Chapter 87 Where's your crush? You don't want him anymore? Intellectuals are really something...
Ning Zheng reached for his chopsticks again and found the food box was empty. "It's all gone so quickly? I haven't had enough yet, I want more."
"I'm sorry." Wen Yue quickly apologized. The vegetables Ning Zheng bought were so delicious that she couldn't resist having more than twice after she finished the ones Ning Zheng had put in her bowl.
"It's alright, I brought it to share with you anyway. If you're willing to eat it, it means you consider me a friend, and I'm more than happy about that. Besides, I ate a lot of your shredded potatoes too," Ning Zheng said with a smile.
Wen Yue licked her lips, somewhat regretting that she had eaten too much of Ning Zheng's food, yet she also felt that the dishes were really delicious, and that she was very happy and satisfied to have eaten them. "Thank you."
Ning Zheng continued, "And I think your shredded potatoes are also very delicious."
Wen Yue said somewhat embarrassedly, "I'm not very good at cooking either; I learned everything online."
Ning Zheng: "There aren't many girls willing to learn to cook these days. I wonder who will be lucky enough to marry you in the future."
Wen Yue awkwardly picked up her lunchbox and stood up. "I...I need to go back to the office."
Ning Zhengdao said, "Oh, are you going to work overtime again? You're so inefficient! Aren't you going to take a half-hour break?"
“I work relatively slowly, and I can’t finish the task without working overtime,” Wen Yue said.
They work on short video review, and there's a daily quota of tasks. If they don't finish, their pay will be docked. The company assigns tasks that push people to their limits, and Wen Yue is meticulous, so she checks each video at least twice before she's satisfied. Therefore, they simply can't finish without working overtime.
"You're just too responsible," Ning Zheng said helplessly. "Then I'll go with you."
Wen Yue didn't want her other colleagues to see her with Ning Zheng, so she told Ning Zheng to go back first, and then went to the break room to wash her lunchbox before returning to her workstation.
The short-haired girl was eating rice noodles in the office when she saw Wen Yue come back. She carried the food container in one hand and dragged a chair to Wen Yue's workstation with the other, and started complaining: "Xu Xin is such a show-off. Her boyfriend ordered takeout for her, and she actually took a picture and posted it in the work group. Two minutes later, she said she sent it by mistake and couldn't take it back. Tsk, everyone knows she deliberately shows off. She always uses this trick."
Wen Yue gave a vague "hmm" and turned on her computer to start working.
The short-haired girl ate while fuming: "She kept emphasizing how expensive the restaurant her boyfriend ordered for her was. I thought it would cost several hundred yuan. But Ning Zheng also ordered from that restaurant. I specifically searched for the restaurant based on the name on the takeout bag. Most of the set meals are only forty or fifty yuan. Moreover, the first registration gives you four coupons. She actually tried to trick me at first, saying that her boyfriend would give me a coupon so I could treat her to milk tea. How wishful thinking!"
Compared to the 10 or 20 yuan takeout meals they usually eat, 40 or 50 yuan is indeed a bit expensive. Wen Yue and her colleagues' monthly salary is at most 5,000 yuan. If they eat takeout for 40 or 50 yuan a meal, their monthly salary is almost only enough to eat.
Wen Yue thought about the dishes Ning Zheng had treated her to today. They were all very common dishes, but they were really delicious. She had never eaten such delicious food in her life. Normally, even if the food was delicious, it would be too expensive for Wen Yue to buy. But since Ning Zheng had treated her today, she had to return the favor.
Wen Yue asked, "What's the name of that shop? Can you recommend it to me?"
The short-haired girl said excitedly, "No problem, I'll send you the link on WeChat. Let's order together tomorrow. The food looks really delicious. I was eating in the break room just now, and Xu Xin deliberately carried the food around. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to resist snatching it because of the aroma. If I did, I would be even more smug. So I brought it to the office to eat. Out of sight, out of mind."
Seeing that Wen Yue had clicked on the link she recommended, the short-haired girl said, "They also offer pre-ordering. We'll order delivery at 12 o'clock so we can eat right after work."
They can't use their phones during work hours, so they can only order takeout after get off work. However, lunchtime is the peak time for ordering takeout, and they only have one hour to rest. They don't dare to order takeout from places that are a little far away, for fear that they'll have to go back to work before the food arrives. This is why they still have to keep eating takeout even though they're sick of it around the company.
Wen Yue said, "Okay."
Xu Xin's vanity was greatly satisfied when she ate lunch in the break room today, which made everyone envious. She returned to the office like a proud goose. As soon as she entered, she smelled the food and frowned, saying, "Lin Yuanyuan, why are you eating in the office? The whole office smells terrible."
Lin Yuanyuan snorted indignantly, but it was indeed wrong to eat something smelly in the office, so she didn't dare to argue back with Xu Xin.
"You should go back to work soon," Wen Yue said.
Lin Yuanyuan kept talking next to her, making it impossible for her to concentrate on her work.
"It's only an hour at noon, can't you take a break? You're too meticulous, scrutinizing every single detail. Everyone else just goes through it quickly," Lin Yuanyuan said, but still dragged her chair and carried her lunchbox back.
The lunch break is short, and there's no time for a nap. Usually, people just chat after lunch and that's how the lunch break passes. Xu Xin saw Ning sitting at his workstation playing on his phone and tried to start a conversation with him, "Did you order takeout from the same place as my boyfriend today?"
Ning was looking down at his phone, and without looking up, he gave a curt "hmm".
Xu Xin: "How did you find out about that store?"
Ning Zheng: "Recommended by a friend."
Xu Xin: "Why don't you introduce us to the good food? It's not like we can't afford it."
Ning Zheng: "I only tried it for the first time today. I didn't know about it before. But what's the point of recommending it to you? You don't order takeout anyway."
Xu Xin said in a pretentious tone, "That's true. My boyfriend never lets me order takeout or take a taxi by myself. He's spoiling me rotten."
Ning Zheng: "Then why would he let you do this kind of work? The rest time for this job is not fixed, and you have to work night shifts. You sit for several hours at a time. Not only will your body become stiff, but you can also easily develop tendonitis from clicking the mouse for a long time."
Xu Xin choked, snorted, and sat back down at her workstation. "I can't be bothered to talk to you, you country bumpkin!"
...
Recently, Wen Xingrui has learned to walk slowly. Perhaps because he is a bit older, he knows that falling will hurt and also knows some ways to prevent falling. So, since he learned to walk, he has been very careful when walking while holding onto things, and he has hardly fallen. This has made things convenient for Lou Lan. When she is too busy to play, she can let him play by himself without worrying about him falling.
After Wen Xingrui learned to walk, he also developed a diligent quality. Previously, An Fusheng led everyone to plant vegetables. Later, as the vegetables grew, they could eat them from time to time. When the adults praised them, the children felt a great sense of accomplishment and became more eager to participate in planting vegetables. Lou Lan then bought them their own small hoes and shovels.
Of course, these tools did not belong to Wen Xingrui, who could barely walk, but how could the hardworking Wen Xingrui stay idle?
Seeing others using tools to farm, he hurriedly went to An Fusheng's leg and begged him for tools. An Fusheng had no choice but to find a useless spatula in the kitchen for him to use as a spatula. From then on, Wen Xingrui spent all his time digging the ground with his spatula except when eating and sleeping. He dug several holes in the yard.
“Didn’t I tell you to dig in the front yard? What are you doing in the back yard? The vegetables haven’t even grown yet and you’ve already broken them.” An Fusheng dragged Wen Xingrui, who was working in the vegetable garden, to the front yard.
The area in the front yard near the wall used to be a flower bed, but it was neglected and overgrown with weeds. An Fusheng originally planned to tidy it up when he had time, sow some easy-to-grow flower seeds, and the yard would be full of flowers next spring.
But now there's nothing there, so Wen Xingrui can build whatever he wants.
"Howl." Wen Xingrui replied good-naturedly while suspended in mid-air.
"My God, Wen Xingrui isn't even angry. He has such a good temper." Xu Sannian exclaimed in amazement.
An Fusheng would often move the children like a cabbage tied in half with a rope, grabbing them by the back of their clothes without a word. Wen Xinglan would sometimes get angry when he was playing and being taken away, but Wen Xingrui would never get angry. When An Fusheng put him down, he would even smile at him.
Xu Sannian sighed, "Girls should choose this kind of man when they get married."
An Fusheng: "What do you want?"
"It's not impossible," Xu Sannian poked Wen Xingrui's chubby cheeks. "Is it okay, Wen Xingrui?"
Wen Xingrui turned his head and smiled at Xu Sannian, "Howl."
An Fusheng: "Where's your crush? You don't want him anymore?"
Xu Sannian said, "I can marry my idol! When he gets old and his health fails, Wen Xingrui will be all grown up, and then I'll marry Xingrui, hehe."
An Fusheng: "..." Intellectuals are indeed pioneers of thought!
Wen Xinglan and Afu were playing on the slide in the yard when they saw Wen Xingrui digging in the ground, so they went over to watch out of curiosity.
The sun was shining brightly today, and Lou Lan took all the children's blankets out to air them in the yard.
Seeing that Lou Lan was running around, An Fusheng knew the child wouldn't be out of his sight for long, so he went back to the kitchen to cook.
Since the restaurant opened, it has received consistently positive customer reviews, which has greatly fueled An Fusheng's enthusiasm for cooking. He tries his best to make the dishes the most delicious every day, and he is also worried that regular customers will have fewer and fewer choices if they order takeout every day, so he adds some new dishes from time to time. Of course, the customers have not disappointed him. The restaurant is almost full of orders before it even opens, which has greatly improved his cooking efficiency and allows him to add some orders on the spot from time to time.
"Master, we have an additional order, and it's a big one. Blood duck, braised pork belly with dried green beans, eggplant with fish-fragrant sauce, stir-fried celery with dried tofu, stir-fried pork, and stir-fried seasonal vegetables—do you still have them?" Xu Sannian asked.
Although An Fusheng immediately told Xu Sannian to remove the relevant dishes from the menu when they ran out of ingredients, Xu Sannian was afraid that An Fusheng would forget in his busy schedule, so she had to check again. If they were not available, she would have to call the customers to ask them whether they wanted to change the dishes or get a refund.
While Xu San was reading the menu, An Fusheng had already looked through the ingredients. "There's still everything."
Xu Sannian: "Alright, I'll take the order. It's been a long time since I've received such a big order."
In most cases, people order takeout because they don't have time or don't want to cook. However, if they can get together with a few friends or family members for a meal, they usually have time to cook or go to a restaurant. Therefore, most of what they sell are single-person set meals. Large orders occasionally happen, but they are relatively rare.
The longer dried green beans are stewed, the better they taste. An Fusheng first renders the fat from the pork belly, then adds the dried green beans and stirs them continuously in the oil until the aroma of the green beans is released. He then adds a large spoonful of water, covers the pot, and simmers over medium-low heat.
Then An Fusheng turned on the other stove and started making blood duck.
An Fusheng's blood duck is different from the traditional method of using a large amount of crushed duck blood to coat the duck meat. He first stir-fries the duck meat to dry out the moisture, then stir-fries it with rapeseed oil until the duck meat is fragrant. After that, he adds rice wine, soy sauce, garlic, ginger and cinnamon and continues to stir-fry over high heat. After the seasonings are absorbed into the duck meat, he adds a small amount of fresh soybeans and continues to stir-fry. At this point, the aroma of the duck meat and the aroma of the fresh soybeans will blend together. Then he adds a small amount of water, puts a small amount of duck blood in the water, and then covers the pot to simmer.
A small amount of duck blood will have a milder umami flavor, which can enrich the taste of the duck meat without overpowering it.
This method typically uses ducks that are four to six months old, as the meat is tender and doesn't require stewing. Adding broth is simply to help the flavors meld more deeply, and the duck doesn't need to be cooked for very long.
Once the water has almost evaporated, add the sliced green and red bell peppers and stir-fry.
If the green and red peppers are older, you can add them when you add the soybeans. Frying the peppers in oil will make them more flavorful. However, the peppers that Anfusheng bought today are quite young, and they won't be fresh if they are overcooked, so I added them later. But this method is more suitable for people who can't handle spicy food.
After stir-frying the green and red peppers until cooked, add garlic leaves and salt, stir-fry evenly, and it's ready to serve.
When the blood duck is taken out of the pot, the soup has just been completely boiled away. To the untrained eye, it looks like it has been stir-fried, but it is not dry or hard, and the aroma has not been dissipated by too much soup, making it taste especially delicious.
"Ah! I'm suddenly hungry," Xu Sannian said, smelling the aroma of the blood duck.
“Then shut down the system. We’ll have lunch after we finish this order. There aren’t many materials left from this morning, so we’ll eat the rest ourselves,” An Fusheng said while packing the vegetables. “By the way, we’re out of vegetables. Go pick some from the garden.”
"Okay." Xu Sannian quickly shut down the system and ran to the vegetable garden to pick vegetables.
She loves pulling vegetables the most. Whether it's the thud when pulling them out of the soil or the snapping sound when breaking the stems, it all sounds incredibly satisfying.
Xu Sannian ran to the vegetable garden and picked a basket of radishes. "Master, is this okay?"
An Fusheng glanced at it and said, "Why don't you pull up the cabbages and radishes instead?"
Xu Sannian: "I've never pulled a radish before. I want to, but are they too small to eat?"
“Yes, it’s edible. This kind of vegetable, with the radish and leaves, is considered seasonal and tastes pretty good,” An Fusheng said. “However, it might be a bit bitter, so you have to blanch it first.”
"That's good. I'll go wash them clean." Xu Sannian put the radish greens in the pool and said, "It's quite a blessing to be our guest. You can eat our own seasonal vegetables from time to time."
An Fusheng then made fish-flavored eggplant, saying, "The most important thing is that the customers like it."
Xu Sannian: "No one dislikes vegetables that they grow themselves."
An Fusheng nodded.
Xu Sannian washed the vegetables, and An Fusheng's fish-flavored eggplant was also ready. He packed the fish-flavored eggplant in a lunchbox, washed the pot, added water to the pot, and planned to blanch the radish greens.
The radish head was only about the size of an index finger when An Fusheng first grabbed the vegetable leaves and scalded the radish head in boiling water until it was half-cooked, and then put the radish leaves into the water.
Radish leaves have thicker stems and a thin, somewhat hard crust, so they need to be cooked a little longer than other vegetables with smaller stems and larger leaves. While ordinary leafy greens usually only need to be blanched for one minute, radish leaves need one and a half to two minutes.
After blanching the radish greens, An Fusheng poured the radish greens and water from the pot into a bowl, then covered the pot with the lid to trap the heat.
"Master, won't this make the leaves turn yellow?" Xu Sannian asked.
An Fusheng: "No, you have to let it sit for a while to remove the bitterness and soften the thorns on the surface of the leaves. Actually, you can let it sit overnight, but then the vegetables will turn yellow and have a slightly sour taste, which will make them taste different."
Xu Sannian said admiringly, "How do you seem to know the characteristics and cooking methods of every dish?"
An Fusheng paused for a moment, "These are all very common practices. You'll know them once you see them a lot. But they were taught to you little by little by the older generation."
Celery and dried tofu stir-fry and stir-fried pork are both quick and easy dishes. Simply add oil to the pan, stir-fry the dried tofu or pork until fragrant, add some soy sauce to color it, then add celery or green pepper slices and stir-fry for a few more minutes. Add salt and chicken bouillon to taste and it's ready to serve. Both dishes take less than ten minutes to prepare, and they're done in the blink of an eye.
Seeing that An Fusheng had only one dish left, and the delivery rider had arrived, Xu Sannian quickly ran to get the food.
An Fusheng took the radish out of the hot water and rinsed it carefully under the tap.
Seeing An Fusheng washing the vegetables repeatedly, Xu Sannian asked, "Didn't I wash them clean?"
"No, the leaves of radish greens grow densely, and the stems are very close together where the leaves meet the radish head. It's difficult to clean them when they're fresh. Now that we've blanched them, the leaves are loosened, so we can wash them again to prevent them from getting muddy."
Xu Sannian: "Oh."
After washing the radish greens, An Fusheng chopped them finely. He then added a piece of pork to the pot, and after the oil melted, he added a few dried chili pepper segments about two centimeters long. He then added the chopped radish greens and stir-fried them for two minutes. After that, he sprinkled salt on top and served the dish.
After packing the radishes and vegetables, An Fusheng put them in the insulated bag that Xu Sannian had placed. He then packed a portion of pickled radishes and pickled bamboo shoots into the bag and sealed it. He then handed the two large bags of food to the rider, saying, "This order is a bit heavy. Thank you for your hard work."
The rider had just finished a warm cup of brown sugar ginger tea and felt warm all over. He said, "It's nothing."
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