Chapter 122 The color, aroma, and taste were all perfectly combined in an instant; he couldn't even imagine eating it...

An Fusheng soon realized why Zhaolin cared so much about the two of them.

The next day, Zhaolin arrived at the orphanage early. An Fusheng was woken up from his dream and pulled out of bed.

He must have drunk too much yesterday, because he felt dizzy and lightheaded on his way home last night. He fell asleep as soon as he got home, but Zhaolin forcibly woke him up. An Fusheng's head was throbbing, and he didn't want to get up at all: "Why are you up so early?"

Zhaolin: "I'm very motivated to learn."

An Shisi slept with An Fusheng yesterday, but he got up early to go to school. Now it's just An Fusheng and Wen Xinglan in bed. The noise Zhaolin made woke Wen Xinglan up too.

Wen Xinglan rubbed her big, dark eyes as she looked at the stranger who had suddenly appeared in the room.

Zhaolin was surprised to find a doll hidden under his master's blanket. It had big, adorable eyes: "Master, who is this? Your child?"

An Fusheng: "My brother, just call him Xiao Ba."

Zhao Lin instantly forgot why he came here. He rubbed his hands together and grinned like a big bad wolf: "Can I borrow it to play with?"

An Fusheng: "Do you know how to dress a child?"

Zhaolin: "Yes, it's easy. What's so difficult about that?"

An Fusheng pulled the blanket off and lay back down: "Then help him put on some clothes."

Zhaolin: "No problem!"

Next comes:

"Master, isn't he wearing clothes? Should he take them off and put them on again?"

"Master, where are his clothes?"

"Master, his clothes are too small for him to wear."

"Oops, how did I mistake my trouser legs for sleeves?!"

...

An Fusheng threw off the blanket: "Let me do it."

After getting dressed, Zhaolin circled around Wen Xinglan, marveling at her appearance.

"This child is so cute!"

"This child is so cute!"

"I wonder if my children will be this cute in the future."

Then, seamlessly, the conversation shifted to mentioning Xu Sannian:

"Master, does Xu Sannian like children?"

"Master, will Xu San Nian come back?"

"Master, does Xu Sannian learn to cook very quickly? Is her cooking delicious?"

...

An Fusheng: "You like Xu Sannian?"

Zhao Lin's face flushed bright red in an instant: "You...how did you know?"

An Fusheng snorted lightly: "Don't be so obvious."

Zhaolin scratched his head: "Is it really that obvious?"

An Fusheng nodded: "Really."

Zhao Lin, embarrassed and annoyed, buried his face in Wen Xinglan's arms, almost knocking Wen Xinglan over. An Fusheng caught Wen Xinglan from behind.

In An Fusheng's hometown, dating is an extremely free thing. If you like someone, you can say it. If you don't dare to say it, you can ask by singing a folk song from a distance. If you don't even dare to sing a folk song, you can go home and ask your parents or some familiar elders to ask. Of course, this method seems to be introverted, but in fact it is really flamboyant. However, there are always some people who would rather do things more hard than not bury their heads in the sand.

In short, you can only find out if someone likes you by asking them, and men should be open and honest when pursuing girls.

However, An Fusheng noticed that people outside always seemed shy about expressing their feelings. "Liking someone isn't a bad thing, there's nothing to be ashamed of. But you might like her and she might not like you back. You could ask her."

Zhaolin: "I...I...I dare not."

Well, the shy Han Chinese man. An Fusheng: "If you don't tell me, she'll fall for someone else."

Zhaolin abruptly raised his head: "How could that be? She said she would marry me."

An Fusheng's mind went blank for a moment: "Huh?"

Xu Sannian said that his liking was more than just...

Never mind, she even said she wanted to marry Wen Xingrui...

Marrying another Zhaolin seems... quite reasonable.

An Fusheng shook his head, clearing his mind of these complicated thoughts, and asked Zhaolin, "Didn't you say you were classmates with Xu Sannian? If she wants to go to school, why don't you go?"

Zhaolin: "I was her classmate when I was a child, but not anymore. We didn't go to the same university, and we had different majors. I finished all my classes last semester, and I've almost finished writing my thesis. This semester, I just need to revise it when I have some free time."

An Fusheng: "Oh, you really want to learn how to cook?"

Zhaolin: "Mmm!"

Putting aside Xu Sannian's influence, he genuinely wanted to learn.

An Fusheng: "Besides cooking for the welfare home, I also run a restaurant, so I'm a bit busy and may not have time to teach you properly."

Zhaolin: "I know, I don't need you to teach me step by step. Just teach me the same way you taught Xu Sannian."

An Fusheng: "Okay, then I might need to help with the work, but we'll pay you a salary."

Zhaolin: "I don't need a salary. I'd like to ask how much tuition I need to pay. Just call me if you need anything. Don't be shy. I'm more capable than Xu Sannian."

In that case, An Fusheng didn't hold back: "You don't need to pay tuition. Xu Sannian used to have a salary, so we'll pay you according to her salary. How about you come with us to buy groceries today?"

Zhaolin: "No problem."

Wen's mother and Lou's mother haven't returned from taking the children to school yet, and the grandparents are also out of the house, I don't know what they're doing.

Wen Yue was playing with Wen Xingrui, and An Fusheng also gave Wen Xinglan to Wen Yue.

An Fusheng buys roughly the same groceries every day. After taking Wen Yue grocery shopping for a while, Wen Yue has learned everything she needs to learn. Carrying large bags and small bags while weaving through the crowded market is a very tiring task. Since there is a new helper, An Fusheng lets Wen Yue take care of the child to make things a little easier for her.

Wen Yue's daily grocery shopping trip with An Fusheng isn't just about buying groceries; she also needs to film videos. The restaurant's various accounts are gaining more and more followers, and everyone loves watching her daily life posts. She has to update them diligently. "I have to go too, otherwise no one will film the videos."

Zhaolin: "What are we filming?"

Wen Yue: "Shoot the video that our restaurant posted on its video account."

Zhaolin also watches videos frequently, saying, "Give it to me, I'll film it for you."

Wen Yue: "You know how to take pictures?"

Zhaolin: "No problem, I also post videos often, and some of my videos have over 10,000 likes."

Wen Yue immediately handed the phone to Zhao Lin: "Then I'll have to trouble you."

Zhaolin: "Of course, of course. I'll take the picture with my phone and send it to you when I get back. My camera is very high definition."

Wen Yue: "Okay, okay, thank you. Let's start filming from the beginning."

Zhaolin: "Okay."

As soon as Zhaolin got on the tricycle, he fought with An Fusheng for the wheelchair and completely forgot about filming within minutes.

An Fusheng suddenly remembered that they had both been drinking last night: "You drank last night, can you still drive today?"

Zhaolin: "Sure, sure, that's only a small amount of alcohol, not even enough to moisten the mouth. I drove here this morning and even took a breathalyzer test on the way, and there was no problem at all."

Why do I have a headache? Am I such a bad drinker? An Fusheng let Zhaolin drive the car.

Zhaolin drove to the market and saw the crowded people and the dazzling array of vegetables. Like a badger entering a melon field, his eyes lit up. As soon as he got out of the car, he ran around everywhere and forgot all about filming.

An Fusheng did remember, but he didn't like being photographed. He was happy to be free when no one was taking pictures of him, so he wouldn't remind them.

After buying groceries and driving the tricycle into the garage, Zhaolin finally remembered he was supposed to film a video. "Ah! I forgot to film a video! What should I do? Is everything alright? Master, everything should be alright, right?"

An Fusheng patted him on the shoulder: "It's alright, the boat will sink when it reaches the bridge."

Zhaolin: "Master, please don't say such things, it's terrifying."

An Fusheng gave him a cryptic smile.

Zhaolin's hair stood on end.

...

Lou Lan had already returned. When Wen Yue saw that An Fusheng and the others had returned from grocery shopping, she handed Wen Xinglan and Wen Xingrui over to Lou Lan and went to the kitchen to help.

Before even entering the kitchen, Wen Yue heard Zhao Lin humming and laughing as he recited a rap. He seemed to be in a good mood. Wen Yue walked into the kitchen and asked, "Zhao Lin, did you take the video? Can I see it?"

The sound disappeared instantly.

The kitchen fell into a deathly silence.

Wen Yue was confused: "What's wrong? Didn't you take any pictures?"

Zhaolin: "..."

Wen Yue asked incredulously, "You really didn't take any pictures?"

Zhaolin forced a stiff smile: "I forgot, haha, sorry."

Wen Yue gave him an even stiffer laugh: "Hehe!"

An Fusheng meticulously prepared the ingredients, pretending that he had nothing to do with it.

Like Xu San Nian, Zhao Lin is easygoing and doesn't seem to have a temper. He doesn't hold grudges, so even if it's your first time meeting him, it's hard to feel like a stranger. This is why, in just half a morning, Wen Yue had already become so familiar with him that she beat him up without any restraint.

The kitchen was so small that there was nowhere to hide, so Zhaolin could only use An Fusheng as a protective wall. He hid to An Fusheng's right and peeked out to bargain with Wen Yue on the other side: "You've already hit me, so you can't hit me again, okay?"

Wen Yue: "The more I think about it, the angrier I get."

The matter of not filming a video should have been forgotten before Wen Yue and he became familiar with each other. It's just that Zhao Lin was too idle and casually browsed the restaurant's account for videos. Then he made a sarcastic remark about how poor the data was, saying that it didn't even have as many likes as the videos he casually filmed.

Wen Yue was curious about how good his videos were, so she went to watch them. She found that the ones with over 10,000 likes were all about showing off luxury cars or mansions. She couldn't afford any of those things even if she worked hard her whole life. She got angry instantly. How could she vent her anger? There was no way to vent except to beat up the person in question.

...

Not only had their company not started work yet, but An Fusheng hadn't placed any additional orders either. There were still three people working today, so the takeout orders were sold out early. To show his welcome to Zhaolin, An Fusheng asked Zhaolin what he wanted to eat for lunch, saying he could make it for him.

After helping out in the kitchen all morning, Zhaolin was completely tempted by the various delicious and visually appealing dishes that An Fusheng had prepared. He wanted to eat everything he saw!

Zhaolin's gaze lingered on the various ingredients in the kitchen for a long time, unsure of what to order. An Fusheng asked him, "Can you eat hot food?"

Zhaolin: "Yes, I love spicy food."

An Fusheng: "Then let's make a spicy blood curd dish. You can put any kind of vegetable in it. It's spicy, flavorful, and delicious."

Zhaolin's eyes lit up, and he nodded vigorously: "Good, good, good."

Actually, An Fusheng also wanted to eat spicy food. He used to love spicy food, but after coming to the orphanage, not everyone could handle spicy food, so he didn't dare to put chili peppers in his cooking. Heaven knows how much he missed the exhilarating feeling of eating spicy food. Although he had the initiative in cooking, he still felt a little embarrassed to cook a plate of spicy food for himself and eat it alone. Now that he finally had company, he wanted to try everything, so he wanted to make Mao Xue Wang (a spicy Sichuan dish)!

"Master, what ingredients do you need? I'll prepare them." Zhaolin was eager to try.

An Fusheng: "You can bring whatever you want to eat."

"Master, would you like some pork?"

"want."

There's a conflict in the refrigerator.

"want."

"What is this? Squid?"

"want."

"Huh? What's this?"

"That's an eel, bring it here."

"good."

...

Zhaolin moved all the remaining ingredients from the refrigerator over, and An Fusheng grabbed several kinds of vegetables with a vegetable basket.

Seeing the two of them busily preparing ingredients, Wen Yue came over and asked, "How can we do this without duck blood?"

An Fusheng and Zhao Lin both paused at the same time. Oh right, they hadn't thought of making Mao Xue Wang (a spicy Sichuan dish) this morning, so they hadn't bought any duck blood.

Suddenly, a few clucking sounds came from the vegetable garden behind them. An Fusheng and Zhaolin both turned their heads toward the door leading to the backyard.

There were three hens in the chicken coop in the backyard, which were to be used to make stewed chicken with soybeans in the afternoon.

When Wen Yue first took over the Starry Sky Canteen's new media account, someone asked in the comments section what the Starry Sky Canteen's signature dish was. Someone replied that it was closed to customers, and that the Starry Sky Canteen's lack of dine-in service was something that couldn't be helped for the time being. However, Wen Yue disagreed with the claim that there was no signature dish. So, in just one month, Wen Yue made the restaurant's most popular and unique dish, stewed chicken with soybeans, the restaurant's number one signature dish.

After becoming a signature dish, this dish sold very well, consuming five or six chickens every day.

However, it's difficult to get chicken blood when buying slaughtered chickens at the market, and buying chicken blood separately might not be clean. So An Fusheng buys live chickens and slaughters them himself, which makes the chicken meat fresher, and no customer has said it's not delicious.

An Fusheng: "If you don't have duck blood, chicken blood will do too, okay?"

Zhaolin: "Mm."

So one chicken was caught clucking a few more times and was killed prematurely.

Fresh chicken blood must be cooked first.

An Fusheng instructed Zhaolin to add half a pot of cold water to the pot, then pour the chicken blood into the cold water and simmer it over low heat. Then he started adding various ingredients such as chili peppers, sliced ​​meat, beef tripe, and squid.

Zhaolin used to think that the most attractive thing about cooking was when the food was served in a bowl and smelled delicious. Now he finds the whole process of cooking, from picking out vegetables at the market to washing and chopping them to cooking the dish, very appealing.

After slicing a piece of pork belly into thin, even slices, An Fusheng then cut a piece of squid into blooming flowers with several horizontal and vertical cuts.

Watching An Fusheng place the cut squid into boiling water and gently stir it with chopsticks, the previously limp squid meat instantly straightened up, truly resembling a blooming flower, Zhaolin couldn't help but exclaim, "Wow, so beautiful!"

An Fusheng continued cutting the other ingredients.

Zhaolin pointed to the long white strip on the cutting board and asked, "What is this?"

An Fusheng: "Yellow throat refers to the aorta of a cow or pig."

"Huh?" Zhao Lin was quite familiar with the name "yellow throat" because he often ordered it when eating hot pot. He had always thought it was the trachea of ​​a cow, but he didn't expect it to be an artery, and that pigs also have it.

After chopping the ingredients, the chicken blood was also cooked. An Fusheng took out the chicken blood, cut it into thick slices, and then he could start cooking.

Zhaolin had already washed the pot and placed it on the stove for him.

An Fusheng first turned up the heat to dry the pot, then poured rapeseed oil into it: "When making spicy dishes, we need to add more oil, and we also need to add more salt later, otherwise the chili will taste bland and spicy, and not fragrant."

Zhaolin: "Mhm."

After adding the rapeseed oil, An Fusheng added a large spoonful of lard. "Adding some lard makes the oil blend better. The lard softens the vegetables, and the vegetarian dishes will taste even better later."

After adding the oil, turn the heat down and add the chopped dried chili peppers. An Fusheng added a whole bowlful, and Zhaolin's jaw dropped in astonishment: "Won't...won't it be too spicy?"

An Fusheng: "This chili pepper isn't spicy."

Zhaolin: "Oh."

After sautéing the dried chili peppers until fragrant, ginger and garlic were added. Then An Fusheng added several other types of chili peppers, such as broad bean paste, hot pot base, and chili powder.

Zhaolin fell silent. Is this really not spicy? But it smells so good!

The various seasonings were fully infused with aroma in the hot oil. After the aroma became rich, An Fusheng added pepper and salt to the seasonings, then poured in water, turned up the heat, and let the seasonings continue to simmer in the water.

"By the way, when you're frying the seasonings, you must use low heat. If the heat is too high, the seasonings will burn easily, and if they burn, they will taste bitter."

"I see."

After the water boils, let the seasonings continue to simmer in the boiling water for a few more minutes to fully infuse the water with their aroma. Then you can remove the seasoning residue.

Zhao Lin was puzzled when he saw that An Fusheng had scooped up all the seasonings with a strainer: "Why did you scoop up all the seasonings?"

Zhaolin felt that this soup was similar to hot pot soup, but when eating hot pot, the soup base is constantly simmering. Zhaolin had also eaten dishes similar to Maoxuewang, which also had a lot of seasonings in them.

An Fusheng: "The flavor of these ingredients has mostly been cooked into the soup, so there's no point in keeping them. They'll stick to the ingredients when cooked together, which doesn't look good and also affects the taste of the dish."

Zhaolin: "You can't see any seasoning at all. The Maoxuewang I ate before had a lot of chili peppers, Sichuan peppercorns, garlic and stuff?"

An Fusheng: "We'll release it later."

After saying that, An Fusheng began to demonstrate the experiment to him.

An Fusheng first cooked the squid and eel, which are harder to cook and don't absorb flavor well. Then he added chicken blood, luncheon meat, and beef aorta to the soup. Next came bean sprouts, mushrooms, and greens. Then he turned down the heat and cooked the marinated pork liver slices. He continued cooking the tripe and beef aorta. In short, he cooked the ingredients that needed to be cooked for about the same time together to avoid some being undercooked while others were overcooked.

After all the vegetables are cooked, pour the broth into the bowl containing the vegetables. Then sprinkle minced garlic, chopped green onions, chili powder, and dried chili pepper pieces on top of the vegetables. Finally, heat oil in a pan and pour it over the vegetables covered with seasonings.

With a sizzling sound, the fresh seasonings released their rich aroma, which, combined with the original fragrance of the vegetables, created a complex and intense flavor that filled the nostrils.

At the same time, hot oil is poured over cold seasonings. The collision of hot and cold causes the seasonings to jump up and down due to the heat. The oil also explodes due to the contact with water and cold. In an instant, the various colored seasonings and golden oil droplets on the surface of the dish create a lively dance. Then, a layer of glossy oil covers the bright red surface of the dish, achieving color, aroma and taste in an instant.

Zhaolin no longer cared about whether it was spicy or not; he was completely captivated by the scene before him. His senses—sight, smell, and hearing—were already telling him that this was an unparalleled delicacy, and he couldn't imagine what an amazing experience it would be to eat it.