Chapter 1870: Old Memories

Through the events of the past few days, he actually felt that Sheng Zichen was not bad, barely qualified to be his son-in-law.

But a daughter's marriage is a major matter, so he had to properly test Sheng Zichen. Therefore, when Sheng Zichen came to see him again, he unexpectedly did not give him the cold shoulder, did not chase him away, and even struck up a conversation with Sheng Zichen.

"Do you have a girlfriend?" This was the first sentence.

Lao Litou did not beat around the bush; he liked to be direct.

Zichen understood his meaning immediately, and he replied: "No, I only want to focus on my career right now; I don't want to consider personal matters for the time being."

"If you aren't considering it, why are you bothering my daughter? Kid, let me tell you, my daughter has taken a liking to you. If you dare to bully her, I will finish you off."

Zichen:...

This kind of matter could not be left ambiguous; it had to be made clear.

He spoke the truth: "I am not bothering your daughter; all of this is a misunderstanding."

He poured a bowl of porridge from a thermal container and said: "Please taste the porridge I cooked and help me critique it."

The porridge was vegetable and minced meat porridge; Lao Litou was a patient who needed a light diet, so the soft, well-cooked porridge was just right.

And while cooking the porridge, taking the opportunity to exchange culinary skills could be considered killing two birds with one stone.

"The taste is not bad, but the meat was cooked a bit too early. Adding the meat after the boil makes it more tender and fresh." Lao Litou pointed out the key issue in one sentence.

"Can you sell me the soup base for your seafood porridge? You name the price, any amount is fine."

Sheng Zichen made his fortune with seafood noodles, and the soup base he brewed was already very good—even his master praised it endlessly—yet it was not as fresh and delicious as Lao Litou's seafood porridge.

He had tried several times but still could not grasp the essence, so he wanted to pay to buy it.

It would be best if he sold it to him, but if he were refused, he could understand; after all, for a chef, a recipe is their lifeblood.

However, what he did not expect was—just after he asked, Lao Litou told him the secret!

"This is simple. When you go back to brew the soup base, add a pair of sheep bones to your recipe, and it will have a fragrance within the freshness. Remember, just the bones; there must absolutely be no meat on them."

Zichen:...

That's right, why hadn't he thought of that?

In fact, many secrets are like a layer of window paper—easy to pierce once poked—but when they aren't poked through, even if others rack their brains, it's useless.

Zichen wanted to give Lao Litou money, but Lao Litou glared at him and scolded: "Don't always talk about money, money. You having money is your business; don't show off in front of me. I'm only telling you because you saved my life, kid. Otherwise, even if you brought more money, I wouldn't say a word!"

Since he didn't want money, Zichen told Lao Litou the recipe for his own seafood noodle soup base.

Lao Litou's eyes lit up, and the two chatted more and more congenially. Seeing that he was in a good mood, Zichen asked the question he had been hiding in his heart: "Uncle Li, I have something I don't know if I should ask, but I've wanted to ask for a long time..."

Lao Litou said: "Go ahead and ask."

"You and my master were such good friends back then, why did you suddenly fall out?"

Lao Litou asked: "What did your master tell you? Tell me the truth, I won't blame you."

So Zichen told the truth: "My master said that you hated rich people, and because he married my aunt and became rich, you turned against him..."

"He's full of crap."

Lao Litou said: "He is just a muddle-headed fool. He was muddled when he was young, and he still hasn't figured it out in his old age. It wasn't like that at all. I fell out with him because I discovered he was a successor to Gu Family cuisine, and I was ruined by Gu Family cuisine back then..."

The old man told the reason, dragging out a story from decades ago.

When Lao Litou was young, because of his superb knife skills, he became a target that every restaurant scrambled to compete for.

At that time, he still had a wife, and the family lived a happy and beautiful life.

Later, he leased a restaurant; he was the chef in the back kitchen, and his wife was the waitress in the front. Although it was a husband-and-wife shop, business was quite prosperous.

Later still, a new restaurant opened across from theirs, and the shop name was Gu Family Private Kitchen.

The boss was a black-hearted person; he looked amiable on the surface, but in reality, he was always openly and secretly snatching their customers. Lao Litou had that same temper when he was young.

He had the ability, but his temper was stubborn; if it came to playing dirty, he couldn't beat the other guy.

Before long, the restaurant's business was dismal, reaching the point where he had to sell it.

But he didn't want to sell it, struggling to maintain it while failing to make ends meet, and he owed quite a bit of money. His wife also ran away, leaving him all alone.

The boss across the street wanted to acquire his restaurant to expand his business, but it wasn't an honest acquisition; he used a series of underhanded methods.

He was no match for him, and the restaurant eventually changed hands.

The other party even wanted to hire him as a chef, but he hated the boss of Gu Family cuisine to the core; even if he had to beg for food, he wouldn't work for him.

That person was also black-hearted enough that, seeing he couldn't be used, he smeared his reputation outside, causing him to have all the skills but be unable to find work.

So he set up a snack stall, relying on his exquisite knife skills to sell fried buns and seafood porridge.

Anyway, he had no burdens; one person fed, the whole family was not hungry!

He hated Gu Family cuisine to the core, and he also hated the boss of Gu Family cuisine. When he met Gu Zhihao, Gu Zhihao was just a scrap collector who also cooked very well, and he hadn't thought about Gu Family cuisine.

Later, by chance, the two were chatting, and he learned that Gu Zhihao was a successor to Gu Family cuisine, which was when he suddenly turned against him!

What was said at the time, he couldn't remember clearly because it was so long ago, but he said a lot, and the gist was that rich people are not good people—that kind of thing had been said too.

Gu Zhihao just assumed that they had fallen out because he had become rich!

In fact, the real reason was not like that.

Zichen said: "My master swore an oath to his father that he would never open a restaurant, so he never opened one, and my master's father never opened one either. So, did you hate the wrong person?"

Lao Litou: "That person's surname wasn't Gu; it was Huo, named Huo Zhenteng!"

Zichen:...

He couldn't imagine that the world was actually this small; after going around in such a big circle, Huo Zhenteng was actually involved here too.

There really was a misunderstanding here, and it wasn't a small one.

Zichen was someone who had seen the world, but even now he couldn't control his excitement and immediately told Lao Litou about Huo Zhenteng's character and the grudges between them later on!

The old man listened with rapt attention, several times barely managing to suppress his excitement so as not to interrupt Sheng Zichen's words.

He listened, feeling excited one moment and vindicated the next.

When he heard the part about Huo Zhenteng going to prison, he happily slapped his thigh hard: "Great, great, he got what he deserved; that person should have such an end."

During their later battle of wits with Huo Zhenteng, Lao Litou listened with rapt attention, occasionally clapping and laughing, and at other times gnashing his teeth in hatred.

He was too agitated, so Zichen had to stop and demand that he take his blood pressure medication to stabilize his emotions before he could continue, otherwise, he would stop telling the story.

Lao Litou followed every instruction; this stubborn old man was very obedient now, fearing that if he didn't listen, he wouldn't hear the rest of the story.

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