Chapter 2583

Su Xinghui said, "My teacher at university, Professor Qin Jie, is a master of Sinology. I learned a lot from him. During this time in Jingcheng, for the sake of these items, I have also frequently visited antique markets. Having seen more, I can naturally distinguish them."

Premier Nan said, "This is also 'truth comes from practice.' It seems I need to learn more from you in this regard."

Su Xinghui said, "You have so many important matters to handle all day long; how could you have the energy to spend on this? After all, this is just a minor path."

Premier Nan said, "It's not minor. Doesn't this relate to Jingcheng's urban planning and construction? Fortunately, you are helping me fill in the gaps; otherwise, when all these Sihe Academy are demolished, we will become sinners of history."

Premier Nan listened with interest in the storage room as Su Xinghui explained the origins of these small beasts and the meanings of the patterns on the eave tiles. Su Wenjun also sat nearby listening, and Niuniu sat on a small stool, chin in his hands, listening intently.

Su Xinghui's extensive knowledge of Sinology and his rich knowledge of cultural relic protection made Premier Nan exclaim, "Xinghui, you are truly both scholarly and martial, able to pick up and put down everything. I don't think there is anything you can't do."

Niuniu said loudly, "Grandpa Nan, my dad also knows how to do masonry and carpentry."

Premier Nan laughed, "Are you telling the truth?"

Niuniu said, "My dad has been tinkering with these tiles here every day, and he has a carpentry workshop where he often does carpentry at night."

Premier Nan looked at Su Xinghui with an inquiring gaze, and Su Xinghui demonstrated the process of repairing these small beasts and eave tiles.

This process requires great patience and meticulousness. First, the fragments must be cleaned, and after drying, they must be glued together with special glue. If all the fragments are present, it's fine; once glued and dried, it's done. If the fragments are incomplete, it's troublesome and requires other methods.

This repair process requires a lot of energy and time; when encountering items with many fragments, it takes several days to repair one piece.

After demonstrating the repair process, Su Xinghui took Premier Nan to his carpentry workshop. Upon entering, Premier Nan's gaze was attracted by the bed Su Xinghui had just repaired two days ago.

Premier Nan said, "Did you make this bed?"

Su Xinghui said, "This was an old bed that the original owner included when I bought this courtyard. I repaired it."

He picked up a photo from a nearby table; this was a photo he had taken of the bed before starting the repair work, used for comparison.

Premier Nan said, "This is what the bed looked like originally?"

Su Xinghui nodded, "Yes."

Premier Nan shook his head, "This is truly incredible. You can't tell it's the same bed at all. Your craftsmanship is truly excellent."

Premier Nan looked at the other furniture Su Xinghui had repaired and smiled at him, "You have truly made me look at you with new eyes. I knew you were very capable, but I didn't expect your ability to be this great. You are truly good at whatever you do!"

Su Xinghui joked, "If I had known, I would have cooked a meal for you to let you see my cooking skills; they definitely wouldn't be worse than theirs."

Premier Nan laughed heartily, "Then next time, if there is time, I will come to your home again to eat a meal you cooked and see how your cooking is."

Su Xinghui said, "Fine. Next time you have time, I will definitely invite you to eat a meal I cooked."

Just then, Lu Xiaoya entered and said, "Premier, we have finished cooking. Please come to the dining room to eat."

Premier Nan lifted his wrist to check his watch. It was almost twelve o'clock. Unknowingly, he had been here for almost two hours. These two hours were the most relaxed and comfortable two hours he had had in years. He nodded and smiled, "Fine, let's go eat."

Upon entering the dining room, Premier Nan saw the exquisite long dining table and the ten high-backed dining chairs that clearly had a Western style. He said to Su Xinghui, "Is this another one of your masterpieces?"

Su Xinghui said, "These were also old furniture included by the original owner when I bought this courtyard. I repaired them."

Premier Nan gave a thumbs up, "Good craftsmanship!"

Su Xinghui invited Premier Nan, Xiao Liu, and the guard Xiao Peng to sit at the dining table, and his family also sat down with them.

Lu Xiaoya introduced to Premier Nan, "Premier, today we made Hudong-style dishes. This is braised fish chunks, this is home-cooked tofu, this is shredded pork with green peppers, this is pork rib and lotus root soup, this is braised smoked bacon ribs, this is stir-fried bacon with garlic, this is twice-cooked bacon fish, this is air-dried chicken, this is deep-fried meatballs, this is tofu meatballs, this is pearl meatballs..."

Premier Nan said, "You are truly amazing. You made so many dishes in such a short time."

Lu Xiaoya said, "This bacon, bacon fish, and air-dried chicken were brought from our hometown by my parents and were almost ready-made. The meatballs were made yesterday, and the other dishes were very easy to make, so it was fast."

Premier Nan's hometown was in Huxi Province, a neighbor to Hudong Province. The two provinces had similarities in taste, and today, when Lu Xiaoya and Guo Suhua were cooking, they increased the amount of chili, so Premier Nan had a great appetite looking at these dishes.

Premier Nan picked up his chopsticks and picked up a piece of twice-cooked bacon fish. This bacon fish was made from a large grass carp weighing about twenty jin. The meat was firm and thick. After being salted, smoked yellow, and dried, it was cut into small pieces and fermented in a jar with distiller's grains for a period of time. This was brought by Su Wenjun and his wife when they came to Jingcheng from Shangjun County last time.

Today, this twice-cooked bacon fish was made by slightly frying the bacon fish in oil until yellow, then adding ginger, garlic, dried chili, Sichuan peppercorns, and other seasonings, and stewing until cooked, then slightly drying the soup. Because this bacon fish had been fermented with distiller's grains, it was incredibly fragrant, delicious, and appetizing.

Premier Nan took a bite and savored it carefully. He nodded and praised, "Hmm, delicious. The taste is somewhat similar to the bacon fish in our place, but it has a different flavor. Is this bacon fish you salted yourselves at home?"

Guo Suhua saw that Premier Nan liked eating this bacon fish and said happily, "Yes, Premier. This bacon fish was salted from a twenty-jin grass carp from the big lake in our place, then smoked yellow with pine branches, dried, and then fermented with distiller's grains to get this taste."

Lu Xiaoya said, "We added more chili according to your taste. If you like it, please eat more."

Premier Nan nodded. He finished that piece of bacon fish and started eating other dishes. These Hudong-style home-cooked dishes were indeed very much to his taste. He praised them endlessly and ate a lot of every dish.

Premier Nan finished a bowl of rice. Su Xinghui said, "Premier, let me serve you another bowl."

Xiao Liu said, "Premier, you cannot eat too much."

It turned out that Premier Nan's health doctor told him not to eat too much at each meal, only one bowl of rice, and to eat less but more often. In fact, even chili was not allowed to be eaten much. Today was already an exception.

Premier Nan said, "It's fine. Today, I finally snuck out for a day, so we should be able to do as we please for a day. Otherwise, I'll have to follow what they say in the afternoon. Today's dishes are delicious and appetizing. Xinghui, serve me another half bowl of rice."

Seeing that Premier Nan was eating with relish, Xiao Liu couldn't insist anymore. In fact, he also felt that the Premier was usually managed too strictly; he couldn't eat this or that. This chili was the taste of Premier Nan's hometown, and he couldn't even eat that, which made the Premier not enjoy his meals usually.

Today, it was hard for the food here to be so much to the Premier's taste, and the Premier was eating so happily, so let him eat another half bowl of rice. Doing it occasionally was no big deal. ===== CHAPTER 2585 =====