Aizahár confirmed Bianka's expression again, but couldn't find a single trace of a lie on that innocent face.
Could it be that it really tastes good, and I just misremembered?
Aizahár, half-convinced, turned around and cut another small piece of nutrient paste with a knife, putting it in her mouth. In that instant, Aizahár's expression became so rich that Bianka was stunned.
"Urgh—!" The knife fell to the floor with a clatter. Aizahár staggered back two steps, covering her mouth as if she was about to vomit but was unwilling to.
Bianka watched her struggle with herself for a while. Before she could react, Aizahár had successfully rescued herself, her face pale as she swallowed the contents of her mouth.
"Blegh~" The rescued Aizahár stuck out her tongue, trying to release her destroyed taste buds. "It's clearly disgusting..."
However, Aizahár didn't feel the anger of being tricked, but rather looked at Bianka's dazed expression with a strange look.
"You really think this stuff tastes good?" Aizahár's tone was now one of confirmation.
Bianka hesitated for a moment, but still nodded.
Aizahár's sallow face wrinkled, making her look like a small Shar-Pei.
"Could it be a problem with her sense of taste?" She pondered the reason why Bianka could find that stuff delicious, and in the end, could only attribute it to Bianka herself.
Sighing with some disappointment, Aizahár waved her hand. "Since you can eat it, then you can go sit over there. I'll call you when it's ready."
As she spoke, Aizahár picked up the knife from the floor, blew on it hard with her mouth, turned around, stepped on the small stool, and started to work with a grunt.
Bianka felt that it wasn't right to just stand aside. After thinking for a moment, she asked a question, "Is there anything I can help with?"
Aizahár was not polite at all. "Then help me get a bag of seasoning from over there. There's none left here."
Bianka saw the old bottles and jars on the stove, containing different colored powders, which all looked like seasonings.
They were placed where Aizahár could easily reach them, which was clearly not the normal position, but a position that Aizahár had specially arranged for her own convenience in cooking.
"Hmm... just put it in this jar." Aizahár passed an empty jar backwards without turning her head. Bianka took the jar and could see some orange powder residue at the bottom.
Is it orange powder...?
Bianka understood in her heart, then turned and walked to the place Aizahár had mentioned. When she opened the cabinet, the three different orange powders inside made Bianka fall into deep thought.
Was there a difference?
Bianka's face wrinkled like Aizahár's when she was thinking, but her eyes were wide, trying to see the difference between the three different powders.
Hmm... one powder was coarser, one was finer, and the other was of uneven size, as if it had been roughly ground and then put into a small bag.
No, this way she couldn't tell what was what. Bianka hesitated for only half a second before deciding which powder to start with, then stretched out her hand, dipped her index finger in a little powder, and put it in her mouth.
"What are you doing?" a faint voice came from behind Bianka. In an instant, Bianka turned around in a panic, like a thief who had been caught.
Aizahár saw the powder on the pad of Bianka's finger at a glance, and her brows furrowed, then she was startled. "Wait! You can't eat this!"
She grabbed Bianka's hand and looked at her in a panic. "Did you eat it?!"
Bianka shook her head with some regret. "Not yet..."
"Phew... thank goodness..." Aizahár breathed a sigh of relief, then, under Bianka's disappointed gaze, wiped the orange powder from Bianka's finger with her own clothes, and then rubbed the area that had been touched by the powder vigorously.
When she unfolded it, a layer of white foam had already appeared on that piece of clothing, emitting a faint citrus scent.
"This is dry laundry detergent, you can't eat it!" Aizahár warned, then patted off the foam.
The rubbed clothes didn't get any cleaner. Bianka could see that it was because the clothes weren't very dirty in the first place.
Aizahár pushed Bianka aside, took back the jar, and filled it with the required powder herself. It was the one Bianka had planned to try last.
"What is this?" Bianka asked, looking at the jar in Aizahár's hand, still a little curious.
"It's seasoning," Aizahár said. She also understood that as a young lady who had been sheltered, it was normal for Bianka not to know the things of the common people, so she was quite patient when explaining to Bianka.
"The taste of the nutrient paste itself is not good... at least for us, so we add a lot of this additive when we cook it to make it taste like something else."
Aizahár thought for a moment, rubbed her fingers vigorously, then, imitating Bianka's previous action, dipped her hand in some powder and held it out to Bianka.
"This one seems to be roasted chicken flavored seasoning, but I've never had roasted chicken before. I just think this taste is pretty good."
Looking at the orange-yellow powder in front of her, Bianka sniffed hard and did indeed smell a faint barbecue aroma.
But she still wasn't sure. Bianka decided to investigate further, so she stuck out her tongue at Aizahár's hand.
"What are you doing!!" Aizahár shrank back her hand in horror, holding the jar and retreating until she reached what she thought was a safe distance before stopping.
"I'm just tasting to see if it's roasted chicken flavor..." Bianka licked the empty air, looking at Aizahár who had moved away from her with some confusion.
"Then you could have just asked!" Aizahár was furious.
"The results from just using my nose may be biased. To be safe, I think further testing is needed," Bianka answered Aizahár's confusion very seriously.
She looks so professional!
Aizahár was indeed taken aback by Bianka for a moment, but after thinking about it, she realized something was wrong.
"Then you can't..." lick my finger!
She didn't finish her sentence, but Bianka already understood what she meant.
"It's too wasteful..." Bianka muttered in a low voice. "If I get another portion for myself... it would be too wasteful..."
"You..." Aizahár's eyes twitched several times. She suddenly turned around with a slight blush, and returned to the stove in a huff.
"I don't need your help!" she shouted, somewhat indignantly. "I can do it myself!"