I couldn't take it anymore; when I went home for Chinese New Year, the family genealogy book ha

Jiang Chen swallowed the piece of braised pork in his hand.

He grabbed a tissue from the table and wiped his hands.

"A big move?" Jiang Chen leaned back in his wicker chair and asked rhetorically. "How much do you consider a big move?"

Jiang Youfu placed the purple clay cup on the bluestone slab.

He held up five greasy fingers.

"Fifty million!" Jiang Youfu shouted confidently. "Brother Chen, give me fifty million, and I guarantee I'll rent the most impressive storefront in the provincial capital! I'll definitely make a name for myself!"

Jiang Chen chuckled.

"Fifty million? That's not even enough to buy a decent public toilet in the provincial capital's CBD." Jiang Chen waved his hand dismissively.

He turned and shouted at Ding Xiu, who was standing guard outside the courtyard gate.

"Go and call Li Qiang over!"

Less than two minutes.

Li Qiang, wearing a wrinkled suit, jogged into the yard.

"Brother Chen, you were looking for me?" Li Qiang asked, panting heavily.

"Tomorrow morning, go to the group's finance department and withdraw one billion yuan," Jiang Chen declared sternly, sitting in his chair. "Go to the most bustling CBD in the provincial capital and buy me an entire building outright!"

Li Qiang gasped.

Jiang Youfu touched his bald head, completely dumbfounded.

"One billion! An entire building!" Jiang Youfu stammered. "Brother Chen, isn't this a bit too much?"

"If we're going to play, let's go big!" Jiang Chen ordered, his eyes wide. "The decor must be top-of-the-line, and the name will be 'Jiang Family Restaurant.' Its main selling point will be high-end, luxurious, and with unbeatable ingredients!"

Li Qiang stood at attention.

"Understood! I'll take some men to the provincial capital to canvass buildings tomorrow!" Li Qiang replied loudly.

Jiang Chen kicked Jiang Youfu's calf.

"You're in full charge of the kitchen. Go and call Fourth Aunt. If we need more people, we'll go find them in the village; if we need more ingredients, we'll go haul them from the back mountain. Don't bring shame to Jiangjia Village!"

Jiang Youfu was so excited that his face turned red.

"Don't worry, Brother Chen! I swear on my life, I'll absolutely win over the stomachs of all those nouveau riche in the provincial capital!"

The next afternoon.

In the dispatch room of Jiangjiacun Cold Chain Logistics Park.

The air conditioning was on full blast.

Jiang Youfu, wearing a red apron, sat swaggering in the boss's chair.

Fourth Aunt Zhou Suqin, dressed in clean coarse cloth clothes, sat opposite me holding a thermos cup.

"Fourth Sister!" Jiang Youfu slammed his hand on the table. "The ingredients in our Jiang Family Village are unparalleled! It's such a waste to just eat them all ourselves in the village. Brother Chen wants us to hunt for more!"

Zhou Suqin has a gentle personality, but when it comes to cooking, her eyes are full of confidence in her skills.

"Brother Fu, Brother Chen entrusted us with such a big business, we can't let them down," Zhou Suqin said softly. "I still have several thousand kilograms of rare cured pork from Changsheng Reservoir black-haired pigs stored in my cellar, should we take it all?"

Jiang Youfu burst into laughter.

"Bring them all! We're going to open the eyes of those city folks in the provincial capital! Let them know what real divine cuisine is!" Jiang Youfu set the tone with his hoarse voice.

half a month later.

The core area of ​​the provincial capital's CBD.

A 48-story all-glass curtain wall building with four imposing gold-plated characters on its exterior wall – Jiang Family Restaurant.

The entire building lacked any tacky, overly bright red and purple opening ceremony.

Only two rows of fully armed bodyguards, each 1.9 meters tall, stood at the main entrance.

The access control is very strict.

Ordinary people don't even have the right to enter the gate.

You need to verify 100 million yuan in capital to be eligible for a basic black card membership.

Noon on the first day of business.

In the luxurious private room on the top floor of the restaurant.

Several bigwigs in the provincial capital's catering industry sat at a table with a blond-haired foreign old man.

The foreigner's name is Pete, and he is a world-renowned Michelin three-star food critic.

Pete held a knife and fork, his face full of arrogance and disdain.

"This place doesn't even have a decent molecular gastronomy menu!" Pete complained in broken Chinese. "I heard the chef is some uneducated country bumpkin? That's an insult to food!"

The restaurant tycoon next to him kept smiling apologetically.

"Mr. Pete, the owner of Jiang Family Restaurant has incredibly powerful connections. We're here today to investigate, so please bear with us."

The door to the private room was pushed open.

Jiang Youfu, sporting a large bald head, personally carried in a tray covered with a silver lid.

He didn't even glance at Pete.

Slam the tray directly onto the center of the mahogany dining table.

"Signature dish! Premium Lingquan Twice-Cooked Pork!" Jiang Youfu shouted loudly.

The silver lid was lifted.

An intensely pungent aroma of meat, so strong it could drive anyone mad, exploded in the private room like a bomb.

There was no fancy plating.

It's the most authentic and rustic way of doing things in rural areas.

Black-haired pork belly is cut into even, thin slices; the fat is translucent, while the lean meat is reddish and caramelized.

Paired with system-modified green garlic sprouts, it exudes an enticing sheen.

Pete initially looked disgusted.

The moment I smelled this scent.

The knife and fork in his hand fell onto the table with a clatter.

Pete disregarded table manners, grabbed a pair of chopsticks, picked up a large piece of twice-cooked pork, and stuffed it into his mouth.

The first bite taken with teeth.

The exquisite aroma brought out by the spring water, combined with the original wild taste of the black-haired pig, explodes on the tip of the tongue.

Pete's eyes widened in surprise.

Tears welled up in his eyes.

"My God! This meat is fatty but not greasy, it melts in your mouth! Was what I used to eat pig swill?!" Pete shouted on the spot, losing his composure.

He didn't even want to use chopsticks anymore, and just grabbed the slices of meat from the plate with his hands.

Several restaurant tycoons from nearby provincial capitals have also gone crazy.

They scrambled for the remaining green garlic shoots on the plate without any regard for appearances.

Even the red oil at the bottom of the plate was scraped clean by a fat boss using a steamed bun.

"Waiter! Ten more plates, please!" Pete roared at the top of his lungs.

Jiang Youfu sneered.

"One serving per table. Want more? Come early tomorrow and line up!" Jiang Youfu retorted without any politeness.

Followed by.

The waiter then brought over a small plate of thinly sliced ​​cured pork.

This is Zhou Suqin's specialty.

The slices of meat are red and white, and under the light they have an amber-like texture.

Pete quickly stuffed it into his mouth.

The rich, mellow aroma of cured pork, mellowed by time, combined with the unique flavor of fruitwood smoking, hits you right in the head.

"This cured meat! This cured meat is a gift from God!" Pete shouted, kneeling on his chair. "I'm going to put it in the highest rating of the world's culinary hall of fame!"

The entire private room was filled with the sounds of frantic chewing.

On that very day.

The name of "Jiang Family Restaurant" caused a sensation in the upper-class circles of the entire Nanjiang Province.

There are no fancy molecular gastronomy dishes.

It's all done in a truly authentic, traditional rural style.

The wealthiest individuals and business tycoons are willing to queue for two days just to book a private room.

Zhou Suqin's cured pork is especially exceptional.

Because the stock is limited.

It was directly sold on the black market for a staggering 100,000 yuan per plate.

Moreover, they are available but not for sale.

If someone can serve a plate of cured pork from Jiang Family Restaurant when entertaining guests, it is the highest symbol of status and power.

In just half a month.

Jiang Family Restaurant single-handedly crushed all the Michelin-starred restaurants in the surrounding major cities, forcing them to close down.

Jiangjia Village has completely monopolized the catering market in the entire province.

The ecological aquaculture base of Changsheng Reservoir.

The 10,000-mu smart farm on the back mountain.

Super cold chain logistics park.

In addition, there's Jiang Family Restaurant in the provincial capital.

Jiangjia Village's agricultural industry chain has completely completed a perfect closed loop from planting to dining table.

The daily profits come in faster than a money printing machine.

The village's accounts are expanding at a terrifying rate of tens of billions every day.

time flies.

In the blink of an eye, deep winter has arrived.

A heavy snow fell for three days and three nights.

The entire Qinghe County was covered by a thick layer of snow.

The temperature dropped to below minus ten degrees Celsius.

All highways to the outside world were blocked, and prices skyrocketed.

Jiangjia Village was the only exception.

The geothermal energy circulation hub beneath the village is operating at full power.

There wasn't a single snowflake on any of the village's main roads.

The large-scale villa area is even filled with peach blossoms blooming out of season.

The air was filled with the festive atmosphere of the Lunar New Year.

That afternoon.

Jiang Family Compound.

Jiang Chen, wearing a thin cashmere sweater, sat on a grand chair in the main room, drinking hot tea.

A series of hurried footsteps came from the courtyard.

Old Master Jiang Wanshan walked at the front, leaning on a sandalwood cane.

Jiang Mancang followed behind, rubbing his hands together to keep warm.

"Brother Chen!" the old man shouted in a booming voice.

Jiang Chen quickly stood up and went out the door to greet them.

"Great-Grandpa, Uncle Mancang. It's windy outside, come in and have some hot tea!" Jiang Chen helped the old man step over the threshold.

The old man sat down in the mahogany chair.

He leaned on his cane, looking quite spirited.

"What tea?" The old man waved his hand. "It's already the 30th of the twelfth lunar month! Have all the New Year's goods been distributed in the village?"

Jiang Mancang quickly responded.

"Don't worry, Grandpa, it's all been distributed already! Brother Chen is really generous this year." Jiang Mancang said excitedly.

"One million yuan in red envelopes for each household during the Lunar New Year. Plus a whole black-haired pig, ten free-range chickens, and five boxes of seafood blind boxes. The young people at the village entrance are so tired from carrying all the New Year's goods that their hands are sore!" Jiang Mancang reported at the top of his lungs.

Jiang Chen held his teacup, leaned back in his chair, and laughed.

"This is nothing. Our Jiangjia Village has made a fortune this year." Jiang Chen sat up confidently. "After the New Year, I plan to build the largest indoor amusement park in Asia in the village to keep the village kids entertained."

The old man coughed heavily.

"Put those extravagant displays of wealth aside for now!" the old man scolded, his face stern.

He stretched out his finger and pointed in the direction of the ancestral hall on the back mountain.

"Brother Chen, you are now the clan head of our Jiangjia Village!" The old man's tone was extremely serious. "This year, our Jiangjia Village merged with thirteen towns, making quite a splash."

"This is all thanks to the blessings of our ancestors!"

The old man stared into Jiang Chen's eyes.

"How are your preparations going for the important ancestral worship ceremony at the end of the year?"

Jiang Chen put down his teacup.

He dropped his nonchalant smile and became extremely serious.

"Don't worry, Great-Grandpa. I know the rules." Jiang Chen stood up.

He strode to the door of the main room and looked at the auspicious snow falling all around him.

The large red lanterns hanging high illuminated the entire Jiangjia Village in a crimson glow.

"Uncle Mancang, go to the loudspeaker station and spread the word."

Jiang Chen turned around, his voice echoing throughout the hall.

"Tomorrow is the first day of the Lunar New Year. Tell everyone in the village, young and old, to wear their new Tang suits and come with me to the ancestral hall in the back mountain!"