“Good morning Jin.” Si Fang, the owner of Lele Cafe, greeted Jin at his doorstep. “Boss Si Fang, what is the matter?”
“I was opening my store for the morning and coincidentally saw you talking with one of your customers. I became inclined to pay you a visit.” Si Fang tried to be polite but Jin knew what he was here for.
“Ah, the coupon booklet? I was about to give it to you in the afternoon since I did not know what time you are available. Give me a moment.” Jin took the coupon booklet out of his storage watch and passed it to Si Fang.
“Thanks, Jin! And here I was thinking that you had totally forgotten about it so I was about to remind you.” Si Fang received the coupon booklet and started to browse it. He was pleasantly surprised to see that despite it being a prototype, it was all printed neatly in an appealing format. Si Fang had originally thought that he would need to send it to the print stores again.
“This is amazing! The new cover page of the coupon booklet is so eye catching and flashy! Your coupons seem more than reasonable…in fact, the deals practically make it like a freebie. Are you sure you will not end up in debt by the end of this month?”
“I have my ways to recover my losses. If this month coupon booklet can help the Tiangong shopping district, then it will have served its purpose well.” Jin replied.
“This is better than anything we have ever made! I will show it to the rest of the committee members but in my opinion, I feel that your version will get the approval quite quickly. Initially, I was expecting snippets or draft coupons and we would have to discuss how to format and design the booklet. I guess I worried for nothing.” Si Fang gave a thumbs up and continued to praise Jin.
“It is nothing much, I just happened to know someone who is capable of making beautiful designs. However, I do not think I will be able to participate in other monthly coupon booklets. In fact, this will most likely be my first and last time.” Jin broke the news to Si Fang early.
“Why? Are you moving out or something?” Si Fang assumed the worst since he knew this shopping district was not exactly the best place to attract customers despite it being near to a business district as well as the Huawee Tech campuses.
“No, I anticipate I will be busy with certain matters that require my personal attention in the future…” Jin portrayed it vaguely but Si Fang got the idea. Besides, Jin was not exactly a part of the Tiangong shopping district in the first place, so he was not obligated to be a part of the coupon booklet.
Si Fang wanted Jin’s store in the booklet because he saw potential Jin could bring. Perhaps Si Fang thought that if he could help Jin scratch his back, Jin would likewise do the same for him in the future.
“I understand, but if you wish to join in the future, just tell us. I should be able to pull some strings.” Si Fang thanked Jin and told him that he would visit again to announce the results of the approval process.
———–
After tens of minutes of taking stock of the ingredients required for her Black Pepper Pork Bun recipe, Zhen Qing laid all the ingredients she needed on a wide kitchen counter. She was already shocked by the quality of meat the moment she took the pork belly out of the freezer. Zhen Qing did not even need to taste it. Just from the rich colour of the pork meat, the odour and the meat texture, she was easily able to tell that what Jin procured for her was no ordinary pork belly meat.
She tried asking the kitchen AI and to her surprise, the AI answered that the slabs of pork belly meat came from the British Berkshire Pig, which was prized for their juiciness, flavour and tenderness. The pork’s high fat content made it ideal for high temperature cooking. Even with her limited and out-dated cooking knowledge, she knew that this pig was considered rare and hard to breed.
Even if the Kitchen AI made a mistake, the physical properties of the slab of pork belly made her feel embarrassed she was using such an expensive meat for her simplistic bun. No wonder Jin said that he wanted her to increase the price of the black pepper pork bun.
However, the quality of the ingredient was one thing, but the skills of the cook mattered too. If Zhen Qing was not able to bring out the intrinsic flavour of the British Berkshire Pig, it would be a failure and a waste of such expensive pork. It had been a long time since Zhen Qing encountered a cooking obstacle rather than a more physical one, such as running from the inspectors or meeting rowdy gangsters.
Subsequently, Zhen Qing found that the pork belly meat was not the only exquisite item in the pantry. The rice wine was fermented for many years, the oyster sauce was organically made without any added MSG. Even the sea salt that she requested was taken from at least a few hundred metres deep in the sea. The more she heard from the Kitchen AI, the more amazed and confused she became.
Why did Jin wants to hire her when his ingredients were top notched? Even a normal hotel chef would have better qualifications and experience than her when it came to handling this kind of food. Or was it that Jin managed to find out that Zhen Qing was once qualified to be a chef champion for an international cooking contest until scandals hit her hard? She suddenly shook her head vigorously.
“Impossible, I have dyed my hair regularly and changed my identity. He would never have been able to find out about that.” Zhen Qing tossed that thought away.
“I will give it a try first and see if the current recipe works on the new ingredients.” Zhen Qing did not have any confidence at the moment when it came to preparing a large number of ingredients the way she had always did. She decided to try a batch of black pepper pork buns to see if the richness of taste clashed with her original recipe.
———-
“Why are you moving so slowly? Faster!” Zeru knocked Xiong Da’s thigh as he saw Xiong Da did not squat low enough when he was doing a series of jumping squats. In less than 40 minutes, Zeru had already made Xiong Da perform 5 sets of 50 push ups, an 8 second 100 metre sprint, 50 sit ups and 50 squats.
“This is too tough…” Xiong Da complained but every time he did that, he noticed that an onigiri was taken away from the tray that Jin had placed in front of Zeru and him as refreshments.
“That will be one less onigiri for you.” Zeru smiled as he feasted on the rice onigiri, making Xiong Da cry as he continued to do his squats.
“Aren’t you an AI instructor? How do you even eat the onigiri?” Xiong Da complained once more.
“Maybe I am AI. Maybe I am real. Who knows, and honestly, who cares? What really matters is that you complete your training.” Zeru laughed loudly as he enjoyed the scrumptious onigiri.
“Why am I doing such simple training? Don’t you have more exciting ones?” Xiong Da tried to change the subject.
“Sure, How about 60 squats instead of 50? Will that be exciting enough for you?” Zeru folded his arms and mentally counted the number of times Xiong Da had squat. “In any case, this exercise routine touches on many major movement patterns and it’s more natural than many other methods I have. Also, I do not know how much your overly large body can handle, so this will incur less injury in the long run.” Zeru started to explain.
“What is most important is that you are working on your strength and cardio so that you will be able to last longer in a fight. Since you say Ji Ao fights dirty and uses a pair of Sais, I am assuming he is leaning more towards agility than strength. Even the Crazy Crocodile style is based on agility. You might have the power from Hungry Hippo, but if you do not have the stamina to withstand his speedy attacks, you will fail too.” Zeru gave a proper explanation about why he chose to do this particular exercise routine for Xiong Da.
“Now that you know the reason, give me 5 more sets before I let you eat whatever onigiri remains.” Zeru knocked on Xiong Da’s thigh once more and all Xiong Da could do was to bear with the pain.
