Gourmet Food Supplier

The silence didn’t last long. Yuan Zhou hadn’t opened the book when Chu Xiao suddenly spoke.

“Why didn’t you speak last time?” Chu Xiao said all of a sudden without any sense.

But Yuan Zhou understood him immediately. He said calmly, “It cost me nothing to answer the phone.”

Yuan Zhou said that so straightforwardly that even Chu Xiao became stupefied and answered, “It costs me nothing to make the call, too.”

“According to my phone package, the telecommunication company will offer me one more hour of chatting time as long as I spend no less than 40 Euro every month. Coincidentally, I still have one hour of talk time left,” Chu Xiao paused for an instant and then continued, “It doesn’t cost me anything, either.”

“Um,” Yuan Zhou answered vaguely and simply and didn’t say anything else.

“Goodbye,” said Chu Xiao abruptly.

“Bye.” This time, Yuan Zhou still waited for Chu Xiao to hang up the phone first.

Yuan Zhou indicated that he would like to offer help to Chu Xiao to consume this one-hour free talk time very much. As a result, he could make collect calls as long as he wanted to.

However, Chu Xiao always hung up the phone very quickly. He did that almost at the same time Yuan Zhou finished speaking.

“He’s really swift,” Yuan Zhou muttered to himself.

“Speaking of which, I’d like some tofu pudding this evening.” After Yuan Zhou hung up the phone, he decided what to eat for supper today on a whim.

There was a dish named Spring Water Tofu Pudding in the Sichuan Cuisines of the Chengdu School. It was an extremely common but also a high-class dish.

The reason why it was extremely common was that everybody in every family could do it on their own. And the reason why it was extremely high-class was that a great master of Sichuan Cuisine won a gold medal once with this dish, which outclassed a dish whose main ingredients were edible bird’s nest, abalones and shark’s fin.

“System, are the soybeans that you provide in season?” As it was spring, Yuan Zhou asked that.

The system displayed, “The system doesn’t provide vegetables, meat, poultry or any other food ingredients that are not in season.”

“All the food ingredients provided by the system are cultivated scientifically. They are all sown and mature during the proper seasons. Host, you don’t need to worry about that.”

“So all your ingredients are from all over the world, right?” Yuan Zhou suddenly thought of those different kinds of seasonal vegetables in different cabinets.

The system displayed, “Host, you are unqualified to know that with your current level.”

“All right. The next words will be ‘You must work hard.’ I know that.” Yuan Zhou was fairly helpless.

The system displayed, “The soybean is an annual herbaceous plant from the glycine max of the bean family. It’s about 30-90cm tall. Its stalk is thick and strong and it grows up vertically. It’s covered with long brown hard hairs. The leaves usually have three smaller leaves while the stipules have veins and are covered with yellow soft hair. Its flowering phase is from June to July and the fruit-bearing stage is from July to September.”

“China is the native habitat of soybeans. The breed selected and used by this system comes from the original local soybeans grown in the black earth of Northeast China.”

“Only the middle soybean is taken from each bean pod and the others are kept different purposes to make sure each shade-dried soybean is a light yellow, oval-shaped, slightly flat, 1cm-long, 8mm-wide, and a light brown navel bean.”

“Stop it. I don’t wanna know what fertilizers a soybean takes. I need a quiet atmosphere to cook.” Yuan Zhou stopped the system in time. He definitely didn’t want to have the misconception that he didn’t even live as well as a soybean.

The system displayed, “Okay.”

Yuan Zhou didn’t know why, but he felt a sense of pleasure from the system’s answer. Of course, it might be his misconception.

Spring Water Tofu Pudding was really very simple. There were only three ingredients for this dish, the spring water, soybeans, and brine water.

The soybeans were provided by the system and so was the spring water. It wasn’t any kind of existing water.

“The water tastes good.” Yuan Zhou took a cup of water and then tasted it.

The system displayed, “The spring water comes from the areas of Caishi and Ganggou towns of the Licheng District.

“The book Commentary on the Waterways Classic written by Li Daoyuan read, ‘The spring water comes from a 100 meters beneath the rock stratum. It’s sweet and mellow like the holy water.’ This system just took water from that spring mentioned in the book.

“Did you excavate the springs of Ji’nan?” It was Yuan Zhou’s first reaction.

After all, the spring water was much too famous. If one of them disappeared suddenly, what chaos it would cause.

The system displayed, “This system only takes water from one of them and doesn’t take it away.”

“Well, that’s great.” Yuan Zhou let out a sigh of relief.

Seeing the system no longer reply, Yuan Zhou drank a mouthful of water again and sighed with emotion, “The spring water is like holy water and is indeed unusual.”

“Gu Dong.” Yuan Zhou gulped it down.

The spring water was clear and cool, but not as cool as to make the throat and stomach uncomfortable. It only felt slightly cool when it entered the mouth at the beginning. Once it flowed into the throat, however, it immediately moistened the throat like the sweet dew, making the throat feel relaxed and comfortable.

When the spring water got to his stomach, it even brought a good warmth, which made him feel comfortable and agreeable to the taste. –

After drinking up the spring water, Yuan Zhou started to wash the soybeans. As there was a layer of invisible thin film over the soybeans themselves, Yuan Zhou washed them very carefully.

After he washed the soybeans and soaked them in water, Yuan Zhou took a chair and went outside. He began to sculpt the radishes while waiting for the soybeans getting ready.

It required three hours in total, from the moment he soaked the soybeans in water to the moment they were ready. Therefore, Yuan Zhou had sufficient time to do that.

Nowadays, it had almost been a habit for the children to come and get the sculptures. So, Yuan Zhou always spent some time sculpting every day and put his works on the shelf.

Once he started to sculpt, he forgot about the time. Two hours passed very soon. Yuan Zhou put down the last piece of finished goods and then went back into the restaurant with the chair again.

After a sound of “Hua La”, Yuan Zhou closed the door.

That’s right Yuan Zhou was smarter now than before. The system wouldn’t turn on the scent-free function when it wasn’t business time. The bean flavor would be very strong later and it wasn’t good to keep the door open. –

Yuan Zhou had good self-awareness. After all, he would be beaten if he let others smell the fragrance but didn’t let them eat.

Having been soaked in the spring water, the 1cm-sized soybeans bulged out and became smooth and transparent. Every soybean grain was round and plump, which looked very lovable.

After draining the water, Yuan Zhou rinsed them with the spring water again before he began to grind the soybeans with the stone mill.

“Zhi Ya Zhi Ya.” Every handful of soybeans was guaranteed to be grounded for at least three times. He didn’t stop until the soybean milk became fine and smooth and the bean dregs became even.

The work of grinding was done quickly and well. The remaining work was to filter out the bean dregs and then boil the uncooked soybean milk.

It wouldn’t be ready until big cream bubbles appeared in the pot.

Yuan Zhou immediately scooped a bowl of the soybean milk and prepared to drink it by himself. After all, the tofu pudding couldn’t be prepared until the soybean milk became cooler. Therefore, it was a good idea to drink a bowl of soybean milk.

“One bowl with sugar and the other without.” Yuan Zhou directly scooped two bowls of the soybean milk.

Of course, he didn’t forget to scoop a bowl of broth. It was also time for Broth to drink the broth.

“Kuang”, Yuan Zhou opened the back door and just as expected, Broth was waiting at the back door.

“Here’s your dinner.” Yuan Zhou poured the broth into Broth’s bowl at once and then, he took a bowl of soybean milk and drank it at the side.

Even if he was drinking the soybean milk, he still couldn’t refrain himself from speaking. Now, he began to afflict Broth with great suffering.