"Ah!"
Caught off guard, Cheng Xiaofan jumped. "Yiling, you're awake?"
Bai Yiling covered her mouth and giggled. "I just woke up and heard you talking beside me!"
Upon hearing this, Cheng Xiaofan's face turned red. "Yiling, I was just speaking casually, please don't take it seriously!"
Bai Yiling knew he was shy and deliberately put on a stern face. "Xiaofan, saying that can really hurt someone's pride!"
"Ah, I'm sorry, Yiling. I was just speaking casually, please don't take it seriously!" Cheng Xiaofan panicked, not knowing what he was saying anymore.
Bai Yiling couldn't help but chuckle. "Alright, I'm not angry. Look at you, your face is all flushed, and you're sweating on your forehead!"
She already knew Cheng Xiaofan's heart; he definitely liked her.
That was enough, she didn't need to fuss over anything else.
"Yiling, wait here for a moment, I'll go get you something to eat!"
Cheng Xiaofan immediately slipped out of the cabin, leaped onto the shore, and like a pursued thief, he leaped again, flying onto the treetops. With a few quick movements, he vanished without a trace.
Bai Yiling was once again stunned. She wondered, could this Cheng Xiaofan actually fly?
She had unconsciously fallen in love with this man, was this right or wrong?
For a moment, Bai Yiling felt a sense of disorientation!
Cheng Xiaofan ran all the way to the lotus lake.
"Hong Gang, Hong Gang..."
He called out breathlessly.
Hong Gang leaped into the air and appeared before Cheng Xiaofan.
Cheng Xiaofan instructed, "Dig up a lotus root for me for breakfast. Not too tender, an older one. This kind of lotus root, when stewed, is fragrant and sticky!"
"Bibo bibo!"
Master, I'll dig up the lotus root for you right away. Would you like another yellow-jaw fish?
Cheng Xiaofan shook his head and said, "Just one lotus root is enough, nothing else!"
While Hong Gang plunged into the water to dig up the lotus root, he wiped the sweat from his face and couldn't help but give a wry smile.
He cursed himself for being so useless!
How could a man not even speak properly in front of a beauty?
He had confessed his feelings casually and even thought about stealing a kiss from his goddess, but luckily, he didn't.
Otherwise, how would he explain it to her?
Just as he was thinking this, he heard a splash from the water. Hong Gang emerged from the surface, a long lotus root in his mouth.
Cheng Xiaofan took the lotus root, rewarded Hong Gang with two energy pills, and turned to leave the lotus lake.
"Jee—"
The Sky-Piercing Eagle flew over.
Master, Miss Bai Yiling asked me to come and get you.
Hop onto my back quickly!
"Okay, thank you for your trouble!"
Cheng Xiaofan swung his leg and sat on the Sky-Piercing Eagle's back.
Ever since he got this Sky-Piercing Eagle, traveling between the back mountain and White Python Lake had become much more convenient than crossing a bridge.
In the blink of an eye, the Sky-Piercing Eagle carried him back to the small boat.
"Yiling, for breakfast today, let's have candied lotus root with glutinous rice and osmanthus!" Cheng Xiaofan said, still feeling a little guilty when he saw Bai Yiling.
Bai Yiling smiled. "Okay, I'll go with whatever you arrange. I like everything you make, but where would you get candied osmanthus and glutinous rice here?"
Cheng Xiaofan smiled. "In the box on the boat. The candied osmanthus and glutinous rice are already there. I wouldn't make this lotus root without these ingredients!"
"Oh!"
Bai Yiling responded, secretly amused.
Just when Cheng Xiaofan had left, Bai Yiling, out of curiosity, had opened the box and taken a look. It was filled with various cooking seasonings.
As for candied osmanthus and glutinous rice, she hadn't seen any.
Let's see where he gets them.
In fact, Bai Yiling had no idea that Cheng Xiaofan did have candied osmanthus and glutinous rice with him; they were all stored in his spatial dimension.
The box was merely a cover.
When he needed them, he would simply reach into the box and retrieve them from his spatial dimension with his mind, leaving nothing out.
Of course, Cheng Xiaofan had no idea that Bai Yiling had already inspected the box.
Nor did he know that she had clearly seen him performing the rain technique in South Mountain Lake and cultivating his dragon power in his dreams last night.
In reality, if Cheng Xiaofan had activated his clairvoyant eyes, he would have been able to see from the qi emanations from Bai Yiling that some of his secrets had already been exposed to her.
However, Bai Yiling was the goddess in Cheng Xiaofan's heart, and he would never use his clairvoyant eyes to observe her. Doing so would not only be disrespectful to his goddess but also too perverse.
It was precisely because of this that he had no idea his extraordinary abilities had been revealed to her.
Cheng Xiaofan sat at the front of the boat and washed the lotus root section by section, placing it in a basin.
Then, he opened the box, reached his hand in, and naturally took out the glutinous rice, osmanthus, and rock sugar.
The osmanthus was preserved in honey and placed in a transparent glass bottle.
Seeing this scene, Bai Yiling, who was sitting nearby, was instantly dumbfounded, her mind unable to comprehend it.
How did he get these things out of the box?
Was this magic, taught to Cheng Xiaofan by that expert from the capital?
Countless questions, like stars in the sky, popped into Bai Yiling's mind, but she couldn't find a single answer.
Cheng Xiaofan washed the glutinous rice and stuffed it into every hollow of the lotus root.
Then, he put water and rock sugar into a pot, submerged the lotus root sections in the water, closed the lid, and lit a fire in the stove.
Less than half an hour later, a sweet aroma wafted from the pot.
Cheng Xiaofan immediately turned the strong fire down to a simmer.
Only by slow simmering could this old lotus root become fragrant and tender; it couldn't be rushed.
"Woof woof!"
Master, I can already smell the fragrance, it should be ready to eat.
Give the great dog master two big lotus root sections, I want to eat one and a half, and the remaining half for the white swan.
The great dog master has never been greedy since birth, trying to eat a little less.
Taoqibao, drawn by the aroma, got his slobbery mouth all over Cheng Xiaofan's pants.
"Get out of here, are you itching for a beating?" Cheng Xiaofan was both angry and anxious. His good pants leg had been wet by this dog. He really wanted to kick it into the lake.
However, remembering the fate of that tree in the back mountain, he didn't dare to use his foot on Taoqibao.
But seeing his master angry, Taoqibao quickly scurried away. He leaped from the bow of the boat and landed among the ten geese foraging for grass by the lake.
The ten geese were startled by the sudden appearance of Taoqibao.
"Don't be afraid,"
Taoqibao immediately said, "The great dog master and the master just discussed human and dog values, and due to our differing philosophies, there was a small disagreement!"
"However, I don't want to argue with the master. How can humans understand a dog's philosophy?"
Buzz buzz buzz...
As Taoqibao was rambling, the sound of a helicopter roared from the sky.