To make rice with firewood, one selected the rice crust from the bottom of the pot, kneaded it into balls, placed them in a bamboo basket, and hung it up high. Each day, one rice crust ball was added. After a week, all the rice crust balls were taken out, crushed, the impurities winnowed away, and then placed into a jar with clear water and sealed.
Fourteen days later, the simple, quick version of Immortal Vinegar would be ready.
That’s right, this was only the fastest, simplest method for making Immortal Vinegar, not the true method for the real thing.
First, because the real Immortal Vinegar took far too long. Just the first step required a full year, and the fermentation needed at least twenty-one days. With such a long production cycle, how could Bai Baozhu afford to wait?
Second, although she was confident that the Immortal Vinegar she made would be the most delicious, what if…? What if someone really managed to crack the recipe and the small details of her Immortal Vinegar method just by watching the complete video?
Once the Immortal Vinegar was made, it would be her tool for making a fortune. She had to protect it carefully.
Therefore, Bai Baozhu ultimately chose the quick, simple version of Immortal Vinegar—a method that wasn’t fully complete and whose flavor wasn’t the most exquisite!
Although it was called the simple version, and its taste was indeed not as good as the Immortal Vinegar that took over a year to make, it was still better than most of the edible vinegars in this world.
So, even for the simple version, Bai Baozhu was very confident.
Watching Bai Baozhu finish making the edible vinegar called Immortal Vinegar, the following photographers were utterly baffled. Was edible vinegar made like this? It felt like… edible vinegar wasn’t made this way.
“Zhu Zhu, can this really make that super delicious Immortal Vinegar you described?”
If it weren’t for their trust in Bai Baozhu’s culinary skills, probably many of the staff present would have thought this was absolutely a scam!
“Of course! This is my family’s ancestral, ancient secret recipe for vinegar!”
Bai Baozhu said, half-truthfully. The truth was, the Immortal Vinegar recipe was indeed an ancient secret method and was indeed an ancestral recipe.
However, it did not belong to Bai Baozhu’s family’s ancestral recipes.
But, who could blame her? This era loved things with heritage. For her cash cow to grow strong and healthy, Bai Baozhu decided to tell a little white lie.
Anyway, the taste was genuinely good!
“This… your family’s ancestral, ancient secret recipe… is it really okay for us to film it like this and broadcast it?”
Hearing it was an ancestral, ancient secret recipe, the staff didn’t fully understand but were impressed. Subconsciously, they started worrying about the recipe being leaked for Bai Baozhu.
“Don’t worry. This is my family’s secret recipe. I kept a trick up my sleeve. Even if you study my making video inside out, you won’t be able to learn it.”
Bai Baozhu said with a smile, not worried at all about her Immortal Vinegar being ‘pirated’.
Hearing Bai Baozhu say this, the staff finally relaxed. They sincerely prayed for her, hoping their show’s big boss producer, President Huo, would definitely approve Bai Baozhu’s request to advertise on the show!
Just on the first day Bai Baozhu officially started making her Immortal Vinegar, Huo Yu, the producer and biggest boss of Love Cottage, received a request from a certain dating guest on the show who wanted to place an advertisement during the program.
As a businesswoman, Huo Yu’s first instinct was to refuse this request.
But when she heard the dating guest who wanted to advertise was Bai Baozhu, she immediately changed her mind.
“You said the dating guest is Bai Baozhu?”
Having just finished watching her cousin’s four-person date, Huo Yu had a really deep impression of this dating guest, Bai Baozhu…
Not just because she was extremely pretty yet incredibly strong. More importantly, she found this female guest interesting, able to show many different sides of her fake-prude, deadpan-faced cousin.
So, she was genuinely very interested in and held a lot of goodwill towards this dating guest named Bai Baozhu.
“Then OK. Whatever she wants to do, let her do it.”
Huo Yu chuckled lightly, feeling quite lenient towards this Bai Baozhu who could make her cousin show different emotions.
After all… who knows, in the future, she might become family and call her cousin-sister~
And so, relying on this connection with Bo Shenyu, Bai Baozhu smoothly obtained the opportunity to openly advertise on Love Cottage.
Of course, the parties involved, Bai Baozhu and Bo Shenyu, knew nothing about this.
“Wow! Zhu Zhu, you really don’t plan to be a star anymore? You want to sell condiments?”
Upon hearing this news, the dating guests of Love Cottage were all very happy for Bai Baozhu.
However, happy as they were, they were still quite puzzled. Why would Bai Baozhu give up being a star to go into condiments?
By all appearances, Bai Baozhu’s uniquely gifted looks and professional skills didn’t seem suited for being a cook, but rather for being a star born for the stage.
“Mhm, what’s so good about being a star? How can it compare to the happiness food brings people.”
Bai Baozhu nodded seriously, saying with a particularly happy smile.
“But, from your description, I’m really interested in the Immortal Vinegar you made. It sounds delicious.”
“Yeah, Immortal Vinegar. Just hearing the name makes it sound incredibly tasty.”
“I’m getting a bit impatient to taste what Immortal Vinegar actually tastes like!”
…
Seeing everyone centered around Bai Baozhu, all discussing her family’s ancestral ancient secret recipe for Immortal Vinegar, Su Han, who had been ‘severely dealt with’ by Bai Baozhu not long ago, seethed with anger but didn’t dare speak, venting wildly in her heart.
What family ancestral ancient secret method! What nonsense!
The Bai and Chen families were just ordinary commoners. For three generations back, they were all farmers. What kind of heritage like an ancient secret recipe could they possibly have?
If they hadn’t latched onto a super wealthy family like the Jiangs and gotten lucky, wouldn’t they still be just low-class commoners…
Su Han, who knew the entire ‘life history’ of the world’s main and supporting characters, grumbled disdainfully in her heart, not taking Bai Baozhu’s so-called Immortal Vinegar seriously at all.
In her view, this was all just a gimmick Bai Baozhu came up with, just wanting to use these non-existent prestigious names to package her product.
Of course, she also couldn’t understand Bai Baozhu’s thought process. Why give up being a star to become a cook, mess with food, mess with condiments?
“Sister Hanhan, what are you thinking about? Why are you staring at me like that?”
Feeling a bit uncomfortable under Su Han’s gaze, Bai Baozhu walked over to Su Han with a smile.
Seeing Bai Baozhu walk over to her again with that sweet smile, the fear once dominated by Bai Green Tea surged back into Su Han’s heart. She subconsciously took a step back, her face showing fright.
“You… stay away from me.”
Before, she thought Bai Baozhu was just an idiot, completely under her control.
But now… Su Han deeply felt that she was the idiot, played by Bai Baozhu!
After receiving that last phone call, she had learned that Bai Baozhu had gone from being blacklisted by the whole internet to being loved by the whole internet!
Moreover, because those netizens had blackened Bai Baozhu too excessively before, once her name was cleared, all netizens felt a strange sense of pity for her. Bai Baozhu’s public favor was incredibly good now, and trying to start trends to blacken her again had basically become impossible…
Just thinking about this filled Su Han with a sense of powerlessness. For some reason, as a transmigrated woman, she suddenly felt that Bai Baozhu seemed to have… the legendary female lead halo?
She had laid out her plans for so long, success was in sight, so how could it still be overturned? And the overturn was quite baffling.
Clearly, Bai Baozhu wasn’t…
“Sister Hanhan, are you okay?”
Seeing Bai Baozhu’s concerned expression, Su Han regained some rationality. She took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing the disgust in her heart for Bai Baozhu, and said with a very hypocritical smile.
“Zhu Zhu, your family actually has an ancestral ancient secret method? Your family must be really impressive then!”
“Ah? Not really.”
Hearing Su Han’s words, Bai Baozhu was slightly taken aback. Looking at the bright smile on Su Han’s face, she felt for the first time that Su Han’s smile didn’t seem as pretty as before.
And… her malice towards her seemed even deeper?
“How could that be? Don’t be modest. Usually, families with ancestral secret recipes aren’t ordinary folks. Looking back, they might even be from some great noble family…”
Su Han deliberately flattered Bai Baozhu’s family background, thinking that if Bai Baozhu didn’t explain, she could still find people to blacken Bai Baozhu for hiding her family background.
However, Su Han’s malicious intent was destined to be in vain.
“I’m not being modest. My family is just very ordinary.”
Bai Baozhu said, completely unconcerned. She wasn’t like the original host, who had an extremely strong sense of vanity and avoided her family background, not wanting people to know she was born into a poor household in a small village.
Her parents were uneducated livestock farmers, making a living raising poultry.
So, after getting into the county’s middle school, the original host rarely went home, resulting in very few people besides her closest relatives knowing her true origins.
Even the neighbors next door hadn’t seen her in so long they forgot what she looked like. Even if she appeared on TV, they couldn’t recognize her.
It could be said that apart from her very closest relatives, no one else knew that Bai Baozhu was once that little country bumpkin living in Bai Family Village.
This was also why the agency dared to create the wealthy, beautiful socialite persona for Bai Baozhu.
But Bai Baozhu was different. She didn’t think there was anything wrong with such a family, nor did she find it shameful or embarrassing.
No matter what family one was born into, no matter what parents one had, they had given the original host life and allowed her to grow up healthy and carefree. Just this point filled Bai Baozhu with gratitude towards the original body’s parents.
Moreover, from the original host’s memories, she saw how much the original host’s parents doted on her.
The original host wanted to learn dance, so her parents worked from dawn to dusk to earn money for her lessons. The original host wanted to attend the money-burning art school, so her parents sold everything they had, borrowed money, paid her tuition, and worried that her living expenses wouldn’t be enough. Even though life was already hard enough, they scrimped and saved to send her fifteen hundred yuan every month…
This kind of selfless, meticulous, doting parental love was something Bai Baozhu had never experienced before.
Therefore, having such parents, Bai Baozhu not only didn’t find it hard to talk about, but on the contrary, felt very fortunate. She looked forward infinitely to loving and honoring the parents she would have in this life.
“My family lives in a rural village in a remote small county. My mom and dad are just very ordinary livestock farmers. We’re not some great noble family, haha~”
Bai Baozhu’s words not only shocked Su Han but also stunned the other dating guests.
After all, based on Bai Baozhu’s looks, her aura, and the information conveyed in the first seven episodes of the show’s recording, she clearly seemed like a little princess born into a wealthy family.
Even if not an especially rich socialite, she should have been born into a middle-class family.
Yet now, Bai Baozhu was telling them she was born in the countryside?
And she was so calm about it?
This stunned everyone for a moment, leaving them unsure of what to say.
It was Xia Tiantian, who had the best relationship with Bai Baozhu, who snapped out of it in time and teased Bai Baozhu, saving everyone from further awkwardness.
“Wow! Zhu Zhu, if you hadn’t said it, we really would never have guessed! In our eyes, you were just like a little princess.”
“Yeah, Zhu Zhu, your aura is practically no different from those society ladies I’ve seen at elite schools!”
“Hahaha, Zhu Zhu, if you hadn’t told us, we really would have had no idea!”
…
Seeing that the other dating guests didn’t care one bit about Bai Baozhu’s background, and their attitude towards her remained exactly the same as before—in fact, perhaps because of her honest revelation, Bo Shenyu and Jiang Boyan’s attitudes towards Bai Baozhu had become even gentler—Su Han was so angry she could spit blood!
She also couldn’t understand why Bai Baozhu suddenly hadn’t taken the bait she’d laid, and had instead chosen to reveal her own identity on the show like that, leaving Su Han with no opportunity to smear her.
Thinking back on all the past incidents, Su Han’s mind began spinning conspiracy theories again.
In the end, she overthought things so much that her face grew paler and paler.
Wait… did Bai Baozhu know? Did she know that Su Han bore her ill will and had hired people to slander her outside the show?
Su Han suddenly remembered that the day before Bai Baozhu started to change, she had gone to answer a phone call…
Could it be that Bai Baozhu had already known back then what Su Han had done to her? And then countered move for move, clearing her own name while also dealing with Su Han both inside and outside the show?
The more she thought about it, the more Su Han felt Bai Baozhu was so scheming and deep!
Now, looking at Bai Baozhu’s sweet, brilliant smile directed at her, Su Han felt as if she’d seen a ghost. Covering her chest, her steps somewhat flustered, she fled back to her own bedroom.
And in her heart, she kept muttering.
This woman Bai Baozhu was too terrifying, no wonder in the end she would…
She couldn’t afford to provoke her, it was better to just avoid her! Anyway, it wasn’t like she and Bo Shenyu could end up together. She just needed to seize the opportunity to make the object of Bo Shenyu’s affection shift from Bai Baozhu to herself…
“Huh? Did Sister Hanhan not feel well? I just saw her face was really pale, she covered her chest and ran off.”
Seeing Su Han look at her as if she’d seen a ghost and then take off running, Bai Baozhu was a bit baffled as she said this to Xia Tiantian.
“Her? She’s probably fine. If anything’s wrong, there’s always the production team’s medical team.”
Seeing Bai Baozhu concerned about Su Han, Xia Tiantian spoke with a hint of jealousy in her tone.
Ever since Bai Baozhu’s sun date partner last time was Su Han, Xia Tiantian had held a grudge against Su Han, finding everything about her irritating.
Hearing Xia Tiantian’s words, Bai Baozhu thought it made sense, so she stopped worrying about Su Han’s issue. Instead, she happily started telling everyone about how incredibly delicious the soup was made from the old hens raised on her parents’ farm.
And how amazingly tasty the stinky fish cured from the village’s little grass carp was, leaving city kids like Xia Tiantian and the others, who had never tasted such rustic delicacies, practically drooling with desire!
So they all begged Bai Baozhu to cook a few more meals of her hometown dishes recently!
For example, that stinky fish that smelled funky but was especially fragrant and savory when eaten—they really wanted to try it!
Amidst the swallowing and requests from all the dating guests and staff, Bai Baozhu, following the memories of how the original host’s mother had made stinky fish for the original host countless times, processed the fresh fish and began curing it…
Just as Bai Baozhu, filled with affection for the original host’s family, was making that stinky fish dish that was once the original host’s favorite, her heart feeling soft…
At that very moment, Song Zhi, the love observer currently recording the fourteenth episode of Love Cottage, had just snapped his third ballpoint pen in half!
“Ah—! Bai Baozhu personally fed Bo Shenyu dessert! This CP is too sweet!”
“Crack—!”
Another pen broke in Song Zhi’s hand.