Chapter 97 Cooking

In order to facilitate her daughter's career in Hollywood, Kate Beckinsale's mother, Judy, had bought a house near Los Angeles, and since her daughter's career in the United States had begun to take off, they hadn't been able to stay in the United Kingdom for very long during the year, so it had effectively become their new home.

Kate had had a stomach ulcer since she was a child and had suffered from it for a long time, she woke up in the morning feeling sick to her stomach, took her medication and then went back to sleep, it was nearly midday before she got up. When she came downstairs in her pajamas, she was surprised to find Ecks sitting in the living room talking to her mother, Judy.

"Mr. Eccles?" Kate Beckinsale had a puzzled look on her face; her own agent usually didn't come to her at this hour.

Ecks whipped his head around to see Kate standing at the top of the stairs, "I heard you were sick?"

"Just a little stomach ache, I'll be fine soon after I take my medicine!" Kate subconsciously tugged at the neckline of her pajamas, because of the presence of the opposite sex, she couldn't dress as casually as she did when she stayed with her mother alone.

"Honey, your face looks so much better!" Her mother, Judy, greeted her as well.

"Thanks mom!" Kate had a charming smile on her face as she gestured for her mother and Ecks to continue talking and prepared herself to go into the kitchen to find something to eat, she hadn't wanted to eat when she had gotten up in the morning, but now she was a little hungry.

Kate had just reached the kitchen door when she noticed a loud noise inside, she turned her head to look at her mother with confusion in her eyes, "There are other guests in the house?"

"To be precise, he's not exactly a guest!" While her mother, Judy, didn't answer, Ecks chuckled.

"Ecks is right, I should be considered an uninvited guest!" Lin Mingyang, dressed as a chef, suddenly appeared behind Kate, startling her.

"Felix?Why are you here too?" Kate Beckinsale covered her mouth in surprise.

"Am I not welcome here?" Lin Mingyang puffed up his mouth in mock anger, and compared to his usual handsome and dashing 10,000 people look, it was at this time that he looked more like a 17 year old teenager.

Kate quickly explained, "But aren't you filming Spider-Man?"

"I thought you never paid attention to news related to me!" The corners of Lin Ming Yang's mouth rose, revealing a badass smile, "In light of my excellent performance on the set, the director gave me a special day off."

"Really?" Kate was skeptical of Lin Ming Yang's claim.

"Actually, I'm just dear Kate now, so I came to see her!" Lin Ming Yang put his head to Kate Beckinsale's ear and whispered.

This intimate gesture made Kate a little uneasy, but her mother Judy and Ecks in the living room both pretended not to see it, and only then did she glare at Lin Ming Yang angrily, "My mom's here, behave yourself, will you?"

Lin Ming Yang obediently shrunk his head back and then formally greeted her, "Hello, Kate!"

Kate Beckinsale kissed him on the cheek like a dragonfly, and then began to "investigate" Lin Ming Yang's current outfit, "Why are you wearing this?"

"What's wrong with it?" Lin Ming Yang stretched out his arms and spun around in front of her demonstratively, "Don't you think this outfit suits me?"

"But you're wearing the apron my mom uses for cooking!" Kate Beckinsale giggled, "You look cute!"

While the two of them were flirting, Ecks sniffs vigorously, "Felix, I think I smell a paste!"

"Shit, my congee!" Lin Ming Yang exclaimed, rushing back to the kitchen in a hurry.

----

Lin Mingyang had originally come with Ecks to convince Kate to be the female lead in Legend of Darkness. Because he had to keep practicing Baji Quan, in the morning Lin Ming Yang usually didn't have the habit of sleeping in, even if he was staying in a hotel, he would still get up early and go to the gym to move his muscles. Today, Ecks was pulled up from his blanket, and after the two of them worked out, they knocked on the door of Kate's house early in the morning.

Lin Mingyang hadn't known about Kate Beckinsale's chronic stomach ulcer before, and learning that the other party's condition wasn't very serious, but having gotten up in the morning without eating, Lin Mingyang had the whim to prepare a surprise for Kate - a Chinese medicinal meal for her.

To be honest Lin Mingyang was not very knowledgeable about medicinal meals, but it so happened that he himself had stomach ulcers before he crossed over, so he paid more attention to the knowledge in this area, and he himself had once cooked some medicinal meals on his own, but since crossing over to the United States, he had not yet formally cooked.

In his head, he remembered a lot of recipes for treating stomach ulcers, but when Lin Mingyang ran to the supermarket on a whim, he found that he couldn't buy all the ingredients he needed. Many of the ingredients used to make medicinal meals were Chinese herbs, which could not be bought in the United States. It was Ecks who reminded him that he could look for them in the stores near Chinatown.

Los Angeles was a major settlement of Chinese in the United States, and the Chinatown here was naturally very famous, and the surrounding stores did sell ingredients for cooking Chinese food, but Lin Ming Yang still didn't have all the ingredients he needed. In the end, it was the chef of a Chinese restaurant who helped him match up the required herbs.

When they returned, Ecks and Mrs. Judy chatted in the living room while Lin Mingyang worked in the kitchen. When Kate came downstairs, he was preparing a medicinal meal called Buddha's Hand Lentil and Coix Congee, which was made by decocting Buddha's Hand in water to get the juice, removing the dregs, and incorporating lentils, coix seeds, yam and pork belly soup to make a thin congee. The function is to diarrhea heat and harmonize the stomach and relieve stomach pain.

Focusing on saying hello to Kate, Lin Ming Yang cooked the porridge and had to do it all over again. Kate stayed in the kitchen with him during the period, at first Lin Mingyang was happy to let her help, but in the face of a pile of ingredients that can not be named, Kate often put the wrong things, in the end, Lin Mingyang still think it is better to let her be a "spectator".

Kate originally wanted to go to the kitchen to find food, surprised by Lin Mingyang's sudden appearance, she temporarily forgot about this matter, and then her stomach is really a little hungry, she remembered this, and then took a carton of milk from the refrigerator, poured it into a cup and prepared to put it into the microwave oven for a while to heat up.

"You usually like milk?" Lin Mingyang, who was adding honey to the medicinal meal he had just made, suddenly stopped what he was doing.

Kate nodded, "Drinking milk when I have a stomachache works!"

Lin Ming Yang walked over and took the milk from Kate's hand and put it back into the refrigerator, "Milk is rich in protein and calcium, all of which can promote the secretion of stomach acid. When milk is drunk into the stomach, although it can neutralize some of the stomach acid, it will again stimulate the secretion of stomach acid, so that the ulcer surface is constantly eroded by stomach acid, which is not conducive to the healing of the ulcer."

"Where do you know all this from?" Kate asked curiously.

"I used to prefer reading science magazines, and there was an article that said that stomach acid secretion would increase by 30% after drinking milk." Lin Mingyang pushed all the problems onto the former Felix, a trick he had tried time and time again, "If you're really hungry, you can try this!"

Lin Ming Yang handed over the egg and panax ginseng stew he had just made, Kate watched him go through the entire process of making it, first he whisked the eggs into a bowl, then added a Chinese herbal powder called panax ginseng, and finally simmered it under water.

"What's this?"

In order to make clear the English translation of the name of this medicinal dish, Lin Mingyang had gone to a lot of trouble, and Kate first tasted a small mouthful.

"It's a bit bitter, but the flavor is unique!"

"You can add a little more honey when you eat it!"

Kate followed Lin Ming Yang's advice, the honey diluted the bitter flavor of the panax pseudoginseng, and it did taste much better than before. Soon the bowl of egg and panax ginseng stew was all filled into her stomach. At this time Lin Ming Yang still had the last dish left in his hands, Kate recognized all the ingredients, which made her feel excited.

"This is cactus and beef?"

"Smart girl!" Lin Ming Yang put the cactus, peeled and spiked, washed and chopped finely together with the beef and sauteed it in a hot frying pan, the last dish for lunch was finally finished.

Because of the bowl of egg tripe stew just now, at the dinner table Kate didn't eat much, both she and her own mother maintained very elegant eating motions, but it was Ecks who gorged himself, nonchalantly sweeping away all the various food items that had been distributed to him on his dinner plate.

"You're saying that eating these dishes can also cure diseases?" Despite thinking that Lin Mingyang's cooking was good, Ecks had a hard time accepting the idea of medicinal food.

Knowing that these dishes were specially prepared by Lin Ming Yang for himself, Kate's heart was filled with sweetness and gratitude, and in the face of Ecks' skepticism, she naturally had to speak up in favor of Lin Ming Yang: "I think Felix's cooking is really effective, and my stomach is feeling much better now!"

"So the Chinese don't even need to take medicine when they get sick?" Ecks looked at Kate's stance-less backpedaling with a helpless expression.

"Of course not." Lin Mingyang didn't want Ecks to explain those complicated principles of Chinese medicine, he made a very common analogy, "Medicinal diets function more like a food matching program designed by a nutritionist, only it's more complex and targeted. You can also understand it as a chronic treatment."

"I have to admire the wisdom of the Chinese, to actually be able to come up with such an amazing means of treatment!" After listening to Lin Mingyang's explanation, Ecks, who had begun to somewhat believe in the functions of medicinal diets, heartily exclaimed.

Lin Mingyang taught Kate and her mother a few relatively simple dietary recipes for treating stomach ulcers, and after lunch their conversation finally returned to the movie Legend of the Dark.

Kate said quite directly, "I don't really like vampire characters."

"Maybe you should read the script first, it's going to be a very unique story." Ecks began a very patient persuasion, "And you mustn't forget that Felix's most famous novel is about a vampire love story, in fact, I like many readers want to know, in the ending of the story, will the hero turn the heroine into a vampire too? So that they can be together forever."

"You're dying to know?"

The way Lin Mingyang spoke made Ecks feel as if he was really ready to reveal this mystery, so Ecks nodded his head vigorously.

But Lin Mingyang hemmed and hawed, then gave him four words, "No comment!"

Although he had hit a nail on the head, Ecks didn't care about Kate Beckinsale's snickering at the side, and said to her in all seriousness, "I promise you that your character this time will be cool, and definitely not the kind of female vampire in the comics or novels!"

After saying this, Ecks passed a wink towards Lin Ming Yang, which drew Kate's gaze over as well, and Lin Ming Yang could only follow Ecks' words.

"Ecks is right, I've read that script, both in terms of conception and plot, it's very different from traditional vampire movies. The most important thing is that the female lead is the first in this movie, all the plot revolves around her, and there will be a lot of space for the performances to be able to play."

Lin Mingyang's words were indeed more useful than Ecks, seeing that Kate was somewhat moved, Ecks took the opportunity to take out Len Wiseman's hand-drawn stills artwork, holding a pistol and dressed in shiny black leather, the heroine's styling succeeded in attracting Kate's attention, and under the attraction of the artwork, she read the script.

Kate slowly realized that Serena, the heroine of the play, was a fully fleshed out character, which was very different from the characters in the comic books. After reading the entire script, she had a whole new appreciation for the heroine, but a new problem had arisen.

"The plot of the script will involve a lot of fighting, do you guys think I can do it?"

"You did great in Terminator 3!" Ecks' answer had a great deal of pep talk in it, and Lin Mingyang had to think about it more than he did.

"Kate, don't think about other factors, I just want to know, do you like this role?"

Seeing Lin Ming Yang appearing rare and serious, Kate thought for a moment and finally nodded her head very seriously.

"Then don't consider any difficulties, as long as it's something you like, I'll help you realize it!" This time, no one took Lin Ming Yang's such a solemn promise as "crazy talk", Ecks was surprised, while Kate was touched in a way that was mixed with strong feelings.

"Then you'll always be by my side during the performance?" In the depths of her feelings, Kate asked in a daze, and when she realized that there was an unrelated "light bulb" sitting next to her, she immediately blushed.

Even a fool can hear the meaning of Kate's words, Ecks secretly shook his head in his heart and sighed, Lin Ming Yang originally owed a lot of debt, and now there is another Kate, this guy's future love life can be busy.

Of course, as an agent, Ecks abided by the morality of his duties and never interfered in his employer's private life, nor did he make any comments.

Lin Ming Yang felt that his mouth was also feeling a bit dry at this time, his throat rolled a bit, and just when he wanted to say something, Ecks coughed twice, pulling everyone out of that awkward atmosphere.

Ecks didn't let go of this opportunity to deride Lin Ming Yang, "You don't need to worry too much about action performances, Felix is a ready-made teacher, I think he'll be happy to direct you!"

For the first time, Lin Ming Yang nodded cooperatively, and the smirk on Ecks' face grew stronger, "And I guarantee that he'll definitely be with you during the performance, because he's the leading man of this movie!"