Planet Rebirth

"What do you want to eat?" The old man asked me irrelevantly.

"I... I'm not hungry, thank you." My eyes returned to his face, eyes that I almost dared not look directly at.

The old man stroked his short pale hair and said: "It will be noon soon, I think you should be hungry, you should eat some."

"I'm going soon..." I still wanted to continue to decline, but at this time my mind had shifted from the disappearing girl to the real problem.

The old man interrupted me and asked, "Going to work?"

I nodded: "Yes, it's too late."

The old man shrugged his shoulders: "Since we are already late, the length of time is no longer a problem? Isn't it?"

I looked at the old man's smile and frowned, feeling a little complicated.I raised my wrist to look at my watch, the time was close to noon, I politely smiled at the old man: "Sorry, I think I have to leave here right away..."

The old man was not disappointed with my performance or had some other reactions. He raised his hand to stop what I said below, turned around and said to the little man in the stage: "Get us two something to eat."

In a restaurant that seemed to have no kitchen, that little man actually pushed a four-wheeled dining cart from behind the counter to me in front of me as if by magic. The wine glass was poured with red wine, and the napkin was unfolded, folded in half and placed on my lap without any explanation.

"What have you prepared?" The old man raised his head and asked the little man, the two of them should be familiar with each other from their expressions.

The little man reached out and opened a metal cover on the dining car. There were two grilled steaks on the dinner plate inside.He looked at the old man and said, "Your favorite."

"Great." The old man snapped his fingers.

As soon as I smelled the overflowing aroma, my stomach twitched. The steak in front of me aroused my appetite. I was really hungry. Just as I was still hesitating, the little man had already placed two appetizer soups on the table. On the table.

"Please." The old man gestured with his hand.

"You haven't answered my question yet?" I changed the topic back to the original question.

The old man was not in a hurry to answer my question.He drank the appetizer soup spoonful by spoonful, then gently wiped the corners of his mouth with a napkin, and signaled to the little man to leave, before turning his attention to me again. He kept looking at me kindly. I, there is a kind of heartfelt emotion in my eyes, like an old friend I haven't seen for many years, which makes people feel very warm.

I also started to pick up a spoon and drink the soup in front of me, and to be honest, it tasted very good.Sweet and delicate, I can feel the soup flowing into my stomach and spread out, gently stroking my gastric mucosa, making the discomfort I felt just now due to hunger disappear.

When the little man saw that I had finished my soup, he removed the soup bowl and brought up the tempting steak.The old man picked up the seasoning bottle and evenly sprinkled black pepper on the steak. He asked me: "Do you know what is the most important thing in cooking food?"

After a bowl of appetizer soup, I temporarily gave up the idea of ​​leaving, because I really couldn't stand the temptation of American style.I couldn't resist the perfectly grilled and juicy steak in front of me.At this time, my body also relaxed, and I was no longer as tense as before, and the blood flowed slowly throughout my body.The starter soup continued to radiate energy in my stomach, making me feel good.

"Don't know?" I picked up the knife and fork to cut the steak.

The old man was cutting the steak, and when he saw that I was interested in his question, there was a gleam in his eyes.He stopped the knife and fork, took a sip of red wine and said: "When people face attractive and fresh food ingredients, they always subconsciously want to eat it in their mouths as soon as possible. But they ignore a problem. Cognition Things need a process, and cooking is no exception. For this steak, it comes from Alberta, Canada, North America, where the world's best beef cattle are raised. These cattle can not only eat clean, fresh, Pollution-free grass, in their daily diet, apples, acorns, carrots and walnuts are the main feed. It is no wonder that such careful breeding does not produce the best steak in the world."

Speaking of this, the old man swallowed excitedly, and I was also attracted by this rather relaxed topic, so I concentrated on listening to him continue.

The old man had already cut a piece of meat of a moderate size, and while dipping the meat on the plate with a fork, he continued: "When a piece of steak like this is placed in front of you, I really want to swallow it right away. Why not go in the stomach, because it is too tempting. So people try their best to process it and mature it as quickly as possible, but this just happens to be a problem. Excessive heat and anxious mentality make this A steak loses its original taste and texture during the ripening process, and the end result is that it is only edible and loses the essence of its ability to be remembered the most."

"What is that?" I was really fascinated.

"The experience of the soul. What food brings us is not only to satisfy our hunger, but more importantly, to enjoy the good feeling it brings us. In other words, everything in the world must follow this principle. Any great academic theory and science The greatest happiness that an invention brings to its creator is not the final achievement, but the experience of the process, the kind of pleasure that touches the deepest part of the soul."

The old man put the piece of meat that was already full of soup into his mouth. I watched him slowly close his eyes and chewed gently. I even heard the sound of teeth and meat grinding, mixed with the sound of saliva stirring .Seeing his engrossed expression, I almost laughed out loud.

The old man's throat moved, and the piece of meat was swallowed. He opened his eyes, let out a long breath, and showed a look of enjoyment on his face. He drank another sip of red wine, and suddenly turned the topic back to me and said: " Just like the two questions you just asked. Who am I? Where are you? If I tell you the answer directly, it's like a steak that's not cooked properly and has been burnt. It's hard to swallow. If you bite the bullet If you eat it, you may still suffer from indigestion. Therefore, this is a long process, and today is just the beginning. Since you have chosen to come here, it is for you to uncover the essence of this matter. Don’t worry, we have plenty of time. "

Hearing this, my mood changed slightly again. Although the steak was so delicious that I couldn't stop holding the knife and fork in my hand, all the things that happened before still troubled me. Thinking about these problems, I The action of cutting the steak was a little slow, and the expression on his face might have let him see that I was preoccupied.

The old man looked at me chewing the beef slowly and asked, "It's very delicious, isn't it?"

"Indeed." I nodded in agreement. (To be continued..)