The Legend of the Condor Heroes: From Being Expelled from Peach Blossom Island

Chapter 435 Hometown Suzhou
In early winter, Suzhou city takes on a more desolate feel. At the entrance of Oriole Lane and beside Magpie Bridge, the vibrant colors of spring are gone, replaced by a thin layer of snow.

The Wu family's Wuweilou Restaurant looks a bit dilapidated compared to Wu Chengyu's time, but it is always especially lively in winter.

Wu Chengyu's Wu Family Hot Pot, which he founded at Wuweilou, has long been a winter spectacle in Suzhou. With the cold wind howling and the snow falling, what could be better than ordering a hot pot at Wuweilou, inviting a few friends to enjoy the snow, cook meat, and drink wine?

At this time, Wuweilou was bustling with customers, truly a place where guests filled the seats.

Wu Chengyu was sitting in a window seat on the second floor of Wuweilou, a seat that used to be his reserved spot.

I still remember that year he had just turned 16 and was arranged by his fourth uncle to be in charge of Wuweilou. He used to sit there every day pretending to recite Taoist scriptures.

He was handsome with white teeth and red lips. When he wasn't standing up, the young women and wives passing by on the Magpie Bridge would always take out their handkerchiefs and pretend to wipe their sweat, but in reality, they were secretly looking at this jade-like young man.

Of course, back then, whenever Wu Chengyu stood up, these shy girls would be startled and quickly lower their heads and leave. No matter how pretty their faces were, their massive, refrigerator-like bodies would definitely scare away a lot of people.

And then there's Ah Ku, who hides in the kitchen, either stewing pig's head or boiling pork hock. Many of the beggars around him eat until their faces are greasy, so Wu Chengyu's share of the profits can be deducted quite a bit.

Things have changed. Wu Chengyu has been away from Suzhou for six or seven years. His special seat from back then has been abolished. Today, it's just a coincidence that he's been put back in his original seat.

Turning my head slightly, I looked at the scenery outside the window. It was like a magpie bridge covered with a layer of frosting sugar. Water flowed in all directions, and there were 390 bridges. It was all white and clean.

Gone is the splendor of spring, replaced by a sense of desolation, or rather, the sorrow of parting in Wu Chengyu's eyes. After all, Suzhou is his hometown in this life.

Gradually, more and more people passed under the bridge, mostly young women and married women, who, just like before, took out their handkerchiefs, covered their faces, and looked up.

Wu Chengyu was looking at the Magpie Bridge, and the people on the Magpie Bridge were looking at him, just like back then, exactly like back then.

However, Wu Chengyu is now tall, slender, and well-proportioned, and I'm afraid that if these girls look at her for too long, they will become unable to resist her charms.

Just then, the waiter stepped forward and said, "Sir, you look a little unfamiliar. It must be your first time here. Your arrival means you have a special connection with Wuweilou."

I don't know what you'd like to eat. Our Wuweilou restaurant specializes in hot pot in winter, offering mushroom clear broth hot pot, dogwood spicy hot pot, pickled cabbage and pork hot pot, and medicinal turtle hot pot.

In winter, people from all over Suzhou love to come here for a hot pot. You'll want to come back again and again, you won't want to leave!

If you feel lonely eating hot pot alone, we also have other signature dishes. To be honest, there are five flavors in life, and Wuweilou also has five flavors: sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, and salty.

Sauerkraut fish, sweet and sour pork, bitter melon stewed with duck, Mapo tofu, and eight-treasure pickles, paired with some seasonal side dishes and a pot of warm Shaoxing wine—that's the ultimate taste of life.

Wu Chengyu chuckled upon hearing this. As expected of a waiter, he was quite eloquent. This waiter was young but very experienced, yet he was not an old acquaintance of his.

"Order a spicy hot pot, sweet and sour pork and stewed duck. You can order two seasonal dishes, but it must include pickled winter bamboo shoot jelly. The Shaoxing rice wine must be from Deshenglou, as I know they supply wine to Suzhou year-round. Also, I'll have your Jinshui chef personally prepare the dishes I order, and I'll give you an extra 10% surcharge according to the rules."

The waiter's eyes lit up: "I, Wu Ping'an, have been blind today. I know about Shaoxing Deshenglou's yellow wine, I know that Chef Dian Jinshui personally added 10% to the price, and I even know about our restaurant's pickled winter bamboo shoot jelly. This dish is only available in early winter and is never sold, only given to regular customers."

"Sir, you must be a regular customer of my Wuwei Restaurant. I've been here for over a year but have never seen you before. It must have been quite some time since you last visited."

Wu Chengyu looked at Wu Ping'an with great interest. What a protagonist's name! Putting everything else aside, the little guy is at least clever enough.

"Dafang Zhengcheng, Pingkang Changjing, you belong to the Ping generation of the Wu family?"

The waiter, Wu Ping'an, narrowed his eyes. This customer seemed to know a lot. He chuckled and stopped trying to get close to him. He ordered the dishes to be served immediately and then made up an excuse to leave.

Wu Chengyu didn't take it seriously, and soon all the things he ordered were served.

Whether it's hot pot or the five signature dishes of Wuweilou, they were all created by Wu Chengyu back then. There are also other rules, such as the dishes you order may not always be made by the head chef.

However, if you specifically request the head chef to cook, there must be an additional fee to elevate the chef's prestige. Wu Chengyu felt this was fair; he was already being generous by not charging a corkage fee.

Besides pickled winter bamboo shoot jelly, there are three other snacks, each with a unique flavor in each season. They are not easy to make, are highly seasonal, and have low production. Wu Chengyu created them to win over regular customers, giving them away instead of selling them. His aim was to enhance the emotional value for regular customers and help them elevate their social standing.

However, the Shaoxing wine from Deshenglou Restaurant, even though Brother Wu has been dead for many years, is still supplied to the Wu family of Suzhou as usual. Wu Chengyu felt a pang of nostalgia when he thought of this.

Looking at the spicy hot pot in front of him, a copper pot personally designed by Wu Chengyu, which was actually copied from the style of old Beijing hot pot, he could hear the conversation of the people around him, all speaking in Suzhou dialect, which felt very familiar.

At first, it was all about everyday family matters, which helped Wu Chengyu get used to the current environment of Suzhou. But what followed gave Wu Chengyu some new insights.

"I heard that Wu Chenglian, the eldest son of the Wu family, became the Vice Minister of Revenue at a young age. The Wu family has certainly risen in status."

"That's right. Wu Chenglian was the third-ranked scholar in the imperial examination back then. He first married the granddaughter of a great scholar from the Hangzhou Academy. That scholar had many students, and quite a few of them were officials in the court."

Moreover, he had become a disciple of Lord Zheng Qingzhi. Since Shi Miyuan's death, Lord Zheng Qingzhi had been highly regarded by the current emperor and had replaced Shi Miyuan as the Privy Councilor. In recent years, his position had risen even higher, and he had just become the Prime Minister of our Great Song Dynasty.

With the Prime Minister as his mentor, Wu Chenglian would be more than just a Vice Minister by now, if he weren't still so young. The Wu family is now incredibly powerful. The eldest branch has moved to Hangzhou, fully supporting Wu Chenglian's political career, while the second branch, leveraging Lord Zheng's influence, is responsible for developing trade routes in the Hangzhou area, making a fortune. All the properties in Suzhou have been handed over to the third branch.

"But I've heard that the third branch of the family has been at odds with the first and second branches of the family in recent years. The third branch of the family hasn't really benefited from Wu Chenglian's official position."

"So what? The properties in Suzhou alone are enough for the Third Branch to manage. Not to mention anything else, the Third Branch is now the number one family in Suzhou. We ordinary people shouldn't worry about the affairs of powerful families."

"That's right. In any case, the reputation of the third branch of the Wu family has always been good. They have never done anything to bully men or women or commit any heinous acts in Suzhou."

Moreover, during the floods a few years ago, if it weren't for Uncle Wu Zhengliang from the third branch of the Wu family leading the disaster relief efforts, setting up soup kitchens, and recruiting displaced people to reclaim wasteland, who knows how many people would have died.

"That's right. Having someone like Wu Zhengliang, the Fourth Master Wu, is a blessing for us Suzhou people. Come on, let's eat. Wuweilou is really considerate of us regular customers. We can have this winter bamboo shoot jelly even though it's only early winter. Look, there are only a few tables in the whole restaurant that can get this. How prestigious."

Wu Chengyu picked up a piece of sweet and sour pork with his chopsticks in his right hand. The pork was coated with cornstarch and fried until crispy, while the tenderloin inside was just the right amount of tender and juicy. Jinshui's cooking skills have improved a lot.

As for the Wu family's current situation, it didn't surprise Wu Chengyu at all.

Because of Shi Miyuan, the three branches of the Wu family split up. Later, Wu Chengyu assassinated Shi Miyuan, and Zheng Qingzhi, who was second only to Shi Miyuan, took over. This person was the Wu family's backer.

So the eldest and second branches of the Wu family moved to Hangzhou, hoping to get close to Zheng Qingzhi, and now their wish has been fulfilled.

His third brother, Wu Chenglian, is just over thirty years old and is already the Vice Minister of Revenue, thanks to the promotion he received from Zheng Qingzhi.

In a way, the first and second branches of the family owe their success to Wu Chengyu. If Shi Miyuan were still in power, Zheng Qingzhi would only have a cooperative relationship with Shi Miyuan, and would have been subordinate to Shi Miyuan. After all, the Wu family and Shi Miyuan were separated by a layer, and it would have been impossible for them to obtain so many benefits.

As for the third branch, they initially strongly opposed aligning themselves with Shi Miyuan, and because of Wu Chengyu's falling out with the first and second branches, the benefits Zheng Qingzhi is now naturally not being missed by the third branch.

However, with the departure of the first and second branches of the family, the third branch has taken sole control of the Wu family's businesses in Suzhou. Given the abilities of the fourth uncle, Wu Zhengliang, the third branch should have been doing quite well these past few years.

Upon hearing this, the surrounding diners changed the subject.

"Have you heard? In the area where Jiangsu borders the Song and Jin dynasties, there used to be some mountain strongholds. The bandits there were all vicious and ruthless, and they have caused a lot of harm to the local people and passing caravans over the years."

Just a month or two ago, dozens of mountain strongholds, large and small, in that area were all wiped out. I heard that all the bandits and brigands with murder on their hands lost their lives, and the leaders of each stronghold were hanged on the mountainside—a truly gruesome sight.

"I know. I heard that when the Yangwu Escort Agency, which was reopened by the third branch of the Wu family, was being passed by, a caravan was surrounded by bandits. Seeing that they were outnumbered, a group of boys who looked to be only fifteen or sixteen years old suddenly appeared."

These young men, who looked to be only two or three hundred strong, were incredibly ruthless. Each of them was exceptionally skilled, and they wiped out all the bandits in no time before storming into their stronghold.

That mountain stronghold was one of the best in northern Jiangsu, with over a thousand heroes, and its leader was a former disciple of Shaolin Temple with extremely high martial arts skills. Yet, it was wiped out by those half-grown boys in no time.

The chieftain fared even worse; he was surrounded and attacked by seven or eight young men. Just as he gained the upper hand after a brief struggle, the enemy sent in another seven or eight men, and he eventually died from exhaustion.

"Old Wu, how do you know all this so clearly?"

"Hey, my family's caravan was also with the Yangwu Escort Agency. My second son was there at the time. That kid got really bold and actually secretly followed those teenagers to the mountain stronghold. He saw everything clearly and when he came back, he kept pestering me to send him to learn martial arts."

"Then you should send him there. Your son has always been a mischievous little devil. He's hopeless when it comes to academics, but he's bold and wild, so martial arts would be perfect for him..."

Those half-grown boys were the children that Wu Chengyu had painstakingly trained in the Hidden Dragon Cave for three years. When he took them in, they were all between eleven or twelve and thirteen or fourteen years old. They practiced the martial arts of the Murong family back then, and each of them had their foundation rebuilt by Wu Chengyu.

Four years have passed, and most of these children are now at least third-rate in terms of skill, with many being second-rate, while Song Mu, the leader, is already considered first-rate.

One hundred children from Qianlong Cave went to Western Xia, one hundred became bodyguards for Hong Niangzi, and the remaining three hundred, led by Song Mu, traveled alone from Jin Kingdom. Wu Chengyu did not care about them; these children relied entirely on themselves to walk step by step to Jiangnan.

The journey was far from peaceful, with countless bandits and brigands, but they were all wiped out.

They had all become refugees at a very young age, experiencing the greatest hardships and evils in the world. Under Wu Chengyu's brainwashing, they were absolutely loyal to him, but when it came to fighting, none of them were merciful.

These little guys have now arrived in Suzhou and have just made contact with Wu Chengyu. Wu Chengyu came to Wuweilou to settle them in. It's time to contact the family.

Just then, I heard a voice that was familiar in the past but now seemed a little unfamiliar.

A fat, big-eared man with a thick neck, who looked like a cook, walked up to Wu Chengyu, covered in grease and grime.

"I heard that there is a guest who is very familiar with my Wu family, and he even asked me to cook for him personally. I wonder where this friend is from."

Wu Chengyu raised his head and smiled brightly: "Brother Jinshui, it's been many years. How have you been?"

　I started writing this chapter this morning. In between, I went grocery shopping, cooked, and my son wanted to drink pork rib and lotus root soup. Blanching and cooking the ribs took quite a bit of time. It was a lot of work, but I finally finished the first chapter.

　　It's true that it's better for writers to be unmarried.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)