Eat a hook
I went back to the store with Father Takada to recuperate at the age of thirteen, and officially became an apprentice at the age of fourteen.
Hu Hanyu is not Zheng Cheng, who has a group of people following him wherever he goes. He only has an aunt brought by his family, who can't even speak a few words of Japanese. She only knows how to take him to and from school every day, and doesn't know anything else and can't take care of him.
At first, the aunt would come to the store to see him, but after a long time, she found other work outside and never showed up again.
Hu Hanyu rarely went back home and lived upstairs in the store. He was watched by Mr. Gao Tian all day long. He went to school during the day and worked as an apprentice at night. His brothers in the store took turns teaching him. His grades improved, and he finally got a high school diploma and passed the chef's certificate exam.
"So exciting, it turns out that everything in anime is true. Brother Hanyu, you... are a delinquent?!" Xiao Ming reacted.
"Almost, coach, I want to learn how to cook." Hu Hanyu said with a smile.
The fried food had not yet arrived, and Zheng Cheng yawned while holding up his head.
He pretended to be bored, but in fact he was calculating the time difference, his heart about to jump out of his chest: he was 12 years old when he was kidnapped, and Hu Hanyu was 15 years old and was indeed an apprentice in the store.
Xiao Ming and Han Yu talked about embarrassing childhood memories: forgetting their keys and climbing through a neighbor's window, going out too late and rushing to play, only to be caught by their mothers on the bus, and each time they ended up getting a beating. Zheng Cheng listened intently, unable to respond.
Perhaps this is what closeness feels like, but he's probably only met his parents a few times in his life. As for the people around him, Zhang Ma or Old Chen, no one dared to treat him like this. He could only listen to them, smile, and drink the brown rice tea in his cup.
Hu Hanyu picked up the teapot in the corner, filled it up for Zheng Cheng, and added some for Xiao Ming as well.
"I suddenly feel that it's not easy for you all. When I was 14, I only had to cross two intersections to get home." Xiao Ming sighed.
"Then I'm luckier than you. Your parents can beat you up just by crossing two intersections, but if my dad wants to beat me up, he has to get a visa and buy a plane ticket," said Hu Hanyu.
"Not now." Zheng Cheng interrupted.
"Well, it feels good to beat him now." Hu Hanyu smiled.
What are you laughing at? Zheng Cheng looked at him in confusion: "If you like being beaten so much, I can punch you a few times."
Hu Hanyu smiled even more happily: "Okay, I'll let you avenge the relic."
Xiao Ming then realized that the two of them had already discussed the matter at the relic gate. "Okay, you two reconciled behind my back, and I was still trembling with fear. Is there anything else you haven't discussed with me?"
Zheng Cheng quickly gave Hu Hanyu a warning look.
"No more." Hu Hanyu shook his head.
"I've said it all." Zheng Cheng nodded.
What the hell, both tacit understanding and not tacit understanding.
After waiting for half a day, the fried food was finally served. In addition to the classic tempura shrimp, Lin’s signature dish is also tempura sea urchin. The raw sea urchin is sandwiched between two pieces of perilla leaves and then coated with batter and fried. The outer layer is crispy, and the inside is sweet and melts in the mouth. The aroma of perilla neutralizes the greasy feeling of the batter shell, which is very good.
"Horse manure has just been put on the market. If I had to find fault with it, I would say it's not fat enough. But they give enough of it, so that makes up for it." Zheng Cheng took notes while eating.
"I really don't understand this tempura thing." Xiao Ming ate the tempura eggplant with some pain. "Excuse me, this is no different from drinking oil."
"Chinese people eat a lot of oil and fat in their daily lives, so tempura is indeed not popular," Hu Hanyu analyzed. "Sea urchin tempura is difficult to prepare. It may attract attention, but the taste is hard to win approval."
"You seem to understand the Chinese market quite well." Speaking of Japanese cuisine, Hu Hanyu was indeed an expert. Not only were his cooking techniques impressive, but he also had a deep understanding of the Chinese market's receptiveness. This surprised Zheng Cheng.
"After all, I failed once, so I tried harder." He still had a smile on his face, as if it was not a sad thing.
After the greasy fried food, the store brought out Dobin mushi.
Hu Hanyu explained to Xiao Ming: "This can be understood as a Chinese stew pot. The broth steamed in this ceramic pot is used to relieve greasiness and cleanse the mouth."
It was the season for matsutake mushrooms, and the store owner specially told them that they had upgraded the matsutake mushroom steaming dish. The clear soup was poured into a small cup, and the aroma of the mushrooms filled the air.
The two people who were full of anticipation entered the room, but their expressions changed.
"It's so fragrant and fresh, worthy of being a matsutake mushroom. It's so refreshing to drink this after eating tempura." Xiao Ming didn't find anything wrong and was praising it when he suddenly realized that he was a little too quiet.
"Do you feel the same way..." Hu Hanyu put down the cup and asked Zheng Cheng tentatively.
"Well, actually, I think there's also a problem with cooking." Zheng Cheng pushed the remaining soup aside.
Xiao Ming, who was just trying to take a beautiful photo of Dobin Mushi, was at a loss as to what to do.
The freshness of the mushroom soup would not be as striking if it were not cooked with a large amount of fresh mushrooms like the Yunnan wild mushroom hotpot. A broth with only a few thin slices of matsutake mushroom floating on it could not be this fresh.
"You said you wouldn't release it, so you just don't do it? But I already sent out the preview." Xiao Ming said with a sad face, "Brother Cheng looks so handsome in these few videos today, is it really impossible to release them?"
"What are you doing? You're not getting paid any less." Zheng Cheng has already drunk three glasses of water since entering the store. "Such a high-end restaurant uses MSG. What kind of shit is that? I won't give it to you."
"It's not MSG, it's seasoning broth." Hu Hanyu corrected him, "It's also in this soup set. It should be blended in bulk. The matsutake slices are real."
"Same, my mouth is so dry now." Zheng Cheng drank another glass.
"You've been getting a lot of traffic lately, so it's best not to stop updating." Zhou Min came out of the incubation room and joined the conversation. "Using the exposure of Little Green Book's new traffic is your chance to surpass Peach Juice Yaoyao."
"You're trying to provoke me again, aren't you?" Zheng Cheng stood up. "I have my own principles. I can't recommend him."
Hu Hanyu flipped through the photo album: "There's nothing else to add. Just don't recommend the Dobin mushi. The handmade daifuku at the end is a plus. Girls should like it."
"Hu Hanyu! I came to you to speak for the store?" No one in the room listened to him, and Zheng Cheng finally exploded.
It's so annoying. I took too much monosodium glutamate and the numbness in my tongue feels so similar to before a panic attack. Zheng Cheng was already feeling unwell, and now he's making things worse.
"I'm not speaking for the restaurant. Business requires a balance." Hu Hanyu didn't take it as an angry remark and answered seriously, "Most of the dishes today are very good. You can't just..."
"Wow, weighing things? You're so good at weighing things, but why did your relic still go bankrupt?"
After saying this, Zheng Cheng realized that he had gone a bit too far. Seeing the smile disappear from Hu Hanyu's face, he felt that he had said too harshly.
"There are other reasons for the relics." After a pause, Hu Hanyu answered softly.
"So what?" Zheng Cheng heard himself say, even though he realized he had said the wrong thing. "It's none of your business to manage my account."
Because of his attitude, no one present dared to respond immediately, and the living room fell silent in an instant.
"Brother Hanyu, I bought some chicken, grain-fed organic chicken thighs. I also bought some drinks for everyone." Zheng Sisi pushed the door open and froze in place when she saw that the atmosphere was a little strange.
"Thank you for your hard work, Miss. Give it to me." Hanyu was the first to react. He took the bag from her hand and turned to ask everyone, "What drinks do you want to drink? I'll put the rest in the refrigerator."
"I'll divide it up, I'll divide it up." Xiao Ming quickly stood up. "Wow, you bought so many drinks, Brother Cheng, do you want anything to drink?"
"No, I won't drink. It will make me thirstier." Zheng Cheng left the crowd, walked to the single chair at the other end of the floor, and curled himself up in it.
Zheng Sisi looked at Xiao Ming and Zhou Min in confusion, and they both shook their heads at her.
Zhou Min first stopped Hanyu and said, "Give the things to Miss Xu and tell her what to do. This is your first time here, so how can I really let you do it yourself?"
"It's okay, I'll do it. You go see Zheng Cheng." Hu Hanyu smiled at him.
"You're not wrong, but he..." Zhou Min glanced at Zheng Cheng who was sitting far away, "He sometimes loses control of his temper. He doesn't mean to provoke you, so don't take it to heart."
"No, he's still my boss." Hu Hanyu patted Zhou Min on the shoulder. "I'll go get ready and be back soon."
The entire living room of Zhou Min's house is covered with floor-to-ceiling windows. When the weather is good, you can see the super-high-rise business buildings on the other side of the river along the Bund. Sitting here, you can have a panoramic view of the century-old prosperity of Shanghai.
Of course, at this moment Zheng Cheng was looking out the window and didn't take in any of the scenery.
What girls would like. Why not just not recommend Dobin Mushi? What's the trade-off? What does Hu Hanyu know?
Why was he the one who told him about what was bothering him recently?
Zheng Cheng is somewhat of a perfectionist when it comes to updating the D-site. He is determined to only do store visits that satisfy him, and there must be no problems with professionalism.
But he found that his fans didn't buy it.
While the comments were lively, not many were discussing food. Most people were drawn to his looks, and he had never seen a single commenter truly appreciating his content and taste.
The fact that the number of followers on Site D has reached a bottleneck also indicates that the content needs a breakthrough, and he does need to make a trade-off.
"Drink this." Zhou Min handed over a bottle of electrolyte drink. "It replenishes potassium, speeds up the metabolism of monosodium glutamate, and relieves your thirst."
"Sea salt lychee...what kind of weird flavor is this? Zheng Sisi likes to buy this kind." Although he complained, Zheng Cheng still took it and drank it. It tasted bad.
Zhou Min sat down on the other single sofa opposite him: "Are you really not going to post today's content?"
"Are you all annoying, one by one?" Zheng Cheng knew Zhou Min was here to persuade him. He lowered his eyes and scrolled through his phone. "Why are you all meddling in my account?"
"What is your purpose in creating an account?" Zhou Min didn't insist on whether to post or not.
"To kill time?" Zheng Cheng answered casually.
"You're killing time by renting an office and starting a company?" Zhou Min stared at him intently. "Zheng Cheng, don't pretend to be nice to me. You really want to do well."
There was no way, I couldn't lie to Zhou Min.
As a childhood rival, no one knows how competitive Zheng Cheng is better than Zhou Min.
At first, he just posted some vlogs out of boredom, but he didn't expect that people would like to watch them. After taking a leave of absence from school, he didn't want to just sit there and do nothing, so he wanted to make a name for himself.
"Yes, I want to do well. If I fail in my studies, I can't ask Zheng Sisi to support me in the future." Zheng Cheng confessed slowly while straightening the folds of his clothes.
"Since you're doing this for a living, you can't just do it based on your preferences." Zhou Min stood up and smiled faintly. "I won't say more. You'll have to call me dad again later."
"Huh? You're so proud of yourself when I say your dad smells so strong." Zheng Cheng stood up and caught up with him.
Zheng Cheng actually took everything Zhou's father said to heart. He also knew that this appearance was his most attractive quality, although he would rather be recognized for his abilities.
"Hey, let me ask you guys," Zheng Cheng looked at Zheng Sisi and Xiao Ming, who were racing against each other on their Switch consoles. "What kind of videos do you usually watch?"
Zhou Min's answer was unsurprising: "Identify popular biological videos on the internet."
Zheng Sisi's hands were busy drifting: "I look at a lot of things, beauty, food, fitness, travel, the second dimension, everything."
"Besides watching editing tutorials and the like, I just watch live game broadcasts. Why are you asking this?" Xiao Ming, who reached the finish line first, put down the controller and scratched his head.
"Where's Hanyu?" Hu Hanyu just came out of the kitchen, wiping his hands. Zheng Cheng asked him, "What videos do you usually watch?"
"Huh? I see more small animals." Hu Hanyu replied.
"After all this time, there's still zero people in this room watching my video." Zheng Cheng snorted.
…
"...I didn't have dinner yet, so I ate a hook first." Hu Hanyu said in a low voice. Zheng Sisi heard it and tried hard to hold back her laughter.
"Get lost." Zheng Cheng glared at him. "My second question is, would you watch borderline videos?"
"Ah?!" Four of the five pairs of eyes widened.
"I will watch them. As long as they are good-looking, I will watch them, whether they are male or female, and also cosplayers." Zheng Sisi raised her hand without hesitation.
"I...I don't want to watch anything too revealing, just the dance timing." Xiao Ming's face turned a little red.
The answers are all expected, so I'll just leave the remaining two unanswered.
After all, Zhou Min might still be figuring out which edge he was skirting.
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