Chentan's Memories

Chapter 12

No.12 Going back to rumors and rumors that a small restaurant has become an anecdote

"Didn't you say that they all fought in court? Why are they still working together now?"

"You don't know, I'll tell you..." The speaker drank a sip of noodle soup, moistening his throat for the legend that was about to unfold: "Since that public case, these two have been at odds, fighting every day... …Until one day, Mr. Tang Xiaojun was cooking that in his own room…what is it called—hot pot, for hot pot. It is said that the hot pot comes from Sichuan, and it is so rare, not to mention that we haven’t eaten it yet, just the Jinling No one from the city had eaten it either! That’s why Mr. Lin smelled the fragrance and hid under Mr. Tang Xiaojun’s window, wet the window paper with his saliva, and peeked inside.”

"What did you see?"

"Master Tang Xiaojun took out a small bottle the size of a palm from his pocket, dropped a drop into the pot, and immediately the fragrance overflowed. The fragrance passed through the hole in the window paper and floated into Mr. Lin's nose. No matter how much I hate Mr. Tang Xiaojun on weekdays, I am still alive and seduced by the fragrance for a while, and I don't know how much the world is..."

The listener's eyes widened: "It's so fragrant?! Then what did Master Tang Xiaojun drip into it?"

"...Drip...what's that called..." When I heard this story from hearsay, I didn't remember such a paragraph; I don't know why I got so excited while talking, I added more oil and vinegar to the story.The speaker had an idea in his heart, and he just let himself talk nonsense without changing his face: "Oh! - it's called 'Jiangyou'!"

"Soy sauce? And cooking wine!" The audience sniffed.

"Tch... don't you understand? This 'crimson oil' is not the other 'soy sauce', and crimson is a crimson with a bit of crimson lips, meaning crimson red." Congratulated that he rounded up the lie so naturally, the speaker shook his head and continued He said: "That crimson oil is a fetish that the fairies in the sky use to smear on their mouths. Just one drop can leave a fragrance on the mouth, which lasts for three days!"

"Oh..." The audience was skeptical.

The speaker quickly demonstrated with an example: "If you don't believe me, you can ask - is the soup base of the hot pot crimson? Are the lips of the people who eat the hot pot bright red and their articulate mouth fragrant?"

"...Then...then according to what you say—is Master Tang Xiaojun really the God of Wealth?"

"...Of course. He stole the fairy's lip balm, violated the rules of heaven, and was sent down to the mortal world to atone for his sins—he had to earn tens of millions of taels of gold before he could return to heaven!"

"Did you copy this story?"

"nonsense!"

"Then Mr. Lin is not the God of Wealth?"

"...That's right. In the previous life, the two Gods of Wealth were brothers who had been worshiped. The white-faced God of Wealth was afraid that the black-faced God of Wealth would not be able to earn as much money by himself, so he volunteered to come down to earth to help him!"

"……Oh."

"..."

"Unbelievable..."

"... Believe it or not." The speaker rolled his eyes, patted his satisfied belly and stood up: "Check out!"

"Okay!" Uncle Wang wiped his hand on the apron, and took the copper coin from the guest.

After seeing off the guests, Uncle Wang was packing up the bowls and chopsticks, while recalling the joke he had just heard, and was overjoyed.

——The two brothers Lin Lang and Tang Yushu have become the white-faced God of Wealth and the black-faced God of Wealth in people's mouth; the motive of the two partners to open a hot pot restaurant has been rumored to be such a ridiculous but well-founded myth .

Speaking of which, the business of Dianjiang Lip Hot Pot Restaurant has been good in the past few days since its opening.

Every morning, I see Lin Lang and Tang Yushu, who is pushing a wooden ox cart, and go to the West Market to buy the ingredients for the day; after buying them, they will clean, cut and pack the vegetables, and they will be busy until noon; from noon onwards, there will be a large number of customers , one after another until the end of the night before all of them can be sent away; after the lunch guests are sent away, they can’t take a good rest, wash the pots, wash the dishes and wipe the table; waiting for them will start to come one after another from the end of the unitary time Dinner guests...

The passenger flow is so large, in fact, it is not difficult to think of the reason.

One is the novelty: hot pot is a delicacy that Chen Tan has never heard of.The second point is that the location is really exquisite: Caishenfu City has been integrated for more than ten years, and all kinds of pastries, wine and food are sold. The regional concentration of food and beverage directly provides an objective crowd for this hot pot restaurant.The third is story marketing: the rumor of "the God of Wealth lives in it" has been rumored for a long time among Chentan and the eight neighboring villages, and the story of "the God of Wealth with a white face and the God of Wealth with a black face" has been spread all over Youyou's mouth; These conversation materials have achieved the effect of publicity that is hard to buy with a lot of money. Now, if you are lucky enough to step into the threshold, who would not want to have a glimpse of the style?

Thinking to this point, Uncle Wang laughed, closed his eye sockets and got into the chair covered with a woolen blanket.

The sun has already moved to the west, and it seems that it has been a long time since noon.As the last table of guests at the noodle stall left, the Caishenfu Market was soaked in a sleepy and satisfying afternoon.

As soon as he sat down and warmed his buttocks, he heard Lin Lang's voice: "Uncle Wang, two bowls of noodles!"

"Okay—just finished?" Opening his eyes, he saw Lin Lang sitting at the table with his head propped up and sulking; Tang Yushu sat uneasily at the side, and glanced at Lin Lang from time to time, as if he had made a mistake What's up.

"Business has been so busy in the past few days since the opening, why are you angry?"

Lin Lang gave a "tsk" impatiently: "You ask him."

It has been four days since it opened, and the turnover rate is extremely high every day.

It's just that young master Lin, who was born in a wealthy family, stretched out his clothes and opened his mouth to eat, never hesitated to receive guests; so Tang Yushu was naturally in charge of the waiter.

But every time he heard Tang Yushu struggling to report the name of the dish: "Tusisi, vermicelli, sharp wings, beef slices..." it made Lin Lang's breathing difficult.

Just now, two families each brought their children to the restaurant, presumably to give them a blind date.The boy expressed humility and gave the recipe to the girl to order. The girl took the opportunity to show her ability to cook trivial things, so she ordered a few dishes decently.

But Tang Yushu said to the girl while remembering, "You eat a lot of beef!"

It made the girl cry in anger: "You are making fun of me for eating too much, aren't you?"

"No, no, no... I mean you have to eat a lot, a lot... that means a lot!"

If Lin Lang hadn't grabbed his neck and dragged him back to the back kitchen in time, Tang Yushu would have continued to stand there and explain awkwardly.

After hearing the ins and outs, Uncle Wang laughed so hard that he couldn't hold the strainer steady, and took a long time to clear out two bowls of noodles: "Yushu's accent can't be changed for a while, that's justifiable; then change it—— Lin Lang, when you go to receive guests, Yushu can concentrate on the kitchen."

Lin Lang took the noodles, and habitually scooped up two spoonfuls of chili oil: "What's so busy in the back kitchen——Tang Yushu cooked all the bottom ingredients the night before, and the vegetables are also bought early in the morning every day. It’s also washed—after the customer orders, we just serve it. There’s nothing too busy!”

After bringing two bowls of hot noodles to the table, Uncle Wang also took a seat: "Ah! Lin Lang is quite capable, and he can also wash vegetables?"

When correcting, the voice weakened a little due to guilt: "...it was made by Yushu."

Uncle Wang glanced at Tang Yushu, who was eating noodles with a sad face beside him, and then turned his eyes back to Lin Lang: "Then what are you doing?"

In order to cover up his guilty conscience, he turned his weakened tone into a tough one again: "Hey, what do you mean! I also work very hard to keep accounts, okay?"

Although Lin Lang was more than 20 years old, Uncle Wang was really afraid of this sharp-tempered young man, so he could only promise "Okay, okay..." while taking out a small bag from his bosom, and threw it to Lin Lang: "This is for you."

Lin Lang's curious eyes were wide open, and he put down his chopsticks and unfolded it carefully: "What——Zhu Yingrong Hairpin? Hey, Uncle Wang, why did you save this?"

"Of course I will save... Who is not young enough to love smug beauty." Uncle Wang raised his chin: "How is it? Does it look good? I tied this with fine wool mixed with gold thread, and it is real Zhu Yinghua It's no different. Look at the flower on your head, it was burned to a mess when it opened a few days ago..."

"Don't mention it..." Lin Lang said dejectedly: "My mother gave it to me when I was a child, and I brought it up when I was a child...It's so bad that it burned like this."

"Then put it away. If you want to take it with you in the future, just take this one I saved for you - just take a closer look, is it worse than the one your mother gave you?"

"Of course it's far behind..." He refused to admit it, but his hand has already stretched out his head honestly, taking the new hairpin given by Uncle Wang.

"I said... don't be angry with Yushu." Seeing that Lin Lang's depressed mood had eased a bit because of the new hairpin, Uncle Wang said in due course: "Look at his eyebrows... thanks to Huo Miao I didn't take my eyes off!"

After being called, Tang Yushu raised his eyes to look at the two people beside him.

Those two pairs of eyes were also focused on his face, which made Tang Yushu at a loss for a while.

Seeing this, Lin Lang couldn't hold back after all, and laughed again: "Forget it—I'll be the waiter in the future. You just need to handle things in the kitchen well."

Tang Yushu nodded again and again: "If you want it, you want it."

Lin Lang was furious after hearing this, and looked at Uncle Wang with raised eyebrows: "Listen...listen to him!"

Talking about the troubles this Sichuan accent brought to Young Master Jiangnan, Zhang Qian had a completely different attitude on his side.Since entering the territory of Shu, imitating the accent of Shu has become his greatest pleasure.

"It's really slow... The letter from the post station was received half a month ago. What are you doing on the way?"

"You can't blame me for being slow—(Not all the authors are procrastinating!) The scenery of Shu is so interesting, I couldn't enjoy the food here all the way, and I stayed in Yuzhou for a few days. ..." After Zhang Qian made some excuses, he turned his hale and hearty eyes, looked at his brother-in-law, and said in a strange voice, "Are you in a hurry?"

"After three or five years, you haven't changed." Li Bao took a sip of tea, looked at Zhang Qian with a hippie smile, "but you seem to be shorter."

"It's you who have grown taller!" Zhang Qian hurriedly defended himself: "Father was still worried about you when he was dying: 'If you are not tall, you will not be convincing in the military camp!'"

"His old man can rest assured." When talking about his adoptive father, Li Bao's voice trembled a little, but he still restrained his emotions and put on a calm face: "Don't blame me for not crying... After walking in the flames of war for so long, life and death are farewell. Seems normal."

"Then... when do you plan to go back to Beijing?"

"Chengdu's post-war resettlement has been settled a lot...the demobilized soldiers now have jobs provided by you, and the people's hearts are stable. It's almost time to leave." Li Wei took a deep breath: "It's just that I didn't know to return to Beijing for a while. what to do."

"..."

"In spite of your obstruction back then, this military order to suppress the rebellion was nothing more than to regain glory for the family. But now that the rebellion has been suppressed, and you have been granted a marquis to receive a reward, it seems like the hope of this life. I understand...where are you going next?"

"Then come back to Jinling with me! I won't go to the capital anymore, and I won't go anywhere, just stay in Jinling."

Li Bang lowered his eyes and did not answer.

After the air was quiet for a while, Li Wei spoke first, "I found a master chef in Chengdu, and cooked a hot pot for you after a while... You probably don't know about hot pot, which is a characteristic of Sichuan."

"I know." Zhang Qian raised his eyebrows: "My nephew opened a hot pot restaurant."

"Lin Lang?" It was Li Bao who was at a loss: "Why..."

When the topic mentioned Lin Lang's hot pot restaurant, Zhang Qian slapped his forehead: "Do you know Tang Yushu?"

"He?" Hearing this familiar name, Li Wei couldn't hide his eagerness: "What's wrong with him? Do you still have news about him? How did you know each other?"

Seeing Li Hao's somewhat groggy reaction, Zhang Qian thought for a moment: "...Oh, it's really nothing. Father has a house in Chentan under his name. Did you give it to Tang Yushu?"

"That's right, my adoptive father took me to play when I was young, and when he saw that I liked it, he said he gave it to me." Li Wei explained the issue of ownership, and then asked quickly and eagerly: "Has Tang Yushu lived there? Does he live well?" How? When did you see him?"

"...It's like this. Father is getting old and confused. He may have forgotten to give you the house, and later he gave the house to Lin Lang. If you like it, I will give you another house. That house is very important to Lin Lang. It's important to..."

"...Give me another place? Impossible. The last letter my adoptive father gave me said that he would give me the house, but I couldn't find the title deed. I have already notarized the letter and donated it to Tang When I was in Yushu, I made up the title deed of the house, and it is expected that it will be delivered to him in a few days."

"Now Lin Lang and Tang Yushu are fighting over that house."

"Oh? You can take care of your nephew! If he makes things difficult for Tang Yushu, he is making things difficult for me."

A foster brother and a nephew, both stubborn and fearsome than a cow.Zhang Qian sighed: "It's all my father's confusion... Forget it, I didn't embarrass anyone, the two partnered up and opened a hot pot restaurant there."

"Open a hot pot restaurant? Tang Yushu?" Li Bao laughed.Zhang Qian found that whenever he talked about Tang Yushu, Li Bang's dignified and indifferent demeanor would be put away, and he couldn't help showing his childlike emotions: "When will you go back to Jinling, and take me to see it." !"

Although he saw the displeased smile on Li Bao's face when he mentioned Tang Yushu, he agreed to leave with him anyway.

Zhang Qian took a sip of his wine and smiled: "Okay."

It's midnight, in Chentan Town's Dianjiang Lip Hot Pot Restaurant.

"Little brat, add more wine!"

"Hey—what do you call me?" Lin Lang, who was dozing off in front of the back kitchen door, heard the call from the guest, stood up with dark circles under his eyes, and wanted to scold him, but Tang Yushu hurriedly stopped him up.

"He called me 'little boy', did you hear me? It's the first time in my life that I've been called 'little boy'!"

"Don't be angry, didn't someone call you a brat yesterday?" Tang Yushu gave an even worse example, trying to make Lin Lang feel more comfortable.

After Lin Lang heard this, he hung there half-breathed and couldn't breathe out: "Are you comforting someone?"

"Yes, yes..." Pressing Lin Lang's slender shoulders made him sit back on the threshold again: "You are sitting still, I will serve them..."

After dealing with the guests, Tang Yushu ran back to continue washing the dishes.Seeing Lin Lang sitting there with his head propped up, angry and sleepy: "Otherwise, go to sleep first, I'll just take care of this table."

"No! I have to see how long these people will stay! They finished eating early tomorrow, and Shengsheng sat here for an extra hour!" Lin Lang rubbed his already messy hair: "It's midnight now!"

"You don't know..." Tang Yushu looked at the collapsed Lin Lang and laughed: "When I was a child——Chengdu hadn't fought a war. At that time, people liked to gather on the street at night to eat hot pot, drink, and play mahjong. Hey ——Isn’t it the same for you Jinling?”

"How can it be the same - we used to go to play, but now we serve people." Lin Lang became more and more angry when he thought about it, and cast a white eye at the table under the eaves who were still pushing cups, changing glasses, laughing and chatting: " Tell me—I think back then when I was the young master of the Lin family, people like this would nod and bow when they saw me!"

"Business is good and you are not happy." Tang Yushu comforted: "Otherwise, you go to bed first. This table is all there, and I can do it alone."

"No, the Tao is one foot tall and the devil is ten feet high. I naturally have my own way to deal with such rogue guests!" Lin Lang stood up, grabbed the rag with a sinister smile, and walked towards the table of guests.

Afraid that the young master would do something out of the ordinary, Tang Yushu poked his head out to stare at Lin Lang's every move - only to see that Lin Lang first stepped forward courteously, and gathered the bone residues on the guest's table together in his hands , threw it into the slop bucket, and then stood beside it, pouring wine and tea, respectfully.

"...It's fine as long as it's okay." Tang Yushu felt relieved and continued to wash the piles of dishes.

Let’s talk about the guests at the table who are full of food and drink but reluctant to leave. They chatted happily at first, but suddenly a waiter came by, and they always felt a bit shy about talking; It's not easy to scold him for adding wine and tea... In this way, the guests at this table just paid their bills sloppily and left the restaurant.

After finally "forcing" the guests away, Lin Lang, who finally didn't need to act diligently anymore, threw the rag aside angrily, went to the back kitchen and nestled in a chair, posing triumphantly like a king of the mountain: "I Great huh?—they're gone!"

Tang Yushu looked up at him and then at the empty yard: "Then go to sleep."

Too tired to be polite at all, Lin Lang stretched his waist and stood up. Just as he was about to go back to the east wing, there was another noise in the yard.

"It's closed, it's closed!" Lin Lang walked out of the yard and gave orders to evict the visitors.After taking a closer look, he found that it was the guest who had just sent him off: "Eh?... What's the matter?"

"We lost something!" I saw one of them rummaging back and forth on the table full of food scraps.

"What's missing?"

"Finger!"

"Wrench?"

"Just put it on the edge of the table, the rhino horn pulls the finger."

Lin Lang's pupils shrank: "The rhino horn finger...maybe I took it as a bone and put it in the swill bucket."

The guest was furious: "What?!"

Hearing the movement, Tang Yushu ran out of the yard from the back kitchen, just in time to see the scene - the guest splashed half a bowl of leftover wine on the table that hadn't had time to clean up, and splashed it on Lin Lang's face.