Adorable Food Goddess

20 mins passed easily, but the two more hours of waiting was painful.

Ye Jiayao said to Xia Chunyu, “Maybe you should go and rest in your room. I will call you when it’s ready.”

“You go rest, I will wait here,” Xia Chunyu countered.

“And do what? You’re useless here. I will need to mix this every 30 minutes.”

Xia Chunyu suddenly smiled and said, “Come on, let me take you somewhere.”

“Where? I need to watch the stuff here,” Ye Jiayao protested.

He didn’t bother replying and simply dragged her outside. Xia Chunyu put his arms around her waist and carried her up to the roof nimbly.

“It is cooler here. You can enjoy stargazing and still stay close to whatever you’re making,” Xia Chunyu said.

That’s…  that’s actually romantic.   Who knew that this bear of a man could actually act all lovey-dovey?

Ye Jiayao leaned against his chest and stared up at the beautiful sky. This kind of view, where the stars were all so clearly visible, was a rare occurrence in the modern age. The heavy pollution has destroyed beautiful sights like this.

The Big Dipper, Vega, Orion, Cygnus… they were all in the same location she has studied before. She felt like she was seeing the same starry sky in a different world. It made her think about what would happen when she dies at this time. Would she ever go back to her original world?

“What are you thinking?” Xia Chunyu asked after a while, breaking the pensive silence they were wrapped in.

“I am wondering if you have stargazed with other people before,” Ye Jiayao lied.

“Of course.”

Ye Jiayao frowned and looked up at him. “With who?”

Xia Chunyu laughed. “It was in the past, there’s no point talking about it now.”

“Whatever. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. I stargazed with other people before, too,” Ye Jiayao mumbled and moved away.

Xia Chunyu grabbed her back and demanded, “With who?”

“It was in the past, there’s no point talking about it now,” Ye Jiayao mocked.

“Was it with that Wei Liujiang?” Xia Chunyu asked angrily.

Ye Jiayao lifted her chin up defiantly. “I asked you first. I’ll tell you if you answer me.”

Xia Chunyu answered roughly, “Who else can I stargaze with? It’s my brothers when we were on night duty during wars. Your turn.”

Ye Jiayao wrinkled her nose at him, unconvinced. He was over 20 years old and from their previous  encounters,  she knew that he was very experienced. She wasn’t the first woman he had.

“Alright,” Xia Chunyu sighed. “It’s with Qing Liu. When she was first brought into the mansion, she missed her home so much that she goes out in the yard to cry. I felt sorry for her, so to comfort her, I brought her stargazing.”

“Qing Liu? Your servant girl?” Ye Jiayao knew that Young Masters in a big family usually have their servant girls as their enlightening teachers for romantic lessons.  If they endear themselves to their charge, they could usually become a mistress or a concubine.

Xia Chunyu nodded.

“Did you have a relationship with her?”

Xia Chunyu hesitated for a second before nodding weakly.

Ye Jiayao’s heart turned heavy. Men are bad. Why do they have to have so many women? Couldn’t they just stay loyal to one person?

“So she’s your mistress now?” Ye Jiayao asked.

Xia Chunyu shook his head. “No. I made her leave after coming back from Black Wind Ridge.”

“Why? She entrusted herself to you, why would you just turn her away?” Ye Jiayao rebuked. She might be jealous of the woman but she’s not completely heartless.

“It was my responsibility to make her leave.”

“I’m sure she  insisted  to stay,” Ye Jiayao sneered.

“I don’t want my one and only to be jealous. I like only one woman and she’s already more than enough,” Xia Chunyu replied.

Oh, God. His promise…

Ye Jiayao felt her heart beat faster as she asked hopefully, “Have you found that person yet?”

“What do you think?” He stared at her closely, his eyes and lips smiling.

“How would I know that?” Ye Jiayao mumbled sulkily, her face red.

Xia Chunyu merely smiled at her adorableness. “It is your turn. Who did you stargaze with?”

Ye Jiayao made a show of counting her fingers.

Xia Chunyu was surprised. Was it more than one?

“Tell me,” he insisted.

She shushed him. “Don’t interrupt me, I am counting.”

Xia Chunyu’s eyes lost its warmth.  Counting?

“I stargazed with my grandmother, my nanny, and the big yellow dog…” Ye Jiayao began with mock seriousness.

Xia Chunyu laughed out loud. However, as relieved as he was, he still felt a pang of sadness for her. She stargazed with her dog because she had no one else in her life. He cuddled her closer to him, trying to give her comfort to erase all the melancholy and suffering she went through.

“And Little Jing, then you… umm, that’s what I have got so far,” she continued.

Xia Chunyu asked jealously, “You went stargazing with Little Jing?”

“Yes, on our way to Jin Ling. We rested in a pavilion and a broken temple and every time we open our eyes, we’re greeted by the starry sky. I guess that counts, right?”

Xia Chunyu squinted at her, trying to control the urge to throw her down and make sure she knows that she only belonged to him.

“What do you mean that’s what you’ve got so far? Would you want to stargaze with others?”

Ye Jiayao saw his gloomy face and laughed inwardly. He’s so possessive.

She said shrugged and replied, “Who knows what will happen in the future?”

Xia Chunyu took her face between his hands and warned her, “No future, no other people. Okay?”

“What, I can’t stargaze with my children?” she shot back.

Xia Chunyu, realizing that he’d been played again, released her face and nodded. “That’s fine, but it has to be our children.”

Ye Jiayao’s face turned red. “Who would want to have children with you?”

Xia Chunyu smiled lovingly at how cute she looks when she blushes.

“Oh, no! It’s time. I have to go down and mix the thing!” Ye Jiayao scrambled to stand up.

Xia Chunyu reclined calmly, his hands interlocked behind his head. “You can go.”

Ye Jiayao looked down at the ground.  How the f*ck did we get so high?  “Send me down immediately. If I failed in making my ice cream, it would be your responsibility.”

So that gloopy thing is called ice cream? Xia Chunyu said, “Pay me.”

Ye Jiayao huffed angrily. “Are you going to get me down or not? If you don’t move, I’m going to jump down by myself.”

Xia Chunyu replied nonchalantly, “I think you should ask Jiang Li to carry a ladder here. It would be easier. If you jump down from this height, you’ll break your bones.”

This arrogant idiot! You’ll get your time, mister, just wait and see.  Ye Jiayao threw herself into his arms and pecked his cheek. “Are you happy now?”

“Nope.” Xia Chunyu was not satisfied with that.

Ye Jiayao bit his nose.

“Ahh! Are you a dog?” Xia Chunyu touched his nose, glaring at her.

Ye Jiayao grinned unrepentantly. “I am born in the year of the rabbit. There is a saying that when a rabbit is annoyed, it will bite. Do you want to annoy me more.”

“Okay, rabbit, I am officially afraid of you.” Xia Chunyu got up and picked her up. “Are you ready?”

Ye Jiayao wound her arms around his neck tightly. “Yes, yes.”

Xia Chunyu immediately jumped down, the speed and the moment of weightlessness making Ye Jiayao scream.

Xia Chunyu put her down and taunted, “Hush. Uncle Jiang and Auntie Jiang would think I’m doing nefarious things to you out here.”

Ye Jiayao leaned in to bite him again, but Xia Chunyu was able to dodge her this time.

Xia Chunyu playfully chided, “You really are just like a rabbit.”

Ye Jiayao stuck her tongue out at him and stomped away. She opened the cold room and took out the ice cream. She used a soup spoon to scoop some of it to have a taste. It was smooth and soft, the pure milk smell heady and appetizing.

She grinned, happy that her first attempt turned out to be a success. She then scooped a big spoonful to feed to Xia Chunyu.

“Try it. It’s delicious.”

Xia Chunyu tried a tiny bit and tasted it carefully. It was especially silky and soft that it just melted in his mouth. It was just the right amount of sweet and cool, too. “Yaoyao, this is delicious. Much better than broken ice!”

“Of course, it is better than broken ice. It can’t even compare to this.” Ye Jiayao was so thrilled. She still would like to study a bit more about this so she could make an ice cream that’s even better than Haagen-Dazs, but this was an excellent first attempt.

Xia Chunyu requested, “Can I have some more? I waited for so long and you’re just going to give me one bite?”

Ye Jiayao smiled and went back to the room. She brought out some oily paper which she rolled into a cylinder. She used scissors to cut a wavy hole in it before scooping out some ice cream and placing it in her makeshift cylinder. She then squeezed the ice cream onto a dish, fashioning it into a flower.

“All ready.” Ye Jiayao presented it to him. “You are the first person to eat ice cream in the Song Dynasty!”

Xia Chunyu exclaimed, “You made it look so good, it’s almost a shame to eat it now!”

Yaoyao was so amazing. How could she know so many weird stuff that tastes so great?

Ye Jiayao made a flower for herself as well and they ate their ice cream opposite each other. If there was a plate of tiramisu or some cookies here, it would’ve been perfect. She wasn’t sure if she’d be able to make some without an oven, but she’d try that some other day.

Xia Chunyu suddenly recalled what Little Jing had told the Emperor. “Aren’t you going to make this into a mooncake?”

“Yes! Ice cream mooncake, isn’t that creative?” Ye Jiayao asked merrily.

Xia Chunyu was speechless, amazed by her imagination. “You’ve convinced me. I promise that I will never doubt anything you make again. Yaoyao, there’s nothing that you can’t do.”