Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
It was now the era of the Internet. Let alone a shop, even a beggar would have an Alipay account.
A random noodle restaurant or snack bar by the side of the street would have registered an account online.
Even the stalls in front Yuan Zhou’s restaurant had Wechat and Alipay accounts. Therefore, having a charged mobile phone was very important.
Therefore, when Big Steamed Bun saw that this restaurant was not on the Meituan application, he assumed it was definitely incredibly unpopular.
If one walked in the direction behind the business public square, the buildings they saw would get lower and lower while their appearance would look more and more simple.
Bringing Big Steamed Bun along, Qin Xiaoyi took a turn and entered the back street of a high rise building.
In fact, the buildings here had been around for about 20 years. The surroundings of this area had all been bought by real estate companies and rebuilt into the business district, while this area looked ancient. Even the signboard on the roadside was filled with rust. The words indicating the name of this road on the signboard were already fading. Because of this, when Big Steamed Bun looked at the signboard, he couldn’t read what was on it.
“Is it because this area is surrounded by the business district? The facilities on this street are still nicely maintained. And the trashcans and the sidewalk benches all looked new,” Big Steamed Bun wondered.
Qin Xiaoyi and Big Steamed Bun strolled around this obscure street and could vaguely hear the theme song of The Return of the Condor Heroes playing. This was a series that Big Steamed Bun hated.
In a way, he was given the Big Steamed Bun nickname because of the Small Bun nickname one of the actresses on the show had. The street wasn’t long. Therefore, they reached their destination shortly after.
“We’re here.” Qin Xiaoyi stopped, took his number and joined the queue in a familiar manner.
“You need to take a number and queue just for a meal? Does the owner of this restaurant think he’s opening a bank instead? He must be mad,” Big Steamed Bun muttered.
“This restaurant has very good business as the Chengdu School’s Sichuan Cuisines cooked by the boss here is very very good,” Qin Xiaoyi said, emphasizing on the term Chengdu School’s Sichuan Cuisine.
Big Steamed Bun merely gave him a sideways glance and sneered. How good could it be? Could it make someone feel like they were in heaven?
While queuing up, Big Steamed Bun sized up the restaurant. This whole street was quite remote. After all, they came over from the business district. Therefore, the contrast of the buildings at the business district and this place was quite huge. When he looked at the restaurant, he found that what Qin Xiaoyi said earlier was true. This shop did not even have a sign.
Moreover, there was only one waitress here. When Big Steamed Bun saw this, he felt relieved. He would be able to stay his ground if this was the kind of restaurant Qin Xiaoyi was trying to use against him.
After about 20 minutes, they managed to get a seat. Qin Xiaoyi purposely selected a seat where Big Steamed Bun would have his back to the wall menu.
“Excuse me, what would you like to order?”
As usual, Zhou Jia came and asked what they wanted. She was paying close attention to Qin Xiaoyi as the scene of Qin Xiaoyi fighting over food with Happy previously was still fresh in her memory.
Qin Xiaoyi did not bother reading the menu. He directly ordered, “One Twice Cooked Pork, one Yuxiang Shredded Pork, one White Oil Tofu, and two bowls of white rice from the 100 Styles of Rice Cuisine. Thank you.”
Zhou Jia gave the standard reply of please be seated before passing the order to Yuan Zhou. Then, she continued serving the other customers. It had been a while since she started working here. Therefore, she was getting more and more familiar with her job.
“I was wondering what kind of place you are bringing me to. So it’s this place? This is the so-called restaurant with the authentic Chengdu School’s Sichuan Cuisines?” Big Steamed Bun expressed his disappointment.
As a matter of fact, the origins of the Chengdu School of Sichuan Cuisines was the story of a process. First, it was the Shancheng that had focused on the spiciness to create a new and spicy subcategory in the Sichuan Cuisines, called the Chongqing School. There was a saying at Shancheng that there should be grains in every meal, while chilies should be used like clothes. And because the Chongqing School grew more and more distant from the other Sichuan Cuisines, the Chengdu School of Sichuan Cuisines, a different subcategory in the Sichuan Cuisines came into existence.
The other subcategory of Sichuan Cuisines was the Salt Cuisine, and had their own traditions and main dishes as well.
Strictly speaking, the Chengdu School of Sichuan Cuisines had always existed as it was a traditional Sichuan Cuisine. And because it had never changed, it was not as well-known as the Chongqing School. This cuisine did not even have an official Master Chef. How good could a chef from a remote place like this be?
“Don’t worry. You will know after eating the food,” Qin Xiaoyi said with confidence.
Looking at how sure Qin Xiaoyi sounded, Big Steamed Bun looked at him in suspicion. He started looking left and right, preparing to properly observe this restaurant.
What he did was the instinctive reaction of a human. When a human arrived at an unfamiliar location, that person would definitely be studying the surroundings.
Right this moment, Qin Xiaoyi suddenly spoke, “By the way, I feel like I beat the game you mentioned yesterday by myself.”
“No way. That French style Chinese checkers is very hard to beat. From the start, you have to start planning your steps ahead. How could you beat the game after playing it only one time?” Big Steamed Bun immediately turned and shook his head repeatedly. Disbelief filled his face.
“You don’t believe me? Take out your phone. Let me show you,” Qin Xiaoyi stretched his hand out and confidently said.
“Sure. Show me,” Big Steamed Bun started getting competitive as he spoke. He passed his phone over and waited for Qin Xiaoyi to fail so he could laugh at him.
Qin Xiaoyi heaved a breath of relief when he saw that he got Big Steamed Bun’s full attention.
“Good thing I have smart wits.” Qin Xiaoyi rejoiced.
That’s right. Qin Xiaoyi was planning to give Big Steamed Bun a huge surprise and did not intend to let him know the name of this restaurant. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be fun anymore.
To keep the name of this restaurant from Big Steamed Bun, he had purposely taken a long detour when bringing him here.
Would Big Steamed Bun be pleasantly surprised? Or would he be shocked?
That was why Qin Xiaoyi started talking about Chinese checkers with Big Steamed Bun to distract him.
This distraction of Qin Xiaoyi proved very successful. There were not many customers in the restaurant. More importantly, Big Steamed Bun had never been here before even though he had heard of Yuan Zhou’s restaurant. He had never planned to come in the first place due to the overpriced food here.
And with Qin Xiaoyi careful planning, Big Steamed Bun was completely oblivious as to where this was.
Time flew as they were playing checkers. In any case, Yuan Zhou’s cooking speed had always been fast.
Before Qin Xiaoyi could even finish one game of checkers, Zhou Jia had already arrived with a tray.
“Customers, your Twice Cooked Pork is here. Enjoy your meal,” Zhou Jia gently placed the dish down.
“Come, give it a try. This is the orthodox Twice Cooked Pork from the Chengdu School of Sichuan Cuisines,” Qin Xiaoyi said while quickly stuffing a piece of meat into his mouth.
“Ohh, the meat is aromatic, fat yet not greasy, and it even has a sweet scent attached to it,” Qin Xiaoyi remarked, a satisfied look on his face.
“Heh, just a pork belly meat. You are exaggerating things too much,” Big Steamed Bun did not believe what Qin Xiaoyi was saying.
Inwardly, he already gave this dish zero marks.
“Try it,” Qin Xiaoyi had been telling him to try this dish many times. This time, he only spoke two words and nothing else.
“Of course I will give it a try. This will decide who’s paying for the meal today,” Big Steamed Bun said and directly picked up a piece of Twice Cooked Pork with his chopsticks and stuffed it into his mouth.
One instant before the meat entered his mouth, he already came out with numerous critiques for this dish. He was only waiting to say them after he ate it.
Alas, he no longer had anything to say as he was immediately dumbstruck after tasting the dish. The aroma spreading in his mouth occupied the entirety of his brain capacity.
And the delicious flavor traveled down his tongue to stimulate his stomach, causing him to start chomping on the dish before he could say anything.
