Food Intelligence King

Chapter 25: Shocking! My Daughter Won Two Thousand Yuan in a Mall Lottery

Chen Zhou had planned to participate in the lucky draw today.

So I prepared a coin specifically for Chen Taotao. After putting her on a chair, I let my daughter play with it by herself.

To be honest, the little girl has a very meticulous and serious attitude; she insists on scraping off each zebra stripe clean, one by one.

Chen Zhou said smugly, "I wonder who this child takes after."

Ms. Lin smiled and gave a concise evaluation: "Focus, just like you."

She was speaking from the heart.

Chen Taotao's current state, especially her posture when Chen Zhou was making steamed buns, is very similar; she can't even hear him when you stand next to her and talk to him.
Originally thinking it was just something to amuse the child, Lin Yifan didn't urge her daughter. Instead, she lowered her head and checked Chen Taotao's construction progress.

Upon closer inspection, I noticed the character "两" (two).

When she turned to look at Chen Zhou again, she couldn't help but smile slightly.

"Look, there really are two bags of salt!"

Winning such a small prize was a small but precious joy for Ms. Lin.
Of course, several staff members who were changing shifts right across from the family also heard Lin Yifan's words.

Although I didn't mean to bother you, I still offered this reminder from a work perspective:

"Madam, we do not have two bags of salt as a prize in this raffle."

Lin Yifan was somewhat surprised, "No? My daughter scratched out the number two."

The staff members looked at each other.

They started talking to each other:

"Think about what else is in the prize pool? Third prize, a bag of salt."

"Second prize: a bag of laundry detergent."

"Two of them are first prize, two thousand yuan!?"

All three staff members turned their attention to the little girl.

After they finished speaking, Chen Taotao slowly raised her small card.

The little girl put on an air of 'I finally accomplished something big'.

Claiming credit:

"Dad, I'm finally done shaving."

Chen Zhou immediately praised her: "Our Tao Tao is really amazing, she shaved the cleanest."

I can't say I was completely unmoved by this, but at least I felt that today's lottery was perfectly reasonable.

Chen Zhou first showed it to his wife:
"It really is two thousand yuan."

The unexpected windfall of two thousand yuan was truly beyond Ms. Lin's expectations.

She never imagined that she would actually win a prize in a shopping mall lottery.

This incident is going to make the headlines: "Shocking! My daughter won two thousand yuan in a mall raffle."

However, she quickly regained her composure, even appearing more composed than Chen Zhou.

I asked the staff about the entire process of claiming the prize.

As the family left, the three staff members couldn't help but remark, "This family is so calm; they acted like they'd won a bag of salt."

"He looks really calm."

Calm? Chen Zhou was probably a little calm, because he had already been excited because he had the intelligence.

Chen Taotao is illiterate and has no concept of the world.

As for Ms. Lin, she simply appeared very calm.

Chen Zhou could tell that she was walking much faster than usual.

When Chen Zhou finally arrived at the service desk on the first floor to claim his prize, he discovered that the prize was worth two thousand yuan, but he didn't receive that much.

This was an accidental gain.

The shopping mall withheld and paid the individual income tax on behalf of the customer.

At that time, Chen Taotao was still too young to even recognize the words "two thousand yuan." So, the money naturally ended up in the guardian's pocket.

Damn it, we've all become those kinds of parents!

Chen Zhou comforted himself and his wife, saying, "There's an old saying: a son stealing from his father isn't considered stealing." "Aren't you saying it backwards?" Ms. Lin asked.

The matter of the 2,000 yuan lottery has come to an end; it was just a small episode in Chen Zhou's family's life.

After returning home,

He took his wife's advice and rested for a day.

To minimize the impact on his business, Chen Zhou also mentioned it in his community's group chat and asked the security guard, Xiao Liu, to put up a small sign that read "Baozi is busy today" at his original stall location.

The next day was Monday again.

At home, things have returned to normal on weekdays; people are going to work and school as usual.

Chen Zhou should go to the market soon.

He first went to Yongjia Fresh Food to pick up the meat, and there he inevitably chatted with Lao Zhang for a while.

Actually, they contact each other almost every day on WeChat. It's just that the content of their chats becomes more and more concise each day.

Are you here to buy meat today?
-
"Here, ten pounds of foreleg."

"?"
-
"Going out with the kids today."

"What about today?"
-
"10"

It's all about business communication skills, without a trace of personal emotion.

Chen Zhou wanted to make vegetarian buns this time, so he asked Lao Zhang to recommend a reliable vegetable stall to buy eggplant and green peppers.

After all, vegetables grown by the elderly are a rare find, so Chen Zhou had to carefully select the best ones at the market.

Old Zhang then revealed the truth to Chen Zhou:

"Don't be fooled by the seemingly large number of vegetable vendors in the market; they're all owned by the same person. It doesn't really matter which one you buy from. Unlike us pork vendors, where there's such a big difference."

When people are chatting, they inevitably drift back to their own lives after a few sentences. Zhang Jinsheng said that his ancestor was "Zhang Fei of Yan," and that slaughtering pigs and selling meat was a family tradition.

The exact details are hard to ascertain, but Old Zhang had a certain air about him.
After chatting for a while, Chen Zhou went to the vegetable section.

Summer markets are a delight to browse, with colorful fruits and vegetables piled high. The season brings a vibrant sense of life.

Pick the ones that look good and are smooth.

Chen Zhou then picked out some green peppers and eggplants.

The price is equally attractive, costing only one or two yuan per kilogram.

We've already made pork buns before. The new vegetarian buns follow the same process as before, like kneading and proofing the dough. The main difference is the fresh filling.

Peel and wash the eggplant, then cut it into small cubes about the size of a fingernail.

Then sprinkle in salt to draw out the moisture.

Chen Zhou used two kinds of green peppers.

One is green, and the other is red.

The green bell peppers provide a mild spiciness, while the red ones are just different colors for aesthetic purposes.

It is also chopped into small pieces.

The steamed buns are called vegetarian buns.

However, if there's no oil or fat inside, the bun won't taste good. So Chen Zhou rendered some lard from the leftover fatty meat.

Pour this hot oil over the filling to soak the eggplant and green peppers.

It can also bring out the aroma of several seasonings such as light soy sauce, oyster sauce, and thirteen-spice powder.

"Sizzle," "Sizzle"

A few sounds followed.

The hot oil bubbled up with pale yellow bubbles on the filling, and the aroma of oil mixed with the fragrance of soy sauce fried in hot oil immediately wafted out of the bowl.

Add to that the natural fragrance of green peppers and eggplant.

After smelling it himself, Chen Zhou couldn't help but drool.

"I feel that this filling is already good enough to be eaten as a cold dish."

New arrivals today: Vegetarian steamed buns, filled with green pepper and eggplant.
(End of this chapter)