Chapter 25

【Daily Info 1: Dong Xuan has learned that her ex-boyfriend Seeing Yan Li has returned to Jingcheng, and believes her overtures will be seen by Seeing Yan Li; if Seeing Yan Li merely takes the easy path and shows a little goodwill, they can reconcile.】

【Daily Info 2: On the first day Seeing Yan Li left Hengdian, Qin Lan missed him terribly.】

【Daily Info 3: Lin Jiachuan is currently dreaming: Dong Xuan and Seeing Yan Li reconcile, then pair him up with his friend XXX, so that in the future he will be both brother and brother-in-law to Seeing Yan Li.】

【...】

When Seeing Yan Li woke up in the morning and saw the system's information, he silently added another mark against Lin Jiachuan.

After putting on his clothes and washing up in the bathroom, Seeing Yan Li wandered through the entire apartment and woke up Zhou Yi.

"Good thing you have a car—come with me to buy some things."

"Buy what?"

"Refrigerator, TV, solar water heater, cabinets, pots, bowls, chopsticks, spoons..."

Seeing Yan Li never had high demands for living conditions; he grew up in the village, where the family had little money, yet he was perfectly happy living in their old, tiled house.

Later, when his parents opened their restaurant, they usually had to leave someone overnight to guard the shop against thieves.

Two tables pushed together became a bed; when Seeing Yan Li grew older, whenever school was out, that was his "treasured bed."

He lived in dormitories during school, cheap guesthouses during filming, and if money was tight, he could endure renting a basement apartment like those Beijing drifters.

Still, if conditions allowed, Seeing Yan Li naturally hoped to live more comfortably.

That's why he arranged for his roommates to share an apartment, and now that he had some extra cash, he planned to add household appliances to make daily life more convenient.

Seeing Yan Li called the landlord for permission, then Zhou Yi drove him first to the secondhand market and wholesale market, then to the appliance store.

A used TV was fine, but the refrigerator needed to store food—no one knew what the previous tenant had kept inside, so Seeing Yan Li personally felt buying new was safer; same for pots, bowls, and utensils.

The solar water heater and cabinets could be new or used, as long as they worked well.

After failing to find anything satisfactory at the secondhand market, Seeing Yan Li simply bought everything new.

Along the way, he spotted useful items and added a few miscellaneous things; by the end of the trip, his already thin wallet had grown even thinner.

After hauling all the items home and scheduling the installer to come the next day for the water heater, it was already afternoon.

Seeing Yan Li and Zhou Yi hadn't eaten lunch; though they'd bought a pile of kitchenware, there was no food at home, so they went downstairs to find a noodle shop.

Two large bowls of fried sauce noodles, one cold platter, and they devoured it all with pickled garlic, slurping loudly.

Both were young men in their early twenties with big appetites; after finishing the large bowl of noodles and the platter, they still weren't full. Zhou Yi wanted another small bowl, but Seeing Yan Li stopped him.

"Save some room—tonight I'll cook something good."

After telling Zhou Yi to clean up at home, Seeing Yan Li walked to the vegetable market to buy groceries.

He knew how to drive—his family's restaurant had a used minivan for buying ingredients and delivering meals, and Seeing Yan Li had practiced driving it often at home, quite skillfully.

But since he had no car of his own, he'd never bothered to get a driver's license.

Rules were lax in his hometown, but not in Jingcheng—if traffic police stopped Zhou Yi's father's Passat on the road, he'd be putting his brother in a bind.

Luckily, the vegetable market wasn't far; though afternoon produce and meat were slightly worse than morning's, since it was just for themselves, he didn't care much.

He bought fresh pork, fresh beef, pig's trotters, offal, chicken legs, then went to the spice shop and picked out a large bag of seasonings, and finally bought a modest amount of vegetables before returning to the residential complex.

Back home, Seeing Yan Li rolled up his sleeves and began preparing the ingredients.

The braised meat recipe he'd received from the monthly info had been described in miraculous terms, leaving him itching to try it.

He hadn't had the conditions in Hengdian, but now that he had a kitchen in Jingcheng, he was eager to test the recipe's quality.

Zhou Yi came to help, his face filled with anticipation.

He'd eaten Seeing Yan Li's cooking before—about two or three months ago, Seeing Yan Li bribed the cafeteria chef at North Electric to borrow the stove and cooked several dishes for him and his brothers to taste.

The flavor wasn't quite heavenly, but it was undeniably delicious.

At least better than most restaurants, and leagues ahead of their cafeteria's big-pot dishes.

Unfortunately, though Seeing Yan Li was skilled, he didn't seem to enjoy cooking.

Aside from that one spontaneous burst that gave them several days of feasting, no matter how much his brothers begged, he ignored them—until Zhang Songwen's birthday in May, when he finally broke his rule under their pressure.

Now, right after returning to Jingcheng, Seeing Yan Li was organizing a kitchen session and buying so much meat—it clearly meant a big meal.

Zhou Yi figured Seeing Yan Li must have been sick of Hengdian's boxed meals and had finally returned to treat himself.

Seeing Yan Li was carefully cleaning the freshly scalded pig's trotters, completely unaware of Zhou Yi's assumptions—he'd have corrected him about Hengdian's boxed meals if he'd known.

Yes, Hengdian's boxed meals were terrible!

Whether it was due to the catering contractor the set had hired, the taste didn't even match North Electric's cafeteria, and the system occasionally gave him diarrhea warnings for spoiled ingredients.

Seeing Yan Li's frequent outings in Hengdian—to socialize, scout system-recommended food, or take Qin Lan out to eat—had partly been motivated by a desire to improve his diet.

As for Zhou Yi's belief that Seeing Yan Li disliked cooking, it was somewhat one-sided.

Seeing Yan Li had grown up in a restaurant and spent plenty of time helping in the kitchen, so he'd developed solid culinary skills; he wasn't enthusiastic about cooking, but neither did he resist it.

He refused his brothers mostly because borrowing the cafeteria kitchen was too troublesome—unless he was testing a recipe he'd gotten from the system, he wouldn't bother.

Also, Seeing Yan Li had learned a trick from his father: scarcity increases value.

No matter how good your cooking is, if you cook every day, others see you as just an ordinary cook—you're expected to cook, get no praise, and if you slip up even once, you get blamed.

But if you cook only occasionally, keeping others hungry for it, you become the "Cooking God" they beg and adore, enjoying high status and occasionally gaining favors.

Seeing Yan Li applied this lesson skillfully, and it worked well.

He enjoyed being admired, and others, having begged for so long to taste his food, cherished it all the more, ate with greater joy, and even perceived the dishes as tasting better due to the emotional boost.

For example, now, as Zhou Yi helped him, he kept praising Seeing Yan Li's cooking, making the whole process enjoyable for Seeing Yan Li.

Braised meat was no stranger to Seeing Yan Li.

His family's restaurant had a signature cold dish: cold sliced pig's head meat, which they braised themselves.

Other meats—pig's trotters, beef, intestines, tripe—were all pre-braised before being further prepared; Seeing Yan Li had helped braise dishes at home many times.

To braise meat well, there were only three essentials: ingredients, heat control, and seasonings.

Today's ingredients, though not the freshest from morning, were still fresh-cut that day and of good quality; as for the cooking steps and seasoning ratios, he followed the braised meat recipe from the system exactly.

At first, this pot of braised meat was ordinary, seemingly unremarkable.

But as time fermented, the power of the system-certified 【Century-Old Secret Recipe】 gradually revealed itself.

Zhou Yi, watching TV in the living room, smelled the rich aroma drifting from the kitchen and grew restless.

"Brother, is it ready yet?"

Seeing Yan Li was also slightly surprised by the braised meat's overpowering aroma—it stormed into his nostrils, forcing saliva to flow uncontrollably, and his stomach's cravings roared like rebels.

Yet, the dignity of a chef kept Seeing Yan Li composed; he calmly checked the time.

"Wait another forty-five minutes."

"Ah."

Zhou Yi let out a pained wail—smelling such an aroma yet being unable to eat it was unbearable.

In the remaining time, the aroma grew stronger; Zhou Yi eagerly set out bowls and chopsticks, constantly glancing toward the kitchen.

Seeing Yan Li, too, grew uneasy, pretending to check the braising progress, and stepped into the kitchen.

The moment he lifted the lid, the rich, thick aroma surged forth unimpeded, spreading rapidly—and Seeing Yan Li, first in its path, nearly stumbled backward from the wave of scent.

This was too fragrant!

The aroma reached the living room; Zhou Yi, like a dog scenting a bone, dashed over, staring longingly at the meat in the pot.

"Brother, is it ready?"

"Wait another fifteen minutes."

With great self-control, Seeing Yan Li covered the pot again and dragged Zhou Yi back to the living room to wait.

Finally, the fifteen minutes passed; without Zhou Yi speaking, Seeing Yan Li hurried into the kitchen, scooped out two pieces of braised meat and a pig's trotter, and carried them to the living room.

Zhou Yi had already been waiting, drooling as he stared at the plate of glossy, ruby-red braised meat.

Neither spoke; they silently reached for their chopsticks and began eating.

The moment the braised meat entered his mouth, Seeing Yan Li's eyes flashed bright—he'd known from the aroma it would be delicious, but not this delicious.

The braised meat, infused with numerous spices and simmered for hours, was tender yet chewy, rich and oily yet refreshingly savory; the fat melted instantly, the lean meat grew more fragrant the more he chewed.

He tasted the pig's trotter too; though from the same pot, its flavor differed slightly—more springy and elastic, with gelatinous skin and fragrant meat, leaving an endless aftertaste.

Seeing Yan Li and Zhou Yi ate in silence, steadily devouring nearly half the pot of braised meat.

Zhou Yi loosened his slightly tight belt, still not wiping the oil from his lips, and sighed sincerely.

"Brother, if you're an actor, the culinary world is truly missing out."

Seeing Yan Li had some self-awareness—the braised meat was delicious, but mostly thanks to the secret recipe; his own cooking skills were merely decent, nowhere near the level that would make chefs regret his choice of career.

Then again, even if it were a regret, Seeing Yan Li would never choose to be a chef.

Leaving aside how much money it earned, being a chef meant serving others—far less easy, dignified, or popular than being an actor.

Savoring the taste of the braised meat, Seeing Yan Li felt there was still room for improvement.

After all, it was his first time making it; some steps were still unfamiliar, and the recipe said the best results came from aged broth—today there hadn't been time, but if he braised it several more times, he could cultivate the aged broth, and the flavor should improve further.

Also, he noticed one flaw in this braised meat.

It was delicious, yes, but it was meat—no matter how well prepared, eating it constantly would grow cloying; later, he'd need to pair it with some vegetarian braised dishes, pickles, or condiments to cut the richness.

Seeing Yan Li mentally weighed various ideas and pulled out a notebook to take careful notes.

He'd originally been merely curious about the taste of the braised meat recipe, but after truly experiencing its overpowering deliciousness, he began wondering if he could make money from it.

For example, open a restaurant specializing in braised meat dishes, or at least set up a ready-to-eat stall—during spare time, it would be a steady income, better than sitting idle and spending savings.

As he was lost in thought, someone knocked on the door; Seeing Yan Li glanced at Zhou Yi, sprawled and full, then got up to open it.

Outside stood a woman in her thirties, beside her a little kid with red eyes and a red nose.

"I'm sorry."

The woman looked embarrassed: "I'm your neighbor across the hall. Your braised meat is too fragrant—my child is crying and begging for some. Could you spare a little? I'll pay for it."

Seeing Yan Li: "..."

This braised meat business was going well—even before opening, he'd already made money...

(End of Chapter)