Add an appropriate amount of water to the flour and mix until thick, forming a batter.

Add the sliced meat to the batter and coat both sides evenly.

Pour a generous amount of oil into a pan and heat it until it just begins to smoke. Add the battered slices one at a time so they don't stick together. Once both sides are golden, take them out and drain off the oil.

Once all the slices have been fried, don't turn off the heat. Put them all back into the oil for a second fry. The oil needs to be very hot this time. Depending on the size of the slices, thirty seconds is usually enough. Then take them out and drain off the oil.

Zhuohua had originally planned to cut the fatty pork into chunks and render them into cracklings, but little kitty had sliced all the fat instead. Still, she could render oil from slices too... Oh, right. Didn't she have a refrigerator?

Zhuohua suddenly remembered that she had a refrigerator. She hurried to the doorway, pushed the refrigerator that had been serving as a sentry back inside, and plugged it in again.

Refrigerator: You remembered me now, huh?

But Zhuohua didn't care what the refrigerator thought.

First, she found a large pot and blanched the meat slices. She poured out the water, then added a little fresh water.

Then she tipped a large amount of sliced meat into the pot and simmered it over low heat.

When it came to rendering the lard, Zhuohua added a huge amount of fatty pork slices—nearly half of all the meat went into the pot.

After all, lard was an ingredient she could keep using. If they ran into another anomaly later, it might come in handy.

While that was cooking, Zhuohua washed the remaining fatty pork slices and put them in a pot of cold water. She added star anise, sliced ginger, and cooking wine, then boiled the pork belly until it was cooked through.

Finely mince the dried chilies, Sichuan peppercorns, ginger, and garlic, then put them in a bowl. Add an appropriate amount of light soy sauce and sugar. Heat oil in a separate pan. Let the hot oil cool slightly, then pour it into the bowl with the chilies.

That was the dipping sauce.

Put the cooked meat slices in a steamer. Once the water boils, steam them for another fifteen minutes. Take them out, dip them in the sauce, and dig in.

Then she fished the cracklings out of the pot beside her and poured the golden lard into a heatproof jar.

Zhuohua picked up a slice of steamed pork with her chopsticks, dipped it in the sauce, and held it out for little kitty.

“Little kitty, try some.”

“Meow~” Maomao gave a sweet little cry, then tentatively took a bite.

The cat's eyes lit up.

“Myaowowowowow! Wawawawawa!” Maomao immediately let out a string of bizarre cries, rubbing against Zhuohua's leg as it meowed.

Zhuohua enjoyed being fawned over for a little while, then set the dipping sauce and the steamed pork down on the floor.

Maomao copied her, using a tentacle to spear a slice of meat and dip it in the sauce. Then it began eating in small bites, like a perfectly ordinary little kitty.

The little kitty didn't open its huge maw like it had the first time it ate a kitchen knife. It seemed to have learned a more human—and cuter—way to eat: the little-kitty way.

Well... Zhuohua didn't really like pork. There was always fat mixed in with it, and she hated eating fat.

Luckily, little kitty wasn't picky and ate whatever she gave it... Had it never had anything good to eat before?

At the thought, Zhuohua brought little kitty a huge pile of fried meat slices too. “There's plenty more.”

“Myaow~”

“[Wife] Affection +2.”

After dinner, Zhuohua tidied up the dishes. She'd barely started washing when Maomao hopped onto the edge of the sink.

Then it stretched out its unstoppable black tentacles and got to work in a dazzling flurry.

The kitchen was spotless.

“Maomao! You're amazing!” Zhuohua's eyes sparkled. She took off her gloves, scooped Maomao up, and started nuzzling it.

“Myaow!”

The little kitty halfheartedly pushed Zhuohua away a few times, but Zhuohua responded by showering its face with kisses. In the end, it accepted them with an air of haughty satisfaction.

“Rustle, rustle, rustle!”

Zhuohua put the mountain of cash into her storage pouch and neatly arranged the odds and ends in the corners of the house. She filled the refrigerator with cakes, desserts, fruits, vegetables, and other things that wouldn't keep for long. The snacks with longer shelf lives went beside the sofa.

There really wasn't anywhere else to put anything.

Now that Zhuohua had something to hope for in the future, she decided to buy wallpaper, flooring, a security door, and whatever else she needed to clean up the basement.

Zhuohua really did want to return the money and belongings to their rightful owners. But this base was such a complete mess that even the most convincing story would probably get her arrested and used as a scapegoat without a second thought.

“Maomao, we're going out. Don't let anyone see you, okay?”

“Myaow~”

The little kitty skillfully climbed onto Zhuohua's shoulder and left the basement with her.

But when they reached the familiar gate in the wall, Zhuohua saw quite a few soldiers stationed there. They were neatly dressed and looked much more official than the guards at the gate yesterday.

Zhuohua wrinkled her nose, its skin covered in burn scars, and caught a strong smell of burning. Wisps of black smoke drifted across the gloomy sky.

Even the tall wall couldn't hide the wailing coming from beyond it.

There were plenty of busybodies in the slums. A lot of people had gathered by the gate to watch. Even when the soldiers drove them off, they only moved a little farther away and kept chatting in groups.

Zhuohua stood a little way off, close enough to hear them whispering.

“I smell fried meat... It smells so good.”

“That fire turned the whole street to ash. There was a lot of good stuff in there, and now it's all gone.”

“Damn it, there was only a wall between us, and those two still wouldn't let us through. Better in my pocket than burned to ashes, right?”

“I heard they caught that crazy woman from the luxury store. When they arrested her, she kept shouting that she was innocent and had been controlled.”

“Heh. Another idiot trying to use an anomaly as an excuse. There hasn't been an anomaly anywhere in the world for sixty years. If you're going to make excuses, at least come up with a better one.”

“Where's that smell of fried meat coming from...?”

Zhuohua slowly turned to look at Maomao.

She'd been so busy cooking that morning, she'd completely forgotten to ask where Maomao had gotten the food and money.

She hadn't expected Maomao to set the whole commercial street on fire.

From what the bystanders were saying, it seemed Maomao had even controlled someone else to do it.

Still, every shop had a fire extinguisher, and there were fire hydrants along the street. Surely no one had been hurt.

Maomao lowered its head a little guiltily, not daring to face her.

After Zhuohua woke up, she'd comforted it and said she didn't want it doing that because she was worried about its safety. But Maomao knew Zhuohua didn't like it killing humans.

Maomao couldn't understand. Those ants had made its [mate] sad, so why shouldn't it crush them?

...Was it just because they were the same kind as its [mate]?

Maomao suddenly looked up, struck by a sudden realization!

So that's it! Its [mate] was sad because one of her kind had died!

Aww, so fragile and cute. What am I supposed to do with you, meow~

In that case, next time any ants hurt Zhuohua, Maomao would turn them into something nonhuman before killing them.

■What a genius!

Zhuohua stared at Maomao in confusion. It had been looking down, but just as she was about to question it, it suddenly raised its head. Its eyes were so bright that it startled her.

Then it tilted its head and glanced sideways at her, the corners of its mouth lifting into a smug little smile.

What on earth was going on in the little kitty's head...