"Little cutie!" Aunt Wine gushed when Anji finally appeared. She had been waiting all morning.
Greeting the head cook, Anji grinned and introduced Assistant Hu. The short man laughed nervously and asked if he could borrow the kitchen to make Researcher Ke’s meals. Paying little attention to the panda-like man, Aunt Wine told the kitchen staff to help him out while turning all her attention to Anji.
"How was your morning? Was it difficult? Did Researcher Ke bully you?"
While questioning Anji, Aunt Wine also pushed a tray of nutritiously balanced food. Today, the kitchen prepared soy noodles with marinated soy chicken and some steamed vegetables on the side. The children’s menu special included fish wonton soup.
Surprised that they had fish on the mountain, Anji asked if it was expensive.
When Aunt Wine heard it, she laughed and explained how there was a researcher who missed the seafood that he often ate before becoming isolated in this place. He started building an ecosystem for freshwater aquatic animals.
"Eventually, we even managed to breed frogs, lotus plants and crabs. The shrimps were a little trickier because the crabs and fishes kept eating all the baby shrimps. Eventually, we had to raise them separately. Now, they are thriving. We don’t often have seafood on the menu because not many people enjoy the fishy smell. Some people claim they taste mud when they eat seafood, even when we cleaned it well."
Nodding in understanding, Anji remembered eating seafood for the first time at the Silver Water Town. Having lived her whole life in the Celestial Dragon Sect, there were many types of food she did not know about. When she learned from the merchants in the village below the mountain about salted fish, Anji thought all seafood was salty. However, the snails that she ate were refreshing and chewy instead of salty and dry.
Skilfully fishing out a fish wonton, Anji dipped it in the condiment sauce consisting of vinegar and ginger slices, as Aunt Wine recommended. Then, she ate it and tasted the fresh fish mixed with spices and chopped chives. It was like nothing she had ever eaten before. The flavour was complex but light and heartening. Unable to stop at one, Anji fished another wonton, much to Aunt Wine’s delight. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ ⓝovelFire.net
While Anji ate her meal and chatted with Aunt Wine, Assistant Hu and the assistant cooks were busy. The short man only ate in between cooking Researcher Ke’s meal. There were many things to do to make the spicy marinated pork.
After almost half an hour, Assistant Hu returned with Researcher Ke’s meal.
"Have you finished eating?" he asked the girl.
Anji nodded and frowned in concern when Assistant Hu was ready to leave.
"But what about you? You’ve not eaten anything."
Hearing the disapproval and concern in Anji’s voice, the man chuckled. Her concern warmed his heart. However, Researcher Ke would likely throw a fit if he did not bring the meal back fast.
"I ate a little while cooking and packed some things to bring back. We should go before Keke gets mad again."
Relieved to hear Assistant Hu was eating, Anji agreed and promised to come back to find Aunt Wine during dinner.
Sighing wistfully at the front of the mess hall, Aunt Wine watched Anji leave as quickly as she came. Now, she had to wait many more hours until it was time for dinner.
The sun was even stronger now than before lunch. Anji was glad Assistant Hu suggested bringing paper umbrellas. Walking the sleepiness off after a heavy meal, Anji made small talk to see if Assistant Hu needed any help in the afternoon. She had dusted most of the shelves in the library and had more time in the afternoon to assist with chores. Assistant Hu politely declined any help and told her that he rushed the chores to teach her the basics of general relativity theory in the afternoon after the meals.
Thrilled that she would be having actual lessons and not just a self-study session, Anji smiled widely and even walked with a skip in her step.
After returning to the research lab, Anji and Assistant Hu found Researcher Ke tapping her foot impatiently at the entrance.
"You’re late!" she snapped at them.
Apologising and hastening his steps, Assistant Hu hurried to the entrance, ushering Anji in first to protect the innocent child from her wrath.
Anji watched as Researcher Ke told her assistant to prepare the table in the kitchen for her meal, asking what Anji was going to do in the afternoon.
"You? Teach her general relativity?"
Stiffening when Researcher Ke gave him the bombastic side eye, Assistant Hu laughed nervously and claimed he would be using the help of books from the library.
Anji had no idea if the scrutinising look she received was good or bad. However, she sighed in relief when Researcher Ke finally left to tidy her desk while Assistant Hu prepared her food.
While the two meek non-researchers set up the table for Researcher Ke’s meal, the busy lady closed the door to her study with a small smile.
How long had it been since someone was last interested in general relativity? For the longest time, it had only been her and Hu. Now, there was this weird intern shoved onto her who was curious about it.
Ordinarily, she would brush it off as childish ignorance about the topic’s difficulty. However, the noise-cancelling talisman Anji gifted her was a testament to the child’s talent. She might truly be interested and able to learn the basics of general relativity. After all, she already had a good foundation in spatial isolation.
Although she could have used Anji’s special noise-cancelling talisman to research in peace, Researcher Ke spent the whole morning analysing Anji’s talisman and spying on the girl. The noise-cancelling talisman used the concept of vacuum to remove ’external’ noise outside its effective range. Nobody else had thought to combine spatial isolation with practical uses. Most spatial isolation spells were used to preserve or imprison things. Moreover, the chore talismans Anji introduced looked interesting. Many of the concepts created required advanced knowledge of arithmetics. Not to mention, the child had a good temper and was polite. She was educated and well-taught by her parents, and she was not spoiled in any way.
Gathering some of her research materials, including her late teacher’s notes, Researcher Ke wondered if these would be enough to teach Anji basic general relativity. The topic was very complicated, and if she did not know how to calculate gravity, there were even more books to introduce.
As Researcher Ke worked secretly to prepare her lesson materials, Assistant Hu and Anji started their lessons while watching over the prepared food, shooing houseflies that started taking an interest in the meal.