News from Taiwan

Chapter 1: The Fallen Pork Belly
"Zi la...Zi la..."

The hot oil churned and surged in the pot, becoming increasingly viscous and rising as the temperature increased, splashing upwards with tiny droplets of oil.

Jiang Guier tied her long hair into a high ponytail and wore an elegant light green fitted cheongsam that hugged her shapely figure. She also wore a cute little apron with white butterfly trim, making her look like a charming and lively Chinese cook.

She held a spatula in her hand and skillfully stirred the contents of the pan.

At this point, the caramelized sugar in the wok had turned a beautiful light amber color.

The fatty part of the pork belly has been rendered to a golden brown, with a slightly charred surface. The skin on the top of the fatty part is slightly curled, and the lean meat is coated in an amber-colored sauce, making it look extremely tempting.

She picked up the exquisite celadon sugar jar that had been placed next to the kitchen counter, and deliberately turned it around in her hand to slightly reveal half of the brand's logo. The green porcelain spoon was full of white sugar, and the gentle harmony of the colors made the sugar appear even more crystal clear, as if it were coated with a halo. Under the white ambient light, it even shimmered.

Get started selling celadon-glazed canned sugar!

Get your celadon spoon for live-streaming sales!

Sugar is a must-have for product promotion!
With a smile in her eyes, Jiang Guier scooped up another spoonful of sugar and sprinkled it in again. The snow-white sugar granules fell into the pot and melted quickly in the hot oil. The sweet aroma of caramel mixed with the rich flavor of soy sauce filled the kitchen...

It smells so good!

"The essence of this Shanghai-style braised pork is the four words 'rich oil and dark sauce.' It's a dish full of homey flavors, and I believe it's the most common dish on the dining table in the memories of many Shanghainese. My mother used to make it for me all the time when I was a child. This delicious braised pork must be simmered over low heat."

Jiang Guier's voice is sweet and gentle, and her soft speech often gives people the feeling that she is being coquettish.

She winked playfully at the camera, "You have to get the timing right, you can't rush it..."

Before she could finish speaking, her phone started vibrating wildly on the kitchen counter.

The words "biological mother" flashed on the screen.

Jiang Guier glanced at it, ignored it, and continued to smile at the camera: "Just like how Shanghainese people live their lives, they value a sense of certainty..."

The screen went dark.

She kept working with her hands and began plating.

She scooped a spoonful of thick, amber-colored broth from the pot and slowly poured it over the meat. Under the light, the red surface of the braised pork was coated with a layer of honey-like caramel. The freshly cooked braised pork was still steaming hot, and the drizzled caramel slowly stretched into thin lines in front of the camera, hanging on the edges of the meat. The luscious color made one's mouth water, and one could almost smell the sweet aroma through the lens.

"Sister Gui'er, your braised pork today is absolutely perfect. It must be delicious, fragrant, and beautifully presented."

Assistant Qian Xin's eyes lit up; she really wanted to eat it, even if it meant gaining three pounds!
Completely forgetting the weight loss vow I made yesterday, I thought I could eat until I lost weight later, and that one more day wouldn't make a difference.

"Then I'll feed you today," Jiang Guier said with a soft laugh.

Upon hearing this, Qian Xin's eyes lit up, and she immediately walked to the designated tasting spot.

This position was finalized after they adjusted and studied it dozens of times together.

This is the best spot to capture Jiang Guier's actions of picking up food and feeding her, as well as close-up shots of the food.

Good photography is always planned.

With a smile on her lips, Jiang Guier held white jade chopsticks in her hand. The tips of the chopsticks just pierced the trembling skin of the meat as she picked up a square piece of braised pork.

"Snapped!!"

The kitchen suddenly went dark.

"what happened!"

"Why is there a power outage?"

"What happened!"

"Call the property management right away and have them come and take a look."

Jiang Guier stood frozen in place, her chopsticks still raised, but the braised pork she was holding had broken in two and fallen onto the counter, the thick sauce spilling everywhere...

The faint sound of the Fotile range hood abruptly stopped, all the lights in the room went out, except for the handheld fill light and the red light from the camera, which made the faces of the people in the room look slightly pale. The braised pork in the pot, which was not yet plated, made a soft "sizzling" sound, which was particularly jarring in the silence.

The phone screen suddenly lit up and kept vibrating on the countertop, with the words "Mom" flashing particularly glaringly.

Almost instantly, Jiang Guier understood. She took a deep breath, answered the phone, tried to control her temper, and spoke in a calm tone, "Mom, was it you who told the property management to cut off the power?" Her tone was firm.

"He's willing to answer the phone now."

On the other end of the phone, Jiang Yun's tone was extremely cold. "I just told the property management that the power supply in my home is unstable and asked them to cut off the power first to rule out any possible basic problems."

"Mom, I'm filming a video..."

"Oh, so what? How many times have I told you not to make the house smell like cooking oil? Wasn't it enough that you almost burned down the kitchen last time?"

"That was an accident!"

Jiang Guier took a deep breath, put one hand on her hip, and said defiantly, "Please stick to the facts and don't exaggerate. Please use the same rigorous attitude you have when reviewing company financial reports and annual reports to evaluate this."

Jiang Yun chuckled lightly, "First, adjust your attitude. I won't stop you from becoming an internet celebrity, but I hope you can take a normal path step by step, have a plan, and don't let so many 'accidents' become the main theme of your life."

Here we go again, lecturing!

Jiang Guier's heart clenched painfully. She dug her neatly trimmed nails into her palms, leaving shallow crescent-shaped marks. "Alright, Mom, you've been cutting off the power and calling me. What do you want from me?"

She was somewhat impatient.

"Your great-grandmother is in the hospital." Jiang Yun put down the financial statement she was reading and pushed up her frameless glasses.

"Why didn't you say so sooner!" Jiang Guier exclaimed anxiously.

"You should have said so earlier?" Jiang Yun's tone was coldly sarcastic. "When you rejected the study abroad offer without warning, you didn't say anything either." "Is that the same thing?"

"The essence is the same."

Jiang Guier was trembling with anger. She knew that if she talked to her mother now, she would definitely bring up the matter of studying abroad in no more than three sentences. She knew that what she did was not right, acting first and informing her later, but she did not regret it at all.

She chose her own life and is responsible for it.

"What exactly happened to Grandma?"

"Renji Hospital, unconscious."

"I'm coming right now." Upon hearing that her great-grandmother was in critical condition, Jiang Guier stopped arguing with her mother.

“Go.” Jiang Yun paused, then warned in a low voice, “When you go and see your grandmother, don’t give yourself away. If she finds out what you’ve done, don’t blame me for not protecting you.”

"Okay." Jiang Guier hung up the phone impatiently, looked at her team, and waved her hand, "That's it, that's it."

As she took off the white apron over her cheongsam, she said to the team members, "Xiao Chen, pack up the equipment and edit the video. Let Brother Lu take a look at the footage we just shot to see if it's usable. Xin Xin, come with me to the hospital. Call me if there's any emergency."

"Sister Gui'er, if we don't finish filming the video today, it will definitely delay the rest of our plans. What will we do if we can't deliver the product to the brand?"

The team's photographer, Chen Hao, looked conflicted. He got a headache just hearing that he had to show the footage to Brother Lu. The guy who could torture him to death over the smallest details would definitely kill him if he was given a half-finished product.

Jiang Guier shrugged and winked mischievously. "Xiao Chen, you have to believe in yourself. You can definitely do it. Whether the brand can deliver the goods depends on how well you manage to convince them in the end." After saying that, she grabbed Qian Xin and left, quickly getting off the elevator.

Qian Xin took a couple of breaths and patted her chest. "Sister Gui'er, you made Chen Hao face Brother Lu's interrogation. He almost cried."

"Men, cry, it's not a sin."

Why should men make things difficult for other men?

The two smiled at each other, went to the garage to get the car, and Jiang Guier stepped on the gas, and the white Mercedes sped away.

The asphalt roads in SH city seemed to be glistening under the sunlight, and the plane trees along the roadside rushed past the car window. The journey was not long, but it was very congested.

Stepping into Renji Hospital, the smell of disinfectant filled the air, making Jiang Guier feel uncomfortable. A sense of repulsion slowly crept up from the bottom of her heart. She frowned and said, "The smell of disinfectant at Renji Hospital is getting stronger and stronger."

Stepping into the elevator, Qian Xin wrinkled her nose and took a deep sniff. "It's alright, isn't this the smell of all hospitals?"

Jiang Guier silently watched the red numbers above the elevator jump.

Qian Xin narrowed her eyes, her expression a mix of caution and perfectly timed gossip, "Sister Gui'er, are you and your great-grandmother very close?"

"It's alright." Jiang Gui finally looked away from the fluctuating floor numbers. "I only see her a few times a year, except for holidays when I go back for a meal. The old lady lives alone in the rural suburbs, and my mother hired a caregiver to take care of her long-term."

"Why does he live alone..." Qian Xin had a question in her mind. Her boss was clearly not short of money, so why couldn't he bring the old man out? She stopped talking with a wandering look in her eyes.

Jiang Guier smiled and explained, "The old lady is sentimental, mainly because she and..."

Before he could finish speaking, he was suddenly stopped.

The elevator doors opened, and she saw a familiar figure: a short, lean man dressed in a well-tailored brocade suit, his gray hair neatly combed, gold earrings dangling from his ears, standing at the elevator entrance with a serious and unsmiling expression.

"grandmother."

“Gui’er is here. Your mother is really something, making you make this special trip,” Jiang Wumei said with her hands behind her back, a faint smile on her face.

"As a junior, of course I should serve you." Jiang Guier immediately stepped forward, and just as she was about to help him up, he dodged her hand.

“I’m not so old that I can’t walk.” Jiang Wumei turned around and led Jiang Guier to the front of the ward.

Qian Xin, who had been following behind, quickened her pace and pushed open the door to the ward. "Grandma, please."

"And who is this?" Jiang Wumei looked at Qian Xin with a scrutinizing gaze, having previously treated her as a stranger without paying much attention.

"I'm Sister Gui'er's..."

“This is my best friend.” Jiang Gui’er spoke quickly, winking at Qian Xin where her grandmother couldn’t see, “We were shopping just now when we got a call from my mom, so we came over together.”

"I'm sorry to have bothered you." Jiang Wumei then withdrew her scrutinizing gaze and entered the ward.

Jiang Guier followed closely behind and immediately saw the elderly woman on the hospital bed, so thin she was almost completely covered by the white sheet. She had many tubes inserted into her body, and a ventilator was maintaining her weak vital signs. Her heart clenched. She leaned closer, bent down in front of the bed, and whispered, "Grandma, it's me, Xiao Guiyuan. I've come to see you."

The only response she received was a faint breath, sometimes light, sometimes heavy. Jiang Guier wasn't sure if it was just her imagination, but she felt that her great-grandmother's lips seemed to tremble slightly.

"Grandma, what did the doctor say?"

"What else can she do? She's old and useless now." Jiang Wumei sat down on a chair, her expression complicated, and her words were harsh. "The doctor said she has a strong will to live. Anyone else might have given up long ago."

"Grandma!" Jiang Guier felt a little helpless and whispered, "Great-grandmother is still your mother. She's lying here now. Let bygones be bygones."

"Gui'er, refrain from commenting on adults' affairs," Jiang Wumei reprimanded coldly. "I'm sitting here now, finding her the best doctors, putting her in a special ward, and keeping her alive. I'm already disregarding past grievances."

"But……"

Just as Jiang Guier was about to speak, the instrument suddenly sounded a sharp alarm.

"Beep beep—beep beep—beep—!"

Before the group could react, medical staff rushed in.

　Please support me, everyone! Thank you! Love you all!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)