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

Chapter 88 Three Years Later

In the first year of the Jiading era of the Southern Song Dynasty, three years had passed since the Black Wind Duo died, and Wu Chengyu had been in this world for exactly five years.

In early spring, Suzhou truly lives up to its reputation as a paradise on earth.

At the entrance of Huangli Lane, orioles seem to be singing; at the head of Wuque River, the ice is about to melt.

Green waves flow east, west, north, and south; three hundred and ninety bridges stand with red railings.

Bai Juyi's poems vividly depict the vibrant spring scenery of Suzhou, and are very fitting for the occasion.

The Wu family's Five Flavors Restaurant is located at the entrance of Oriole Lane, next to the Magpie Bridge.

The banner for Wu's Hot Pot in front of Wuweilou is now somewhat worn out, and with winter over, the number of customers eating hot pot has decreased by more than half.

At this moment, on the second floor of Wuweilou, near the window, stood a rather tall figure dressed in blue, his hair tied up with a blue ribbon. He held a book in his hand, but his attention was clearly not on the book. His eyes were fixed on the Magpie Bridge, unfocused, as if he were in a daze.

The girls from Suzhou who occasionally passed by under the bridge were all beautiful and charming. Many people covered their faces with their hands, but couldn't help but steal a few glances at the figure with shy eyes. Unfortunately, none of the girls received any response.

After the midday market, Wu Chengyu sat by the window, holding his own copy of "Laozi Xiang'er Commentary." He looked at it for a long time but didn't even turn a page; his mind had already wandered far away.

Wu Chengyu indeed inherited Mu Qingyin's good looks. He has sword-like eyebrows and bright eyes, white teeth and red lips. Most importantly, his eyes are bright. In addition, he has been studying Taoist scriptures for many years and has acquired some otherworldly temperament. He is already a well-known handsome young man in the surrounding area.

He certainly attracted women's attention when he sat down, but when he stood up, his handsome face didn't match his appearance.

Over the past five years, he has grown to over 1.8 meters tall, not far from his target of 1.85 meters. However, for some special reason, he has set his height target at least 1.9 meters, with the exact height to be determined.

1.8 meters was already quite tall in ancient Jiangnan. The reason why his figure does not match his appearance is due to the aftereffects of practicing the "ox and horse stance" in recent years. While height can be controlled by opening and closing the epiphyseal plates, the entire skeleton inevitably expands.

Wu Chengyu's physique is like a wall when viewed from behind, with a broad back, a wasp waist, and long arms. Because his shoulders are so wide, when he spreads his arms, his arm span is close to two meters.

If they were to walk face-to-face on the street, strangers would instinctively stop in their tracks upon seeing Wu Chengyu, and might even take a few steps back.

Wu Chengyu is almost 16 years old now. Although he is still far from his coming-of-age ceremony at the age of 20, his current height and relatively mature thinking mean that no one dares to treat him as a child anymore.

In recent years, Wu Chengyu has not gone anywhere. He spends his days indoors practicing martial arts or reciting Taoist scriptures. Apart from occasionally exchanging information with Lu Zhiyi and others, he has had very little contact with the outside world.

Although he made great contributions to the Wu family, his uncles and elders were somewhat dissatisfied with him.

Young people hiding in their rooms all day, what kind of behavior is that?

Therefore, at the beginning of this year, Wu Zhengliang made the decision to hand over Wuweilou to Wu Chengyu to manage, and Wu Chengyu could not refuse.

Left with no other choice, Wu Chengyu changed his reading location to Wuweilou. While looking at the spring scenery outside, he pretended to recite his lessons, but in reality, he was troubled.

I thought that with several Taoist scriptures and annotations, I could simply study them step by step.

However, Wu Chengyu discovered that he had no talent for learning Taoist scriptures. He had memorized them by heart over the years, but he still couldn't grasp the essence of them.

The ancient Chinese Taoist scriptures are really obscure and difficult to understand, and there are no punctuation marks. Sometimes, even a sentence of only a dozen or so characters can take Wu Chengyu a long time to understand. He might think he understands it after reading it once, but he might see the opposite meaning after reading it a second time.

Although there are commentaries from so-called Taoist sages, their understandings sometimes diverge wildly, and they can even argue with each other.

With no one to teach him, he could only read books on his own. He did consult with old Taoist priests in Suzhou, but their explanations were all different.

Sometimes he would ask the bamboo slips questions, and the bamboo slips' reasoning was that these true meanings must be experienced personally; if you understand, you understand; if you don't, no one else's explanation is useful. But every time he thought he understood, the bamboo slips would reply, "Do you really understand?"
After the impotent rage, everything that was previously thought to be true became illusory again; there's no standard for this thing.

After staring blankly for a while, he turned his gaze back to the book in front of him, gave a wry smile, and braced himself to continue studying.

Between heaven and earth, it is like a bellows!

It is empty yet unyielding, and its power only grows stronger with each movement.

Excessive knowledge leads to exhaustion; it is better to remain steadfast in the middle way.

The spirit of the valley never dies; it is called the mysterious peony.

It exists continuously, and its use is infrequent.

Just then, someone came up the stairs from the first floor and spoke to Wu Chengyu.

"Twenty-one, stop pretending to read. I'll cook the dishes according to your recipe, and you can taste them."

The speaker was named Wu Jinshui, who belonged to a collateral branch of the Wu family. He had always been a member of the third branch of the Wu family, and his whole family lived in Wujiapo.

Wu Jinshui just turned twenty this year. He is extremely greedy and is practically a confidant of A Ku. He is very interested in cooking and was sent to learn cooking at a very young age. In addition, he does have some talent, so he was sent by Wu Zhengliang to Wuweilou as the head chef at a young age.

Now that Wu Chengyu has taken over the Five Flavors Restaurant, he certainly can't just sit idly by.

Every winter, Wuweilou is packed with customers because of its hot pot, but outside of winter, especially in summer, the appeal of hot pot is greatly reduced.

When it comes to the food, it still falls short of the top restaurants in Suzhou.

As the person in charge, Wu Chengyu, upon taking over, revised the recipes based on the information he knew from his previous life and the function of the bamboo slips' instructions.

The five flavors generally refer to sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, and salty. He set five dishes as the signature dishes for Wuweilou.

Pickled fish, sweet and sour pork, braised duck with bitter melon, Mapo tofu, and eight-treasure pickles.

Bitter melon stewed with duck is a Yunnan dish. Mapo tofu without Mapo sauce was replaced with Wu's tofu. Without chili peppers, it was seasoned with dogwood. However, with the guidance of bamboo slips and Wu Chengyu's amazing sense of taste, Wu's tofu is definitely different from Mapo tofu in later generations, but it has its own unique flavor.

Wu Chengyu put down the book, picked up his chopsticks, and tasted each dish one by one. Wu Jinshui had made about 70-80% of the flavor according to his recipe, which was enough to attract business.

The two chatted about the dishes and gossiped, and time passed quickly.

At this moment, Wu Jinshui suddenly sighed and said to Wu Chengyu.

"Have you heard? Since Han Xianggong was executed, Shi Miyuan is now in power. I've been hearing some rumors lately."

Last year, Shi Miyuan sent the head of Han Xianggong to the Jin state to sue for peace, which had already caused widespread resentment among the people.

Now some people are actually saying that Shi Miyuan wants to restore Qin Hui's title and posthumous name, and just like that, Qin Hui is being exonerated?

"What are we going to do? I wonder if we'll still be able to eat fried dough sticks for breakfast in the future."

(End of this chapter)