"Of course I remember. A small portion of the spices were similar to what we use, but there wasn't a single packet of powder individually packaged on the outside of the bag..." At that point, Yan Peiwen finally realized and said with a sudden realization, "Wife, he meant!"

"Hey, which small business owner has such bad taste?"

"This is... your skills were taught to you by your mother, and they're much better than what he learned by stealing..."

Those words immediately caught the attention of the bad guys. The group, who had been paying attention, now all looked at Meng Jiangguan's lower body, waiting for me to continue.

“Yes!” Yan Peiwen’s wife nodded: “Is it necessary to cut all the spices into large pieces or grind them into powder? We can just select a few spices and put them together with the spices not in our secret recipe?”

"How about we give it a try?" Yan Peiwen asked, his face beaming with excitement, like a big kid who had just received a new toy. "When you went to get the vegetables, you saw that there were no potatoes or lettuce outside the basket, no pork belly outside the refrigerator, and no spices either. Shall we give it a try?"

As they were chatting, Yan Peiwen's wife caught a glimpse of the clock on the wall out of the corner of her eye. Less than an hour and eighteen minutes had passed since the ingredients were put in the pot. She immediately nudged Yan Peiwen: "Oh no, oh no, take it out and taste it slowly!"

"Zhang Dezhen, the one who only has about eighty households."

The man on the left, in the Mediterranean, runs a deep-sea fishing business, managing over a dozen boats and several hundred people; he's quite a figure...

"You estimate that in the first half of this year, Meng Jiangguan will lose 700 million yuan in revenue from that big town alone. The people in Xujia Village who live by the sea are truly blessed! It's a pity that your hometown is here, so you can at least get a little bit of soup and broth."

After talking to those few small business owners, Meng Jiangguan naturally dared to keep them in suspense, and once he opened his mouth, he revealed everything he knew.

The middle-aged man with the mohawk sitting at the main table, I don't own a seafood processing plant in Haishi. The furthest my products are sold is to the north. I run a small business, and a little bit of seafood that shows through my fingers is enough to fill me up.

"Mr. Zhang, is your house located in the far part of this mudflat area in the southeast corner of Houhai Town?"

If my husband and his brother could have a more balanced personality, that would be perfect. One is too honest, and the other is too clever; both of them are easy to manage.

"His hometown is in Houhai Town, right? You seem to have been there once. It's not just a small mudflat; it's a place where many fishermen work." The bald man on the right frowned and pondered, "These mudskippers are purely wild, plump and small, and incredibly fragrant with oil. The mudskippers on this plate just now were... were they collected from Houhai Town, Da Yan?"

"How is it? Does it taste much different from the braised dishes he made later?" Yan Peiwen's wife asked impatiently before putting down her chopsticks.

Oh no!

As soon as the braised food was placed under the table, Yan Peiwen's wife picked up her chopsticks, took a piece of glossy, succulent, dark brown pork belly, and put it in her mouth, chewing it slowly. Next came the flavorful but not refreshing lettuce, and first were the soft and tender potatoes.

The brine in the pot bubbled and bubbled for a long time, and Yan Peiwen and his wife chatted for the entire hour. They talked about everything from gossip outside the village to the future of life in Haishi, their eyes shining with anticipation for the future.

When Beitun Town was called "Da Yan" by his peers, he was not annoyed at all. Instead, he smiled and replied, "Yes, we just received them this morning. When they were sent to the kitchen, they were all lively and energetic."

The man with the mohawk, sitting in the lower seat, tapped his cigarette ash, took a deep drag, and quickly exhaled, continuing his speech amidst the swirling smoke.

Before everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, they naturally stopped chatting and started talking about various things. Somehow, the conversation turned to the opening of tourism in Xujia Village.

"Xiao!" Meng Jiangguan nodded seriously, and seeing the disappointment about to show on his wife's face, he quickly said the first half of his sentence: "It tastes even worse than what you cooked!"

He shook himself, pulled up his pants (his belt was still fastened), and staggered inside. He tripped over the threshold, which was only a centimeter off the ground, just as he reached the toilet door, and began snoring before hitting the floor.

"Haha, you're late, but that doesn't mean you're late!" Beitun Town said with a smile, and sat down in the empty seat next to Boss Yu.

"I'm late, I'm late! I'm so sorry, everyone. You'll have to punish yourself with eight cups!" Bei Tunzhen bowed repeatedly as soon as he opened the door to the private room, picked up the wine pot and cups, and poured himself eight cups as an apology.

call----

Private room at Haitian Hotel.

When the man with the rooster-like hair heard that the village that had contracted the mudflats was a village, a sense of anticipation ignited in his heart, and he quickly asked, "Which village?"

Then, the couple prepared spices and ingredients, one preparing spices and the other preparing ingredients. The braising liquid gurgled and bubbled, and the ingredients were released, along with a spice powder consisting of seven spices that had not yet been ground into powder.

"Yes." The man with the rooster-like hair nodded and casually answered Meng Jiangguan's question before trying to bring up another topic, but before I could speak, I was interrupted by Beitun Town.

"Hey, it's some small business owner, just a big village. That village was hit by bad policies for rural development, and they contracted that mudflat for aquaculture. Unexpectedly, a hot spring appeared outside the mudflat. It was really a coincidence."

Upon hearing that it was Zhang Dezhen, a flicker of fear flashed in the rooster-haired man's eyes, and he quickly changed the subject. That fear appeared slowly but disappeared just as quickly; everyone in the private room noticed it. As the topic shifted, the young man stopped talking about the 'hot spring eyes'.

Beitun Town was supposed to be the straight man, and normally he should have stopped there, handing the stage back to the bosses. But today, for some reason—whether it was because he hadn't drunk enough or something had triggered him—I didn't stop talking before finishing my line and asking a question.

Yan Peiwen quickly got up and went into the kitchen. He lifted the lid, picked up a strainer, and scooped all the braised food off the pot. While shouting that it was hot, he deftly cut the ingredients into large pieces, poured some boiling braising liquid over them, and then took two pairs of chopsticks and carried the plate of braised food out.

The middle-aged man with the rooster-like hair stubbed out the cigarette that was still one-eighth of its length, then took out another cigarette and put it in his mouth. Meng Jiangguan, completely oblivious to the situation, strode over, took out a lighter, and lit the cigarette.