Chapter 303

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Protagonist:

Lu Feng

It turned out that Li Hong'an had transferred the labor fee for his on-site cooking this time.

His salary at Hong'an Restaurant was thirty thousand yuan a month.

This labor fee was equivalent to his income for half a month.

Last time he cooked a full table of dishes for that rich second-generation driving a sports car, he only got three thousand yuan as a labor fee.

It seems the Fang family are the truly wealthy ones; they handle things generously.

Although Cheng Fan was arrogant, it didn't mean he wasn't short of money.

In the past few years learning culinary skills beside his master, although he didn't spend much, he also had no income.

The reason he agreed to Li Hong'an's invitation and traveled thousands of miles to this small city of Jiangcheng.

One of the reasons was also the monthly salary of thirty thousand yuan the other party offered.

Now his food, clothing, and daily expenses all needed money; recently he had taken a fancy to a set of imported knives.

With this labor fee, that set of imported knives could also be bought.

Cheng Fan put his mobile phone back in his pocket, and when he picked up the kitchen knife again, his movements were obviously much lighter.

Only he didn't know that.

Also doing on-site cooking, Lu Feng had only made a portion of Red Braised Pork for Fang Yuan's family.

The remuneration he received, however, was ten times his, that is, one hundred thousand yuan.

If Cheng Fan knew that cooking a whole table of dishes, the remuneration he got was merely one-tenth of the other party's.

Wonder what his thoughts would be.

…………

In the restaurant on the other side, Fang Shiming was already holding chopsticks, preparing to taste the Red Braised Pork.

Two portions of Red Braised Pork were placed side by side on the dining table.

The left portion was made by Cheng Fan; at a glance, it was meticulously plated, looking very exquisite.

The right portion was made by Lu Feng; the meat pieces were also arranged quite neatly, but compared to Cheng Fan's portion, it appeared much more simple.

"Dad, this portion is made by Lu Boss; you taste it first."

Fang Yuan pointed at the Red Braised Pork made by Lu Feng on the right, looking at Fang Shiming with some anticipation.

"No need for you to say it, I can tell who made which."

Fang Shiming's gaze swept over the two plates of Red Braised Pork, smiling as he teased: "This Lu Boss you invited, his Red Braised Pork lets one see at a glance that he runs a small restaurant."

Hearing this, Fang Yuan understood the meaning in her father's words.

Nothing more than saying that the Red Braised Pork Cheng Fan made had more exquisite plating than Lu Feng's.

She couldn't help but speak up for Lu Feng again: "We're eating at home, not in a Michelin Restaurant; what use is it no matter how good the plating looks?"

Immediately after, she added another sentence, leaving Fang Shiming speechless: "Besides, the Red Braised Pork Mom used to make for you never paid attention to any plating either, didn't you still eat it all clean every time? When I was a child, I couldn't even snatch any from you!"

Fang Shiming smiled and nodded, his gaze falling on the Red Braised Pork made by Lu Feng.

He used chopsticks to gently pick up a piece; the jujube-red meat piece trembled between the chopsticks.

It seemed that if he used just a little force, the meat piece could be clamped apart from the middle.

The appropriately thick sauce tightly wrapped the meat piece; when picked up with chopsticks, not a single drop fell.

The heat for this sauce was controlled just right.

Fang Shiming carefully examined the meat piece on the chopsticks; the dark red lean meat had absorbed its fill of sauce.

Pressing gently with chopsticks, one could see fine meat juice seeping out from the texture.

The fat meat was crystal clear and transparent in appearance, looking oily and smooth.

Letting one imagine the melt-in-the-mouth texture in a moment.

Fang Shiming leaned in closer, carefully sniffing the smell.

A rich meat fragrance, wrapped in the warm fragrance of star anise and cinnamon, drilled into the nasal cavity.

This fragrance that was incomparably familiar to him made him involuntarily swallow his saliva.

Fang Shiming could hold back no longer and put the meat piece into his mouth.

Teeth just touched the meat skin; without using much force, that layer of gelatinous meat skin was instantly sliced open.

Immediately after, the fat meat melted in the mouth like accumulated snow in an instant, turning into a stream of warm grease, flowing to every corner of the oral cavity.

Surprisingly, this Red Braised Pork looked oily and shiny.

But eating it, there wasn't a trace of greasiness; the mouth was full of the richness of meat fragrance.

The lean meat had absorbed its fill of soup juice, soft and rotten yet with just the right chewiness.

With every chew of the teeth, a few more points of meat juice emerged.

After mixing with the taste of the sauce, the fragrance in the mouth became a few points richer.

The taste of the spices was also perfect to the extreme, not stealing the limelight from the meat fragrance in the slightest.

Only in the aftertaste could one feel a faint spicy fragrance.

The mellow fragrance of fat meat, the toughness of lean meat, entangled in Fang Shiming's mouth into a flavor that made one endlessly reminisce.

Fang Shiming slowly chewed the Red Braised Pork in his mouth; that familiar taste opened up his memories.

As he chewed, his eye sockets gradually became moist.

This taste, it's simply too much like what his late wife used to make!

Thirty years ago, Jiangcheng didn't have so many high-rise buildings yet.

After he married his wife, they squeezed into a small rental house in the Old City District, and every day they lived hand to mouth.

At that time he had just started his own business, running sales trips nationwide; sometimes he stayed out of town for several months at a stretch.

But every time he returned from a business trip, the moment he pushed open the door, the first thing he smelled was the fragrance of Red Braised Pork from the Kitchen.

No matter how strapped the household was, every time before he came back, his wife would make him a plate of Red Braised Pork.

Watching Fang Shiming eat with wolfish gusto, his wife would always smile and keep putting meat into his bowl with her chopsticks.

Whenever he urged his wife to eat together, she would always wave her hand, smiling and saying she ate it often at home and didn't like eating meat anymore.

Back then Fang Shiming actually believed it, thinking his wife truly didn't love meat because she'd eaten too much of it.

Not long after Fang Yuan was born, his wife fainted at home and was sent to the Hospital.

The doctor, holding the exam report, said his wife suffered from long-term malnutrition and told him to feed her more good food from now on.

He then realized that during those years he was away on business trips, his wife alone at home ate pickled vegetables and plain porridge almost every day.

Fang Shiming then understood — his wife never disliked eating meat at all.

She simply habitually saved the best for him.

Later Fang Shiming's business gradually improved, and the family moved into a big house.

He originally thought he could afterward give his wife a better life, let her properly enjoy her later years.

He never expected she wouldn't live to see that day.

After his wife died in a car accident, the guilt in his heart toward her lingered day and night, impossible to shake off.

Fang Shiming ate several pieces of Red Braised Pork in a row, and suddenly felt his throat tighten.

This incomparably familiar taste — it's simply exactly the same as what his wife made back then!

Only what fills him with boundless regret is that this taste is no longer made by that familiar person from back then.

Now tasting once more the flavor etched deepest in his memory, Fang Shiming's longing for his wife could no longer be suppressed.

His yearning for his late wife turned into tears that rolled from his eyes.