Chapter 116 The sooner you complete the task, the greater the reward

After the two men moved their positions, a new batch of victims appeared in the rental house.

It’s okay for those who are asleep, as they may drool on the pillow in their sleep. But those who are still awake at this time will be in trouble.

I was scrolling through my phone, feeling exhausted and wondering whether to go to sleep, when I was suddenly awakened by the aroma of meat.

I don’t know what it is made of, but the smell makes me salivate. I don’t even want to check my phone. I just want to find something to fill my stomach!

Moreover, the fragrance is so overbearing that it goes straight into people's noses and it is impossible to ignore it!

Who on earth is so wicked that they hurt people who stay up late in the middle of the night?

Su Yuchen in the room also looked pitiful. "I clearly had a full meal tonight, why do I feel so hungry now? Is this aroma going to seduce me all night long?"

"Just this once. This is the first time we're making this pot of broth. From now on, this will be our old broth and can be used repeatedly. We won't have to bring it back so late like we did today." Zhao Xiaojing tried hard to block out the aroma of meat, and she wasn't very calm inside.

If she had known that the aroma was so lethal, she should have ordered the soup earlier, at least she wouldn't have to take it home late at night and be constantly harassed by the smell!

As they were talking, the two took turns to wash up, and it was past one in the morning before Zhao Xiaojing took out the pig's feet and the marinade package that had been simmered in the residual heat for an hour.

After taking them out, turn on the air conditioner and fan, and lower the temperature of the braising soup until it is no longer hot to the touch of the steel bucket. Then put the pig's feet back into the soup pot and soak them overnight.

Simmering the pig's feet for an hour at the residual heat enhances the meat's texture and makes it more thoroughly cooked. Re-immersing the pig's feet after the temperature has cooled prevents the oil from being locked in the brine and causing the feet to become overly soft and mushy, ruining their texture. It also allows the pig's feet to fully absorb the flavor of the braising liquid, ensuring the large pig's feet are thoroughly seasoned, avoiding a bland exterior.

It was already three in the morning when everything was done. Su Yuchen had already fallen asleep unconscious. Zhao Xiaojing turned off the dim yellow light in the kitchen, turned off Su Yuchen's phone which was still playing a video, plugged in the charger, and then tiptoed to bed.

The next day, Zhao Xiaojing woke up early again. Just as she opened her eyes, Su Yuchen's alarm clock rang.

The two washed their faces and continued to stand in the park. After that, they quickly ate, did some shopping, and pulled the big steel drum back to the kitchen.

As soon as they came back, they both got busy. Su Yuchen washed and chopped all the chili peppers, garlic cloves, onions, ginger and coriander that they had bought, while Zhao Xiaojing prepared the spices and boiled the oil.

These are all for making the soul of pork trotter rice, chili sauce.

Although chili sauce is only used for seasoning and a spoonful is added at the end when the pork trotter rice is served, good chili sauce can enhance the flavor and relieve greasiness, and also plays a key role in the taste of the whole pork trotter rice.

Although it is just a small spoonful, making chili sauce is not simple at all. The cooking oil alone contains more than a dozen seasonings such as green onions, coriander, onions, ginger slices, star anise, peppercorns, cinnamon, spices, dried chilies, white wine, etc.

Not to mention that minced garlic and chili peppers need to be added in batches, the time must be controlled, and the heat must be adjusted three times.

It looks simple, but it won’t work if you just add them together mechanically. It requires experience and effort.

"Comb, please ride your bike and buy me five pounds of potatoes." Zhao Xiaojing was stunned for a moment just after she served the chili sauce, then turned to Su Yuchen and said.

The system has assigned another task, and she just received it.

[Random Task: Sell 500 servings of Secret Pork Knuckle Rice at 30 yuan each. This task has no time limit. The sooner you complete the task, the greater the reward.]

As soon as Zhao Xiaojing saw the task, she quickly accepted it. If 500 copies were sold without a time limit, it would be completed sooner or later, which was equivalent to a free reward.

However, according to Zhao Xiaojing's experience, free rewards are generally very casual, and the rewards for tasks that require no effort are relatively mediocre.

But the fact that the sooner you complete the task, the richer the reward is really tempted her. If the system says it’s rich, then the reward must be good!

However, this task was indeed a bit tricky. She had briefly inspected the side door and found that half of the dozen or so stalls were selling rice.

The cheapest item is fried rice, which is only 8 yuan. Slightly more expensive items are barbecue rice and duck leg rice, but the most expensive of those is only 18 yuan.

That place is a student business, so a meal at 30 yuan is definitely not easy to sell, not to mention the difficulty of selling 500 meals quickly.

So Zhao Xiaojing thought about it and decided to increase the quantity and add an unlimited side dish.

Su Yuchen responded without asking any questions and hurriedly rode his stall bike out.

Zhao Xiaojing took out the sauerkraut she had bought in the morning, cut it into small cubes and started stir-frying it.

The pickled mustard greens for the pork trotter rice must be sour and crispy enough. She walked around and chose the whole pickled mustard greens from the vegetable market.

First put all the sauerkraut into the pot and dry-fry for a while. After the water is dried, take it out. Then put a little lard in the pot, heat the oil, add chopped ginger and garlic and stir-fry until fragrant, then add sauerkraut and dried chilies and stir-fry until the attractive sour aroma comes out, then add salt, a small amount of chicken essence and other seasonings.

By the time Zhao Xiaojing had fried all the sauerkraut and taken it out of the pan, Su Yuchen had already returned with a bag of potatoes and started washing and peeling them.

Zhao Xiaojing also washed the pot and quickly cut the potatoes that Su Yuchen had washed into shreds.

Even though Su Yuchen had eaten there and seen Zhao Xiaojing cook many times, he couldn't help but admire her every time he saw Zhao Xiaojing holding a kitchen knife and ruthlessly chopping a bunch of ingredients into very fine pieces.

"Mirror, you're so cool! The thousands of dollars I spent on this knife skill are worth it."

Zhao Xiaojing heard it but didn't say anything. She just smiled and continued to cut all the ingredients for the shredded potatoes in one go.

When Su Yuchen returned to Yangcheng, she was very surprised at the rapid improvement in Zhao Xiaojing's cooking skills. In her memory, it was only four or five months since she last saw Zhao Xiaojing. At that time, Zhao Xiaojing was still working for an unscrupulous boss and could only cook delicious porridge.

Zhao Xiaojing said that her unscrupulous boss had given her a salary before running away. She took the money and didn't want to repeat the old routine of working for others and living on their conscience. She happened to be interested in cooking, so she used the salary to enroll in a chef class and studied for a while.

She also said that the cooking class was a quickie and didn't teach her much, so her cooking skills were uneven, sometimes very skilled and sometimes completely clueless. It was only after learning to make fried skewers online that she began to gain some understanding. Later, she joined the cafeteria and learned from a master chef, which helped her improve.

Su Yuchen was deeply moved after hearing this, saying that Zhao Xiaojing was born to be a chef. Even if others studied cooking, they wouldn't necessarily reach her level of understanding. She'd only lived there for a few days, but she could already sense that Zhao Xiaojing's cooking skills were improving every day.

Zhao Xiaojing felt a bit embarrassed by the compliment. Of course, she could improve. Spending ten more minutes a day could give her ten more hours of virtual practice than others...