CHAPTER 428: CHAPTER 145 THE BATTLE BETWEEN SWEET AND SALTY (PART 2)_2

Anyway, there’s no rush.

Du Xixi’s mood suddenly improved significantly, and a natural ease appeared on her face. She slowly stirred the glutinous rice flour with chopsticks, adding warm water gradually. When the flour clumped up into a cotton-like texture, she washed her hands and kneaded it into a dough.

The kneaded glutinous rice dough was smooth and shiny. It needed to be wrapped in a damp cloth to absorb moisture, preventing it from drying and cracking when handling the filling.

Du Xixi set aside the dough and instructed 2569 to take out the filling. The human and robot began dividing the solidified filling into balls about the size of a third of a fist.

The filling "balls" were neatly arranged on a plate. Du Xixi asked 2569 to continue handling the filling while she took the glutinous rice dough out of the damp cloth, placed a new damp cloth on the plate, and then divided the dough into balls.

The glutinous rice balls needed to be slightly larger than the filling "balls" so that they could be wrapped sturdily without the filling leaking out.

While 2569 continued making filling "balls," Du Xixi efficiently prepared the glutinous rice balls. She picked each one up, gently pressed a small dent in the center, then sculpted it into a bowl shape. After carving it out, she inserted a peanut filling "ball" inside, ensuring it was wrapped securely, and then dipped her finger in clean water to slightly moisten the seam.

Du Xixi’s thumb gently rubbed the seam, and the moistened rice ball regained its smooth and shiny texture, becoming a tiny, round, snow-white ball with no indication of the peanut filling inside.

"Wow! So round!" 2569 acted like a child in front of Du Xixi, exclaiming in surprise while still handling the filling "balls." It moved its electronic screen close to the Tangyuan that Du Xixi had placed on the damp cloth, curious about how she effortlessly rolled and shaped the Tangyuan so perfectly.

looked down at the filling "balls" in its hands. Even with its maximum mechanical dexterity, these filling "balls" were not as perfect as the Tangyuan made by Du Xixi.

Why is this? Could it be that human hand control surpasses the precision of machinery?

"You know, there’s a saying that’s quite fitting for us chefs," Du Xixi noticed 2569’s interest in making Tangyuan, so she handed over the rice ball and took over handling the filling. "Nothing else but practice makes perfect."

It’s not that Du Xixi’s hands could surpass the mechanically engineered hands of 2569, but rather her familiarity with Tangyuan. On Blue Star, she had practiced it day after day. Even though her body had changed, the familiar motor memory ingrained in her brain remained.

Because of proficiency, she could do it best.

That’s the only reason.

When 2569 received that soft yet somewhat resilient and slippery rice ball, its mechanical hand paused. The texture was completely different from regular flour dough, intriguing it as a robot.

first pinched it, analyzing the tactile data from its mechanical fingertips and saving it to its program library for future use. Then it imitated Du Xixi’s previous actions, clumsily yet earnestly enlarging the small hole, inserting the filling "ball," and sealing it. Everything seemed simpler than 2569 imagined, but it felt the Tangyuan wasn’t smooth enough, so it tried pressing the Tangyuan with its mechanical hands to round it.

"Wait, don’t press too hard, it will..." Du Xixi forgot to remind 2569 that kneading the glutinous rice dough too hard would cause it to break apart. But her reminder came too late; the previously decent little Tangyuan had already cracked open in 2569’s palm. "It will break..."

"Is there a way to salvage it?" 2569 looked at the rice ball mixed with filling in its hands, displaying a sincere smile on its electronic screen.

Du Xixi: "...Probably not."

Although it didn’t start smoothly, with the failed attempt in the past, 2569 actually did quite well with the next few Tangyuan, all turning out round and smooth, looking cute next to the ones made by Du Xixi.

With a lot of the filling already handled by 2569, Du Xixi only needed to finish things up and was soon making Tangyuan together with 2569.