The next day at noon, Ling Miao, who had spent the entire night studying the live-streaming mode, opened her front door with dark circles under her eyes, only to be caught off guard and tackled into a warm embrace by an orange creature.
Before Ling Miao could take a closer look, she heard a familiar voice:
"I thought you were resting today."
"Why did you just open the door?"
The plump, chubby orange cat was genuinely quite heavy, but fortunately she knew her limits and promptly jumped down from Ling Miao's arms.
A pair of orange-yellow cat eyes stared straight at Ling Miao, full of grievance in her tone.
The slight irritation that had just risen in Ling Miao's heart suddenly vanished without a trace.
Looking at the stunning beauty of the cat before her, Ling Miao couldn't help reaching out to pet her. Meeting the other's slightly puzzled gaze, she gave a light cough, looked away, and said, "Let's have Sauerkraut Fish today."
"Meow~"
A sweet cat meow rang out. The chubby orange cat in front of her transformed into a young girl, her round face glowing with a pair of bright orange-yellow eyes that seemed to sparkle as she looked at Ling Miao: "Hello, my name is Susan, and I am a female of the Cat Clan."
"Boss, the fish you make is the best fish I've ever eaten!"
Ling Miao looked at Susan and returned the smile: "My name is Ling Miao, and I am the boss of Youwei Restaurant."
"By the way, can you eat spicy food?"
Ling Miao suddenly remembered this question and asked, looking at the excited girl in front of her.
Susan hesitated for a moment, then nodded: "I can eat it!"
Looking at her foolish appearance, Ling Miao knew she probably hadn't understood, but it didn't matter; she would just use a little less chili pepper.
Ling Miao thought happily to herself and walked briskly into the kitchen.
***
A huge starship sailed slowly among the nebulae. The thick, fog-like stardust seemed to block its path, and the massive starship, hidden beneath the dust and mist, resembled a hunter lurking in the shadows, waiting only for the right moment to strike a decisive blow.
Yalxi leaned lazily against the window, his eyes rapidly scanning the translucent screen before him. Various interesting and eye-catching covers swiped past, and he gave a light click of his tongue: "How boring."
With a slight flick of his finger, just as the screen in front of him was about to close, his finger slipped and he accidentally clicked into a live broadcast room.
Yalxi looked on with disinterest. In the broadcast page, a petite girl was holding a kitchen knife, and the neat, eye-catching font in the upper left corner suddenly caught his attention:
Today's Special Dish: Sauerkraut Fish
Food?
Sauerkraut Fish?
Fish?
The words were not unfamiliar, but put together they were intriguing enough. Yalxi twitched the corner of his mouth, his fingers moved slightly, and a line of text instantly appeared on the screen.
White Wolf: [A novelty-seeking streamer?]
You couldn't blame Yalxi for thinking this way. In the Interstellar, creatures like fish were only tried by a few feline-affiliated races; most races could not endure the sticky, fishy odor.
Even among the feline family, they would never consume fish meat at public large-scale banquets, which undoubtedly was a massive olfactory disaster for beastmen of other races.
His thoughts were echoed by everyone in the live broadcast room, and they all left comments following the trend, with even a few scattered accusations.
Ling Miao looked at the more than one hundred people online on the live broadcast page, took a deep breath, adjusted her expression, and began to introduce:
"Hello everyone, I am a food streamer, and what I'm making today is Sauerkraut Fish."
Before she even finished speaking, she saw an eye-catching line of text floating across the bullet comments. Ling Miao shook her head and explained: "No, the streamer is a food streamer, not a novelty seeker."
As soon as her voice fell, the already small number of people in the live broadcast room instantly dropped to double digits, and those who remained passionately opened fire:
[This is clearly novelty-seeking!]
[Could it be that the streamer belongs to a feline race?]
[Even if she's feline, doesn't she know that besides their race, no other race eats fish?]
[Upstairs, you're still being too gentle. Who else would eat this kind of stuff besides the felines?]
[Stinky and fishy, I'll put my words right here: if I take a single bite of this, I'll do a handstand and eat shit!]
[Still, there's no need for that... the person above is way too harsh on themselves.]
Ling Miao looked at the completely derailed vibe in the live broadcast room and didn't know what to say, so she simply picked up the pre-prepared ingredients and went to work.
For this live broadcast, Ling Miao had really gone all out. Both the sauerkraut and the fish were top-tier ingredients selected from the System at a "huge cost," all to leave a strong and lasting impression on the viewers.
For this Sauerkraut Fish, Ling Miao chose black fish. Black fish has few bones and firm meat; not only is it convenient during the slicing process, but the texture in the mouth is also superior compared to ordinary fish.
And this black fish produced by the System had regular, smooth scales, a faint fishy smell, and powerful tail fins—it was obviously a top contender that had lived in a high-quality aquatic environment and loved to exercise.
Ling Miao unhesitatingly knocked it out with the butt of a knife, skillfully scraped the scales, made the incision, and removed the fishbone. Slices of tender pink fish meat were neatly arranged on the plate, looking both exquisite and aesthetically pleasing.
Yalxi looked on with interest at the streamer's movements—skillful, smooth, and natural in one go; without a dozen years of practice, such knife skills could simply not be forged.
The others in the live broadcast room were also stunned by the skill Ling Miao displayed.
[It feels like the streamer really has skills.]
[I think so too.]
[Plus one.]
[Plus.]
[No, everyone upstairs is getting distracted. Even if the streamer has good knife skills, that doesn't have much to do with cooking skill. The knife skills of someone who has served as a mercenary for a few years and survived in the wild hunting strange beasts wouldn't be bad anywhere.]
[I feel the same way, especially since what the streamer is making is fish.]
[To be honest, I feel like I could accept whatever the streamer makes, but why does it have to be fish?]
[Yeah, a thing like fish is just too hard to eat.]
Ling Miao raised her head inadvertently and saw the string of doubts about fish on the screen. The movements of her hands paused for a moment, and she began to doubt her choice. Does most of the Interstellar population reject fish this much?
Ling Miao pressed her lips together and gripped the knife handle tighter. No matter what, the live broadcast had already started. If she changed dishes midway, although the viewers in the room wouldn't say much, it would still fall flat.
And if this fish could make a sensation, the rebound effect would be astonishing.
A flash of light crossed Ling Miao's eyes, and her hands moved quickly and smoothly, flowing like clouds and water without a single trace of stuttering.
Everyone in the live broadcast room shook their heads as they watched her ignore their advice, and the already sparse viewer count instantly began to teeter precariously.
She heated the pot and added oil. The intense, pungent, sour scent mixed with the spicy kick of chili peppers rushed straight into everyone's nasal cavities unawares. Many people couldn't stand it and immediately exited the live broadcast room.
Yalxi frowned, raising a hand to cover the discomfort in his nose, the interest in his eyes diminishing by three-tenths.
"Yalxi."
A man in a black uniform suddenly appeared in the opposite corridor. Tall with long legs, his handsome, striking face wore a deeply furrowed brow, looking quite disdainful as if he found the other's slacking off rather distasteful.
Yalxi glanced at him and lazily made a hand gesture.
"The Admiral wants to see you."
Dropping those words, Sony turned and walked away without hesitation.
Yalxi's expression tightened. He straightened up, closed the translucent screen in front of him, and walked toward the main bridge.
"Admiral."
The man standing with his back to Yalxi possessed a tall figure. Standing at over 1.9 meters tall, he exuded an overwhelmingly oppressive presence. The atmosphere around him seemed subdued and indifferent, his entire aura cold and frozen, seemingly carrying endless detachment.
"Has the result of the star pirate tracking come out?"
His voice was deep, and the mellow tone should have been as pleasant as a cello, yet it sounded heartless due to the owner's indifference. Cedrian turned around, the double rows of dark gold epaulets on his shoulders low-key yet luxurious, casting a sharp, dark gleam under the cold white lights.
Yalxi lowered his head even further, his voice respectful and serious: "It has come out."
"Good..."
Cedrian's words stalled in his throat. A pair of slender, phoenix-like eyes stared straight at Yalxi, who was lowering his head waiting for the result.
The other was stunned for a moment, and immediately smelled an aggressive, overbearing sourness mixed with intense spicy fragrance that unceremoniously occupied the entire main bridge. The air was filled with a choking yet vaguely seductive aroma.