Chapter 4 004 Pickled Peppers

Wen Fan was completely unaware that his simple deletion had left the male lead and his henchmen extremely puzzled. Fu Chuan's face was as black as the bottom of a pot, and the group hastily and unhappily dispersed.

After a quick lunch, Mr. and Mrs. Wen, who had gotten up early that morning, both started yawning.

Wen Fan pushed them out: "I'll read in the shop, you guys go back and rest for a while."

Mother Wen's eyes widened: "That won't do!"

Although lunchtime has passed, there are still one or two diners occasionally in the afternoon.

Wen Fan: "It's just noodles, right? My dad prepared the noodles in advance, and the rice at the shop is also ready. What are you worried about?"

Wen's mother hesitated.

Previously, she and her husband would take turns watching the shop while she went home to sleep. Indeed, everything in the shop was readily available. When she was minding the shop alone, she could even make noodles, unless a customer ordered them.

But Wen Fan...

Father Wen: "I'll do it. You two go back and rest."

Wen Fan said helplessly, "Dad... there's air conditioning in the shop."

Mr. Wen hesitated for a moment, feeling somewhat guilty: "Well, alright, I'll go back with your mother."

The family rented this house last year. The house was practically empty. Later, they opened a shop, but they were still struggling to make ends meet, so they only installed a single second-hand standing air conditioner in the shop.

Wen Fan looked at his parents, whose guilt was almost tangible, and felt somewhat helpless.

Although they had only spent a few days together, Wen Fan had already figured out how to communicate with his parents without any instruction.

Sometimes it wasn't that she deliberately provoked guilt in the two of them, but only in this way would the other party do as she wished.

These are two parents who want to give their child everything good. Perhaps the original "Wen Fan" would have felt that such love was a bit suffocating, but now she only feels that such love is just right, sticky and affectionate.

After Wen's parents left, Wen Fan took out his English textbook, first carefully copied the words, then read them twice according to the original owner's vague memory, and the rest was much easier.

Wen Fan placed the copied words on the table to cover the Chinese translations, and recited the spellings over and over again, his hands never stopping.

“Abandon, abandon…give up…”

hiss--

Peel the white garlic cloves and drop them into the water, creating a ripple.

"exchange, exchange-..."

A quick glance at the vocabulary book: "ange, exchange, trade!"

Ding ding ding—

The crisp, fresh chili peppers were chopped into rings the size of a fingernail.

“lecture, lec…”

Heat a pot and boil Sichuan peppercorn water, then fry ginger slices, onions, scallions, and cilantro in oil until fragrant...

Wen Fan found a clean pair of chopsticks and dipped them into the freshly prepared sauce to taste it.

After nodding in satisfaction, he soaked the chili rings in the solution.

I had only been soaking for half an hour when I heard the door open.

Welcome!

The young woman who entered was dressed very warmly, wearing sun protection clothing from head to toe, and she looked exhausted.

"Boss, anything else?"

In the middle of the afternoon, unless she had something to do and needed to go out, she would rather stay home, enjoy the air conditioning, and order takeout.

Wen Fan eagerly presented the menu: "We have rice bowls and noodle bowls ready-made. If you want anything else, you'll have to wait."

She wasn't very familiar with using the stoves and pans in the kitchen. Although the modern stoves were convenient enough, the countertop with several faucets still kept Wen Fan busy.

Therefore, just to be on the safe side, Wen Fan still recommended the things that his father had prepared.

Wu Na lost her appetite due to the heat, and frowned as soon as Wen Fan announced the menu: "Is there anything else? Can you make cold noodles?"

On such a hot day, she really didn't want to eat anything hot.

Wen Fan shook his head: "Sorry, the shop doesn't serve cold noodles."

Wu Na was somewhat disappointed. If she had known that this little shop didn't even have liangpi (cold skin noodles), she wouldn't have come in.

But since she was already there, she casually pointed to a rice bowl with stir-fried cabbage and beef.

"This is fine, take it to go... and an iced Coke too."

"Okay!" Wen Fan found a takeout box under the counter, filled it up to about the right amount, and then took a can of Coke from the freezer.

"Fifteen pieces in total."

Wu Na took the packing bag, paid the money directly, then put on her sun hat and quickly rode away on her electric scooter.

The sun was so strong that Wu Na practically fled home.

The first thing I did upon entering the room wasn't to take off my sun-protective clothing, but to quickly turn on the air conditioner and set it to 16 degrees Celsius.

"This awful heat! When is it finally going to rain?!"

The rain forecast is like a game of hide-and-seek; you never know when it will start, and the sweltering heat makes people lose their appetite.

Wu Na took a shower, changed into her pajamas, and opened her tablet to choose a show to watch while eating.

I spent twenty minutes choosing.

In the end, she resigned herself to her fate and chose a legendary palace drama. Listening to the lines she almost knew by heart, Wu Na opened her lunchbox.

After nearly an hour of being kept warm in the lunchbox, the food and rice were no longer clearly separated. Although it wasn't cold, it was definitely not as hot as when it was fresh out of the pot.

Wu Na took two bites and felt that she would have been better off coming back and cooking instant noodles.

At least instant noodles with cola can be considered a happy meal at home.

Bored, Wu Na glanced at a white plastic bag containing pickled vegetables in the takeout bag. Wu Na originally wanted to throw the pickled vegetables away, but then, accompanied by a "meow," her cat came over at some point.

The round-faced golden shaded dog sniffed its left and right sides, then jumped onto the table with a plop, making the can of cola hiss.

The cat approached Wu Na's food, sniffed it enough, and then started rummaging through it.

Wu Na called out "Hey hey hey".

"Stop smelling it, there's nothing you can eat."

The takeout food was too oily and salty, so Wu Na might eat it herself, but she wouldn't dare give it to her master.

The cat was quite good-natured; after being pushed away by Wu Na, it awkwardly licked its paws and meowed as it went to find something else.

Wu Na didn't notice that the cat had somehow crawled into the takeout bag.

With its chubby cheeks and nostrils flaring, the golden shaded dog meowed softly, a plastic bag tied in a tight knot between its teeth.

Wu Na caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of her eye and immediately panicked, fearing that the piglet would swallow the plastic bag again. She quickly grabbed its neck.

The cat seemed defiant and meowed even louder.

Wu Na snatched the pickled vegetables and flicked it on the head in an annoyed tone: "There's nothing you don't want to eat."

You have to taste everything to check its saltiness.

I picked up the plastic bag to check, and thankfully the cat hadn't eaten it, and the brown soup inside hadn't spilled out.

Wu Na was still not reassured and was about to throw the plastic bag into the kitchen's covered trash can when she suddenly twitched her nose, unsure, and brought the bag to her nose to smell it again.

Wu Na was somewhat confused; she felt...

This pickled vegetable tastes better than the rice we just ate!

To confirm whether it was indeed the smell of pickled vegetables, Wu Na gritted her teeth, found a bowl, and poured out the pickled vegetables.

This fall only made things worse; the cat in the house got even more excited, meowing and rubbing against my pants leg.

Wu Na took two deep breaths.

He reached out with his chopsticks and carefully picked up a chili ring.

Wu Na's eyes widened.

These chili rings are spicy with a hint of sweetness, crisp and refreshing. The initial taste is a gentle salty aroma, followed by a spiciness that isn't overpowering. The sour, spicy, salty, and savory flavors blend together perfectly, with no single flavor dominating, creating a remarkably natural fusion. That touch of sourness is especially appetizing, as if the pent-up summer heat in your chest has been burned away by the fire ignited by the chili. What remains is only a craving for food.

Wu Na's eyes lit up, and she forgot all about her dislike for the rice bowl. She put a few chili rings on the rice, and the originally ordinary dish seemed to have been given a second life. The sauce color wafted into the rice, and Wu Na shoveled the rice into her mouth.

The pig was furious and punched several times with its paws, but its owner was engrossed in eating and completely ignored it.

Wu Na ate a whole box of food in one go. Her stomach was full, but she still felt like she hadn't had enough.

This was the most satisfying meal she had eaten in a long time.

But……

Wu Na felt a little regretful; she had eaten too quickly and finished the whole bag of pickled vegetables.

What should I do tonight?

Wu Na gritted her teeth and thought, at worst... at worst, she would just go and buy another meal after the sun went down in the afternoon!

wrong!

She's going to ask if the shop sells pickled vegetables!

*****

Wen Fan stayed at the shop, memorizing dozens of words in the afternoon, doing two English reading comprehension exercises that were almost completely wrong, seeing off two customers who came to eat, and finally waiting for Wen's father to arrive.

The black dust on Wen's father's shoulders was more noticeable than in the morning.

He was covered in sweat and told Wen Fan to go home and rest as soon as he entered the door.

"Dad has made you dinner. Go home, eat early, and go to bed. Don't stay up too late playing on your phone."

Wen Fan obediently packed his schoolbag: "Dad, I made some pickled vegetables this afternoon following an online tutorial. I've put them at the back."

Mr. Wen asked in surprise, "You're making pickled vegetables now?"

Wen Fan slung his backpack over his shoulder: "What's so difficult about that? Dad, I'm not trying to be mean, but there are tons of tutorials online these days. As long as you follow the steps, you can do it pretty well."

Wen Fan wasn't confident that directly revealing her cooking skills would convince her parents, so she could only choose a gradual approach to convince them that she was "talented" through training, rather than being born with innate knowledge.

Wen's father was very pleased with his daughter's actions. Regardless of the outcome, Wen Fan's initiative undoubtedly showed that she no longer looked down on her parents' professions.

This alone is already a great thing.

"Okay, okay, Dad thanks you for your help."

Wen's father patted Wen Fan's shoulder kindly: "Your mother is at home, you should go back quickly."

Wen Fan left, and Wen's father walked into the kitchen, first surprised by its cleanliness.

He considered himself a fairly clean cook, but he never expected his daughter to be even cleaner than him.

Not only was it clean, but Wen Fan also had a subtle obsessive-compulsive disorder. All the seasonings in the kitchen were rearranged, with bottles of varying heights wiped clean and free of grease.

As Mr. Wen watched, his eyes suddenly reddened.

That's wonderful, my daughter has really grown up.

*****

Wen Fan pushed open the door and was immediately greeted by a blast of cold air.

Wen's mother stood at the door with a smile: "Come on, Xiao Fan, your dad and I bought a second-hand air conditioner this afternoon. Come in and see if it's cool."

A note from the author:

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