Chapter 39 Chapter 39 Spending Money Day 39
After lunch, Aunt Zhang cleaned up the dishes and Aunt Cai helped Liu Yue wash her hair. Their work for the day was finished and they had to go home to do their own things.
Liu Yue wished Happy New Year to the two aunts and prepared red envelopes according to the number of children in their families.
There wasn't much money, just a hundred-yuan bill, mainly because Liu Yue had never given anyone a red envelope.
Yes, she just wanted to experience the feeling of going to the bank to withdraw new, consecutive-numbered cash and then putting it into a red envelope. Otherwise, wouldn’t all the red envelopes she received from banks and brands this year be useless?
Incidentally, Chanel also sent her a gift box. Inside was the chocolates she had packed before, and a sample of the perfume she had praised—this time in its full size.
Hermès also gave her a beach towel, which surprised Liu Yue. Hermès wasn't expensive, far from Vic's standard.
Liu Yue saw the message on her phone. It was Lily who sent her New Year's greetings, and it should be her who sent the beach towel.
Well... luxury goods are indeed effective when given as gifts to customers. Although Liu Yue bought a lot of bags today, she recalled the Hermès products and thought about going back to check them out after the Chinese New Year.
We will have hotpot at home for the New Year’s Eve dinner tonight. Sang Yu said he has arranged a team of chefs.
Liu Yue originally thought they would arrive in the afternoon. After all, in her mind, making hotpot was a simple matter and synonymous with saving trouble. Unexpectedly, the chef team arrived as soon as the two nannies left.
There were four or five of them, each carrying a particularly heavy box. Liu Yue also saw that they had brought in a small, portable seafood tank and had connected water pipes and electrical wires to the kitchen.
Wow, it looks like the seafood we're eating tonight is freshly slaughtered.
Liu Yue got a cashback, and today it is 200,000.
After she finished smoking, she had nothing to do, so she went to watch the food delivery. The seafood pool was first filled with various shellfish, such as clams, white clams, scallops, razor clams...
Then there were several shrimps, including particularly long flower-jointed shrimps and black tiger shrimps.
Sang Yu said that black tiger shrimps are used to make shrimp balls, while flower-jointed shrimps are eaten directly in hot pot.
Liu Yue also saw Australian lobsters. Before she could be surprised by such a big lobster, the even bigger king crab made a grand appearance.
"It's so big." Liu Yue exclaimed, "Can the two of us finish it?"
“There’s a lot of seafood, but not much is put into the pot.”
Sang Yu said, "We only eat the best part of the food. The rest and scraps are recycled by the chef team, so nothing goes to waste. This was agreed upon when we negotiated the price."
Otherwise, if they wanted the freshest ingredients, it would be difficult for the two of them to order.
Sang Yu also said: "If there are any leftover ingredients, freeze them and I will cook seafood noodles for you tomorrow morning."
Liu Yue nodded, and then she saw the geoduck, the particularly large abalone, and a brightly colored grouper with a bright red body.
After a while, someone came in carrying two live chickens... That's right, even though today's theme is seafood, how can the Guangdong people's New Year's Eve dinner table be without chicken?
She didn't watch for too long because she still had to go and handle some formalities.
You Jingchuan was so anxious to get the money that he found ways to expedite all the formalities and processes. After just one day, the online contract was approved for filing, and Liu Yue had already transferred the money to the escrow account. Now it was time to transfer ownership and pay taxes.
Although Liu Yue made a guarantee and the contract also stipulated the payment date, You Jingchuan only felt relieved after confirming with the bank that the escrow funds had indeed received the house payment, that there was no problem with the money, and that the loan would be released to him within three days.
Liu Yue was also very happy. The speed of household registration transfer was even faster than she had imagined.
She submitted the information at the real estate center, obtained the red property certificate, and then went to the Public Security Bureau to handle the city relocation. The whole process only took 30 minutes. Shenzhen's efficiency is really high.
Liu Yue looked at the property certificate, which showed her name as the right holder, and the "sole ownership" on the shared property status, and then looked at the freshly issued resident household register, and felt an indescribable sense of security in her heart.
She now has a house, a house where she doesn't have to worry about being evicted when the lease expires, or about others not liking her and sending her away.
In fact, Liu Yue doesn't care about her "real birthday". She thinks it's fine to have a birthday in June. Isn't it that people commemorate this day for happiness and celebration? As long as the mood is right, the specific day doesn't matter.
So she didn't think about changing the date of birth on her ID card or household registration booklet, as that would be very troublesome. She just wanted to enjoy the present life and didn't want to delve into the past.
But today is indeed a very memorable day, not because she was born on this day 22 years ago, but because of this moment.
It was her own business to transfer her household registration, and You Jingchuan did not come with her.
At this moment, Liu Yue received a message from him on her mobile phone. He congratulated and thanked her, and also said mysteriously that he had prepared a New Year's gift for her, but due to time constraints, it would not be delivered to her until after the New Year.
Wow, Liu Yue inexplicably felt that she would be overwhelmed with gifts after the Chinese New Year.
She replied: [If it’s your wine and art, forget it]
This guy wouldn't just leave his unsold collection to her, would he? He couldn't possibly earn a favor from her with this.
You Jingchuan: [How could that be? It was something we mentioned during our chat. It’s something you like.]
Liu Yue tentatively replied: [I will buy what I like]
【I can help you get it done faster】
What? It's so mysterious.
Liu Yue didn't quite remember what she and You Jingchuan had talked about. The waiting time for the house inspection was a bit long, and they chatted about all sorts of things, covering a lot of topics.
Since he wants to give a gift, she should just wait to receive it.
You Jingchuan also said that he would take her to visit the house again after the New Year, this time to tell her the location of the safe house and the vault.
Safe deposit box... Liu Yue was slightly shocked by this word. Is it true that safe deposit boxes can no longer hold the wealth of rich people?
The house Liu Yue was living in only had a safe, and the secret room behind the cloakroom was used by her as a storage room.
After she returned home, she touched her property certificate and household registration book again, and then put these two things in.
Liu Yue even asked the system with a wild imagination: "Do you have a portable space where I can store things? I don't even need to be able to farm or raise chickens in it, just be able to store inanimate objects."
System: “…No.”
"Does my parents have a system?"
"The host has no right to inquire about the information of other systems."
Okay, then don't ask.
Liu Yue happily went to the bathroom to take a bath and prepare for a big dinner tonight.
When the chef team came over, Liu Yue already had a feeling that the hot pot would be very sumptuous, but when the meal officially started, the scene on the table still opened her eyes.
——Don’t even mention that when two people are having a meal, there’s no need to use such a grand term as “let the meal begin”. Anyone else standing here at this moment would open their mouth in surprise.
First of all, the base of the pot. Liu Yue thought it would be a particularly large double-flavored pot, but unexpectedly it was a very delicate small pot.
Don’t think the pot is too small, there are ten such small pots, each with a different flavor.
Sang Yu introduced them to her one by one: "This is fish maw chicken, and this is coconut chicken. They are both made with chickens that were killed this afternoon and freshly cooked into soup."
"This is the lobster soup base, also made with freshly killed Australian lobsters; this is the butter base, freshly fried by hand; and this is the tomato base, made with carefully selected fresh tomatoes."
"This is the base for the white sour soup, made with fermented rice. I'm worried that the red sour soup might be too pungent for you, and your stomach might not be able to handle it. This is the porridge base, made with shellfish and seafood, and it's made with mountain spring water. This is mineral water, and we'll have hot pot later."
"This is the frying pan for Sukiyaki. The chef will fry the meat for you later. This..."
Sang Yu paused for a moment, then smiled and said, "Strictly speaking, this isn't hot pot, but since it's Chinese New Year today, let's have a perfect and auspicious occasion."
There is nothing in it, but there is milk tea and coconut milk placed next to it, as well as small condiments such as pearls, taro balls, mochi and cut fruits.
Liu Yue immediately understood that this was "milk tea hot pot"! Just pour in whatever you want to drink, and it's a DIY dessert when you take it out.
Oh my god, this is so rich!
Recalling the day when Sang Yu asked her what kind of hot pot she wanted to eat, Liu Yue said "whatever", and then it became so casual.
There are all kinds of flavors for her to choose from. She can eat whatever she wants and it is so delicious.
This is just the base of the pot, the ingredients are even more amazing.
The king crabs were just caught from the seafood pond and are still alive. They should be processed and eaten soon. The flower shrimps also seem to be jumping around; the geoduck has been cut into thin slices and spread evenly on the ice; the abalone has also been processed, and the blue shell is particularly eye-catching.
The most impressive of all was the grouper—its head tilted upward, preserving the posture of a leaping fish. Its skeleton and tail supported this position, and the fish was sliced into squares and arranged in a circle on a bed of crushed ice.
Wow, what an exquisite presentation, it’s no worse than eating out.
Besides these seafood, the marbled Wagyu beef is also very impressive. The freshly cut marbled beef next to it is not as expensive, but it is just as delicious.
Liu Yue's favorite shrimp balls also appeared on the table, and crispy chicken, pork offal platter, and fresh seasonal vegetables were also indispensable. Although the portions of these dishes were small, the quantity was already very good.
There are so many delicious foods, luckily she is a big eater.
Liu Yue took out her cell phone and took a few pictures. After that, she complained that the pictures were not good-looking. But it didn't matter, Sang Yu had already prepared pictures of delicious food from various angles and sent them to her cell phone.
Great, I can post a fancy circle of friends tonight! God knows how envious she must have been when she saw other people’s circle of friends in the dormitory for the past two years.
In fact, it was not that she didn't have money to go out for dinner, but seeing others having fun, she felt more lonely sitting alone in the booth.
This year was different. Not only did Sang Yu accompany her to eat hotpot, but it was at her own home.
Although this is just a rented house, as long as she treats it as home, then it is home.
Liu Yue couldn't wait to sit down and wait for the meal to start. There was no condiment table at home, but she didn't need one. The chef had already prepared it for her, so she could just serve it ready.
Guangdong people always drink soup first when eating, but today there was a lot of soup to drink, which made Liu Yue feel troubled for a moment.
Well…let’s drink the lobster soup first, mainly because she has never had it before.
She doesn't have to do anything herself, as members of her own chef team serve her.
This bowl of soup contains large pieces of lobster meat and small pieces of pumpkin floating in it. The orange-red soup looks very rich and the taste is even more amazing when you put it in your mouth.
"It's delicious." Liu Yue praised, "I thought it would be thick, but it tastes very clear, and it feels very full."
“This soup is perfect for cooking noodles.”
Liu Yue commented: "I'll add some noodles later. They'll be absolutely delicious. The broth will definitely be absorbed by the noodles. Don't use this pot to boil vegetables. Save it for cooking noodles tonight and tomorrow."
Even if the milk tea pot is not counted, she still has eight other pots. Liu Yue thinks it is reasonable to arrange a pot specifically for cooking noodles.
She then tasted the lobster meat from the pot. The fresh lobster was very chewy, and the large chunks of meat were very satisfying. However, Liu Yue felt that the aroma of the lobster had completely permeated the broth, making the broth more delicious than the meat.
After drinking the soup, the first step in eating hot pot is to start with the hot pot.
Many people from other provinces don't understand why boiling ingredients in plain water doesn't make them taste good. But Cantonese people say that they enjoy the original flavor of fresh ingredients, and that the most luxurious ingredients often require only the simplest cooking methods.
The dipping sauce for hot pot is light soy sauce seasoned with fresh onions, ginger and chilies. A chef stands in front of the table to control the best cooking time for each dish for her.
First up was the marbled beef, with a freshly beaten egg nestled in the middle. The egg wasn't cooked; the chef squeezed the egg and evenly coated each slice of beef, making the meat more tender and smooth.
The marbled beef was greasy, and after it was put into the pot, oil bubbles began to rise in the clear water. Liu Yue watched the beef rapidly changing color in the colander and couldn't help swallowing.
Beef is easy to overcook, and it tastes best when it's a little pink. Liu Yue first dipped it in soy sauce and then in shacha sauce. The former gave her the freshness of the beef, while the latter was the perfect CP seasoning. Both were incredibly delicious.
Although the beef wasn't slaughtered right in front of Liu Yue, it probably took no more than four hours from slaughter to serving. Many chain restaurants offer consistent quality beef, but it lacks that fresh, rich flavor.
It was so delicious... The crispy chicken and pork offal that came out next were both delicious. If someone asked Liu Yue what "chicken tastes like chicken" meant, she would point to the meat in the bowl and say, "Take a bite of this and you'll know."
The difference in taste between free-range and farmed chicken is a stark contrast, one that no amount of culinary skill can bridge. It's hard to describe; it's a familiar, down-to-earth chicken flavor, not the dry, soulless taste of white meat.
After rinsing with water, Liu Yue turned her attention to the porridge.
In a clear water pot, fattier meats should be added first, but in a porridge pot, meats should be left for last, because the pot already has shellfish as a base, and the rice milk that has been boiled for four hours is even more translucent, mild, and very fresh and sweet.
"This pot only holds seafood," Liu Yue said. "If you add meat, it will become cloudy, and the seafood porridge won't taste good."
The superiority of the ten hot pot bases is fully demonstrated at this moment, because with so many choices, it is natural to match one pot with one ingredient.
One chef cooked grouper for her in a pot of porridge water, while another chef picked up the fish meat and put it into the fish maw and chicken hot pot, making it convenient for Liu Yue to taste the two flavors of the ingredients at once.
The fish meat cooked in porridge was a beautiful pink-white color, with thick rice paste hanging on the fish meat. It was so smooth in the mouth that Liu Yue was even worried that it would slide directly into her throat.
The fish, scooped out of the fish maw and chicken pot, is incredibly delicious even without the need for dipping sauce. The flavor of the chicken broth doesn't overshadow the fish; the two aromas blend together in the pot, creating a truly delicious experience.
Oh my god, how can everything be so delicious! Is this the power of fresh ingredients?
These two pots became Liu Yue's designated pots for hot pot seafood. On the other side, a chef put a piece of butter on the frying pan, preparing to make sukiyaki for her.
When the frying pan starts to sizzle, the chef adds green onions and further sautés them until they are fragrant. Then, he adds sugar and the sauce, and the meat is ready to be pan-fried.
Liu Yue had only eaten sukiyaki cooked in a pot before, but now she knows that the kind is called "sukiyaki pot", which is the Kanto-style shabu shabu, while the pan-fried method is "sukiyaki", which is the Kansai-style sukiyaki.
The wagyu beef used in sukiyaki was also very particular. It was not the most famous Kobe beef, but Kagoshima wagyu. The chef also shared a little-known fact with her. He said that the beef produced in Kobe was all raised in Kobe by buying calves from Kagoshima.
Liu Yue curiously asked if this was true, and the chef said that he had heard it from a friend.
Uh...it's okay, just treat it as some gossip.
However, Japanese Wagyu beef is indeed very particular. Each Wagyu beef has its pedigree certified and is carefully raised. They even have real-name registration throughout the process. The breeders also have to regulate the cows' emotions, play music for them, and give them massages to ensure that the fat is deposited more evenly.
Chef: "Wagyu beef melts in your mouth because its fat has a lower melting point. The fat of Japanese Kuroge Wagyu beef melts at 28 degrees Celsius, while the melting point of Australian Wagyu beef is usually above 35 degrees Celsius. You absolutely have to chew it to taste it, so there's a huge difference in this aspect, and naturally the price difference is huge."
I see! No wonder so many restaurants sell Australian Wagyu beef, and few people have seen Japanese Wagyu beef.
Sukiyaki beef is usually coated with raw egg liquid. Liu Yue took a bite and found the taste to be simply divine.
With the chef's strong recommendation, she also tried A5 Wagyu sashimi for the first time - it was the first time for her to eat raw beef.
Liu Yue tasted only a tiny bit, but the sensation was beyond her expectations. It didn't have the strong smell of mutton she'd imagined, but rather a milky and nutty aroma. She deliberately sipped it on her tongue for a moment, and sure enough, the aroma of fat permeated her mouth, as if the beef were slowly dispersing.
"It's delicious." Liu Yue was very satisfied and took a big bite this time.
After she and Sang Yu each ate two pieces of Wagyu, the frying pan stopped working. The chef asked her whether she wanted to continue frying the beef or add broth to it and make it into shabu-shabu.
Liu Yue asked him to stop. Wagyu beef was indeed delicious, but it was extremely sweet and would become greasy if eaten again. There was no need to make it into a hot pot. Besides beef, Sukiyaki was not tasty with anything else. Adding soup was just like adding syrup.
If you want a sweet soup base, Liu Yue prefers coconut chicken, which has a sweet taste that is more suitable for hot pot.
Although it is called coconut chicken, it was not invented by Hainanese people. It is a local specialty of Shenzhen!
However, perhaps because the flavors of coconut chicken, beef oil pot, and tomato pot were too common, the food cooked in these pots was indeed delicious, but it did not surprise Liu Yue much. It could only be said that it was a normal performance.
Unconsciously, her requirements for food taste were raised.
The white sour soup left a deep impression on Liu Yue. She attributed this to its novelty. She had never eaten authentic sour hot pot before. Many hot pot bases claim to be sour and spicy, but they are still mainly spicy.
But this white sour soup is really sour. Liu Yue thinks it is a perfect match with the flower-jointed shrimp. The shrimp meat has a fresh and sweet taste, which can achieve perfect neutralization.
Therefore, the main ingredients for the seafood hot pot tonight are porridge and fish maw chicken, and almost all the ingredients are half of each.
Ingredients such as geoduck and abalone don’t have much taste themselves, and what you eat is the flavor and texture of the broth. However, Liu Yue found them very fresh, so the experience was good.
By the way, the super-large king crab on the table was disassembled by the chef in front of her.
The crab legs are used for hot pot, and egg liquid and crab roe are poured into the crab shell to make steamed eggs. The crab body is cooked using the Typhoon Shelter method. The crispy texture has a burnt aroma from frying, which can be regarded as a change of taste for Liu Yue.
Liu Yue ate hot pot while chatting with Sang Yu, and also listened to the chef's introduction to each ingredient. They ate slowly, and when Liu Yue checked Weibo, she found that the Spring Festival Gala had already begun.
Between watching the Spring Festival Gala and eating dessert, Liu Yue of course chose the latter - why not just leave the Spring Festival Gala and watch the program clips tomorrow? Guangdong people rarely sit in front of the TV to watch this.
Although Liu Yue was full, she had a different appetite for milk tea. She happily added toppings to her tea, while Sang Yu checked the status of the Black Swan cake on his phone.
A few hours ago, the errand runner boarded a flight to Shenzhen. The take-off time was normal, the expected landing time was also normal, and there was no traffic jam on the road from the airport to Shenzhen Bay Sky City.
After a while, the errand boy sent a video, saying that he had landed in Shenzhen and the cake had arrived safely.
Sang Yu felt relieved. She sent the contact information of the private car driver to the errand boy and asked them to meet her at the airport.
Her attention returned to the dining table. After finishing her milk tea, Liu Yue touched her stomach, indicating that she really couldn't eat anything.
Actually, she could save it for tomorrow, but it was so delicious that she couldn't resist. The customized New Year's Eve dinner was really great. The whole table was filled with her favorites. There was nothing she didn't want to eat, or even something she hated.
Sang Yu asked her to rest and she and the chef would take care of these things.
Liu Yue nodded, and before leaving, she reminded Sang Yu that the pot of lobster soup must be kept and used to cook noodles tomorrow!
She had seafood porridge today and didn't have enough stomach space for lobster noodles, which was a pity.
Sang Yu agreed with a helpless smile. Liu Yue had very few specific instructions for her, and most of them were related to eating and drinking... Her world was really just about eating, drinking and having fun, and she didn't see any ambition or desire at all.
——If there is, it can only be appetite.
Liu Yue lay on the bed for a while, then sat down for the sake of her health. She stood up and walked for a while, but sat down again unknowingly. When she came to her senses, she was lying down again.
Since she was already lying down, Liu Yue lay there peacefully until after ten o'clock. When a comedian's show was about to be broadcast, she got on the balance bike and went to the entertainment room to turn on the TV.
She doesn't like to watch anything else but funny language programs.
Liu Yue almost forgot that she wanted to eat Black Swan - after all, she was really full from the New Year's Eve dinner, and she had just digested part of it.
So, when she was laughing happily in the room and Sang Yu asked her when she would celebrate Huo Qubing's birthday, Liu Yue was still a little confused.
...Yes, that was her excuse.
When Liu Yue learned that Sang Yu had really bought the black swan and had arranged for someone to deliver it, she was of course very happy.
Although the transportation cost far exceeded the price of the cake, that little money was nothing to her. What made her satisfied was that she got what she wanted.
Her parents, whom she had never met, gave her two cars as a gift. She got a property certificate and a new household registration book. Even if there was a cake shop far away in Beijing, as long as she wanted to eat it, someone would deliver it to her from afar.
At this moment, it doesn’t matter what the Black Swan tastes like or whether it is worth the thousands of dollars it costs.
It’s really good to have money. On this day of getting rid of the old and welcoming the new, she has everything.
Liu Yue did not blow out the candles or make a wish. Her wonderful life was already within her reach and did not need to be realized through wishes.
She said she wanted to stay up all night, so she left the cake until after midnight so that she could digest it more.
As the New Year’s bell rings, Happy New Year’s greetings on TV reach thousands of households.
Liu Yue knew that from now on, her life would enter a new chapter.
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