The Yandere Queen's Manual for Training Her Wife - Chapter 6

Qin Yan handed the entire basket of mushrooms to Yiyi, instructing her to wash them and give them to the guests, then left for the front hall on some errand.

Watching Qin Yan’s retreating back, Xia Mingtang suddenly remembered: I’m here to build up goodwill and earn Boss Qin’s trust! The revolution has not yet succeeded, comrades still need to work hard! I can’t slack off, I have to act at all times!

She brainstormed furiously in her mind, subconsciously pacing back and forth in a circle more than a dozen times.

Yiyi poured the mushrooms into a basin. She had originally intended to focus on her work and ignore a certain dramatic guest. However, the guest’s presence was so strong it was seriously affecting her rhythm, so she had no choice but to ask, “Miss Xia, is there something you need?”

Xia Mingtang had just finished a fierce mental battle and finally made up her mind. “Yiyi, I want to take a few mushrooms now to cook a dish tonight.”

That’s it?

Yiyi pulled her stool back to make room for her. “These were meant for you anyway, just take what you want.”

No need to have spun in a dozen circles for that.

Xia Mingtang was unaware of Yiyi’s internal monologue and happily stepped forward to pick out the mushrooms. She specifically chose the prettiest one with a scaly pattern and shielded it with her hand when Yiyi looked over.

At this moment, she was brimming with confidence: It’s time to show off my true skills.

Yang Fan came to the small kitchen late at night to make a snack. Before she even arrived, she saw a cloud of smoke wafting from the back room. As she got closer and saw who it was, her expression instantly registered “I’ve seen it all now.” “Xia Xiaohua?”

“Ugh…” Every time Xia Mingtang heard that name now, she deeply regretted her hasty choice of name when checking into the inn. She held a pair of chopsticks and nodded reluctantly as a response.

Yang Fan went to the stove and peered into the pot at the messy, gooey pile. “What’s with the sudden interest in cooking yourself?”

Xia Mingtang looked at the tutorial on her phone, timidly adding seasoning to the pot, while also having to answer questions. “I thought about it, and your 36 strategies actually have some merit. Cooking, although I’ve never done it before, doesn’t seem that hard.”

Yang Fan looked at the pile of unrecognizable food in the pot and seriously reflected on how she’d overlooked individual differences when writing her strategy guide. She considered for a moment, then probed, “If you want to launch a food-based attack, why not follow my recipes?”

Xia Mingtang glanced at the word “appropriate amount of salt” on her phone screen, shook the salt shaker over the pot several times, and argued, “The recipes you wrote are all things you like, but they might not please Boss Qin. But today she specially asked me to go mushroom picking with her, and she looked so happy the whole time. That means she likes these mushrooms.”

That actually made a bit of sense.

Yang Fan looked at the bubbling liquid in the pot, and combining it with the context, guessed it was mushroom soup. She tactfully prompted, “But you’re just finding a random recipe online. Are you sure there won’t be any problems with the execution?”

The activity in the pot was quite intense, and Xia Mingtang took half a step back, but her expression remained as firm as if she were pledging allegiance. “Didn’t you say I could do whatever I want, and that she’d be drawn to me as long as it was something I made?”

Yang Fan: ?

Did I actually say that?

“Sometimes I really envy your confidence.”

Xia Mingtang took that as a compliment. While focusing on the contents of the pot, she consoled her, “Don’t be envious. If you insist on praising yourself for one minute every morning, you can also become more and more confident.”

Yang Fan: “…”

No, thanks.

She glanced at the food in the pot, which could almost be described as “tragic,” and felt a pang of sympathy for Qin Yan and guilt for giving such bad advice. Seeing the confident look on the young lady’s face, she decided to salvage what she could. “This is your first time cooking, right? For a dish with such commemorative significance, shouldn’t you try it yourself first?”

That’s a good point.

Xia Mingtang nodded in agreement, scooped a small amount into a white porcelain bowl, and looked at Yang Fan. “You should try it with me.”

“No, no.” Yang Fan shook her head like a rattle. “This is a gift of love for Boss Qin, I shouldn’t try it.”

Xia Mingtang didn’t insist. She took a small spoon and tasted it very seriously.

Seeing her serious expression, Yang Fan felt a little relieved. “How does it taste?”

Xia Mingtang finished the soup in the bowl with a mix of seriousness and confusion. After a moment of thought, she said, “It seems a little salty.”

Yang Fan: ?

Wait, you shook at least a quarter of the salt shaker into it. It’s just ‘a little’ salty? How deep is this person’s self-filtering lens?!

Before she could comment, Xia Mingtang poured half a bowl of water into the pot. “Adding more water should make it better.”

Yang Fan: “…”

I was too quick to be relieved just now.

And so, Yang Fan watched with her own eyes as Xia Mingtang, in her pursuit of “perfection,” added water when it was too salty, then added chili when there was too much water. The pot of mushroom soup became a colorful mess, and Xia Mingtang tasted several bowls of it herself.

The silver lining was that the mushrooms in the pot were getting fewer and fewer, which meant Qin Yan’s suffering would be reduced.

At this point, Xia Mingtang, who was a little dizzy from drinking so much soup, looked at the colorful mushroom soup she had personally cooked and smiled with satisfaction. “Finally, it’s perfect.”

She reached for the clay pot and winced as it burned her hand.

Seeing how unreliable she was, Yang Fan voluntarily offered a helping hand. “I’ll carry it for you. Boss Qin is in the front hall doing accounts right now. You’re something else, you drank so much soup you got drunk.”

“I’m not drunk, I’m just a little… hiccup… bloated.”

The small kitchen wasn’t far from the front hall, but the short distance of a few dozen steps was traversed by Xia Mingtang as if she were doing an acrobatic walk on water. Yang Fan was focused on the clay pot in her hands and didn’t notice the strangeness beside her.

It seemed that every time Qin Yan was working in the front hall, Yiyi would be sweeping nearby. Yang Fan placed the mushroom soup on a table closest to the door and first greeted Yiyi, who was at the entrance. “Working this late?”

Yiyi wiped the table as she replied, “The New Year is coming up. Sister Qin said to do a big spring cleaning for the inn.”

She looked up and saw Xia Mingtang’s dazed expression and asked, “Is Miss Xia not feeling well?”

Xia Mingtang’s head had been spinning the whole way. When she suddenly saw a gray creature approaching her, her internal alarm bells went off. She raised her hands and yelled, “Gray Wolf, you won’t get away with your evil deeds!”

Yang Fan, Yiyi: ?

The commotion was so loud that it startled Qin Yan, who was doing the accounts nearby. She rushed over. “What’s going on?”

“Xiaohua… she just made a bowl of soup for herself, and now… she’s like this.” The sudden turn of events left Yang Fan stammering. She didn’t dare say the soup was originally for Qin Yan.

As they spoke, Xia Mingtang had already put her hands on her hips, made a peace sign with the other, and struck a pose. She shouted, “Moon Prism Power, Make Up! Gray Wolf, prepare to die!”

Yiyi, who was being mistaken for the Gray Wolf, now truly had a face like a dark pot, and she said exasperatedly, “Miss Xia, you’re taking the act a little too far this time.”

Qin Yan picked up the soup from the table and sniffed it, being the first to realize what was happening. “She’s not acting this time. Yiyi, go get a glass of water.”

Yiyi was eager to leave this chaotic place. She had only turned and taken two steps when Xia Mingtang’s loud voice stopped her. “Gray Wolf, don’t you dare run away!”

Xia Mingtang clasped her hands over her forehead and spun around several times, mumbling incantations. “The pretty guardian of love and justice in a sailor suit—Sailor Moon! In the name of the Moon, I’ll punish you!”

Her powerful aura was so strong that it not only made the nearby tables and chairs shake but also completely stunned the people around her.

The pretty guardian of justice tore the hair clip from her hair and aimed her ultimate move at the Gray Wolf. “Moon Tiara Action!”

The evil Gray Wolf should have been defeated by the power of the Moon Tiara, but the Gray Wolf in front of her seemed to have an unusually strong vitality. The pretty guardian released her attack three times, but it didn’t even scratch it.

The pretty guardian encountered an unprecedented strong enemy. Fortunately, she wasn’t alone. “Blue Rabbit, use your Celestial Silk quickly to perform the Heavenly Maiden Scattering Flowers!”

Blue Rabbit, in a sky-blue cheongsam, was yanked and stumbled, but she still managed to be distracted: Do these characters even come from the same story?

Getting distracted during a big battle is a major mistake. The pretty guardian saw that her comrade was not in the right state and hurriedly snatched the silk scarf from her neck, urging, “Now! Heavenly Maiden Scattering Flowers!”

Yiyi watched with her own eyes as her usually gentle boss grabbed both ends of the scarf and threw it in her direction, saying with great resignation, “Heavenly Maiden Scattering Flowers,” while giving her a meaningful look.

Sailor Moon was about to point out that Blue Rabbit’s moves were not standard and her chant wasn’t loud enough, but she saw that the Gray Wolf seemed to be seriously injured, clutching its chest and collapsing to the ground, muttering weakly, “I’ll be back.”

She was still feeling guilty about her lack of training, but her comrade Blue Rabbit had already put away her weapon and said gently, “It’s all right, we’ve defeated her.”

After a fierce battle, the dust finally settled. The pretty guardian seemed to have lost all her strength and collapsed into her comrade’s arms.

Yiyi, who was forced to play the Gray Wolf, stood up from under the table and sighed as she looked at the guest in her boss’s arms who had finally calmed down.

As for Yang Fan, who was not assigned a role, she had the perfect vantage point. From the moment “The pretty guardian of love and justice” began, she had taken out her phone to record the entire process.

Such a rare scene was invaluable material for a novelist.

A man in a white coat came to diagnose Xia Mingtang, and his conclusion was consistent with what Qin Yan had guessed: mushroom poisoning.

An examination of the remaining ingredients in the soup confirmed they were Amanita subglobosa. Its appearance is very similar to an edible puffball mushroom, but it has scaly patterns that require careful differentiation. Such cases are not uncommon in Yun Town.

Once the illness was identified, the rest of the work was simple. “Thankfully, it was caught in time. It’s just a mild neurological disorder. Take the medicine and sleep it off, and she’ll be fine.” The man in the white coat prescribed the medicine and got up to pack his medical bag.

“Thank you for your hard work, Doctor Li. It’s so late and you still had to make a trip.” Qin Yan finally breathed a sigh of relief, her words heartfelt.

“We’re neighbors, don’t be so polite. If there’s nothing else, I’ll be going.” Doctor Li re-tied his loose ponytail and left with a flourish.

Yiyi escorted Doctor Li out of the inn. As for Qin Yan, her sleeve was being held tightly by a certain neurologically disordered guest the entire time.

After taking the medicine, Xia Mingtang no longer made such a fuss, but she kept mumbling to herself. She held on to Qin Yan with one hand and gestured in the air with the other.

“Monster, take this, Flying Fairy from Beyond the Heavens!”

“Hundred Flowers Touching Acupoints Hand, ha!”

Qin Yan, who didn’t watch many cartoons, was puzzled. “Does this ‘pretty guardian in a sailor suit’ have so many special moves?”

Yang Fan, who had witnessed the entire process, wanted to laugh but felt it was inappropriate, so she just pursed her lips and put on a serious expression.

Although the doctor had said she was fine, Qin Yan was still a little worried seeing the patient in such a hyperactive state. “Didn’t you say it was a mild disorder? The people with mild poisoning I’ve seen before weren’t like this…”

Is it possible that this other half is Xia Xiaohua’s true nature?

Yang Fan was very loyal and didn’t expose the person on the spot. She just comforted her, “Everyone’s constitution is different. We all know how good Doctor Li’s medical skills are. If she says it’s mild, it’s mild.”

Qin Yan nodded and said to Yang Fan, “This has been quite a bother for you tonight. It’s late, you should go get some rest. I’ll watch over Xiaohua.”

Since Xia Mingtang was no longer in any danger, Yang Fan naturally had no intention of being a third wheel. She said goodbye and turned to walk toward the door, but then she heard Qin Yan say, “Oh, by the way, send me the video you just took. A guest got poisoned in my inn, so as the owner, I should pay more attention to things like this.”

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