When Fang Yang followed Zhou Kai into the private room, Chen Chen was frantically adding water to the hot pot. Seeing Zhou Kai come in, he couldn't help but complain, "Hey Zhou, you guys are too slow! The hot pot water has boiled dry, and I haven't seen you anywhere."
Fang Yang emerged from behind Zhou Kai. "Uncle Chen, why didn't you wait for them to come over before adding more fire?"
When Chen Chen saw Fang Yang arrive, he couldn't help but laugh and said, "Little Yang is here too? How was I supposed to know these two old guys would be so slow? They said that with the weather so cold, they could have hot pot as soon as they arrived, so they started a fire early and waited for them. They just wanted to have a hot pot as soon as they arrived."
Fang Yang sat down at the table and saw that the seasonings and dishes were already prepared. He couldn't help but laugh, "Uncle Chen, you're really quick. But this hot pot feels soulless without alcohol. Ask the waiter to bring some Shaoxing wine so the atmosphere can really liven things up!"
Chen Chen glared at Zhou Kai, "Isn't this all Old Zhou's rule? Drinking alcohol is not allowed during lunch hours, there's nothing we can do about it!"
Chen Fushu hadn't spoken since entering the room. Now he explained to Fang Yang, "Xiao Yang, Lao Zhou did the right thing. Otherwise, after drinking at noon, all I wanted to do in the afternoon was sleep. I was afraid that some emergency might cause trouble!"
Fang Yang nodded upon hearing this, agreeing that it made sense. "Yes, Uncle Zhou did the right thing. It's true that we shouldn't drink all the time, except when there's something important to do. Let's have a little today, but not too much. This afternoon, let's sit down together and have some tea."
Seeing Fang Yang's words, Chen Fushu had no choice but to turn around and go downstairs to ask the waiter for more wine. Chen Chen winked and gloated at Zhou Kai for a while. When the hot pot soup started to boil, he focused on adding ingredients and poured a bowl of thinly sliced mutton into the hot pot.
"Xiao Yang, come on, we should eat mutton hot pot on a snowy day. There's a saying that goes, 'Eat mutton for longevity, drink mutton soup for health.' Let's follow the trend and eat mutton and drink mutton soup."
Chen Fushu, who was carrying two pots of warmed rice wine into the room, chuckled upon hearing this. "Old Chen, where did you learn that rhyme? It sounds so plausible!"
"Of course! Eating, drinking, and defecating are human nature, and eating is the most important. As Lao Tzu said, food and sex are human nature. I follow the teachings of my ancestors and dare not deviate from them even a little bit!"
"Pfft," Zhou Kai, who had been keeping a straight face, was also amused by this clown. "If you're going to eat, then eat quickly. Don't you even know the rule of dipping mutton in hot pot seven times and eight times? If you don't eat it now, the mutton will get tough!"
After saying that, Zhou Kai took a soup ladle and ladled a spoonful of soup into each person's bowl. Then he changed to a strainer and scooped out a small bowl of mutton for each person. "Eat some mutton first, then drink the wine later. This stuff is best enjoyed fresh and tender."
Fang Yang gave a thumbs up, "Excellent!"
Fang Yang dozed off a bit at noon due to the effects of the alcohol. When he woke up in the afternoon, Zhou Kai and the other two knocked on the door and came in. They smiled and invited him, "Come and sit down. When we went to Kyoto during the National Day holiday, a classmate gave us some good tea. We haven't had a chance to taste it yet. Let's try it together."
Chen Chen scurried over and sat down. "Come on, Lao Zhou and Lao Chen, come and sit down. Today, let's learn from the cultured people and appreciate the aroma of tea."
Zhou Kai spat, "You dare call yourself a cultured person? You're just a programmer dressed up as a cultured person!"
Seeing that the two were about to start acting silly again, Chen Fushu had a terrible headache. "You two, that's enough. We have serious business to discuss this afternoon. Don't think you can call yourselves immortals after drinking a couple of ounces of horse urine."
Fang Yang grabbed a bit of the wild, aged red sesame seed that Zhao Liang had casually picked up from his grandfather's sheep last time. This stuff is a rare commodity, and it's not available on the market. He wondered if Zhao Liang had been served meat with bamboo slats after that incident.
The tea was excellent; as soon as boiling water was poured over it, a rich aroma filled the entire room. Before they even took a sip, Yang Huajin pushed open the door and burst in. "I heard you were hiding here drinking tea. Don't you know I love tea? Why don't you even introduce me?"
Fang Yang laughed and said, "You're right next door. You'll come over as soon as you smell the tea. Do I need to call you? But this tea was borrowed from an old general, so there's not much. I'll share a little with you. Come and have some if you want!"
Yang Jinhua walked closer, picked up the teacup, smelled it, and sighed with a look of intoxication, "You didn't get it through proper means, did you?"
Fang Yang glanced at Yang Huajin: "Take it legitimately? Go ahead if you're not afraid of getting shot!"
Fang Yang's words were serious, and the four of them also put away their relaxed expressions. If that's the case, then being able to drink even one sip is truly a stroke of good luck.
After finishing one pot of tea, Yang Huajin boiled another pot of water. Pu-erh tea can generally be steeped 8-10 times, while tea aged three years or more can be steeped 15-20 times, and tea aged fifty years or more can still retain its aroma and flavor after 40 steeps. Fang Yang didn't know much about tea, but he loved drinking it, so he wasn't sure how many times it could be steeped. He had business to attend to in the afternoon, so he figured he'd steep it as many times as he could. No matter how expensive, it was still meant to be drunk!
After drinking three infusions, the crowd finally calmed down and started talking business. "Xiao Yang, I'm afraid you'll have to put in a lot of effort this time. The website has reached a bottleneck, and we need your strong support to create a miracle!"
Fang Yang suppressed a laugh, feeling a sense of déjà vu, like Popeye from his past life. "Uncle Chen, what's the problem? Tell me?"
Chen Fushu carefully considered his words, "Now that the website has been developing for a period of time, the growth of new readers has almost stopped. The new books published by the authors on the website are also not very original, and they are almost identical. In the reader comments section, readers complain that once you have read the first thirty chapters of a book, you can almost guess the ending. So the number of readers has fallen into a state of negative growth."
Chen Fushu complained with a worried look, "Although your 'Princess Pearl' has a very high viewership, it mainly circulates among girls. Men don't really buy into it. Xiao Yang, you know that nowadays, more than 70% of people who like to read books online are male. So if we lose this audience, the consequences will be very serious."
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