Chapter 96: Competing with Animals for Food

“Dad, Charming Girl likes me, and I like her too.” The little one, tickled by Charming Girl’s licks, smiled sweetly at Liu Heming.

“Alex is a good child, and everyone likes good children.” Liu Heming handed his daughter some more sweet potato vine.

“I wondered where she was—turns out she’s playing over here.” Just as Liu Heming finished speaking, Sasha’s voice came from the warehouse door.

The little one was caught red-handed by her mom and stuck out her tongue.

But she had her own winning move—she ran over, hugged Sasha’s leg, and acted cute. It worked; who could bear to scold this little one?

“I told the Bear Cub to hide under the blanket and sleep for me. How did Mom find out I wasn’t there?” the little one asked curiously.

“You should talk! Your little body is so small, and the Bear Cubs are so much bigger. Their fluffy heads gave them away long ago,” Sasha said, tapping her daughter’s little nose.

“Bear Cub wasn’t good. I told it to hide itself properly,” the little one pouted.

Just then, the Bear Cubs waddled in from outside the warehouse. When they saw Liu Heming, it was like they saw a savior, and they hurried over a bit faster.

Carrying out Alex’s task wasn’t easy. Summer was already hot, and they were covered in fur—hiding under the little blanket was really stuffy.

Before, Charming Girl had been a bit afraid of the Bear Kids, but now they were as familiar as could be. Charming Girl even picked up some sweet potato stems and tossed them in front of the Bear Kids to share.

“Actually, we can eat these stems too,” Liu Heming said with a smile.

“Dad, are they tasty?” Alex asked with bright, eager eyes.

“Let’s try them and you’ll see,” Liu Heming said cheerfully, picking up his daughter.

He thought that maybe this sixth dish would come down to the sweet potato stems. If so, that would be just perfect.

Long ago, sweet potato stems were mostly used to feed pigs. But now, after a big jump in people’s living standards, they started competing with pigs for food.

There was no reasoning about it—things that used to be pig feed turned out to have high nutritional and medicinal value. For modern people who often have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high blood sugar, these are all good things.

To be safe, Liu Heming decided to make one more dish that evening—a dish often eaten at home in summer, Pan-Seared Flatbread.

But he wasn’t so confident that the Pan-Seared Flatbread would satisfy his daughter, because for stewed green beans, adding a spoonful of homemade fermented bean paste made the flavor top-notch.

In the cities of China, it was already hard to find homemade fermented bean paste, and in the United States, there was nowhere to look. Liu Heming planned to make some himself after his soybeans were harvested.

Watching Liu Heming pick the tender stems from the pile of sweet potato vines, everyone was curious. They really hadn’t thought these could be eaten, especially since they had just seen them being fed to the little animals.

Liu Heming gathered a lot, a big bundle. He didn’t rush to prepare them; peeling them too early would make them less crisp when eaten.

“George, could you please call Lewis and John over? My sweet potatoes had a great harvest today, so let’s all celebrate together,” Liu Heming said after a moment’s thought.

He had just remembered something—back home, Pan-Seared Flatbread shops made good money, and he wondered if he could promote it here too.

He had planted too many vegetables last time. He had already shared them with the townspeople several times, but there was still a big surplus of cucumbers and green beans—more than they could possibly eat.

After getting George’s phone call, everyone hurried over before Liu Heming had even finished picking the green beans.

“Don’t just stand around—help me sort out these green beans and the potatoes we dug up,” Liu Heming called to everyone.

“Haha, Dexter, I think you should do this more often. Forget about the shop and just focus on studying good food,” Lewis said with a big laugh.

“Dream on! It’s only because the ranch isn’t too busy right now. Later, when I have cattle here, I probably won’t have so much time,” Liu Heming said with a smile.

“John, I might need to bother you again tomorrow. I need to make some cooking tools. The ones here are good, but they don’t really suit my cooking style.”

“No problem, you can come over anytime. Actually, you could make them yourself—even if I’m not there,” John replied with a nod.

In the whole town, only Liu Heming could join him in blacksmithing. For this small request of Liu Heming’s, he was more than happy.

These folks were also curious about the plant stems that Liu Heming and Alex were peeling. When asked, they wouldn’t say.

All the dishes had to be prepared by Liu Heming alone, so he started a bit early.

Actually, the dishes were quite simple. The only slightly troublesome one was the Pan-Seared Flatbread, because of the dough. The process was a little complex; otherwise, it wouldn’t form layers.

He rolled the kneaded dough into flat cakes, brushed them with oil, rolled them up, and then rolled them out again. After repeating this a few times, he laid the prepared cakes over the simmering green beans.

Next, it was time to handle the sweet potato stems. He planned two ways to prepare them: one cold-tossed, one stir-fried.

For the cold-tossed ones, he quickly blanched them in hot water—it had to be fast, or the stems would get tough. After blanching, he cooled them in cold water, then cut them into sections and mixed them with seasoning.

With no outsiders around, as soon as he finished, everyone couldn’t wait to try a bite—even little Alex did the same.

The texture was crisp, a bit different from what Liu Heming remembered eating back home, with a slight sweetness. The flavor was actually pretty good—very refreshing. He watched his daughter carefully; she was eating it, but it didn’t complete his sixth dish task.

Although his daughter didn’t particularly love it, George and the others liked it very much. In no time, a whole bowl of cold-tossed sweet potato stems was gone.

“Dexter, these are really good. Are there any more? I want to take some home,” Anderson asked Liu Heming.

“Anderson, there are plenty, plenty more. But Dexter’s animals might not be happy—because what you’re taking is their food,” George joked.

This left everyone puzzled, until George showed them the sweet potato stems, and they realized what they had been eating.