Chapter 46

Chapter 46: Set a date for the banquet first! Just who are we inviting...

Indeed, the rich aroma of pork wafting through the air was not only mouthwatering but even carried a faint freshness.

From such a distance, the sweet fragrance of vegetables in the clear-braised pork knuckle was already faint; only the pure pork aroma of the knuckle itself could be smelled.

Compared to this pure and primal meat scent, the braised pork knuckle on the table—with its aroma dominated more by the braising sauce than the meat itself—was far less enticing.

The five-year-old girl already knew what tasted better. She pointed at the knuckle on the table and slapped it with mild frustration: “Mom! This isn’t the right one, it’s not this one!”

Her mother glanced at Wang Deshui’s expression beside her and lightly slapped the child: “It’s already good enough to have a big pork knuckle to eat. Don’t talk nonsense, kid.”

The child’s grandmother was displeased: “What are you saying? The child is not talking nonsense. Doesn’t this knuckle clearly smell less fragrant than that one?”

The old lady wasn’t afraid of offending anyone. She opened her mouth and shot back immediately: “Smell this scent! This smells like meat simmered in plain water—that’s what you call fragrant! These days, all people know is how to dump in seasonings. Who knows if the ingredients are even fresh…”

“Old lady, I’m telling you—”

Wang Deshui had only spoken half a sentence before someone pulled him away. The host frowned: “I hired you to cook for the banquet, and now you’re arguing with the guests?”

Was the old lady someone easy to provoke? Say one word against her and by tomorrow the whole village would be gossiping about it!

Besides, the host himself was starting to waver, smelling the aroma of pork knuckle in the air… Why did the knuckle cooked by someone else smell so good, while their own braised pork knuckle had sweetness and soy sauce but just didn’t have that overwhelming meat aroma?

He looked back—some people at the banquet table were already preparing to leave!

“This scent… it must be coming from Old Man Jiao’s banquet! Let’s go have a taste!”

“Come on, what are you still stuffing things into plastic bags for? Hurry up and head to the Jiao family’s place!”

To be fair, Wang Deshui’s cooking wasn’t bad. While he wasn’t on par with a professional chef at a decent restaurant, he was definitely better than the average home cook in the countryside and had the skills of a small-time restaurant cook.

But it depends on who you compare him with.

This double-S tier clear-braised pork knuckle—not to mention someone like Wang Deshui—even his self-proclaimed “master” Huang Renshou couldn’t compete with it.

This braised pork knuckle had its color enhanced with red yeast rice, making it redder than usual. To suit the tastes of the elderly and children, extra sugar had been added, giving it a very sweet fragrance.

Normally, it would certainly be a crowd-pleaser. But set beside the clear-braised knuckle?

Against the backdrop of pure, unadulterated meat aroma and the subtle sweetness imparted by fresh vegetables, the sugary sweetness drawn out with white sugar only came across as cloying.

Someone picked up a piece of the glossy red knuckle skin and tasted it: “Oh wow… it’s so sweet…”

The host who had hired Wang Deshui was starting to regret it.

A distinctive feature of rural banquets here is that when good dishes are served, you have to fight for them.

There's no helping it—some people can grab two or three ribs in one go, or even half a knuckle or half a chicken with a single chopstick strike. Some less considerate elders would even start preparing to take leftovers home as soon as the dishes were served.

But this time, the wedding banquet was surprisingly quiet and orderly. There wasn’t any back-and-forth scrabbling over food; some guests even started to leave before they’d finished eating!

“Hey, Sister Wang, why are you leaving so early?”

“Brother Li, Brother Li! We haven’t had our fill yet—don’t go! There are still two more dishes to go with the wine!”

“Uncle, you’re leaving too…”

On such a joyous day, there were still dishes left untouched on the table!Some were delighted, others worried. As for the guests at the wedding banquet, they were naturally hurrying over to the Jiao family’s place.

The closer they got to the Jiao household, the more intense and soul-stirring the rich aroma of pork became.

Gradually, the richness of pork was mixed with other enticing scents:

There was the deep, rich fragrance of roast chicken, the lively and fresh scent of fried fish, and a braised aroma even more tempting than the earlier braised pork knuckle—yet not at all cloyingly sweet…

Drawn in by this wave of aroma, a few elderly women briskly waved their plastic bags as they walked to the Jiao house, gave their red envelopes, and went straight to the table to start stuffing lion’s head meatballs into their bags!

Normally, at an ordinary banquet, folks might turn a blind eye out of respect for their fellow villagers.

But this spread—anyone with a nose could tell—was of rarely seen quality.

“Auntie, don’t rush! Let your grandniece have a few bites first.”

“Please don’t pack it up just yet—try it first. This big pork knuckle will go cold by the time you eat it at home, won’t it?”

Seeing such a sudden influx of guests, Jiao Yuqin was overjoyed!

Compared to the actual wedding banquet, what mattered more to her was how many people came to this side’s feast. In the local countryside, this was what counted—more people meant more face. Earlier, with only about ten sparse tables filled, even the suona band had been playing listlessly.

She understood well—this was all thanks to the young chef’s exceptional skills!

With meat this fragrant, who wouldn’t be tempted just by the smell? If the elderly folks were allowed to snatch up all the good dishes to take home, what would everyone else eat?

She went to the back kitchen to find Chen Ran, hoping she’d bring out the main dishes more gradually, slipping her a big red envelope in the process. Once that was arranged, she returned to the front to try and mediate.

“Don’t rush, take your time eating! Let’s not pack anything up just yet—at the very least, make sure the children are full first.”

“Oh don’t worry, Big Sister! Leave it to me! Once the banquet ends, if there are leftovers, we’ll call you over to pack some up separately, how about that?”

“Uncle Wang, you can’t just carry off dishes like that—look, you’ve made the kids cry with hunger!”

Indeed, with food like this on the table, even the adults were practically drooling, let alone the children!

As soon as Xie Shuang sat down, her mother shoved a large chicken drumstick into her hands.

“Daughter, quick, try this roast chicken!”

Normally, she didn’t care much for roast chicken. For her personal taste, she preferred stewed local chicken with potatoes. She usually found roast chicken too heavily seasoned, and the meat too dry without broth.

But today’s roast chicken actually had the tender smoothness of a poached white-cut chicken!

She had never imagined that one day the word juicy could be used to describe roast chicken meat.

The meat of this chicken was tender, firm, and even elastic.

And surprisingly, the outer chicken skin had a slight crispness to it!

The skin had been brushed with caramelized syrup and deep-fried at high temperature, puffing up slightly. Normally, this kind of puffed chicken skin would turn mushy if stewed too long.

But if steamed indirectly with controlled heat, it could result in a slightly crunchy texture, almost like that of chicken feet!

The crispy skin, combined with the tender, smooth meat, and the intense flavor typical of proper roast chicken—this seemingly contradictory combination had created an unbelievably delicious dish!

After just one drumstick, Xie Shuang—who hadn’t even wanted to come—suddenly found herself hungry.

She usually worked away from home, and having finally taken some annual leave to spend a few days back in her hometown, what she hated most was the endless social visits.Especially at this kind of banquet—before you’d even eaten much—some random relative would pop up out of nowhere and start asking about your salary or your love life. And on top of that, the food didn’t always suit your taste.

But today’s banquet? The food was perfectly to her taste!

She had never eaten roast chicken this delicious before!

And maybe it was because the dishes were just too tasty, but the whole table was eating furiously! Right after the host came around and sternly reminded everyone not to pack up food and leave, even the elderly folks were going all in.

No one came over to bother her!

The only problem was... the food was really hard to get!

With everyone at the table digging in with their heads down, Xie Shuang only managed to grab a bit of pork knuckle skin. As for the roast chicken, she barely snagged a drumstick; her second chopstick could only reach a piece of chicken breast—then it was all gone!

She treasured that hard-won piece of chicken breast.

Unlike the usual impression of chicken breast being dry and tough, even the breast meat in this roast chicken was incredibly tender and smooth!

“See, girl? Now you know, huh? We told you to come earlier and you wouldn’t! Ooh, Four-Joy Meatballs are coming up!”

Normally, at a rural banquet like this, everyone had to rely on their own skills to grab food.

But surprisingly, when the Four-Joy Meatballs were served, every table started insisting on fairness!

“Hold up! There are only four meatballs here, and we’ve got eight people at the table—let’s divide them fairly!”

The one who stood up to divide them was Xie Shuang. She quickly found an unused spoon and evenly split the Four-Joy Meatballs into eight portions—half a meatball for each person.

Delicious!

Xie Shuang couldn’t help herself. She scarfed down two bites and, when there was only one bite of meatball left, snapped a photo and sent it to her college friend.

“Shanshan, I’m eating at a countryside banquet today and it’s blowing my mind! I never imagined that rural banquets could have food this good!”

Seeing that the lion’s head meatball in her photo was down to the last bite, Xie Shuang’s mother couldn’t help but send her a photo she had taken of the pork knuckle: “Girl, send this one! This knuckle is so good—of all the banquets I’ve had over the years, this one’s the best. No idea what other big dishes are coming next!”

Xie Shuang immediately forwarded her mom’s pork knuckle pic and added, “Look at this knuckle—I’ve never had pork this tasty!”

She racked her brain for the right adjectives, trying to describe that one bite of heaven: “You can taste that barely any seasoning was used—it’s just the pure, original pork flavor, with a slight sweetness. I think the sweetness might come from the vegetables in the broth... That aroma—it practically lured the whole village over!”

“An Ji-shan, don’t you wanna come try it? It’s so good, and they don’t have many guests anyway. I bet if you just drop off a gift envelope, you can eat too!”

At that moment, An Ji-shan was standing in line at White Swan waiting for a lion’s head meatball—she had no interest in any countryside banquet!

And having just eaten the deep-fried combo from White Swan, she wasn’t about to get excited over food made by some village cook.

“I’m lining up at White Swan right now—the one I told you about before. Their fried chicken legs and fried fish are amazing. Sadly, today’s their last day. You can only get one limited-edition lion’s head set… Let me eat this meatball first and I’ll get back to you!”

After finally getting her lion’s head meatball, An Ji-shan didn’t even have time to look at her old classmate’s messages. She quickly found a seat, complaining to her fellow fan club member across the table while taking her first bite.

“Ugh, stop complaining. You have no idea how far we fans have gone to track down Chef Chen Ran—across the whole country!”

Brother Green Pepper was busy managing the line. He’d even split his own lion’s head meatball with the Film Emperor earlier. Now, seeing An Ji-shan enjoying a whole meatball by herself, he couldn’t help feeling a little envious.

He pulled out his phone and showed her the fan group numbers. Thanks to this White Swan KTV stint, Chen Ran’s fan club had gained two more massive group chats.

“Wanna join? If someone spots Chef Chen Ran again, they’ll report it in the group first—and you’ll get queue-jumping privileges. Even if someone else finds her first, you’ll still have a shot at tasting her food.”

“Yes!”An Ji-shan eagerly joined the fan group, but unfortunately, Chen Ran had just slipped away from White Swan. She figured she probably wouldn't have another chance to find her.

She had no idea when she’d get to taste that delicious crispy fried crucian carp again.

While An Ji-shan was still reminiscing, the crispy fried crucian carp was being served at the banquet!

Seeing that An Ji-shan hadn’t replied, Xie Shuang guessed she was probably eating at that White Swan KTV place. Regretfully, she snapped a photo of the crispy fried crucian carp but didn’t bother sending it.

Since the lion’s head meatballs had been divided per person earlier, the same logic applied to the fried crucian carp. Each table quickly counted their fish.

“We’ve got 27 fish on our plate… wait, how did the table next to us get 29?”

“Hey, looks like we got lucky—thirty-two fish! Quick, let’s divide it up so everyone can dig in!”

Sadly, Xie Shuang’s table had relatively fewer fish, but she glanced over and noticed that theirs seemed a bit bigger than the ones next door. Rounding up, it wasn’t a loss!

These little crucian carp had just been freshly fried and brought straight to the table. Even the elderly ladies without teeth could eat them easily. They practically melted in your mouth—no chewing needed, just a light bite and they’d crumble into crispy, fragrant pieces.

Xie Shuang was in absolute bliss!

She had never enjoyed a banquet this much before. In fact, she was nearly finished eating when she finally noticed that there was a little boy at their table.

Normally, little boys would’ve been whining and fussing by now, but today the food was just too good—everyone was silently and seriously eating.

Since this was a funeral, before frying the crucian carp, Chen Ran had also fried up a batch of vegetarian meatballs. In local rural traditions, direct relatives of the deceased were expected to eat vegetarian for a while.

Jiao Yuqin had been busy for half the day. Seeing the once-sparse tables now nearly full made her heart brim with joy.

She went to the kitchen and took a bowl of vegetarian meatballs that Chen Ran had prepared. One bite—fragrant, crispy, and rich—and she felt even happier!

These purely vegetarian meatballs were even tastier than the meat ones she’d had before.

Her husband was in charge of recording the gift money. Jiao Yuqin brought over a meatball and fed him a bite before peeking at the ledger.

“Not bad, huh? Quite a turnout.”

To Jiao Yuqin, the exact amount of gift money wasn’t the most important thing. What mattered was that no one in the village could say her father’s send-off wasn’t grand enough!

“Right? I knew you wanted a big turnout, so anyone who came—whether we knew them or not—if they brought a gift, I let them in,” her husband said, then urged, “Go add her contact info quick—she’s got real skills. We should book her for our daughter’s wedding!”

Jiao Yuqin had already added Shu Jianmin’s contact info. “Of course! We really lucked out here. I heard they were originally booked for that wedding over there, but then…”

The couple whispered a few lines between themselves, thinking they could finally take a break—but to their surprise, more guests were arriving!

The original plan was for twenty tables, and they were already full. Gritting her teeth, Jiao Yuqin went to ask Shu Jianmin to add more.

“Can we add six more tables?”

For Shu Jianmin, the more tables the better. He had prepared ingredients for thirty tables in total, based on the agreement with the previous wedding client.

“Sure, but the big dishes might take a bit longer—will that be alright?”

“No problem! Let the pork knuckle come out later if needed—just hurry up with the fried stuff and such, okay?”

“You got it! Just wait and see!”

Shu Jianmin’s grin nearly reached his ears—he couldn’t stop smiling even if he tried.

For him, it wasn’t just about selling out all the ingredients today—just from walking around the venue, he had already landed three more catering gigs!Two full-month banquets and one housewarming banquet—all from nearby villages. How much hassle does that save?

Shu Jianmin enthusiastically grabbed a palm fan and went to fan Chen Ran, reporting his victories while making an extra promise: “Ranran, don’t worry. I won’t let you squeeze in the car with the helpers to sleep. Tonight I’ll go to the nearby town and book the best hotel room for you! Get a good rest!”

Chen Ran nodded and continued frying the next batch of crispy-skinned roast chicken.

Seeing Chen Ran staying silent, Shu Jianmin couldn’t hold back and asked again, “Ranran, look—if I keep offering you this rate, can you stay on a few more days?”

Though his mother had said Chen Ran didn’t look like someone who’d work under others, he couldn’t help himself—he had to ask or it’d bother him.

“Brother Jianmin, let’s finish this banquet first. We still have more tables to add. Look, the fish over there haven’t even been cleaned yet.”

“Aiya, look at me—what a mess I am!”

In the past, Chen Ran might have just bluntly said no, but after these days of working, she’d learned to use softness to deflect pressure.

Watching Shu Jianmin finally leave, she adjusted the chickens’ positions while spooning hot oil over them.

Earlier, when the last batch of roast chicken was served, Chen Ran had gone over to observe and was quite satisfied with the result.

She felt that her approach was totally correct!

At that moment, the system popped up with the mission result, offering affirmation.

[Congratulations to the host for obtaining a self-created recipe: S-rank Recipe—Double Perfection Roast Chicken]

[You’ve obtained a knife skill clue. It will automatically be revealed once the conditions are met.]

So the skill would only be granted after fulfilling certain conditions?

However, Chen Ran wasn’t particularly eager for the reward at the moment. To her, the fact that the system recognized her self-developed roast chicken recipe as S-rank was already the greatest affirmation.

“How was it? Didn’t embarrass you, right?”

In Chen Ran’s mind, she felt she was basically the system’s disciple now. The system had used so many recipes and missions to bring her culinary skills to this level. Now that she had created an S-rank recipe, didn’t that mean she had completed her training?

The cold, aloof system remained silent as usual. Chen Ran was used to the tsundere nature of the system by now.

If it hadn’t been for that time Chen Tingwei took in a disciple and forced the system to spit out a Guobaorou recipe, she would have thought this system had no thoughts at all.

“Why is it called Double Perfection Roast Chicken? It’s my original recipe—shouldn’t I get to name it myself?”

“Your name is so uninspired… sounds like something from a roadside stall…”

Chen Ran happily fried chicken while grumbling hard at the system. After all, no matter how she mocked it, the system never responded.

Unexpectedly, this time the system finally replied!

[‘Double Perfection Roast Chicken’ is the name the system gave to affirm the unique qualities of the host’s developed recipe.]

Though the system’s text had no tone, Chen Ran imagined it with a slightly wronged tone…

She couldn’t help but laugh. Tossing a few chickens with crispy skins into the braising broth, she then called for someone to help carry them off to be steamed.

“Let’s make all ten of the remaining ones! If the host doesn’t add more tables later, we’ll eat the extras ourselves, sound good?”

The helpers had already tasted quite a bit of Chen Ran’s cooking today—little fried fish, four-happiness meatballs—having a bite or two of extra pieces was pretty normal.

But this roast chicken, with its new and special preparation method, had to be served whole and intact. No one had gotten even a single bite of it yet.As soon as Chen Ran made the suggestion, everyone got even more motivated! Even Shu Jianmin, who usually only thought about making more money, couldn’t help looking forward to it.

He hoped Jiao Yuqin wouldn’t add any more tables! Let them have a few roast chickens to eat!

Unfortunately, things didn’t go as hoped.

The roast chickens had just come out of the pot when Jiao Yuqin came over.

“Aiyo, Xiao Shu! Xiao Shu! Can we add six more tables?”

Shu Jianmin quickly did the math—never mind having any roast chickens left for themselves, they’d owe her two more chickens instead!

Chen Ran had just started stewing the second pot of pork hocks, and with the aroma boost from the double S-rank clear-braised pork hocks, nearly half the villagers were flocking over!

Jiao Yuqin calculated that at least four or five more tables were needed. She said six partly for the lucky even number, and partly out of personal intent.

As someone in mourning, she couldn’t eat meat right now, so she figured she’d have an extra table’s worth of pork hocks and roast chicken frozen. After ten days or half a month, thaw them and they’d still be delicious, right?

“No way, Sis! That’s too much—we can’t handle it! Look how exhausted our Ranran is!”

“If it really won’t work, how about splitting the roast chickens—serve half a bird per table! Same with the pork hocks—half per table. How about that?”

“Sis, seriously, it won’t work. Our ingredients are limited too…”

The buyer and seller were about to argue! But in this case, it was the seller begging to sell less, and the buyer insisting on buying more.

Meanwhile, more villagers kept showing up wanting to offer their cash gifts.

The last dish was finally served. Xie Shuang nearly licked the plate clean. She looked enviously at the little boy at her table, who was using a piece of fried flatbread to wipe the bottom of the Four Happiness Meatball dish.

Even the last piece of fried flatbread was that delicious!

Sensing her daughter’s intense envy, her mother quietly threatened, “If you dare wipe your plate with bread, I’ll smack you!”

As she scolded, she tore off a piece of the flatbread herself and muttered, “Don’t know where they found this chef… Go get their contact info later. Your uncle’s wedding date still isn’t fixed. Tell him to schedule it for next week with this chef!”

Good grief!

Xie Shuang was startled.

“But didn’t Grandma say things haven’t been going well for our family lately, so we need to find a proper fortune teller and pick an auspicious date to ward off bad luck? We can book it later—what matters is getting this banquet chef, right?”

Her mother shot her a look: “You silly girl, taste this cooking! Book it later? You think even if you go book it now, you’ll still get a good date?”

Shoved forward by her mom, Xie Shuang rushed over to the kitchen, where Shu Jianmin was loudly calling out commands, and blurted out, “Handsome guy, I want to book a date—for my uncle’s wedding. Can you check…”

She was going to say, “Can you check which days work,” but Shu Jianmin had already whipped out a small notebook from behind his back and, flipping through it, said, “Only the 22nd and 27th are left in the next half month. Which one do you want?”

Xie Shuang didn’t dare decide!

It’s a wedding—of course they had to pick a lucky date. But just as she was about to turn back to ask her mom, another older woman popped out behind her.

“Book the 22nd for me!”

“Alright,” Shu Jianmin said coolly, drawing a line in the notebook. “Deposit first. What kind of banquet are you having? Any special requests?”

The older woman shoved over a thick wad of pink RMB and said smoothly, “Haven’t decided yet. Just booking it first!”

Haven’t decided yet?Xie Shuang was utterly shocked—what did “haven’t decided yet” even mean? Were they going to randomly find someone to marry at the last minute, or suddenly find a grandchild somewhere?

But having stayed in the countryside for a while, she knew that the local gifting culture was intense. Some families would even throw a banquet just for buying a donkey.

Seeing that only one date was left this month, she was terrified of messing up and getting scolded by her mom, so she quickly pulled out her phone.

“Boss, I’ll take the 27th! Hurry, I’ll send you the deposit!”

Good thing she was quick—she had just sent the deposit when more people arrived!

Xie Shuang let out a breath of relief and glanced at the calendar again.

The 27th—was a Wednesday?

Oh well, Uncle, you’ll have to endure! Just to satisfy everyone’s appetite, you’ll need to take a few extra days off for your wedding!