After the divorce, he took care of his child and sold fried rice; his ex-wife was filled with regret

A massive and profound flow of information was forcefully poured into Lin Fan's mind.

A full ten minutes passed.

Lin Fan slowly opened his eyes and exhaled a long breath.

"I see. This is the essence of a century-old secret recipe."

Lin Fan muttered to himself. An amateur eating roast duck only tastes the seasonings and the greasiness in their mouth.

But the essence of this divine hanging oven roast duck lies in the fragrance of fruitwood permeating the bone marrow, the crispy skin and tender meat, and the translucent texture where fat melts into water.

However, there are currently no ducks being raised on the system's farm. Although some aquatic products have been introduced into the pond, the only poultry are chickens.

"Looks like I'll have to go to the market myself."

Lin Fan stood up, dusted off his trousers, and exited the farm space.

……

The next day, at four in the morning.

The room was quiet, with only the faint sound of the central air conditioning blowing air.

Lin Fan tiptoed to the bedroom door and peeked through a crack. Tuantuan was sleeping soundly, hugging her big strawberry bear, her breathing steady.

Lin Fan changed into a sturdy gray tracksuit, grabbed his car keys and phone, and quietly closed the door.

At 4:30 a.m. in Jiangcheng, it was still dark and the streets were deserted.

But the largest agricultural wholesale market in Jiangcheng, located on the outskirts of the city, was already brightly lit and bustling with people.

This is the "stomach" of the entire city, with countless vans and tricycles coming and going, and the air filled with a complex mix of smells from fresh produce, vegetables, soil, and poultry droppings.

Lin Fan drove his Wuling Hongguang, skillfully weaving through the congested traffic, heading straight for the live poultry trading area.

Making this hanging oven roasted duck requires very strict requirements for the duck.

It can't be too lean, otherwise the meat will be dry and hard to swallow after grilling; it also can't be too fatty, otherwise it will be greasy and you'll get tired of it after just a couple of pieces.

The best choice is a high-quality white-feathered duck weighing around 4.5 to 5 pounds, with the right amount of force-feeding.

Lin Fan walked around the large poultry stalls, stopping frequently, his eyes quickly scanning the rows of duck cages.

"Boss, come and see the ducks? They were just brought over from the countryside today, and they're very plump!" A stall owner wearing rubber boots and a black waterproof apron greeted him warmly.

Lin Fan squatted down and reached into the cage to grab a white duck.

He didn't look at the duck's size, but instead pinched the muscles on both sides of the duck's breast to feel its firmness. Then, he used his fingers to part the feathers behind the duck's neck and looked at the thickness of the subcutaneous fat.

After pinching two ducks, Lin Fan shook his head and put them back in the cage.

"No. The feeding time is too long, the subcutaneous fat is too thick, and it won't melt after baking."

The stall owner was stunned for a moment, not quite reacting.

Restaurant owners who usually come to buy meat always pick the fattest cuts because they think they have a higher meat yield. But this young man can tell the fat is thick just by squeezing it a couple of times.

Lin Fan ignored the stall owner's surprise, stood up and continued walking inside.

After visiting five or six shops, Lin Fan finally stopped in front of a shop that specialized in selling free-range waterfowl.

The ducks at this shop didn't look as big as the previous ones, but their feathers were shiny, and they thrashed about energetically in their cages.

"Boss, how much are these ducks?" Lin Fan asked.

The shop owner, a man in his fifties, was washing the floor with a hose when he heard this and turned off the water valve.

"Young man, you have a good eye. These are all free-range white ducks from ponds in the county below. They grow up eating small fish and grass, so their meat is firm. The wholesale price is fifteen yuan per jin."

Lin Fan bent down and randomly picked one out.

Pressing the duck breast with your fingers reveals its incredibly elastic muscles.

The proportion of subcutaneous fat is just right, so that during a short period of open-flame roasting, it will turn into oil to moisturize the lean meat inside, neither too much nor too little.

"This is the batch. Pick out twenty for me, each weighing between four and eight ounces and five pounds."

Lin Fan stood up and said decisively, "I want to kill him alive, clean him up on the spot, remove his internal organs, and leave not a single hair on his body."

"No problem! Please wait a moment." Seeing that a big order had arrived, the boss immediately told two employees to get to work.

After buying the ducks, while the shop assistant was processing them, Lin Fan turned around and went to the timber trading area at the other end of the market.

The soul of Peking duck lies half in the fire.

Ordinary machine-made charcoal must not be used, and coal is absolutely out of the question. Fruitwood must be used.

Lin Fan walked into a timber shop that supplies firewood to restaurants year-round.

"Boss, do you have any aged jujube wood?"

"Yes, it's piled up in the backyard," the lumber shop owner yawned and pointed behind him. "How much do you want?"

"Give me two hundred catties. Split it into even pieces."

Jujube wood has a strong fire, a good base fire, and produces little smoke when burning, while emitting a natural sweet fruity aroma.

This aroma, produced during long-term smoking in a closed hanging oven, allows it to perfectly penetrate every fiber of the duck meat through the pores.

This is precisely the key point emphasized in the century-old secret recipe.

After loading the split jujube wood into the Wuling Hongguang van, Lin Fan turned back to the live poultry area and put twenty cleaned ducks into the insulated box in the trunk.

Once everything was loaded onto the truck, Lin Fan stepped on the gas and headed straight for Phoenix Golden Street, bathed in the newly broken morning light.

Seven o'clock in the morning.

Most of the shops on Phoenix Golden Street were still closed, and the streetlights had just been turned off.

But outside Lin's shop, many familiar customers were already sitting on the curb with small stools, queuing up.

Su Xiaoxiao, dressed in a neat short-sleeved shirt, was wiping the waiting chairs outside the door with a rag.

Seeing the Wuling Hongguang stop, she quickly put down the rag and went to greet it.

"Good morning, Brother Lin."

"Good morning. Xiaoxiao, come and help me move the things in the car."

The two opened the trunk and worked together to carry the insulated box full of ducks and a large bundle of jujube wood, which smelled of dried wood, into the kitchen.

Looking at the row of clean, white ducks on the cutting board, Su Xiaoxiao asked in surprise, "Brother Lin, are you going to have a new dish at our restaurant today?"

"Yes. Make roast duck."

"Okay." Although Su Xiaoxiao was curious, she didn't ask any more questions and quickly picked up a rag to go to work in the hall.

Lin Fan walked into the kitchen, took a sharp boning knife from the knife rack, and went to the cutting board.

The first step in making hanging oven roast duck, which is also the most challenging in terms of basic skills, is called "inflating".

Lin Fan held the white duck's body down with his left hand, gripped the knife in his right hand, and aimed at the collarbone below the duck's neck.

With a gentle flick of the knife tip, the fascia layer between the skin and flesh was precisely cut open, creating a slit no bigger than a fingernail.

He took a clean, thin, hollow bamboo tube, connected it to the air pump, and inserted it diagonally along the cut, reaching the subcutaneous fat layer.

With continuous pressing, the skin on the surface of the white duck visibly swells up like an inflating balloon.

The airflow moves rapidly between subcutaneous fat and lean flesh, forcefully separating the skin and flesh that were originally tightly attached together.