Chapter 49: Knife Skills Are Hard to Learn

After making up his mind, Liu Heming felt more spirited. He thought the basic skill of a chef—knife skills—would be an easy task to handle.

Wasn’t it just cutting vegetables? Although the System had six categories, the assessment requirements were simple. As long as he got a little familiar with these six categories, he could complete the task and improve his abilities a lot.

He went to Anderson’s small shop and bought almost all of his potatoes. Anderson was very happy and even helped load them into the car, praising him as a good comrade.

After returning, he didn’t even peel the potatoes and started cutting right away. He was quite pleased with his cutting because it was just chopping—no one said the slices had to be of the same thickness. Besides, he had cut vegetables at home before.

But as he kept cutting, he began to feel something was off. Even if the System was being lenient, it had said that task rewards were proportional to difficulty, and it could only make small adjustments.

This task suddenly gave four attribute rewards, even bringing out Agility and Stamina, which he had never seen before. Could it really be this simple?

He put down the half-cut potato. He needed to ask for help, and the person he turned to was none other than the know-it-all “Du Niang”.

After searching, he realized he had been too naive. Just this “cutting” wasn’t as simple as he thought. There were many types of cutting: straight cut, push cut, pull cut, saw cut, press cut, and roll cut.

The System had said he must reach a beginner level. Although he couldn’t quantify what “beginner” meant yet, he felt he should at least master these cutting methods. It was probably to prepare for handling different ingredients in the future.

Reading on, he found that slicing wasn’t easy either: push slice, pull slice, diagonal slice, reverse slice, saw slice, and shake slice.

Seeing this, Liu Heming felt a headache coming on. How could this be so easy to master? And he had wasted so many days already.

Looking further, he felt a bit better. Chopping, hacking, and pounding were a little easier, but only compared to cutting and slicing. Then he saw “ji dao” and gritted his teeth.

The character “ji” looked unfamiliar, but he was familiar with dishes made using this technique. His favorite kidney flowers, stomach flowers, and squid flowers were all cut with ji dao.

Clearly, he had been too arrogant and wasted a lot of time. To complete this task he originally thought was simple, he would need to put in a lot of effort. Besides, he wasn’t free every day. The potatoes needed planting soon, and the sweet potatoes in a few days—all of this required time.

Potatoes were easier since George had a Potato Seeder. It was convenient: George could drive, and Liu Heming could place the potatoes behind. But sweet potatoes were different—they were too delicate and had to be planted by hand. He had to be very careful, and it would be inappropriate to ask too many people for help, so he had to do it himself.

He contacted George and arranged to plant potatoes the next day, so he could use those potatoes to practice his knife skills. He moved his practice to the Warehouse and started cutting the seed potatoes.

He got so busy that he lost track of time. With time so tight, he only had a quick lunch and kept cutting until it was dark outside. The two Bear Cubs were so hungry they started rolling on the ground.

The results were satisfying—the cut seed potatoes were piled up like a small hill. The side effect was obvious: his right arm felt too tired to lift.

“You two, please bear with it a little longer. I just have a bit more to cut, and then we’ll have a good meal,” Liu Heming comforted the two very hungry Bear Cubs.

Luckily, the Bear Cubs were cooperative. They stopped rolling and sat quietly at his feet, watching him cut the seed potatoes. But Liu Heming kept feeling they wanted to eat the potatoes—their bear eyes were fixed on the seed potatoes without blinking.

Gritting his teeth, he cut for another half hour and finally finished the remaining potatoes. He rubbed his right arm, stood up, and massaged his lower back.

Now he thought about it, farmers really had a hard life. To save money, they had to work more. He had never experienced this kind of hardship before and now truly understood his parents’ struggles.

The two Bear Cubs were starving. Liu Heming bent down and picked them up. He almost dropped Xiong Er, whom he held in his right arm, but luckily the little one was clever and hugged Liu Heming’s arm with its front paws, or it would have fallen on its bottom.

He made do for himself with his usual legendary meal, but as a reward, he added an extra egg. The two Bear Cubs loved meat, so Liu Heming boiled an extra Chicken Leg for them as compensation for the delayed meal.

But he didn’t eat in the Kitchen. Instead, he took his food to the bedroom. Thinking of his dad and mom’s hard work and realizing he hadn’t chatted with them for days, he decided to make up for it today.

It was night here, but daytime at home, and the sun seemed quite bright.

“Why are you eating that?” Liu Heming’s mother, Su Rong, frowned when she saw he was having Instant Noodles.

“I worked late today and didn’t feel like moving. Oh, let me introduce you to two Bear Cubs,” Liu Heming said, then picked up Xiong Da and Xiong Er, who were eating at his feet, and showed them to the camera.

“Oh my, are those black bears? They don’t bite?” Su Rong was startled.

“What do you know? It’s popular to raise them in the United States. And you know, black bear cubs actually look quite cute,” Liu Zhaoxiang remarked from the side.

“They’re very well-behaved. Also, your granddaughter loves playing with them. She just left today. I’ll send you some recent photos and ones from when she was little,” Liu Heming said with a smile.

“How is Alex? Has she gained any weight?” Su Rong’s attention was completely on her granddaughter.

“The little one is very healthy. Also, last night she called me Dad. When she gets more used to it, I’ll have her video chat with you next time she visits. I’m afraid she might not handle it well yet, so I haven’t mentioned it to her,” Liu Heming said.

“No rush, no rush. As long as you two get along well, that’s what matters,” Liu Zhaoxiang said from the side.

“Mom, Dad, when things aren’t busy at home, I want to bring you here for a visit. Make sure to get your passports done when you have time, so you can come smoothly when the time comes,” Liu Heming continued.

“We’ll see. A round trip would cost about twenty thousand yuan. It’s better to send that money to you,” Liu Zhaoxiang frowned.

Money was really tight now, and he didn’t want to add extra burden to Liu Heming. The family’s shared goal was for Liu Heming to live well in the United States and take good care of his granddaughter.