CFSMS -Chapter 107 Teacher Lu Personally Teaches You How to Make a Failed Jianbing

“Ah…”

Yawning, Lu Wu rubbed the tears from the corners of her eyes and squatted in the dim pre-dawn darkness, half asleep.

It had been a long time since she had gotten up this early.

At this hour, in such a remote place, besides Lou Xiaotian—who had insisted on coming along with her—even the two little ones were still fast asleep inside the pocket realm.

In the unusually quiet darkness, Lu Wu could hear the sound of waves crashing outside Little Sea Village.

Again and again, the tide rolled forward, layers upon layers, like a lullaby.

“Ah…”

Infected by her yawn, Lou Xiaotian yawned as well. Slapping his cheeks to wake himself up, he tried hard to stay alert.

“Boss Lu, why don’t you teach me how to make jianbing?”

He had eaten pancakes before, but they didn’t seem anything like what Boss Lu had described.

Convinced that making jianbing was easy, Lou Xiaotian wanted to satisfy his own cravings by making one himself.

“Sure.”

The signboard on the stall updated itself, now reading:

Yo Yo Check It Out, One Jianbing Set Coming Right Up

The system’s strange sense of humor remained as strong as ever.

Lou Xiaotian couldn’t understand it, but he felt the phrase possessed a unique rhythm.

The menu offered:

• Pork tenderloin jianbing
• Ham jianbing
• The star attraction: Secret Spicy Gluten Strip jianbing

Each cost twenty low-grade spirit stones.

The stall was illuminated by embedded luminous pearls, making everything bright and clear.

Originally, Lu Wu had considered hanging lanterns.

But after thinking about it, she realized that a ghost-like food stall appearing in the dead of night with blood-red lanterns swaying in the wind would look less like a snack stand and more like underworld officials coming to collect souls.

Customers would probably run for their lives.

Far too horrifying.

So she abandoned the idea.

The soft glow of the pearls pushed back the darkness.

Jianbing batter was easy to make, and the ingredients were simple: mung bean flour and regular flour.

A clean basin was placed on the worktable. The two flours were mixed at a ratio of two to one, then water was added until the batter reached a suitable consistency.

“Wait, wait!”

Lou Xiaotian hurriedly interrupted.

“What exactly counts as ‘a suitable amount’? And what does ‘suitable consistency’ even mean?”

Those vague cooking terms left him dizzy.

“Hmm…”

Lu Wu thought carefully about how she usually cooked before answering confidently,

“It means going by feel.”

She felt that strictly measuring every ingredient down to the gram took away the joy of freely creating food.

“Feel” worked wonderfully.

She had never failed using it.

Watching Lu Wu’s utterly confident expression, Lou Xiaotian began doubting his own intelligence.

Was this the difference between ordinary people and geniuses? Otherwise, why couldn’t he understand a thing?

“Keep going, keep going.”

After the batter was mixed, it only needed to rest briefly.

Lu Wu lit the stove. Before long, the specially made giant flat jianbing griddle became piping hot.

She brushed a thin layer of oil over the surface to prevent sticking.

Just as she was about to pour on the batter, she noticed Lou Xiaotian’s intensely focused expression and paused.

“Why don’t you give it a try?”

“Sure.”

Feeling as though inspiration had struck, Lou Xiaotian shot Lu Wu a confident just watch me look, grabbed the ladle, and poured a huge scoop of batter onto the griddle.

Too much.

Lu Wu watched the mountain of batter and hadn’t even opened her mouth yet when he excitedly grabbed the spreader and began “evenly smearing” it around.

“This is basically the same as women applying makeup, right?”

Lou Xiaotian felt enlightened.

As the batter baked under the heat and began to set, he rapidly flicked his wrist, trying to imitate Lu Wu’s effortless technique.

The result?

Rip!

One careless movement, and the pancake tore apart.

What should have been a perfect circle became a messy pile of disaster.

The atmosphere turned awkward.

“This is your first time. Not bad.”

Teacher Lu employed encouraging educational methods.

Meanwhile, she was secretly wondering how to refuse if Lou Xiaotian later asked her to eat the thing without damaging his self-esteem.

“Ahem, next comes the egg, right?”

He planned to use egg to glue the pancake back together.

Crack.

An egg went onto the griddle.

Lou Xiaotian’s technique remained clumsy. His scraper pressure was uneven; either the pancake skin tore apart or the egg pooled together in half-cooked clumps.

“You can add sesame seeds and scallions now.”

Customers who liked cilantro could also request a generous portion at this stage.

“Got it!”

Sprinkling sesame seeds was easy.

Anyone with hands could do it.

Lou Xiaotian picked up the sesame jar and shook it, hoping to control the amount through precise wrist movements.

Whoosh!

Tiny sesame seeds merged into a flowing stream, leaping from the air and piling onto the jianbing like a mountain.

Looking at the fact that nearly one-tenth of the jar had disappeared, Lu Wu reflected on herself.

Perhaps it wasn’t that Lou Xiaotian’s method was wrong.

Maybe she simply couldn’t keep up with his train of thought.

After all, wasn’t a sesame-seed pancake still technically a pancake?

Unfortunately, there was too much sesame.

Most of it wouldn’t stick.

The excess sesame seeds were secretly removed by Lou Xiaotian using a spell.

“You can flip it now.”

Watching him perform the legendary covering your ears while stealing a bell technique, Lu Wu suffered greatly.

The jianbing was flipped.

The egg-coated side faced downward, slowly cooking over low heat.

Lu Wu had prepared two sauce options: sweet chili sauce and ketchup.

“I want sweet chili.”

Sweet and spicy together sounded addictive.

Then Lou Xiaotian turned a jar upside down.

A jar of ketchup.

…

The air froze.

Lou Xiaotian opened his mouth and, smelling the sweet tomato aroma, desperately tried to explain himself.

“The colors are too similar.”

Both were red.

He had been nervous and grabbed the wrong one.

“Mhm. Not your fault. Just spread the ketchup.”

Lu Wu reminded him.

If he waited any longer, the ketchup would become one giant lump.

“You know, this actually looks pretty good.”

The bright red ketchup conveniently covered some of the burnt black patches on the pancake, making it look surprisingly appetizing.

And of course, no jianbing was complete without crispy crackers.

“I know this part. You’re supposed to crush it, right?”

With that, he squeezed.

A perfectly intact crispy sheet instantly turned into crumbs and rained down across the entire pancake.

The crumbs were then soaked by the moisture from the ketchup and quickly became soft.

Despite the winter chill, sweat appeared on Lu Wu’s forehead.

“Add the lettuce! And spicy strips, spicy strips! I love spicy strips!”

He had watched Lu Wu make them herself.

He had already eaten plenty when they first came out of the pot, and the spicy flavor had completely hooked him.

A heaping mountain of spicy strips was piled onto the pancake.

Looking at the quantity, Lu Wu had to admit that Boss Lou was incredibly generous.

The pancake, which should have been golden yellow, had become a scorched yellow-black.

Roll it up.

Wrap the lettuce and spicy strips inside.

And just like that, a jianbing was finished.

Holding his masterpiece, Lou Xiaotian offered it to Lu Wu.

“Boss Lu, try my cooking!”

“No!”

Lu Wu rejected him immediately.

Her tone was as firm and decisive as possible.

There was no way she was volunteering as a test subject.

“Alright then.”

Disappointed, Lou Xiaotian withdrew his hand.

Filled with anticipation, he inhaled the slightly burnt aroma of the batter and opened his mouth.