Armipotent

Tang Shaoyang strolled around his smart base. The twenty-five floors building had become the official building of the Tang Empire. The first floor for the lobby and the second floor up to the fourth floor became a cafeteria for thousands of people. The fifth and sixth floor had become the office for the Development, Infrastructure, and Human Resources offices.

The seventh floor was for the Healer and Medical Division office. The eighth and ninth floors were the office for the military's officials. The tenth floor was for the Agriculture Division. The eleventh and twelfth floors were TEIS or Tang Empire Internal Security Division. Kang Jiayi, as the head of TEIS had an office on the twelfth floor.

The thirteenth floor was general meeting rooms if the division wanted to have a discussion together with the other division. There were four small meeting rooms and one big hall on the thirteenth floor. The fourteenth up to the twentieth floor was still vacant for further development.

As for the twenty-first floor up to the twenty-fifth floors were an exclusive floor for the leader and his women. Only a few people had access to those floors as the control room was located on the twenty-fifth floor. Overall, the smart base was quite organized compared to a month ago. Tang Shaoyang looked at the layout paper in his hand and familiarized himself with his palace.

He noticed that the whole twenty-first floor was marked as a kitchen. With a ding sound, the elevator in front of him opened. Curious about the twenty-first floor, Tang Shaoyang tapped number twenty-one. He was alone as Zhang Mengyao recuperated after their long and fierce battle.

Tang Shaoyang arrived on the twenty-first floor, and the whole floor was open with no wall or anything. Of course, the place was not empty as shelves filled with spices and ingredients, and if he looked up, there were marks above that would help navigate the visitor. The freezer room was to his right, the tool room was to the back, and the actual kitchen was to the left.

Tang Shaoyang directly went to the kitchen as he could hear noise from that side. He listened to the sizzling noise from the frying pan as a good aroma of food entered his nose. He paused his steps when he saw the purple-haired woman was bustling in the kitchen on her own. There was no need for him to see her face as he recognized her.

Elinova seemed not to notice his arrival, so he approached with a light step. He hugged the woman from behind and whispered. "What is my Chef cooking?" She was startled as someone suddenly hugged her, she calmed down immediately after hearing the voice.

"You-" Her words stopped as she realized something. She jerked around and looked toward Tang Shaoyang's face. Elin blinked her eyes in surprise as she could not believe to see her man was here.

Tang Shaoyang smiled and pecked her tall bridge nose. "Be careful, your food will get burnt if you are looking at me too much." Being reminded by Tang Shaoyang, Elin immediately turned around and started to stir her cook.

Tang Shaoyang hugged her from behind once more and put his chin on her shoulder. He looked at the frying pan. "What are you cooking?" The smell was familiar to him. "Is it pork? Crispy pork?"

Elin smiled and nodded. "Yes, but it's not pork, but boar meat. Can you smell it? It smells stronger than the pork."

"Hoo, are you learning my home cooking?" Tang Shaoyang remembered his regular place when he was still part of the gangsters. He remembered a stall opened by an old man who sold various kinds of pork menus, one of them was the crispy pork.

"Yeah. I try to learn it from Li Na's grandma. I am using her recipe." Elin pointed at the steaming pot at the side. "I am trying the boar belly too, and also the smoked ribs."

"Hooo," Tang Shaoyang was surprised to hear all the menus. All of them were his favorites, actually. "What's the occasion? Why do you cook so many of them?" He looked at the window. It was past noon already, so the cook was not for lunch. "Are you cooking for dinner? Isn't it too early?"

"This is just for my practice. I still can't make the same one that Li Na's Grandma made, so I am trying to make the same one." Elinova shook her head while scooping the crispy pork with the drier from the boiling oil. Elin then put a new pain, scooping a little oil from the frying into the new pan.

After putting the hot oil into the pot, she put garlic, green and red pepper, onion, and green onion. She stirred them together in the pan until the aroma came out from the pan. After that, she grabbed a bottle and poured a little liquid into the pan.

"What's that?" Tang Shaoyan was curious about what she put into the food. "Oh, this?" Elin showed the dark bottle. "This is called cooking wine. Li Na's grandma said the cooking wine could help enhance the aroma of the food." She replied while stirring her cook. Then she added the crispy pork into the new pan.

Elin then started to stir the crispy pork again before putting salt and pepper powder before stirring the crispy pork evenly once more. That was the last step of her cooking as she placed the crispy pork into the plate.

"This is Salt and Pepper Crispy Pork." Elin smiled and turned around. "Do you want to try it?"

"Gladly. I will try all your food." Tang Shaoyang nodded his head. He did not know what level she tried to achieve with her cooking, but he could tell that the food must be delicious just from the aroma. "What about the smoked ribs and the boar belly? I want to try them as well. Oh, it's better if you have rice too."

Elin smiled. "Don't worry, we have rice. I also make bone broth from the boar's bone. Do you want the broth too?"

Tang Shaoyang nodded his head. "Bring everything to me. I will eat all of them." After saying that, he walked to the nearest table and sat there like a good kid, waiting for his good.

A few minutes later, his mouth was packed with food. The crunching noise from chewing the crispy pork flowed out of his mouth. "One more, please." Tang Shaoyang handed the empty bowl in his hand to Elinova. He asked for more rice while pushing the empty plate on the table. "I want more for everything."

As Elinova took another bowl of rice and the dishes, Tang Shaoyang grabbed the bowl of bone soup. There were various veggies in the soup, and he started it by taking a sip of the broth. After taking a sip of the soup, he took a deep breath before releasing it slowly. It was the most delicious food he ever had in his life. Those fancy restaurants could not be compared to Elin's cooking.

By the time Elin returned to the table with the rice and the dishes, Tang Shaoyang had emptied the bone soup, leaving only a clean white bone. "What do you mean by trying to perfect your cooking? This is perfect already. Maybe Li Na's grandma is too old to judge your food." He said that to compliment Elin, and it was an honest judgment from him.

"Hush. You can't say that about Li Na's grandma. Without her, it would be hard for me to make food to your people's taste. While my cooking is good, Arkanian's food is different from your home's cooking." Elin shook her head. "Also, Li Na's grandma never said that my cooking is not tasty, but I just can't create the same taste as Li Na's grandma's cooking. I am afraid my cooking is not to your taste…." her voice became smaller. Yes, she tried to copy Li Na's grandma's cooking so Tang Shaoyang would like her food. She wanted to make the same food to this world's cooking, but she could not copy the cooking perfectly as there was a trace of the Arkanian's taste in the food.

"Then you should wait for me to come back instead of experimenting by yourself. Since you are cooking for me, you should wait for me to taste it." Tang Shaoyang smiled at her as he took the bowl of rice from her hand.

The only way to make the cook happy was not to compliment the food but to show the cook that her food could make him smile and happy. It was the moment the cook was waiting for, at least, he believed so. The Chef must be happy when she saw the person who ate her food was happy after eating her food.

"Pher nu nid tu prefect yur fud… (There's no need to perfect your food…)" Elinova shook her head while smiling. "Swallow the food in your mouth first before talking." This was her first time to see this side of her man. She realized that she did not know much about her man.

"The food is perfect, rather than experimenting with the same food again and again. I would like you to learn a new recipe instead." Tang Shaoyang swallowed the food and spoke. He then finished four bowls of rice and three serving dishes. His words were not meant to make Elinova happy, it was genuine praise as he truly missed this food.

Elinova had a wide smile while watching Tang Shaoyang devour her cooking.