Brother Fang Chang shook his head. "No. We’ll only know what we’re eating when we get there. The main point today is for them to test the quality of our meat."
Jiang Yuan stared, dumbfounded, at the lamb’s hind leg in Fang Chang’s hand. "To test a whole hind leg?"
Brother Fang Chang nodded, his expression dark.
She then looked at what he was carrying in his other hand. "And what’s the deal with this shrimp and fish?"
"He asked me to pick them up on the side..."
Jiang Yuan was instantly furious. "What’s this Boss Su playing at? Is he blatantly asking for gifts? A hind leg is over four hundred, and this shrimp has to be over a hundred. He’s treating you like a total sucker, isn’t he?"
Brother Fang Chang put his arm around Jiang Yuan, urging her to keep her voice down since they were in the shop and people were watching.
"Alright, alright. If we land this deal, we’ll make it all back later, right? In business, it’s better to be a little generous."
But Jiang Yuan was still fuming.
She had let it slide last time when he charged five hundred for two dishes, since they were admittedly delicious.
’But this time, they’re talking business, he says he just wants a taste, and we’re expected to bring him a whole leg?’
’Who does business like that?’
Brother Fang Chang continued to placate his girlfriend. "There, there, I know what I’m doing. Business is all about long-term partnerships. This is small money, it’s no big deal!"
Jiang Yuan huffily shook his arm off. "It’s not about the money! I’m angry that they’re treating you like a chump! Who does things like that?!"
Fang Chang sighed, able only to offer words of comfort to his girlfriend.
Truth be told, he had also felt pretty uncomfortable when Su Chen made the request earlier.
’But he also felt powerless. He wanted the business from Delicious, and he also wanted to go to their celebration dinner, so he decided to just let it go.’
But now that his girlfriend had brought it up, he was starting to feel resentful all over again.
’Whatever!’
’I’ll be the sucker this one time. If Boss Su really isn’t the kind of person worth knowing, then at worst, I’ll just have to control my cravings and stop going to his restaurant!’
Many years later, as Fang Chang rang the opening bell for Fang’s Meat Industry’s IPO, a reporter’s question would make him recall the summer day he carried a lamb leg to Delicious to freeload a meal.
Of course, that is a story for another time.
After a great deal of consoling from Brother Fang Chang, the two finally drove off toward the Development Zone.
Su Chen, after spending six hours in the practice room, stared at the frozen eggs arranged on the cutting board, finding them a little hard to comprehend.
’How did people in Yue Province ever think of eating something like this?’
’This fresh milk jelly Xue Dan isn’t difficult to make, and it tastes pretty good, but the way it looks is just...’
Su Chen cleared all the Xue Dan from the workstation and, with a thought, returned to reality.
The six hours of practice hadn’t been particularly draining. He got up and went to the kitchen.
Aunt Fang put down what she was doing. "Boss, what are we making?"
Su Chen said, "We’re having a celebratory dinner tonight to mark the official opening of our second-floor dining hall. Oh, and ask Xiaobin to come eat with us."
Because his school was holding summer classes, Xiaobin had already ended his summer job.
"He’s at home doing homework. I’ll just make him dinner when I get back," Aunt Fang said, looking around. "There’s nothing left in the kitchen. Should I go buy some groceries?"
Su Chen shook his head. "No need. Auntie, in a little while, just go to the main dining hall. Someone will bring groceries over. Don’t say a word, just take them and wash them. Also, from now on, no one is allowed in the kitchen!"
"Huh? No one at all?"
Su Chen said, "That’s right. No one."
Aunt Fang gave him a knowing look, made an OK sign with her hand, and backed out of the room.
Taking a dozen eggs, Su Chen first washed them clean. Then, he took a small kitchen knife and traced a dime-sized circle on the larger end of each egg.
"This is some real delicate work..."
Even with the badge equipped, Su Chen could feel his hand tremble now and then.
After scoring a groove along the edge of the circle, Su Chen took a deep breath, still holding the egg, and leaned over the cutting board to give it a light tap.
"Perfect!"
The bottom of the eggshell cracked cleanly along the scored circle. He then removed the small, round piece of shell and poured the liquid egg into a bowl.
"What a pain... I’ll probably only make this once in my entire life!"
And that was only the beginning.
He then rinsed out the insides of the eggshells with fresh water and placed the twelve empty shells in the oven to dry on low heat.
From the small storeroom, he retrieved a head of *da cai*.
That was its name in the renowned cookbook. After some research, Su Chen learned that *da cai* was a Hakka term, and the vegetable was also called *bian he cai*.
In Mandarin, it was simply called mustard greens.
Over in the Chaoshan region, it was even called "pig vegetable," because it was cheap and typically used for making pickles. The vegetable had all sorts of names.
He washed the head of mustard greens, placed it in a stainless-steel pot with water, and brought it to a rolling boil over high heat.
This was a laborious task; the greens had to be boiled until they completely broke down before he could move on to the next step.
While waiting, Su Chen peeked through the kitchen’s frosted glass. He saw Aunt Fang in the main dining hall, washing vegetables that Liu Shengnan had delivered.
Good. To prevent them from running into each other, Su Chen had deliberately staggered the timing of his messages.
He saw his Sister Shengnan sitting haughtily at the large round table in the dining hall, her legs crossed.
Su Chen was very pleased with this and sent her a text: *Go to the second floor and verify our fixed assets.*
’He had to get Liu Shengnan out of the way first. Otherwise, she’d get suspicious when she saw someone else arrive with supplies later.’
He stepped out to bring the vegetables Aunt Fang had washed into the kitchen and arranged them on a platter. Meanwhile, boiling furiously over the high heat, the mustard greens were quickly starting to wilt and break down.