The Female Supporting Role Shows Out

At noon, everyone did have a chance to enjoy the stir-fried hazel hen and braised rabbit. As there were nine people in total, the animals were initially insufficient to feed everyone, but Manager Lin managed to solve the problem with her superb culinary skill. She made the two dishes extremely flavorful so that one spoonful of the dish was completely enough to go with just one bowl of rice. After the meal, as there was still a layer of bright red broth remaining in the earthenware, Luo Tietou and Zhao Liu quickly took out their buns and dipped it in the broth before finishing them up bit by bit.

"It feels great! It really feels great!" Luo Tietou lay on the grass while rubbing his stomach. If Manager Lin could be there with them each time they were sent out for missions, he would go out to do missions willingly all year round. That would not be work anymore, it would be happiness, he thought.

"Looks like the hazel hen was too small to fill us up. Shall we go out and hunt a few more soon and ask Manager Lin to make that dish again at night?" Zhao Liu whispered.

"Sounds good, if we brought the animals, I’m sure she will have to make those flavorful dishes again even if she doesn't like it! The game has to be killed and cooked immediately to make delicious dishes." Luo Tietou kept smacking his mouth, as he reminded of the aftertaste of the lunch they had just now.

The handsome man glanced at them without saying a word, seemingly agreeing to their idea.

After resting for an hour, the fleet set off and entered a dense forest. Zhao Liu and Luo Tietou heard the sound of small animals running across the grass field, and immediately chase after them after taking out their bows and arrows. They were determined to hunt more animals and have a good meal at night.

The handsome man only looked at them but did not follow along. After moving forward for a while, he gradually felt that something was wrong and was about to ask the driver to slow down. But an arrow hit one of the horses that were pulling the carriage, which alarmed the rest of the horses. Several horses raised their hooves and neighed, and everything turned into a mess out of a sudden. Fortunately, the driver grabbed the reins in time to soothe the frightened horses, or Manager Lin would suffer a greater loss.

However, no damage to the goods does not mean that the situation would turn for the better. He saw a dozen sturdy men emerging from the dense jungle with machetes and bows in their hands. It was obvious that these people were seasoned bandits.

The handsome man approached Manager Lin’s carriage for the first time and said softly, “Let’s not resist and follow them first. Zhao Liu and Tietou are still behind, and they will find a way to save us.” Although he was an expert in martial arts and would not have any problems finishing up the dozens of bandits, he was not confident that he could protect everyone in the fleet at the same time.

Lin Dan knocked on the window lightly with her knuckles to signal that she understood his instructions.

Everyone and their carriages were all pulled up to the mountain by the bandits. There was a small village in the mountain, where five or six basic mud houses were surrounded by wooden fences. These were obviously built hastily by the bandits who fled everywhere and had not yet built into an organizational scale, but they would definitely pose as a major issue to the locals in three to five years’ time if no one had stopped them.

Lin Dan's hands were tied with a rope, and she staggered forward while counting the number of bandits as she walked. Since not many people could live in five or six mud houses, together with the number of bandits she saw along the way, she assumed there were about twenty or thirty bandits here in their hideout. There were some abducted women who were working, and they looked numb and expressionless. After being locked into the largest mud house, a fierce-looking man immediately walked up and asked, "Did we get any good stuff this time around?"

"Darn it, they only have pickles and dried vegetables. It's not worth a penny!" A bandit tsked before continuing, "Fortunately, we have three girls, our brothers will be blessed tonight."

The bandit leader was a little disappointed, but when he saw Lin Dan and the two other girls, he started smiling lecherously. "Good! Although they don’t have pretty faces, at least they have a good figure!"

Lin Dan traveled often all year round and had a healthy and lean figure. Her slender waist was being wrapped tightly in a sash, which made her bosom look more voluptuous and her rear end rounder. She looked completely different from the popular type of morbid beauty but was particularly charming. She was used to facing difficulties and was still calm at that point in time, but her servants shouted angrily, and soon they were being stepped on the ground after having their mouths stuffed.

The handsome man lifted his head to look at the bandit leader, and a dark aura flashed across his eyes quickly.

Lin Dan gave everyone a comforting look and said slowly, "Leader, my ancestor was an imperial chef and my father also imparted some culinary skills to me. If you let go of my servants, I’m willing to cook for your brothers."

Naturally, she would not expect these vicious thugs to let people go. The reason she said so was just to divert the attention of these people. For ordinary people, the imperial chef was someone they would never meet in a lifetime. But if they were to meet by chance, she bet they would be curious. As long as they are curious about meeting the descendant of an imperial chef, Lin Dan would be able to buy more time for everyone. She thought that they would have a chance to escape if she was able to stall some time.

"Are you an imperial cook?" The bandit leader stopped smiling lewdly and looked at her in surprise.

"My grandmaster is an imperial chef, and my father used to be a head chef in the Duke of Yongding’s residence." Lin Dan explained.

“Her family served both the emperor and the Duke of Yongding, they are figures who we can only meet in our dreams!” He thought. The bandit leader gradually changed the way he looked at Lin Dan and said after thinking for a while, “How do I know whether you’re telling the truth? Since we just got two cows, you will kill them and make us dinner. As long as you can satisfy everyone, I will consider letting your people go."

"Thank you." Lin Dan cupped her hands and said, "As it takes a lot of effort to kill the cow, may I ask that you release my two girls so that they can give me some help?" Lin Dan was worried that some bandits might not be able to control themselves and would take advantage of Shaoyao and Dujuan if she left them here.

Killing the cattle was a dirty and tiring job, and the bandits were naturally unwilling to do it. Besides, Shaoyao and Dujuan were only twelve or thirteen years old and were merely young girls who were petite and vulnerable, they did not hesitate and were quick to release them. The others were tied up and thrown into the woodshed.

When the bandits left, Xiao-zhu wiggled over to the handsome man and whispered, "Brother, do you think Zhao Liu and Tietou can find us? When will they arrive?"

The man lay quietly on the ground with his eyes slightly shut. He said in a low voice, "They will find us. Let’s till nightfall."

Xiao-zhu was still a little anxious and lifted his head to look outside the window. He muttered to himself, "I wonder how Manager Lin is doing now."

Lin Dan was doing fine, she was squatting on the ground carefully sharpening a knife while using her fingertips to test the sharpness of the blade from time to time with a serious expression. The two bandits initially stared at her sternly but started to relax and walk away to chatter among themselves when they saw that she was only focused on starting a fire, boiling water, and sharpening their knives. She did not even say a word to the two little girls and did not even survey the surroundings sneakily.

The two cows were huge and their furs were also well-treated. They are obviously farming cattle that were robbed from the bottom of the mountain.

Lin Dan sharpened her knife and walked around the two cows a few times, observing it as if she was choosing a target. Seeing that she was finally ready to kill the cow, the two bandits quickly gathered around to watch with excitement. “It takes skill to kill a cow. Three or five strong-bodied men might not be able to deal with a cow confidently, would a lady like her be able to do it?” They wondered.

However, the two bandits did not offer any help. They stood aside and sneered, their eyes full of malice.

But soon, they felt chill down their spines after seeing what Lin Dan did. She picked one of the cows and asked the two little girls to take the other one away before blindfolding it with a strip of cloth to prevent it from getting agitated. She then stabbed the knife into the cow’s neck and cut off its carotid artery before walking away. She took a scoop of water and slowly washed the blood-stained blade.

The strong cattle, which was five meters away from her, had slowly collapsed. It did not even have time to scream before blood started spurting out from its neck and quickly stained the ground red.

The two bandits were dumbfounded, but Lin Dan did not stop there. After the blood was drained, she cooked the cowhide with boiling water and shaved its hair. As there were some patches of hair that were not removed, the two little girls burned those parts using red iron rods. The smell of burnt flesh and sizzling noise could easily give someone goosebumps.

After cleaning the cow's hide thoroughly, Lin Dan cut through the cow's belly with the knife in a neat manner. Its internal organs instantly flowed all over the ground, and she placed them into the earthenware according to categories before cutting up the cow at its joints. It took less than two hours for her to deal with a farming cow weighing more than 300 catties, and she did it quickly and precisely.

The two bandits did not dare to question her skill anymore and stood outside the pool of blood timidly. They thought in unison, “We should just let her be a cook and don’t take her to bed. Otherwise, we wouldn’t even know when she cuts our neck.”

"Sirs, may I know how many people are there in your camp?" Lin Dan threw the last piece of beef into the pot and asked casually.

"Why are you asking this?" The two bandits got anxious at her question and naturally became warier of her.

"I need to know so that I can estimate how much I need to cook, in case it is not enough to feed everyone here." Lin Dan wiped the bloodstains on her face with a handkerchief calmly.

The bandits found her answer reasonable and did a headcount in their mind. "There are about twenty or thirty of us, you need to cook quite a big portion of food."

Lin Dan nodded and stopped asking further. The three ladies carried the beef into the kitchen and cut them into two-inch cubes before marinating them with soy sauce, cooking wine, salt, and other seasonings. They then deal with the hooves, rump, ribs, and bones and set them aside.

"Master, how can we escape?" The two little girls could not hold back anymore and whispered in her ears.

"We will make this meal first." Lin Dan peeled garlic with a serious and calm expression.

The two girls reckoned that there was no use to get flustered and got themselves up to wash the food ingredients.

After two hours, when the beef was well-marinated, Lin Dan poured half a jar of vegetable oil into a large pot and heated it close to the boiling point before pouring the beef in. She stir-fried it with a spatula until the meat was half-cooked and set aside for later use. Next, she disposed of the oil, washed the wok, added fresh oil, sliced ​​ginger, green onion, and stir-fried it before adding the half-cooked beef, soy sauce, star anise, and other ingredients. She continued to stir fry all the ingredients for a quarter of an hour before adding water to boil. Then, she removed the excess firewood and cooked the beef on a low simmer.

When the beef stew was almost done, she washed the beef tendons, cut them into strips, and stir-fried them to make another braised beef tendon dish. The two little girls have been completely taken aback, as they had never expected that their master would keep cooking even after entering the bandit’s hideout. They could not help but wondered if she saw cooking as more important than her own life.