IUILBRC Chapter 43: Cheese Fondue

Chapter 43: Cheese Fondue

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Sulo wants to see Gu YuMian blush again 

 

Flashback to half an hour ago.

The official work time of the Academy of Sciences was from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. After the change of office, the academic atmosphere of the Academy of Sciences was still strong, but regular work and rest were not well maintained. Because of their habits of staying up late to collect data and make reports, except for a highly disciplined chief, most of the scientific researchers would arrive from 11:00 am to noon. They would normally walk in wearing slippers and holding breakfast bread, standing outside the laboratory after brunch, putting on white coats and goggles to start work.

Today was not a normal day. 

At nine o’clock in the morning, the chief, who was always punctual, was not in, but the Academy of Sciences was full of people — the ones who should have come didn’t come, the ones who shouldn’t have come had arrived extremely early.

“I woke up at eight o’clock today, and in the morning I made half a bowl of white rice to eat while watching the live broadcast.”

“Haha, I was watching at 7:30 am. Besides, the chief looked really happy.”

“The chief is really lucky, but we are not too bad. We will have porridge in a while.”

“Really?” A new girl from the ancient books restoration section spoke weakly, “Watching his live, he left a small pot for those who didn’t have breakfast. Will there be enough for us?”

“…”

The voice had just fallen, and there was silence.

This sentence was like a star falling on the attic from the precarious sky.

The peaceful and relaxed atmosphere on the surface suddenly collapsed. Everyone woke up from the beautiful idea and their smiles disappeared.

There were ten to twenty people in each group, totalling ten groups, nearly two hundred people. Gu YuMian didn’t make a big pot of rice. That small pot of porridge was not enough. Everyone quietly raised their ears, back tight, vigilantly looked around at the potential opponents of their former colleagues, barely showing a hypocritical smile to each other.

 

Capital Star’s first Academy of Sciences was a magnificent three-story building, surrounded by a translucent barrier. Green plants were planted around the building, and scientists’ suspension devices were parked outside. Gu YuMian walked through the corridor and reached the gate. The waiting robot looked at him quietly and waited for him to verify his identity with his fingerprint information.

“…”

But Gu YuMian hesitated. He was actually a little bit socially awkward.

Before he came, he had thought about what to do if these scientists were very cold. Besides, what if they didn’t like him disturbing their research? Would the atmosphere be awkward then?

For this reason, for a while he actually practiced how to say a paragraph to enliven the atmosphere, and finally gave up because the effect was not great.

The audience could see Gu YuMian’s expression of slightly pursing his lips.

[Is MianMian nervous?] 

“In fact, I’m a little nervous. These are all the big guys that write textbooks and are on the news. Do you think the big guys are nervous too?”

The little fox felt Gu YuMian’s anxiety and held the other side’s hand with his little claw. His nose nudged Gu YuMian’s palm in a shy and careful manner. He was trying to comfort him in his own way.

The baby panda was now familiar with becoming a human baby, and he could occasionally stay awake. He held Gu YuMian’s hand and said, “Bah.”

Miraculously, Gu YuMian actually calmed down with the clumsy comfort from the children. He bent his eyes and touched the small heads of QiuQiu and YuanYuan respectively.

“Thank you, too. I’m much better now,” Gu YuMian whispered to the audience while pressing the visitor key on the floating light screen. The back door opened slowly to both sides after the fingerprint was inputted, “Let’s go in now, and keep it down so as not to disturb their work.”

Next second, the bright and tidy Academy of Sciences would be displayed in front of Gu YuMian——

The Academy of Sciences was very large and on the hall on the first floor was everyone’s desk. Through the corridor, many laboratories, large and small, were connected. One couldn’t see to the end at a glance.

Gu YuMian had heard about it. The second floor was also a laboratory, while the third floor was a special place for rest and relaxation, as well as a gym. From time to time, there were crisp sounds and discussion, as well as the sound of colliding instruments. Everyone worked seriously. The whole space exuded a rigorous and elegant academic atmosphere.

It was exactly like the Academy of Sciences in Gu YuMian’s mind.

“…” The little fox’s mouth twitched a little. It was completely different than the place half a day ago.

When Gu YuMian entered the door, everyone’s movements stopped for a short time. There were hundreds of eyes on Gu YuMian, and soon everything recovered as usual.

Gu YuMian, “?” Illusion?

The assistant who was in charge of the reception was the same person who had helped Gu YuMian earlier. Seeing Gu YuMian, he immediately walked up with a smile and shook hands with him.

“Mr. Gu, nice to see you again. Are you broadcasting live? Hello everyone.”

The audience greeted him in a friendly way.

The assistant’s name was Liang. Let’s call him Xiao Liang. Xiao Liang handed Gu YuMian a brand new white coat and three filtering devices. As he walked in with Gu YuMian, he explained, “Some laboratories are closed for experiments, and today you may only visit four or five laboratories.”

[Vivian: Aaah! MianMian in a white coat is killing me!! ]

[soda robot 1: Weak + 1 It’s a good fit.]

Although Gu YuMian was a live broadcaster for a living, he still wore a professional expression. This made Gu YuMian’s temperament very suitable for the white coat. He was gentle and voluminous, a little like a strange and handsome surgeon in a hospital.

The filtering device was a disc, just like the holographic device, which could filter harmful substances in the air. Gu YuMian first put it on for himself, then on the side of the neck for the little fox curled up in his arms, and on the forehead for little Tangyuan.

The next visit couldn’t have children, but the Academy of Sciences had a special lounge and the most advanced parenting robot. Gu YuMian could also keep an eye on the lounge through a monitoring device at any time, so he did not have to worry.

“If you are obedient, I’ll be back soon.”

The little fox was reluctant to let him leave, but he was still very obedient and seriously “chirped” twice. He pressed his claws on the edge of the stroller, saying that when Gu YuMian was away, he would try to take good care of the sleeping baby, Tangyuan, and would stay in a strange environment waiting for him to come back.

Xiao Liang, “…” Had he entered too far into his acting? Wasn’t this his own place? Did he really think of himself as a first-time guest?!

Of course, this live broadcast was also to cooperate with the purpose of the Academy of Sciences to promote the popularization of science. A routine visit was essential. Gu YuMian said to the audience, “We will visit the laboratory with Mr. Liang, maybe for an hour or two. It’ll almost be lunch time after the visit. By the way,” Gu YuMian took out his own fresh-keeping box from the bag and gave it to Xiao Liang. “This is the fish and seafood porridge I cooked in the morning. If anyone hasn’t had breakfast, you can —”

Before the sentence could be finished, the whole Academy of Sciences was quiet and the atmosphere was tense.

Gu YuMian, “?”

Xiao Liang realized that something shameful would happen, so he took Gu YuMian to the lab, to avoid Gu YuMian from seeing the next scene.

This somehow managed to maintain the serious image of various scientists in Gu YuMian’s mind. The process of visiting the laboratory also refreshed Gu YuMian’s opinion.

He used to think that the Academy of Sciences was only studying high-tech, particle guns and so on, but later found that it was not only that. In addition to physical and chemical research, there were many aspects closely related to life, such as cooking, planting and synthesis technology, intelligent life system, Ancient Earth classics information restoration, etc.

In particular, the restoration of Ancient Earth classics made Gu YuMian see a lot of things he used to be familiar with, and he felt a little excited. What’s more, Gu YuMian was moved by the fact that the attitude of the researchers was very good, not only that they did not discriminate against human beings, but also that some of them even showed great enthusiasm?

For example, when he arrived at the ancient books restoration group, they all came up one by one to shake hands with him and said some polite words, such as “I wanted to see Mr. Gu for a long time now” and “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Sorry, what is that?” During the visit, Gu YuMian saw that everyone was cautiously facing an object that could not be seen as it was blocked by their backs. “Something unearthed from Ancient Earth?”

“Yes,” said the girl who led the restoration. “It was just unearthed last month. It may be a major discovery in abstract art and pictographs. The outline we initially recovered was like this.”

Gu YuMian looked at the things projected on the light screen. The overall color was a mixture of many red elements. He worked hard to see the characters on the screen.

[KFC limited time special, fried chicken wings with new butter and jam □ □ discount]

Gu YuMian, “…”

Looking at everyone’s serious expression, Gu YuMian was a little impatient. What abstract art and pictographs?? It was just an advertising poster, wasn’t it!?

Gu YuMian and the audience took two hours to visit the laboratories together.

It was the first time that the general people had access to cutting-edge technology. The number of visitors to his live studio had risen and was maintained well. After visiting the four laboratories, the mood was still high.

As for lunch, Gu YuMian also had preliminary ideas——

It was a rare opportunity and not easy to be able to visit the Academy of Sciences. How could he not seize this opportunity? Previously, people said that the ingredients here were safe and could be accessed at will, which would also promote the popularization of science and publicity.

But he also needed to be careful. The Academy of Sciences was more knowledgeable than other people. He couldn’t expose the fact that he was indigenous to Ancient Earth.

In five minutes, the news that Gu YuMian wanted to use the Academy of Sciences to cook spread all over the Academy of Sciences. Scientists who were just about to fight for a small bowl of seafood fish porridge were shocked.

 

After visiting the four laboratories, Gu YuMian cut the broadcast again, giving the audience and himself a break, and used this time to prepare the next live content.

In the preparation process, the scientists in each group helped Gu YuMian, but their attitude was a little too warm, and Gu YuMian sometimes couldn’t resist. And so the preparation took an entire hour.

Just before the start, Gu YuMian received another communication from the school. The teacher had something to do today. He left class ahead of time and asked him where it was appropriate to send Gu Xue Tuan to.

Gu YuMian asked the teacher to send him to the Academy of Sciences, and in a few minutes, he met the snow leopard at the gate.

“TuanTuan studied hard at school.” Gu YuMian kissed the snow leopard, buried his head in the soft and fluffy neck, pinched the small paw pad and said, “Let’s make something delicious for lunch.”

The little snow leopard’s grey-blue eyes glanced at him, and his long tail circled his human’s neck, yawning lazily.

The little fox sat next to him, watching over the sleeping Tangyuan, and looked up at Gu YuMian and the little snow leopard. He looked envious. Gu YuMian thought he was very sad. He also picked up the little fox and the little Tangyuan, and kissed their foreheads. The little fox made a shy “chirp”.

“It’s hard for QiuQiu to help take care of YuanYuan. QiuQiu is a reliable big brother.”

Snow Leopard, “…” Not very happy.

Although it was tiring to take care of three children, Gu YuMian still liked to stay with his cubs. After finishing the final preparations, Gu YuMian took a breath and opened the live broadcast again.

“Hello, everyone. I’m anchor Gu YuMian. Now we are in the back kitchen of the Academy of Sciences. We are borrowing the back kitchen and ingredients to make lunch — today we are going to have cheese fondue.” ¹

Many viewers had been waiting for a long time. As soon as the broadcast started, the number of viewers went up crazily. In a few minutes, it broke through 10 million, and a large number of bullet screens poured out.

[User 14878: Here we are!! Although it was fun to visit the Academy of Sciences in the morning, I prefer anchor cooking and baby sucking. QAQ What’s for lunch today?]

[White Pear Blossom, Lili: The kitchen in the Academy of Sciences? Will there be any new pieces of technology and new appliances? Looking forward to it! Smashing two fireworks!]

[Junior B: I liked the visit to the Academy of Sciences and cooking for the kids. In the morning, the place was too cool.]

[Sleeping in the clouds: What is cheese fondue?? Looking forward to it. Aaah!]

[Cat’s Meow: I can answer this question. Is cheese fondue similar to Shouxi hot pot? Shouxi hot pot was really good! I have begun to swallow my saliva!]

I want to thank the Academy of Sciences for their help. Gu YuMian wanted to make something for everyone to taste, but he was only one person and couldn’t make so many dishes. And now it was winter in the Upper Urban District — thinking about it, hot pot seemed to be the most appropriate.

Of course, cheese fondue required a great amount of cheese. Gu YuMian would not have dared to try it easily if he didn’t see the newly developed tools and ingredients during his visit in the morning. Gu YuMian poured the synthetic fresh milk into a small wooden bucket with an outlet below, and put it into the device provided by the Academy of Sciences for high temperature sterilization for several seconds. Then he took a small vacuum bag to pour the powder into it, and then took another one after a period of time.

“This process is complex. If you are interested, I will post it on the Internet later.”

Gu YuMian himself was a cheese lover. He knew the production process of cheese. It needed factories to make it on Ancient Earth, but thanks to the high technology of the Academy of Sciences, it could be done in minutes.

The milk block was dried by steam, kneaded and matured with the help of the machine. It was divided into two parts, one of which had carbonic acid while the other did not. In a short time, blocks of cheese, which were crystal white, warm and fragrant, were arranged in order on the plate. Then the cheese pieces were rubbed into a silk shape, chestnut powder was added to prevent two kinds of cheese from agglomerating, and then they were set aside.

“By the way, it seems that QiuQiu hasn’t tried the cheese I made? Do you want to try?”

The little fox gathered his big fluffy tail because Gu YuMian rubbed his head and nodded shyly. Gu YuMian’s heart melted. He fed him a small spoon of cheese to taste.

The more the snow leopard looked at the fox, the more unhappy he was. This was worse than the fat fool sleeping. But he couldn’t find any reason to bully the other. He could only be upset and sulk on Gu YuMian’s shoulder.

Now the audience had the fox’s first point of view. Gu YuMian had made cheese on Takk, but most of the new audience members on Capital Star hadn’t tasted the cheese made by Gu YuMian. They were worried. Then they were amazed by the taste!

It was mellow, fragrant and not oily. It was several times better than all the cheese on the market.

Due to the rapid increase of the audience, the popularity that had been temporarily reduced due to the interruption of the previous live broadcast was quickly filled back, and soon, the live studio took the most popular seat in the living area.

——But it was not over.

Gu YuMian fired several small stoves to boil water and cut potatoes, cauliflower, shrimp, beef rolls, meatballs and chicken breast respectively. Ham and carrots didn’t need to be boiled. They were cut directly. In addition, the bread slices were cut and then baked. Then he dished up each one of these.

He chose a small pot, rubbed the wall of the pot with garlic, poured a small glass of white wine into the pot, added two spoonfuls of garlic, and simmered it over a small fire. In a short time, the white wine was slightly boiling, emitting bubbles, and everyone could smell warm sweet wine.

Gu YuMian first grabbed a small handful of cheese and put it into the liquor in the pot to melt it, held a long spoon to stir the melted cheese and wine evenly, and then added more cheese in a short time. He repeated the process several times, finally put in a raw egg, added a small spoon of brandy, salt and cinnamon powder to taste.

Soon, more than half of the cheese in the small pot melted and boiled under the low heat.

The hot and bubbling cheese presented a milky and sticky texture. The mellow and strong milk fragrance mixed with the sweetness of grape wine. The scent of salty, fresh, sour and sweet items flowed along the air! It was easy to imagine that the very tender ingredients were scalded in the cheese pot for a while, and the fresh, mellow and warm feeling of the smooth cheese wrapped around them could not be more suitable for eating during winter.

The serious little fox couldn’t help but look at the cheese in the pot. The sleeping little Tangyuan sucked his fingers and tried to open his eyes. The little snow leopard directly condescended and leaned his head against Gu YuMian’s palm, urging him to feed him quickly.

[Like to eat marshmallows: Aaaaaah! When can we eat them??? Why is it so fragrant?! Is this really the cheese I know? ]

[Tiger: I’m a new audience member. I just came to see the Academy of Sciences… I was caught off guard and entered a pit?? Smash a few fireworks.]

[tgx772: In pit + 1. There is only a line between technology and a fat house, please hurry up!!]

[There’s a family in the mine: Don’t you think this cheese is more fragrant than before? I don’t care, I’m hungry, I want to eat! Wuwuwuwu!]

The thick, overlapping barrage almost obscured the picture.

It had not been more than half an hour since the live broadcast was reopened, and the number of viewers had already skyrocketed to 50 million. It was not only on the homepage’s real-time popularity list, but also rushed into the top three of the entire site!

The rich milk fragrance came out from the kitchen door…

The back kitchen was on the third floor, which was in the rest, entertainment and dining space of the Academy of Sciences. In the past, the third floor was mostly empty during lunch break, as they were used to finishing lunch on the first floor before continuing to work.

Old Li, the leader of the ancient books restoration group, who finished his work in the morning, looked left and right, and then, after repeatedly making sure that he did not attract the attention of his colleagues, crept up the elevator to the third floor.

Before the elevator door opened, he could not help but take a deep breath.

His group of workaholic colleagues didn’t react so fast. Maybe he would be the first to arrive. Not only would he taste the ‘cheese fondue’ on the live broadcast, but maybe he could also talk with the anchor for a while and make a friend.

His daughter also liked Gu YuMian very much. Their family didn’t mind that Gu YuMian was human. If he could recruit him as a son-in-law, he could eat it every day——

The more Old Li thought about it, the more he thought it was a good idea.

Until the next second, when the elevator door opened in front of him.

In the past, the third floor was very empty. 

At this time, it was full of people, all familiar faces.

All of them were extremely serious, with an attitude that was even more attentive than when they were doing experiments, as they stared at the door of the kitchen. From time to time, there was a sound of swallowing.

Old Li, “…”