“Hmm, I don’t want to be a thug anymore, so I decided to be the boss’s attendant,” Zhao Feng answered with a smile.
“I think you are fawning on my dear boss to get some delicious food. Hmph. However, being an attendant of the boss is better than being a thug. You’d better think hard about being boss’s attendant,” Liang Mengqi curled her lips and said, not believing his words.
“I’ve already left the gang,” Zhao Feng slightly shook his head and said.
“Really?” Seeing his expression, Liang Mengqi somewhat believed him. She looked Zhao Feng up and down, then snorted and said, “Whether you have left or not has nothing to do with me. I only like our boss.”
“You can’t like my PaPa, hum,” said Mengmeng, who stood on the side warily.
This beautiful elder sister is the most dangerous person. She is always saying that she loves PaPa. Hum, I’ll definitely tell MaMa when she comes back.
“Not only do I like your PaPa, but I also like you. Hee, hee, hee,” Liang Mengqi said while laughing.
“No way.” Mengmeng pouted and turned her head away.
After Zhang Han opened the door, the entire group walked into the restaurant.
“Boss, what shall we have for lunch today?” Yu Qingqing glanced at the counter in the kitchen and asked.
“Why do you always ask so many questions? Just eat what the boss makes.” Liang Mengqi rolled her eyes at Yu Qingqing.
“Qingqing is a carnivore. Boss, when will we have a complete pork banquet again?” Interjected Zhao Dahu.
“The next time I feel like it.” Zhang Han casually replied, “There’s also some meat with lunch today. You can sample sausage fried rice.”
“A new product! How interesting!” Yu Qingqing’s eyes lit up. The smell of sausage made her mouth water.
Zhao Feng and the other people sat at the usual table and chatted.
Zhang Han put Mengmeng on the sofa and asked her to watch TV for a while, then he went to the kitchen to prepare lunch.
Sausage fried rice was similar to egg fried rice, it just had sausage and less egg. This kind of fried rice was filled with the flavor of sausage.
The sausage Zhang Han added was red sausage, which could be called Harbin sausage, and came from the northeast area of China. It originated from Lithuania in Eastern Europe. When the Mid-east railway was under construction, large quant.i.ties of foreigners packed into Harbin and brought their knowledge on making sausages.
Its original name was boudin, and it had spanned nearly a century of history since it was introduced into Harbin. Due to its purplish-red appearance, it was gradually named red sausage.
After so many years, Harbin red sausage had already become one of the main specialties of Northeast China. Generally speaking, people who went traveling to Harbin would choose to bring this specialty back to their relatives who had not tried it. A few years ago, Harbin red sausage had even been selected as one of the 14 Overseas Chinese Miss Most Snacks on CNN. The reason they had given had been that Harbin red sausage was chewier than the hot dogs of North American and more delicious than English sausage.
Of course, living in a society where things were easy to order, people were likely to buy fake products. There were several major brands of Harbin red sausage: Harbin Meat Co, Churin Leadfoods, Shangwei. Relatively speaking, these three were the most famous. If you wanted to buy authentic red sausages, you needed to check the designated place of sale.
The red sausage of Harbin Meat Co possessed many t.i.tles, such as China’s Time-honored Brand, Intangible Cultural Heritage of Heilongjiang Province, and so on. Red sausage produced by Churin Leadfoods was considered to be the most authentic Harbin red sausage, adopting traditional European techniques. While the red sausage of Shangwei was sold neither in branches nor on the Internet. If you wanted to buy some, you have to queue up at midnight in front of the store. If you arrived late, you would only see five words on the door: Red sausages are sold out.
Zhang Han had eaten all three of these authentic red sausages in the past, and each of them tasted very good, possessing their own distinct flavors.
However, Zhang Han preferred the red sausage produced by Churin Leadfoods, which was fat but not greasy, while still containing the fragrance of fat meat, so he asked Zhao Feng to get them to make some Churin-style red sausages when he sent them pork. Although the technology might not be authentic, the grade of the pork from the Tai Lake Black Swines growing in Mount New Moon exceeded 5A.
Just before the meal was ready, a worker of the delicatessen brought the sausages.
When he delivered the three big bags of sausages to Zhang Han, he could not help but ask repeatedly,
“Sir, may I know where you got that pork? Can you tell me?”
“That pork is not available to individuals because it is specially set aside for n.o.bility.” Liang Mengqi said in an eccentric tone.
“Ah? It’s set aside?” The worker’s face flashed with disappointment as he sighed repeatedly, then said, “No wonder the red sausages I made were so fragrant and the meat was of high quality. It was the first time for me to see such excellent meat in all my years of making sausages. Alas, it is specially supplied.”
“Mmm.” Zhang Han shook his head slightly and said nothing. He took the sausages and put them on the counter in the back.
“I should leave now.” The worker excused himself and left.
Upon exiting and seeing so many people queuing at the front of the restaurant, he shook his head repeatedly.
“The boss can get special pork. Ah, he’s so awesome. No wonder the business is unbelievably good. He’s so formidable.”
For him, it’s very impressive to get special food, but he did not know that the food actually eaten by n.o.bility could not be compared to the food from Mount New Moon. That was to say, the royal dishes were not even as good as the Egg fried rice eaten by the normal customers in this restaurant.
If these customers knew the truth, they would probably be greatly excited.
After the rice was steamed, Zhang Han began to cook. At noon, Zhang Han only prepared two large pots of red sausage fried rice and did not even make noodle soup.
Because the amount of rice was quite large, Zhang Han took out ten red sausages and cut them into small pieces.
As he cut the sausages, a subtle fragrance of red sausage wafted through the restaurant.
“Huh?” Mengmeng was in a daze for a while. She stood up from the sofa, looked at Zhang Han, and said, “PaPa, is that ham? I want some.”
“Okay.” Zhao Han smiled, then cut off a thumb size piece of red sausage and gave it to Mengmeng.
“It smells so delicious.” Mengmeng grabbed the sausage and nibbled on it while singing its praises.
“Grumble…”
On the other side, Yu Qingqing’s eyes never left the sausages, and the sound of her saliva was clearly audible.
“You are being tempted by the sausages.” Liang Mengqi rolled eyes, but she was also secretly swallowing saliva.
“Boss, can we try a small piece?” Seeing how Yu Qingqing was acting, Zhao Dahu could not help but ask.
After glancing at them, Zhang Han lowered his head, raised his knife, and cut a red sausage into four small pieces, then he picked them up and threw them directly towards these people.
“Ah!”
It happened to fast that it frightened Yu Qingqing. She wanted to stand up and catch the sausage, only to find that one of the pieces flew directly into her palm, and that she did not even need to move.
“Wow, what a good shot.” After looking at Zhang Han with surprise, Liang Mengqi took the sausage, put it up to her mouth, took a small bite, and then slowly chewed it.
The shape and movement of her lips made Zhao Feng feel a little excited as his imagination wandered off.
Liang Mengqi, however, was completely intoxicated by the taste of the red sausage. She could feel the crisp skin layer, tough meat, and even a little bits of chewy meat pieces in her first bite. The fat inside melted into her mouth, giving it a smokey flavor along with the meat and garlic taste that filled her whole mouth.
“Cool!”
Yu Qingqing ate up the small piece of sausage in two bites and comfortably let out a cry.
Since the sausage tasted really good, she looked forward to the fried rice!
Right as the meal was ready to be served, w.a.n.g Qiang and Wu Liying arrived.
The little princess watched PaPa cooking while eating sausage. When w.a.n.g Qiang and Wu Liying came in, Mengmeng’s eyes lit up. She looked around with her bright eyes and said,
“Oh, where is Yihan? Uncle w.a.n.g, why didn’t Yihan come?”
“She went to her grandmother’s house and will be back in a few days.” w.a.n.g Qiang gave a wry smile as he remembered the scene from last night.
w.a.n.g Jiawen and Su Yu were going to take w.a.n.g Yihan to her grandmother’s house in Shen Zhen, but the little girl was extremely unwilling and only wanted to play with Mengmeng for a few days. However, since she had to celebrate her grandmother’s birthday, even crying did not help. She was taken away by w.a.n.g Jiawen and Su Yu with a helpless expression.
After hearing what he said, Mengmeng blinked her big eyes and said in a little disappointed tone, “Okay.”
After she finished speaking, the little princess looked at the red sausage in her hand and thought for a moment. Suddenly she said, “Uncle w.a.n.g, the red sausage is delicious. You, you, can take some to Yihan and let her taste them.”
“Ah ha.” w.a.n.g Qiang laughed happily and said, “Thank you, Mengmeng. But Yihan went to the mainland, so she can’t sample them even if I take them back. She won’t be able to eat them until she returns. At that time she can play with you as well.”
“Well… Okay.” Mengmeng reluctantly nodded.
This scene caused other to be very envious!
It wasn’t long until the fried rice was ready. Zhang Han also cooked Szechwan style potato strips and cuc.u.mbers with garlic sauce.
Lunch began.
As Zhang Han began to eat at the round table, Sun Dongheng rushed into the restaurant with red eyes.
“Hey? What’s up? Why are you crying?” Seeing him, Zhao Dahu asked with a look of confusion.
“Nothing…” Sun Dongheng closed his mouth and looked at Zhang Han, quivering as he spoke, “Boss, I want to get some meals to go.”
“Go on.” Zhang Han nodded and answered.
“Mmm.” Sun Dongheng stepped towards the counter, took out some disposable meal boxes, and wept as he packed.
“What’s wrong with you? Were you bullied? Why didn’t your parents come with you?” Zhao Dahu asked again.
Since he had some good conversations with Sun Dongheng several times before, and both of them were members of the restaurant, they knew a little about each other after coming into contact many times. At this time, he felt very strange when he saw this cheerful young man shedding tears, so he greeted him with concern.
“My father… He’s in the hospital,” Sun Dongheng said sadly.
“What’s wrong with him?”
“Cancer.” Sun Dongheng said in a bitter tone.
“What!”
“Oh, my G.o.d! Erm…”
Zhao Dahu’s and the other people’s faces all changed slightly. Zhao Dahu also got up and walked to Sun Dongheng with a mixture of feelings, then gently patted him on the back, and placated him a little, “Stop crying, is your father in the intermediate stage or…”
“He’s in the terminal stage.” Sun Dongheng gritted his teeth and wiped away his tears, saying, “He’ll have chemotherapy in the afternoon. Before that, I want him to eat the food here…”
After hearing Sun Dongheng’s sad words, everyone sighed repeatedly. Judging from their contact with Su Ming, they believed he was a good man. It was really a pity that he was suffering from cancer.
Mengmeng was listening but did not fully understand. Seeing the elder brother crying, she scrunched up her face, looked at Zhang Han and said in a low voice, “PaPa, elder brother is crying so hard. What’s wrong with Uncle Sun? How can this nice uncle get sick? Will he feel very painful in the hospital and cry?”
Hearing Mengmeng’s words, Zhang Han put down his chopsticks and looked at Mengmeng, whose innocent eyes were imbued with kindness.
“Ask your father not to have chemotherapy first and come here in the afternoon.”
“Ah?”
Hearing what he said, Sun Dongheng froze. He did not know what the boss meant and could not react. He was at a loss at this point.
Zhao Feng quickly stood up and walked quickly to Sun Dongheng, taking him out of the restaurant. When they approached Sun Dongheng’s car, Zhao Feng slowly said,
“Just do as the boss said. Just because the illness cannot be cured by the hospital does not mean it cannot be cured by others. Take your father here. Perhaps there is hope that the boss can cure him.”
—————