Redeeming a New Recipe

The tricycle drove clear of the food street, and even the aroma of scallion pancakes seemed to vanish all at once. The stall area, bustling just moments earlier, instantly fell into a deathly silence heavy with resentment.

The old man and the young man who had dared to criticize Shen Chuan in public-the two greatest warriors present-had completely lost their nerve, both shrinking into themselves.

The old man's scalp prickled as he waved his hands frantically, begging for mercy:

"Stop glaring at me! I really didn't know Boss Shen was so thin-skinned! I was just grumbling a little!"

"Besides, I don't even know how it slipped out. I regret it too!"

"Honestly, young man, you've got no filter either. I was only muttering to myself, but then I happened to hear what you said, and it just came out!"

The young man beside him wanted to cry but had no tears, wishing he could disappear on the spot.

If he had come earlier tomorrow, he might still have gotten a scallion pancake. Now he had ruined everything!

Someone said through gritted teeth, "You two are really something! We queued our asses off and roasted in the sun just for a pancake, and you two talked Boss Shen straight into taking a day off!"

"True warriors! You dared to say right to Boss Shen's face what none of us dared to say!"

"Great, now none of us get to eat tomorrow!"

Someone else completely lost it, not knowing whether to laugh or cry:

"Just think about it. Boss Shen only opens his stall for two hours a day and makes so few pancakes. Does that sound like a hardworking man? Maybe he doesn't even need the money. With skills like his, I refuse to believe he's short on cash! So maybe he really is just running a stall for fun."

Surrounded by accusations, the old man wilted completely, looking as though he had nothing left to live for.

He had lived more than half his life, never imagining that his mouth would offend so many people at once. That alone would have been bad enough, but with Boss Shen not opening tomorrow, his own hopes of getting scallion pancakes were gone too!

Cool air drifted from the air conditioner inside the food cart as it traveled down the road.

Leaning back against his seat, Shen Chuan checked today's Show-off Points in his mind. As he looked at that string of numbers, he could not quite suppress the slight upward curl of his lips, yet he kept a deliberately solemn expression, with a hint of aloofness as though he had been "deeply hurt."

As Jiang Wenyan drove, he tentatively tried to persuade him:

"Boss Shen, everyone really knows they were wrong. Won't you consider opening for just a little while tomorrow?"

Shen Chuan raised his eyes slightly, his tone calm and serious, his humblebragging turned up to the max:

"Creating fine food requires the right state of mind. When that state is disturbed, the food loses some of its flavor."

[Ding! Show-off Points +35!]

Well...

What else could Jiang Wenyan possibly say?

"You're right. Then get a good day's rest tomorrow, Boss Shen. Be sure to stay in good spirits, enjoy yourself every day, and don't wear yourself out."

Seeing his miserable expression, Shen Chuan almost failed to keep up the act and simply turned to look out the window.

By now, the sky had gone completely dark.

With air conditioning at the stall today, he had not felt nearly as uncomfortable as he used to after a day's work. Even in a suit, he had not felt particularly hot. Shen Chuan felt the money had been well spent.

He got to enjoy himself and show off at the same time.

Once home, the first thing Shen Chuan did was shower. The smell of cooking fumes clung to him after working in the kitchen, and he never felt quite comfortable without washing it off.

Then it was time to redeem a recipe.

His current balance totaled 1,350 Show-off Points.

He could redeem a recipe that cost a thousand.

Shen Chuan opened the redemption tab, and the names of a whole assortment of snacks flashed before his eyes.

He had already looked through the recipes costing 500 points. None were particularly suitable for showing off, and they would not fetch high prices either.

The recipes costing a thousand points offered far more options, but he still needed to choose carefully.

Every snack catered to different regional tastes and different groups of customers, and he also had to consider how easy the ingredients would be to find.

Practically none of the ingredients at the market met the standards, unless he was willing to put considerable effort into searching stall by stall.

His own tastes and preferences mattered too.

Shen Chuan flipped through the pages and took a liking to donkey meat huoshao.

A piping-hot huoshao stuffed with richly fragrant, flavorful donkey meat-with each bite, the bread would be crisp and tender outside, soft and chewy within, the aroma of donkey meat seeping into it. Just thinking about it made his mouth water.

But the ingredients were a problem.

Donkey meat was hardly common, and the God of Cooking System's donkey meat huoshao would surely have very high standards for it. Ordinary donkey meat bought online would definitely fall short. Wouldn't that just be making trouble for himself?

So, after some deliberation, Shen Chuan passed over donkey meat huoshao and finally redeemed the roujiamo recipe.

Fresh, farm-raised heritage pork, braised in a superb, god-tier braising sauce, with fat and lean interspersed, rich without being greasy. Then came bread so crisp it shed crumbs, sliced open with a knife and filled with chopped meat, followed by a spoonful of braising sauce. With one bite, the juices hidden in the braised pork would spill through the mouth. Who could resist that?

Roujiamo used relatively simple ingredients, appealed to a wider audience, allowed for steady stall operations, and looked good too.

With juices spilling from the finished product, making it on-site would be quite a spectacle, perfect for farming Show-off Points.

"Looks like I'll have to head to the countryside tomorrow and find some home-raised heritage pigs. I should be able to find some this time of year, right?"

Muttering to himself, Shen Chuan entered the System Space to learn how to make roujiamo.

Meanwhile, He Wencai did not get home until after nine. His wife had been waiting for ages. Hearing the door open, she was just about to ask why he was so late when she spotted the scallion pancakes in his hand.

After going to all that trouble to get the chive pockets, He Wencai had naturally brought some home for his wife too. She had become a die-hard Boss Shen fan as well, but with the weather so hot and the sun so fierce, she did not want to queue herself for fear of getting tanned. So He Wencai queued to buy scallion pancakes for her.

"Honey, you're home! Thanks for spending over two hours out in the sun. I chilled some watermelon in the fridge. I was just waiting for you to come home and eat it."

After greeting him, she bent down, took his indoor shoes out of the cabinet, and set them in front of him.

He Wencai handed his wife the scallion pancakes, changed his shoes, and hurried over to the air conditioner. Only after standing in the blast of cool air for a while and eating the chilled watermelon his wife brought him did he recover.

"I got off work early at five today to queue. That should've been plenty early, but traffic was backed up near the food street, and Boss Shen didn't arrive until after five. There were even more people, and I almost didn't get any. I was out in the sun so long I nearly got heatstroke."

His wife had already started enjoying the delicious scallion pancakes. Hearing He Wencai mention heatstroke, she grew a little worried.

"Then how about taking a vial of Huoxiang Zhengqi liquid to relieve it?"

"Not today. Put two vials in my briefcase for me. If it's too hot when I queue next time, I'll take one beforehand to prevent it. First, I've got something important to do."

He Wencai picked up his phone and called his family back home. The moment the call connected, his mother's scolding came through.

"You brat, what are you calling for? Don't tell me you want to ravage my vegetable patch again. Our family only has that little plot for our own use, and you certainly know how to wreck it! That patch of chives had just grown in, and you ruined the whole lot in one go, pinching off all the tenderest parts..."

Country folk treasured everything they grew in their fields. He Wencai knew that selecting ingredients that way had gone too far, so he quietly took the scolding. Only after his mother finished did he ask, "Mom, I'd like some more free-range eggs and chives. Could you help ask around the village?"

He was craving them!

He could not eat the scallion pancakes, so he could only work on getting chive pockets.

Otherwise, smelling that aroma every day without being able to eat any was harder to endure than quitting smoking had been!