The Game of Life - Chapter 519
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Chapter 519: Chapter 517: Blind Date (Part 3) (End of month, vote for monthly tickets!)
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The kitchen was large, and although there were only two stoves, there were many shelves lined with quite a few boxes. Jiang Feng moved closer and inspected them one by one. Some boxes were empty, some contained bowls and chopsticks, and only a very few held seasonings and ingredients that could be preserved for a long time.
Fresh vegetables and meat were displayed openly, and on the floor sat a basin with several live fish in it—all the ingredients were clearly visible at a glance.
Zhao LanHua was like a little girl visiting the market with her mother for the first time, looking around curiously and not even passing by the cabbage and tofu without a glance.
“That, Mr. Jiang Weiguo, may I ask if the hanging meat is cured pork? Why is there paper stuck to it?” Zhao LanHua asked curiously.
“That is ham; the cut section is covered with paper to preserve it,” Jiang Weiguo replied.
“What is ham?”
“… It is a type of cured meat made from a whole pig’s leg.”
Zhao LanHua immediately looked at the hanging ham with newfound respect.
Jiang Weiguo began to search his mind for recipes, his gaze occasionally shifting to the fresh pork on the chopping board, clearly not giving up on the idea of cooking meat dishes and wanting to slice some diced meat, minced meat, or shredded meat to stir-fry with vegetables.
Zhao LanHua continued her market browsing, not only marveling at the meat and vegetables but also at the seasonings. She opened nearly every jar to look and smell inside. If she hadn’t seen it before, she would ask Jiang Weiguo what was contained within, and then she would exclaim in admiration: “Wow, it’s no wonder a state-run restaurant would have such things that I’ve never even heard of.”
Finally, Zhao LanHua saw the sugar jars, one with brown sugar and one with white sugar, both in extra large containers. The sugar filled to the brim made her gaze enviously at the jars.
“Mr. Jiang Weiguo, does the sugar in state-run restaurants always come in such full jars?” she inquired.
Jiang Weiguo glanced at the sugar jars, “We use a lot of sugar in the morning for making brown sugar and white sugar buns, so we refill it whenever it’s depleted.”
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“Wow,” Zhao LanHua expressed her envy.
She had thought plain buns were already the most marvelous thing in the world, but she had never imagined there could be something doubly wonderful like brown sugar and white sugar buns.
“Does your subsidy include sugar?” Zhao LanHua thought there could be no job more enviable than a chef in a state-run restaurant.
“Our subsidy usually includes sugar, I think we get a bit more, several jin a month I don’t quite remember, I don’t really cook much personally,” Jiang Weiguo said, glancing at Zhao LanHua, “Do you like sugar?”
“I do,” Zhao LanHua blurted out, then quickly tried to make amends, conscious that these two words might detract from her image, “I mean… it’s just that when my brother got married, we had wedding candy at home and I sneaked two pieces. No, I just ate two pieces, I quite liked them, they were sweet.”
Jiang Weiguo seemed pensive, and after a moment, asked, “Do you eat lotus roots?”
“I do.”
“Are you hungry now?” Jiang Weiguo inquired.
“Ah, no, actually… actually, I am a bit hungry,” Zhao LanHua admitted, having just given some serious thought to all the ways she had behaved since meeting Jiang Weiguo, concluding that her behavior could be described as extremely poor. She found it difficult to make a good impression on Jiang Weiguo, so she gave in to honesty.
“Do you have any buns? Are there any leftover brown sugar or white sugar buns from this morning?” Zhao LanHua thought that even if today’s blind date was a failure, it wouldn’t be a loss if she could enjoy a couple of brown sugar buns.
Zhao LanHua suddenly stopped hiding her hunger and even proactively expressed her desire to eat the brown sugar and white sugar buns. This huge shift in demeanor took Jiang Weiguo by surprise.
“There are no more buns left, they were sold out this morning,” Jiang Weiguo said.
Zhao LanHua sighed in disappointment, realizing that she would neither have a successful blind date nor get to eat any buns.
“But we do have a few meat buns; I’ll warm them up for you,” Jiang Weiguo offered and went to heat up the buns for Zhao LanHua.
Big meat buns the size of an adult man’s fist, five of them, and Jiang Weiguo steamed them all at once.
Soon, the aroma of the meat buns filled the kitchen, and Zhao LanHua struggled to control her expression, trying not to make it too obvious that she was breathing in the scent while staring intently at Jiang Weiguo peeling the lotus roots, imagining biting into a juicy, oily meat bun.
It was the season when lotus roots came to market, and they were both fresh and tender. Jiang Weiguo took two sections of tender roots, peeled them, and instead of slicing, he chopped them in the middle. He then took out a basin of glutinous rice that seemed to have been soaking since the morning, drained the water, and started carefully stuffing the rice into the holes of the lotus roots.
Ensure every nook was filled, Jiang Weiguo stuffed while poking inside with chopsticks from time to time.
He was going to make glutinous rice-stuffed lotus roots.
Just because Jiang Feng could tell didn’t mean that 17-year-old Zhao LanHua could; the dish of glutinous rice-stuffed lotus roots was completely foreign to her, having seldom even tasted lotus roots.
For 17-year-old Zhao LanHua, “dish” was a strange concept. Rarely would dishes appear on her family’s table. Her family, numerous in members but lacking in labor, considered it their greatest fortune just to be well-fed. Their food primarily consisted of wild vegetables, sweet potatoes, and other ingredients boiled together into a thick gruel.
The land was too precious. Not sufficient even for growing grains, how could they afford to cultivate vegetables?
“Mr. Jiang Weiguo, what are you making?” Zhao LanHua asked.
“Glutinous rice-stuffed lotus roots,” Jiang Weiguo answered.
Zhao LanHua nodded as if she understood, though today she had already heard Jiang Weiguo talk about too many things she didn’t comprehend.
Before he finished stuffing a section of lotus root, Jiang Weiguo set it aside and walked over to the steamer, lifting the lid. Seeing the buns were ready, he called Zhao LanHua over to eat.
Zhao LanHua walked up to the steamer, her eyes fixed on the buns, filled with nothing but visions of steamed buns, so beautiful they seemed like a dream—she couldn’t even dream up such a wonderful scene; at most, she dreamed of eating plain wheat buns, let alone dreaming of eating plain wheat pork buns.
“Really, can I have some?” Zhao LanHua asked for confirmation again and again.
“Yes, they were leftovers anyway, originally intended for dinner tonight, so you can have as much as you like,” Jiang Weiguo said.
“What if I eat them and there isn’t enough for you tonight?”
“I’ll just eat something else tonight,” Jiang Weiguo said before returning to deal with the lotus roots.
Only then did Zhao LanHua relax, rubbed her hands on her new gown, and reached out to pick the biggest bun, one so large she couldn’t grasp it with one hand. Her delicate, tiny hands holding the large pork bun looked like a child handling an adult’s belongings.
Zhao LanHua took a big bite and closed her eyes in bliss, chewing vigorously, the joy written all over her face.
The bun’s skin was made of white flour, and the filling was pure meat, thin skin with generous filling, particularly juicy, bursting with oil with every bite. Zhao LanHua held the bun with both hands, small and slim as she was, she ate with such gusto, wolfing it down without fear of choking, and in less than a minute, an entire large bun had disappeared into her stomach.
After finishing the bun, Zhao LanHua let out a satisfied sigh and looked at the oil that had stained her hands. She couldn’t resist licking her fingers and finally glanced at the remaining four buns in the pot before covering it with the lid.
Zhao LanHua returned to Jiang Weiguo’s side, and this time, her gaze towards him was completely different.
Although she felt that her performance hadn’t been very impressive and that Jiang Weiguo didn’t seem particularly pleased with her, she thought he was still a good person. Even if he didn’t like her, he cooked for her and offered her pork buns. Even if the matchmaking didn’t lead to marriage, being friends would still be nice.
If they were to be friends, she needed to show her strengths—she couldn’t be a friend with nothing to offer.
“Not eating anymore?” In fact, while Zhao LanHua was eating the bun earlier, Jiang Weiguo had glanced at her a few times and knew she had only had one.
“One is enough; two would be too many,” Zhao LanHua said. “Mr. Jiang Weiguo, thank you for inviting me to have buns. They were really delicious.”
“This is my first time having such tasty buns. The skin is made of white flour, and it’s very thin, then inside there’s a lot of meat, all shiny with oil. I felt like there was juice oozing out of the bun as I bit into it. It’s really incredibly delicious, super extraordinarily delicious,” Zhao LanHua tried hard to use her limited vocabulary to describe the exquisite taste of the pork bun she had just eaten.
Jiang Feng noticed, the corners of Jiang Weiguo’s lips unconsciously curved up a little.
“If you like them, that’s good,” Jiang Weiguo said. “I made the buns today.”
After praising the buns, Zhao LanHua decided to praise herself: “Mr. Jiang Weiguo, although I’m not very good at cooking, mainly because my mother is in charge of cooking in our house and no one else is qualified, I’m good at other things.”
“I do household chores extremely well; after my second sister got married, I took care of all the chores at home. Sweeping the floors, wiping tables, tidying up the blankets, washing clothes, and feeding the pigs—I’m particularly good at feeding pigs! Oh, and I can chop firewood and farm. Every afternoon I go to the fields with my sister-in-law, and I earn half a day’s work points.”
“I can also make clothes; this gown I’m wearing is one I made myself; it’s new, and today is the first time I’ve worn it.”
“I can also take care of people. I was the one who looked after my sister-in-law when she was in her confinement. I did such a good job that she didn’t suffer any lingering ailments afterward.”
“I also can…”
Once started on praising herself, Zhao LanHua found it hard to stop. The more she spoke, the more she felt that even though she couldn’t cook, couldn’t read, was still unmarried at her age, occasionally stole food including malt sugar from her own home, and might not be able to bear a son in the future, aside from all that, she was full of good qualities—nothing but good qualities.
The kind that would take days and nights to list out.
While Zhao LanHua was busy extolling her own virtues, Jiang Weiguo had finished processing two sections of lotus root and connected them with bamboo skewers.
Jiang Weiguo left the lotus roots in the basin, poured water into the pot, and then began sprinkling sugar.
He took up the brown sugar jar and sprawled it out liberally, about half the jar in one go, not even blinking an eye while doing it.
Zhao LanHua inhaled sharply at the sight.
“Mr. Jiang Weiguo, why are you pouring so much sugar?” Zhao LanHua had never seen such a generous way of using sugar; it was something truly enviable.
If she were to sneak some, half a jar of sugar could last her a whole year.
“To boil,” Jiang Weiguo said, then picked up the white sugar jar and continued to sprinkle it.
Zhao LanHua was already stunned.
“To boil?”
“Yes, glutinous rice-filled lotus root needs to be cooked in sugared water; it takes a long time. If you don’t mind waiting a bit longer, you can stay,” Jiang Weiguo said. “Roughly four hours or so.”
Zhao LanHua was at a loss for words.
Just as Jiang Weiguo was about to place the lotus root in the pot, Zhao LanHua, thinking that since she had already enjoyed pork buns today, it wouldn’t be a loss even if they didn’t end up friends, mustered her courage and said, “Mr. Jiang Weiguo.”
“Hmm?”
“Would you allow me to have a few sips of the sugar water first?”
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