Here Comes The Lady Chef

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Zhou Shi was sewing using the light of the lamp when she heard the sound of the door opening. She looked up and saw her husband, Wen Shouzhen entering the room with a happy expression on his face. Behind him was Wen Rou, who was as calm as the waters in the lake.

"Hubby, you are home!" Zhou Shi greeted them.

"Hehehehe." Wen Shouzhen sat on the chair. When he thought of what happened in the kitchen today, he could not resist laughing out loud again.

Zhou Shi was surprised at her husband weird behaviour. But she did not think much of it and asked, "Hubby, you are back much earlier than usual. Have you eaten your dinner?"

"Hehehehe." Wen Shouzhen continued to sit there and grin like a madman.

"Mother, Father had brought back some food from the restaurant. Have you eaten?" Wen Rou looked her father who was grinning happily and occasionally breaking out in guffaws. She could not help feeling that her dad is very funny.

"Hubby, stop with the hehehehe! It is driving me nuts! Quickly bring out the food so that I may heat up the food!" By now, Zhou Shi was a bit annoyed at her husband and pushed her husband.

"Oh, yes!" Wen Shouzhen finally regained his wits. He reached into his pockets, and brought out the beef and steamed buns.

"Rou Er, eat more! When you are full, Father will help you to brew the wine!" Wen Shouzhen suddenly recalled that he still has an important task to do tonight. This is a big business!

If Manager Lee kept his word, and pay 1 tael of silver for each jar of wine, hehehehe….

Wen Shouzhen had suddenly gone bonkers and continued to laugh every now and then again.

After dinner, Zhou Shi continued her needlework.

This morning Wen Ting had mentioned that he is quite busy, and have been staying in the school grounds recently. The most important reason for Wen Ting"s absence is to avoid his father!

As a father, Wen Shouzhen is quite biased. He was very warm and friendly to Wen Rou. But when he saw Wen Ting, he often frowned and was cold to his son. There is a Chinese saying

恨铁不成钢，爱之深责之切 [1]

If you love someone, you are more likely to have high expectations for him.
But sometimes he could not meet the expectations, and this creates conflicts.
When a person you love made a mistake, his flaws made him feel guilty.
The more you love him, the guiltier he feels.

Wen Ting could not stand this strict love and tried to avoid his father whenever possible. Plus, the school is nice and quiet, and a perfect place for him to study in peace.

Wen Shouzhen entered the kitchen with Wen Rou. He wanted to see with his own eyes if the Chicken Wine could be brewed and ready in one night.

"Father, how many wine jars do we have at home?" Wen Rou washed the rice as she asked.

"I will go to the storeroom and check! I retain the wine jars of all the wine that the Yin family had given us!" Wen Shouzhen said this, and made his way towards the storeroom.

"Yin family again!" Hearing this name really made Wen Rou very furious.

"Yin family, in this life, I will not let you off!!" Wen Rou swore in her heart.

When she turned around, she saw the jar of wine that Yin Deshun had delivered to their house a few days before. She had always wanted to toss this jar of wine away. Wen Rou took out her anger on the poor jar of wine.

She opened the jar of wine and took it to the toilet.

After a short while, Wen Shouzhen returned back with a cart. He had filled the cart with wine jars from the storeroom.

Wen Rou counted the number of wine jars. There are approximately 40 jars. In her heart, she was annoyed at her greedy father: Father, you have drunk so much wine from the Yin family over the years!

"Rou Er, this jar of wine…." Wen Shouzhen put the cart down, and noticed the wine jar on Wen Rou"s hands. Isn"t this the new jar of wine that the Yin family had given him? He had not even drunk a single drop of it yet!

"Oh, I pour it away!" Wen Rou did not even blink as she took the wine jar and proceed to wash it.

"Where did you pour it into?" Wen Shouzhen anxiously asked, as he looked into the wine jar.

"Toilet!"

"Toilet? You la.s.s, you are going to be the death of me! That is a good quality wine that had not even been opened yet!" Wen Shouzhen felt a sharp pain in his heart, and his voice became hoa.r.s.e.

"Father, the cookbook from Chef Gao had mentioned that Chicken wine could not be mixed with other wine or drank at the same time as other wine! Otherwise, it may cause one to have loose bowels!" Wen Rou lied.

"Even then, you should not pour the wine into the toilet!" Wen Shouzhen heard the word "diarrhoea", and rubbed his tummy. He became a bit less angry.

"Father, do you want to help me brew the wine or not? This Chicken Wine is worth 1 tael of silver for each jar!" Wen Rou immediately uses her father love for money to pull the wool over her father"s eyes. Her eyes widen as she half-laugh and half-angry at her father for not letting the issue go.

"Oh…. Since you had already spilled the wine, there is nothing else we can do!" Wen Shouzhen signed and helplessly shook his head.

He wanted to scold his daughter some more, but at the same time, he was worried that if he infuriated his daughter, then there will be no one to brew the wine.

The written promise of Manager Lee was still in his shirt. That is one tael of silver for each jar of wine!

Wen Shouzhen did not say a single word more, and listened to Wen Rou"s explanation and help her to brew more wine.

Boil the water, cook the rice, a few moments later add some distiller, and move the jar…. The father and daughter pair worked well together, and were kept busy by the ch.o.r.es.

As the night wore only, the 40 plus wine jars were filled with Chicken Wine. The only thing it needs is to leave it there overnight for it to be fermented.

"Rou Er, you go and take a rest. Tomorrow morning, you still need to wake up early!" Wen Shouzhen stretched his tired arms, and felt guilty and heartbroken when he saw the tired figure of his daughter.

Today, Wen Rou had cut the vegetables, help to ready the ingredients, and at night she still needs to brew the wine. Wen Shouzhen is a large man in his prime and he felt tired, much less his daughter.

"Arh—" Wen Rou yawned twice. She was really tired. With a good night to her father, she made her way to her room to rest.

Once she hit the bed, she immediately fell asleep.

Wen Shouzhen may be tired, but he had no intention of sleeping. The words that he wanted to say in the daytime but have no one to speak to now have a listening ear.

"Wife, are you asleep?" Wen Shouzhen lays on the bed, and used his elbow to poke his wife.

Zhou Shi was soundly asleep when she was rudely poked awake by her husband. She groggily asked, "Not sleeping yet arh?"

"Wife, I tell you a top secret! I discovered that our daughter is a rare talent in cooking!" Wen Shouzhen tossed and turned and pulled the blanket over his body.

"Oh." Zhou Shi was too sleepy and could only manage an "oh" sound.

"Yeah, I am saying that Rou Er is not only good at smelling and tasting food. Even her knife skills and preparing ingredients skills are superb." Wen Shouzhen eyes shone. Even though it is near the 3rd watch, he was filled with excitement and could not sleep.

"Zzz…… Zzz…." The sound of Zhou Shi snoring rang out.

"Hehehehe!" Wen Shouzhen wanted to chat with his wife, but seeing his wife soundly asleep, he decided to turn in for the night. There was a wide grin on his face as he slept. Tonight he should have a good dream.

–In the depth of the night.–

"Good wine!" Wen Shouzhen turned around, and his saliva was drooling out of the corner of his mouth. He was muttering gibberish. Looks like he had a lot of wine in his dreams.

The sky had not yet brightened, but Zhou Shi was already wide awake.

"Hubby, what are you trying to tell me last night? How come I could not remember a word you said?" Zhou Shi asked as she combed her hair.

Wen Shouzhen was changing as he replied, "Our daughter is a rare talent in cooking! Yesterday I discovered that not only is Rou Er good in smelling and tasting the food, she also learns very fast! I just taught her some knife skills and how to put ingredients together, and she already mastered these immediately!" As soon as he mentioned his daughter, he was filled with pride.

It is ok to be proud, but he was so happy and proud that he b.u.t.toned his robe wrongly. Only when his wife laughed at him did he looked down and discovered this.

"Hubby, what are you talking about? Is that true?" Zhou Shi does not believe it. Where can you find someone who learned how to cook just from watching things once? Furthermore, Wen Rou is only 12 years old.

"At first, I do not believe it either. Oh, let speak about it another time. When she is free, ask her to demonstrate her skills to you. I need to get ready. In a short while, Zhu Zi will be here to transport the wine!" Wen Shouzhen re-do the b.u.t.tons on his robes and quickly wore his shoes as he rushed out.

"Transport the wine?" Zhou Shi was stunned. How could it be that when she wakes up this morning, she could no longer understand the man that she had married for so many years? What on earth is happening?

"Oh, I forgot to tell you that Manager Lee from the Drunken Immortal restaurant had ordered a large number of jars of Chicken Wine from us. In a short while, Zhu Zi will be here to help to transport these wines to the restaurant. One jar of wine is worth 1 tael of silver!" Wen Shouzhen turned around, smiled at his wife, and hum a tune as he busied himself.

"How much?" Zhou Shi"s mouth had dropped open in shock.

"One tael of silver! Oh, by the way, do not wake Rou Er up so early. She worked very hard yesterday! Let her sleep a bit more!" Wen Shouzhen had just stepped out, but he quickly returned and informed his wife. Then he happily whistled as he left the room.

"Mother, where is Father?" In a short while, Wen Rou rubbed the sleep from her eyes and came over without combing her hair.

"Rou Er, why not sleep a bit more?" Zhou Shi noticed that Wen Rou had already woke up, and pointed at the kitchen.

Wen Rou yawned and slowly made her way to the kitchen. She saw the figure of her father standing next to a jar of wine.

"Father! You are stealing the wine!" Wen Rou shouted.

Wen Shouzhen was startled at the sound, and the ladle he was using to steal some wine dropped onto the floor.

"You la.s.s! You frightened me! I am not stealing wine! I am just "tasting" them to see if they are ready." Wen Shouzhen thick-skinnedly replied.

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[1] 恨铁不成钢，爱之深责之切 - It means that "you love someone a lot and your expectations for him is much higher. But sometimes reality does not meet the expectations, and this creates conflicts. When a person you love made a mistake, their flaws made them feel guilty. The more you love them, the guiltier they feel." It is so hard to put short 11 words in Chinese into English, right? I wish I have a simple way to describe these words in English.