Everyone was busy with the hot pot and casual chatting, no one noticing Teacher Xiao Shan in the corner who had played a trick and was secretly smiling. That slight curve of his lips probably only registered in Yan Jie’s eyes.
His eyes contained a hint of amusement, but after a moment, he looked away as if nothing had happened.
Beside him, Sheng Yujia had to gulp down half a bottle of milk before recovering. He sniffled, his eyes filled with physiological tears.
Seeing his pitiful state, Jiang Nan’an kindly asked: “Do you want to change tables?”
“…” Sheng Yujia looked at him, then at the other tables where people were chatting animatedly. After a long internal struggle, he finally sighed resignedly:
“It’s fine. I can handle it.”
Jiang Nan’an nodded, his lips unconsciously curving again.
By coincidence, Yan Jie caught this slight smile too. He also raised his lips and leaned in slightly closer, speaking in a voice only the two of them could hear:
“Don’t just laugh at others, Mr. Hang. Can you handle this insanely spicy hot pot?”
Jiang Nan’an narrowed his eyes slightly as he stared at him, as if saying “who are you looking down on?”
After a moment of eye contact, Jiang Nan’an suddenly stood up and walked directly to the beverage area, returning with three bottles of strawberry yogurt.
Yan Jie initially thought this was for cooling the spice and was about to say that milk works better than yogurt, but before he could speak, he saw Jiang Nan’an take an empty bowl, open a bottle, and pour the yogurt in.
Then, Yan Jie witnessed a possibility he had never imagined-
Jiang Nan’an took a meat roll he had just fished out of the pot and dunked it straight into the ice-cold yogurt. After the yogurt coated every inch of the meat roll, he lifted it out and, without any hesitation, put it in his mouth.
…?
???
Yan Jie found it difficult to describe his feelings upon witnessing this scene. He felt this image would likely be unforgettable for his entire life.
His mind went blank as he watched Jiang Nan’an methodically chew the meat roll, his Adam’s apple moving slightly as he swallowed this demonic concoction of insanely spicy hot pot dipped in strawberry yogurt, then calmly look at him and ask:
“Why can’t I eat it?”
Shocking.
Truly shocking.
Could competitive spirit really drive humans to commit such acts against nature?
While Yan Jie was filled with a mixture of admiration and shock, Jiang Nan’an had already prepared another piece of tripe.
This time, others noticed his inhuman operation.
inBlue’s voice changed pitch as he stared at the piece of tripe on Jiang Nan’an’s chopsticks, covered in yogurt with visible strawberry bits:
“What are you doing to that tripe? I cannot allow anyone to treat tripe this way??”
“Sorry, tripe,” Jiang Nan’an sincerely apologized to the tripe, then ate it in one bite.
Yan Jie initially thought Jiang Nan’an was just being stubborn, trying to prove he could handle the insanely spicy hot pot. But later he realized something was wrong, because Jiang Nan’an genuinely seemed to find nothing wrong with this eating method and planned to continue eating this way, which made him question his own beliefs:
“Does this… actually taste good?”
“No, it doesn’t,” Jiang Nan’an blinked, admitting it quite frankly.
“Then why eat it this way? Let’s move to the tomato pot, I’ll go with you. Don’t torture yourself, dear.”
“It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t taste good, as long as I can eat it, right? Isn’t the purpose of eating to fill your stomach?” Jiang Nan’an replied coolly.
Yan Jie was speechless. He nodded, thoroughly impressed. Even though he couldn’t understand Jiang Nan’an’s logic, he genuinely gave him a thumbs up-
Someone who could invent this eating method and calmly swallow it all would surely succeed at anything.
Chenghua and inBlue weren’t so composed. These two, who grew up in the birthplace of hot pot, found this behavior completely incomprehensible and extremely infuriating.
Chenghua patted inBlue, jokingly asking: “Little Blue, is this even eating hot pot?”
inBlue shook his head: “Maybe it’s a cultural difference. Where we’re from, not adding spice to hot pot would get you criticized behind your back. Deliberately adding ingredients to change the flavor of a spicy pot is even worse-it’s called sacrilege.”
“Hey, why are you two criticizing Mr. Hang to his face? Don’t think I don’t know, Blue-you and your partner order split pots when you go out. Officials can set fires but commoners can’t light lamps? What’s wrong with our Mr. Hang dipping in some yogurt?” Yan Jie launched the first attack.
inBlue fought back: “My partner is my partner! Is Mr. Hang my partner?”
“You…”
“Is he your partner?”
“I…”
“That settles it. If you want to eat like this, I can refrain from commenting out of courtesy.” inBlue made his final conclusion.
Yan Jie nodded, laughing angrily: “Fine.”
So he also took a bowl from the side, appropriated a bottle of strawberry yogurt that Jiang Nan’an had brought, filled the bowl, and under the admiring, shocked, and confused gazes of others at the table, picked up a pair of chopsticks full of duck intestines covered in strawberry yogurt, mentally prepared himself for half a second, and downed it in one go.
The combination of salty-spicy dipped in sweet-sour was truly bizarre. The taste of the insanely spicy oil hot pot and various spices forcibly combined with strawberry yogurt. He coughed a couple of times, unclear whether from the chili or from the nauseating flavor.
After swallowing that mouthful, Yan Jie immediately stood up and spread his hands toward Chenghua and inBlue, as if to say: How about that?
“Awesome! Brave!” Chenghua raised his beer can: “You’re a real man! Brother, I toast you!”
Yan Jie patted his own shoulder, gave him a thumbs up, then looked at the other person:
“Blue! Convinced yet?!”
inBlue was truly speechless. He felt the world had gone mad and could only numbly nod: “Fine. Go spend your life dipping hot pot in yogurt.”
Having defended his male face and dignity, Yan Jie, satisfied, made a “you’re too kind” gesture to everyone present, then picked up another meat roll from the pot, clearly about to dip it in yogurt again.
Jiang Nan’an raised an eyebrow slightly and blocked the bowl with his hand: “Are you okay?”
“?” Yan Jie confirmed: “This is my own bowl!”
“I know… are you really planning to keep eating like this?”
“What else? When Spring says something, he follows through, okay? So those two troublemakers won’t mock you anymore. Can you tolerate that?”
“Of course I can,” Jiang Nan’an looked puzzled.
“This is actually quite strange, isn’t it?”
“I can’t tolerate it!” Yan Jie was truly amused by Jiang Nan’an. He pushed his hand away and dipped the meat roll into the strawberry yogurt:
“If one person is strange, then two people aren’t strange anymore, right? It’s fine, eat confidently, Mr. Hang. Outside, just say this is our hometown custom. What’s wrong with dipping hot pot in yogurt? We’ll dip it! Let’s try to popularize this eating method nationwide!… Actually, the taste isn’t bad, not as weird as you’d think.”
Jiang Nan’an watched Yan Jie with chopsticks in his mouth, seeming somewhat confused.
Jiang Nan’an certainly knew his eating method was hard for people to accept. In fact, many things he did often left those around him puzzled, but he always ignored them like background noise. After all, what others said or did would not affect his life or choices in any way. He had long been accustomed to being unique and misunderstood.
Over the years, he had met many people who tried to change him to conform to mainstream standards, but someone who would support his behavior and share the judgment from others-this was a first.
After hesitating for a moment, he commented:
“You’re… really strange.”
“How strange?” Yan Jie looked at him.
“A bit stranger than dipping hot pot in yogurt.”
“Wow, such high praise?”
Jiang Nan’an chuckled, opened a new bottle of yogurt, and poured half for him and half for himself.
“Do they have blueberry yogurt? Mango would work too. Let’s finish this and try a different flavor,” Yan Jie casually said.
“There’s peach.”
“That works, I’ll check in a bit.”
Among the three people who couldn’t handle the insanely spicy hot pot, two had found ways to neutralize the flavor. The last one, Sheng Yujia, looked at their yogurt bowls with floating red oil and ultimately lacked the will and courage to try it. But he did get inspired-he got a bowl of clear water and rinsed the cooked food in it before dipping it in sauce, which made it barely edible.
The five of them sat around the insanely spicy hot pot that was pungent even just by smell, yet they managed to achieve a strange harmony through their various creative methods. As they chatted casually, Yan Jie glanced at Sheng Yujia sitting on Jiang Nan’an’s other side and asked:
“Teacher Sheng, are you and Teacher Xiao Shan old friends?”
Sheng Yujia hadn’t expected the topic to suddenly turn to him. He was stunned for a moment before nodding: “I guess so, we’ve known each other for a few years.”
Hearing them talk about this, Chenghua suddenly remembered something: “I know! Didn’t you two act in a TV drama together? I think I watched it. You played a police officer, right?”
Sheng Yujia nodded: “A criminal investigation drama. Xiao Shan… was a victim in one of the cases.”
“Oh?” Yan Jie laughed a couple of times, somewhat interested: “What kind of victim?”
“Many pieces, all broken up.”
“Huh?”
Jiang Nan’an looked at him without immediately explaining, instead fishing out a piece of brain from the hot pot and placing it in Yan Jie’s plate:
“Packed in several plastic bags, stewed in a big pot… kind of like this.”
“That’s too much!” Yan Jie dipped the brain in yogurt and put it in his mouth, indignantly:
“Who killed you? How could they do that to you?!”
“A psychopath. I accidentally ran into him when he returned to the crime scene.”
“That’s intense! Didn’t you call the police?”
“No time, couldn’t escape.”
“You should be more careful next time. Teacher Sheng, did you get justice for him in the end?”
“Yes, he was executed by firing squad.”
“Could they find all of your body parts?”
“No, most of it was eaten. Teacher Sheng set up a cenotaph for me.”
“As expected of a people’s police officer, so kind and reliable, Teacher Sheng… Hey, that brain is pretty tasty even though it’s cooked to pieces. Is there more in the pot?”
“…” The other three at the table stared at them, speechless, unanimously putting down their chopsticks, as quiet as a painting.
It’s rare to find two such weirdos who get along so well.
—
(advanced chapters available on kofi)
![After losing all his wealth, the ancestor rose from his coffin [BL]](https://www.freenovels.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Your-paragraph-text-1.png "After losing all his wealth, the ancestor rose from his coffin [BL]")