border cook

The snow fell more and more, and the fire in the fire pond drove away the chill in the snowy night.

Jiang Yanyi looked at Feng Shuo who was sitting at the table eating noodles, but still involuntarily glanced at his lap.

The wall was one and a half feet high, and he didn't lose an arm or a leg, and he was able to sit and eat here alive and well, which was lucky.

When she was not on guard against others, what was going on in her mind was written all over her face, even if Feng Shuo wanted to pretend that she didn't know, it would be difficult for her.

He said with a sullen face, "What's going on in your head all day long?"

Jiang Yanyi said casually, "I miss you."

As soon as these words came out, the room fell into silence for an instant, except for the "crackling" sound of the firewood burning in the fire pond.

Jiang Yanyi also realized that her answer was too ambiguous. She coughed twice and said, "I mean, I'm thinking about your injuries."

In order to avoid embarrassment, she turned over the potatoes buried under the hot ashes with tongs, squeezed them with her hands, and muttered, "Why aren't they ripe yet?"

Feng Shuo thought that she was hungry for baked potatoes, so he handed her the noodle bowl: "Would you like some?"

Jiang Yanyi's first reaction was that he didn't think his behavior was wrong, and said solemnly: "This is longevity noodles, specially for birthday stars."

Feng Shuo's expression was unusually serious: "If you eat half of the noodles, you will also share half of your life. There is nothing wrong with that."

Jiang Yanyi's hand holding the tongs paused, and his heart beat faster again.

This guy is really seductive without knowing it!

She buried the potatoes in the hot ashes again and said, "What nonsense, I ate dinner and I'm not hungry yet. The longevity noodles are just for auspiciousness. If you can't eat any more, just leave it alone."

How could he not be able to eat, Feng Shuo drank all the noodle soup.

The soup made from scallops is not only fresh, but also has a hint of sweetness. The bamboo fungus and pork ribs are stewed soft and mellow, and the taste is mellow and delicate.

He can solve it with another bowl.

Jiang Yanyi obviously didn't know what he was thinking. After seeing him put down the bowl, he handed him the embroidered kneepad: "I'm running out of time, I don't have time to prepare any presents, so I just made a kneepad."

There was still a quarter of an hour before Zi Shi, although it was a bit dull, it was still a birthday for him.

Feng Shuo took it, gently rubbed the embroidery patterns on it with his fingertips, and said in a low voice, "Thank you."

The embroidery is not very delicate, but the stitches are dense, and it is obvious that each stitch is put into thought.

Maybe it was because the fire in the Huotangzi was too hot, or maybe it was because the noodle soup he ate just now warmed his stomach, Feng Shuo only felt his heart feel warm.

This rotten life didn't seem to be as bad as he once thought.

It was snowing like salt and flakes outside the house, and the fire was burning inside. Feng Shuo looked at Jiang Yanyi's gentle side face, and his usually cold eyes suddenly became a little drunk.

As soon as Jiang Yanyi raised her head, she met his gaze. She wanted to look away, but her gaze seemed to be caught by something, and she couldn't move it a bit.

When Feng Shuo's lips were pressed down, she subconsciously closed her eyes.

His lips were much softer than she imagined, perhaps because he had drunk wine before, there was a faint aroma of wine between his lips.

As soon as a dragonfly touched water, they separated, as soft as a feather brushed against his lips, Jiang Yan thought it was over, but unexpectedly his lips pressed down again...

This time it was a bit rough, the kiss was jerky and wild, and it was at this time that Jiang Yanyi really realized that he was actually very strong in this regard.

So that she was powerless to resist.

When the door of Okra's room opened with a "creak", Jiang Yanyi didn't even react, Feng Shuo had already slapped the fan and covered the kitchen door.

Qiukui woke up at night, and seeing that the kitchen light was still on and the door was closed, she couldn't help calling out in confusion, "Huahua, are you still up?"

Jiang Yanyi hurriedly pulled Feng Shuo to hide outside the back door of the kitchen, then opened the kitchen door and said, "The soup hasn't been hung yet, I thought it was cold with the door open, so I closed the door."

Qiu Kui shrank her neck, rubbed her arms with her hands and shivered: "Huahua, go to sleep after you're done, it's time, eh... Huahua, why are your lips swollen?"

Jiang Yanyi touched her slightly tingling lips with her hand, "Is that so, it must have been accidentally burned when I tasted the soup just now."

"Ah? Is it serious, do you want to find a 'medicine' to apply it?" Okra looked worried.

Jiang Yanyi's conscience hurt a little, but he could only continue to lie against his conscience: "It's okay, it doesn't hurt anymore. Don't stand outside, what should you do if you catch a cold?"

Only then did Qiukui realize that she was going to the latrine, so she hurriedly went to the latrine with a painful expression on her face.

Seeing the okra entered the hut, Jiang Yanyi asked Feng Shuo to come out of the kitchen and climb over the wall to go back.

Because of the impulsive kiss just now, the two of them are a little uncomfortable now, and they never even looked at each other.

Jiang Yanyi originally wanted to find a ladder for Feng Shuo, but he kicked on the courtyard wall, and climbed over the wall easily.

Jiang Yanyi was afraid that he would fall again, so she quickly reminded him in a low voice: "Be careful of slippery feet."

Feng Shuo: "..."

He really didn't want to know what she was worried about.

Seeing Feng Shuo's back disappear into the wall, Jiang Yanyi went back to the kitchen to tidy up. The moment she stepped into the door, a thought suddenly flashed in her mind: Is this the first time he climbed over her courtyard wall?

***

The next day, Jiang Yanyi slept until the sun was shining before getting up.

Pushing the door open, one can see that the courtyard is a vast expanse of whiteness, a thick layer of snow has fallen on the walls of the courtyard, and finger-length icicles hang down from the eaves tiles, which are as clear as crystal, which is very beautiful to look at.

Jiang Yanyi hung the birdcage under the eaves of the kitchen, rubbed his hands and breathed out: "It's really cold today."

The parrot flapped its wings in the cage and learned the tongue: "It's so cold, so cold!"

The okra had already been burned in the fire pond, and a few sweet potatoes were buried in the hot ashes beside it, beckoning Jiang Yanyi to come in and warm up.

Jiang Yanyi added water to the parrot's trough, and put some broken rice. Instead of going into the house to warm up, he pinched a fluffy snowball from the ground.

"Okra!" Jiang Yanyi called out.

Qiu Kui looked over blankly, and the snowball in Jiang Yanyi's hand happened to fall on her shoulder, smashing her all over with snow.

Okra was stunned for a moment, then smiled silly.

Instead of sitting around the firepit to warm up, he ran to the yard and made a snowball and threw it at Jiang Yanyi.

Xuexue's hands were freezing, but Jiang Yanyi ran around with Okra, sweating all over, but he didn't feel cold.The snow in Xizhou was so heavy that the snow in their yard almost covered their calves.

The two of them were tired from playing, so they went into the house to warm up by the fire pond, took out roasted sweet potatoes from the ashes, and each of them ate with a cup of rice.

The roasted sweet potato whip is peeled off, and the sweet potato meat inside is yellow and orange, with a trace, steaming hot, sweet and refreshing in the mouth, but not greasy.

Jiang Yanyi said: "Let's shovel out the snow in the yard in a while and build a snowman at the door!"

Okra nodded again and again when she heard that she was right with the snowman.

The two speeded up to eat the sweet potatoes, gasping for breath after being burned, but couldn't help laughing out loud.

Jiang Yanyi used a shovel to shovel the clean snow in the yard into a basket, and then carried it to the door.

The snow in front of the houses along the street has been cleared away. Because there are too many pedestrians on the street, the snow has been trampled and the ground has turned into mud.Pedestrians coming and going had their hands in their sleeves, their backs bowed and their necks shrunk from the cold.

Jiang Yanyi got a few more baskets of snow outside the door, and then snowballed with the okra.

When the acquaintances passing by saw it, they couldn't help joking: "Master Jiang is still a child at heart."

Jiang Yanyi just smiled every time, as a greeting to the other party.

When Aunt Guo and Yang Xiubing came to the store, Jiang Yanyi asked Aunt Guo to go to the kitchen to cut mutton slices. With the heavy snow today, more people will come into the store to eat soup.Yang Xiu was called to shovel the snow in the yard, and Bing Shao was arranged to pick up the old scholar.

The snow was so heavy today, and it was difficult for the generation in the south of the city to stop a bullock cart. Jiang Yanyi was afraid that something would happen to the old scholar because he was old and his legs were inconvenient.

She made a snowman nearly one person tall, made eyes out of walnuts, made a smiling mouth out of several stones, and then bought a whole bunch of candied haws and inserted them into it as hands.

When the passing children saw the whole bunch of bright red candied haws next to the snowman, more than one child cried greedily.

Because the snowman is very eye-catching by the store entrance, everyone passing by will inevitably pay more attention to Jiang Yanyi's store.

As soon as noon came, Jiang Yanyi's restaurant became busy. Although affected by the heavy snow, there were not many customers who came to the restaurant to eat, but there were still quite a few people who asked to take it home.

There are mostly mutton pots, and less dry pots, so Jiang Yanyi is also happy to relax.

Her marketing plan at the beginning was that as long as she ordered, she would get a plate of side dishes for free. Vegetarian dishes were hard to find in winter, and meat was too expensive. Jiang Yanyi gave bean sprouts and tofu the most, and occasionally she would also give flower cakes.

But she is not good at making cakes. Except for the egg tarts, all the flower cakes in the shop are bought from a pastry shop. But after Laifu Restaurant sells more delicate flower cakes, the only flower cakes in her shop are egg tarts. Diners love it, but she doesn't give egg tarts, which makes her shop not have an advantage in flower cakes.

Jiang Yanyi was indeed inferior to those pastry chefs who had been making pastry for decades, and she felt that it was not worthwhile to spend a lot of money to buy exquisite pastries.

After thinking about it, Jiang Yanyi felt that the production cost of Western-style cakes is relatively low, and the taste is soft and sweet, so it might be able to win the favor of the rich and powerful by virtue of its novelty.

When she tried to make three cakes with a homemade oven, she finally succeeded. The first one was that the temperature was not enough and the cake was not baked well. The second one was that the temperature was too high and the cake was all mushy. The third one was... cooling Then it shrank directly.

Jiang Yanyi thinks that Western-style cakes are actually similar to traditional steamed cakes in terms of materials, except that one is baked and the other is steamed.

After mastering the temperature of the cake and the ingredients used for each layer, Jiang Yanyi sprinkled some raisins on the chiffon cake that he made next, which can enrich the taste and taste the sweetness.

Making chiffon cakes is much less time-consuming and labor-intensive than making egg tarts. Naturally, when new products are launched, they will be promoted for free first, and then the market will be opened before charging.

What made Jiang Yanyi gratified was that after the chiffon raisin cake was delivered to diners' tables as a gift, it received unanimous praise. Some diners wanted to buy a copy directly, saying that the old mother at home had bad teeth, and it was perfect to eat such a fluffy and soft snack.

The number of people in the store gradually increased, and it was freezing outside, but after entering the store, it felt warm and melting, just because Jiang Yanyi set up charcoal basins under each table, and the silver frost charcoal was burning in the charcoal basins. It burned for a long time, but there was no smoke at all.

The diners who enter the store only feel that everything in the store is well-arranged, and the mood of eating is a little bit more pleasant.

"When will you start talking about storytelling today?" An old customer who came to the store yesterday couldn't help shouting.

Diners who haven't heard of it yesterday can't help asking: "What book are you talking about?"

"I'm sure you haven't heard of it! "Dream of Red Mansions"!"

"What kind of book is this? Mr. Ding at the Laifu Restaurant hasn't even mentioned it."

As soon as Mr. Ding was mentioned, some people couldn't help but pick up: "I heard that Laifu Antique Soup also invited Mr. Ding over today, don't you think you are fighting with this side?"

"Not to mention food, but when it comes to storytelling, who else in Xizhou City can speak better than Mr. Ding?"

"That's not necessarily the case. I heard the old storyteller in this shop yesterday is also very eloquent!"

While the diners were arguing endlessly, the old scholar drank a sip of tea in the backyard, straightened his collar and went to the outside shop. His back was straight, still the same as yesterday, as soon as he patted Xingmu and opened his voice, he said Started today's storytelling.

At first there were voices in the store, but it soon fell silent. Some people who listened to storytelling but couldn't afford pots, squatted in front of the store to listen in the wind and snow.

Jiang Yanyi was afraid that the old scholar would be cold, so he asked Yang Xiu to put a charcoal basin under the old scholar's table.

***

Today is a day for the army to take a rest. It stands to reason that Cook Li should come to her shop, but seeing that it is almost noon and Cook Li hasn't come yet, thinking of Cook Li's old problem of back pain, Jiang Yanyi can't help but feel a little worried .

The noon wave was already busy, and when Jiang Yanyi greeted everyone for dinner, Chef Li came over with a chill all over.

Jiang Yanyi hurried forward to meet him, "Master, if it snows so heavily in the future, if it's inconvenient for you to come from Xizhou Daying, then don't come here, what should you do if something happens on the way."

The harsh winter is unusual, and the road leading to Xizhou Daying is rarely traveled.

It was the first time for Yang Xiu, Bing and Shao to see Cook Li, and since Jiang Yanyi called him Master, they both respected Cook Li a little bit.

The old scholar was about the same age as Cook Li. Cook Li guessed his identity when he looked at his clothes and the long case in the hall. Seeing that Jiang Yanyi opened the shop prosperously, he was really happy to come all the way The gloom also dissipated a lot.

He said: "It's not that I was delayed on the way, but I went to Lao Yao's house."

Jiang Yanyi took a brazier and went over to warm Chef Li's hands: "What happened to Master Yao? I met him in the blacksmith's shop a few days ago."

Chef Li sighed and said: "He broke up with the owner of Laifu Restaurant, and now he doesn't work in the restaurant."

"That old guy is a straight-hearted, dead-brained man! I told him a few years ago that the owner of the restaurant is a businessman, and told him not to take himself too seriously and call him brother and brother, but he wouldn't listen. A descendant of the royal chef came, and his two broken shovels and spoons are no longer needed, and his ancestral kitchen knives are chopped down by others, and you can say that it is not shameful to throw it away!"

Jiang Yanyi asked Chef Yao if he would like to come out and work with him that day. Chef Yao said it was not kind. She thought that Chef Yao was still working in Laifu Restaurant, so why did he leave suddenly?

Jiang Yanyi said: "I know about this. At that time, I was still upset about Master Yao and wanted him to come and open a shop with me. Master Yao also said that it was not kind to do so. When he left, I didn't hear a word. .”

Chef Li said: "Naturally, Laifu Restaurant dare not release the news that he has left. For so many years, how many old customers in Laifu Restaurant have been raised by Lao Yao's craftsmanship. Once he leaves, those old customers will be able to stay. That's weird. The people from Laifu Restaurant still have the face to persuade him to go back, but I scolded him away."

He changed the subject and said to Jiang Yanyi: "You have always been a big-hearted person. You should be on guard against cooking recipes and so on. Lao Yao told me that the owner of Laifu Restaurant has been watching you. I happened to bump into him at the blacksmith's shop, and as soon as he went back to the owner of Laifu Restaurant, he asked him what you used for breaking that tin box."

"Old Yao went to pick up the repaired kitchen knife today, and he heard from the blacksmith that someone asked him to make a few more tin boxes like that, but the blacksmith refused to accept the order."

Although Jiang Yanyi didn't have much contact with Chef Yao, he probably knew of Chef Yao's temperament.

But she doesn't dare to trust everything. What she said in the blacksmith's shop before was purely probing, and Yao cook turned around and really broke up with Laifu restaurant. She didn't know if this was a trick of the owner of Laifu restaurant. Did the other party listen to his intention to poach people, and deliberately use their tricks?

But Chef Li, Jiang Yanyi, could still be trusted.

She said: "The tin box is just a small stove for hot pots. If you hide it, it will always be imitated by others. As you said, master, you can only do it if you are careful about the recipe. My shop has newly launched a dry pot. But one person really has no skills at all, and I want to invite Master Yao to come and do it together, what do you think, Master?"

Chef Li shook his head: "I'm afraid Lao Yao won't come, the owner of Laifu Restaurant already felt that he has something to do with your restaurant, if he leaves Laifu Restaurant, he will come to you later, wouldn't it be true? "

The old scholar who was eating suddenly shook his head and sighed: "Man, in this life, you are not "forced" to death by others, but you are "forced" to death by yourself. When you live, you don't live for yourself. Live for the tongue of others."

Jiang Yanyi added a pair of bowls and chopsticks to Chef Li. He was about the same age as the old scholar, and they both had no children.

Cook Li worked hard in Huotou Camp all his life, the old scholar was criticized too much when he was young, but now he is more open-minded.

The two old men drank a few ounces of wine and talked about everything, and it felt like they hated seeing each other later.

Chef Li was moved by the old scholar's words during the dinner, and turned around to persuade Chef Yao to go.

But Chef Yao couldn't get over the hurdle in his heart, and he still refused to answer it.

When Laifu Restaurant saw that Jiang Yanyi was trying so hard to poach people, he panicked. The manager of Laifu Restaurant went to Chef Yao's house several times in person, but Chef Yao refused to see him.

Jiang Yanyi didn't have time to continue swinging the hoe, and was stunned by another wave of operations from Laifu Restaurant.

Laifu Restaurant found that they invited Mr. Ding, who is the best storyteller in Xizhou, to talk about storytelling, but they still failed to get customers from Jiang Yanyi. Pass.

In Jiang Yanyi's store, there are too many people who come to listen to the book every day, and the place is not big enough. The old scholar has changed from speaking once a day to three times a day.

The venue is full of seats, and the people who enter the store are not easy to sit, they often have to order something to eat, and even the pots in the store are sold well.

Laifu Restaurant directly sent people over to listen to the storytelling, and after listening to it, they ran back and recounted "Dream of Red Mansions" in their antique soup shop.

Basically, it is a chapter of the story that Jiang Yanyi just finished telling today, and it will be heard in Laifu Antique Soup Store tomorrow.

In terms of splendor, it is naturally Jiang Yanyi's old scholar who speaks well, and can always hear the latest storyline.

However, due to the fact that Jiang Yanyi's shop was full of diners and the door was also crowded with people, some people who couldn't hear the storytelling could only go to Laifu Antique Soup to listen to it.