I've been transported to the orc continent.

Chapter 197 The Magic That Makes Food Taste Good

Because the wild grasses are still alive, their root systems are much more developed than in spring. Their roots weave a large net underground, causing considerable trouble for the orcs when they are farming.

Every so often, the orcs responsible for holding the plow had to stop and remove the wild grass hanging on it.

However, this did not dampen the orcs' enthusiasm for cultivating the land. Every evening when they returned, the orcs who had been cultivating the land would talk and laugh loudly, saying how much they had cultivated that day and what interesting things they had encountered.

*

Yue wasn't a talkative person. He would sit quietly with Bai Ling and eat, and even when he spoke to Bai Ling, he wouldn't raise his voice.

"Yue, come home with me later, I'll show you something good," Bai Ling said mysteriously.

Yue became interested and looked up to ask, "What good stuff?"

Bai Ling: "You'll know when you go and see for yourself."

Because he was going to see "good stuff" with Bai Ling, Yue's tired body seemed to relax a lot. He finished his meal faster than usual, and then rested his chin on his hands while watching Bai Ling eat.

Bai Ling quickly finished her rice, put the two of them in the basket, and the two of them hurried home with light steps.

There was no one at home. Cang had gone hunting, Feng had gone gathering, and Chen had gone collecting iron ore. Now, only Bai Ling was at home.

Bai Ling held out a ceramic bowl with both hands and placed it in front of Yue: "Yue, look what this is."

Looking up, Yue saw a yellowish-white mass in the earthenware bowl. It looked like dough, but not quite, because dough was much harder and didn't look as soft.

Yue reached out and touched it, then asked hesitantly, "Ling, is this flour?"

Bai Ling nodded: "Yes, this is dough made from flour, just like the dough used to make noodles."

Yue stretched out a finger, lifted the dough, looked at it carefully for a few moments, sniffed it, and then said, "It's different. This dough seems stickier, the color is different, and it has a strange smell."

When Ling brought the ceramic bowl over, he smelled a faint sour smell, which is the smell of food that has been left out for a long time and has gone bad.

The smell became even stronger after poking the surface of the dough with your finger. It was not a pleasant smell, and if stored food emitted this smell, it should be thrown away.

Eating food that tastes like this will make you sick.

This was something all the beastmen knew, but Yue didn't say it aloud; she just looked at Ling with curiosity.

Since Ling said it's a good thing, then it must be very useful. Even if it has an unpleasant sour smell, it must still be very useful.

Bai Ling smiled and said, "Hmm, this smell is sour, it's the smell of fermentation. The dough made from flour is unleavened dough, it needs to be fermented to become leavened dough. Leavened dough can be used to make many delicious foods. To turn unleavened dough into leavened dough, it has to be fermented. There is no yeast here, so this is the only way I can get yeast."

"Yeast?" Yue frowned slightly. "What is this? Is it an animal?"

"It is a microorganism, an organism that cannot be seen with the naked eye."

He poured some water into the earthenware bowl, squeezed the already sour dough apart, then poured in more than half a spoonful of flour, kneaded it into a dough, covered the earthenware bowl with a wooden board, and then placed the earthenware bowl on the windowsill.

"Moon, when we come back tomorrow, you'll find that the dough has gotten bigger."

"This is the magic that makes food taste better."

By noon the next day, Yue knew what the magic Bai Ling had mentioned was. The dough had indeed grown larger; yesterday it was the size of a fist, but today it had become the size of two fists.

It's as if the dough grew quietly on its own without their knowledge.

However, this is simply impossible. Only living things can continue to grow, and flour, which is not a living thing, will not continue to grow at all.

Yue realized that this was the magic Ling had mentioned—magic that could make food taste better.

Bai Ling pinched off a small lump of dough, placed it in front of Yue, and said with a smile, "Yue, smell it again."

Yue didn't ask any more questions. He simply lowered his head, approached the dough in Bai Ling's hand, and sniffed it a few times.

"Does the moon still taste sour?" Bai Ling asked.

The Matchmaker honestly replied, "Yes, but not as powerful as yesterday."

The dough still has a sour taste today, but it's not as sour anymore. Besides the sourness, there seems to be another special flavor. It smells like flour, or like a mixture of flour and other aromas. In short, it smells quite pleasant.

Bai Ling: "Yes, it has only fermented for one day, so of course the flavor will be weak. We need to continue fermenting it."

"The wheat has all been harvested. Once we get the yeast ready, we can make steamed buns and dumplings."

At this point, Bai Ling's mouth watered. Steamed buns, dumplings, mantou, flower rolls, pies, noodles... He knew exactly how much he missed these foods, and now that he could finally eat them, he almost cried from hunger.

“Then I’ll help you with it.” Yue seemed to have thought of something. “I’m afraid I won’t have time recently. We need to hurry up and work to cultivate more fields before winter comes.”

Bai Ling: "I'll prepare the yeast first, and when Father and Father come back, we'll make steamed buns together."

Bai Ling really couldn't take it anymore. He could still hold back before the wheat wasn't ripe, but now that the wheat had finally been harvested, how could he possibly resist? Once everyone in the family was here, he was determined to make a whole pot of steamed buns.

He'll be holding one in his left hand, one in his right hand, and one in his mouth.

Yue: "Okay, I'll wait for Ling to make me some delicious steamed buns."

Bai Ling held Yue's hand in his and smiled, "Yes, I guarantee you'll love it."

*

It was Yue's turn to build a house. His house was no different from the other houses in the tribe. It had four rooms: a main room, two bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom behind one of the bedrooms, and a storage room behind the other.

Instead of cultivating the land, Yue assisted the tribespeople in building houses. The beastmen had already built dozens of houses and were very skilled at it. The required materials were also readily available, and Yue only needed to help carry bricks and lay mortar.

Yue takes his house very seriously. He comes to the house to tidy up as soon as it is light. After the clansmen who built the house have left, he will walk around the house a couple more times to make sure everything that needs to be tidied up is put away before he goes to eat.

Bai Ling also helped Yue tidy up. Watching Yue's house being built little by little, Bai Ling felt just as happy as Yue.