Chapter 1015: Doomsday Big Boss 19

Tang Wan looked at the pancake Hu Tongxia handed over. After a brief pause, she nodded and took it. “Then I won’t stand on ceremony. Thank you.”

“It’s nothing. Eat,” Hu Tongxia replied, though his tone carried a trace of distraction.

Originally, he had intended to use the overly salty porridge and spicy pancake to make her realize something was wrong with her sense of taste. But now it seemed perfectly normal. And yet, yesterday, she hadn’t noticed anything strange about the pigeon at all. The contradiction lingered in his mind, growing more puzzling the more he thought about it. In the end, he couldn’t help calling out, “Tang Wan…”

“Hm? What is it?” Tang Wan looked at him while chewing, her expression calm.

Their eyes met, and Hu Tongxia’s heartbeat inexplicably quickened again. He coughed lightly and looked away. “It’s nothing. I was just thinking… I still want to eat barbecue. When will you make it again?”

“When we have meat,” Tang Wan replied without hesitation. “Yesterday was just luck. We happened to run into an edible mutated animal. Who knows when we’ll find one again?”

Hu Tongxia nodded, but inwardly, he had already made up his mind. If that was the case, then he would go out and find one himself.

After breakfast, he left the base. By the time he returned in the afternoon, he was carrying two live hens. “Tang Wan!” he called out, his eyes bright. “Look—two uncontaminated chickens. We can roast them tonight!”

Tang Wan glanced at the chickens, a little surprised. “Where did you catch them?”
“There’s a village nearby,” Hu Tongxia said. “The villagers used to raise chickens. Looks like some survived, so I grabbed two.”

He looked at her expectantly. “We can have roast chicken tonight, right?”
“Of course,” Tang Wan replied with a smile.

Inwardly, she was already pleased. It seemed her cooking had left quite an impression—he couldn’t even wait a day before wanting more. Hu Tongxia, meanwhile, had already begun boiling water. “I’ll handle the feathers,” he said eagerly. This time, he intended to watch everything carefully and roast one himself. If there was any issue, he would definitely figure it out.

Soon, he efficiently slaughtered and cleaned the chickens. Tang Wan seasoned them with salt and cooking wine, letting them marinate. Half an hour later, the two of them carried the chickens to the same spot near the vegetable field. Hu Tongxia quickly set up the fire and said, “Let’s roast one each. Otherwise you’ll be too tired doing both.”

“Alright,” Tang Wan agreed.

They began roasting side by side. Hu Tongxia followed her every movement closely, copying each step without deviation—how she turned the chicken, how she controlled the heat, even the timing. After a while, the rich aroma of roasting meat filled the air.

“Seems about done,” Hu Tongxia said, his voice laced with anticipation.
“Mm.” Tang Wan glanced at him, amused by the eagerness written all over his face.

A few minutes later, she said, “Alright, it’s ready.”

Hu Tongxia immediately peeled back the foil, cut off a piece, and tasted it. This time, the flavor was completely normal—fragrant, tender, exactly as it should be. No bitterness, no strange aftertaste. For a moment, he froze.

Then, almost instinctively, he cut another piece and held it out toward Tang Wan. “Try mine?”