Chapter 28: Slaughtering the Devil to Slaughter Yourself

When we get home, Shen Yu puts his things down and lies down on the sofa, not wanting to move.

Shen Yu could not help but sympathise with his dad, who was tired every time he went out shopping with his mother.

Asaba Rika's energy seems to be inexhaustible, making Shen Yu wonder if she is a robot with a perpetual motion machine inside her.

She goes about her business with the things she has bought, wrapping them in plastic bags and putting them in the fridge if she wants to keep them fresh, taking them to the kitchen if she wants to eat them later, and some bottles and jars of spices, which are also neatly sorted in the cupboard.

It doesn't matter if Shen Yu doesn't come to help, Rika can do it all by himself.

It's a little after six in the evening and Shen Yu wanted to go down to the ground floor to continue working for a while, but for some reason, she felt lazy and didn't want to move.

The living room was lit with a warm lamp and listened to the tinkling of bells from the young girl behind her fiddling with pots and bowls, just like the other families with lights in the windows.

Shen Yu fumbled around on the sofa for a while, then opened the TV cabinet to find it again and took out the TV remote control which hadn't been used for a while.

The batteries inside have been sitting for who knows how many years and have corroded away the metal pieces.

He scraped off the rust with a knife, replaced the batteries with new ones and pressed the switch, but the TV didn't respond either.

Then it was back to tinkering with the TV and before long the picture came on, just in time for the news bulletin.

Shen Yu just sat back on the sofa and stared blankly at the TV.

One of the few times when the work wasn't on my mind, I just had my head in the air and listened to the presenter reading the news.

Bai Xiaomeng doesn't watch TV, it bumbles along with Asaba Rika, watching her go about her business with a stony face.

He wants to take Rika's job, but he's just a fluffy kitten.

Thinking that it was better to hold the base first, he ran back and got into Shen Yu's arms and hogged it.

"Shen Yu, eat strawberries!"

Asaba Rika comes out of the kitchen with a plate of washed strawberries, their crimson skins still covered with tiny droplets of crystal, and she herself is eating one in her mouth.

"It's sweet!"

The plates were placed on the table in front of Shen Yu, and then Rika, the wise wife, happily returned to the kitchen to continue cooking.

Shen Yu sits up lazily from the sofa like a grandfather and twists a strawberry to eat.

When I look back into the kitchen, I see that Asaba Rika has put on her mother's apron, cleaned her chopping board and knives, and is now chopping potatoes and onions.

Shen Yu asked symbolically, "Do you need help?"

"No, Shen Yu, you rest."

Shen Yu just continues to watch TV.

After another five minutes of watching, he still felt a bit restless and suddenly a bit panicky, probably because of this unspeakable change of some kind, Asaba Rika seemed to be slowly and quietly corrupting his Chopper with some kind of intense potion.

So he turned off the TV and fled back to the ground floor, tapping sullenly on his keyboard and continuing to sharpen his knife.

Later

Mealtime

I must say it's awful

So she won't think about cooking for me anymore

After the knife was sharpened, Shen Yu felt that he had a fighting chance with his demons again.

Vaguely, he thought he could hear the snicker of stir-fry coming from the kitchen, and the gurgle of beef, carrots and onions simmering in a pot, bubbles rising to the surface of the soup and bursting with a boing, wafting out the tantalizing aroma

It took ten minutes for Shen Yu to adjust to his work and then he was unaware of the passage of time, his eyes only seeing the characters on the screen.

It was only when Asaba Rika came down to call him for dinner that he came back to his senses and looked at the time, it was after 7pm.

"Shen Yu, it's time to eat!"

"Oh."

Unlike in the past, Shen Yu soon dropped what she was doing and got up to go upstairs for dinner.

When Shen Yu lived alone, the dining table was often a miscellaneous table, with all sorts of miscellaneous things placed on it.

The table had been tidied up and two plates were placed facing each other, with steaming rice topped with diced beef and potatoes and onions cooked in curry, and a sizzling veal chop draped over the rice, carefully cut into strips for easy pinching.

If you look in the kitchen, all the used pots and pans have been washed and the uneaten ingredients have been sealed in cling film and put back in the fridge.

"I'm not familiar with the kitchen or the cooking utensils, so I may not be very good, but I'll make it a few more times and it will be good, so please don't mind if it doesn't taste good, Shen Yu!"

Shen Yu had already sat down at the table and Asaba Rika sat face to face with him, worrying that Shen Yu would find it difficult to eat before he even started.

Shen Yu, who had already planned to say it was awful whether it was good or not, froze.

What kind of trick is this?

Raising the white flag of surrender before the fight has even begun?

Is this a fucking way of asking me to take a knife and behead a captive.

"Hmm."

Shen Yu, with a stern face and like a food expert, started with a review of the dinner's presentation and aroma.

"This rice is cooked quite white."

"This potato stew is quite brown."

"This carrot is quite red too."

"This diced beef is quite square."

The review was at a standstill, as Shen Yu seemed unable to find anything wrong with it in terms of selling.

Even Asaba Rika put a lovely strawberry next to their plates as a garnish, hey! We're just having a casual dinner in our own home, what's the need for this!

Asaba Rika was waiting nervously for Shen Yu's comments, his little hands clasped in front of him as if he was praying, and his heart was happy to hear Shen Yu's words.

"What about, what about the smell?"

"Mmm."

Shen Yu looks serious, his head dips a little and his nose twitches as he sniffs the meal.

Very fragrant

He's not really a food expert, how could he have so many adjectives to describe the aroma?

The steak, in particular, had a slightly charred surface, but from the cut side, the meat inside was tender and perfectly cooked.

The curry is also cooked for a very coincidental amount of time, so that the onions and other ingredients don't stew too much and the flavours come out extremely well.

Shen Yu has been silent for a long time and finally he has found a fault that is not a fault!

He said excitedly, "It's still not even close!!!"

Asaba Rika is a bit strange, Shen Yu is really a strange person, why is he so happy when he thinks the taste is bad?

"What's the difference?" Asaba Rika asked cautiously.

"Scallions! I love chopped scallions! If only you had sprinkled some more scallions!"

Shen Yu was relieved that the knife had finally been cut, which would ensure that you would be so demotivated that you would be estranged from me and would never want to eat with me again.

"You have to pay attention next time."

Before Shen Yu had even finished speaking, Asaba Rika stood up happily, "So Shen Yu likes small onions, I'm glad I've prepared them.

He ran into the kitchen and brought out a small bowl with chopped spring onions, scooped a little with a small spoon and sprinkled it evenly over Shen Yu's curry rice.

"The soup was a little cold, next time I'll put it in earlier so the flavour of the spring onions is stronger."

"I"

"Shen Yu Don't worry, I'll be careful next time!"

"Hmm."

"Shen Yu, please eat!"

Shen Yu picks up his chopsticks and soup spoon and eats in a muffled voice, his eyes visibly wavering as the first bite goes down.

Then eating faster and faster and faster

"Is it good?"

"Average!"

Shen Yu finally said it stiffly, devouring the food on his plate before taking a bite out of the garnished strawberries and scowling, "You're not even close to being a good cook."

"I'll work on it!"

Shen Yu felt satisfied to see Asaba Rika's devastated face.

He picks up the plate and goes to the kitchen to wash it, but Asaba Rika has also finished eating and takes it before him.

"I'll wash it I'll wash it, Shen Yu go watch TV."

"That's not very nice."

"So, Shen Yu, do you know where to put the detergent? Do you know where to put the plates?"

Shen Yu then handed her the plate in peace and went to watch TV.

It's not right.

This is not the right pace!

What am I supposed to be doing?

Shen Yu is leaning back on the sofa, watching TV like a grandfather, with a plate of strawberries and Rika's cut cantaloupe on the table, and his wife Rika behind him, mopping the kitchen and cleaning up.

Where is the sword I used to cut down my demons?

Such a big handful!