Food Intelligence King

Chapter 175 Free food and drinks
Every day after picking Chen Taotao up from school, the father and son would pass by the community canteen.

The little girl can already recognize the four characters "community canteen".

Every time she passed by, she had to read it to Chen Zhou.

Today is no exception.

“Dad, the community canteen.” Chen Taotao pointed.

Chen Zhou smiled and said, "That's right."

Of course, recognizing characters, writing characters, and using pinyin are three things that are almost completely unrelated.

Recognizing characters involves memorizing the meaning of the shapes corresponding to the characters.

Writing is about depicting shapes.

Pinyin is similar to a foreign language.

Today, the father and son lingered in front of the shop for a while.

Her elderly father gave her a simple explanation of the characters for "community canteen" from the perspective of pictographs.

"Look at the character 'food',"

Chen Taotao interjected, "There's a person up there."

“Yes,” Chen Zhou nodded, “the next thing is food. People eat, that’s food.”

Then next to it is the character "堂".

Chen Taotao recognized the character "土" (earth) with its simple strokes below.

Chen Zhou explained, "Land is the foundation, and the cover on top is the roof. The word 'tang' means a spacious place. It can be used in dining hall, school, or hall."

Based on her own observations and experience, Chen Taotao concluded:
"Then the cafeteria is where people eat, right?"

"You're quite smart," Chen Zhou praised her.

Tao Tao didn't think it was anything special, saying, "I often see people eating here."

Then, Chen Zhou took out the key and opened the door to the original rental and sales center.

He gestured for his daughter to come in and sit down.

"Want to take a break, honey?"

Chen Taotao asked curiously, "Oh, Dad, how come you have a key to this place!"

“Dad rented it out; it will be used as a place for people to eat in the future.”

The little girl didn't stand on ceremony with her old father.

He followed Chen Zhou into the store in a few steps and rushed to the sofa where customers were originally greeted.

She looked around the room.

The desk that Zhang Jing used to work at was pushed into a corner.

The room looked noticeably empty.

Chen Taotao commented, "It's more spacious here."

"Because this shop doesn't have a kitchen." Chen Zhou pointed to the east wall and said, "If we knock down this wall, we can connect it to the one next door."

"Hmm," Chen Taotao said thoughtfully, "That's good."

The imitation is quite accurate.

Chen Zhou smiled and returned Chen Taotao's schoolbag to her.

"Would you like a drink?"

Chen Taotao nodded, "A little bit is fine."

As she spoke, she pinched her fingers together again.

Ms. Lin meant that it's better to eat less sugary drinks and snacks, and more mixed salads and other healthy foods.

She practices what she preaches, and there are rarely any beverages in her home.

As for Chen Zhou, although he largely accepted the scientific principles behind it—

High sugar content is harmful to health and detrimental to growth and development, etc.

But Chen Zhou also felt that it was appropriate to let the child try it occasionally.

Looking at Chen Taotao in front of him, it's less about spoiling her and more about Chen Zhou treating his childhood self.

As the old saying goes, "People will eventually be troubled for the rest of their lives by the things they couldn't get when they were young."

There is some truth to that.

Here, I must criticize Old Chen; that old guy is too stingy.

When Chen Zhou was a child, he really craved drinks and snacks.

Of course, it was a problem of the times, and Lao Chen was just a microcosm of countless ordinary parents in that era. Chen Zhou had long since come to terms with it.

In short, Chen Zhou felt that he should take Chen Taotao to try all sorts of things.

Occasionally, she can be allowed to have some drinks or snacks, just to satisfy her cravings.

The way to be fascinated by something is to possess it.

the other side,
Chen Taotao had already stood up from the sofa and stared at her father for a while.

"Dad, what are you thinking?" she said, frowning. "Actually, it's okay if you don't drink it. I didn't say I wanted a beverage."

Hmm. Chen Zhou thought it might be that he was just craving something.

He gently patted his daughter's head.

"Let's go, together."

"Okay~" Chen Taotao smiled and moved closer.

She comforted her elderly father, and her main focus was on keeping him company.

The father and daughter took a bottle of beverage from the beverage cabinet in the community canteen and two cups from the sterilizer.

They returned to the sofa in the rental center and started drinking together.

Chen Zhou burped; the little girl had been trying to learn it for ages but still hadn't succeeded.

However, Chen Taotao felt that the drinks tasted just average, and she was still very interested in the store.

She pleaded:

"I'll play here for a while; this place is even bigger than my home."

"Okay." Chen Zhou nodded.

After saying that, he leaned back on the sofa.

A shop of 40 or 50 square meters is actually no bigger than a home.

But now I've put all the useless clutter in the corner. It's actually quite spacious now.

At least, it's larger than the living area at home.

After all, the longer you live in a house, the more stuff you accumulate.

Chen Taotao has brought her home routine to the store.

He rummaged through the things in the little schoolbag.

Chen Zhou watched with great interest as she took things out one by one.

After Chen Taotao saw her father looking at her, she introduced herself to everyone one by one:

"This is a pencil, and then there's another pencil."

She placed it on the coffee table and continued her rambling: "These are mosquito repellent patches. The teacher said we won't need them for long."

Those damn mosquitoes are finally going to die.

Chen Zhou was pleased with this.

Chen Taotao continued her work without stopping, saying:

"A small stick, this is my craft project. The leather case, wet wipes, and tissues were packed for me by my mother."

The most outrageous thing is that there are also a few Go pieces.

Chen Zhou finally witnessed the Go-playing girl grow up.

He found a bag of snacks in his daughter's schoolbag and said, "Give this to me, and I'll have your mom buy you something delicious tonight."

Chen Taotao readily agreed.

But she didn't know that Ms. Lin had already agreed to buy some snacks on her way home from get off work today.

The father used information asymmetry to trick his daughter into giving him snacks.

Unfortunately, Chen Taotao's sources of information were too scarce.

Chen Zhou opened the packaging and found a nut cookie shaped like a squirrel.

It's actually pretty delicious.

Chen Zhou chewed loudly and casually asked, "When did you buy this? I didn't know. Did your mom secretly give it to you?"

Chen Taotao replied, "Snack sharing~ I get them from you every day, now I'm sharing them with you too."

"Thank you," Chen Zhou said with a smile, reminding her.
"Don't leave anything here, Tao Tao. Daddy's going to do some simple renovations here in a few days."

The little girl nodded and started packing the odds and ends back into the box.

No one knows the meaning behind Chen Taotao's actions.

Anyway, Chen Zhou couldn't explain it clearly, and he didn't get a clear answer from the questions.

But maybe that's just life.

Chen Zhou remembered the article written by his classmate Kang Haoran.

We'll put a copy on the wall of this community canteen then.

On weekends, I'll take Chen Taotao to her Go class so she can chat with her teacher, Mr. Wei.

I imagine the old man would be happy to write another piece of calligraphy.

The last time they received large mooncakes for the Mid-Autumn Festival, the couple kept Chen Zhou company and chatted for a long time.

In the evening, Chen Zhou and his family had a meal with a touch of ceremony.

Ms. Lin bought a lot of ready-made food, including cooked dishes and preserved foods.

Chen Zhou wasn't made to do anything.

Because she knew her husband had been quite busy lately, Ms. Lin felt a little sorry for him if he had to cook dinner again.

Chen Zhou smiled and praised his wife: "You're so thoughtful."

Ms. Lin said with a serious expression, "I'm mainly worried that you won't be in good spirits at night."

"Ahem," Chen Zhou changed the subject:

"The snacks I give your daughter every day are nice. You should buy some for Tao Tao sometime, they sometimes share them."

Ms. Lin smiled.

These past two days, Liu Tianyu's mother has even invited her to take the baby for a walk in the evenings.

The two girls actually have a pretty good relationship.

(End of this chapter)