Chapter 59 Holiday Attribute

Laba porridge originated in the Song Dynasty. On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, various large temples in Bianjing would simmer glutinous rice with seven treasures and five flavors to make porridge, a custom that households soon began to imitate.

Rice, beans, walnuts, pine nuts, milk mushrooms, persimmons, and millet—these were the seven ingredients in the original version of Laba porridge, known as the seven treasures, with the five types of fruit besides rice and beans adding five distinct flavors to the porridge.

Of course, the porridge made by Ma Zhaodi was not nearly that elaborate nor all that luxurious.

Rice, millet, glutinous rice, corn, Job's tears, milky-flavored kidney beans, mung beans, red adzuki beans, red kidney beans, red dates, cored lotus seeds, peanuts, longan... and even a bag of dried fruits.

Anyway, the defining trait was variety: whatever was available went into the pot.

At that moment, Ma Zhaodi silently thanked the thoughtful system store, which even featured an ingredient-processing function. For just a few dollars in asset points, it could process those bags of grains, beans, and fruits—peeling, shelling, air-drying, and even shortening an entire night's soaking time down to just a few seconds.

Jason stared in dumbfounded awe as one strange ingredient after another—some he recognized, some he didn't—was added to the pot, swallowing unconsciously.

Whether it tasted good remained to be seen after eating, but this pot of porridge at least looked colorful and smelled mouth-wateringly fragrant.

As water was added to the porridge and the large ladle stirred continuously, the chef's clothes, previously soaked through by melting snow, were dried again by the stove fire, while he hummed a tune that no one else understood.

"Little child, little child, don't be greedy; after Laba comes the New Year.
Laba porridge, drink for days, right up to the twenty-third..."

Jason couldn't understand what he was humming either, only feeling that at this moment he looked very much like Santa Claus from a fairytale. Riding a reindeer and sitting in a sleigh, he would fly down from the chimney and deliver gifts to the children—and he could even sing nursery rhymes.

Swallowing his saliva repeatedly and stirring the giant ladle over and over, the peanuts, beans, lotus seeds, and other ingredients in the pot were finally cooked until they lost their distinct shapes at high heat, blending together and gradually becoming part of a thick, dark reddish porridge. An increasingly intense aroma of grains drifted out, making Jason almost want to sneak a taste in advance.

"Don't reach out your hands; the temperature of this porridge is extremely high." Seeing the restless children around him looking barely able to contain themselves, Ma Zhaodi had to speak up to warn them: "The porridge isn't ready yet. No one be impatient, or you'll burn yourselves and won't be able to drink any."

Thus, the children could only pull their hands back, staring fixedly at the porridge in the pot instead, imagining its taste.

Ma Zhaodi could hear the sound of swallowing echoing around the pot one after another. He couldn't help smiling, but then he sighed a moment later.

He had no idea how many homeless children there were in Gotham living just like the ones in this small room—or even worse.

Then again, he had only received the quest from reading the newspaper, which meant the odd jobs would likely have to be done at the relief center, and this pot probably wouldn't count toward the quest progress. Of course, he wasn't too disappointed, just a little regretful, as he had originally wanted to see what the festive attributes of the food were.

But now, he figured that maybe the relief center business could wait—quests were optional anyway, so what harm was there in doing them a bit later? Besides, he hadn't planned on maxing out the progress bar right away in the first place.

"Alright, alright, the porridge is almost ready to come off the stove—don't worry, none of you are allergic to the ingredients inside. Now, go to my car first and get spoons and bowls."

The second benefit of the Horn of Plenty was that the healing effects of the food it produced could counteract any adverse reactions the food itself might cause, including the widespread peanut allergy prevalent in the United States—a problem just as common in Gotham. Ma Zhaodi couldn't be sure how many of the thirty-odd children in the room suffered from peanut allergies, so all his ingredients had been produced using the Horn of Plenty.

The older children cheered as they retrieved a bundle of wooden spoons and bowls from the car, distributing them one by one. Everyone gathered around the stove fire, watching the chef lift the giant ladle and begin serving the porridge into the bowls one by one, every single bowl filled to the brim.

Jason held out his bowl impatiently, feeling as though he were truly like a child waiting for Santa Claus to hand out gifts back when his parents were still around, when they would also sing to him on Christmas and make him a small Christmas tree.

"Wait a second—"

Before Ma Zhaodi's words could even finish, dozens of spoons had already plunged into the bowls. Having waited a full half-hour, how could this group of children possibly hold back when they could finally drink hot porridge?

"Hiss, hah, hah, hah—"

The next second, a chorus of gasping sounds erupted inside the room. A group of little kids tilted their heads back, exhaling scorching breaths into the air above them, using the cold air to quickly cool the scalding porridge in their mouths.

"It burns your mouth, don't rush..."

The chef looked at the children, one by one tilting their heads back and panting, and unashamedly grinned with a mischievous chuckle: "Hehe, I told you not to rush, but you wouldn't listen."

Quick-witted and sharp-eyed, Jason scooped up a bit of porridge from the pot with a wooden spoon and shoved it directly into the chef's wide-open mouth.

"Hiss, hah, hah, hah—"

Instantly, the small room gained one more mouth tilting back and gasping for air.

Ma Zhaodi took several deep, desperate gulps of cool air before recovering. Fortunately, Jason had only scooped a tiny bit, otherwise it really would have been a bit too much to handle.

"So young and yet refusing to learn anything good, holding a grudge like this! Next time, I'm adding lotus seed cores to your porridge!"

The chef wasn't particularly magnanimous either...

No one had time to argue with him, however. Everyone buried their heads in their bowls, gulping down the porridge. To be precise, they were devouring it like wolves.

This was the first time they had ever tasted such delicious porridge. Although they didn't know what was inside, it was truly thick and sweet, and every mouthful of hot porridge entering the stomach brought a genuine sense of fullness.

The raisins were sweet and tart, the peanuts were crunchy, the red beans were soft and mushy, and the red dates looked beautiful. As they ate the porridge, a warm sensation spread from their stomachs throughout their entire bodies. Their freezing hands and feet gradually grew warm, regaining a rosy, healthy flush, and even the chilblains on their hands and feet slowly faded into healthy skin.

Horn of Plenty: A cornucopia capable of continuously producing food. Relying on it, one can survive in the harshest environments. The food it produces can even provide a certain level of health regeneration and life-drain effects against enemies.

Having chased Jason through several blocks, Ma Zhaodi's stomach was a bit hungry too. He poured himself a bowl of porridge and began to sip it slowly. Before he had taken many bites, a system prompt suddenly popped up before his eyes.

"Winter in Gotham
Status: In Progress (0.037%)
Reward Activated
'Festival' attribute effect activated. Cooked festival food: 'Laba porridge'. Acquired attributes 'Harmonious Nourishment' and 'Warming and Warding Off Cold'.
Harmonious Nourishment: Mixed grains and diverse porridge blend to nourish; enhances the nutritional supplementation effect of Laba porridge for the consumer.
Warming and Warding Off Cold: Ingredients possess a warming nature to keep the body warm and banish the cold; enhances the consumer's cold resistance effect from Laba porridge.
Current attribute enhancement acquired: 0.037%
Note: The quest didn't specify a designated location to advance it anyway, why work yourself up with such active imagination?"

Ma Zhaodi couldn't help it and gave the system a thumbs-up.