pouring the crabs into the sink. Since the ginger, garlic, and other ingredients are not too much work to wash, we can start with those." Susu instructed and watched Lily on the side. Once in a while, Susu would give her some tips on what to peel off and how thin the slices should be for the ginger.
When Lily looked confused, she would demonstrate or hold Lily's hand while doing it and then let her try it on her own. Finally, after chopping everything to slices and pieces, they were ready to wash the fresh crabs. They had both live and dead crabs because Lily wanted to try killing the crab herself. If she ends up failing to kill the crab, then she would just steam the dead ones and mix some sauce to go with it.
Regardless, she had the freshly killed crabs from the market to stir fry. After leaving the crabs in salt water for half an hour, the crabs were mostly cleaned. Since their claws are tied, Susu had no problem dissecting the crab in front of Lily. Each step that she made was slower than usual, and she would demonstrate at least twice before having Lily imitate it.
It was a struggle at first, but Lily managed to dissect three crabs by herself and did a decent job. The most difficult part was over and now it was time to stir fry these crabs. Susu split the crabs and ingredients in half so that she could demonstrate once and have Lily try it out herself. Since Lily was scared of oil landing on her arm, Susu handed her a pair of gloves and started the stir frying process.
When she was done, Lily's mouth was watering from the fragrance of the dish. "You're amazing!! Damn, Chen mu must have saved the planet his previous life to have you as his girlfriend! Wait, since he hasn't proposed yet, I still have a chance. Just marry me and ditch him! I'll give you my salary."
"Pffft, hahahaha, I'm scared of Lin Que hunting me down with his surgery knives and ninja stars. Here, you try." Susu cleaned the utensils for her and watched as she tried it out on her own. Susu would give her a few tips or instructions when she looked like she wasn't sure what she should do next. Finally, the dish was done.
"Wow!!!! I did it!! I actually did it! Woooo!! I'll see if he dares to say that I can't cook anymore after this! Hmph!!" She proudly took pictures of it and sent it to her and Lin Que's parents. Of course, she didn't forget to tell them to keep it a secret from him.
Susu pointed to the bag of dead crabs, "Oh right. As for these babies here, you can steam it which is extremely easy. You could wash them and decide how you would like it steamed. I have a special sauce mixture that goes perfectly well with any type of seafood! Let's try making this dish once, so you will be more familiar with it."
After spending two hours in the kitchen, the girls came out with four plates of crabs. Lily loved the taste of her own cooking since it was exactly the way Susu made it. The girls had their feast and saved some on the side for Susu to bring home for dinner since Lin Que can't find out about the crabs until later.
Lily brought Susu back home and waited until she received Susu's text that she got back to her condo before leaving. When Susu got back to her apartment, she started to cough nonstop. Her throat had been itching, but she didn't want to cough in front of Lily and make her worried.
"Susu! What's wrong?" Chen Mu heard her coughs from the kitchen and peeked to make sure it wasn't just his ears playing tricks on him. He ran to her when he saw her coughing on the floor with her face flushed. Quickly, he lifted her up, brought her to the couch and poured her a cup of warm water. While soothing her back, his hands were checking her body through different pressure points and tracking her pulse.
After she had calmed down, she obediently stayed at one spot and let him do a body check on her. His solemn expression remained throughout the entire check up. Finally, after checking everything twice, he came to the conclusion, "you have a throat infection. When did you start feeling discomfort? Did you eat anything earlier?"
"I only coughed a few times this morning and felt a little sore throat. I didn't think it would be an infection. Lily and I made some crabs and I ate a few." She confessed that she felt small symptoms and overlooked it.
He sighed and rubbed her head, "No matter how little things are, we need to be careful. It's better to be attentive than careless. Even if it is a small itch somewhere, it could lead to something dangerous. These are side effects to the chemotherapy and the cancer itself. I'll make you some herb medicine to fight the infection since most pills in the pharmacy are too strong and would affect your current treatment."
She nodded, "I'm sorry..."
"It's alright, but let me know when you feel any discomfort, alright? As for seafood, you need to wait until you recover before eating them."
"Then the ones that I brought home.."
"I'll eat them. Be good and focus on resting for now. I'll make you some food and brew the medicine for you." After a tight hug, he tucked her in with a blanket on the couch and made sure she rested while he brewed medicine for her. In case of emergencies, he researched all types herbs that would be useful to her in the past months and stocked up on it. Now, everything comes in handy for him.