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As soon as he stepped through the door, he heard Ji Yue’s screams, sounding like a pig being slaughtered.

It hurts, it hurts, it hurts! Mrs. Wang, please be gentler, I beg you, stop pressing, don’t press, don’t rub it, ah, it’s so painful, Mrs. Wang, go easy!” Ji Yue sat in a chair, her right foot grasped by Mrs. Wang Xiulian, who was applying an ice patch to it. Mrs. Wang Xiulian’s palm pressed down on the ice patch, completely ignoring Ji Yue’s shrieks of pain.

“Now you know it hurts. What were you doing earlier? You didn’t say anything when you first twisted it, only when we noticed. A sprain needs to be treated in time. If you had iced your instep earlier, it wouldn’t have swollen up like an egg.” Mrs. Wang Xiulian, after years as the lady boss, had abundant experience in treating all sorts of sprains, cuts, burns, and scalds.

“Mrs. Wang, it’s my first time spraining my ankle. How was I supposed to know it was this bad? I just didn’t have the experience,” Ji Yue’s eyes brimmed with tears. “Gentler, please, I’m begging you to stop pressing, ah!”

Jiang Feng couldn’t bear to look at her.

“Stop rubbing? How will the bruise dissipate if I don’t? If I don’t, tomorrow your foot will swell up like a steamed bun, then you’ll really be in pain,” threatened Mrs. Wang Xiulian. “We’ll ice it today, but if it’s more swollen or painful tomorrow, you’re going to the hospital. Take care not to damage the bone. Injuries to muscles and bones take a hundred days to heal. None of you young folks give me peace of mind. My own little rabbit at home is just the same, even cutting vegetables can end up slicing his own hand.”

Suddenly cued, Jiang Feng: ???

“Mom, that was ages ago, it was just an accident, why do you keep bringing it up?” Jiang Feng said, embarrassed.

“What happened to Ji Yue? How did she sprain her foot like that?” Jiang Feng said, looking at Ji Yue’s foot, thinking that she had managed quite a skillful sprain.

Most people swell around the ankle when they sprain it, but Ji Yue was different—it was her instep that was swollen, bulging with a large bump that was particularly conspicuous.

“You ask her; I have no idea how she did it. Her foot had swollen up like this, yet she was acting as if nothing was wrong. If Qi Rou hadn’t noticed her limping while walking, in no time we would’ve been calling an ambulance,” said Mrs. Wang Xiulian.

Ji Yue’s face, contorted with pain, now also showed a hint of embarrassment as she slowly explained, “It’s like this, I’ve been on a diet recently, right? So, I’ve been taking the stairs. Then last night I didn’t eat much, and this morning I was really hungry. So, in my rush to get downstairs, I just… kind of twisted my foot a little, and tumbled down the stairs.”

Qi Rou, Ji Yue’s admiring little fan and underling who was bringing a box of ice cubes, gasped upon hearing that she had fallen down the stairs. She rushed over and gave Ji Yue a thorough checkup from head to toe, finally relaxing once she was sure there were no tears in her clothes, no scrapes on her hands or body, and her face was unharmed.

Ji Yue, how many stairs did you fall down? Are you alright?” Qi Rou said, her face full of concern.

I m fine, I’m fine. It was probably around four or five steps. Just scraped my elbow a bit,” Ji Yue said.

“You tumbled down four or five stairs and didn’t take leave to go to the hospital, but came to work?” Jiang Feng was shocked; he hadn’t realized that their restaurant had such dedicated employees. “And then? You went to work afterward?”

“No, after that, I went to buy breakfast,” said Ji Yue.

Jiang Feng & Mrs. Wang Xiulian & Qi Rou: ???

The green bean buns from the steamed bun shop, the third one from the left at the entrance of our community, are especially delicious. I was running late this morning and nearly missed out on them. I picked myself up, grabbed my phone, and ran to the bun shop. They had just two left, and I managed to snatch them. Good thing I ran, otherwise I wouldn’t have had green bean buns this morning!” Ji Yue explained.

Jiang Feng: ???

Friend, do you remember your foot’s almost as swollen as a green bean bun?

“Then, while paying, I realized that my phone’s front camera was smashed and it couldn’t scan the code at all. Lucky for me, the lady boss is nice and knows me, she said I could put it on a tab,” Ji Yue continued.

“Doesn’t your foot hurt?” Jiang Feng asked, looking at Ji Yue’s swollen trotter, which seemed even more engorged than before.

After taking a tumble and twisting her ankle, she trotted off to buy buns and then walked for over ten minutes to get to Taifeng Building, chatting and laughing as if nothing was wrong, walking everywhere—it seemed Ji Yue didn’t care much for her right foot anymore.

I really didn’t feel it was that painful at the time. Isn’t it normal to feel a little pain after a fall? I didn’t pay it much attention,” Ji Yue convincingly argued.

Jiang Feng:…

As the atmosphere fell into an inexplicable silence, Sun Jikai, dressed in his work uniform, came out from the kitchen looking haggard, his face weary, hair messy and greasy, clearly having not slept all night.

“Jiang Feng, you’re here! I think I’m getting close to something. Wu Minqi just tasted it and said it’s decent. Have a taste and see if there’s anything wrong with it,” Sun Jikai said, yawning.

“Don’t tell me you stayed in the kitchen all night practicing?” Jiang Feng asked. If that was indeed the case, then Sun Jikai’s condition seemed a bit risky—it was like the prelude to obsession.

“No, I went home at three in the morning to catch some sleep, then came over at just past five. I’ll just nap for a couple of hours later; I used to do the same thing at Wharton when working on my papers,” Sun Jikai replied.

“By the way, Mrs. Wang, deduct the extra pigeon portions I’ve used this period from my salary,” he added.

“We’ve never had a policy of deducting the cost of practice ingredients from the chef’s salary,” although Mrs. Wang Xiulian loved money, she knew what was important. “Even if you tried your hardest, how much money could you use in a month? Just use whatever you need, it’s okay. Jiang Feng wasted God knows how many good ingredients learning to cook when he was little. Isn’t that how all you chefs started out? I understand.”

Sun Jikai was taken aback. Pigeons were not cheap, and he had been prepared to have a large portion of his salary docked for the month.

“Thank you, Mrs. Wang,” he said.

“How many Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeons did you make?” asked Jiang Feng.

“Just finished two portions,” Sun Jikai replied.

“Ji Yue, do you want one to make up for it?” Jiang Feng felt that among all the people present, Ji Yue was the one who most needed an Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon.

Like cures like, Ji Gezi needed to eat more of her own kind’s feet to heal faster.

Ji Yue’s heart stirred, and she silently swallowed a gulp of saliva.

She thought about the hard-earned and arduous efforts she’d made to lose weight recently, about the surprise or disappointment each time she stepped on the scale.

She had worked so hard to lose weight for so long-plus, her foot had gotten injured today—it was time to treat herself well.

Besides, the Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon had a vegetarian filling, and eating vegetarian wouldn’t lead to weight gain.

“Yes!” Ji Yue nodded fervently.

Jiang Feng and Sun Jikai went to the kitchen to get her the Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon.

Sun Jikai was previously oblivious to what was happening around him, engrossed in preparing pigeons without knowing about Ji Yue’s heroic episode that morning.

“What happened to Ji Yue’s foot? Why is it so swollen?” Sun Jikai asked.

“She rolled down the stairs today,” Jiang Feng said.

That serious? Shouldn’t she eat some pork feet to recover?” Sun Jikai, too, thought of like curing like, but his idea of like wasn’t the same as Jiang Feng’s, “Serve that one on the right.”

Jiang Feng took a knife to slice open the Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon on the right, picked up a spoon, and carried the plate over.

“Pork feet? Clear-stewed pork feet?” Jiang Feng asked, “We seem to have pork feet in the restaurant, but I don’t really know how to cook them.”

“I’ll do it. 1 know how to make Braised Pork Feet in Red Fermented Tofu,” Sun Jikai said.

“Braised Pork Feet in Red Fermented Tofu?” Jiang Feng remembered the dish- it seemed to be one of Jubao Building’s signature dishes, very famous, and one of the Sun Family’s exclusive recipes.

“You’re not afraid we’ll steal the recipe by making it here in Taifeng Building?” Jiang Feng asked with a smile.

“You’re welcome to try,” Sun Jikai replied with a smile.

He was very willing for them to learn from such an almost magnificent restaurant.

Jiang Feng went to serve Ji Yue the Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon, and Sun Jikai followed closely behind, eager to hear her evaluation of the dish.

On her first taste, Ji Yue pretended to scoop up only the vegetarian filling, but on her next, she couldn’t wait to engulf a whole pigeon wing.

Through her actions, she proved that there are indeed people in the world who ate the Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon for the pigeon as well.

“Mmm, you guys did much better this time around!” Ji Yue praised.

“What’s better?” Sun Jikai asked.

“The pigeon’s better. The Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon you made before only had edible vegetarian filling, with pigeon meat that was utterly tasteless. This time, not only is the vegetarian filling more delicious than before, but the pigeon meat is also tastier than previously,” Ji Yue smacked her lips, “But it’s still not as delicious as the one I had at Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant. Although I only had a mouthful of vegetarian filling then, I ate all of the pigeon, and the meat was particularly flavorful and tender.”

After another bite of the vegetarian filling, Ji Yue looked up only to find Jiang Feng and Sun Jikai giving her strange looks.

Jiang Feng’s eyes conveyed mixed feelings of joy and sorrow, while Sun Jikai’s eyes explicitly told Ji Yue that sadness outweighed happiness for him.

“Why didn’t you say so earlier?” they both exclaimed in unison, with mixed emotions of sorrow and joy.

“If you had told us earlier, we wouldn’t have gone through so many wrong turns,” Sun Jikai lamented.

“If you had told us earlier, we wouldn’t have wasted so many pigeons,” Jiang Feng bemoaned.

Ji Yue: ???

Although she didn’t grasp what they meant, her instincts told her they seemed to be trying to pass the buck to her.

“Sigh.” Jiang Feng let out a breath.

“Sigh.” Sun Jikai did the same.

The two walked away, looking utterly dejected.

Ji Yue: ???

So was the blame being dumped on her after all?

???