Chapter 105

Chapter 105: Chili Stir-Fried Pork

As soon as Chen Ran turned and walked into the school, the fan group, which had been eagerly waiting, exploded.

“Huh? Didn’t she just about to come in? Why did she suddenly turn around and leave?”

“I don’t know why, but I feel like I saw three parts of reluctance, three parts of heartache, and three parts of decisiveness in Chef Chen’s eyes…”

“Stop drawing pie charts, and why are you missing one part?”

Xu Zhanying was also a bit confused.

Was her information wrong? She had even dug up Chen Ran's elementary school classmates!

Moreover, looking at Chen Ran’s actions just now at the store’s door, she didn’t seem to have no feelings for the book bar, right? It was obvious she wanted to go in, right?

Wasn’t the recruitment notice at the door big enough and noticeable enough? Why did she leave?

She turned to look at Wang Qing'an, who had already quickly walked to the side to make a phone call.

At this point, no use crying over spilled milk—finding local contacts was the most important thing.

She was someone who had been through the “kindergarten borrowing kids” era!

Xu Zhanying listened for a while, then signaled her assistant to make phone calls to connect with contacts. Other customers nearby were a bit confused and came over to ask her, “Ms. Xu, are we still keeping this book bar open?”

“Keep it open for now! Let it be a base. If more fans come, they can gather here.”

Ms. Xu sighed, her eyes filled with envy and jealousy as she looked towards the school.

When she was in elementary school, why didn’t she have such a big chef doing charity work?

However, at that moment, inside Hope Primary School, no one realized that their welfare was about to arrive.

In fact, everyone was still looking at Chen Ran with a scrutinizing gaze.

“Is it really this difficult for university students to find a job now?”

“Little girl, can you handle it? This is big pot rice; do you see that huge pot over there?”

Chen Ran said nothing, grabbed a nearby wok, tossed it into the air, and caught it steadily.

She then took out her health certificate and chef’s license: “I worked at a kindergarten for two months. Is that okay?”

Everyone nodded.

After all, they were hiring a temporary worker. As long as she could cook, and the food didn’t make the students sick, it didn’t matter if it was a bit bland.

The cafeteria’s funding mainly relied on subsidies, so the students ate for free. It didn’t matter if the food was a little bad.

Temporary worker positions in small towns were hard to fill.

“Okay, okay, that’s great!”

The cafeteria manager waved her hand, signaling Chen Ran to come in. “We provide three meals a day, but lunch is the most important. There are fewer boarding students, so just make a little for breakfast and dinner. Aunt Hao will show you around.”

Hope Primary School didn’t have many students, and there were only six or seven people in the back kitchen. Two master chefs were responsible for cooking, while others handled various other tasks.

Before Chen Ran arrived, Aunt Hao was already washing vegetables, and after the meal was prepared, she would also be responsible for serving food to the students."Ah, finally someone’s here!"

Although Hope Primary School wasn’t big, the six or seven people in the kitchen were still very busy. With one less person, especially the head chef, everyone was overwhelmed.

"Come, come, let’s get to work! The students will be here in two hours for lunch!"

The large cooking pots and the mountain of ingredients gave Chen Ran a sense of familiarity.

Let’s start with the cabbage!

During her few days at Qing Shi An, Chen Ran had developed a much deeper understanding of various vegetables.

Although she had often cooked and chopped vegetables at the Chen family home, she had never really had the experience of personally handling and preparing vegetables.

She grabbed a clean cabbage with one hand, gently touched it, and gave it a light tap.

With just one tap, the cabbage completely separated into individual leaves.

She casually took a small piece of the leaf and popped it into her mouth, chewing lightly. The fresh, crisp taste of cabbage filled her mouth as the juice from the cabbage burst open.

A very tender cabbage.

She turned to Aunt Hao and asked, "Are there any specific dishes we need to make, or can I just do whatever?"

"Yeah, just use these vegetables and meat, make four dishes, that’s fine."

Although Hope Primary School provided meal subsidies, the local government’s budget was tight. Chen Ran quickly scanned the ingredients and they seemed pretty basic. The only meat for today was some pork belly and eggs, and the variety of vegetables wasn’t much either.

She quickly assessed the ingredients in her mind and got to work!

There wasn’t much pork belly, so she’d have to make sure to use it wisely, separating the pork skin and meat to use in different ways.

She soaked the soybeans and planned to braise them with the pork skin later. As long as the flavor was strong enough, the pork skin and seaweed with soybeans could easily substitute for pig’s trotters.

She rummaged through the back kitchen and found a big handful of dried shrimp, which could be reused for crab.

The locals preferred spicy food, so stir-frying the pork belly with some chili would work perfectly.

Finally, she would make an oyster sauce winter melon! Everything would be ready!

Aunt Hao saw Chen Ran standing still and thought the young girl might be confused, so she was about to remind her, "Just make something simple... It’s okay, our students’ meals only cost one yuan per meal, just make it clean!"

Before Aunt Hao could finish her sentence, she saw Chen Ran had already started chopping the meat!

Although Aunt Hao didn’t know much about cooking, just watching Chen Ran’s knife skills told her all she needed to know. Wow, this is a real chef!

Look at how neat the pork skin slices are, and how thin the meat slices are!

Her phone rang, and Aunt Hao took it out to check. It was a message from a teacher she was familiar with.

"Aunt Hao, which window has the best food today?"

As a long-time staff member at Hope Primary School, Aunt Hao had contact details for many teachers.

Since she was older and lived on campus, she helped out in the kitchen. Whenever the young teachers came to volunteer, she would try to help them out whenever she could.

This little teacher, Zhao, had once asked her to help sew a bag, and in return, she had sent Aunt Hao several meals. So, Aunt Hao often saved some of the best food for the teachers.

These young girls, they were so young and had come such a long way to volunteer! It wasn’t easy. At least they should have something tasty to eat!"There's a new chef today, and their skills seem really good! Go queue up at window number two."

Xiao Zhao looked at her phone and shouted from the office, "Go to window number two today! Let’s go, let’s go!"

"Sigh, you all go ahead, I’ll go get a package and then join you," she said to the girl at the desk, feeling down. "My chili sauce arrived, but the food at school... I really can’t eat it anymore."

The meals at the school were cheap, but they were really terrible. Their wages weren’t high, and they weren’t willing to spend money eating out.

"Aunt Hao said a new chef arrived, let’s go try it!"

"Sigh, we've tried that several times, each one worse than the last. Don’t worry, I’ll give you some chili sauce later."

Watching her colleague leave with her head hung low, Xiao Zhao also felt uneasy.

Teaching here was tough, no doubt, but seeing the smiling faces of the kids sometimes made the struggle feel worthwhile.

However, it would be even better if the food was better.

The food in the cafeteria wasn’t just something she didn’t like—it seemed the students didn’t like it much either.

As they walked toward the cafeteria, Xiao Zhao sensed something was different halfway there.

There was a fragrance in the air... it actually smelled good!

She quickened her pace and, based on Aunt Hao’s tip, rushed to window number two.

"Give me a serving of rice!"

Aunt Hao was waiting for her!

All four dishes were in thermal containers. When the lid was lifted, a rich aroma immediately wafted out.

"Here, which dish do you want to put on top of the rice?"

Aunt Hao pressed down the rice for the slightly thin Xiao Zhao, then grabbed a spoon to serve the dishes.

But Xiao Zhao, standing there, felt a bit hesitant.

The cabbage and egg dish, which smelled so delicious, was a style of cooking she had never seen before. The broth must be incredibly tasty.

Then there was the red-brown braised dish that looked like fatty meat. But when she smelled it closely, she realized it was braised winter melon.

The other two dishes looked even more tempting!

Soybeans and trembling pork skin stewed together, with the reddish-brown braised sauce making her mouth water.

And then there was the stir-fried chili with meat. The oily chili smelled so spicy. The pork belly looked a bit dry, but the fat even had the texture of lard.

No hesitation—she was going for the stir-fried chili with meat and rice!

Xiao Zhao felt like her mouth was watering.

"This stir-fried chili with meat! This over rice!"

"Okay!"

Aunt Hao, who was very considerate of the teaching girls, scooped a big spoonful and put it on the rice. "If you want more, come earlier next time!"

She could tell—this new chef was definitely something special. Also, these dishes were all so perfect for rice. If you came later, you might not get any!Xiao Zhao eagerly picked up her tray and found a seat by the window.

Her first bite was a small scoop of rice, topped with a green chili and a small piece of fragrant, crispy pork.

Not only the dish, but the rice was also coated with a brown sauce, and the sauce had a shiny, oily layer on top...

The stir-fried chili with pork should be like this—full of oil!

After a morning of hunger, her appetite now took over, urging her to devour the food with every part of her being.

One bite, and she felt utterly satisfied.

The oily chili was cooked perfectly, slightly crispy, yet without a hint of rawness. The fresh aroma of the chili lingered, combined with the fragrance of the pork and the spiciness...

What a refreshing bite!

"Delicious!"

Xiao Zhao couldn’t help but exclaim. She wasn't someone who could handle spicy food well, so she quickly ate a piece of braised winter melon.

The braised winter melon was surprisingly soft and glutinous! It was just as good as braised pork!

The braised flavor perfectly neutralized the spiciness in her mouth, and at the same time, it brought out an even deeper hunger...

She could hardly wait to finish the whole plate of food in front of her!

At that moment, her colleague returned, gleefully saying, "My chili sauce arrived! Come on, this time... wait, why does your food look different from mine?"

She had been delayed picking up a package, and by the time she arrived at window number two, the food had already been served. She had to go to window number one instead.

Take a look, the same ingredients, but her plate had stir-fried yellow beans, winter melon with meatballs, vinegar stir-fried cabbage, and chili stir-fried eggs...

"Come on, let me try your dishes!"

"Wow, I called you to come along, but you didn’t come, now you’re stealing my food..."

Her colleague pointed outside the window. "Look, why are there so many people outside?"

Xiao Zhao turned her head and immediately noticed a crowd gathered by the fence. She wasn’t sure if it was just her imagination, but these people seemed to be trying to sniff something in the air...

"What are they doing?" She turned back to gossip with her colleague, but was surprised to see the colleague with a face full of bliss. "Wow, you’re stealing my food!"

She couldn’t be bothered with the strange crowd outside anymore. Xiao Zhao quickly increased her pace, eating as fast as she could!

Outside, Wang Zhaoshan took a deep sniff. "Stir-fried chili with pork..."

No, he had to find a way to sneak in!

Even if it was a large dish like lion’s head meatballs or duck three ways, he had never been this greedy.

The simpler and more easily available the dish, the more he had to try it, especially if it came from a master chef!