159 – The Competition Begins

After the meeting ended, Qin Mian called Manager Sun to the lounge.

“Manager Sun, take this instruction: all the guests in Double Xiang House must be treated with care during these days. Tea, snacks, fruits, and three meals a day all should be served most exquisitely. Let them experience for themselves that our small region also has a noble grade enjoyment. Also, get some copies of the pastry list from the bakery. We’ll provide them whatever they order. Of course, the prices are still charged as usual but give them a 10% discount. As for Old Liu and the other two, they all receive a 20% discount.”

“Yes! Don’t worry, Little Boss. We’ll do our very best!” Manager Sun left with high morale.

A waiter knocked on the door and reported, “Reporting, Little Boss. Nie-gongzi is here.”

“Invite in.”

Dressed in white, Nie Heng came in with a face wreathed in smiles.

Qin Mian looked him up and down and teased, “How can you be willing to go out today?”

“You dare to mention it.” Nie Heng willfully sat down and consciously took the cherry in the fruit plate to eat. “You and Lei Tie didn’t show up at my wedding. I wanted Yuanyuan and Manman to be my bed-rolling boys¹. What a pity.”

“You, show understanding and sympathy for us, too.” Qin Mian complained, “Our Double Xiang House has to accept the challenge of many wine houses at the same time. Is it easy for A-Tie and me? We certainly have to seize the time to practice more.”

Nie Heng went straight to the heart of the matter, “It’s your Double Xiang House that challenges all wine houses at the same time, isn’t it?”

Qin Mian smiled but said nothing.

“You should already know? My wine house also participated,” added Nie Heng.

Qin Mian nodded, “Yes. You have the right to join. You probably don’t know that Liu Yunwei is here. I heard he used to be an Imperial Chef?”

Nie Heng’s spirit was boosted, “Really? Of course, Old Liu is always a legend in the realm of chefs. Rumor has it that at first, Old Liu was just setting up a stall on the roadside. When the current Emperor was young, he went out on an inspection tour in disguise and accidentally discovered Old Liu and brought him into the Palace. Later, Old Liu became famous overnight. Although I don’t know whether it’s true or not, Old Liu is a man of real ability. This competition, even if we don’t win, if we can get Old Liu’s advice, we’re considered very lucky.”

Qin Mian very much agreed with it. As he was about to speak, the door was pushed open.

“Wife…” Lei Tie came in carrying two sleepy-eyed little boys. Upon seeing Nie Heng, he nodded, “Congratulations. Give birth to a son soon.”²

Nie Heng’s forehead twitched. Are these words truly not meant to flaunt?

“Many thanks…”

“Dad.” Manman coquettishly called out. His just-woke-up voice was so soft it stirred one’s soft spot.

Yuanyuan stretched out his hands to Qin Mian. His face was as red as an apple because he had been asleep for quite a while.

Qin Mian walked over quickly, “What’s the matter?”

“They want you as soon as they woke up.” Lei Tie handed Yuanyuan and Manman to Qin Mian.

At the side, Nie Heng snickered. The cold and stiff-man seemed to have become a nursing father now.

Qin Mian held each boy in one arm. In his arms, Yuanyuan and Manman rubbed against him as drowsiness crept over them.

Nie Heng stood up. “You are busy. I’m going out to eat.”

“Sorry for our poor treatment.” Qin Mian wore an apologetic look. ” A-Tie and I will treat you to a meal another day. By the way, is Mu Chen still in Zhaoyang? If so, call him over later.”

Yuanyuan and Manman slept so uneasily that they frowned. Lei Tie patted them on the back.

The scene of the family of four together exuded infinite warmth.

Nie Heng said, “He has returned to the Capital because of an urgent matter half a month ago.”

Qin Mian felt very regretful.

After Nie Heng went out, Qin Mian sat down on the settee and adjusted his posture so that the two little boys were comfortable. Lei Tie patted them with patience.

When Yuanyuan and Manman fell asleep, the two men talked in low voices.

“Wife, did you have a smooth meeting?”

“En.” Qin Mian smilingly nodded with a look of satisfaction on his face. “A-Tie, we truly get help from Heaven this time. I didn’t expect that Liu Yunwei, the former Imperial Chef, and his two famous chef friends would show up. The three of them will make the result more convincing. This time, it’s hard for our Double Xiang House not to be famous!”

“So confident?” Lei Tie leaned over and kissed him.

“Of course!” Qin Mian leaned slightly on him. “Tomorrow night, prepare the ingredients with me.”

Lei Tie nodded and deepened the kiss.

After Nie Heng left the lounge, he planned to eat in the private room on the second floor. When he passed the lobby, he noticed that some of the guests had exquisite pastries on their tables that he hadn’t seen before, so he changed his mind. He casually chose a single-seat table and beckoned a waiter.

“If you have any new pastries today, please give me one portion of each.”

“Yes.”

Old Liu, Old Gu, and Old Wen sat by the window, looking at the pastries on the table. For a while, they were speechless. The first kind was a rainbow cake that was sliced into rhombus and placed on a white porcelain plate. The cross-sectional cut part generously exposed seven colors of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and purple, which made one’s felt happy just looking at it. The second kind was biscuits in rose red, light green, peach red, and pear yellow colors, which exuded sweet fruit fragrance. The third kind was purple yam blossoming rose steamed buns, which had an exotic aroma that assailed one’s nostrils. Whichever kind, all were pleasing to the eye. The appearance alone had given them a good impression.

After quite a while, Old Liu chuckled with a thoughtful look and said, “The two bosses of Double Xiang House are truly people with extraordinary talent.”

Old Gu spoke with a relatively strict manner, “At present, it can’t be certain.”

Old Wen picked up a biscuit and put it in his mouth. “We’ll know soon.”

……

The night before the competition, after Yuanyuan and Manman fell asleep, Qin Mian and Lei Tie entered the magical space to prepare the ingredients for the competition. There were only four kitchen stoves in Double Xiang House, excluding the small kitchen. Therefore, with a large number of contestants, the competition adopted an elimination system. Every chef had to compete at least twice, so they had to prepare more ingredients.

The ingredients for the vegetable dish had to be prepared specially, while the ingredients for the meat dish took more time to prepare. The required sheep shoulder, chicken breast, duck breast, duck gizzard, winter mushrooms³, winter bamboo shoots, and so on were all taken from the space.

After dawn, Lei Tie got up first and cooked porridge before he roused the big and two small ones from sleep. After breakfast, he packed all the ingredients and put them on the carriage. The family of four came to Double Xiang House together.

Yuanyuan and Manman knew that their Dad was going to take part in the competition today, so they had been unusually well-behaved.

The place where the participating chefs cooked would be in Double Xiang House’s kitchen. After cooking, they would bring the dishes to the lobby and ask Old Liu and the other two men to comment in presence of all.

To avoid too many people interfering with the competition, except for the contestants, the contestants’ exclusive fire-watchers, and the persons-in-charge of the [participating] wine houses, only the first hundred audiences were allowed to enter Double Xiang House to watch the competition. Those who came later were not qualified to enter.

Qin Mian had considered things very carefully. Everyone who came later could get a packet of pastry from Glimmer of Paradise Bakery for free. As the saying went, the mouth was soft-spoken after getting the benefits of others. These people were too embarrassed to complain about anything.

At dragon hour, the competition began. The first competition was to identify the ingredients used in a certain dish. In front of all the chefs laid writing brushes, inks, papers, and inkstones. After tasting the dish, they had to write down its various seasonings on the paper.

Old Liu and the two went to the kitchen and they brought out a pot of soup. The soup looked more like water added with various seasonings. It had been clearly filtered so that no seasonings or ingredients could be seen.

Two waiters distributed a few dozens of small bowls to the participants.

Old Liu said with a smile, “This soup is made by this old fellow me, Old Wen, and Old Gu with various seasonings. It may not taste very good. The three of us only know what seasonings we ourselves have added, not knowing what the other two have added. We’ll announce the answers together after you have distinguished them all. Also, please write your full name on the paper. Please.”

Qin Mian ladled up a spoonful of soup, took a small mouthful, and kept it in his mouth to taste each flavor. Then, he picked up the brush and wrote it down.

Lei Tie, Yuanyuan, and Manman sat by the wall to watch.

“Old Dad,” whispered Manman in Lei Tie’s ear while covering his mouth with his little hands when he saw his Dad writing, “Dad’s handwriting is bad.”

Lei Tie threw a look at his wife with a smile in his eyes. It was not surprising that Manman and Yuanyuan idolized him more. His wife’s calligraphy had not improved so far. Maybe he should teach his wife well later.

“How about letting Dad practice calligraphy with you later?”

Yuanyuan and Manman nodded again and again. The two identical small faces wore a mischievous smile which looked no different than when their Dad smiled mischievously.

Qin Mian didn’t know at all that he had been plotted by his own man and sons. He wrote very fluently that he soon wrote out all the spices and was the first to stop writing.

Old Liu and the other two old men looked at each other, each with their own thought.

Another moment later, everyone stopped writing.

The waiters collected the papers and gave them to Old Liu and the other two old men.

The three old men first revealed the seasonings they had added.

“I added star anise, soy sauce, cardamom…”

“I added tangerine peel, wine, salt, cinnamon…”

“I added sugar, ginger, garlic…”

A chef cried out involuntarily, “There can’t be wine. I didn’t taste it.”

The three old men shook their heads with a smile, quickly looked through all the papers, and picked out the ones with the correct answers.

“Why didn’t you taste it when so many people did?”

The chef had nothing to say in reply and sat down dejectedly.

Old Gu read out a list of those who answered correctly, “Wang Fusheng, Liu Zongxian… Wu Dewang… Qin Mian… Zheng Xiangui…”

Qin Mian looked at Lei Tie, Yuanyuan, and Manman.

Yuanyuan and Manman gave him a thumbs-up with their faces wreathed in smiles and then signaled Lei Tie to do the same with urging eyes.

Lei Tie gave a thumbs-up with a wooden face.

Qin Mian’s face blossomed with smiles, glowing and charming.

Out of 79 participants, only 22 passed the first level. Anyway, it didn’t matter if they had not passed the first level. They could still redeem themselves in the second and third levels.

The second competition was to make a vegetable dish. Four people were assigned to a group to have a competition, where two people would be eliminated in each group. Those who were eliminated had another chance to compete after everyone had finished the first round. If they were eliminated once again, the next round would be considered a loss. Therefore, no matter whether the third round was a win or lose, they would not be able to recover the losses.

Note:

Footnotes