Jiang Jiankang and w.a.n.g Xiulian came back with smiles on their faces when night fell. Judging from their looks, Jiang Feng could tell that they managed to come to a deal with the farm."You should"ve seen that pig! It had the perfect proportions for a beast of its size! I can still remember what the two rear hocks look like!" Jiang Jiankang exclaimed.
w.a.n.g Xiulian nodded in agreement. "Let"s send one back to dad so that he can make a ham out of it. And then we can braise the other one."
In just a few exchanges, the married couple came to an agreement on how to handle the two pork rear hocks.
"But that Mr. Qian really knows what he"s doing," Jiang Jiankang said, excited to share his experience. Since Jiang Feng went back into the kitchen, only Ji Yue remained in the dining area. Jiang Jiankang stopped Ji Yue and showed her pictures of the pig.
"Xiao Ji. Look. Look at how wonderful this pig is! Look at its tender meat! Look at this one too. It would taste best if we make a stir-fry with it. And the head of this one!"
Jiang Jiankang kept on rambling as he swept the screen on his phone, showing picture after picture.
"…"
Other than pictures of pigs that were waiting to be killed, Ji Yue couldn"t understand why Jiang Jiankang was so excited.
"Hey! That"s enough! Go and help our son in the kitchen!" w.a.n.g Xiulian scolded as she slammed her palm on the counter.
After checking the turnover for the day, w.a.n.g Xiulian raised her voice even further. "Have you paid off the debt? No, right? Are you expecting your son to help pay it?"
After getting scolded by his wife, Jiang Jiankang quickly ran into the kitchen.
Jiang Feng had finished tidying up the kitchen and was making meat dumplings according to the recipe he got as a reward.
Even though Jiang Feng knew that the dumplings would turn out pretty bad, he wanted to know what they tasted like.
Jiang Feng was curious as to what his most bitter experience was.
The dumplings were cooking in the pot for 10 minutes. Jiang Feng reckoned that the dumplings were done, or to the point of being overcooked.
Jiang Feng couldn"t help but sigh at how bad w.a.n.g s.h.i.tou"s cooking skill was. If not for the dreadful time that people lived in during the times of the Republic of China, there was no way w.a.n.g s.h.i.tou could maintain his stall for more than a week.
When Jiang Jiankang entered the kitchen and saw the overcooked dumplings, he scolded at his son. "Hey! Take them out already!"
Jiang Jiankang quickly scooped the dumplings out from the pot.
Jiang Feng then added a few drops of aromatic oil in it.
Jiang Jiankang tried to add a handful of dried seaweed and dried shrimps to the bowl, but Jiang Feng stopped him.
As they waited for the dumplings to cool down a little, Jiang Jiankang swallowed his saliva while staring at it.
Jiang Jiankang and w.a.n.g Xiulian had left the restaurant early in the morning so that they could negotiate with the pork vendor. Jiang Jiankang had only eaten three bowls of Pork Lo Mein before he left.
Even though the dumplings were overcooked and were only seasoned with aromatic oil, they were still made with meat inside them.
Jiang Jiankang was a carnivore.
"Did you make them yourself?" Jiang Jiankang asked, knowing full well that Jiang Feng was the one who made the dumplings.
Jiang Feng nodded. "I saw a recipe online and tried making a few. Here, try some."
Jiang Jiankang moved as soon as Jiang Feng finished speaking. Before Jiang Feng realized it, Jiang Jiankang had already shoved three dumplings down his mouth.
Disgusting!
Jiang Jiankang could not believe that his son would make such a disgusting dish.
But the thought was drowned out almost instantly.
Jiang Jiankang started to recall the time when he was still 20 years old.
At that time, he had taken over as the head chef of the state-owned restaurant for six years.
Jiang Jiankang had been helping Jiang Weiguo ever since he was a little boy. He took over his father"s position when he was 14. He then married w.a.n.g Xiulian, who worked in a textile factory at that time, when he was 19. Before the age of 20, Jiang Jiankang always thought that he would keep on working in the state-owned restaurant and that his son would take over the head chef position someday.
But then, the restaurant closed down, and Jiang Jiankang only got a mere 600 dollars compensation.
Six months after the restaurant closed down, the factory that w.a.n.g Xiulian worked at suffered the same fate.
The married couple managed to borrow 10 thousand dollars from their relatives and friends to open the Healthy Snack Bar.
Jiang Jiankang remembered the toughest time of his life. The business wasn"t going that well back then, and he couldn"t sleep as he was worried about his future. To save money even further, w.a.n.g Xiulian had to go to the market and pick vegetables that were on the floor. They even had dinner that was made with carrot skin.
They couldn"t even pay back the money they borrowed from w.a.n.g Xiulian"s family for a few years. Because of that, w.a.n.g Xiulian was scared to go back to her parents when it was the Lunar New Year.
The memory made Jiang Jiankang cry loudly.
When w.a.n.g Xiulian heard the wail, she put her calculator down and ran into the kitchen with Ji Yue following behind her.
"What? What happened? Xiao Feng, what"s wrong with your dad?" w.a.n.g Xiulian asked.
"Xiulian! My dear Xiulian! I"m so sorry! I"m so sorry that you had to suffer with me when we were younger!" Jiang Jiankang cried as he hugged w.a.n.g Xiulian.
w.a.n.g Xiulian could only stare at her husband with a dumbfounded expression.
"What"s wrong with him?"
w.a.n.g Xiulian thought that she"d pressured Jiang Jiankang about the debt too much recently, and he finally collapsed.
"He ate some dumplings…" Jiang Feng said.
"Dumplings?" w.a.n.g Xiulian looked at the dumplings, unable to understand how a bowl of dumplings could make Jiang Jiankang cry.
"All right… Don"t worry about it, okay? Oh… Everything is okay…" w.a.n.g Xiulian started to calm Jiang Jiankang down like he was a child.
As w.a.n.g Xiulian kept on calming Jiang Jiankang down, she could feel her throat getting dry.
w.a.n.g Xiulian took the bowl of dumplings and drank the broth that was in it. Since the wrappings of the dumpling were cooked until they were too soft, some of them went down w.a.n.g Xiulian"s throat without her noticing it.
What the heck? Who made this disgusting thing?
The next second, tears started to roll down w.a.n.g Xiulian"s face too.
The married couple hugged each other and cried.
Jiang Feng and Ji Yue were staring at them in awe.
Jiang Feng quietly took the bowl of dumplings and threw them away.
These things are evil!
"Ji Yue… You head home… I"ll have to… talk some sense into my parents…"
"What? Oh… Okay."
Ji Yue was stunned for a moment and realized she could go home earlier.
After Ji Yue had left, Jiang Feng used up all his energy to calm his parents down.
The married couple came to a conclusion the next day.
They blamed it all on the disgusting bowl of dumplings.