The Half-Mountain Villa was a private residence nestled against mountains and water, surrounded by green hills and built within a forest.
It was an absolutely private villa that could be called a paradise away from the world.
After the pandemic broke out and various modes of transportation were locked down, the 『Love Cottage』 production team moved from the originally filmed vacation villa to this private villa that owned hundreds of acres of mountain forest.
Here, food, entertainment, and supplies were all available. There was absolutely no need to go out.
Furthermore, the ingredients here were also the freshest, completely pollution-free organic produce.
Vegetables, fruits, livestock, poultry, and seafood were all specially cultivated and raised by dedicated personnel within the villa grounds.
Therefore, when Bai Baozhu requested a whole suckling pig, although the production team was utterly confused, they still complied with her request and transferred a suckling pig from the villa’s livestock and poultry farm…
“What on earth does this Bai Baozhu need a whole suckling pig for?”
“Right? What kind of mischief is she up to now? I swear, she causes the most trouble out of everyone these days.”
“Wait, doesn’t Bai Baozhu not know how to cook? Why is she suddenly wanting to cook? And she asked for a suckling pig?”
……
At that moment, it wasn’t just the 『Love Cottage』 production staff who were complaining about Bai Baozhu and her suckling pig request.
Even Xia Tiantian, who had been accompanying Bai Baozhu the whole time, was completely baffled, having no idea what Bai Baozhu wanted the suckling pig for.
And… it was a completely intact, whole suckling pig that hadn’t been butchered!
“Zhu Zhu, what… are you going to do?”
Watching Bai Baozhu put on an apron, stand before the intact corpse of the suckling pig, and stretch her limbs as if warming up, Xia Tiantian felt an inexplicable chill run down her spine. For some reason, looking at Bai Baozhu’s beautiful, ethereal face, she felt a sense of foreboding.
“Huh? Of course I’m going to cook.”
Bai Baozhu gently rubbed the thoroughly cleaned suckling pig and gave it a few light pats.
“Weren’t you saying you wanted to eat that Michelin Cantonese dish—the Gold Medal Roast Suckling Pig—when we watched the food show together the day before yesterday? I’m making that today.”
After saying that, Bai Baozhu put on disposable gloves and picked up the largest kitchen knife in the kitchen—the one the dating guests on 『Love Cottage』 had never used.
“G-Gold Medal Roast Suckling Pig?!”
When Xia Tiantian heard what dish Bai Baozhu intended to make, she nearly choked on her own saliva!
She was far too shocked!
Bai Baozhu didn’t know how to cook in the first place, and now for her first attempt, she was going to make such a high-difficulty dish!
This was equivalent to trying to run before learning how to crawl!
How could Xia Tiantian not be shocked and astonished!
“Zhu Zhu, you must be joking. That’s a Michelin dish, and… it looks really hard to make…”
Before Xia Tiantian could finish her sentence, she saw Bai Baozhu raise the knife and bring it down, deftly beginning to ‘dissect’ the cleaned suckling pig…
Thus, in the following moments, whether it was Xia Tiantian standing right beside Bai Baozhu or the behind-the-scenes staff watching through the cameras, they… all collectively froze in stunned silence.
They watched as Bai Baozhu opened up the suckling pig’s body and then began processing it with an air of ease.
She made a heavy cut along the midline of the pig’s spine, clean and precise without damaging any of the skin. Then, she effortlessly removed the brain, kidneys, and belly fat, used the knife to cut open the shoulder blade and the innermost part of the front leg, and extracted a small bone from within…
This series of operations was simply jaw-dropping to behold!
Xia Tiantian and all the behind-the-scenes staff were dumbfounded.
While they didn’t know if Bai Baozhu’s cooking would taste good, her dissection technique… was terrifying!
It was way too damn slick!
Just as everyone was shocked by Bai Baozhu’s display, who would have thought—
“Sister Tian Tian, this pot is too big. I can’t lift it. Can you help me get it down~”
Having finished ‘dissecting’ the entire suckling pig, Bai Baozhu was about to blanch the processed pig in boiling water to set its shape.
At that moment, she suddenly remembered that she was now a delicate, frail ‘little woman’, not the iron-willed female warrior from the Female-Dominant Kingdom who could punch a large tiger to death!
Therefore, she definitely couldn’t lift a large iron pot!
However, Bai Baozhu forgot… although the suckling pig was small, its weight wasn’t much less than the pot’s. Moreover, she had just effortlessly and smoothly dismembered the suckling pig moments ago, chopping the bones with utter ease…
“……Huh? Oh.”
Somewhat dazed by Bai Baozhu’s words, Xia Tiantian numbly followed her instructions, placed the pot on the stove, and filled it with hot water.
Meanwhile, the behind-the-scenes staff watching through the lens, their minds still quite clear, thought—
“Suddenly feel like Bai Baozhu is giving off that Green Tea vibe again…”
“Heh… Can’t lift the pot? Who’s she trying to fool… She just chopped up a whole suckling pig with ease…”
……
After the water boiled, Bai Baozhu took the suckling pig skewered on an iron spit, held it over the pot, and poured scalding hot water over the skin to set it.
Once the skin was treated, she evenly coated the entire pig with a prepared crispy skin solution to make the meat more tender.
After completing these steps, Bai Baozhu began preparing the most crucial part: the sauce.
Hoisin sauce, Chu Hou paste, white sugar, oyster sauce… etc. Once the sauce was mixed, an enticing aroma instantly filled the entire kitchen.
This made Xia Tiantian, who had been standing by Bai Baozhu’s side, involuntarily swallow her saliva.
Her anticipation for the Gold Medal Roast Suckling Pig Bai Baozhu was making grew even stronger.
“Zhu Zhu, this sauce smells amazing?”
“It’s not even that fragrant yet.”
Seeing Xia Tiantian swallowing, Bai Baozhu said with a smile.
Although she wasn’t very familiar with many of this world’s delicacies, good food was universal, transcending borders.
No matter how difficult this world’s recipes were, as long as she saw the recipe and a video once, with her culinary skills, she could definitely recreate it.
The only regret was that she had lost all her martial arts, making handling ingredients somewhat awkward.
After evenly coating the suckling pig with the meticulously prepared sauce for marination, Bai Baozhu started making more requests to the production team.
“A gas roast duck oven! Lychee wood! A barbecue grill!…”
Hearing Bai Baozhu’s new, utterly confident demands, the production team wore expressions of utter numbness.
Just what kind of show were they running? A dating show or a cooking show?!
Although they complained internally, the production team… still fulfilled all of Bai Baozhu’s requests!
After all, they also wanted to see what Bai Baozhu could actually produce!
Unlike Xia Tiantian, the production staff didn’t believe that Bai Baozhu—someone who had never cooked before—could actually produce some Michelin Cantonese cuisine, especially a Gold Medal Roast Suckling Pig.
As everyone knew, Michelin dishes were mostly quite challenging.
Not to mention a substantial dish like Gold Medal Roast Suckling Pig!
Even for a chef who knew how to cook, making this dish would be quite difficult.
Therefore… it was absolutely impossible for Bai Baozhu, a delicate young lady whose ten fingers had never touched spring water , to pull it off!
They were just waiting to film the failed product Bai Baozhu would ultimately produce!
It would make for great comedic material when edited into the show!
Amid the behind-the-scenes staff’s pessimistic predictions, Bai Baozhu placed the marinated suckling pig into the gas roast duck oven the production team had prepared for her to dry and roast.
When the suckling pig was finished roasting and taken out, its overflowing aroma made Xia Tiantian and the following photographers unable to stop swallowing their saliva.
“Zhu Zhu, why don’t we just eat it like this? It smells amazing already!”
After experiencing all sorts of shocks, Xia Tiantian still didn’t quite dare to believe in Bai Baozhu’s culinary skills.
Even now, seeing the perfectly roasted, incredibly fragrant suckling pig, Xia Tiantian still felt it must be a beginner’s lucky coincidence!
So… better quit while you’re ahead! Otherwise, if she keeps going, it might not taste good!
“No, no, we can’t eat it yet. Hold on a little longer, Tian Tian Jie.”
When it came to things she was skilled at, Bai Baozhu was an absolute perfectionist.
Anything that wasn’t done well, she would absolutely not let others see or eat.
So, Bai Baozhu began working on that fragrantly processed roast suckling pig again!
Following the food video tutorial closely, Bai Baozhu wrapped the pig’s tail, ears, and four trotters in tin foil. After lighting the charcoal in the barbecue grill, she placed the fragrant suckling pig over it and began roasting it over a slow fire.
“Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle…”
As time passed, the continuously basted suckling pig began emitting a series of enticing sizzling sounds.
As the roast pig was constantly turned, the skin began to take on a golden-red, crispy, blistered state.
Accompanied by the gentle spring breeze outdoors, waves of mouth-watering meaty fragrance drifted everywhere, making anyone who smelled it crave it intensely.
By now, not only did Xia Tiantian no longer think Bai Baozhu was a blind cat catching a dead mouse—getting lucky to make the suckling pig tasty—but she genuinely believed Bai Baozhu had a natural talent for cooking.
Even the production team, who had originally been pessimistic about Bai Baozhu, were completely conquered by Bai Baozhu (and her roast suckling pig) during the smooth filming of her roasting process and by the aroma of the roast meat that had made them swallow pounds of saliva!
However, faced with an atmosphere where a group of people stared at her with ravenously green eyes like hungry wolves, Bai Baozhu remained extremely calm and continued following the food video’s steps.
She cut the perfectly roasted golden-red skin into portions. Then, under the gaze of the group filled with resentful longing, she unhurriedly followed the video’s method, slowly pouring heated oil over the skin, continuously dousing it until the skin revealed an enticing amber-like color…
Waves of meaty fragrance wafted over. When Bai Baozhu placed the pieces of mouth-watering Gold Medal Roast Suckling Pig onto a plate, everyone felt the pieces on the plate seemed to glow! Their eyes could no longer look away; everyone was firmly fixed on those incredibly enticing pieces of Gold Medal Roast Suckling Pig.
“Gulp—!”
Someone swallowed their saliva. Immediately after, within the spacious modern kitchen, a series of gulping sounds followed one after another, along with… the rumbling of empty stomachs.
At that moment, Bai Baozhu realized… was her first attempt at cooking about to drive everyone crazy?
“Zhu Zhu, can we eat now?”
Xia Tiantian asked Bai Baozhu urgently while frantically swallowing her saliva.
“One dish isn’t enough for lunch. Let me use the leftover pork to stir-fry a few more dishes…” Bai Baozhu began.
Before she could finish her sentence, Xia Tiantian quickly interrupted!
“No, no, no! This one dish is enough! It’s almost 1 PM! Lunchtime is almost over!”
Xia Tiantian looked at Bai Baozhu with pleading eyes, her expression as if she hadn’t eaten for several days, looking utterly pitiful.
Hearing Xia Tiantian’s words, Bai Baozhu, who had been so engrossed in cooking she forgot everything else, finally realized that just making this one dish had taken her so long—nearly five hours.
Seeing how famished Xia Tiantian looked, Bai Baozhu nodded.
She was about to suggest that Xia Tiantian eat first while she used the remaining pork to stir-fry some Shredded Pork in Beijing Sauce and make a cold tossed dish.
But who could have predicted…
She had just nodded and hadn’t even had time to finish speaking.
She saw everyone, like ravenous ghosts, simultaneously lunging for the Gold Medal Roast Suckling Pig she had just made!
Watching a group of photographers and Xia Tiantian scrambling for the Gold Medal Roast Suckling Pig, she tilted her head in confusion, her mind full of question marks.
Didn’t the staff have their own meals? Weren’t they never supposed to eat with the guests? Why were they so terrifyingly hungry today…
In just a few short minutes, the Gold Medal Roast Suckling Pig that Bai Baozhu had spent nearly five hours making—which was a lot for two people but not enough for four or more—was completely devoured!
She picked up a piece of the golden-red roast suckling pig and dipped it in white sugar.
“Crack—!” The moment the gold medal roast suckling pig entered their mouths, it emitted a crisp sound. With the very first bite, they were astonished by its wonderful texture.
A crispy, chip-like crunch paired with the slight sweetness of white sugar, and the pork marinated to perfection…
The marvelous sensation of crispiness and tenderness mixed together, melting in the mouth, fragrant and delicious, oily yet not greasy.
“It’s too delicious…”
“It’s so delicious I could cry QAQ.”
“This is absolutely the best pork and pork skin I’ve ever eaten!”
“Is there any more?”
“You all have no shame! How could you take an extra piece!”
……
Watching the group argue and fight over the gold medal roast suckling pig she had made, Bai Baozhu felt somewhat puzzled.
When she had first finished making the slightly improved roast suckling pig, she had tasted a piece herself. Although the flavor was indeed delicious, it wasn’t delicious to that heaven-defying level.
After all, this was her first time making it, and her skills were still a bit rusty. Her control over the heat and her knife skills weren’t perfect.
However…
Seeing how much this group loved the not-entirely-successful gold medal roast suckling pig she had made, she thought… making money with her culinary skills in this world seemed to have become much simpler!