Chapter 26: A Dignified Departure

With your abilities, you cannot hope to protect her in the future... With your abilities, you have no right to make promises to me... You cannot even take care of yourself! When the day comes that she graduates, I will intervene by force. When that time comes, I hope you will consider her best interests, for if not, even though you are the son of my dearest friend, I will not hold back!

...

Past one in the morning, Li Can tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep. The words Wei Zhong had left him with burned in his heart like a brand of molten iron, leaving an indelible mark. Li Can understood that Wei Zhong was acting for Wei Lan’s sake. He also knew that, at this moment, he truly was in no position to make promises to her. He was, after all, a chef of no influence, inadequate skill, and little hope for the future.

But Li Can could not accept it!

“Perhaps I cannot refute Wei Zhong’s reasoning, but he is wrong about one thing!” Li Can sat up abruptly, switched on the lamp, and dragged out the large iron barrel hidden among the clutter. As he pried open the lid, a sour, fishy stench assaulted his senses.

It was the corpse of the monster!

“If I can create a dish that no one else in this world can replicate, then I will be unique! I want everyone to go mad for my food! Who says a chef is merely a chef? I, Li Can, will break that stereotype! There is less than a year until Wei Lan graduates. Let’s see what kind of storm I can stir up within this time!”

Without further hesitation, Li Can slipped on his sandals, donned shorts and a tank top, and hefted the iron barrel toward the kitchen downstairs. Every step was steady as bedrock—his gaze firm and resolute.

Perhaps it was that car accident a year ago that had toughened his mind, made him more mature, and taught him the true meaning of “loss.” More than that, he bore the title of God’s Proxy—a survivor of supernatural events. Even if the meaning of that role was still unclear...

Click.

He flicked on the kitchen light, set the iron barrel under the table, and cleared the clutter from the tabletop, making ample workspace.

This was not Li Can’s first midnight culinary experiment. Whenever duty called, no matter the hour, he acted instantly, full of zeal. The only difference tonight was that his ingredient was rather unusual.

Or rather, extremely unusual—so much so that any ordinary person would recoil in horror at the sight.

This was no ordinary creature. Its body was a reddish-brown, its tail covered in scales, black fluids seeped from its wounds, and its massive, mammalian form had eyes sprouting from each limb joint.

“Good thing its head was blasted apart; otherwise, it would look even more monstrous.” Though Li Can was prepared, his scalp still tingled and goosebumps rose as he looked upon the corpse once more. It was not fear, exactly, but a natural reaction to facing the unknown.

“After death, the monster’s body is much smaller—about the size of a large dog. That’s probably due to the black mist. It weighs around two hundred pounds; if the head were still there, certainly more.” These were Li Can’s estimates—not precise, but close enough.

“Normally, a body this size shouldn’t weigh two hundred pounds unless its composition defies common sense.” At this, Li Can couldn’t help but laugh at himself. The thing’s very existence was already beyond reason—what was a little more oddity?

“First, I need to wash it clean.”

He fetched a hose from beneath the cupboard, attaching one end to the faucet, the other to the barrel, and started filling it with water. He was secretly grateful for his extraordinary strength—without it, this two-hundred-pound carcass would require at least two or three people to move.

Water rushed into the barrel, soon submerging the corpse. Li Can turned off the tap and pressed down on the body, squeezing out as much blood and filth as possible.

The monster’s brown skin was dry and rough, resembling asphalt in both texture and hardness—nothing like the soft, yielding flesh of pigs or sheep after death. The water quickly turned murky with black fluids, white foam floating on the surface, likely from air entering the body after death. There were also scraps of fabric—remnants of clothing torn when the monster transformed.

“Filthy!” Li Can dragged the barrel to the bathroom door, tipped out the dirty water, and repeated the process of filling and draining five or six times until the water finally ran fairly clear. Of course, “clean” was relative—there was still some residue, but at least he could now see the creature through the water.

To make it spotless would be nearly impossible. But for his purposes, this level of cleaning would suffice.

Sweat beading on his forehead, Li Can gripped the monstrous carcass and, with a mighty heave, hauled it onto the table with a heavy thump.

The iron table groaned under the weight.

Li Can checked the bottom of the barrel, expecting to find viscera, but instead discovered a small, silver-white key about the size of his little finger. He held it up to the light.

The key’s teeth were of an old-fashioned style, typically used for individual locks or antique doors.

“An old residence...” Li Can immediately thought of the building where Liu Huadong had lived in life. Perhaps this was the key to its door.

“It came here to kill me, that much is certain. It wouldn’t have brought anything unnecessary, but the key to its home—never forgotten.”

Li Can considered throwing the key away to avoid awkward explanations if it was ever found. Yet, after tossing it in the trash, he fished it out again.

“If Liu Huadong’s true form was a monster, perhaps its home contains more clues about all this. I’ll keep it for now and search the place when I have the chance.”

He washed both the key and his hands thoroughly with soap, then slipped the key into his pocket.

On the table, the monster’s corpse sprawled like a small hill, limbs splayed in all directions.

Li Can stood before it, brow furrowed, lost in thought.

“The next step is to skin it, gut it, remove the bones, and dissect it. But the challenge is that none of my previous butchering experience applies to a creature like this.”

Take traditional pig slaughtering, for example: first, you wash the animal clean to give it a dignified end—well, at least to keep things hygienic. Then you bind its limbs, lay it out, place a basin under the head, sever the throat to drain the blood, and, once it dies, inflate the body and scald it in boiling water. That’s why it’s said, ‘A dead pig is not afraid of boiling water.’ After scalding, the hair comes off easily, then you hang it up, open the belly, and make use of every part.

With cattle or sheep, you add a step to skin the carcass.

But none of these methods seem suitable for this unique ingredient.

After much deliberation, Li Can decided to first study the monster’s anatomy; otherwise, he risked ruining the only specimen he had.

“There’s only one of these. Better to be cautious.”

His mind made up.

...

A top chef is, by nature, also a master of anatomy!

(To be continued...)