Chapter 497 - 331: Letting You Taste Real Handmade Dumplings

Chapter 497: Chapter 331: Letting You Taste Real Handmade Dumplings

"Oh, her? She’s the guest for my new wild survival episode. The fans voted for her, so it’s got nothing to do with me."

"Hello~"

Jin Meiyan offered a slight smile and nodded at the convenience store owner as a greeting. The two charming dimples at the corners of her mouth made him freeze on the spot.

"Oppa, is this your friend?"

"Yeah. I have a stall in the wet market and come over to film videos sometimes. His place is the only Great Xia convenience store around, so you can buy stuff that Da Xia people like."

"Oppa?"

The convenience store owner blinked, his mouth agape. "Damn, a Korean beauty? You’re not even that handsome, kid. How’d you get so lucky? I want a Korean beauty to call me oppa too!"

The words had barely left his mouth when a high-pitched voice came from behind him.

"Oppa~"

"Yeah... huh??"

The convenience store owner instinctively turned his head to respond, only to come face-to-face with a face he couldn’t possibly be more familiar with. The brilliant smile on his face froze instantly.

"H-Honey, what are you..."

"Come on, get inside. I’ll shout ’oppa’ for you a hundred times. You wanted to hear it, right? I’ll shout it until you’re completely satisfied."

The woman’s eyes were wide as she dragged the man back into the store by his ear, slamming the door shut behind them.

Jin Meiyan hadn’t processed what had just happened when a bloodcurdling scream erupted from inside the store. Startled, she instinctively ducked behind Lin Chen.

"What happened? Why did that owner suddenly get hit?"

"It’s nothing, that’s his wife." Lin Chen waved his hand dismissively with an amused smile and led her further into the wet market. "You should understand. It’s like how you Korean guys like hearing a pretty junior call you ’oppa’. Korean dramas and variety shows are pretty popular in Great Xia, so a lot of people know the word ’oppa’."

Jin Meiyan blinked, slowly realizing what had probably happened, and couldn’t stop giggling into her hand.

"Oh, so that’s what it was. It’s true, if a pretty junior called my husband ’oppa’ right in front of me, I’d be furious too... Ah!"

As if she’d suddenly thought of something, a flash of panic crossed her eyes. She quickly covered her red lips with her fingertips. "In that case, if I call you ’oppa’, will Erica get angry too? No wonder she hasn’t come out since we got in."

"Huh?"

Lin Chen was taken aback and scratched his head. "I don’t think so. She doesn’t know anything about South Korea. She’s been busy learning the Da Xia language these past couple of days, so she probably doesn’t understand it as well as we do."

"Besides, we’re not together, so she has no reason to be angry, right?"

"You’re not together? But I saw a lot of people in the comments section saying you two are definitely dating or something."

"Have you heard of ’shipping’? Every time a popular show comes out, the fans hope the male and female leads get together. Fans were already shipping us back when we were filming *Wild Survival*."

"Oh, I see... So does that mean Oppa is currently single?"

"Why the sudden question?"

"Haha, it’s nothing. It’s just a woman’s nature to enjoy gossip. I really thought you two were together. In South Korea, men almost never step into the kitchen unless they’re chefs. Women do all the housework, too. That’s why men from Great Xia are really popular lately."

"My friends who have dated them say that men from Great Xia are incredibly considerate, completely different from Korean men. They’ll help a girl carry her bag, make sure she walks on the inside of the sidewalk, and treat her to meals. They’ll even give the menu to the girl to let her pick the dishes she likes. At home, they cook and do housework. They’re practically the model of a perfect man!"

"Korean men, on the other hand, act like they’re lords of the manor. They insist on splitting the bill on dates, only order what they like to eat, and do nothing at home. They’ll even demand specific dishes, don’t do their own laundry, and most importantly, they love to lie!"

"So have any of them married a man from Great Xia?"

"Er..."

At this, Jin Meiyan gave an awkward laugh. "N-No."

As soon as the word was out, she hurriedly waved her hands and explained.

"It’s not that there’s a problem with men from Great Xia, let me be clear!"

"It’s because Great Xia and South Korea have different ideas about dating. Men from Great Xia kind of date with marriage in mind. But the younger generation in South Korea has a different view on relationships, more similar to the West. They really enjoy the ambiguous ’talking’ stage."

"We call that ambiguous stage ’some.’ It means both people know they like each other, but they haven’t made it official. It’s more than friends, but not quite lovers. In this kind of relationship, you can do anything, but you have no right to interfere in what the other person does. And yet, you still feel things like jealousy and anger."

Lin Chen shook his head. "To be blunt, that’s just two people who don’t want to be responsible for each other. They just want the fun without the commitment. That’s a sign of being irresponsible. In Great Xia, people like that are called players or scumbags, and they’re looked down upon."

"Exactly!!"

Jin Meiyan nodded vigorously. "That’s what I think, too! That’s why my friends all say I’m more suited to trying things out with a guy from Great Xia. Who knows, maybe it would lead to marriage."

"When my friends dated them, it was great at first. But after a while, when they felt things were heading in that direction, they got the urge to run. I asked them what they really wanted, and they said they’re still young, haven’t had enough fun, and want to try dating different men."

"Weren’t you also raised in South Korea? How come your views are different from your friends’?"

"I wonder about that too. Maybe it’s because I’m American. I can’t really fit into that kind of Korean social atmosphere. I can analyze their actions from an outsider’s perspective, and I just think playing with people’s feelings is pointless and disrespectful. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have quit my job less than a year after starting."

’This conversation about relationships is getting a little...’ Sensing things were getting a bit awkward, and seeing as they’d just arrived at the pork butcher’s stall, Lin Chen quickly bent down and started picking out meat.

He bought a few large bags of pork, a couple of heads of cabbage, more than a dozen bunches of scallions, and after a few more stops, a few bags of black tiger shrimp and cod.

He definitely couldn’t take Jin Meiyan to the island to film until he had prepared the meals for the workers. Making dumplings would take at least a full day, so they would definitely have to work at home tomorrow.

’So here’s the problem.’ The ingredients he was preparing now were all for when he was away later. He still had to get up early tomorrow morning and wait for the driver to deliver a truckload of "blind box" ingredients.

After making lunch, he would have to come right back to start the prep work for the dumplings, and he’d be busy with that until the day after tomorrow.

That meant another blind box delivery the morning of the day after tomorrow, and still more dumpling-making in the afternoon.

So, the earliest he could possibly start filming the second episode was three days from now.

When he had moved all the ingredients into the kitchen, Erica’s door was still shut tight.

Puzzled, he couldn’t help but knock on the door again.

"Erica, what have you been doing hiding in there all afternoon?"

At that moment, Erica was wearing headphones, her eyes glued to the Great Xia idol drama on the screen in front of her. The smile on her face was impossible to suppress, and she couldn’t hear the knocking at the door at all.

She had originally been watching instructional videos about dating. Then, she figured the issue was specific to each country’s culture. On a whim, she decided to check out a Great Xia TV drama first, certain she could learn something about the situation in Great Xia from it.

At first, she wasn’t really into it, but as she kept watching, she found herself getting inexplicably hooked.

’Strange. Could Meiyan have been right? Is she really hiding in her room, angry?’

Having not had much contact with women for many years, he wasn’t sure what to do. But it wasn’t something he could just ask his guest about.

He paced in front of the door for a few seconds, then had a sudden idea. He tiptoed out the back door, crouched down, and crept over to Erica’s window, craning his neck to peer inside.

The curtains were mostly drawn, but thankfully, there was a small gap left.

Through this narrow line of sight, he immediately saw Erica lying on her bed with headphones on, laughing nonstop at her laptop screen.

’Watching... watching TV?’

Lin Chen rolled his eyes, speechless. He really hadn’t expected this to be the situation.

’So this girl has been hiding in her room all afternoon, not even coming out, just because she was watching TV?’

He could understand getting so engrossed you forget to eat or sleep. He’d been there himself when binge-watching shows; hours would fly by in a flash, and you’d be completely oblivious to the outside world.

’Well, if that’s the case, let her watch.’ Today was just for prep work anyway. He had to mix the fillings himself, and the stand mixer would handle kneading the dough, so there wasn’t really anything for her to do.

’She usually helps me with so much of the editing work, so it’s good for her to get some rest.’

He didn’t make a sound, tiptoeing back inside the way he came.

"What’s wrong? Is she really sulking? Miss Erica still won’t come out?"

In just a few minutes, Jin Meiyan had changed into some loose-fitting loungewear and was in the kitchen washing the scallions they had just bought. Seeing him return alone, a trace of unease flickered in her eyes.

"No, no, don’t overthink it. I just saw her through the window. She’s hiding in her room watching TV. I don’t know if it’s a movie or a series, but she has headphones on and is completely absorbed. She didn’t hear me knocking at all."

Lin Chen quickly waved his hands and explained, "She’s been working hard helping me edit videos the past few days, so let her have a break. I can handle this myself. She wouldn’t know how to do it anyway. I’ll teach her how to wrap them tomorrow."

"Then let me help you, Oppa. I’m not doing anything anyway. I haven’t made dumplings since my grandmother passed away. I’m suddenly feeling a bit nostalgic."

"Okay. Then you can help chop these scallions and the cabbage. I’ll mince the meat."

He was planning to make three types of dumpling fillings: pork and cabbage, shrimp sanxian, and chive and egg.

He couldn’t buy chives around here, so he’d have to ask the driver to bring some tomorrow.

"I’ve had your Korean dumplings before, the frozen kind from the supermarket. They’re pretty expensive, and the filling is half glass noodles. It feels like a total rip-off. This time, I’ll let you taste what authentic dumplings from the source, Great Xia, are really like."

Although Koreans also eat dumplings, they usually eat frozen ones. Very few families make them from scratch. Even the stalls that specialize in pan-fried dumplings just buy ready-made wrappers, mix their own filling, and call it a day.

She had never actually experienced making dumplings from scratch.

While carefully washing the scallions in a half-filled sink, she watched Lin Chen’s movements with great interest, curious to see how he prepared the filling.