Chapter 350: Your Uncle and Aunt Are Here to See You
As usual, Sang Yue and Xiao Lang were responsible for some unimportant miscellaneous chores.
She did this work listlessly. She wasn’t the type to slack off; on the contrary, she preferred to do work that had some real meaning.
She didn’t want to just drift through her days.
Seeing everyone busy prepping ingredients in the back kitchen, she cautiously poked her head in. “Boss Shen, can I help you prepare the ingredients?”
Shen Lu thought for a moment and agreed, assigning her to Cai Su.
“Since you asked for it yourself, just work hard with Sister Cai.”
There was no choice; they were seriously short-staffed in the kitchen.
Shen Lu placed the cleaned small fish into a hot wok that had been brushed with a layer of tea-seed oil. The small fish were spread out evenly, one by one. After roasting one side, she waited for the wok to cool before flipping them.
This was a task that required extreme patience. Except for heating the wok, the rest of the time, she could only use the lowest flame.
The fish were small, and a high flame would burn them.
The fire-roasted fish prepared this way were perfectly intact, not sticky or mushy, not burnt or dry, just fragrant and golden brown.
Next came the smoking. After the small fish cooled, they were smoked with rice husks, peanut shells, orange peels, and wood chips.
For this step, Shen Lu moved to the greenhouse. She set up a large iron barrel, placed the roasted fish on a wire mesh, and piled the fuel underneath to smoke them.
They didn’t need to be smoked for very long. Since preservation wasn’t a concern, they just needed to pick up a hint of smoky flavor.
Once the fire-roasted fish were done, Shen Lu started on the smoked fish.
The smoked fish was made with grass carp. After being cut into pieces, it was marinated with green onions, ginger, soy sauce, wine, and salt. This step took a long time, so Shen Lu had already done it before she started processing the small fish.
She wasn’t in a hurry to fry the fish just yet. First, she had to prepare the sugar-water syrup for soaking the fish later.
Shen Lu herself liked her smoked fish sweet, so she made the syrup a little on the sweeter side. After the syrup was boiled, she set it aside to cool.
She heated a generous amount of oil in the wok, then deep-fried the fish pieces in batches until crispy. After taking them out and draining the oil, she immediately soaked them in the syrup while they were still hot.
They weren’t taken out; the fish were left to soak. They would be taken out only when it was time to eat, making them even more flavorful.
If conditions allowed, it would be best to soak them overnight. But there wasn’t enough time today, so this would have to do.
After putting the braised beef brisket on to simmer, Shen Lu only had to prepare the vegetable dishes, and her morning’s work would be mostly done.
But she had no time to catch her breath; she still had to edit a video.
Today, she posted the process of making the smoked fish. As soon as the video was released, it sparked a lot of discussion.
– Does this kind of method for cooking fish actually exist?
– Can that possibly be tasty?
– Frying it and then soaking it in a sauce? Wouldn’t the crispy outer layer get all soggy?
– What a waste of good ingredients. The best way to cook fish is to steam it. That preserves the original flavor and none of the nutrients are lost.
– Verdict’s in. This vlogger doesn’t know the first thing about fine dining. She’s just ruining food.
– Am I the only one who thinks this fish looks pretty good?
– +1, I think it looks good too. It’s a very unusual cooking method.
– Too bad the restaurant is in the Lower City District, sigh…
– The Lower City District is great! I’m definitely not just saying that because I live in the Lower City District, hahaha.
– Sorry everyone, but I’m heading over to try it in a bit.
…
Shen Lu logged out of the backend right after posting the video, unaware of the heated debate raging in the comments.
She was a little worried.
This week’s mission specified that only serving Superpower Users counted. But ninety percent of the people who came to her restaurant were ordinary people; there weren’t many Superpower Users.
She couldn’t keep exploiting the system’s loophole by always dragging the members of the Gale Mercenary Corps over. She needed to find new Superpower User customers.
‘Advertise directly? Say that my food can soothe the Spiritual Sea? No, no, no. That’s too high-profile. It’s practically a death wish. It’s safest to grow my business quietly.’
“Sister Shen, we have customers!”
Xiao Lang opened the kitchen door and shouted loudly.
Shen Lu glanced at the time. It wasn’t opening time yet.
“It’s a very mean-looking uncle and an auntie who looks like you shouldn’t mess with her.”
“Okay, I’ll go take a look.”
Shen Lu washed her hands and went out with Xiao Lang.
For safety, the restaurant’s main door was always closed outside of business hours. People outside couldn’t get in without her command.
Through the glass door, Shen Lu sized up the two visitors.
Surprisingly, she recognized one of them. It was Fu Cheng’s uncle, Fu Haiting. The original owner had met the Fu Family members a few times, so she knew Fu Haiting and his family.
The other woman, however, was unfamiliar to her.
Their relationship didn’t seem very good. Whenever their gazes occasionally met, they were cold.
Shen Lu let them in. ‘It’s fine,’ she thought. ‘I’m not afraid of them causing trouble. In fact, I’m kind of looking forward to it. That way, I’ll have a perfectly good reason to abuse my admin privileges.’
“Hello, the restaurant opens at eleven-thirty. We still have half an hour to go. I must ask our two guests to please be mindful of our hours next time.”
Fu Haiting glanced around disdainfully and said in a commanding tone, “I’m Fu Cheng’s uncle. Get him over here. I have something to say to him.”
The woman cleared her throat, her phrasing more polite: “I’m Fu Cheng’s maternal aunt. I need to see him about something. Could you please ask him to come here?”
‘Maternal aunt?’ Shen Lu had a realization. It had to be Gong Tianhua’s wife. ‘What was her name again? Yun Lian. Yes, that’s it, Yun Lian.’ She recalled looking up Gong Tianhua’s information on her Light Brain before and seeing his spouse’s name. ‘So they’re here for Fu Cheng.’
Shen Lu had them wait in the waiting area while she went upstairs to the second floor.
“Your uncle and aunt are here to see you. They’re downstairs now.” Shen Lu added her assessment, “They look like they’re here to stir up trouble.”
Fu Cheng nodded. “I’ll go send them away.”
“Okay. Don’t be afraid. If they dare to cause any trouble, I’ll throw them out.”
Fu Cheng smiled. “Understood.”
‘It feels pretty good to have someone backing me up.’
Fu Cheng and Shen Lu went downstairs one after the other and came to stand before Fu Haiting and Yun Lian.
“You were looking for me. What is it?”
For a moment, neither Fu Haiting nor Yun Lian spoke. They stared at Fu Cheng with gazes filled with shock and bewilderment.
Even though they had had someone investigate Fu Cheng’s recent situation and had seen photos, it was nothing compared to the shock of seeing him in person.
They knew all too well what Fu Cheng’s previous condition had implied. And now, after so many days, the man who should have been dead wasn’t just alive—he was living well. It was nothing short of a miracle.
Fu Haiting stared intently at Fu Cheng, the scolding and reprimands he had prepared getting stuck in his throat, unable to utter a single word.
Yun Lian wasn’t as sentimental as him. She took two steps forward. “Xiao Cheng, seeing you well makes your aunt so happy.”
‘What an outrageous lie.’
Fu Cheng’s expression didn’t change. “Oh.”
Yun Lian reached out, wanting to pat Fu Cheng’s head. “You poor child, you’ve suffered so much.”
This method of trying to build rapport was both clumsy and old-fashioned. Fu Cheng wasn’t buying it at all.
Maneuvering his wheelchair back half a step, he dodged Yun Lian’s hand. “Mrs. Gong, if you have something to say, just say it. Don’t waste time with this nonsense.”
‘If she was truly concerned, why didn’t she show up before? Popping up now to say all this is just too fake.’
Yun Lian’s smile froze. She cursed inwardly, ‘Little brat. He has the same foul temper as his mother. Serves him right for ending up like this.’