106. Chapter 106: Spending the Night in the Cave, Part 3

“Thank you, Miss Pang.”

Luo Xia quickly sat down to one side, lit a fire, and heated some water to pluck the pheasant.

Situ Tengyi sat beside her, his expression easing somewhat.

“Brother, does that girl know how to roast a pheasant?” Pang Qingyu asked. Seeing how practiced Luo Xia looked, she could not help frowning.

Pang Qingyu heard this and glanced at her coldly. “What? Does Third Miss Luo want some roast pheasant?”

Luo Xia nodded.

Although she was already full, she had always been very fond of roasted game. After all, it had been a long time since she had eaten any.

Pang Qingyu tossed a pheasant to her. “If you want some, roast it yourself.”

Luo Xia was overjoyed and eagerly caught the pheasant from Pang Qingyu’s hands.

It was an exceptionally plump bird, weighing at least four pounds.

Luo Xia could hardly contain her excitement.

Pang Xiaoyu could not help frowning at the girl’s practiced manner and asking, “Brother, does that girl really know how to roast a pheasant?”

Pang Xiaoyu also found it hard to believe. “The Luo family is said to be a wealthy household. Surely their young ladies are pampered and raised in comfort?”

“I’ll bet she’s going to ask Brother Wuying for help.” Pang Qingyu sounded rather indignant.

Pang Xiaoyu laughed. “Little Jade, they’re both willing participants. Don’t meddle. Your brother will roast you some rabbit.”

Pang Qingyu looked at Luo Xia indignantly. “I want pheasant!”

“All right, all right. Pheasant it is.”

Pang Xiaoyu’s temper was remarkably mild, utterly unlike Situ Tengyi’s.

People who ventured out for training generally carried only enough water to drink. Using water to boil and pluck a pheasant was practically an extravagance. Situ Tengyi, however, was a spatial mage who carried a vast supply of water with him and could produce as much as he wished.

Luo Xia was still very frugal with water.

She used only a modest amount of hot water to pluck the pheasant clean, then washed it thoroughly. After that, she brushed it with the seasonings she had brought from the Luo Residence and finally set it over the fire to roast.

She performed the entire process with effortless familiarity, considering it nothing more than a minor task. To the Pang siblings, however, it was nothing short of astonishing.

Even they had been unwilling to pluck the rabbit they were roasting and had simply thrown it straight onto the fire.

Yet Luo Xia was so particular about every detail.

What was more, plucking the feathers had taken them a great deal of time.

“Brother, I’m not seeing things, am I?” Pang Qingyu asked.

Pang Xiaoyu sighed. “I hope we are.”

Being outdone by a young woman was humiliating enough.

“Could she have been mistreated at the Luo Residence?” Pang Qingyu wondered. “Were the servants’ chores often forced upon her?”

Pang Xiaoyu nodded. “That possibility cannot be ruled out.”

After seeing the people of the Luo family for himself, he could well imagine the hardships Luo Xia must have endured there.

Pang Qingyu’s gaze softened with pity as she looked at Luo Xia.

“That smells wonderful.”

In barely any time at all, the pheasant Luo Xia was roasting began to release a delicate fragrance. The Pang siblings started drooling, and both of them could not help glancing toward her.

Luo Xia looked back at them with a smile. “Brother Pang, Miss Pang, shall I roast some for you while I’m at it?”

While she was at it?

Was this girl speaking without thinking?

What kind of logic was that?

Pang Qingyu grew annoyed. “Luo Xia, don’t think roasting one pheasant makes you so impressive. You even want to roast ours while you’re at it? Do you think you’re Brother Wuying, capable of using the Phantom Doppelganger Technique?”

Luo Xia was not offended. Smiling sweetly, she broke off a roasted wing and handed it to Situ Tengyi.

“You’ve been drooling. Have a taste first.”

Situ Tengyi accepted the golden-brown wing with a smile. His mood had not exactly been wonderful, but Luo Luo had been willing to let him eat first. That surely meant she still cared about him, didn’t it?

The chicken wing gave off an enticing aroma. Its golden color looked almost as though it had been fried in oil, yet Luo Xia had achieved it by roasting alone—a clear sign of her considerable culinary skill.