Chapter 198: Chapter 198: All the Beastmen Who Tried New Food Died

Fortunately, Wen Qing’s Beast Husband came looking for them. Understanding why his Female Master was in such a state, he quickly led her aside to comfort her.

Some Beastmen who knew them sighed sympathetically. From their conversation, Yu An pieced together the truth.

Recalling the Beastmen forced to risk their lives for the Invincible Alliance, she figured that Wen Qing’s previous Beast Husband must have been taken away as well.

The roasted sweet potatoes had a crispy, fragrant skin and a soft, sweet inside. The pearl milk tea was rich and milky with a refreshing hint of tea, and the pearls inside were springy and chewy. A single serving on a cold winter’s day was enough to warm the body right up.

The ginger milk curd was more popular with the adults. The spicy aroma of ginger intertwined with the sweet scent of milk, and its texture was so smooth and delicate that it melted in your mouth.

The Beastmen, who had always lived on a diet of beast meat, wild vegetables, and wild fruits, had never tasted anything so delicious. After finishing one serving, they wanted to get back in line, only to find that the queue already stretched around the corner.

The Beastmen at the end of the line were even more miserable. There were still many people ahead of them, but the stock on the food cart was dwindling.

Long before it was their turn, everything was gone.

After selling the last roasted sweet potato, Yu An called out, "We’re sold out! Please come back tomorrow."

After a moment of thought, she added, "We’ll have different food tomorrow, so don’t be sad if you couldn’t buy any today. In seven days, my clansmen will teach everyone how to make the dishes I’ve been selling these past few days."

Ao Wu had already announced this before the sales began, but hearing it again from Yu An seemed to put the residents of Dragon City at ease.

A Beastman standing closest to Yu An asked curiously, "Boss Yu, can we really all learn how?"

Yu An smiled. "Yes, the recipes for these dishes aren’t difficult. And if you really don’t have a knack for cooking, you can always buy them from the cooked-food stalls. Once they learn how, they’ll start selling them in their shops."

Some of the Beastmen who had been lining up just now were owners of cooked-food stalls. After tasting the food, they had even struck up a conversation with Yu An, asking if she would sell the recipes.

She had spent a total of four hours at the stall today. When Yu An returned, she found her Beast Father, Ao Jin, in her courtyard.

"Beast Father," Yu An said, walking over to him. "What’s all this...?"

Ao Jin chuckled. "I heard from your older brother that you were looking for something called chestnuts. I’ve seen them in the mountains before, so I went and got some. Take a look, are these them?"

He had brought two baskets filled with prickly chestnut burs. Most had split open, revealing the brown shells of the chestnuts inside.

Yu An nodded quickly. "Yes, these are the ones."

"So these are edible," Ao Jin said in amazement. "The outside is all prickly and hurts a lot if you touch it, so no one dared to eat them. Every year, they just fall and cover the ground under the trees."

’This was something Yu An had been wanting to ask about for a while. The Beastmen’s diet generally consisted of meat from various wild beasts, along with a few types of wild fruits and vegetables. It seemed no one ever tried new things.’

’But if you never try, you’ll never discover foods beyond what you already know. Were they really going to eat only the things they recognized for their entire lives?’

As Yu An thought this, she voiced her question aloud.

Ao Jin was taken aback for a moment, then explained, "An’an, it’s always been this way. The elders tell us which foods are safe to eat and which aren’t. They also warn us not to rashly try new things, or we could risk our lives."

"We then teach the next generation. It’s passed down by word of mouth through the ages, so no one wants to try a new food that might be poisonous."

"Besides," Ao Jin’s expression shifted slightly, "everyone who tried new foods died. Over time, no one dared to follow in their footsteps."

Yu An looked completely baffled. "All of them died?"

’Was the probability of eating something poisonous really that high? A one hundred percent fatality rate!’

’She thought about all the delicious food she’d made. And after she taught the Beastmen how to make them, they ate them and didn’t die.’

Yu An voiced her confusion. "Beast Father, if no one dares to eat unfamiliar foods, why do people still buy the food I’m selling?"

Aside from the first time she set up her stall to sell buns, when Xiong Li had falsely accused her of making them with poisonous mushrooms, the other Beastmen had only questioned if her expensive food was worth the price.

"Silly girl, since you dare to sell it, that means you’ve already eaten it yourself. So naturally, they aren’t afraid."

With that mindset, coupled with the fact that Yu An’s cooking was nearly impossible to resist, many people chose to selectively forget the painful lessons of the past.

At least, that was what Ao Jin believed.

He recalled for a moment. "I remember the last time I heard about someone dying from a new food was when I was very young. Someone who refused to believe the warnings tried a wild fruit. He ate it in front of a large crowd and died within a few breaths, vomiting black blood." 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

"What kind of wild fruit was it? How could it be that toxic?"

Seeing her interest, and also wanting to warn her to be careful, Ao Jin described it in detail.

It was a round fruit, about the size of an egg. When ripe, the skin of some would get wrinkled. Inside, there were lots of small black particles and a sticky yellow juice.

Yu An mulled it over. ’That sounds like a passion fruit, doesn’t it?’

She pulled a picture book out of her storage space, flipped it open to a page, and pointed. "Beast Father, was it this?"

Ao Jin took one look. "Yes, that’s it!"

He had heard of many people being poisoned to death while trying new foods, but that was the only one he had witnessed with his own eyes.

He was still young at the time, and it had scared him so badly that he couldn’t eat or sleep well for days, terrified he might accidentally eat something poisonous and drop dead.

Yu An had never heard of passion fruit being deadly poisonous. At most, eating too much at once might cause some adverse reactions.

She asked Ao Jin what other foods had poisoned people, but he hadn’t paid much attention to the details. He said he would look into it and tell her later, and that he would also gather more chestnuts for her.

So, Yu An went to prepare the chestnuts first. She planned to sell sugar-roasted chestnuts and tanghulu the next day.

Mo Yan and Han Li were in charge of shelling the chestnuts. Yu An remembered that roasting chestnuts usually required ceramic sand, but small, round pebbles would also work.

The chestnuts were supposed to be air-dried for a few days to remove moisture and increase their sweetness, but when Yu An ate one raw, she found it was already quite sweet.

It was crisp and sweet, delicious even when eaten raw.

The other three had energy to burn, so Yu An had them take turns stir-roasting the chestnuts. They heated the sand, added the chestnuts which had been scored with a slit, and then tossed them continuously.

Once the chestnuts changed color, they added the prepared sugar syrup and oil, continuing to stir-roast them until they were fragrant.

Soon, the chestnut shells took on a glossy sheen. They were scooped out with a slotted spoon, filling the entire courtyard with a fragrant aroma.

After letting them cool for a moment, Yu An peeled one and took a bite.

It was soft, mealy, and sweet—a completely different texture from the sweet potatoes.

The tanghulu was even easier to make. She skewered various fruits, boiled a pot of sugar water to a light caramel color, and quickly rolled the fruit skewers in it to coat them. Once the syrup solidified, it formed a thin, crispy shell.

After she finished preparing both snacks, Yu An realized she hadn’t seen the Zaizai all day.

Their courtyard was very close by, and the little ones were usually quite clingy, so they should have come over long ago.

Yu An was about to go see what they were doing, but Mo Yan quickly stopped her.

"An’an, you’ve worked hard today. I’ll go."

Yu An thought for a moment and changed her mind. "Never mind. They’re probably playing with their friends. Don’t make them come over; just take some snacks to them."

"Alright," Mo Yan nodded. "The Zaizai have indeed been getting along very well with a few of the Dragon Clan cubs."

When he got there, the gate to the Zaizai’s courtyard was closed. He gave it a push, but it didn’t budge.

Then he remembered. ’Right, you have to say the password to get the gate to open.’