Chapter 51
"Do old Beijingers always have to drink tea with their cakes?" Li Cheng asked. He picked up the donkey roll and the soybean powder sprinkled on it fell off. Some of it stuck to his sleeve. Li Cheng brushed it off with his hand, but the more he rubbed, the more it became.
"People used to be so particular," Chen Yuan said, picking up the teacup and blowing gently on the tea foam. "In the teahouses of the Eight Great Hutongs in the early days, waiters had to practice their skills first. They had to carry several stacks of tea trays around the hall, and the tea couldn't be spilled."
Yang Ye looked at the cup of tea beside him, the floating tea leaves, the tender green buds stretching in the hot water and slowly sinking to the bottom of the cup.
"If you ask me, this is just a leisure time." Li Cheng leaned back in his chair. "Drink a cup of tea and eat a snack. Half an hour has passed."
Chen Yuan chuckled upon hearing this, and gently rubbed his fingers along the edge of the cup. "Didn't the word 'idle' come from the tea?"
"What do you mean?" Li Cheng asked.
"Look at this word '闲'. There is a wood in the door, and there is a leaf in the tea." Chen Yuan wrote these two words in the air stroke by stroke.
The shadows of the trees are swaying in front of the door, and the tea leaves in the cup are swaying like the shadows of the trees.
Li Cheng spread out his hands and placed them behind his head. He could only shake his head and smile helplessly, "No wonder they said that drinking tea in the past was about enjoying it, seeking a leisurely and elegant life. Now drinking tea is more about drinking time. There is a rush and noise, and most of the time there is no time even for a cup of tea."
"Who says it's not?" Chen Yuan said, "I remember when I was a child, my grandfather told me to count from the front. When a family treats guests politely, they will first give you a cup of tea when you enter the house. No matter how important the matter is, you have to wait until you finish the tea before you can talk."
"What's the reason for this?" Xiao Xiao raised his head and asked.
"Have a cup of tea when you come in, calm your mind and follow the rules," Li Cheng explained slowly.
Xiao Xiao held his cheek with his hand, "What if the person who comes here is thirsty and swallows it all in one gulp?"
Li Cheng smiled. "In the past, no matter how thirsty people were, they would not drink all the tea. The tea would be filled to 70%, and the remaining 30% was for room, and it was also a rule. Moreover, the host would naturally give you a second cup if they saw that your cup was running low. But before you finish this second cup of tea, you must make your request."
"The first cup of tea is to entertain the guests, but the second cup of tea is to chase them away?" Zhou Yiheng said jokingly.
Chen Yuan smiled, his fingertips tapping the table. "My grandfather said, the old rules are that tea should not be served more than three times, and things should not be repeated twice. The first round is to see the character of the person, the second round is to talk about the business, and if it's still unclear after the third round, then it means that the tea is not right and the person is not right."
"Who can understand your pretentious talk?" Li Cheng took over. "To be honest, no matter how much effort it takes to drink a cup of tea, half an hour, an hour, or even a whole morning should be enough. If you haven't finished explaining this matter in a whole morning, it can only mean two things. First, you are unreliable, and second, this matter itself is unreliable. If it is unreliable, why would the host bother to help you?"
"If you ask me, those who are discussing business matters now should learn this method." Li Cheng placed his hands on the table and continued, "It only takes two cups of tea. If we can explain it clearly, we can continue. If we can't explain it clearly, we can break up. This will save us from wasting each other's time. It's much better than those fake pleasantries."
He was a little thirsty when he spoke, so he took a sip from the teacup in front of him. His eyes casually swept over everyone's faces. When he saw Chen Yuan, Li Cheng suddenly thought of something, "Hey, I remember your grandfather seemed to be a stylish person too."
"What's so impressive?" Chen Yuan smiled. "I'm just an adjutant, driving for others."
There was another gentle knock on the private room door, and a waiter in a blue shirt entered, bearing a tray. Several seasonal side dishes, still steaming hot, were placed on round plates. The most eye-catching dish was the asparagus and braised pork combination. The emerald green asparagus was fresh and tender, its emerald stems dotted with white minced garlic. The braised pork beside it was glistening with oil, its amber-colored pieces stacked in a pagoda shape, its thick sauce dripping down its veins.
Zhou Yi picked up the braised pork covered with sauce with two chopsticks and just put it into his mouth. He puffed up his cheeks with satisfaction, and hurriedly touched the braised pork with the tip of his chopsticks and nodded vigorously at Xiao Xiao.
Xiao Xiao also picked up a piece and tasted it. The thick and slightly sweet sauce spread in her mouth. She couldn't help but nod. The braised pork was still in her mouth and she was reluctant to swallow it. She covered her mouth while chewing and said, "This is delicious."
"This is an improvement on Hangzhou cuisine," Chen Yuan introduced. "Traditional Dongpo pork has a sweet flavor, so we add fermented bean curd juice, Shaoxing rice wine, and dried soybean paste. We simmer it in a casserole for four hours. Before turning off the heat, we pour Huadiao wine around the edge of the casserole to lock in all the flavors. The taste is salty with a hint of sweetness, and a little bit of sweetness within the sweetness."
"How did you come up with this flavor?" Li Cheng tasted two pieces. The traditional braised pork would feel greasy after the second bite, but this one had a salty and fragrant taste that just neutralized the sweetness of the rock sugar added when stewing the meat, and the mellow aroma of rice wine spread another unique feeling in the mouth.
"If you go into the kitchen more often and think about it more, you'll know how to make it," Chen Yuan said, standing up and scooping himself a bowl of water shield soup. "Eat this. It all depends on your own thinking."
"I really don't have that ability." Li Cheng waved his hands repeatedly. He picked up another piece of asparagus with his chopsticks. "Just now, we were talking about your grandfather. How come the adjutant was not considered a big shot? Who could survive in that era without some ability?"
"My grandfather always said that the one with real talent was his division commander, a top student who had studied abroad at Cornell University in the United States. He could speak three languages and was proficient in military tactics. But it was this man who, despite being assigned the position of division commander, insisted on running south to become a staff officer. One night while they were on a move, they were ambushed, and the division commander's right leg was shot through with a bullet, the bullet lodged in his shin. He had my grandfather move him to a place far away from the main force, and then, facing the tiny light of a tinderbox, he bit a rag and used a knife to dig the bullet out."
Chen Yuan continued, "You know what the old man said his division commander was best at? He took out the bullets and immediately asked the old man to take out a pen and paper and write down the breakout tactics he had just thought of. While he was digging out the bullets, his head was still thinking about other things. What's even more amazing is that he even calculated the ammunition consumption of each firing point. He broke through according to the method given by the division commander, and no one was killed."
"This is really amazing. He endured the pain, found the location of the bullet, and thought about the tactics at the same time." Li Cheng sighed and shook his head. "If it were me, I would have fainted from the pain long ago."
Chen Yuan took a sip of tea and said, "It's a pity. He went to the south, and then Shanghai fell, and he was gone too."
"It seems your grandfather didn't go to Shanghai because he was injured."
"Yes," Chen Yuan nodded.
The waiter brought another bowl of steaming pickled pork with preserved vegetables. A few slices of Jinhua ham floated on the thick white soup, and the salty and fragrant aroma instantly filled the entire private room.
"When the old man arrived, he was still thinking, if he had gone to Shanghai with the division commander, the division commander might have survived."
The topic seemed to become a little heavy. Li Cheng smiled and said, "Who can talk about what happened back then?"
Chen Yuan nodded and said, "We all live our lives from today to tomorrow."
Outside the window, the last rays of sunset gradually sank into the western hills, and the lights of Beijing gradually lit up. A chill winter wind blew across the dark red corners of the Forbidden City, the eaves of the corner towers silhouetted against the twilight. The taillights of the cars on Chang'an Avenue formed a long red streak in the evening twilight, moving slowly and intermittently forward.
The cold wind came in from the open window. Chen Yuan stood up to close the half-open window. Through the window, he saw that the lights were on at the north gate of the Forbidden City, and the vermilion palace walls looked even darker in the twilight.
"Try this braised pork elbow." Li Cheng turned the solid wooden plate. The pork elbow was sliced as thin as a cicada's wing. The braised meat slices were covered with crystal jelly. "This is Boss Chen's signature dish. You can't taste it anywhere else."
Xiao Xiao picked up a piece and dipped it in the garlic chili sauce next to it. The garlic was freshly pounded in a stone mortar, which was different from the completely crushed garlic produced by a machine. When she ate it, she could taste the fresh garlic grains. "Hmm, it melts in her mouth."
"Boss Chen learned this from a master chef who used to run a restaurant. It seems that the master chef's ancestor was an imperial chef in the palace?" Li Cheng said. He looked at Chen Yuan uncertainly, as if asking.
"Is it true?" Xiao Xiao asked in surprise while chewing.
"I used to serve Emperor Daoguang," Chen Yuan continued softly. "I left the palace during the reign of Emperor Xianfeng and later opened a small restaurant by the shores of Shichahai. This braised pork elbow, like the one I made in the palace back then, was a popular summer dish."
"Then we can still taste something new today." Xiao Xiao smiled and picked up another piece. Under the warm light, the thin slices of meat could transmit light, and the fine texture inside could be seen.
Li Cheng stuffed a mouthful of food into his mouth and mumbled, "If you ask me, this is much better than that internet-famous restaurant. Last time, Liu Guoxing and I had some creative dish. Wow, there were only two or three slices of meat on such a big plate, and two flowers on the side. Those flowers were real flowers, not carved radish. I can fill my stomach with carved radish, but real flowers are useless except for looking pretty."
Zhou Yiheng laughed out loud, "Are there any dishes sprinkled with gold foil?"
"Of course," Li Cheng said, "the waiter took it out in front of you and broke it into pieces and spilled it on the food. The gold foil was even put in a wooden box. When he took it out, I thought he was asking me to buy some jewelry."
Xiao Xiao smiled and put some food into Li Cheng's bowl. "Professor Li, eat more today to make up for it."
Li Cheng nodded and said, "If nothing else, the taste of Boss Chen's food is something you can't get anywhere else in Beijing."
Li Cheng suddenly put down his chopsticks and took out an envelope from his pocket. "I almost forgot. I asked someone about the matter you asked me to do two months ago. Here is the information I found. Take a look."
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