Zhao was depressed to the point of collapsing when he saw the rice for the first time.
He had been afraid that there was no rice in this world, and thought that was the reason why Meirin didn't give him any rice to eat. But now he discovered that rice was something that was used to feed the slaves.
At this point, they had only lit up the stove fire, but Zhao rushed over when he saw that one of the female slaves was preparing to pour the oil. "Wait a minute! Before you pour the oil..."
The female slave saw Zhao charging over, so thinking that she might have done something wrong, she immediately knelt down. "Please, Master, punish me."
Zhao slowed his outburst, then shook his head. "I'm not going to punish you. Just listen to me. Before you pour the oil into the pot, you should use a bowl to wash the rice. You put in some water, wash the rice properly, then dump the water back out. And then you put the rice in the pot." While saying this, Zhao took out a copper basin.
The female slave didn't know what Zhao wanted to do, but she took the copper basin from him and put some rice in it. She then went to the spring and washed the rice properly. After that, she brought the rice back and poured it into the pot.
Zhao then added, "Keep using the copper basin to get as much washed rice as possible, and then pour some water into the pot until it's above the rice."
The female slave obeyed and told the other slaves. They started pouring water into the pot with the rice, until the pot was almost full. Zhao had given the slaves a few copper basins he had pulled from the barn to complete the task, while a few slaves kept the fire burning.
Zhao just wanted to give them a meal of rice that was actually very simple to make. In his past life, he lived on his own, so he was very good at making rice. He understood the ratio of rice to water. But now in this pot, he told them to put more water than usual because the firewood directly touched the bottom of the pot, so the heat was relatively hotter than normal.
They all looked at Zhao, who told them to boil rice. The slaves had only heard of boiling vegetables to make soup. They had never seen this kind of method to cook rice before.
It didn't take long before the rice fragrance started to seep out of the pot. This rice hasn't been grown with pesticides and fertilizers, so the natural flavor of the outer bran was good.
Each of the slaves were issued a cheap wooden bowl and spoon to use. Although a bowl, spoon, and cup were simple things, the slaves were very happy that they got to use them.
Zhao was staring at the pot of rice when Meirin came out of the hut. "Master, how do you use those kitchen tools to make a fire?"
It seemed like Meirin was having a little bit of trouble. Zhao followed her into the hut. He had not been too concerned about the kitchen tools, but now that he had a good look, it turned out that all the tools were electrical appliances, such as rice cookers, pancake makers, and a bunch of other things. Everything was electric. Zhao silently looked for any wires, but he didn't even know if there were any, and the walls of his hut was layered with thatch.