After half a lifetime, Mr. Song was speechless for a long time as he held the recipe that had finally been returned intact.
Tao Mu and the other two could probably understand the old man's feelings. The old man was left tossing and turning in the bedroom all night with the recipe in his hand. The small table lamp placed on the bedside was on all night, and the warm orange light sneaked out from the gap in the door, just like the huge rock that had been pressing on Song Daozhen's heart and making it difficult for him to breathe was finally moved away silently.
Early the next morning, Song Daozhen asked Tao Mu to accompany him to the antique restoration shop in Liulichang, wanting to rebind the Song family recipes.
Tao Mu noticed that the "Song Family Cookbook" that Mr. Song took out was a little thinner than the one he brought back. He raised his eyebrows unconsciously.
Song Daozhen noticed Tao Mu's doubts and said slowly: "What I want is the Song Family Cookbook. Since it is returned intact, anything less or more will not be considered intact."
Tao Mu suddenly realized and guessed what Song Daozhen meant.
He didn't say anything. I just accompanied the old man to bind the "Song Family Cookbook". He also accompanied the old man in arranging matters concerning ancestor worship.
It is said that we worship our ancestors on the first day of the Lunar New Year, but before that, there are actually many things to do. The Song family's ancestral tomb has a history of more than one hundred years. In the past, Mr. Song felt that he had let down his ancestors and was afraid of being reminded of the past, so he did not dare to visit the graves often. At most, I would go there to light incense and burn some paper during the Qingming Festival every year, and complain to my ancestors about my incompetence, cowardice, and unbearableness. Can't avenge the Song family.
I will be seriously ill when I come back.
But now, "Song Family Cookbook" has finally been taken back. The Song family's heritage has also returned. Song Daozhen felt that he was still incompetent, but at least he had not let his ancestors down. At least I can close my eyes in this life and have the confidence to meet my parents and grandparents.
So this year during the Chinese New Year, Song Daozhen can finally worship his ancestors according to the family motto - the Song family's rule is to prepare all thirty-six Song family dishes during the worship. The patriarch is responsible for eight of them, and the rest of his descendants and disciples are responsible for twenty-four of them.
However, the Song family has been passed down to this day, with only Song Daozhen, an old widower, and Tao Mu, the irresponsible last disciple, left. So Song Daozhen decided to cook thirty dishes himself, and let Tao Mu cook the remaining six.
Before cooking to worship the ancestors, the ancestral tomb has to be repaired - the Song family ancestral tomb has not been repaired for many years due to various reasons. Although the grave and tombstone are not incomplete, they look very shabby. Everywhere you look, you can see signs of age and fading due to wear and tear. Those are the scars left behind by the wind and rain over the long years.
Just like what happened to the Song family over the past few decades.
Tao Mu knew Mr. Song's wish and decided to take on the job of repairing the tomb. The Chinese pay a lot of attention to such important events as tomb building and burial. Tao Mu didn't understand the ins and outs of it, so he simply invited a Feng Shui master over.
They had to look at Feng Shui, calculate the date, buy candles, paper money, various stones and wood, and hire people to do the work. Fortunately, Liu Yao and Mengqi helped to arrange it, otherwise Tao Mu, who had to go to school during the day, would not be able to handle it alone.
On the second night after returning to Yanjing, Tao Mu called Li Xiaoheng and asked him to come out to thank him in person. If Li Xiaoheng hadn't been helping him behind the scenes, it wouldn't have been so easy to deal with the Sheng'an Group.
So it is reasonable for Tao Mu to treat this meal.
Tao Mu felt that this meal was very formal, so he didn't cook it at home. Instead, they invited Li Xiaoheng to Song Ji, where the old man cooked for him personally, and their father Yao and Xiao Qi's father also accompanied the guests. This was considered as a reward from the family of four to Li Xiaoheng.
Li Xiaoheng gladly accepted the invitation. After accepting the warm thanks from the family of four, including Mr. Song. At noon the next day, Tao Mu was invited to eat at a Cantonese restaurant opposite the Beijing Film Academy.
This time it was just the two of them. Sitting in a small enclosed box with elegant decoration.
Li Xiaoheng personally poured Tao Mu a cup of tea and asked, "I want to shift the focus of Xiaoheng Capital's work to China. Recently, the venture capital department organized an inspection team to focus on several projects. Can you help me take a look?"
Li Xiaoheng said as he handed several thick folders to Tao Mu.
The two of them always talk about serious matters every time they get together. Tao Mu was not surprised. Pick up the documents and look through them one by one.
I have to say that Xiaoheng Capital’s venture capital department is very powerful. The investment vision is very accurate. At least the projects that Tao Mu looked at were all very profitable projects in the future. Among them, new energy and environmental protection projects will be vigorously supported by the country in the next few years. The research and development and use of artificial intelligence in logistics and production will also be extremely popular and have a large market in the future.
Of course, in addition to this, Tao Mu thinks the entertainment industry has good development prospects.
In combination with the development direction of future generations, Tao Mu carefully and seriously told Li Xiaoheng about his ideas. This conversation lasted for more than an hour. Tao Mu's mouth was dry after talking about this. Li Xiaoheng sat next to him and poured him cups of tea and water.
Tao Mu was so drunk that he went to the bathroom three times.
When they came back for the last time, Tao Mu smiled and said to Li Xiaoheng: "...When I went out, the waiter looked at me with a strange look in his eyes. He probably thought that I was so young, how could my kidneys be in bad condition."
As he said this, he couldn't help but take another sip of tea.
Li Xiaoheng smiled and picked up a steamed bun with mushroom, shrimp and glutinous rice filling for Tao Mu: "It's all my fault."
"What does it have to do with you?" Tao Mu swallowed the Shaomai in one gulp. The delicious taste made his eyes sparkle: "Delicious."
Li Xiaoheng curled his lips, looking eager to try: "Actually, I have learned a few dishes from my family during this period of time at home. I will cook for you someday if I have the chance."
"Then I won't be polite. Let me try your cooking too." Tao Mu replied with a smile, but he didn't care much.
He knew that Li Xiaoheng was too busy at work and didn't even have time to eat, so how could he waste time studying cooking? But when it comes to business flattery, the facts are not important, what matters is that the words sound nice.
However, Tao Mu was slapped in the face a few days after he said this. Because on the third night after he returned to Beijing, Li Xiaoheng came over with two bags of food. The two of them met at the small snail house opposite Tao Mujingying. Li Xiaoheng cooked for Tao Mu himself and made him a dish of sweet and sour pork ribs, a dish of steamed shrimp with vermicelli and garlic paste, a dish of steamed fish, and a pot of seafood porridge.
It tastes actually quite good.
Tao Mu was suddenly a little surprised. He gave Li Xiaoheng a thumbs up and said, "Big brother is worthy of being a big brother. He learns everything quickly."
Li Xiaoheng curled the corners of his mouth in satisfaction. It was as if he had forgotten the fact that when he was learning to cook, he almost blew up the kitchen - twice.
"By the way, I want to withdraw one million from the account of Xiaoheng Capital. I wonder if it is convenient?" Most of Mr. Song's problems have been solved. Tao Mu was free now, and finally had the mind to deal with another matter.
Li Xiaoheng smiled slightly and said, "Of course it's convenient."
He paused and asked hesitantly, "Then I wonder if it would be inconvenient for us to ask, what are you in such a hurry to use the money for? Is there a problem with the operation of Feixun Network?"
"That's not the case." Tao Mu shook his head. "Didn't the old man use 10% of the shares of Sheng'an Group to set up the Song Huai Fund? I was also deeply inspired. Anyway, I'm not short of money now, so I want to take out one million and set up an education fund in our orphanage. You also know that not many children from our orphanage can go to college. Most of them go out to work in society after completing their nine-year compulsory education. Because of their low education, they only find physical work and have almost no development. I am lucky. I am handsome and I met the old man and my father Yao and my father Xiao Qi, who are good people. I had the opportunity to study in Beijing Film Academy. In fact, my college entrance examination score was not high, just over 500 points. That was also the highest score in our orphanage in more than ten years."
"In fact, some of the children in our orphanage are really smart. If they can focus on their studies, maybe some of them will become top students from 985 and 211 universities in the future."
Of course, Tao Mu only meant half of what he said. The other half wanted to take this opportunity to dig out the poisonous snake hiding in the orphanage, who would be bribed by the developer for money in the future and frame Dean Tao, and throw him into jail.
Li Xiaoheng didn't know Tao Mu's real plan. Hearing this, he immediately sighed: "I didn't realize you like children so much."
"You're not mistaken." Tao Mu sneered, "I hate children the most. They cry and scream every day, and they never stop for a while. If you don't take care of them, they might cause trouble for you. And they are especially good at bullying the weak and fearing the strong. They are all devils."
"But the children in our orphanage are all afraid of me. No one dares to come to me. They all pretend to be very good in front of me. They are afraid of being beaten." Tao Mu said as a matter of course.
However, what he didn't know was that the children in their orphanage were not only afraid of him, but also admired him very much. Because Tao Mu was the first child in the orphanage to go to college, and also because Tao Mu knew how to make money since he was a child, he always gave money to the orphanage to subsidize them.
Although Tao Mu would beat people, most of the time it was the children in the orphanage who stole the snacks, pocket money or clothes that Tao Mu hid in the house. Tao Mu has been a solitary person since he was young. If he no longer wants his things, he can give them to others, but he will never let anyone touch things that he hasn't given away. Anyone who dares to move will be beaten.
Sometimes Tao Mu couldn't beat kids older than him, so he would play dirty tricks behind their backs or get the gangsters in the alley to help him beat them up. Sometimes the children who were beaten would cry and complain to the dean. Dean Tao would call Tao Mu over and patiently criticize him and reason with him. Tao Mu was not convinced, but he kept silent in front of Dean Tao and continued to beat people behind his back. And beat him severely. Those little bastards who were beaten up never dared to complain again. In the end, all the children were beaten into submission.
But usually, when Tao Mu beats someone up, he will treat the beaten child to delicious food or give him something fun as compensation. A slap in the face is followed by a sweet date. Children from healthy families usually graduate from college and work in society for a while before they understand the truth or the means to control others. Tao Mu is born with the ability to do so. When he was a little older, Tao Mu knew how to disguise himself and he rarely did it. They all scheme against others behind their backs.
Therefore, people who have come into contact with Tao Mu say that he is cunning and ruthless, which is actually not wrong. Because that's the environment he's in.
——Anyway, in Tao Mu's eyes, all children are ungrateful. Especially for those who come from an orphanage, they may not know if you are good to them, but if you are not good to them, they will definitely remember you for the rest of their lives. They pretend to be good in front of others but act cruel behind their backs. They are two-faced, jealous and have a dark mind. They will fight for the slightest benefit and get hurt.
Tao Mu himself is such a person. They came from an orphanage, did not grow up in a normal family, had no parental love, and lacked a sense of security from birth. The character defects caused by childhood trauma will make people cling to the little they have left, not trust anyone, and tend to go to extremes.
If it were in the past, Tao Mu would never dare to tell these past events to others. In his previous life, he was abandoned by his friends and criticized by everyone, and he was afraid of being scolded. The psychological trauma is so great that even after being reborn, he would rather pretend to be obedient and weak and swallow the insults than reveal his true nature. So even if he says that he doesn't care, he will subconsciously pretend to be smooth and sophisticated in front of others. He dare not argue with others. Not only does he lack confidence, but also it shows the inferiority and cowardice hidden in his bones.
But after experiencing the incident with the Yao family, not only did Mr. Song feel relieved, but even Tao Mu himself felt that a knot in his heart had been untied.
If he is scheming, then he is scheming; if he is ruthless, then he is ruthless. Let others know that he is not someone to be trifled with and they dare not provoke him, so that he will have more energy to protect those around him.
Just like an extremely sharp knife, it is easy to hurt people, but also easy to protect people. If you want to hurt someone in order to protect them, then take out the knife first. Those who have bad intentions in mind will naturally weigh the pros and cons. Some troubles can be avoided.
Sometimes Tao Mu also felt strange. There are sayings passed down by our ancestors, such as "A good reputation in one's lifetime may be lost in one's old age", which means that a good person who has done good things all his life may become a good person just because he does one bad thing when he is old. There are also "A prodigal son who returns is worth more than gold" and "A person who has laid down his butcher knife may become a Buddha instantly", which means that a bad person who has done bad things all his life may become a good person just because he does one good thing when he is old. It seemed as if all the bad things he had done in the past could be written off.
What fucking bullshit.
It can be seen that human nature is to bully the weak and fear the strong. Isn't it just because you know that good people will not take the initiative to hurt others, so you point fingers at them unscrupulously? We know that bad guys are not easy to mess with, so even if the other party does a good thing on a whim, we can't wait to praise them. Because they know that bad people act on a whim. If he does good things, it may not necessarily help you, but if he does bad things, it will definitely pose a threat to you.
If you think so, Tao Mu would rather be a bad guy in the eyes of others. They knew they were afraid, so they wouldn't easily attack the people around Tao Mu. There is no such thing as a threat to family members. If anyone dares to touch Tao Mu's people, Tao Mu will only fight back fiercely. Like the St. Ann Group, it is a very good example.
Especially since Tao Mu is going to enter the entertainment industry in the future, he must sound a warning to those marketing accounts that are greedy for money. I want to bully him and his family just like in my previous life. It doesn't work!
Tao Mu was secretly rubbing his teeth and claws in his heart. From Li Xiaoheng's perspective, he felt that Tao Mu had gradually let go of his psychological defenses towards him, and had slowly revealed his true side when they were together in private.
It turned out that his previous course of action was correct. We have to start with the people around Tao Mu. Take the route of surrounding the center from the periphery and influencing it imperceptibly.
After the meal, both of them were in a happy mood.
Anyway, the filters of the big guys are becoming more and more profound.
By the time the Song family's ancestral tomb was renovated, it was already late January 2009. The twelfth lunar month is over and the first lunar month of the new year is approaching.
Before Tao Mu could wait for Yao Sheng'an to come to Beijing to apologize, another one couldn't sit still anymore.
Zhang Dafu, with a smile on his face, found Tao Mu's school again and begged the old man at the door to call Tao Mu's dormitory. Tao Mu was not in the dormitory, so he called Tao Mu who was reading materials in the library through Tao Mu's roommate, and only then did he see him.
"Why are you here again?" In the middle of winter, Zhang Dafu, wearing a thick military coat, sat in the guard room with a small kang, drinking tea from the old man who was guarding the gate.
Seeing Tao Mu, he smiled and said, "I just want to see you for something. Serious business."
Tao Mu also guessed why Zhang Dafu came over. He glanced at Zhang Dafu with a smile, then led Zhang Dafu to the coffee shop opposite the school.
Before leaving, he handed a box of kidney bean cake to the gatekeeper: "I made the kidney bean cake myself. Please try it and see if it is authentic."
Tao Mu has recently been learning how to make dishes for ancestor worship from Mr. Song. If we make too much food and can’t finish it, we’ll give it to everyone as a gift. Employees of Feixun.com and Yese.com, as well as teachers and students of Beijing Film Academy have all tasted his cooking. Most people don’t know whether it’s authentic or not, they just know that what Tao Mu makes is delicious.
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