Chapter 21 The Last Bite
The crab roe, crab paste and crab meat from more than a hundred crabs were used to make 24 bottles of butter and crab roe sauce.
That night, four people at Base No. 3 were dreaming of grabbing the handles of long-handled spoons and busying themselves with cutting crab meat. They were sleeping in different beds, but had the same dream.
At dawn, the door of Renjian Restaurant was slammed loudly again. Qi Huan comforted the little guy who was awakened in the bed opposite him, and went downstairs yawning. He swore silently as he walked that when he had extra money in the future, the first thing he would do was to repair the yard and the small building at the back. Then he would move to the backyard to live. There were two yards between them, and no one would hear the slamming at the front door.
Standing outside the door was a dusty hunting team of four.
The four men were strong and sturdy, with the same height. They had the same short hair and blue overalls. Qi Huan looked at them with sleepy eyes and thought they were quadruplets copied and pasted together.
Probably because Qi Huan was getting in the way standing at the door, the leader pushed him aside and stepped over the threshold. "I'm so hungry after fighting all night. What do you have for breakfast?"
"Just bring whatever you have." A person following behind him responded, and looking at those people, they all looked extremely exhausted.
Qi Huan took a deep breath, repeated "Customers are God" twice in his mind to brainwash himself, and tried to force a business smile, "Now the shop only has crab roe noodles or crab roe rice, twenty-five silver coins a bowl."
"So expensive?" One of them expressed dissatisfaction while pulling at his collar.
"That's right, the most expensive item on your menu is only sixteen silver coins." The person on the other side immediately chimed in.
"Square crabs are expensive to begin with, and crab roe sauce is a bit time-consuming and requires manual removal of the meat, so the price is a bit higher." Qi Huan maintained a business smile. He did deliberately quote a high price. In this case, he had to add his compensation for getting up early. If you really think it's more expensive, you can politely send these people out and go back to sleep.
"Then give me four servings of crab roe noodles." The leading man waved his hand.
Qi Huan went back to the kitchen and cooked four bowls of noodles. He scooped out a few large spoonfuls of crab roe sauce that he had just made last night and piled it on the steaming noodles, then brought it out to them.
The four of them originally thought it was a bit expensive, but after taking a bite, they were all amazed by the taste, and their dissatisfaction disappeared.
"Can this sauce be sold separately?" The leader couldn't help but ask Qi Huan after taking a few bites.
"Yes, it's a new product, special price, 150 silver coins per bottle." Qi Huan went to the kitchen to get a bottle of crab sauce to show them. According to the amount of crab noodles on the table, it can be eaten seven or eight times. Of course, the price still includes the compensation fee for getting up early.
"Give me a bottle." The man nodded.
"I want one bottle, too." Another person added his 'order'.
When they were halfway through their meal, another person walked into the restaurant.
The man had half-long brown curly hair and a tired face. His gray overalls were mostly covered with dried stains, and some places were even stuck with sand. It seemed that he had just returned from the hunting area.
"Bang!" The man staggered and bumped into the corner of the table after only two steps.
"Are you okay?" Qi Huan hurriedly went forward.
The man waved his hands to indicate that he was fine, and simply sat down at the table, saying weakly, "What's for breakfast?"
"Crab roe noodles or crab roe rice, twenty-five silver coins a bowl." Qi Huan gave an equal price.
"How about clear soup noodles?" The man raised his eyes, "No crab roe, just boil the noodles in water and add a little salt."
This was the first time Qi Huan encountered such a weird bargaining method. He paused for two seconds before replying, "One silver coin."
"A bowl of clear soup noodles." The curly-haired man nodded and closed his eyes tiredly.
The clear soup noodles for Curly Hair were served. The previous hunting team had already devoured four bowls of crab roe noodles and happily paid the bill. When the two of them were walking out, one of them was joking and playing with his companions while holding a bottle of crab roe sauce. He accidentally kicked the leg of Curly Hair's table, and the bowl of noodles on the table was also hit and the soup splashed out.
The man apologized to the curly-haired man, caught up with his companions and got on the airship and left.
Curly-Haired Man ate very slowly, savoring each mouthful carefully. The bowl of clear soup noodles tasted like Buddha Jumps Over the Wall to him. He waited until the bowl was completely empty before he raised his hand to ask Qi Huan to pay the bill.
"One silver coin." Qi Huan couldn't help yawning, and decided to close the door and go upstairs to catch up on his sleep as soon as the man left.
"Wrong."
Wrong? A bowl of clear noodle soup, without even a second side dish, no need to calculate, how could it be wrong? Qi Huan's mind was full of question marks.
The curly-haired girl tapped the tabletop with her wrinkled fingers. "It should be 0.995 silver coins."
Qi Huan: ...
From the time he graduated in his previous life until now, he had only seen numbers accurate to three decimal places on the fair scales in the vegetable market and on the labels of the colored gemstone bracelets he customized for his sister.
"A bowl of clear soup noodles, the noodles account for about 90%, and the soup accounts for 10%. There are 19 mouthfuls of soup left in the bowl, and one mouthful is the one that was spilled, so there should be 20 mouthfuls of soup in total, so you should refund me 0.005 silver coins."
"Isn't it me who spilled the noodle soup?" Qi Huan was speechless.
"It was a customer of yours who spilled it. You can hold him responsible. It is your responsibility to ensure the dining environment for your customers. For me, I should hold you responsible."
"Okay, 0.995 silver coins, how are you going to pay?" Qi Huan was helpless, and his eyes were opened. This was the first time he had seen such a stingy person. But he had to admit that the other party's logic was meticulous and complete, and for a moment, someone's sleepy head could not find any angle to refute.
"I kicked your table when I came in. The degree of damage was about one thousandth. This kind of table costs about eighty silver coins on the market, but this one is relatively old and needs to be depreciated. The residual value is calculated as 30%. In addition, this is your store, and the placement of tables and chairs occupies the road and the design is unreasonable. You should bear the main responsibility, which is eighty percent, and I bear the secondary responsibility of 20%, which comes to 0.0048. Rounding it off, I should compensate you for the damage of 0.005, which is exactly one silver coin." The other party smiled and took out a silver coin and placed it on the table, then got up and left calmly.
Qi Huan: ...
So what have you been doing here for the past half day? Are you performing mental arithmetic or are you just bored?
After seeing him off, Qi Huan immediately closed the door and said goodbye to the visitor. As he walked up the stairs, he kept thinking, is this man mentally ill? How tiring must his life be to be so fussy and calculating!
After a nap, Qi Huan got up and cooked a pot of soft and glutinous animal meat vermicelli and steamed a basket of steamed buns with three fresh fillings for breakfast for himself and the little one. As usual, he divided half of it and sent it to the siblings of the Quan family across the street, and also sent four bottles of finished products made last night. Two bottles of bald yellow butter and one bottle of crab yellow sauce were given to Quan Yu and Quan Hai, and the other bottle of bald yellow butter was given to Quan Hai to bring to Brother Man.
In addition to paying back the money, he also carried four bottles of butter to the food store, one bottle of butter for the Wan elder couple, one bottle of crab sauce, and one bottle of butter for the second and fifth brothers. He also prepared a bottle of butter for Lando, and gritted his teeth and hired a delivery machine with Aunt Wan to deliver it.
No one had ever seen or even heard of crab roe and crab sauce, let alone seen the golden and shiny crab roe and crab meat in the bottle, and they couldn't help but marvel at it.
Aunt Wan cooked the noodles according to Qi Huan's instructions and poured two spoonfuls of butter on them. The delicious taste immediately conquered everyone's stomach.
"Ah Huan's craftsmanship is amazing!"
“How can it be so delicious?”
"This crab roe sauce has replaced the white water beast head as the first in my mind!"
"It has also replaced Tang Shan Hong Guo as the first in my heart."
"How does the saying go, turn something rotten into something magical!" The pile of square crabs that gave people a headache yesterday, suddenly turned into this amazingly delicious sauce.
The Wan family and Lao Wu praised it highly, saying that such delicious food is hard to find. Qi Huan thought about the two bottles that the breakfast customers bought in the morning. The restaurant is closed during the day, so maybe he could consider taking a few bottles and selling them at the food store?
Before he could figure out how to start, Boss Wan came over and asked him in a low voice, "Do you have any more of this sauce at home?"
"Yes, there are still six or seven bottles of butter and crab sauce added together." Qi Huan silently calculated the "inventory". After deducting the can of butter he opened in the morning and the can of spotted beast oil he kept for himself, there were still seven bottles left.
Boss Wan held up five fingers. "For the butter ones, I'll give you 350 silver coins per bottle. You want three bottles. For the crab meat ones, 200 per bottle. Buy five bottles in total."
"If you want to eat it yourself, two hundred and fifty bottles will be enough." Qi Huan waved his hands repeatedly. The one hundred and fifty silver coins he got in the morning had the added value of emotion added to it. Now he could just charge Uncle Wan the cost price for the ingredients.
"Silly boy, this is a rare commodity. I'm giving it to some big shots as gifts. Your unique craftsmanship is not available anywhere else. It's worth whatever you say it's worth." Boss Wan patted his shoulder meaningfully and said, "Five bottles, it's settled. Remember to bring them to me tomorrow."
Understanding what Boss Wan meant, Qi Huan nodded happily. From now on, the crab roe sauce can be sold at a higher price instead of at a lower price.
Six D-level stone beasts arrived in the afternoon. Boss Wan temporarily called the old man named Lao De, and Qi Huan followed him to run back and forth between the two unloading platforms, busy all day long.
When he got off work, Wan Laoer handed over half a basket of animal feet and tails left over from Laowu's unloading in the morning. Now everyone knew that he liked to use this to cook, so they would leave some for him.
"Can I have another piece of that?" Qi Huan pointed to the pile of stone beast meat that was still on the table.
Wan Lao Er was puzzled. "Stone beast meat can't be cooked. It's inedible. Didn't you try it last time?"
"I always feel that I should be able to find a way to stew it until it's tender. I just need to try more." Qi Huan's lips curled up slightly, the curve was beautiful and soft.
Just like adding two slices of hawthorn to stewed beef can make it soft and delicious, what he needs to do now is to grope for the "hawthorn" that belongs to the stone beast meat.
"Why are you so stubborn, kid?" Wan Laoer sighed and waved his hand, indicating that he should let him do whatever he wants.
Carrying the basket of things as he passed through the central hall, Qi Huan walked towards the discount counter as usual.
In between work, he was thinking that the ingredients for bald butter were expensive, and small crabs were an unforeseen occurrence, but he could try to make a few other relatively "popular" sauces. On the one hand, they could be used when cooking to add a special flavor, and it would also be more convenient to deal with those customers who wanted breakfast by knocking on the door. On the other hand, if there was any one that was popular, he could try to make some and sell them separately, which would be another way to make money.
Aunt Wan was in charge of the store at the moment. She pointed at the refrigerator with a smile and said, "Ah Huan, take another look and see if there are any other ingredients that can be used to make something particularly delicious. It doesn't matter if you buy less. I'll give you a discount. When you're done, remember to bring it to Auntie to try."
"In fact, sometimes I fail." Qi Huan chatted with Aunt Wan while picking. It is very common to fail when making new dishes, especially when the ingredients are not familiar. He has even made several videos of failures in the past, which have even higher clicks than ordinary videos of restoring ancient recipes, and the main purpose is to make people like it.
"If you fail, you fail. It's luck that you can eat it."
Qi Huan walked around the discount cabinet and several counters and picked up a lot of things. Except for those in the discount cabinet, they were all small portions as usual, and his backpack was instantly filled to a high point.
Aunt Wan readily gave him a discount and said she wanted to 'pay for a trial'.
Back at the Renjian Restaurant, Little Dumpling was sitting obediently at the table at the door waiting for him.
"Will you be bored staying at home?" Qi Huan rubbed his head. Now the little guy can accept occasional pats on the head, as long as it's not too excessive.
"It's okay." The little guy shook his head, but there was a hint of loneliness in his light blue eyes.
Pulling his little hand and walking into the house, Qi Huan was worried about the little guy's mental health. He had never taken care of a child in his two lifetimes. He wondered if Tuantuan would be too lonely staying at home like this. He also didn't know when the handsome silver-haired guy would be back. Otherwise, he could buy the little guy two toys first.
"What are we having for dinner tonight?" Little Dumpling looked at the basket on Qi Huan's back with anticipation.
"I want to try making some sauce. Can we eat braised bones?" Qi Huan shook the little guy's hand and negotiated with him.
"Yeah." The carnivorous little guy nodded vigorously. He loves this!
When Qi Huan was about to process the animal's feet and tail, he discovered that Lao Wu had already scraped off the scales and other things for him, so he could just wash and cut them into pieces.
Quan Hai worked overtime today and came a little late. The animal bones had been marinated for more than ten minutes before he showed up. As soon as he entered the door, he handed over a bag and hooked his hand around Qi Huan's neck. "I said, why have you suddenly become so powerful recently? Quan Yu said that the crab sauce was so delicious that she almost swallowed it with her tongue."
"I told you that I learned it secretly." Qi Huan raised his head proudly.
"Did you deliberately play a trick on me before?" Quan Hai narrowed his eyes viciously as he recalled the dark food he had eaten before.
“Not really,” Qi Huan quickly waved his hands and said vaguely, “I just found a cookbook when I was tidying up my room some time ago. You know I have lost my memory, so I followed and learned from it again…” He did find a cookbook, and got to know a lot of local ingredients, so it wasn’t a complete lie.
Quan Hai suddenly realized, "Ah, I see, that Qi's secret recipe you always mentioned, turns out it all comes from a recipe!"
"Hmm." It doesn't matter which era the recipes are from. If necessary, he can even write a few recipes himself.
"So it's a good thing that you lost your memory. At least you learned much better this time than before!" Quan Hai patted Qi Huan's shoulder affirmatively.
Qi Huan: ...
The bag was stuffed bulging. Qi Huan opened it and took a look. In addition to the nutritional supplements, there was also a set of newly made dark blue coarse cloth shorts.
"She took too much fabric to make clothes for me, so she made a set for you too." Seeing him looking up at him, Quan Hai scratched his head and explained.
"Thank your sister for me." Qi Huan accepted the kindness with a smile, "By the way, can you ask her if she can make that kind of stuffed doll?"
"What doll?"
"It should be in the shape of a small animal, such as a black or silver kitten, with cloth on the outside and some scraps of cloth stuffed inside. The eyes should be light green if possible." Qi Huan gestured, thinking about making one for the little guy to play with.
"Okay, I'll tell her when I get back." Quan Hai rolled up his sleeves and walked towards the kitchen on his own accord, "How can I help you?"
"There's nothing to do these two days, so go back and have a rest. I'll call you when dinner is ready." Qi Huan "drove" the man out. He was tired after several days, and he couldn't force him to work every day. He had to take a break and catch his breath.
When Quan Hai's footsteps disappeared outside the door, the little dumpling from upstairs ran down to watch Qi Huan making the sauce.
The ingredients on the sink were divided into eight piles. Qi Huan stood beside them, busying himself in an orderly manner.
That's right, he plans to make eight kinds of sauces, namely caramel sauce, orange marmalade, tomato sauce, chili oil, mushroom meat sauce, sesame sauce, XO sauce, and mayonnaise.
These eight sauces are also the ones he used frequently in the past, sweet, sweet and sour, sour, spicy, salty, mellow, fresh and spicy, smooth and refreshing, covering multiple flavors and textures.
But I may not be able to finish it in one day, so I will just do four of them today.
Considering the practicality of enriching the breakfast menu, he decided to pick a few items that could instantly enhance the flavor.
Caramel sauce, orange marmalade, and chili oil, and we quickly decided on three.
Caramel sauce is sweet and has a unique aroma after caramelization. It can be paired with snacks, bread, smoothies, drinks, and fruits. It can also be used as a supplement for cakes and ice cream. It can almost be regarded as a universal sweet sauce. Qi Huan brought a jar of it to the dormitory, and the boss ate it all by dipping it in bread and steamed bread slices.
Orange jam is sweet and sour, and it is also versatile. It can also be used directly as fruit tea to make water. It is refreshing and a perfect combination with meat.
The recipe for chili oil was passed down to Qi Huan by his grandmother. It is considered a family heirloom sauce of the Qi family. After chili powder is mixed with sesame, salt and pepper, it is not put into the pot, but directly poured with oil. The boiling hot oil instantly stimulates the aroma of sesame and chili, and the fragrance fills the corridor. Whether it is stir-frying, stewing, or mixing cold dishes, as long as you can eat spicy food, no one can escape the charm of this heirloom chili oil.
Qi Huan was a bit troubled when he chose the last one. Mushroom meat sauce, sesame sauce, XO sauce, and butter sauce were all his soul mates when mixing noodles. He couldn't tell which one was better, but since he already had butter sauce, it didn't matter if he made the other ones a day or two later. Mayonnaise was an indispensable ingredient for sandwiches, rice balls, and salads, but the taste might be too fresh and might not be as easy to accept as mushroom meat or XO sauce.
Qi Huan was having a hard time deciding, so he waved to the little Tuanzi next to him, pointed at the piles of ingredients on the kitchen counter and asked him, "Which one do you want to eat?"
The little guy stood on tiptoe, holding onto the countertop with both hands and trying to look up, and finally, without any surprise, he chose the ingredient with animal meat, mushroom meat sauce. The reason was simple, it contained his favorite animal meat.
"Okay, let's make this." Qi Huan picked up the mushroom meat sauce with determination... and the pile of eggs next to it, and decided on mayonnaise.
The little guy blinked his big eyes twice in confusion and looked at Qi Huan. Didn’t you say that you would let me choose?
"We humans have a saying. If you are really hesitant and can't make a decision, you can toss a stick or a silver coin. If there are too many choices, you can toss a dice," Qi Huan demonstrated by throwing the star egg in his hand into the air and then catching it steadily. "The final result of the toss is actually not important, because the moment the thing is in the air, you will have the answer in your heart."
The little guy nodded, not quite understanding, until Qi Huan couldn't hold back his laughter more than ten seconds later, and then he realized that he had been fooled, and that he was the "dice"! A pure tool!
Qi Huan pinched his soft cheeks, laughed, teased Tuanzi a little, and was really happy!
Humph! The little guy turned around angrily and ignored him.
"I was wrong, I was wrong, don't be angry," Qi Huan held the person in his arms and rubbed his fur. He couldn't help but pinched the white and tender cheeks that looked like glutinous rice balls.
"It hurts!" The little guy complained in a childish voice, covering his face and escaping from his arms.
Qi Huan, who had had enough of the fun, stood up to wash his hands and continued to work around the kitchen counter. In order to pair the two sweet sauces, he even baked a batch of toast. Since he had a dough kneading machine, it was easy to knead the dough into a glove film. After finishing everything, he pickled a small jar of salted eggs.
The finished sauce naturally needs to be tasted by the top tasting team of Renjian Restaurant - the whole family and Tuantuan.
Quan Yu likes caramel sauce and orange marmalade the most, Quan Hai likes chili oil the most, and the taste of mayonnaise is a bit strange to the siblings, who neither like it nor hate it.
The little guy was not interested in the sweet caramel sauce, but could accept the sweet and sour orange jam. The remaining Qi family chili oil and mayonnaise were surprisingly very much to his liking.
But the little guy seemed to be "allergic" to chili peppers. He didn't have a rash, but was sweating. After taking a bite of the braised meat stewed with chili oil, beads of sweat dripped down his temples after a few seconds, giving him a very realistic interpretation of "sweating like rain".
"If you can't eat spicy food, don't eat it." Seeing that his clothes were soaked with sweat, Qi Huan tried to dissuade him.
"One last bite." Bite after bite, the little guy grabbed the spoon and refused to let go, unable to stop.
The only regret was that Qi Huan's plan to stew the stone beast tonight failed again. He tried to use a variety of different things to stew with the stone beast meat, but in the end he still got four pieces of 'rubber meat'.
The next day when we went to the unloading site, in addition to the crab roe sauce that Uncle Wan ordered, Qi Huan also brought some "sample" sauce and toast for everyone to try.
The Wan brothers and Aunt Wan both like mayonnaise. Aunt Wan also likes the sweet and sour orange marmalade. The fifth brother has a special liking for chili oil. In short, all kinds of sauces have their supporters and indifferent people. It is difficult to satisfy everyone. But according to Qi Huan's observation, Tuan Tuan and the guests of the hunting team are usually more sensitive to the seasoning of food. Relatively speaking, no matter which taste is sour, sweet, bitter, spicy or salty, their taste is lighter than that of the natives of the waste star.
Five D-level stone beasts came in the afternoon. Qi Huan was so busy that he was dizzy and didn't go home until dark.
Turning the corner, Qi Huan saw from afar that the lights of the Renjian Restaurant had been turned on and there was an airship parked at the door. He couldn't help but quicken his pace.
The little guy usually never turns on the lights in the restaurant, firstly because he has very good night vision, and secondly he doesn't want to attract outsiders to knock on the door. But in this situation, it is obvious that someone has entered the restaurant!
Did the Jiufang family find the little guy? Or did the people who kidnapped him catch up with him?
Could it be that the little guy has been captured?
The more he thought about it, the more worried he became. Qi Huan couldn't help but hold on to the backpack and ran.
The door was ajar, so he pushed it open with force, almost bumping into the person who came to open the door.
"If I hadn't dodged quickly, I would have been beaten to death by you with the door panel," the man inside the door patted his chest exaggeratedly, and the red braid on his cheek jumped lively with his movements. "There are no stone beasts attacking the base, why are you in such a hurry?"
Qi Huan held the door handle, breathing heavily. He looked at the man, then at the silver-haired young man sitting with Xiaotuanzi in the store, and was panting so hard that he couldn't speak for a while.
Is the silver-haired young man really Tuanzi’s uncle?
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