The first thing I did was to find out

Chapter 574 Basic Common Sense
Qin Huai and his two companions enjoyed a full pig feast at Jiang Wei's home for four days straight.

As the meal progressed, Qin Huai realized it wasn't just a whole pig feast anymore; it was more like 72 different ways to prepare Da Hua's pork dishes. Jiang Weiguo's knowledge of pork dishes was far deeper than Qin Huai had imagined. Qin Huai even suspected that Jiang Weiguo would prepare more types of pork dishes than he knew how to make desserts. For four days, there were 18 dishes every day, and not a single dish was repeated.

It can only be said that pork is incredibly versatile.

The number of people eating there is increasing every day.

After finishing his last meal, Qin Huai looked at the round table full of people and at Jiang Weiguo's five burly sons. He deeply understood why Jiang Weiguo always made such large portions of food and why their plates were so big.

This also explains why Jiang Feng was so happy during the meal on the first day.

This unlucky grandson ate the most on the first day, getting to eat whatever he wanted. As other members of the Jiang family joined the table in the following days, Jiang Feng couldn't get any of the good dishes. If it weren't for his uncles occasionally going easy on him, Qin Huai had reason to suspect that the kid wouldn't have been able to get a single piece of the popular dishes.

After the last meal, Jiang Weiguo asked An Youyou for her address, saying he would send the remaining pork to Shanshi so she could eat it slowly. If An Youyou needed anything, Jiang Weiguo would save some for her when the Jiang family slaughtered pigs in the future. She might not be able to get much from the large-flowered pigs, but she could choose from the smaller-flowered, three-flowered, four-flowered, and five-flowered pigs, and he would give her as many pig trotters as she wanted.

An Youyou was deeply moved. She felt that although Thirteen was poor, he was still as loyal as he was back then. He only had a few pigs at home, and he was thinking of giving her a share of the meat when the pigs were slaughtered.

Incidentally, during these four days, Jiang Weiguo hardly talked about anything related to himself; it was mostly his grandmother who did the talking. Of course, Jiang Weiguo wasn't completely silent; he chatted with Qin Huai a lot about pork.

It really is about pork, and can't even be called a cooking matter, since Qinhuai's level of expertise in hot-cooked dishes is very limited. There's a big difference between preparing pork in hot-cooked and cold-cooked dishes. Take diced pork as an example: using the same diced pork to make bun filling and braised pork are completely different concepts.

Qin Huai wasn't good at cooking hot dishes, and Jiang Weiguo wasn't good at cooking cold dishes, but that didn't stop the two from exchanging ideas about pork. In Jiang Weiguo's words, his father was a very skilled chef, but he hadn't learned much from him.

Besides the solid foundation he built in childhood, his culinary skills were largely acquired through traveling and learning from chefs all over the country.

If Qin Huai was a self-taught chef who was discovered by a master chef and gradually began to receive formal education, then Jiang Weiguo was a professionally trained chef who was forced to become a self-taught chef due to war and survival.

Jiang Weiguo's expertise in pork dishes is quite simple: in his culinary career spanning more than half a century, pork has been the 'high-end' ingredient he has had the most access to.

Without him, only familiar with Seoul.

Whether working odd jobs in a restaurant, being a head chef in a state-run restaurant, or earning extra money by catering banquets, Jiang Weiguo's most frequently prepared main meat dish was pork. Due to economic and ingredient limitations, Jiang Weiguo often didn't have the right to choose his ingredients, basically making whatever was available.

Offal is used as offal, pork belly is used as pork belly, spare ribs are used as spare ribs, and pork hock is used as pork hock.

Qin Huai felt that Jiang Weiguo's understanding of pork as an ingredient even surpassed his culinary skills.

When Jiang Weiguo was talking to Qin Huai about pork, he would occasionally mention some things from the past. He said that when he was young, he was ambitious and thought that one day he would save enough money to buy Taifenglou and return to Beiping. At that time, he would travel all over the country, explore everywhere, and become a disciple to learn famous dishes and grand cuisine.

As he grew older, Jiang Weiguo gradually resigned himself to his fate, no longer frequently mentioning going to Beiping, nor did he look forward to it. At that time, he felt that even if buying back the restaurant was no longer an option, he still had five sons. If these five sons could inherit his skills and carry forward the Jiang family cuisine, then Jiang Weiguo would have done right by his ancestors.

In his later years, Jiang Weiguo no longer held any hope for his five sons. His eldest son, who was the most talented, had no ambition in this field, and his third son, who had inherited his mantle, seemed to have already reached the limit of his learning.

But at that time, Jiang Weiguo still held a glimmer of hope for his four grandsons and two granddaughters. He felt that it didn't matter if his son was not up to par, but it would be fine if his grandchildren were. Anyway, he was healthy and had time to train his grandchildren to become masters.

As his grandchildren became increasingly cunning and quick-witted, their culinary skills improved with each learning session. After all these years of practice, only his youngest grandson had mastered the basics. Now, he also has to go back to school, attend high school, and take the college entrance exam. Jiang Weiguo has given up all hope.

Why bother passing down any skills? Just stay in the countryside and raise pigs.

When facing the young man Qin Huai, Jiang Weiguo couldn't help but sigh, feeling that times had indeed changed. Back then, he had no choice; if he had a family-inherited skill, he would naturally choose that. Even in chaotic times, being a chef was a top-notch profession.

Things are different now. Children these days have choices. They can learn a trade, they can study, and they can choose what they want to do. Jiang Weiguo wasn't exactly an enlightened elder, but he didn't want to force his children and grandchildren to learn cooking, because he knew very well that forcing them to learn wouldn't yield any results. He was forced to be more open-minded.

Because he was unhappy, Jiang Weiguo usually refused to let his children and grandchildren come back to his hometown to freeload. He would only cook for these debt collectors during holidays to tell them that this was what would happen if they didn't inherit the family's culinary skills.

Qin Huai wanted to comfort Jiang Weiguo, saying that this wasn't just his predicament, but the predicament of many culinary masters today. He cited Tan Weian as an example, whose great-grandfather was a renowned pastry chef in the Jiangnan region, who amassed wealth by selling his son's food.

Grandpa Tan Wei'an inherited his great-grandfather's skills and can be considered a master of pastry making. Despite taking on so many disciples at Zhiweiju, the world's number one pastry restaurant, he still hasn't found a truly good one.

None of his sons or daughters inherited his craft. If it weren't for Tan Weian among his grandchildren, the Tan family's craft would have essentially died out.

Although Tan Weian did not inherit it very well either.

But considering the Tan family's situation, it's already considered quite good within Zhiweiju. Even though Master Zhou had a good apprentice, none of his children or grandchildren inherited the craft. Many master chefs at Zhiweiju spoke of the late Master Tan with a touch of envy, feeling that although Tan Weian was a bit lazy, his talent wasn't bad. They believed that if he had been willing to study diligently and practice hard, he could have mastered the craft in time, and it was possible that Tan Weian could have carried on the Tan family's culinary traditions.

This is the situation regarding the white case.

The situation regarding the Red Case is not very clear, but if we take Huang Shengli as an example, Huang Anyao would have a hard time even maintaining the hotel business, let alone inheriting the craft.

Jiang Weiguo's situation is actually quite good, with his sons and grandchildren all having practiced the craft, and one of his sons even inheriting it. His main disadvantage is that he lives in a small city, didn't work in a famous restaurant, didn't make a name for himself, didn't take on other apprentices, and didn't get listed among the famous chefs.

Qin Huai felt that with Jiang Weiguo's expertise in pork dishes, it would be easy for him to squeeze into the top 50 of the list of famous chefs.

This shows that Xu Cheng failed in his job.

However, Jiang Weiguo didn't care about any of that. He was now questioning his life because his grandson Jiang Feng had given up cooking for his studies. He had stopped accepting banquets and was focusing on raising pigs at home.

I'm in a bad mood.

This is why Qin Huai and his two companions were stopped outside the door for 10 minutes when they came to visit. If Jiang Weiguo had been in a good mood, the three of them would have been able to enter the house, talk in the courtyard, and then be kicked out.

Even though he was in a bad mood, Jiang Weiguo still personally took the three of them to the town's bus station, becoming the only underling to take his boss to the station.

That's the good thing about not living in a nursing home—you have freedom of movement. "I'll call you before I slaughter the pig next time, and tell you in advance what kind of meat you want." Even his parting words to people are so practical. "Fried meatballs can only be kept for half a month at most; they won't taste good if they're kept longer."

"I know, Grandpa Jiang. I'll eat all the meatballs when I get back." After meeting each of Jiang Weiguo's sons, An Youyou treated Jiang Weiguo with utmost respect and politeness.

Jiang Weiguo then looked at Qin Huai: "If you don't understand anything, call me and ask me."

"Thank you, Master Jiang." Qin Huai was also very respectful and polite to Jiang Weiguo. Seeing that Jiang Weiguo was about to turn and leave, he couldn't help but say, "Master Jiang, I was studying in high school and didn't make pastries."

Jiang Weiguo stopped in his tracks.

"Because I come from a self-taught background, my knife skills and heat control are still not very good, but as a pastry chef, my shortcomings in this area don't have a big impact."

“I’ve seen Jiang Feng’s knife skills; his fundamentals are much more solid than mine. It’s never too late to learn to cook as long as you enjoy it. I think… he’ll like it.”

"He looks like a chef." Qin Huai's words were absolutely heartfelt. These past few days, whenever Qin Huai saw Jiang Feng, he felt that Jiang Feng could go into the kitchen and make a golden S-level dish.

Jiang Weiguo didn't speak, he just nodded.

Qin Huai and his two companions boarded a minibus bound for the Z City train station.

As soon as she got in the car, An Youyou sighed, "Raising a son is really expensive. At first, I thought it was because Thirteen's cooking wasn't very good, so he didn't earn enough money to buy a restaurant."

"As a result, Thirteen is such a good cook but so poor. If he hadn't had five sons, he would have returned to Beiping long ago."

Qin Huai: ...? You came to this conclusion after eating a whole pig feast for four days in the village?
"Youyou, what are your plans after you go back?" Qin Huai asked.

Without hesitation, An Youyou replied, "Of course I'll go to work, then wait for you, boss, to promote me and give me a raise, make me the manager of Cloud Cafeteria, and finally give me 52% of the shares."

“We’ve been out for half a month now. Although you specially approved my leave this time so I won’t be docked any extra pay, I’m still missing half a month’s salary. I also bought so many things for Xiaoqi, Xiaojiu and Shisan. I don’t know if I’ll have enough money to spend next month.”

"I initially saw a wooden table on Taobao that cost over 2000 yuan. It was so beautiful and had carvings. It would be perfect for my three-legged toad. But now I guess I don't have the money to buy it. Boss, can I come to work a day later? I want to go to the flea market and see if there are any cheap wooden tables under 200 yuan that I can buy to put my toad in."

“I suddenly feel that the apartments in Yunzhong Community aren’t so great after all. The property management fees are too expensive. I spend almost half a month’s salary just on property management and water and electricity fees every month. This month I only had half a month’s salary and I didn’t even have full attendance.”

"Why am I so poor!"

Qin Huai: ...This question is very philosophical, and also very puzzling.

Although An Youyou feels quite wealthy now, with a box of silver dollars, a sandalwood box, a pure gold three-legged toad, and even a painting by Zhang Daqian, she is actually very poor.

Perhaps that's just how the three-legged toad is; it doesn't like living a good life.

"These are all your plans after you go back?" Qin Huai couldn't help but ask again. "Has this trip had any impact on your future plans?"

Qin Huai personally felt that this journey to find his underlings was quite exciting.

She reunited with a younger brother, chatted with him at length, and even enjoyed a four-day feast of whole pigs at his house. An Youyou was like a cultivator who had gone to another world to cultivate, and returned still young, but whose old friends had all grown old. Theoretically, this trip should have been An Youyou's cultivation journey.

Qin Huai knew that spirits and monsters would be very wary of these things.

The spirits who failed their tribulation were all due to their past obsessions. If they succeeded and then encountered their old friends, they risked failing their tribulation again. Qu Jing contacted her parents from her previous life secretly in the early stages, fearing that Luo Jun and Chen Huihong would find out.

Zhao Cheng'an and Xia Murui recognized each other entirely because Fuyou was mentally unstable.

As for An Youyou...

Qin Huai felt that the three-legged toad's brain was actually normal. Although An Youyou was quickly replaced by the three-legged toad after waking up, she could still maintain the human touch when necessary. This can be seen from An Youyou's completely different attitudes towards Lin Qi, Xu Chenggang and Jiang Weiguo.

When she can be the boss, of course she will be the boss; when she can't be the boss, she can be An Youyou.

While An Youyou was mentally sound and rational, she made a very impulsive decision, which was quite unusual for a spirit, but unlike Qu Jing, she didn't have much affection for her younger brothers.

Qin Huai felt that An Youyou really just wanted to meet her three underlings to see if they were well-off. If they were, she wanted to ask for something; if not, she wanted to freeload a meal.

“What impact could it have? They don’t include me in their future plans, and naturally they don’t include me in mine,” An Youyou said. “Of course, if I become successful in a few years and Dr. Qu cures Lin Qi’s Alzheimer’s disease, I will definitely be willing to take Lin Qi out to enjoy a life of luxury.”

"I have successfully overcome my tribulation, so I shouldn't meddle too much in other people's affairs, as it will affect them."

"Even spirits and monsters believe in cause and effect." This was the first time Qin Huai had heard this version.

“I don’t care about appearances,” Shi Dadan said, “but too much interference will definitely have a negative impact.”

"Just like ordinary spirits cannot interfere with the tribulation of their own kind, everything can only be left to nature. If you forcibly intervene because you want to help the other party too much, it will most likely make the tribulation more difficult, and the success rate may even approach 0."

“Yes.” An Youyou nodded emphatically. “This is basic common sense for spirits undergoing tribulation; every spirit knows it.”

"Even the spirits of plants and trees know this."

(End of this chapter)