Dreaming With My Dragon Lover - Chapter 156

The kitchen has always been Amélie’s absolute domain, her invincible arena.

At work, Amélie is efficient and capable, and when she takes off her iron lady’s uniform and puts on her apron, she instantly transforms into a wonder woman in the kitchen. As a smart woman, Amélie knows very well that a man like Yuan Ge, who comes from a privileged family and has refined taste, will not appreciate a pampered princess who only knows how to show off, dress up and spend money, but a hostess who handles her taste in an understated and natural manner, who remains feminine and gentle outside the workplace, and who behaves with propriety. Amélie has always been confident in this.

Many metropolitan women have fallen into the trap of extreme feminism, capable in the workplace but powerless in the kitchen, too much in assertiveness but not enough in gentleness, failing to learn the ancient wisdom of conquering the unyielding with the yielding. Amélie, however, does not want to blur her gender identity. Why not be a good woman in addition to being a good human being? And, this woman eventually WILL become Yuan Ge’s wife.

Amélie has originally thought that the real battle would kick off when the new film starts shooting. Yuan Ge, as the male lead of this upcoming blockbuster, is, without surprise, on his way to superstardom. She has been worried about the number of sultry bitches he will encounter in the near future, but little did she know that a little lunatic appeared from nowhere, and a man at that, would beat her to the punch and even manage to move in with him in such a short space of time!

Amélie can see that Yuan Ge appreciates Rong Qiuchen’s beauty and acting skills and is bent on promoting him in Qingqing, so it is only a matter of time before he brings him to Dragon Dreams. It’s just that this pretentious brat doesn’t seem to be as innocent as he looks. Although he has used his mental illness as a disguise to behave like a lunatic, seeing how he has managed to worm his way into Yuan Ge’s life, she must find out his true intentions for Yuan Ge’s sake.

What does a young student have to offer other than a handsome face? Amélie, it’s time to show your true power!

Amélie opens her suitcase and takes out a carefully wrapped set of clay pots, placing them one by one on the kitchen counter as if they are her weapons, and then unfolding a dozen packages of ingredients like ammunition. The abalone, sea cucumber, tendon and scallop, she soaks them in water and washes them one by one.

Rong Qiuchen, who has been watching Amélie on the side, says, “The fragrance of meat in the pot is wafting to the neighbours’ houses, and even the Buddha has abandoned the Zen and jumped over the wall when he smells it. Is Sister Amélie going to cook the dish ‘Buddha Jumps Over the Wall'[1]?”

“Did you try it at the Empress Dowager Cixi’s state banquet, or at the family banquet in the House of Rong?” Yuan Ge can’t resist the urge to seize every opportunity to tease Rong Qiuchen, who unsurprisingly nods and says as a matter of course, “The ‘Buddha Jumps Over the Wall’ in the imperial palace was made with 18 ingredients. What Sister Amélie prepared here is missing two main ingredients of venison and crab roe, but has a few additional ones that I don’t recognize …”

Amélie, however, is slightly surprised. This dish is typical of a Southern Chinese cuisine. How does this kid with a native Beijing accent know that just by looking at a few ingredients? He must have ordered one of those heat-and-serve convenience takeaways online before.

Before she can ask him, Rong Qiuchen reaches out and touches the ingredients, then looks at the writing on the packages and sighs, “Whale shark fin, large abalone, Jinhua ham, yak tendon, plus Japanese sea cucumber … Sister Amélie, you must have spent a lot of silver on these ingredients, haven’t you?”

Amélie glances at the curious Yuan Ge on the side and answers rightfully, “Of course! I brought them all the way back just to keep our future star well nourished. He’s the pillar of Dragon Dreams, and we need to keep him in top form before his shooting schedule begins.”

Rong Qiuchen nods with a look of approval, “This dish has too many ingredients and is time consuming to prepare, so why don’t you let me give you a hand?”

Considering that she is indeed too busy to do it alone, Amélie is quite happy to take him up on his offer to help. Besides, she can also use the opportunity to have a chat with him.

Seeing the two of them busy preparing the dish, Yuan Ge also wants to help, but Amélie stops him with a grin, “No need to bother, Childe Yuan. With six million fans, you can just wait for it to be read and enjoy!”

“Added another two million?! I’ve never heard that even wearing a paper bag can increase the number of fans!”

Yuan Ge has not posted anything new since his last profile photo update on TweeChat.

“If you ask me, you’ve got quite a talent at marketing!” Amélie laughs as she slices ginger and spring onions, “The topic of ‘Who the hell is Yuan Ge’ has stayed on TweeChat’s trending topic list for a week, and the comments are all over the place. There were rumours that you were a kept man, while others said that King Guan liked tough guys, and there were heated arguments on both sides. And then you put on a paper bag to introduce yourself as that mysterious Yuan Ge. This was commented on and retweeted by those influential opinion leaders, drawing the curious masses to follow you, to find out what is going on. So how can your fan base not soar?”

“What about our Dragon Dreams?”

“Well, a small fish being put on a big skewer is sure to be talked about by the public. But never mind that, it adds to the popularity and Boss Chow and the others are happy.” Amélie takes the chestnuts that Rong Qiuchen has peeled and starts roasting them, “Even Arthur Guan himself made a high-profile public appearance. I guess he didn’t want to see you taking the limelight all by yourself, so he posted a picture yesterday showing off his muscles. Go and check it out for yourself.”

“Ten million retweets?! This is done by bots, right?” Yuan Ge looks at TweeChat and his eyes nearly pop out.

“We don’t know if it’s done by bots, but we do know that he has a great body. The netizens are now saying that among all the CEOs in the country, Arthur has the hottest body! Countless chicks are drooling over him!”

“How can society become like this nowadays? A man considers that baring his chest and belly is beautiful, and being surrounded by thousands of people is something to be proud of?” Rong Qiuchen looks at the picture on Yuan Ge’s mobile phone screen with a puzzled expression.

“We are in the era of the consumption of male eroticism. Even the big boss of King Guan Entertainment is not exempt from using his good looks for self-promotion.”

Amélie has anticipated that the cooker in Yuan Ge’s kitchen is an induction one, so she first puts down a clean heat-conducting sheet under the clay pot, and then layers the prawns, scallops, sliced bamboo shoots, dried shellfish and shiitake mushrooms in the pot. As she is doing the preparations, she continues to explain to Rong Qiuchen, who is clearly clueless about the workings of today’s society, “Arthur Guan is showing off his body, but it’s Yuan Ge who will suffer the consequences. He’s keeping such a low profile, not even showing his face, so he has already been pinned down firmly by the public opinion as a ‘uke’.”

“What is a ‘uke’?” Rong Qiuchen asks while putting aside the shelled quail eggs and beginning to wash the lotus leaves.

“If you don’t know, then there’s no need to know.” Yuan Ge feels a little awkward discussing this topic, “I seem to be in the way here, why don’t I, uh, go and talk to Old Dude about upgrading our company’s camera equipment?”

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[1] Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, also known as Buddha’s Temptation or Fotiaoqiang, is a variety of shark fin soup in Fujian cuisine. Since its creation during the Qing dynasty (1644–1912), the dish has been regarded as a Chinese delicacy known for its rich taste, and special manner of cooking. The dish’s name is an allusion to the dish’s ability to entice the vegetarian Buddhist monks from their temples to partake in the meat-based dish, and implies that even the strictly vegetarian Gautama Buddha would try to jump over a wall to sample it.. It is one of China’s state banquet dishes.