Who's Speaking?

Wang Ming woke up feeling relief and a cold sweat soaking his entire body. He shuddered from the just thinking about the pain he felt. But the feeling didn't last long until Wang Ming finally felt the pain from his injuries. Wang Ming tried to move his body but found out was futile he could barely move.

Was he going to be a cripple? Wang Ming still wanted to become a renowned chef. How could this happen to him? Feeling frustrated, Wang Ming tried to flail around desperately, but to no fruition, he still couldn't control his arms or legs.

Wang Ming was giving up. He had tried for what he thought were hours but felt nothing other than pain. But then he heard a voice asking him to close his eyes and calm down. The more he struggled, the higher he heard the voice. Wang Ming was afraid of closing his eyes, worried that it would send him back to the torture he had just experienced. He tried his hardest not to close his eyes and relax, but his effort was futile as only seconds later his eyes closed again.

Closing his eyes, Wang Ming steeled himself for the pain, for the knives to stab his heart, but nothing happened instead he felt the voice easing his pain. A soothing feeling went through his mind and body, like how a baby feels when their parents shower them with love.

Opening his eyes again, Wang Ming saw a forest. He could hear the birds chirping, see all kinds of animals running around the woods like bears, rabbits, foxes, and deers. He didn't know why they weren't aggressive towards each other or to him. But he didn't have time to think about it either, as he once again heard the voice that kept bugging him. It told him to move Wang Ming tried to struggle but his body wouldn't listen to him but only the voice.

Wang Ming realized his body had recovered he could walk again. He didn't even realize until his body started walking that he was standing on his feet.

Walking forward, Wang Ming kept looking around curiously. This had to be a dream, right? He dreaded the moment he would wake up from this dream and find himself crippled. It brought his attention back when he felt his body finally stop. In front of him was a beautiful treehouse. It looked lovely in the shade of an enormous oak tree.

There was a small door in the treehouse's front, which was barely big enough that Wang Ming's body could squeeze in. Even though the house exterior consisted only of wood, it looked incredibly well maintained. There were no signs of wear and tear.

"Open the door!"

The voice roared, so loud it made his ears ring. The trees were rustling and swaying like it had just been a storm outside, the strength of the voice were unfathomable. Wang Ming realized though he didn't hear the voice inside his head anymore, but it echoed out from the house.

Entering the house, Wang Ming felt awe by the interior of the house. The house had beautiful marble floors, which looked shiny and expensive. He had never walked on such expensive floor tiles before, so he unconsciously walked gently. The walls had a grey color, but they had a beautiful shine on them like a rainbow was shining on them.

"Go to the kitchen."

This time the voice said with a gentle voice, the house was large so he wasn't sure where the kitchen was. But it was like he had been here before. After walking for 10 seconds, he found the kitchen. There wasn't much in the kitchen, it was bare, which made Wang Ming disappointed. Seeing the rest of the house, he thought the kitchen would be magnificent.

There was only a stone stove which had space in the center where he could put the firewood. Firewood, a table, a different assortment of herbs and vegetables, then the cream of the crop, a dead chicken.

"Welcome, human. If you pass this test, you will get to know the world in a way you didn't think was possible. I can see your biggest desire is to become a superb chef? Pass this test and you can become the food master. If you don't want to become a cripple for the rest of your life, then pass this test. Find your motivation, good luck human."

"What do you mean? What test? What do you want me to do? You want me to cook? There's nothing even here to cook with!" Wang Ming shouted, but all he could hear was his own voice echoing. Looking at the table, Wang Ming then saw a knife to the left of the chicken and got a daring thought. If this is a dream, then this shouldn't hurt.

Taking the knife over his hand, he took a deep breath and sliced it over his hand. Wang Ming could see blood starting to drip from his hand, but he felt no pain. Laughing out loud, Wang Ming thought he was stupid for thinking any of this was real. Everything looked so real, but the fact he didn't feel any pain meant it wasn't.

But before he could think any further, a burning gruesome pain emanated from his wound, which made him scream out. Looking at his hand, Wang Ming could see an orange glow over his hand, which healed it. The orange glow felt more like a flame that kept burning on his hand finally seeing the orange glow fade, Wang Ming sighed in relief.

Swiping sweat off his forehead, Wang Ming realized that this was serious. If he didn't pass this test did it mean that he would die? Or maybe he's stuck here forever if he doesn't pass. Remembering back to what the voice had said, it had asked him if he wanted to be a cripple for the rest of his life if he didn't then he would need to pass the test. So maybe if he passed the test he had hope in life.

That he could recover his body, made him feel incredibly motivated and focused. There's no time to think about useless thoughts, he has to pass this test.

Looking around in the kitchen for anything he could use, Wang Ming realized there's nothing he can use, except from the things on the stone table and the stone stove. There weren't any bowls, pans or casserole for him to use, which meant that his only choice to cook the chicken was to hold it over the stove.

Though his other option would be to scavenge the forest to find something useful, maybe he could make a pan out of something out there. He could use multiple sticks to hold the chicken over the flame, but the problem with that is to control the temperature and ensure that the chicken's cooked evenly through. The skin is also going to be black, which isn't what Wang Ming wants.

But then it finally clicked. He had seen it before in movies and also when he was young it was the dish his father would always make for him. What do you make when you are too poor for pans you use what's available for almost everybody mud?

He could make Beggar's chicken, he just need to come up with a wonderful mixture of herbs, from what he has. Then stuff it in the chicken, wrap it in the mud, which will harden when exposed to heat and protect the chicken from burning.

First, he needed to find out what herbs and vegetables he had, before he could make a mix. Looking at them he could already recognize most of them which were basic herbs and vegetables like ginger, garlic, dried chillies, rhubarb, licorice, etc. There were other herbs and vegetables too, which Wang Ming didn't know what was.

He felt like it was best for him to cook with herbs and vegetables he had used before, or else he didn't know if he was going to pass this test or not.

"Stupid test" Wang Ming cursed with a low voice.

Wang Ming knew he didn't have the five-spice powder, that's essential for the Beggar's Chicken dish. So he had to adapt firstly he finely chopped ginger, garlic and dried chilies. Then doing the same to the rhubarb and grounded some cinnamon together to make his own version of five-spice powder.

The mix was almost perfect, but it might be a bit too sour with both the rhubarb and ginger. Luckily for him at the bottom of the bowl, it was leaves of stevia, which he cut and ground up and used it to sweeten the powder. Though the powder was more like paste than powder, but it was perfect now.

Cutting open the bottom of the chicken, Wang Ming cleaned the inside of the chicken using his hands, and some herbs to clean up the blood. Usually he would have boiled the chicken to clean it up and make it easier to remove the fathers. But since he had no way to boil the chicken, he instead put the chicken over the stove, to burn off most of the feathers, but not burning the skin.

After the chicken was all cleaned up, Wang Ming took a bundle of mushrooms and lettuce, chopped it up in chunks and marinated it with the powder before stuffing it in the chicken. Then Wang Ming made a spice rub with cinnamon and dried chilis to give a lovely kick to the chicken. Which he rubbed on the whole outside of the chicken before he wrapped it in leaves and then went out of the house to gather dirt to cover the chicken with before grilling it.

But when he tried to step out of the kitchen, he felt a force stopping him at the door. "Come on, I only want some fucking mud." Wang Ming screamed at the top of his lungs.

"You only needed to ask."

Wang Ming suddenly saw a big plastic bowl falling from the air towards him. He hurriedly tried to catch it, but it was too late. The plastic bowl landed on the floor and broke, the mud splattered everywhere, but the mud only hit Wang Ming and didn't splash anywhere else in the kitchen.

What pissed Wang Ming off was the fact that the voice hadn't told him earlier that he could ask for things. Then he would have just asked for a wok and rice to make a beautiful dish. Though he was thankful for the mud with this, he could finish the beggar's chicken dish. The mud would protect the leaves from burning, which is why it's so important. The leaves would then keep the chicken moist.

Placing the chicken, which was now a big mud ball above the stove, the flame was big enough so that the whole mud ball were being heated at the same time. Now Wang Ming needed to figure out how long he needed to cook the chicken, since he didn't have a clock. The chicken would need to cook for 3-6 hours depending on the size, any less it's raw any more it's overcooked.

Seeing the mud ball already on the fire, Wang Ming didn't know what to do until he realized he could just count. With the size of the chicken he had, it would roughly take 4 hours, which comes out to roughly 14000 seconds. It was a hassle, but with this method he would ensure the chicken's going to come out perfect.

Even though Wang Ming was counting down the time, he still felt scared the chicken wouldn't be good. What happened if he counted too fast or too slow? Maybe he's off with half an hour? The closer he got to 0, the more nervous he grew. He was afraid of failing the test wouldn't it mean he would become a crippled forever?

"101, 100, 99."

Looking at the mud ball, the mud had completely hardened a while ago. It definitely seemed like the heat was enough Wang Ming was only afraid that the heat was too hot, as the mud ball laid directly on top of the fire. Wang Ming felt his nerves grow even more at this point.

"0."

Hurriedly taking the chicken off the heat, Wang Ming cracked open the mud with the butt of his knife. When the dirt broke, the smell and aroma from the chicken and the spices erupted. He felt his mouth starting to water, and his lips tingle just from the smell. The chilli were strong, which made his nose itch, but it also made him want to taste the chicken even more.

Using the knife, Wang Ming cut open the leaves, to see the most beautiful beggar's chicken he had ever seen. The chicken skin looked perfectly tender and was brown from absorbing the cinnamon and chillies rub. Lightly peeling some skin away to look at the meat, the meat felt and looked incredibly tender. Wang Ming was sure that he could tear the chicken meat apart with a light touch.

Cutting the chicken right down the middle, the aroma of the chicken got to another level. The marinated mushroom and lettuce were just like a spice balloon. When the chicken fell into two pieces, Wang Ming almost had to hold over his nose, as the smell and aroma were so intense. But it didn't smell bad, it smelled good, Wang Ming could almost imagine how the chicken would taste just from the smell.

If the smell reflected the chicken's taste, then this is 100% a 10/10 dish. Taking a bit of the lettuce, Wang Ming used it as a rice cracker and put some vegetables that were marinated in the chicken and chicken meat on it. His hand was trembling a bit in anticipation. This couldn't taste bad, he thought.

Putting the whole lettuce in his mouth, Wang Ming felt dumbfounded. It didn't just taste good. It tasted amazing. The vegetable mix coupled with the chicken were just incredible, the chicken were so tender, coupled with the intense flavor from the chilies just made it better. But the icing on the cake were the vegetable mix, it counteracted the chicken's intense flavor it had a sweet and sour taste to it which complimented the dish even more.

The chicken tasted so good that Wang Ming just wanted to devour the whole chicken. He wanted to taste the chicken wing and thighs next, which is the best part of the chicken. But before he could everything disappeared, there was no house or forest anymore, everything was black. Wang Ming panicked, but then he heard the voice again.

"You've entertained me human, you barely pass."

Before Wang Ming could say anything or comprehend what was happening, he felt his head and body spin in circles as a bright light beam shined and hit his head, then everything turned black once again.