Chapter 458 I’m pretty good now (4000 words, please vote for me!)
After Jiang Feng left, Ji Xue and Tan Wenwen looked at each other. Neither of them spoke, and they seemed a little embarrassed for a moment.
In fact, Jiang Feng didn't know that Ji Xue and Tan Wenwen hadn't contacted each other for many years.
This time Ji Xue also suddenly received a call from Manager Fang Mei two days ago saying that a woman named Tan Wenwen claimed to be her friend and wanted to contact her, and then she got in touch with Tan Wenwen again.
Ji Xue was surprised and nervous when an old friend came to visit. When she went to pick him up at the train station, she actually didn't say much to Tan Wenwen, just a simple greeting.
"You..."
"Can it be uncovered now?" Tan Wenwen asked.
"Of course." Ji Xue nodded.
Tan Wenwen opened the lid, and the rich and overbearing aroma of Watan Huadiao Chicken with a strong aroma of Huadiao wine hit his face. It quickly occupied this area and quickly spread to the surrounding areas.
The waiters and ladies who were returning to Tai Feng House one after another couldn't help but look towards table 37, wondering why the Watan Huadiao Chicken was served so early. Weren't there customers who came from Manna before the opening time? ?
When Tan Wenwen smelled the smell, she squinted her eyes slightly in intoxication. She quickly opened them again and looked at the Huadiao Chicken in the casserole with a nostalgic look on her face.
“I haven’t smelled this smell in years.”
"Well... how about... you try it?" Ji Xue looked at Tan Wenwen nervously and carefully.
Tan Wenwen picked up a piece of chicken with chopsticks and quickly and accurately picked out a good piece of chicken. The meat was firm and the skin was shiny. It looked particularly dazzling because it was brushed with honey.
At the entrance, the eyebrows are curved.
"It's delicious, but it's still a little worse than what grandpa made." Tan Wenwen said with a smile.
Ji Xue breathed a sigh of relief when Tan Wenwen said this: "I don't have Master Tan's skills."
"But it's already very good." Tan Wenwen looked very happy.
Ji Xue looked at Tan Wenwen, bit her lower lip nervously, and took a deep breath: "Wenwen, don't you think it's strange? Why do I cook this dish?"
"You won't think..."
"What do you think? Did you learn secretly when you were an apprentice in my kitchen?" Tan Wenwen spoke very directly.
Ji Xue stopped talking.
"You were originally an apprentice, so even if you learn, it's nothing." Tan Wenwen suddenly remembered something, raised his neck, and looked at Taifeng Building again, "I took care of grandpa in the hospital during his last period. He kept telling me that he regretted it, and that he should have accepted you as his apprentice in the first place. He taught you how to cook Huadiao Chicken in detail. He said that you are very talented in cooking, but you are clumsy. He often let you work next to him on purpose just to let you see the Huadiao chicken clearly at night. How do you cook a chicken, but you always keep your head down while working and don’t look around.”
"How wonderful it is now, everyone is happy. You have learned the Huadiao Chicken Grandpa's recipe and it has not been lost. He will definitely be very happy under Jiuquan."
Ji Xue looked at Tan Wenwen and was a little excited: "But...but this is your family's dish, I'm just one..."
"Pangpang, what are you worried about?" Tan Wenwen said with a smile, "If we really want to talk about it, it is the whole family who is ashamed of you. Why do you look like you are a thief with a guilty conscience?"
Ji Xue's originally nervous and frightened mood was instantly soothed by the name "Pangpang".
It's been a long time since anyone called her this nickname.
When Ji Xia was a child, she liked chubby things, such as chubby pandas, chubby cats, chubby dogs, or birds that were fed chubby. She even tried to feed her sister chubby when she was very young. , stuffing snacks for Ji Xia all day long.
That's why she got such a fat nickname that didn't match her appearance and figure.
"Do you know how I suddenly contacted you?" Tan Wenwen asked.
"How did you get in touch?" Ji Xue was also curious.
"It's a coincidence. I'm not a senior this year. I haven't been home since I started college. My tuition fees are from loans, and my living expenses are earned from my own part-time job. I'm so busy every day that I don't have any free time. Watch variety shows or do other things this summer. At that time, I found an internship job in a pretty good company and it was relatively stable. During the National Day holiday, I wanted to relax by watching variety shows in my dormitory, and then my roommate recommended the chef competition variety show you participated in. "
"Originally I went for Zhang Guanghang, but I didn't expect to see you on the show. I called and asked the good-flavor company that held the competition, but they said they couldn't disclose the contestant information. I thought there was nothing I could do, but suddenly I thought You cooked Wa Tan Huadiao Chicken in the show. Maybe you are working in another restaurant now, so I searched for this dish online, and then I found Tai Feng Tower." Tan Wenwen smiled as she spoke, "At first I went to find the official WeChat account of Tai Feng Tower, but the staff at the official WeChat account ignored me at all. I was thinking before that if the front desk ignored me, I would just come to Peking and block people at the entrance of your Tai Feng Building. I don’t believe I can’t block you.”
Tan Wenwen said it as if Ji Xue was a heartless man.
Ji Xue burst into laughter and said, "Aren't you afraid that if you can't stop me, someone will call the police and arrest you?"
"I was just blocking the door. I didn't come in to cause trouble. Why did the police arrest me?" Tan Wenwen's eyes widened.
After some laughter, the atmosphere between the two became obviously much better, as if they were back when they were children.
"Pangpang, do you remember the last time we met?" Tan Wenwen held her head and looked at the Huadiao Chicken in the casserole.
"Actually, it was two years ago." Ji Xue said, "I went to Master Tan's funeral, but I didn't dare to go in. I only dared to watch at the door. I saw you, but your parents were nearby and I didn't dare to go over and say hello."
Ji Xue remembers very clearly that Tan Weizhou's funeral was very grand and even very grand. She easily found out the funeral time and had arrived early, but she only dared to watch from a distance and did not dare to go in for fear of being recognized by Tan Lin and his wife.
That day, Tan Lin and his wife, Tan Wenwen and Tan Rui were all standing at the door, and she could clearly see the expressions on their faces even though they were far apart. Only Tan Wenwen and Tan Rui are really sad. Only he knows what Tan Lin is sad about.
She hid outside during the entire funeral that day and did not dare to go in. She even waited until everyone left to pay her respects before she dared to go to the cemetery and place a bouquet of flowers in front of Tan Weizhou's grave.
"Actually, I went to look for you later. After I graduated from high school and got the admission notice, I went to your house to look for you. But after I rang the doorbell, the family told me that your house had been sold a long time ago." Tan Wenwen said. , "I don't know where you moved to, and I don't have your phone number. Neither of us even added you on QQ."
Ji Xue was stunned, obviously not expecting that Tan Wenwen would go to her house to look for her after she left the Tan's Inn.
Once the conversation started, Tan Wenwen couldn't stop talking. Tan Wenwen had been holding back a lot of things and didn't dare to say them when he got off the train. Now that he finally started talking, he naturally wanted to express it quickly.
"Actually, my mother called the police to frame you for stealing the tuna, and I always knew it in my heart. I wanted to tell the police that my mother was lying, but after my mother glared at me, I didn't dare to say it. ." Tan Wenwen smiled bitterly.
"Tuna?"
"You really don't know how the police could call the police for a yellow croaker. My mother reported the case because you stole a bluefin tuna from our store." Tan Wenwen said, "Actually, I saw it that day. My mother went into the kitchen and threw it away. I caught a yellow croaker on the kitchen counter and told me to throw it away, saying I didn’t want the fish anymore. I saw you took it home later.”
"My mother called the police. I originally wanted to tell the truth to the police, but my mother was staring at me and I didn't dare. My mother lied to you. She asked you if you stole a fish and you acted stupidly in front of the police. I admitted it. Later, when I saw that there was nothing wrong with you, I was still deceiving myself to comfort myself. Anyway, you were only expelled by my mother. My mother wanted to expel you when my grandfather revealed that he wanted to accept you as his disciple." br>
"But I didn't expect that they went so far!" Tan Wenwen became excited as he spoke, and even gritted his teeth. "She let you leave a record in the police station, and she actually wanted to continue to pursue the responsibility and let you be charged. Sentenced to jail, if grandpa hadn't told someone and got angry at home, she might have..."
Ji Xue held Tan Wenwen's hand and comforted: "You didn't dare to say that I could understand it at first, and I never blamed you. Although I didn't steal any bluefin tuna, it is true that I stole yellow croaker."< br>
"What kind of fact is that? She said she didn't want the yellow croaker, and you took it away with my acquiescence. If that's called stealing, then what's not stealing!" Tan Wenwen said angrily.
Tan Wenwen calmed down: "I didn't dare to say it at that time. Later, when I went to high school, I knew a lot more. After knowing how terrible it is for a person to have a criminal record, I have always had a guilty conscience. I really wanted to go there at that time. Your family came to apologize to you and took you to tell your grandpa that you actually didn’t steal anything and went to the police station to retract your confession, but I still didn’t dare.”
"After you left the store, my grandfather was actually angry for many years. He thought you really stole the fish. I went to your house to find you during the summer vacation of my senior year in high school and found that you had been in a bad mood after you moved out. You helped in the store. At that time, my mother always liked to hold on to that matter and talk to my grandfather about it. Grandpa said that he had bad taste at first and wanted to accept someone with bad behavior like you as his disciple. Once I couldn't bear it anymore, so I quarreled with my mother in front of grandpa, saying that you didn't steal tuna at all and it was my mother. Report a false police report to frame you.”
"My grandfather was furious and wanted to go to the police station to overturn the case. As a result, my parents knelt down and begged him. If my grandfather went to overturn the case, they would be sentenced to jail if they reported false police reports and framed people. We argued like this for several days. Dad made my grandfather so angry that he fell ill, and he stayed in the hospital until he died."
"It was my dad who came up with the idea to call the police and frame you. He was afraid that my grandpa would take you as his disciple and pass on the cooking method of chickens in the tile altar to you. That's why my grandpa scolded him at that time for being a wolf-hearted man who wasted his heart. Leave aside the fact that they are all black beasts.”
As he spoke, Tan Wenwen became excited again: "My grandfather was not wrong at all. My father is worse than a beast. After my grandfather fell ill, the Tan family restaurant did not have a chef, and my mother hired another one from outside. My father's business as a chef is declining. He hated me and threatened that he would never give me a penny without me as his daughter. If my brother hadn't secretly stuffed me with the pocket money and New Year's money he had saved for so many years, I might have really starved to death. Outside.”
"In the end, he no longer went to the hospital to see grandpa. My brother basically went there. I asked for leave from school during the last period of my grandpa's life and stayed with him in the hospital for more than two weeks until he passed away."
"Pangpang, originally I didn't believe in reincarnation and God's mercy. But now it seems that karma is retribution and the cycle is not good. If you do too many evil things, you will be struck by lightning." Although Tan Wenwen said it calmly, but It can be seen from her expression that she is actually not very happy.
"After my grandfather passed away, Tan's Restaurant was in a state of collapse. Later, he even sold the store. He threw away the miscellaneous items in the store when he couldn't sell them. I asked my brother to secretly keep a casserole as a souvenir. I didn't expect it would come in handy now. I remember my grandpa originally said to do it. The longer the Watan Huadiao Chicken Casserole is used, the better the Huadiao Chicken will be. It is the same as the purple clay pot for boiling traditional Chinese medicine. The older it is, the better the effect will be." Tan Wenwen said and laughed again, "Originally, I just wanted to stay. As a souvenir, it seems that I did the right thing.”
"Now... how is your family?" Ji Xue asked tentatively.
"It's not that good. My dad has always been used to spending a lot of money, and he lives like a dissolute young man. He himself has no skills. He has spent almost all the money from selling the store in the past two years. Now he lives a tight life and spends time with my mother at home every day. Quarreling. It’s just pity that my brother is still in high school. I have to stay at home. I haven't been back for the Chinese New Year or the Chinese New Year in several years. I took my brother over during the holidays," Tan Wenwen said, "Let's not talk about the unpleasant things. Let me talk about you. , how have you been these years? ”
"It's good." Ji Xue smiled, "My mother's breast cancer has been cured. Although my father's disease is not cured yet, but... at least he is still alive. Originally, his job was quite unstable. I kept changing and doing odd jobs. I started working in this store in July this year. The person who helped me serve food just now was my boss. He also worked in the kitchen. Their family’s craftsmanship was passed down from ancestors. ”
"Xia Xia became a disciple of him and is now his apprentice learning crafts from him. I now have food and accommodation included and a very high salary. My boss and colleagues are also very nice. Everything is fine."< br>
Ji Xue didn't want to tell Tan Wenwen what happened in the past few years, because she knew that would only make Tan Wenwen feel more guilty.
Not every fourteen-year-old or fifteen-year-old child has the courage to resist their parents. Even if they know that what their parents did is wrong, they only dare to bury that justice in their hearts.
"That's great." Tan Wenwen smiled.
"Hurry up and eat the food. We've been talking for so long and it's already cold. This dish is called Crab Stuffed Orange and it's our boss's specialty. This bowl of fried soybean noodles is made by Xia Xia." Ji Xue introduced.
"Oh, really, you didn't tell me earlier. You should have told me to eat the noodles made by Xia Xia from the beginning. Now they must be lumpy after being left out for so long." Tan Wenwen pretended to be angry. Just now Because the unhappiness caused by talking about it disappeared in an instant.
"The one who picked me up at the door just now must be Xia Xia. I recognized her, but she didn't recognize me at all! It's a shame that I stuffed her with so many Dove chocolates. She's such a heartless child. ." Tan Wenwen laughed and scolded.
"How old was Xia Xia when you stuffed her with chocolate? She wasn't even 10 years old. How could Xia Xia remember it after so many years?" Ji Xue naturally wanted to protect Xia Xia.
"Okay, I can't compare to you. If you eat vegetables, your noodles will become lumpy."
There was a lot of laughter. (End of chapter)