Gourmet Food Supplier

Qin Xiaoyi and Gao Fan walked and talked.

“Shameless Wu is quite good. Are we going there again today?” Gao Fan was a little worried.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of. We can order Egg Fried Rice, which is hard to grab and more economical,” Qin Xiaoyi said with high morale.

“But we couldn’t grab anything to eat from him.” Gao Fan remembered that he had only grabbed a little bit of Sautéed Vermicelli with Spicy Minced Pork from Wu Hai last time and nothing more.

“Don’t worry. We have practiced the grabbing skills jointly. Let’s use it today and grab all of his dishes,” Qin Xiaoyi said with great confidence.

“All right. You take your cue from me later.” Gao Fan was also reluctant to admit defeat; therefore, he nodded his head and agreed to Qin Xiaoyi’s scheme.

While talking, the two people arrived at Yuan Zhou’s restaurant.

That’s right. For the grabbing skills that they had practiced jointly, Gao Fan was in charge while Qin Xiaoyi was responsible for crushing Wu Hai with his imposing manner. That was a rational division of labor.

But did they think Wu Hai was so easy to cope with?

What a joke! The people that could cope with Wu Hai didn’t exist at all, even if there were two of them.

During dinnertime, there were not only Qin Xiaoyi, Gao Fan and Wu Hai, but also the old man who lived on driving the rickshaw that came occasionally.

Since there were too many delicious dishes, the old man could only afford to eat here once or twice every month. Therefore, he appeared a little hesitant every time as he wanted to try every dish.

But unfortunately, he didn’t have sufficient funds. It was lucky that the old man was rather optimistic in life, just like what he often said when he told stories, “The amount of grain one decides to cook depends on the size of one’s pot.”

So, he only felt hesitant when he lined up. However, when he went into the restaurant, he wasn’t hesitant anymore. Instead, he just ordered what he wanted.

“A cup of Lemon Water, a serving of the Thousand Layer Mantou and a serving of Smoked Fish Silver Thread Noodles.” The old man tried to order different dishes every time. He also thought about the necessity to save some more money for a serving of Dongpo Pig Knuckle.

After all, a simple serving of Dongpo Pig Knuckle cost 2080RMB, which equaled to the old man’s monthly salary.

When business was good, he could earn a little more than over 3000RMB, but that didn’t happen frequently in a year.

“All right. They’ll be served very soon.” Zhou Jia nodded her head and took note. Then, she turned to greet other customers who hadn’t ordered their dishes.

“There you are, grandpa!”

“Is business good today?”

“I have been waiting for you for a while. Since you told the ghost story last time, I have been afraid for more than half a month. Don’t tell that kind of story again.”

At the sight of the old man, many people turned to greet him. Some of them liked him very much because they enjoyed his stories while eating. Of them, there was a very strong but timid man. Though he was as muscular as a bodybuilding champion, he was quite a coward. He liked listening to the old man’s stories best and listened quite carefully each time. However, he was terrified last time as it was a horror story concerning spirits.

The old man was quite spirited and hence responded to him smilingly. In his own words, how could he possibly be unwell since he worked every day as an exercise and then was able to eat something delicious from time to time?

The several dishes of Lemon Water, Thousand Layer Mantou, and Smoked Fish Silver Thread Noodles weren’t very complicated. Therefore, Zhou Jia carried the dishes to him just in a little while.

“Grandpa, please eat slowly and tell the story slowly.” Though Zhou Jia didn’t have as much work as ordinary restaurant waiters, she still didn’t have much free time. As a result, she couldn’t hear the full version of the stories most of the time.

Quite a few times, the old man had told retold the stories to Zhou Jia again in private. Therefore, the two people, one old while the other young, had a good relationship.

“Little Jia, do me a favor after you get off work.”

When Zhou Jia turned around, the old man suddenly said. Then, Zhou Jia nodded her head.

“Grandpa, what stories are you going to tell us today?” The timid but strong man couldn’t wait.

“Let me eat some of the Smoked Fish Silver Thread Noodles first. I heard it tasted very good a long time ago.” The old man had been looking forward to eating the noodles for a long time and he almost drooled over the dish. After the noodles were served, he first stuffed some into his mouth and then drank a mouthful of broth.

The broth of the Smoked Fish Silver Thread Noodles was soup stock. As soon as it was swallowed, it made his stomach become warm immediately. After that, a kind of fresh and delicious taste pervaded his mouth.

Different from that of other kinds of soup, the fresh and delicious taste was fairly mild. The old man felt as if he had eaten a mouthful of fresh and tender chicken meat, of which the fresh and sweet feeling had lingered in his mouth. After gulping it down, the old man felt a very comfortable sensation in his mouth, unlike other kinds of soup that made his mouth feel dry and thirsty after drinking it.

Obviously, those weren’t soup stock. Compared with that, the broth over here in Yuan Zhou’s restaurant is more authentic, the old man sighed inwardly. Though it was quite expensive, one can never find such authentic soup stock anywhere else.

“Wow, the taste is really awesome! Unfortunately, I don’t have a granddaughter. Otherwise, it would be fantastic to marry her off to Boss Yuan.” The old man drank some more and sighed with emotion.

This story told us that foodies existed everywhere, regardless of his nationality or age.

The timid but strong man waited patiently until the old man ate quite a few mouthfuls of the noodles. And finally, he heard the story that he had wanted.

“About three or four years ago, I caught sight of a man and a woman arguing when I was driving people around in the evening. It was none of my business, but a child was involved in the argument. For fear of human traffickers, I rode the rickshaw and approached them alertly.”

“After I got closer, I straightened out this matter. The man turned to be an old street performer,” said the old man. “Just like those you saw on TV. That child was his apprentice and the woman was the child’s mother. The reason why the conflict took place was that the child had suffered too much from learning the skills and couldn’t take it.”

The old man was also an eccentric person. After he knew it wasn’t a human trafficker, he parked the rickshaw aside and stayed there to wait for the old street performer.

Though they didn’t know each other, he treated the old street performer to beer and kebabs before getting to know more things.

“The four masterpieces of Chinese traditional tricks are Sword, Steel Balls, Bean, and Rings. Sword meant Sword Swallowing; Steel Balls meant Swallowing Steel Balls; Bean meant Moving Beans Invisibly and Ring meant the Chinese Ring Puzzle. The old street performer could perform sword swallowing and steel balls. Sword swallowing isn’t swallowing a retractable sword deceitfully, as we imagined. Instead, one must practice the skills from childhood. When one first learns that, one must use some non-toxic foreign matters to let one’s throat get used to vomiting. After a period of time, one can insert the spring onion into one’s throat. Then, the wooden strips, wooden sword, and in the end, swallowing the real sword.”

On hearing that, the surrounding customers all touched their own throat subconsciously. If the practice method was true, what a pain it would be! The timid but strong man was really really timid. After he heard that, he felt discomfort all over his body.

And swallowing steel balls was really swallowing a steel ball into the stomach and using strength to force it out.

The old man explained quite clearly. Apart from that, he also talked about many interesting things during the performance. Obviously, he had truly stayed with the old street performance for a long time.

“Actually, that does make sense. Learning those traditional tricks requires hard work and suffering. Leaving other things aside, who is willing to let their children learn sword swallowing now? Anyway, I’m not willing to let my grandson or granddaughter learn that,” said the old man. “So, the old street performer said there were less than 100 people that could swallow swords including him while there were less than 50 people that could swallow steel balls. After a generation or so, there might be only the two skills, Bean and Ring, left in the world.”

Many of the surrounding customers felt it regrettable. Even the timid but strong man muttered to himself, “It’s fairly regrettable.”

“Regrettable? You can let your kid learn the skills in the future.” A familiar customer mocked at him.

The timid but strong man shook his head continuously, “No, no, no. It’s too much suffering. I don’t want my child to suffer from that.”

“So that explains it.”

The crowd listened to the old man continue with his stories. Actually, there was another thing that the old man didn’t mention just now. Apart from the agony of the traditional tricks, there weren’t any good prospects even after one mastered it. Why would people learn that if there were no good prospects and when it was so painful? So it was useless to feel regret. Many craftsmanship was failed to be handed down from past generations though people were feeling regretful about them.

The old man ate slowly. After he told the story about the old street performer, he could continue with another story. And this very story made even Yuan Zhou, who was cooking in the kitchen, feel interested in.

Even Wu Hai was listening to the old man with great interest. He didn’t even care about Qin Xiaoyi at the side…