After half an hour, Lucas and the others finished putting up the couplets and headed to the dining room. The sky had already darkened; it was about six-thirty in the evening.
Pat, pat, pat…
"Nicole, are you ready yet?" Annie's voice entered the dining room before she did.
"Almost," Nicole said, looking up with her eyes at the group appearing at the dining room door.
"The black-eyed peas and greens are ready, all that's left is to bake the cornbread," Helen said, her rabbit ears twitching. "Everyone can wash their hands and get ready to prepare black-eyed peas, greens, and cornbread."
"Okay, I've never prepared black-eyed peas, greens, and cornbread before. I definitely have to give it a good try this time," Mina said enthusiastically, walking over to wash her hands.
"I haven't tried either," Ayesha said, raising her hand and following the cat-ear girl to wash her hands. The others followed suit.
Lucas took three silver coins from his pocket. He wanted to play a little game of eating lucky black-eyed peas. Whoever ate a portion of black-eyed peas with a coin in it would be blessed with good fortune, wealth, and peace for the coming year. Of course, it was just a way to add a bit of fun to life.
He deliberately waited until the end to wash his hands, taking the opportunity to scrub the silver coins vigorously with dish soap before wiping them clean with a linen cloth.
By the time he got to the dining room, he saw the beast-ear girls intently watching Helen's movements, learning how to prepare black-eyed peas, greens, and cornbread.
"Why does it look so hard?" Annie mumbled, holding a cornbread batter and struggling to mix it.
"Hahaha… Annie, what are you making? It looks like a lump of mud," Ayesha teased. She scraped a bit of purple hair from her cheek, leaving a few white streaks of cornmeal on her face from her fingers.
"Hahahaha… You're a painted-face cow, a big painted face!" Annie pointed at the cow-horn girl and burst out laughing.
"Huh? You're a painted-face fox too," Ayesha said, quickly reaching out and smearing a hand across the fox-ear girl's face, leaving four white cornmeal streaks.
"Damn you…" Annie wanted to strike back but found she wasn't tall enough, which left her fuming. When would she ever grow taller? Or was this just how she was going to be forever?
"Alright, stop messing around. Hurry up and prepare the black-eyed peas, greens, and cornbread, we still have to watch the performances tonight," Elisa stepped in to mediate. If they let them keep fooling around, it would take forever to prepare enough black-eyed peas, greens, and cornbread for everyone, especially since the beast-ear girls had big appetites.
"Master, how's mine?" Mina asked, holding out her palm. The cornbread was squeezed into a ball; you could have called it a cornbread dumpling and people would have believed you.
"It's… acceptable, I guess," Lucas said, the corner of his eye twitching. As expected, the cat-ear girl had zero talent for cooking. In terms of culinary skill, compared to Helen and Nicole, it was like the difference between -1 and 100.
"What about mine?" Annie also held out her hand. A cornbread twice the size of the cat-ear girl's lay in her palm. She must have used two or three times the batter for that.
"Annie, are you making cornbread boulders?" Helen's eye twitched. Even as she spoke, her hands didn't stop preparing black-eyed peas and greens.
"Big ones are good, you can eat more cornbread," Annie said, tilting her head up proudly. "And it's faster to prepare them this way."
"Annie, don't make them so big. If we bake them all together, yours will cook slower," Nicole said, rolling her eyes as she rapidly mixed cornbread batter.
"Oh." Annie pouted and set the giant cornbread aside, reluctantly abandoning her idea of making big ones.
"Elisa's cornbread is beautiful, almost as good as Helen's," Camilla said, her brown eyes wide as she watched Elisa's hands closely.
"They really are," Ayesha said, quickly putting down the cornbread she had squeezed finger marks into. She squeezed in next to the elf, pulling on Elisa to teach her.
Lucas nonchalantly stuffed the silver coins into three portions of black-eyed peas. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw no one had noticed. He looked up and scanned the group, only to see a sight that stunned him.
"Amelia, what are you making?" Lucas's mouth twitched as he stared at the long... cornbread?... in the girl's hand. This long-shaped cornbread was at least a palm's length. Was that still cornbread?
"Mine," Amelia said coolly, placing the long cornbread on a plate before laying out four more portions of batter and piling black-eyed peas and greens on top.
"Fine, it's yours," Lucas said helplessly. Why did it feel like the beast-ear girls were just playing with mud pies?
It took half an hour to prepare enough black-eyed peas, greens, and cornbread for everyone. Nicole was putting the cornbread into the oven while the rest sat at the dining table, waiting, all eager to eat the black-eyed peas, greens, and cornbread they had prepared themselves.
"Okay, the first batch of black-eyed peas, greens, and cornbread is ready…" Nicole said, scooping the black-eyed peas and greens out with a slotted spoon and then baking the next batch of cornbread.
Ten minutes later, a dozen plates of black-eyed peas, greens, and cornbread were all on the dining table, along with a large bowl of vegetable soup for each person.
"Let's eat," Lucas said, picking up a portion of black-eyed peas and popping it into his mouth. It was a normal one. As for the long cornbread Amelia had made, most of them had broken apart during baking, with only a few remaining intact.
"Delicious!" Ayesha stuffed two portions of black-eyed peas into her mouth at once. With portions this small, she could fit four or five in her mouth at a time.
"Ugh… the cornbread is so dense," Annie said with a pained expression. The texture on the giant cornbread she had made was so much worse to bite into than the ones Helen and the others had made. In two words: "tasted bad."
CRUNCH…
Suddenly, the sound of teeth biting down on something hard was heard.
"What was that?" Elisa's sharp ears picked up the sound, and her gaze shot over to see Hazel frozen in a daze.
"Hazel, what's wrong? Did you bite something?" Helen asked with concern.
Clink, clink…
Hazel chewed lightly two more times and slowly spat a silver coin out of her mouth. She held the coin in her small hand, staring at it blankly. She never would have imagined she'd find a silver coin in a portion of black-eyed peas.
"Huh? Hazel, why are you biting a silver coin?" Mina asked in surprise.
"N-no, that's not it! I found it while eating a portion of black-eyed peas!" Hazel cried out adorably, her face full of disbelief.
"I'm the one who put them there. It's a little game. The person who finds a silver coin in their portion of black-eyed peas is said to have good fortune. There are still two more coins to be found," Lucas explained with a light laugh.
"Huh?"
Everyone present was stunned for a second. The next moment, they all started grabbing for the black-eyed peas, stuffing them into their mouths one after another.
"Ayesha, how can you take a whole plate??"
"I can finish it. You guys eat the other plates."
"Hey, hey, hey, why aren't you eating the weirdly shaped cornbread you prepared yourselves?"
"I'll eat them later…"
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