Food: Starting with Wonton Noodles

"You can call me Brother Yu, just like Xiaoli does," Zhou Yu said.

Jiang Yan hesitated for a moment, then said softly, "Okay, Brother Yu."

"If you like, you can have a bowl every night as part of your staff meal. Or you can have it with double-skin milk pudding or wonton noodles if you prefer."

"Thanks."

Jiang Yan felt that after experiencing Peng Xiao's incident, the anger that had been weighing on her heart finally eased.

"Then let's go with ginger milk curd, I like the taste of old ginger," she said.

"When I was studying at home, my mom often cooked pig's feet with ginger for me. I'm Hakka, and Hakka people don't eat rice wine chicken, but they eat pig's feet with ginger. Yu-ge, don't you find that a bit strange?"

Before Zhou Yu could reply, and without stopping washing the dishes, Jiang Yan continued, "Actually, when I was little, my mother really liked to drink rice wine. Every year after the Double Ninth Festival, whenever the north wind started blowing, my mother would start brewing rice wine."

Every year, she would buy the newest round glutinous rice of that year, steam it, put it in a jar, add yeast, and then put the jar under the bed. Then, when the winter solstice came, she would buy the oldest ginger and start making rice wine chicken.

"Yu-ge, you might not know this, but after coming to G City to study these past two years, I realized that winters don't have to be so cold. But where we're from, probably because there are so many mountains, it starts to get cold around the winter solstice."

"In our area, rice wine is mostly used to boil eggs and chicken, and we also add old ginger. It's rarely drunk directly. So whenever my mom cooks rice wine chicken, on cold days, the steaming hot vapor smells so fragrant and warming."

"So every winter solstice, when my mom starts cooking chicken with the newly brewed rice wine, I always like to stay in the kitchen with her. I especially love the smell of the steaming rice wine, which has a sweet and sticky aroma, as well as the hot and spicy fragrance of old ginger. Just listening to the bubbling sound of the pot makes me feel warm."

As she spoke of her mother, Jiang Yan's eyes seemed to brighten.

Looking into her eyes, Zhou Yu also became somewhat dazed.

Jiang Yan looked at Zhou Yu and smiled, "But later, when I got a little older, I couldn't help but secretly drink some rice wine when I was home alone. As a result, my whole body started to itch that day. It wasn't until my mother found out and took me to the hospital that I realized I was allergic to alcohol."

"Later, my mom stopped making rice wine chicken. She started learning to make pig's feet with ginger. She would cook it for me every winter, and also when I had a stomachache."

"Actually, it's fine for me to just eat the chicken meat from the rice wine chicken. I also secretly ate a few pieces at a classmate's house later, but none of them tasted as good as my mom's."

"But I was afraid my mom would worry, so I didn't tell her. So, Yu-ge, when I drink your ginger milk curd, it tastes like my mom's cooking."

As she finished speaking, Jiang Yan couldn't help but laugh a little embarrassedly, and her eyes began to reveal an ambiguous meaning.

"Actually, I use yellow ginger for my ginger milk curd. It's quite different from old ginger."

Zhou Yu suddenly gave a straightforward, "straight man" answer.

"Huh? Really?" Jiang Yan was a little flustered. Zhou Yu's inexplicable seriousness made her emotions start to become disjointed.

"Even the old ginger in pig's feet ginger soup isn't necessarily better the older it is; it's best to use ginger that's about six months old," Zhou Yu continued, explaining in a serious tone.

Zhou Yu did it on purpose, of course.

When a girl starts unconsciously showing her feelings for you, especially when she talks to you about her mother.

Basically, this is when her defenses are weakest, and it's also when she's most likely to fall for someone.

Jiang Yan reminded him of a senior he met more than ten years ago when he was still in college.

It seems it was an autumn night like that too. The sky was filled with a half-moon and a few stars.

That night, my senior sister's eyes were just as bright.

He still vividly remembers what his senior said to him when they walked out of the school club office and stood under the school's most famous banyan tree.

That night, my senior sister looked at him intently with eyes brighter than starlight and said to him:

"When I called my mom this afternoon, I told her that I had fallen for a boy who is two years younger than me."

"I asked my mother what I should do, but she didn't say anything."

"Just tell me I can be braver."

Zhou Yu did not consider himself a person of unwavering affection, whether in the past, present, or future.

He felt like he was a scumbag, just like Zhang Wuji in The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber, easily softening his heart and falling for every girl.

Over the years, every girl I've met since my senior sister has been like that.

However, Zhang Wuji eventually had Zhao Min. But Zhou Yu felt he would have neither Zhao Min nor Xiao Qiao.

At least, Jiang Yan isn't like that now.

But looking into Jiang Yan's familiar eyes and the disappointment in them, Zhou Yu couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness.

He said, "But next time, when I've learned how to make pig's feet with ginger, I can invite you to try it again and see if there's any difference between tender ginger and old ginger."

After Jiang Yan left, Zhou Yu went straight home.

After returning home, he unusually did not check the system, but instead opened QQ.

For those born in the 1980s and 1990s, QQ is like a magical tool that seals away their youth.

Besides containing old posts and Martian-language blogs that are so embarrassing to look back at, there are also some that are truly cringe-worthy.

Some of the avatars have turned gray, remaining as old friends from the past.

Zhou Yu didn't reopen the system panel until the system settlement notification sounded at 10:30.

Chef System

Today's satisfied customers: 177 (Click to view detailed customer wish list)

[Wishlist tasks claimed/Completed: 1/0]

[Recipes mastered: [Refined] Jiangnan Hundred Flower Chicken, SD Fish Sashimi, Wonton Noodles, Congee, Perfect Cucumber Salad, Double Skin Milk, Ginger Milk Curd, Thousand Crepe Cake, Chen Mapo Tofu, Boiled Beef.]

Today's settlement rewards:

[Today's Customer Satisfaction Rewards: Stir-fried Beef Ho Fun Recipe (to be claimed); Braised Pork Belly with Preserved Mustard Greens Recipe (to be claimed)]

[Basic Settlement Bonus: If the number of paid customer orders reaches 100 today, the sales revenue will be quadrupled.]

First, I clicked to receive two recipes: stir-fried beef noodles and braised pork with preserved vegetables.

In an instant, Zhou Yu's mind was filled with all the information from the two recipes.

Then, Zhou Yu clicked to claim the doubled revenue bonus.

The phone rang again: "Ding, 5292 yuan has been received via WeChat."

Today we sold 132 servings of wonton noodles, 30 servings of cucumber salad, 30 servings of double-skin milk pudding, and 19 servings of ginger milk curd.

Seeing the growing balance in his account, Zhou Yu finally cheered up again.

However, he still didn't click to check the tasks on his wish list tonight.

"Anyway, it's not a big deal if I don't watch it for one night. The wishes I have will still be there after the update tomorrow."

Zhou Yu hypocritically convinced himself.