Chapter 434: Chapter 432: The Moment at the Third Quarter of the Noon Time
After the National Day holiday ended, everything returned to normal.
Wang Hao’s internship at the advertisingpany officially began. Every day he served tea, poured water, and bought coffee, buns, fried dough, and soybean juice. From his first day at work, he made an effort to build good rtionships with his colleagues and soon learned where the cheapest meals and most conscientious boxed lunches were avable near thepany and the employee dormitory.
Wang Hao also struck up a deep friendship with an older, thirty-year-old single male colleague who lived upstairs and knew how to cook. Whenever he had free time, he would go mooch a meal—though it wasn’t entirely for nothing, as he lent the colleague his Steam ount.
Thanks to his good rtions with the staff, Wang Hao managed to survive on the little over a hundred yuan in his card until the 15th, when he received his living expenses, paid off the installments he owed on Huabei, and started a new cycle of debt.
Jiang Weisheng, who during the National Day break had an epiphany on cooking like a character in a martial arts novel oveing a years-long bottleneck, only realized something was off a weekter when he noticed customers’ feedback on his bizarre-tasting soup. He absentmindedly asked Jiang Weiming if his “strange-vored” soup had improved since customers suddenly rated it so high, which caused Jiang Weiming tough and curse him several times as a “melon seedling.”
“I thought you had figured it out long ago, but it turns out you’ve been wasting your time making soup these days. What, you only make soup for your customers to taste and never try it yourself?” Jiang Weisheng asked just after lunch service had ended. Only he, Jiang Weiming, Jiang Feng, Wu Minqi, and Ji Xia were left in the kitchen, so Jiang Weiming spoke without controlling his volume.
“I have tasted it,” Jiang Weisheng still sounded a bit dazed.
“Is your tongue just for show? You tasted it but don’t know why? You didn’t notice anything different at all?” At this point, Jiang Weiming was both angry and amused, wishing he could crack open Jiang Weisheng’s head to see if it was really made of wood, because how else could one exin his blockheadedness?
“Master, that’s not what I mean. I noticed it, the taste is just like the original, but the sensation has changed, it’s like… like the soup you used to make, it’s different when drinking it, but I don’t know why. The steps I took were no different than before,” Jiang Weisheng hastily defended himself.
Jiang Weiming shook his head resignedly: “Do you still remember why I refused to teach you the Soup of a Hundred vors when you first asked to learn it?”<div>
“You said I wouldn’t be able to learn it,” replied Jiang Weisheng.
“There’s much you can’t learn: chicken juice tofu, in boiled cabbage, camphor tea duck—which of these have you mastered? Have I not taught you every one of them? Let’s not talk about the rest; for years now, you’ve only managed to scrape a passing grade in making water-boiled beef. The Soup of a Hundred vors may be difficult, but it’s just a soup. It doesn’t haveplex processes or require high-level techniques. In my opinion, you’ve learned the Soup of a Hundred vors much better than you ever did water-boiled beef,” Jiang Weiming dered.
“Then…” Jiang Weisheng became puzzled.
“You’ve remembered wrong. At just over sixty years old, how is your memory worse than this old man’s? I didn’t want to teach you because you weren’t suited to make that dish.”
“Life has five vors: sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, and salty. I originally wanted to call it ‘Soup of Five vors,’ but life holds more than just five vors, so Iter changed its name to ‘Soup of a Hundred vors.’ What truly tests a chef isn’t their skill level, but the person themselves. Just as a soup has a hundred vors, so does a person. The richer the cook’s experiences, the richer the soup’s vor. The Soup of a Hundred vors is not meant to be nd—it’s robust, aplex mix of various ingredients.”
“I can make this soup because I’ve experienced sour, bitter, spicy, and salty. Granted, it’s regrettable to have a bit less sweetness, but it’s enough for me. But you can’t, Weisheng, not to be harsh, but you’ve had it too easy in life. You’ve never left home or been away from your parents, except for learning to cook, you’ve never tasted hardship, and even when it came to themon rite of passage of chasing a girl, you seeded on your first try and smoothly lived most of your life as if you were soaked in honey, never even grasping what sweetness is. If it weren’t for your running away from home and taking that first long trip, and if Zhang Li hadn’t brought your son, daughter-inw, and grandson to see you during the National Day, I’d wager you still wouldn’tprehend sweetness,” said Jiang Weiming,ughing as he spoke, filled with both satisfaction and envy.
“Does that mean, I… I…” Jiang Weisheng stammered with excitement.
“You’re finally getting a hint of it. If you can grasp two vors, you’ll be considered having mastered the Soup of a Hundred vors,” Jiang Weiming said with a smile.
Jiang Weisheng’s face flushed with excitement, like a primary schooler rarely praised by a teacher, and he stuttered as he asked, “Then Master, how should Iprehend the other four vors?”
If Jiang Weiming had pulled out a secret martial arts manual at this moment and told Jiang Weisheng to practice ording to it, he might have believed it.
“How toprehend it is your own affair, how could I possibly know,” Jiang Weiming said helplessly.
“Isn’t there some trick or knack? Master, how did you figure it out when you were learning?” Jiang Weisheng pressed on.
Jiang Weiming could only shake his head and turn to prepare for his visit to the teahouse for tea and a chat: “As for tricks, there are some. You could try crawling out from a pile of corpses or running into deep forests and mountains like I did back in the day—I promise you’ll grasp the bitter, spicy, and salty vors then. You have grasped sweetness and still aren’t content? Born in an era of peace, and you still feel hard done by? Many people dream of living a life like yours, only knowing sweetness without experiencing the other four vors. Alright, you must be tired from working all morning. Find a ce to rest. I’m off to the teahouse before it gets too crowded.”
Jiang Weiming left, and Jiang Weisheng stayed in the kitchen to continue practicing the Soup of a Hundred vors. He still needed to ponder the mysteries of the now-sweet Soup of a Hundred vors. Though he made the soup, the profoundness eluded him.
“Master, what did the third elder master mean by bitter, spicy, salty, and that ‘sweet’ thing earlier? Do you really need toprehend the vors yourself? Can’t you just add seasoning?” Ji Xia, who had been sitting on the side peeling oranges and listening attentively to the conversation between Jiang Weiming and Jiang Weisheng, voiced his doubts like a student struggling with grades.
Lately, Jiang Feng had been practicing stuffed crab in orange cups and had roped in Ji Xia to assist him. Ji Xia had sessfully transitioned from a skillful crab picker to a mediocre orange peeler.
It took Jiang Feng only ten minutes to prepare an orange, whereas Ji Xia needed half an hour and often required Jiang Feng to redo the work due to substandard quality, like needing manual welding when machine welding fails.
Jiang Feng: “…”
Xiaxia would definitely not score well on readingprehension in Chinese.<div>
“You’re not there yet. Those with higher skill levels cook with their heart and spirit, while at your level you can’t even properly use seasoning, let alone ponder high-level cooking methods,” Jiang Feng’s reply was perfunctory.
Ji Xia looked toward Wu Minqi again, feeling that her master was ‘leading a donkey’.
“You’re right,” Wu Minqi affirmed.
Ji Xia: ???<div>
Cook with heart?
Cook with intention?
Ji Xia remembered the story Wang Hao, a friend of her master during the National Day holiday, had told her about Jiang’s Star de Skill, mesmerizing cuisine, cooking with intention, the pinnacle of culinary arts. Ji Xia had always thought Wang Hao was spouting nonsense because Jiang Feng had also told her never to believe a single ghost story that Wang Hao told.
But it turned out to be true!
There really was cooking with intention!
Then Jiang’s Star de Skill must also be true, with all that about a glint of cold light being first to the strike, followed by a dragon-like swipe of the de, naturally protective when unsheathed, making it difficult for others to approach, let alone open their eyes—a de technique that was certainly true!
Ji Xia was instantly excited, forgetting about the orange in her hand, “Master, I want to learn the de skill!”
Jiang Feng: ???
Why don’t you say you want to y basketball?
“Which de skill? Isn’t that what you practice every day at the Li Mansion? Even now, the knifework you’re practicing with this orange is knifework,” Jiang Feng said.
“I want to learn Jiang’s Star de Skill!”
Jiang Feng: …
Wu Minqi: …<div>
Wu Minqi was so startled that the orange almost slipped from her hand, giving Jiang Feng a look that said ‘this child must be silly’.
Jiang Feng sighed and asked, “Did Wang Hao tell you about it?”
Ji Xia nodded.
“There is no Jiang’s Star de Skill, finish this orange and then head to the Li Mansion,” Jiang Feng said, setting down his orange, “I’m going to make a phone call.”
Jiang Feng went to the changing room, took out his mobile phone from the cupboard, and began to dial, but Wang Hao answered after just one ring.
“Hello, Feng, what’s up?” Wang Hao asked.
“Hao, you haven’t been to the shop for a while, have you? Are you free tomorrow noon? I recently learned from my uncle how to wrap wontons; I’ll make you a bowl!” Jiang Feng’s words were incredibly amiable.
“Wontons? Feng, I remember your menu has your wontons, howe you’ve recently learned new ones?” Wang Hao asked, unsuspecting.
Jiang Feng couldn’t help but reveal a false smile: “It’s not the same, my uncle and I learned a new kind of wonton, everyone who tries them says they’re good. What are we if not friends, of course, you’d be the first person I think of. Are you free tomorrow noon?”
“I’m free, but I mighte a bitter, around one o’clock,” Wang Hao said.
“Notte at all, that time is perfect,” Jiang Feng said with a smile.
The Moment at the Third Quarter of the Noon Time.
It was a good time indeed.<div>