Journey to the West: Starting by taking Sun Wukong as my disciple!-Chapter 483: Nuwa Who Dares Not Belch

"If it were anyone else, they certainly wouldn’t be able to bear so much praise, especially coming from my mouth," Nuwa’s voice and expression both carried dignity and pride as she looked at Chen Nuo, her beautiful phoenix eyes filled with sincerity, "but if it’s you, you can bear it."

Chen Nuo also looked directly at Nuwa; faced with such frank admiration, Chen Nuo did not shy away. They maintained eye contact across the table, neither of them backing down.

Chen Nuo and Nuwa simply looked at each other in silence.

After a long while, Chen Nuo was the first to look away. "Try the black pepper beef now. If it cools down, the texture won’t be the same as when it’s just come out."

Nuwa also snapped back to reality and quickly picked up a piece of the beef with her chopsticks and put it in her mouth. As soon as she tasted it, she covered her mouth in surprise, "How can this meat be so tender and juicy? Is this really beef?"

The beef she had eaten in the past was mostly braised or sauce-cooked beef, with a firm texture and clearly defined strands, a good dish to accompany drinks and one that was chewy.

But the black pepper beef was entirely different; the first thing it emphasized was the texture. The control of the heat was very important, a moment too slow and the meat would become tough, a moment too early and the meat wouldn’t be cooked through. Chen Nuo had cooked a lot and had mastered control over the heat to perfection.

"Since it is black pepper beef, it must be beef. Would I randomly pick something else to deceive you?" Chen Nuo couldn’t help saying.

Nuwa knew, of course, that Chen Nuo would never deceive her—it was just that she had never tasted meat with this texture before and was at a loss for words to offer her praise.

"To produce such a texture from this meat..." Nuwa had already taken several bites before she found the words to speak, "Shopkeeper Chen, apart from praising you as a remarkable man, I really can’t think of any other way to commend you."

"If you don’t speak and just eat more, that’s the best evaluation for a chef," Chen Nuo replied.

Chen Nuo added some chives to the stone pot. By the time Nuwa had finished the beef, the chives were just perfectly grilled, and the beef tripe that had been placed around the pot was also ready.

The tripe’s outer skin was golden brown, and when picked up with chopsticks, oil still bubbled within, dripping into the grill and sending up small rings of heat.

"Try the beef tripe with the chives to cut through the richness."

Nuwa looked warily at the dripping oil from the beef tripe; she feared that a single bite would leave her mouth coated in grease, perhaps dizzying from the richness.

But her fear of the beef tripe was overcome by her trust in Chen Nuo, and so she still paired it with chives and placed a piece in her mouth. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Surprisingly, the tripe’s oil wasn’t at all gamy; upon careful tasting, there was even the rich aroma of beef fat, and one could even discern a hint of milk in the flavor.

The interior wasn’t just oily; there was also juicy liquid, crispy on the outside and soft inside, bursting with flavor at each bite—it was so delicious it could make your eyebrows fall off.

The chives weren’t sharp either; perhaps due to being fried, they retained their distinct chive scent, which was quite strong.

They may have masked the last bit of any gaminess in the tripe, or perhaps there was no gaminess, and it was their combination that made it delicious. Nuwa ate a piece of the tripe and her eyes then glanced at the other meats inside the pot.

This time Chen Nuo didn’t lift his chopsticks to offer her more, though Nuwa hardly noticed these things.

As soon as she saw the other meats in the pot, she had already lifted her chopsticks following Chen Nuo’s earlier method, dipping them in the seasoning before putting a piece in her mouth, happily chewing with full cheeks.

Chen Nuo also opened a box of chilled rabbit and spicy rabbit head before Nuwa, in addition to the grilled meats.

"This rabbit was prepared fresh today. I know you’ve had it before, but you’ve been busy here all day and haven’t had a chance to buy any, right? Eating it together with the grilled meat will yield a different kind of flavor," he said.

Nuwa nodded her head, glanced at the two boxes, and eventually picked up a legless rabbit and took a bite.

After all, the person she liked was still watching her, and the grilled meat required only chopsticks to be picked up and put in the mouth. If she had to eat a rabbit head in front of Chen Nuo, prying open the rabbit’s jaw and gnawing on it, Nuwa really couldn’t bring herself to do that.

Although both the rabbit and the grilled meat were meat, they tasted completely different. In fact, the rabbit meat, compared to the grilled meat, could even cut through the grease.

The rabbit had almost no fat on its body and had been marinated for a long time for cold rabbit dishes. Only the lean meat’s texture remained, chewy and dry, saturated with the marinade’s flavor, covered with hot peppers and Sichuan peppercorns, so spicy and numbing that you couldn’t even tell it was meat.

"I really didn’t expect that rabbit meat paired with grilled meat wouldn’t clash at all, and could still be so delicious!"

Nuwa looked at Chen Nuo in surprise, "How could you hide such skills before you left the mountains? If you had come out a few years earlier, I’m sure we Gods of Ancient Times would have been left floundering on the beach by you."

"That’s because I figured I shouldn’t close off all paths for you all, so I deliberately delayed my departure from the mountains by a few years," Chen Nuo said, taking Nuwa’s comment as a joke and teasing her in return.

Throughout the meal, Nuwa did only two things, eat and offer compliments.

After finishing the meal, Nuwa picked up a Flat Peach soda and took a couple of sips. The icy soda with bubbles exploded from her mouth all the way to her stomach. Nuwa couldn’t help but feel like belching, but seeing Chen Nuo sitting in front of her, she somehow managed to suppress the burp that had already reached her lips and pushed it back down.

Even though she suppressed it, Nuwa did not fare much better. Her originally fair skin turned red from her neck to the roots of her ears, as if she had an allergic reaction, which she couldn’t suppress even with her Mana.

Chen Nuo looked at Nuwa’s flushed face, not understanding what had happened, and asked with concern, "What’s wrong? Are you having an allergic reaction?"

Nuwa shook her head without speaking. Chen Nuo thought she might be choking and handed her some water, "Maybe try drinking some water to see if it’ll go down."

She had just turned red from drinking soda, so how could she drink water again? She quickly shook her head.

Chen Nuo stopped insisting, seeing that it didn’t seem to be a serious problem and that it just needed some time.

After a while, the rosy hue on Nuwa’s face finally receded. She couldn’t resist taking another sip of soda, this time with preparation, so it didn’t turn into the scene from before.

However, after the redness subsided, Chen Nuo thought Nuwa’s face looked different from before, but he couldn’t pinpoint what the difference was, so he inquired, "Your face?"

Nuwa saw Chen Nuo’s expression and thought something was wrong with her face. She hastily pulled out a mirror from her Treasure Bag and looked at herself, "What’s wrong, is there something on my face? Ah!"

She viewed her face with disbelief. She was always confident about her face; after all, she was a goddess, perfect in every way.

But unlike before, when she only considered herself perfect, now she seemed to be truly perfect.

Her originally slender phoenix eyes were a size larger than before, but just right.

Her skin was also finer, with the rosy areas rosy and the fair areas fair, and even more glowing than before.

Not only that but originally without applying any lipstick, her lips would appear somewhat dull. At this moment, the change was even greater, not only did her lips look naturally red without lipstick, but they also appeared fuller.

When she came to dine, she had lightly made up to make herself look more perfect, but that makeup couldn’t last long, fading after a meal.

Now, without any makeup, her face looked even more beautiful than when she had applied it. Nuwa couldn’t help but exclaim, "Is this, is this really my face?"