Chapter 280 Lunch

The lunch started and the guests walked into the garden living room one after another. Qiao Junxian took Yue Ning and Qiao's eldest cousin and his wife to sit at the same table.

The eldest sister-in-law turned to the eldest cousin and said, "I'll sit here and take care of the children. You can bring me some food."

"Sister-in-law, please come with me! Today's dishes are all made by the chef in our restaurant. I am familiar with the ingredients and cooking methods of each dish and can introduce them to you." Yue Ning said, holding his sister-in-law's arm.

The eldest cousin also encouraged him: "Qiu Fen, go with Ning Ning first, I will stay here to take care of Jun Jun."

The eldest sister-in-law followed Yue Ning to the food pick-up area. Yue Ning first took her to the cold dish area, where neatly arranged small bowls were filled with sashimi of sea bream with seasonings. Yue Ning picked up a bowl and reminded: "Sister-in-law, this fish slice is raw, you may not be used to it."

"Jinxing is used to it. His family likes to pickle crabs and shrimps. Sometimes the river shrimps will jump when you put them in your mouth!" said the eldest sister-in-law, "but I dare not touch them at all."

"We also have marinated crabs here. But this sweet-scented osmanthus is our signature dish." Yue Ning said as he picked up two slices for her and took one for himself, "Try a piece of squab."

Seeing the smoked fish, the eldest sister-in-law took the initiative to pick up a piece: "I know this, it's smoked fish."

In front of them were Ningbo pickled crabs and plum blossom drunken crabs. Yue Ning introduced: "Sister-in-law, try this cooked drunken hairy crab. Although it is a drunken crab recipe, it is already steamed. It is suitable for people who want to eat drunken crabs but dare not eat them raw."

The eldest sister-in-law reached out to pick up the cold beef, and Yue Ning quickly reminded her: "This dish is a bit spicy."

"It's better to be spicy! No one in my family eats spicy food, so it's difficult for me to cook spicy dishes. I'm afraid it will be wasted if I make too much, and it's hard to season if I make too little. Grandma knows that I like spicy food, so she will cook it for me occasionally, but the dishes she cooks are always more sweet than spicy. The old lady loves me so much that she takes the trouble to cook, so of course I have to finish it." The eldest sister-in-law sighed.

At this moment, a voice suddenly came from behind: "Qiu Fen, what are you whispering about behind my back?"

The eldest sister-in-law turned around and saw the two old ladies from the Qiao family standing behind them.

"Sister-in-law is praising your cooking!" Yue Ning said with a smile, "Grandma, you must try the crab meat dumplings later. They are the exclusive recipe of the master chef of Jinhua Hotel."

The old lady smiled and nodded: "Okay."

When they arrived at the hot food area, eel stewed with lamb was being heated over an open fire. The dark brown soup wrapped around large chunks of eel meat and lamb belly. The rich and fresh aroma mixed with the aroma of tangerine peel wafted into the air. Yue Ning asked his sister-in-law to scoop a piece of eel and lamb to taste.

The eldest sister-in-law looked at the cut Wellington steak and wondered: "Why is the meat still pink? Is it not cooked yet?"

"Silly boy, steak should be eaten with powder." The old lady said as she picked up a piece. "This steak is well cooked."

"Grandma, remember to get a bowl of black truffle puff pastry chicken pie, it's made by an authentic French chef." Yue Ning said as she took two king crab legs and a bowl of steamed eggs for her sister-in-law. Considering that her sister-in-law likes spicy food, she specially recommended Nanyang-style spicy fried crab.

The sister-in-law picked out some food suitable for children and returned to her seat with Yue Ning.

As soon as they sat down, Qiao Junxian and his eldest cousin got up to get their food. Junjun stared at his eldest sister-in-law's plate and drooled. His eldest sister-in-law handed him a shrimp ball. Yue Ning quickly reminded him: "Sister-in-law, cut the shrimp ball and let it air dry first. It's still very hot inside."

Junjun has sharp ears and immediately protected the shrimp ball with his chubby little hands: "Junjun, blow on it yourself." As he said that, he blew air on the shrimp ball.

"Don't be in a hurry, bite it open slowly and eat slowly." Yue Ning said while touching the little guy's head.

"oh oh!"

Junjun took a small bite and his eyes immediately narrowed into slits. He said indistinctly with the food in his mouth: "Little lady, it's not hot anymore."

"Eat slowly, don't choke." Yue Ning gently rubbed Xiaobao's head.

My sister-in-law tasted the spicy fried crab and said: "This is not ordinary spicy fried crab, why does it taste like curry?"

"Yes, it's a spicy curry flavor with a bit of Singaporean style," Yue Ning explained.

"I would like to have some rice with it. It will definitely taste good with this soup." The eldest sister-in-law said as she was about to get up.

Yue Ning waved her hand quickly: "Don't worry, sister-in-law, there will be crab meat rice in a while. Now is the season for eating crabs, how can we miss this delicious taste?"

Yue Ning himself picked up the king crab roe steamed egg, which is a Japanese style chawanmushi. King crab roe and egg liquid are steamed into a tender and smooth egg custard, garnished with a piece of plump foie gras and caviar, for a rich taste.

While eating, the two chatted about their past in the countryside, which was their favorite topic. Yue Ning talked about the embarrassing situation when she was picking radish tops and cabbage leaves in the vegetable production team and her basket was trampled by members; the eldest sister-in-law touched Junjun's head and recalled that when she was in the production team, her eldest cousin, as a "capitalist", did the heaviest work but was not awarded first-class work points. She felt sorry for her husband and secretly helped him with the work, just to prevent him from being looked down upon.

At this point, she looked a little lonely: "At that time, I always hoped to have a day off, but when I really followed your brother to Shanghai, I couldn't adapt to being idle every day. Grandma can play the piano and invite people to drink coffee at home. She has things to do. I am around Junjun every day when I open my eyes. At the beginning, I was still free to make shoes and clothes for Junjun, but grandma, mother, and sisters bought them for the children when they saw something nice. Even grandma and aunt often asked Junshen and Huiyi to send things to Junjun. Junjun has everything..."

"Junjun also wants to eat the ball!" the little guy suddenly interrupted.

Yue Ning was about to get up to get food for the child when Qiao Junxian and Qiao Jinxing came back with food. Qiao Jinxing put down the plate and handed over a soup bowl covered with puff pastry: "Junjun, let's have cream of mushroom chicken."

He held the child's hand and taught Junjun to use a spoon to hit the puff pastry. Junjun, who usually gets hit on the head and scolded by his father for "having no manners and growing up to be a beggar", got his father's permission and excitedly hit it twice. The puff pastry fell into the cream soup, and the hot steam with the aroma of milk and truffles hit his face. The black truffles in October are brown, crisp and refreshing, with a soft aroma, which blends perfectly with the cream soup.

"It smells so good!" The sister-in-law couldn't help but exclaim.

Seeing this, the eldest cousin stood up and asked, "Do you want more? I'll go get it together."

"Brother, don't bother, I'll ask the waiter to bring it over." Yue Ning immediately called the waiter on the rounds, "Please bring us three more cups of cream mushroom puff pastry."

"Okay, I'll be right there."

The child blew into the soup bowl and ate the mushroom and chicken soup happily.

During the dinner, Qiao Junxian talked about the current situation of insufficient orders and declining profits of his eldest cousin's unit. When his eldest cousin heard that Qiao Junxian had opened up sales channels by selling small household appliances, he asked his cousin for advice.

In fact, when Qiao Qiming went to Shanghai for the first time, he learned that Qiao Qihui had passed away. In grief, he wanted to bring his brother's family to the port city. At that time, the two sons of the Qiao family were separated in two places, which was the consideration of "not putting all eggs in one basket" for a big family in troubled times. Although the Qiao family's property is not divided equally now, the eldest son should at least have a share.

But the eldest old lady rejected this proposal: the sinking of thousands of ships in Jiangyin was only to delay the Japanese army's time to go up the Yangtze River and buy time for Shanghai and Nanjing to move westward. Most of the Qiao family's ships sank into the Yangtze River estuary, and most of the remaining assets were left in the mainland and moved westward. The second son only took six ships from the port city. During the Anti-Japanese War, the wealth of the two families was almost gone. Now the second family's family business was all built by Qiao Qiming. No matter how good the relationship between brothers is, no matter how close the sisters-in-law are, the accounts must be clear, and the eldest family cannot take it at will.

The eldest lady just said: "Just stay in Shanghai. If the children want to go out and make their own living, let them go. There is no need to move the whole family."

Because of the situation of my great grandfather's family, the Qiao family wanted to help. But my eldest cousin's company mainly produces electrical equipment switches for power systems. Hong Kong and Singapore lack related resources. Currently, the strongest countries in this field are Japan and Germany.

Yue Ning thought for a moment and said to Qiao Junxian: "Ask PN Company. They have an electrical division. Go and talk to them."

PN had previously invited Qiao Junxian to shoot a camera commercial, which was very successful. Although the product itself was cost-effective, PN believed that Qiao Junxian's image played an important role. This time they wanted to invite Qiao Junxian to endorse a TV. Qiao Junxian initially declined on the grounds that "I make small appliances myself, so it's not appropriate for me to endorse a competitor's product." However, the other party said that the two did not conflict and was willing to accept.

Yue Ning saw clearly that the other party had probably already set their sights on Qiao Junxian's factory and sales channels in the mainland, waiting for an opportunity to acquire Yimei. But she thought it would be a good idea to agree first, as televisions and rice cookers both belong to the field of home appliances, and it would be natural for Qiao Junxian to advertise his own products in the future.

Although both parties have their own plans, they appear to be cooperating happily on the surface.

"Okay, I'll go ask. Even if it's across business units, I can ask them to act as a matchmaker." Qiao Junxian nodded, "I'll go talk to you after my brother's wedding."

"Brother, Junxian will help you contact the Japanese company. I will take you to the Autumn Fair. Although you can't participate in the exhibition, you can go in and hand out business cards." Yue Ning suggested, "I have heard that the Guangdong Fair will be delegated to each province this year. Next year or the year after, each province will organize its own exhibition. It would be good for us to seize the opportunity first."

"We usually issue letters of introduction and haven't printed business cards yet." The eldest cousin cut the steak and gave a small piece to Junjun.

"Let me help you print it." said Qiao Junxian.

"And print some for our factory manager." The eldest cousin added, "I'll call the factory manager this afternoon and ask him to meet me in Yuecheng."

"No problem, just give me the information and I'll have someone rush it to be processed." Qiao Junxian agreed.

The eldest cousin looked at his eldest sister-in-law and said to Yue Ning hesitantly: "Ningning, there is something I don't know whether I should tell you or not... Your sister-in-law and I have seen your 'Ning Xiaochu' and want to help her open a similar shop. Can you help? If it involves secret recipes that are inconvenient to disclose, forget it..." He explained while peeling crab meat for Junjun, "Your sister-in-law is very smart and hardworking. Although she doesn't have a formal diploma, she has no problem with literacy, reading newspapers, and accounting. After coming to Shanghai, I wanted to help her find a job in the street, but now there are too many educated youth returning to the city, and the street is difficult to arrange. Our family conditions are not bad, and it would be difficult for the comrades in the street to ask for this quota."

"I understand. People who have been busy all the time will feel empty when they suddenly have some free time." Yue Ning interrupted, "The seasonings are all produced by Huiwen's Cuiji Factory. If you want to open a business, let your sister-in-law go to Ning Xiaochu to learn for a month. In the future, the seasonings will be shipped directly from Huiyi's Shanghai factory and made according to the recipe. There is another way. This store can directly hang the sign of Ning Xiaochu and be considered a franchise store. In addition to complying with brand regulations and accepting supervision, franchise stores are self-operated and all profits belong to you."

"I will definitely follow the rules of 'Ning Xiaochu'." The eldest sister-in-law quickly expressed her opinion.

Qiao Junxian, who had gone to pick up the food at some point, came back at this time. Yue Ning pushed a basket of crab meat dumplings over to her: "Sister-in-law, try this."

"Ningning, is it appropriate for us to use your brand but keep all the profits?" The eldest cousin still had some concerns.

Yue Ning took a bite of the pancake and said with a smile: "Ning Xiaochu is a direct-operated store in Japan and never opens for franchise. My sister-in-law's store is a special case. Just consider it as helping me test the waters in Shanghai. Ning Xiaochu will enter Shanghai sooner or later. Brother, if you don't even have this little trust, what kind of relatives are you?"

The eldest cousin nodded heavily.

At this time, Zhao Xiru came over and urged Yue Ning to go upstairs as soon as possible to try on the dress for the afternoon. When the two passed by Ye Yingyi's table, they heard Qiao Jiahe muttering: "Stop eating bibimbap, or you will be embarrassed if you can't wear the dress later!"

Ye Yingyi rolled her eyes at him: "How can I have time to eat at night? I'll be punished if I eat a few more mouthfuls of rice!"