Chapter 277: So Delicious
Chapter 277: Chapter 277: So Delicious
Xiao Lu was an ordinary office worker.
Exhausted from a long day of work, he returned home to find only Mr. Lu lying on the sofa, watching TV by himself.
"Where’s Mom?"
Xiao Lu asked as he came inside, taking off his shoes.
Mr. Lu was chuckling as he watched the variety show on TV, not even sparing him a glance from the corner of his eye:
"Oh, her? She went square dancing with her group of old friends again."
Xiao Lu couldn’t help but let out an envious sigh.
Look at his parents—
One was obsessed with wellness, square dancing, and meetups with her old friends.
The other loved fishing, watching TV, and going to the teahouse to shoot the breeze.
His parents’ lives were nothing short of vibrant.
Compared to them, a corporate drone like him was just a useless salted fish.
Having worked late and missed dinner, Xiao Lu was famished.
He wasn’t shameless enough to ask his father, who was over sixty, to get up and cook for him, so he went to the kitchen to find something to eat.
But when he entered the kitchen, he saw several large boxes stacked in the corner.
This was a common sight for Xiao Lu, who raised his voice to ask his dad:
"Did Mom buy a bunch of random stuff again?"
Mr. Lu kept his eyes fixed on the TV:
"Yep! Your mom was watching some livestream, I think. It was for some kind of health food, so she specially bought it!"
Xiao Lu sighed:
"You don’t even try to talk her out of it. She’s always watching those livestreams and hauling things into the house. And what’s this about ’health food’? It’s all a scam! They’re just filled with flour, designed to cheat money out of old folks like you!"
Though he complained, his hands didn’t stop moving. He tore open one of the boxes right then and there.
Seeing what was inside, Xiao Lu wore an ’I knew it’ expression:
’What tacky packaging. Perfectly tailored to an elderly person’s aesthetic.’
He muttered under his breath.
He was afraid his dad would overhear and report back to his mom.
Xiao Lu casually picked one up, his eyes scanning the words on it:
"’Five-Spice Cake, Cuishui Town Food Factory... What is this, some sketchy, no-name product? It’s not poisonous, is it?’"
He said as much, but that didn’t stop him from ripping open a bag and stuffing the cake into his mouth.
He’d originally just been ’testing for poison’.
But when Xiao Lu actually tasted the Five-Spice Cake, his eyes widened in disbelief!
’So... so good!’
The flavor was unique—not everyone’s cup of tea, but it suited Xiao Lu’s palate perfectly.
The cake was snow-white, soft, and silky smooth. As it melted on his tongue, he could taste the faint, bittersweet medicinal aroma unique to this Five-Spice Cake.
As he savored it, he could even make out a trace of sweetness within the medicinal aroma.
And the more he ate, the sweeter and more fragrant it became!
By the time Xiao Lu snapped out of it, he had already finished the first bag of Five-Spice Cake and was starting on the second...
"Whoa! You opened your mom’s package? And you’re eating her stuff?"
Mr. Lu, who had come into the kitchen for hot water during a commercial break, gave his son a sympathetic look that said, ’You’re so screwed, kid.’
Xiao Lu cleared his throat awkwardly:
"It’s... it’s our family’s stuff, how can you call it stealing? I’m just helping out! Taste-testing! For poison!"
As he spoke, he quickly stuffed the second Five-Spice Cake into his mouth.
Only when his mouth was stuffed completely full did he feel satisfied.
Mr. Lu looked at his son dubiously:
"It’s that good?"
It wasn’t that he didn’t believe his son, but that he didn’t believe his own wife.
She was always buying health foods and superfoods, each one supposedly able to reverse aging and make them young again.
Unfortunately, it was always a pile of disgusting, expensive junk, and the father-son duo always ended up having to eat it all.
After too many similar experiences, he no longer believed in these extravagantly hyped scam products.
But to his surprise, Xiao Lu nodded emphatically:
"Mhm! It’s really good! Ask Mom where she bought it. I want to buy some, too!"
He wasn’t sure if it was his imagination, but after he ate the Five-Spice Cake, a warmth spread through his body. The exhaustion from a long day of work and overtime seemed to ease.
’...Perhaps it was a side effect of it being so delicious?’
Xiao Lu didn’t know.
He tore open a fourth Five-Spice Cake and popped it into his mouth, his curiosity about the other boxes now piqued.
Mr. Lu couldn’t resist his own curiosity. He picked up a Five-Spice Cake and took a bite.
His eyes widened as well:
"Mhm! This really is delicious!"
People their age were more receptive to things with this kind of medicinal flavor.
He immediately began to sing its praises:
"I can’t believe your mom actually managed to buy something good for once!"
’He’d always thought the money she spent on health supplements each month was just being thrown down the drain!’
"Good, right?"
Xiao Lu spoke as he squatted in front of another shipping box and tore it open. Inside was another whole box of cakes. The packaging was similar to the Five-Spice Cake’s, but the words printed on the individual wrappers in this box read ’Suhuangdu’.
Unlike the Five-Spice Cake, which he had never heard of, Xiao Lu was actually familiar with Suhuangdu. He knew it was a traditional pastry made from cooked taro.
He had eaten authentic Suhuangdu on a trip to Su City before, and it had left quite an impression. But he remembered this type of snack had to be deep-fried. How could it be sold as a packaged snack?
Thanks to the Five-Spice Cake, his curiosity was now immense. He wasted no time opening a Suhuangdu.
Unlike the Suhuangdu he’d had in Su City, this one was just as crisp and fragrant but somehow wasn’t as greasy. It retained the satisfying crunch of a deep-fried snack, which made it incredibly unique.
He took a light bite, and the entire Suhuangdu crumbled in his mouth. A rich taro fragrance exploded on his palate, with a subtle hint of nuts.
’Delicious! This is too good! It’s a delicacy fit for the gods!’
Already famished, Xiao Lu devoured four or five pieces of Suhuangdu in one go.
At the same time, he grew even more curious about the remaining two boxes and decided to open them all...
Lu Ma came home humming a song, ready to grab the new cakes she had bought to share with her old friends from the square dancing group.
The moment she walked in the door, she found the living room empty. The TV was on, but the person who had been on the sofa was gone.
’Where is everyone? Hasn’t that little brat come home yet?’
Confused, Lu Ma walked into the kitchen.
In an instant, she froze.
Before her, her troublesome father-son duo were squatting on the floor, surrounded by several opened shipping boxes. The nearby trash can was overflowing with discarded cake wrappers.
’...Wait a minute. Aren’t those the cakes I just received this afternoon?’
"You two actually ate all my cakes?!"
Lu Ma flew into a rage, her eyes glaring.
Immersed in the joy of the Food, Xiao Lu slowly turned his head and gave a forced laugh:
"Mom, it’s a misunderstanding. We didn’t finish them, there’s still half left..."
But that did nothing to stop Lu Ma’s thunderous rage.
The father-son duo were thrashed until they were clutching their heads and scurrying for cover.
But the lost cakes weren’t coming back.
Xiao Lu felt aggrieved:
"If they’re gone, we can just buy more."
"What do you know? I had to fight to get these!"