I Awakened to a Farming TALENT

## Chapter 4: Talent Buff – Unlocking Maximum Veggie Flavor

Since there was still some time before lunch, Jiang Tingyun decided to plant the *qingcai* (green vegetable) seeds from yesterday’s artifact.

*Qingcai*, also known as baby bok choy, can be grown year-round and grows fast—usually ready to harvest in about twenty days.

She picked a small empty patch by the corner of the wall and got to work. After years of night shifts at the hospital, she’d been in a constant state of sub-health. Forget tilling—running fifty meters used to leave her gasping for air.

But now, maybe because of her awakened talent, she felt strong and energetic.

*So this is cultivation? It’s amazing!* She’d never felt her body so light before.

Jiang Tingyun yanked out the weeds in no time, then swung the hoe to turn the soil, and raked it smooth.

She dug holes, mixed in base fertilizer, and within an hour, she’d planted all the *qingcai* seeds. Her movements were so smooth and practiced that even an old lifelong farmer wouldn’t be more skilled.

She stood proudly by the plot when Senior Disciple Pei Jingmo walked in through the gate. He grabbed his bowl and chopsticks—and with one stride, quite literally *flew* to the dining table. Smooth landing, too. Chopsticks in position, he sat down with effortless cool.

Jiang Tingyun glanced at her phone. Sure enough, 11:30 a.m. Time to eat.

She washed her hands and went inside. Uncle Liu was carrying dishes to the table. When he saw them, he grinned. “Time to eat! Thanks to our Sect Master, we’ve got good food today.”

Jiang Tingyun looked eagerly at the table—and froze.

“What in the world is that black thing?” *Please don’t be the pork belly,* she wailed inwardly. *That was premium farmhouse pork belly, and this is what happened to it?*

“It’s pork belly! Oh man, when I was cooking it, the smell almost made me drool.”

Jiang Tingyun took a deep breath. *This food tastes worse than if I cooked it with my toes. I’ll waste away before I even become an immortal.*

The four of them had just sat down when a baby-faced girl came downstairs, yawning. She looked about twenty, wearing *Crayon Shin-chan* (a popular Japanese cartoon) pajamas, and was quite cute.

Uncle Liu got up to grab her a bowl and chopsticks. “Zhu Lili! Why are you only getting up now?! What time did you get back last night? And you see the Sect Master—say hello right away!”

Jiang Tingyun thought to herself, *Not a single reliable person in this sect.* The senior disciple—forget it, his cultivation had frozen him as a kid. Couldn’t count on him. The second disciple—thank God if he didn’t tear the house down. And this junior sister looked like a lazybones too. *Sigh. What am I going to do?*

But her face didn’t show it. She just smiled and nodded at the girl.

Zhu Lili’s eyes lit up when she saw her. “Hello, Sect Master! Want to know your fortune today? Come on, let me do a reading for you!” She pulled a deck of tarot cards from her pajama pocket.

Before Jiang Tingyun could answer, Jin Feifan squawked, “Stop, stop, STOP! Sect Master, whatever you do, don’t let her read for you! This girl is a jinx, a total crow—bad things always come true, good things never!”

Zhu Lili’s eyes widened in anger. She was about to snap back.

*SLAM.* Pei Jingmo put his chopsticks down hard. “Are we eating or not?”

Zhu Lili sat back down, deflated. Finally, everyone ate in peace.

Jiang Tingyun only tried a few bites of the r****h and cabbage. The cooking timing was all wrong. The red-braised pork belly looked like a burnt corpse—zero desire to put it in her mouth.

The other four, however, seemed to have no taste buds at all. Their chopsticks flew like swords, and in no time, the red-braised pork belly was gone.

Jiang Tingyun thought, *This can’t go on.* She’d have to tell Uncle Liu—let her cook dinner tonight.

The truth was, Jiang Tingyun could cook really well. Her parents had had her late in life. Her father got sick not long after she was born, and her mother passed away while she was in college.

After that, no one cooked for her. She’d gotten sick of the hospital cafeteria, and the takeout around her was greasy, so she started learning to cook on her own.

Just by watching videos, she could make decent dishes. Her palate was sharp too—when she ate out, one taste was enough to replicate the dish at home with eighty or ninety percent accuracy.

That evening, when Uncle Liu was about to m******e more pork belly, she quickly stopped him. “Uncle Liu, how about I cook dinner tonight?”

Uncle Liu hesitated, eyeing her slender arms—she really didn’t look like someone who could cook. But the Sect Master had spoken, so he agreed, saying he’d just tend the fire.

Jiang Tingyun checked the kitchen. It had a gas stove and a small coal burner, but Uncle Liu didn’t seem to use them much. He preferred cooking on the earthen stove.

That was the most traditional rural cooking setup—a two-layer base, one for burning wood, one for collecting ash, which could be used for compost.

On top of the earthen stove sat two large woks, one usually for stir-frying, one for steaming rice.

But the earthen stove didn’t faze Jiang Tingyun either. Back when her department had team-building at an agricultural base, she’d used one. It wasn’t really different from a regular gas stove—in fact, the food came out especially fragrant. She remembered her colleagues almost swallowing their tongues.

She got to work. She decided to use whatever was on hand—make red-braised pork belly with potatoes, and stir-fried cabbage with vinegar. Large portions, and that would be enough.

Just as she tied on an apron, Jin Feifan poked his head into the kitchen, looking pained. “Sect Master… you’re cooking? That’s all the meat we have left… if you ruin it, there’s nothing else to eat…”

Jiang Tingyun laughed coldly inside. *Ruin it? That lunch was the real ruin.* She said in a low voice, “Go pull your weeds. No food until you’re done.”

Jin Feifan whimpered and ran off.

Ignoring him, Jiang Tingyun started by cooking rice. She took a piece of pork belly and seared off the hog hair on the skin over the gas stove, then neatly cut it into small chunks.

“Uncle Liu, keep the fire moderate for now.”

She scooped a spoonful of lard into the wok and let it melt slowly. She added sugar, gently pushing it with the spatula. When the sugar turned golden brown, she immediately dumped in the pork. *Sizzle!* Just from caramelizing the sugar, the kitchen was already filled with the rich aroma of pork.

After stir-frying until the pork was evenly colored, she calmly poured in a ladle of hot water. She added scallion knots, ginger slices, star anise, cinnamon bark, bay leaves, and light soy sauce, then let it simmer on low heat.

While waiting, she grabbed a few potatoes from the basket and was about to peel and cut them when she felt herself enter a strange, mystical state. Every slice she made was perfectly even, as if she instinctively knew how to make this ingredient more delicious.

*Yes, right now.* She quickly tossed the cut potatoes into the pork, stirring lightly so each piece got coated in the rich gravy.

Even with the lid on, unable to see inside the wok, Jiang Tingyun could sense the potatoes slowly turning soft and absorbing the flavors.

The aroma was overwhelming—it drilled straight up Uncle Liu’s nose. Not just the kitchen, but the entire backyard filled with the rich smell of potato red-braised pork belly.

Jin Feifan was pulling weeds and drooling at the same time. “What *is* that smell? Why does it smell so good?” He’d been so full at lunch, but now his stomach was growling like thunder.

Jiang Tingyun looked thoughtfully at her hands. It was strange. When she’d stir-fried the pork, nothing special had happened. But when she started cutting the potatoes and cabbage, she felt as if she’d known from birth exactly how to unlock the maximum flavor of these vegetables.

It was probably a side effect of her planting talent. After all, who wouldn’t want to make their homegrown veggies taste even better?