Nonsense! How could my adopted son be a villain?

Xu Lingguang then looked at Youyu, who also shook his head and said, "I don't know."

Xu Lingguang sighed and had no choice but to give up. He thought to himself that Lan Jian had given him such a generous gift, and he had to remember this favor. Although he couldn't repay it all in a short time, he had to be more considerate of people and not let it be like this time, when people came to give him gifts but he didn't even prepare a chair.

It's so embarrassing.

Xu Lingguang shook his head, temporarily putting these messy thoughts behind him, and ate with the cubs.

Because of his birthday, Xu Lingguang prepared some lychee rice wine. It was made from the leftover lychees from the last batch of lychee cakes, and it tasted sweet and fragrant, perfect for the little ones.

Xu Lingguang poured a glass for each of the cubs, then raised his own glass and clinked it against each of them, saying, "Dinner's ready!"

The cubs cheered, took a sip of the sweet lychee wine, and couldn't wait to dig in. However, they at least remembered that Xu Lingguang was the birthday boy, and they eagerly served him the first bite of food.

The small plates in front of Xu Lingguang were immediately piled up to the brim.

Yun Feng and Yu Rong, in particular, didn't even care about eating themselves, and wished they could pile all the dishes in front of Xu Lingguang.

He was both amused and exasperated, and coaxed the cubs to eat first.

The cubs finally calmed down and obediently enjoyed their feast.

After dinner, Xu Lingguang led the cubs to try making a cake.

Making a cake was actually a bit of a spur-of-the-moment idea. The cake base is easy to make, but in this era there were no ovens, so baking a cake in a constant high-temperature environment was actually quite difficult.

But then he suddenly remembered that the alchemy furnace also needs to be kept at a constant temperature when refining pills, and the temperature control requirements are very precise. Isn't this similar to the principle of baking a cake?

So he rubbed his hands together, ready to give it a try.

Of course, the size of the cake was not suitable for baking in a traditional oven, so he made a closed earthen stove similar to an oven. The lower part was used for heating, while the upper part was a closed "oven", leaving only a small square hole for observing the inside.

After being dried in the sun for two days, the homemade oven was completely dry. Xu Lingguang touched it and found it to be quite sturdy, so he and the cubs began preparing the cake batter.

There was no shortage of eggs at home. The two hens laid eggs every day, and Xu Lingguang had saved up quite a few eggs. The family had long since had enough eggs to eat.

Flour, milk, and sugar were all bought in advance.

Xu Lingguang put on an apron and began making cake batter with great enthusiasm.

Unable to help, the four cubs huddled around the table, watching with wide, curious eyes, occasionally chattering amongst themselves.

Seeing Xu Lingguang cracking the egg, Mu Yun said with disdain, "I don't like egg yolks."

Yu Rong rolled her eyes at him: "Why are you still picky about food?"

Mu Yun snorted and glared back: "Why don't you eat your vegetables?!"

Yu Rong stopped talking, then guiltily peeked at Xu Lingguang and changed the subject: "I like to drink milk!"

Xu Lingguang casually poured some fresh milk into small cups and distributed them to the cubs: "Try it first. We need to make more cake bases. There's not much milk left. I'll buy more another day."

He talked to the cubs without stopping what he was doing. He had already separated the egg yolks and whites, added milk and sugar and mixed them well, and then started sifting flour.

Yu, who was standing next to him, secretly noted his movements. Seeing five or six small bowls stacked on the table, she volunteered, "Let me help you. Shall we follow your steps?"

Xu Lingguang glanced at him and saw that he was eager to try. He swallowed his initial refusal and thought for a moment before giving him a few eggs: "Well, give it a try. Just follow my steps. Ask me if you don't understand."

Youyu nodded, his face serious, and began cracking the eggs meticulously.

The cubs weren't allowed to participate, but seeing that Youyu was helping, they were eager to try. They surrounded Youyu, watching intently as she separated the egg yolk and white, chattering incessantly, "It broke! It broke! The yolk leaked in!"

"Is this useless now?" Yun Feng frowned and said, "Brother Ling Guang said we can't mix them together."

With a stern face, Youyu had no choice but to use another bowl, frowning as she carefully separated the eggs. Fortunately, this time it went smoothly, and she successfully separated the yolks and whites.

But when it came to sifting the flour, another problem arose. The sieve shook, and flour flew everywhere. Zhao Ling, who was closest to the sieve, suddenly sneezed, and tiny sparks flew from her tender yellow beak, turning the snow-white flour yellow.

Youyu: "..."

Xu Lingguang, who was secretly observing from the side: "..."

Zhaoling probably realized she had made a mistake, and shrunk back dejectedly, covering her head with her wings and making low chirping sounds.

Yu calmly poured off the burnt flour from the sieve and comforted him, saying, "It's alright, there's still plenty of flour."

Zhaoling peeked out from between her wings and saw that the sieve was indeed full of flour again. She cheered up and carefully flapped her wings: "Chirp!"

As a result, because he had grown much bigger, the wind from his flapping wings blew flour everywhere, and several cubs sneezed in succession.

As Xu Lingguang listened to the cubs' cries of "Ah Qiu," a smile played on his lips as he quickly stirred the cake batter and poured it into his homemade mold.

He moved quickly and skillfully, and while he had already made four cake batters, Youyu and the cubs finally carefully made the fifth cake batter.

With a serious expression, Youyu carefully poured the cake batter into the mold, and the cubs cheered softly, completely unaware that their faces and bodies were covered in white flour.

Xu Lingguang glanced at it and saw that the cake batter had been overmixed and had actually deflated somewhat.

But he didn't say anything, and just smiled as he placed the five molds side by side.

Next comes the most important step: baking.

The five molds are not large, only about four or five inches in size.

The earthen stove had been preheated with firewood at the bottom, but Xu Lingguang felt the temperature and realized that the stove was too thick and the temperature wasn't high enough. So he held a twig in front of Zhaoling and coaxed, "Quick, sneeze again, and you'll get some sparks."

Zhaoling cooperated and began to moan "Ah Qiu" "Ah Qiu".

After making three "ah-qiu" sounds, a small spark finally flew out of his mouth and landed on the branch, where it immediately burst into flames. Xu Lingguang quickly stuffed the branch into the bottom of the earthen stove and threw in some more durable wood.

Then, he carefully placed the three molds filled with cake batter into the heated earthen stove.

He sealed the earthen stove and then began to observe the expansion of the cake batter through the small square hole. If the fire was too high, he used his spiritual power to reduce the flames. If the fire was too low, he quickly withdrew his spiritual power to make the flames at the bottom bigger.

The cake batter quickly rose and emitted a sweet aroma.

Zhaoling was especially happy. He realized that he had been helpful and proudly spread his wings and walked around the earthen stove, occasionally making clear chirping sounds.

Yu and the cubs stared expectantly at the earthen stove.

When the first batch of cakes came out of the oven, the cubs stared intently at the earthen stove, their eyes glued to the surface.

Yu Rong even swallowed loudly and said, "It smells so good."

Mu Yun chimed in, "I like eating egg yolks again."

Xu Lingguang took out the cakes and saw that two of the three had cracked tops and one had collapsed. This was expected, since it was his first time trying it and he didn't have much experience in controlling the heat.

At least the inside is cooked through. Although it doesn't look very appealing, it should taste good.

He unmolded the cake and distributed it to the cubs.

It was the first time the cubs had eaten cake. The four- or five-inch cake wasn't very big, so each cub got half of the three cakes.

Yu Rong didn't care that it was too hot to eat, and took a big bite without waiting. She gasped for breath because of the heat, but still said in a soft, sweet voice, "It's so delicious."