Chapter 3: A Female Chef Arrives on the Film Crew
In the Chang'an Banquet crew, director Ye Lu has been under a lot of stress lately and has lost weight. The source of all this is the crew's cook.
The chef's skills were truly appalling. The dishes he cooked were watery and bland, like basins of diluted dishwater, and there was hardly any meat in them. Ye Lu dreaded the thought of food; it felt like facing an unsolvable puzzle, the more he thought about it, the more frustrated he became. But he didn't dare fire the chef easily. After all, the filming location was so remote, like a forgotten corner of the world, far from any village or shop. If he fired him, finding a replacement chef would be a problem.
And just like that, the chef who cooked terribly quit. He told Ye Lu that he had something to do at home, then turned around and left, making a quick getaway as if the film crew was some kind of den of thieves and he didn't want to stay a moment longer.
What did Director Ye Lu do all day? He opened the food delivery app "Ugly Groupon" for the 36th time, hoping to find a restaurant to satisfy his rumbling stomach. But the search results were a huge disappointment. The nearest cake shop was 30 kilometers away, and the small supermarket was over 40 kilometers away—a veritable food desert. His mind kept replaying the crispy hamburgers, the tender fried chicken, the spicy hot pot, the rich boiled pork slices, and the tangy snail rice noodles. Just thinking about them made his mouth water uncontrollably.
Just as Director Ye Lu was worrying about the meal problem, Assistant Director Meng Fan brought him some news—he had recommended a chef. Upon hearing this, Ye Lu felt like he had seen a ray of light in the darkness, and he welcomed the offer with open arms. He immediately instructed his assistant, Xiao Liu, to go and bring the chef over.
Under the blazing midday sun, at two o'clock, Xiao Liu waited anxiously by the roadside in the middle of nowhere for what seemed like ages. Finally, a green taxi slowly pulled up. The door opened, and a girl stepped out. She was fair-skinned and beautiful, with long hair cascading over her shoulders like a waterfall. Her bright eyes twinkled like stars in the night sky, and her delicate face was lightly made up. Xiao Liu looked closer—this girl looked like the new actress he'd seen on TV a few days ago… what was her name again?
He was wondering what was going on when it suddenly dawned on him: the director hadn't said any new actors were coming today, so why was it a woman? Was she making a cameo? Or was she just visiting the set? I was clearly here to pick up the crew's cook!
Xiao Liu looked suspicious, while Su Yingxue, carrying her suitcase, walked up confidently and introduced herself: "Hello, Su Yingxue. I'm the new cook!"
"You? Make lunchboxes for everyone?" Xiao Liu, holding a parasol, looked as surprised as if he had seen an alien. His eyes widened, and his mouth gaped open, unable to close for a long time.
"Yes, that's right! This is the place that Assistant Director Meng Fan was talking about." Su Yingxue looked at Xiao Liu's surprised expression, then looked around at the surrounding environment.
At this point, filming for "Chang'an Banquet" was halfway through. Su Yingxue had previously searched for and read the original novel online, learning that it was about a girl who traveled to Chang'an to preserve intangible cultural heritage dishes and open a shop with her family. The filming location was a newly developed tourist area in Zhejiang Province. The scenery was quite nice, and there were relatively few people, but the only drawback was that it was too far from the city center. She had spent almost 50 yuan on a taxi ride, and Su Yingxue couldn't help but feel a little pained.
"Alright, then come with me to see Director Ye first!" Although Xiao Liu was still confused, he still led Su Yingxue to the filming location.
The two walked another two kilometers along the country lanes before arriving at the filming location for the Chang'an Banquet. Xiao Liu took Su Yingxue directly to the cook's quarters. It was a one-bedroom apartment, quite spacious, about 25 square meters. The production team had rented a small building built by a local villager.
The cleanliness of the house was simply appalling. Cigarette butts littered the floor, leaving tiny black sores on the wooden floor, and several empty beer cans lay scattered near the bed. The whole room reeked of squalor.
"The last chef didn't seem very particular!" Su Yingxue thought, pinching her nose. There was still a lingering smell of smoke.
"Su Yingxue, put your things down and go to the filming location ahead. I have other things to do, so you'll have to find the director yourself." After giving these instructions, Xiao Liu hurriedly left.
"Okay!" Su Yingxue replied, looking at the dirty and messy floor and the dusty walls, she thought to herself: I'll clean it later.
Then Su Yingxue walked through the narrow corridor, past the dressing room piled with props, and followed the extras into the main shooting area. It was lunch break, but the set was in complete chaos—several extras were squatting against the wall eating compressed biscuits, the production assistant was sighing while holding a cup of instant noodles, and even the lead actor was rubbing his stomach against the monitor. The assistant director gestured to Ye Lu, and when Ye Lu looked up, his brows behind his glasses were furrowed deeply.
"Hello, Director Ye, I'm Su Yingxue, the new chef." Su Yingxue bowed slightly, her voice clear and bright, and she was carrying a small box in her hand.
Assistant director Meng Fan stared at Su Yingxue standing to the side, then glanced at Ye Lu, who was watching the monitor, and suddenly slapped his forehead: "Director Ye, it seems like a misunderstanding! She sent me a WeChat message the day before yesterday saying she wanted to come and help, I thought... I thought it was a relative of hers coming to help in the kitchen!"
Ye Lu slowly turned his chair around, his glasses reflecting a cold light. He stared at Su Yingxue for three seconds, then suddenly sneered, "Su Yingxue? Didn't you terminate your contract and retire from the entertainment industry? What, you still want to use this opportunity to make a comeback?" Before he finished speaking, he tapped the lunchbox on the table with his fingertips—the lid was lifted, revealing half a dry braised chicken wing and wilted greens inside.
Su Yingxue looked at the lunchbox, a smile playing on her lips. "I did retire from the entertainment industry, but I didn't say I was retiring from the culinary world." She shook the suitcase in her hand. "I'm already here. How about you try my cooking this afternoon when it's lunchtime?"
"You want me to cook?" Ye Lu tugged at his collar, his tone clearly teasing. "I'm afraid I can't handle it." He paused, then added, "Won't it poison someone?"
Su Yingxue knew Ye Lu's temper; he was always sharp-tongued, but incredibly capable. Although they hadn't worked together, she knew he was objective and didn't hold grudges. Before she terminated her contract, the script for "Chang'an Banquet" had been handed to her. But she turned around and left the entertainment industry. Ye Lu was probably furious!
As soon as Director Ye finished speaking, the surrounding extras immediately erupted in an uproar.
"Director, when is dinner?" A young extra in coarse linen clothes clutched his stomach, his voice trembling with tears. "I've only had three bowls of porridge in the last three days! If I don't eat soon, I can count how many ribs I have!"
"I lost five pounds in three days filming here! Mom doesn't have to worry about me dieting anymore!" The girl with pigtails sighed dramatically, holding up half a compressed biscuit. "Now I feel nauseous just looking at a lunchbox lid."
"Director! We're hungry!" Someone started it, and a group of people followed suit, the sound almost lifting the roof off.
Ye Lu rubbed his flat stomach and suddenly realized that his belt had loosened a notch—he had indeed lost two pounds in the past two days. Looking at Su Yingxue, who was standing straight with her suitcase in hand, her eyes full of composure, he seemed like an unreasonable child.
"Alright, alright!" Ye Lu waved his hand, gesturing with his chin to Su Yingxue. "Go cook first, see what ingredients you have." He turned to Xiao Liu and yelled, "Bring the warehouse key! The rest..." He stared at Su Yingxue's retreating figure, his tone softening slightly, "We'll discuss what you left behind after we've cooked."
Su Yingxue nodded, her smile deepening. Having spent so much time on set, she naturally understood that mealtimes were crucial. She dragged her small suitcase quickly towards the small kitchen in the corner—a makeshift shed made of corrugated steel sheets. Pushing open the door, a musty smell wafted out, and the grease on the stove was so thick it could be scraped off.
She carried several bags of ingredients and some tools with her, all for working.
She placed the box on the only clean folding table, gently brushed away the surface dust with her fingertips, and clicked open the lock. The contents were neatly arranged: dried wild mushrooms and bamboo shoots from Yunnan were wrapped in oiled paper, exuding the fresh fragrance of the mountains; dried preserved vegetables and fermented black beans from Sichuan were in a glass jar, glossy black; handmade beef balls from Chaoshan were plump and bouncy in a food storage container; and there were several bottles of secret-recipe sauces with labels in calligraphy, their rich, dark color almost dripping. At the very bottom was a kitchen knife with an ebony handle, its scabbard carved with lotus scrolls, gleaming warmly in the dim light.
"Let's see what basic ingredients we have first," she muttered to herself as she walked towards the warehouse, her canvas shoes making a soft clattering sound on the concrete. Behind her, the whispers of the extras rose and fell like the chirping of cicadas in summer.
"Is this really Wan Yue, the second female lead in 'Autumn Days Surpass Spring Mornings'?"
"Her name is Su Yingxue. I heard she became a chef after retiring from the entertainment industry? Wow, that's amazing!"
"Who cares about her? As long as the food is good! If the food isn't good, even an award-winning actress has to leave!"
Su Yingxue curled the corners of her lips, ignoring the extras' voices, and walked briskly through the corridor piled with props. She knew that this "chef saga" had only just begun.
Pushing open the metal door of the warehouse, a blast of cold air, a mixture of musty and frozen meat odors, hit her. Su Yingxue squinted to adjust to the light, and saw that the situation inside the freezer was worse than she had imagined—dozens of wilted bok choy and spinach were piled in a corner, their leaves yellowed and curled, clearly having been there for quite some time; a small mountain of frozen pork, as hard as ice, felt like an ice block to the touch, its chill seeping into her fingertips; next to it were frozen mushrooms, frozen squid, and frozen chicken, their packaging covered in frost. At the very back of the freezer, several unopened packages of ham lay quietly, their packaging already somewhat faded.
"Are there any more ingredients?" Su Yingxue turned to look at the helpers standing in the corner. A burly man was standing with his arms crossed, the fat on his face twitching with his expression; the other was a soft-spoken girl who looked to be just over eighteen years old, wearing a faded T-shirt, like a college student doing summer work, and was timidly glancing at her.
"No, that's all," the girl answered softly, her fingers nervously twisting the hem of her clothes. "There are a few packets of noodles and flour over there in the corner." She stole glances at Su Yingxue's expression, afraid that the other party was not satisfied.
Xu Qingqing is a villager living nearby. She had just graduated from university and couldn't find a job, so her father dragged her here as a kitchen helper. The previous head chef was as fierce as a demon, constantly yelling and dumping all the chores on them. She couldn't cook at all, often only managing to boil a pot of cabbage with salt and water; the production crew called it "boiled grass in plain water." This morning's cabbage was what she made; she put too much salt in, and the extras secretly threw most of it away.
"Can you even cook? Don't end up like that old Xu last time, running away after just two days!" Xu Guoqing, Xu Qingqing's father, looked the pretty girl up and down, thinking to himself: another pretty face, probably can't even fry an egg.
"Yes, we definitely have to do it." Su Yingxue looked around, frowning at the filthy floor—oil stains had solidified into black clumps in the cracks of the tiles, the stove was so sticky it could stick to your hand, cobwebs hung in the corner of the ceiling, and several mosquitoes buzzed around. "Let's clean the kitchen first!"
"I'll help sweep the floor!" Xu Qingqing immediately grabbed the broom from the corner and began sweeping the floor with practiced ease. She was secretly pleased: this new sister seemed reliable, much better than that old Xu who was always cursing.
"This brat, she's never this diligent at home," Xu Guoqing thought to himself, watching as Su Yingxue deftly changed into an apron and tied her long hair into a high ponytail, looking every bit the workwoman.
"Let's get to work." Xu Guoqing muttered as he walked towards the freezer, secretly thinking: The dirtiest and most tiring task, the stove, definitely has to be left to the head chef, since you're the newbie! He rolled up his sleeves and began laboriously sorting the frozen ingredients, moving dozens of kilograms of pork without a second thought, and reorganizing the vegetables, dried goods, flour, and noodles. He hadn't been working long before he was so exhausted he could barely stand up straight.
Xu Qingqing bent over and swept the floor for a while, then found a mop and mopped it until it shone. She even moved a stool over and directed her father to sweep down the cobwebs from the ceiling. After working until past three o'clock, she was so tired that she plopped down on the floor, leaning against the wall and panting.
Su Yingxue, however, seemed to have inexhaustible energy. She pulled two crystal-clear pears from her pocket, their skins still glistening with morning dew, looking crisp and sweet. She walked over to the father and daughter and handed them the pears, saying, "Thank you, Sister Su!" Xu Qingqing happily accepted them, took a bite, and the sweet and sour juice instantly burst in her mouth. The crisp texture made her eyes light up.
"Thank you." Xu Guoqing took the pear and took a bite, then exchanged a glance with his daughter—this pear is really sweet, and this girl seems reliable.
"You all rest for half an hour, and we'll officially start cooking at four o'clock!"
"What are you doing?" Xu Qingqing looked at Su Yingxue with bright eyes. Although she hadn't known her for long, she was already impressed by her initiative.
“We don’t have many ingredients today, so let’s make two dishes first.” Su Yingxue rolled up her sleeves, revealing her strong forearms. “Braised pork with preserved mustard greens and a family reunion soup.” Her eyes swept over the prepared ingredients, and she already had a plan in mind—the braised pork with preserved mustard greens would be made with frozen pork, and the family reunion soup would be made with a few bok choy and frozen squid to enhance the flavor. With her secret sauce, she guaranteed that these hungry guys would feast.
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