knife

Chapter 391 Should Tofu Pudding Be Sweet or Savory?

In a private room of the restaurant, Li Dachui, dressed as a refined gentleman, sat at the table with four or five exquisite dishes in front of him. Wherever he went, this person with a great appetite would always order a few local specialties.

However, what pleased him most today was the tofu pudding that the shop had just made.

It's snow-white and tender, and looks incredibly appetizing.

A large bowl of tofu pudding was placed in front of him. Li Dachui was preparing the dipping sauce: a spoonful of vinegar, a spoonful of soy sauce, sprinkled with chopped green onions, sprinkled with sesame seeds, and added some minced garlic. Then he had his son bring some boiling vegetable oil, which he poured into the dipping sauce. The aroma immediately filled the air. He then added a few drops of sesame oil, which made the aroma even stronger.

When the waiter left, he was surprised to see that this refined young man had poured the soup from his dipping sauce dish onto the large bowl of snow-white and tender tofu pudding.

Tofu pudding without sugar?

What kind of way of eating is this?
When Ke Wuji entered, he saw Li Dachui holding a spoon, eating the tofu pudding he had seasoned himself, nodding his head and looking extremely satisfied.

After staring at the bowl for a long time, Ke Wuji finally turned his gaze to Li Dachui's face.

It wasn't the face I'd seen that night, but upon closer inspection, I could find many similarities.

Deja vu!

It can only be described in these four words.

Although their appearances are different, their auras are the same.

Therefore, Ke Wuji was not worried about making a mistake.

"Do you prefer your tofu pudding savory or sweet?" Li Dachui asked Ke Wuji across from him with a smile.

Unexpectedly, the first question he asked upon meeting was something like this. Ke Wuji was stunned for a long time before finally saying, "Southerners like sweets."

"Would you like to try this flavor?" Li Dachui asked with a smile, scooping up a few spoonfuls and placing them in the small bowl opposite him before pushing it towards Ke Wuji.

Ke Wuji picked up the small bowl, finished the whole thing in one go, and said with a smile, "It has a unique flavor!"

Li Dachui laughed loudly, "Come on, let's drink! These dishes are all local specialties."

"When you're traveling the world, you eat whatever's available. There's no particular preference. Salty or sweet, as long as it fills your stomach, that's fine!"

“I’m a little different. I love to eat well,” Li Dachui said with a smile. “But like you, I’ve also experienced hunger and hardship, so I know the importance of eating well. Therefore, when I want to eat well myself, I also try to do something so that more people can eat a little better.”

"Young master, you are kind-hearted!"

Li Dachui shook his head: "It's not about benevolence, it's just a means. If I can make more people eat their fill and eat well, they will naturally respect me, like me, and admire me. If it's just people in a village or a neighborhood, I'm a local worthy; if it's people in a city or a region, I'm a local tyrant; and if it's a country? Then I'm a great ruler!"

“Everyone knows the methods, but putting them into practice is incredibly difficult!” Ke Wuji sighed. “We spend our whole lives working hard, but in the end, we can only benefit a few people around us. At best, we can be considered local worthies, but we can’t even be considered local tyrants.”

Li Dachui said, "Indeed, it will be fraught with difficulties. Ke Wuji, are you also planning to go into the mountains to find Han Zheng and Jiang Ping?"

"Young master, how did you know?"

Li Dachui smiled, but did not answer Ke Wuji's question. Instead, he said, "Yang Lixin asked you to go into the mountains to help find people, but I guess you're planning to go into the mountains to take a look. If those two are still alive, you might finish them off with a few more stabs?"

"That's exactly what I was thinking!" Ke Wuji said. "In this way, this mudslinging will be thrown squarely onto He Zudao, and He Zudao and Han Yan of Ruyin will no longer be on the same page. Young master, Han Yan is a staunch confidant of Empress Dowager Jiang Qian. If he clashes with He Zudao and they start fighting, it will be a very good thing for us."

“The idea is good, but I advise you to give it up!” Li Dachui picked up a piece of food and put it into Ke Wuji’s bowl.

"Why?"

“Those two are definitely accompanied by experts,” Li Dachui said.

"As tall as you?" Ke Wuji's expression changed drastically as he looked at Li Dachui.

Li Dachui is a master of innate skill, and the one who can make Li Dachui wary and be called a master is probably also a master of innate skill.

"He Yiming and his men went into the mountains with their dogs and almost found those two people. But at the last moment, the two dogs were killed right in front of He Yiming, and he fled in a sorry state without daring to utter a sound," Li Dachui said. "I just don't know why that person let He Yiming go? What's the point of only killing the two dogs? Wouldn't it have been more satisfying to kill everyone?"

At this point, Li Dachui thoughtfully put down his chopsticks, and after a moment he realized, "So that person also discovered me back then, was he afraid to harm me? I never thought I would save He Yiming's life by accident?" "How could there be a master of innate realm? If there were, would Jiang Shiyuan have died? Would those guards have died?" Ke Wuji was a little confused.

“Jiang Shiyuan was tricked away. I was on the boat at the time, and I was one of the guards!” Li Dachui laughed. “I was the one who covered the escape of those two into the mountains.”

"I see!" Ke Wuji suddenly realized. "But what about that innate master?"

“I don’t know. Han Zheng isn’t at that level, but for someone like Jiang Ping, it would be reasonable to have a master at the Innate level protecting her!” Li Dachui said. “So when you go into the mountains, the best thing you can do is actually find someone, protect them, and properly hand them over to He Zudao.”

"If I hadn't met you, young master, I'm afraid I would have been dead when I found those two people in the mountains this time!" Ke Wuji exhaled, still somewhat shaken.

“Those two people aren’t important!” Li Dachui said, “but making some good connections with them might come in handy sometime in the future. That Han Zheng still has a childlike heart; he’s a good person!”

Ke Wuji laughed.

The people they call "pure-hearted" are, in other words, careless and easy to take advantage of.

"I heard about your amazing deeds in Shu County from He Zudao a few days ago. He Zudao was full of admiration for you!" Ke Wuji said with a smile.

"Didn't he ever consider joining me?" Li Dachui laughed. "He's already flirting with Linghu Ye, and now he's colluding with Han Tan of Nan Chu, and still has ties with Zhang Quanyi. Why didn't he send someone to try and contact me?"

“He Zudao is a very pragmatic man. He didn’t try to collude with you before because you were too far away from him to reach. If you want to deal with him, you have to get past Linghu Ye first, and his judgment is that Linghu Ye is the most likely person to succeed!” Ke Wuji said, “But now it’s different. You control Shu County, and who knows when He Zudao will send someone to Shu County to contact you!”

"I'm quite curious, what will he say to win me over?" Li Dachui stroked his chin, somewhat curious.

“This man’s thoughts are really hard to fathom.” Ke Wuji shook his head and said, “I used to think I could grasp his intentions, but after we went to great lengths, pulled through countless connections, and welcomed him all the way to the south, we found that it was not the case at all!”

"Is he distancing himself from you while getting involved with those wealthy and powerful families who are at odds with you?" Li Dachui said.

Ke Wuji nodded: "Exactly. Those noble families fought He Zudao a few times, and seeing that they were no match for him, they immediately became opportunists. They thought He Zudao would look down on them, but they didn't expect He Zudao to welcome them so warmly!"

"So now, besides his original subordinates, He Zudao's forces include people like you and local powerful families, and the two sides are locked in a fierce battle!"

"Your insight is profound, sir!"

Li Dachui snorted: "It's the way of balance. It hooks you up and connects you to him. Everyone has to rely on him to mediate, otherwise colleagues will turn into enemies and fight to the death."

"Young Master, what should we do next?" Ke Wuji asked.

"Of course we need to have our own territory!" Li Dachui said. "We need to fight those powerful families to the death, fight them to the bitter end, and then when He Zudao comes to mediate, we should take the opportunity to have our own territory and build our own real army."

"Will the young master send people to support us?" Ke Wuji's eyes lit up.

“We will select people from the south and use various means to enter your territory to help you build this territory as solid as a rock!” Li Dachui said.

“It will naturally be a powerful weapon for you, young master!” Ke Wuji’s eyes lit up: “Then, based on this territory, we can gradually grow stronger and eventually become a right-hand man like Shu County!”

“Relying on natural development would take forever!” Li Dachui said. “We must win over everyone we can, unite everyone we can, and rapidly expand our power in a short period of time. Only in this way can we occupy a more important position within the He Zudao Group and gain more say!”

Ke Wuji nodded repeatedly.

Do you think He Yiming is someone who can be won over?

"This person will be very difficult to win over. His connection with Zhang Quanyi is too deep, and this time he has also seriously offended Yang Lixin and He Zudao."

"He didn't get the job done for Zhang Quanyi either!" Li Dachui laughed. "This is like Pigsy looking in the mirror, he's caught between a rock and a hard place. I think this is the best time to win him over."

“In that case, I’m afraid you’ll have to take action yourself, otherwise it will be very difficult to persuade this person!” Ke Wuji said, “Based on my understanding of them, I’m afraid Zhang Quanyi has some major weakness that he has been given leverage over. If we want to persuade this person to submit to us, we have to solve this problem that he cannot solve himself.”

Li Dachui nodded: "Okay, I'll go see him directly."

"Are you going to reveal your identity to him?"

“Of course, I’ve already made a name for myself in Shu County, so it’s not surprising that I’m showing up in Luoyang!” Li Dachui laughed and raised his glass. “Next, you go into the mountains, and I’ll go find this He Yiming. He’s probably scared out of his wits by now!”

(End of this chapter)