From a country cook to a master chef

The snow is still falling.

Two guests unexpectedly arrived at Qinghe Tavern.

The man was about twenty years old, handsome, wearing a narrow-sleeved, belted black shirt, with shiny silver wrist guards on both hands, dressed like a martial artist.

The other man was an elderly man nearing sixty, short and wiry, wearing a black bearskin cloak, a wide cowhide belt around his waist, and an exquisite tungsten gold waist tag hanging on his left side.

"Manager Xiang, the usual order: one roast goose, two side dishes, and a pot of old wine."

As the two entered, the young man in black finished speaking and, receiving no response, looked up to find a woman he had never seen before in the shop. His eyes lit up, and he began to scrutinize her.

The old man looked around. "Where's Manager Xiang?"

"Distinguished guests, Qinghe Tavern was recently transferred to my manager, Mr. Lin. If you wish to dine here, please take a seat."

Yuan Rou blinked and generously led the two to sit down, happily introducing the shop that had just received some black bear meat and fine aged wine.

There was no menu in the shop yet, and customers were scarce at the moment. She patiently introduced the food and drinks the shop offered, carefully, her hands unconsciously clasped together, her fingers intertwined, as if afraid of missing out on a sale.

"Black Bear!" The old man smiled slightly upon hearing this. "Then let's do as the young lady says and just bring out a couple of dishes."

"Yes, please wait a moment!"

Yuan Rou smiled radiantly, jogged over to brew a pot of hot tea for the two of them, and then hurried off to the kitchen to get busy.

Watching the girl's graceful figure disappear into the distance, a flicker of desire flashed in the young man's eyes, but he quickly suppressed it, turning to the elderly man accompanying him, his face full of expectation, "Father, I want to..."

"Shut up!"

Before the young man could finish speaking, the old man, who knew his temperament well, glared at him and rebuked him in a deep voice: "Don't even think about it. You don't like her at all; you're clearly lusting after her body."

"father."

"Shut up."

The young man tried to argue his point, but his father ruthlessly interrupted him.

Seeing that he had finally calmed down, the old man turned his gaze to the tavern. "What a fine shop! If we could change the name to Qin and use it as the center, the entire Jing'anfang would be the territory of my Black Bamboo Gang."

"Father, that man surnamed Xiang isn't here. This shop will be ours sooner or later." The young man saw through the old man's thoughts, his eyes darting around, and he quickly offered a suggestion in a low voice: "Jing'an Ward is mostly owned by the Gao family, and the shops in the ward are more or less protected by the Gao family. Now that the Gao family is too busy to take care of themselves, why don't we send our men to cause trouble and force that man surnamed Lin to stop doing business? Then we can take the opportunity to seize this Qinghe Tavern."

"At least you still have some brains."

The old man took a small sip of tea, looking quite pleased: "But before that, we still need to find out if the new manager has any special relationship with that man surnamed Xiang, so as not to provoke that evil star again."

The old man still felt lingering fear when he mentioned the former owner of the tavern.

Before long, as the two were talking, Yuan Rou brought over some wine and dishes, and quietly told them to call her if they needed anything. Just as she was about to go back to continue settling her accounts, the old man called out to her, "May I ask, young lady, what is the name of the new manager here?"

"My shopkeeper's surname is Lin and his given name is Jue."

Yuan Rou, with a sweet smile on her lips, replied crisply, "However, the manager is busy today and cannot receive guests. Please forgive us."

"It's alright, we'll meet again sometime in the future."

"Please enjoy your meal, both of you."

Back at the counter, Yuan Rou would steal glances at the two people drinking and eating meat from time to time, then shook her head, somewhat puzzled, and didn't think about it any further.

At the dinner table, the young man in black was pondering the name Lin Jue. He felt that the name sounded familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had heard it before.

Meanwhile, in a room in the backyard of the tavern, Lin Jue was intently working on the iron pot he had earned.

With its flat, round shape and slightly raised center, it is undoubtedly a frying pan.

It was still a rusty frying pan.

"Just as the blacksmith Lu said, neither burning nor washing can remove the rust."

Lin Jue lowered his head and fell into deep thought. Suddenly, he noticed the spirit-summoning gourd on the table and immediately seemed to be pondering something.

He asked the blacksmith Lu for this frying pan, not to fry eggs or make pancakes.

Upon seeing the pot, he clearly sensed a slight tremor in the spirit seal within his body, and only then did he buy it without hesitation.

The Spirit-Serving Gourd Seal has an extraordinary origin, and the fact that this frying pan can trigger the Spirit-Serving Seal's unusual activity must also be extraordinary.

Lin Jue opened the gourd lid, and after a brief hesitation, he poured most of the spirit-controlling gourd water into a frying pan.

The gourd-shaped liquid spread and soaked the bottom of the pot. The clear, bright green liquid corroded the rust in the pot at a speed visible to the naked eye.

After some time, the rust completely dissolved into the water, and the water became murky, turning into a dark brownish-red.

Lin Jue leaned closer to smell it. The rusty smell mingled with the dampness of the gourd water, creating a pungent, stale odor that made the whole room smell bad.

He shook his head, quickly left the house, and took deep breaths of the fresh air outside.

"Brother Lin, you're finally out! There were two rather strange customers who came into the shop, but they've already left." Seeing Lin Jue walk out of the room, Yuan Rou quickly ran over and recounted what had just happened. "Especially that man, he kept staring at me for no reason."

"When you're doing business, you're bound to encounter some strange customers. Don't worry about it too much," Lin Jue said softly, resting his chin on his hand. "But not having a menu is really a hassle."

After thinking for a while, he tentatively asked, "Can you read?"

"Brother Lin, Yuan Rou studied some books with her father when she was young and knows some characters."

Upon hearing this, Lin Jue clapped his hands repeatedly: "That's great! Go buy some pen and ink, I'll name the dishes, and you write them down."

"Okay, sure."

Yuan Rou ran out of the tavern with a smile, and soon returned with a pen, ink, paper and inkstone from a general store across the street. She was panting heavily, and glistening beads of sweat slid down her face, outlining the alluring glow of her skin.

Seeing this, Lin Jue shook his head and smiled, "I'll think of a few dish names. You should rest and relax first."

Although the writing system in this world is also pictographic, it is somewhat different. Lin Jue can recognize the characters and can speak them, but he cannot write them down.

"Orchid Bear Paw, Mushroom Stewed Flying Dragon, and Three Earthly Delicacies."

"Yes, there's also Fu Shou Quan (a type of stew), Dinghu Vinegar Fish, Stinky Mandarin Fish, Taro with Braised Pork Belly, and Three-Cup Chicken."

As Yuan Rou wrote, she swallowed hard. Some of the dishes Lin Jue mentioned were familiar to her, while others she had never even heard of.

"Brother Lin, where are you going to find so much wild game at a time like this?"

Yuan Rou looked at Lin Jue in confusion. The heavy snow had caused a disaster, and the city was already short of supplies. The Yucheng government was distributing porridge for disaster relief, but no one cared when chopsticks floated to the surface. Many people were starving to death every day.

"Brother Lin, even if we really had this much meat, ordinary people couldn't afford it. We can't just sell it as pork, can we?"

"Haha, don't worry about that, I have a brilliant plan."

Lin Jue laughed. He wasn't listing these dishes to make money off ordinary people.

Nowadays, in and around Yucheng, only high-ranking officials, wealthy merchants, and gentry have the money to dine out. To make money from these people, one naturally has to put more effort into the dishes.

Moreover, he will need a lot of animal meat to replenish his qi and blood when he practices martial arts in the future.

Before Master Liu left, he secretly passed on two prescriptions for the Pine Crane Long Fist. One of the prescriptions required the addition of tiger bone and sheep tail in addition to various medicinal herbs.

Therefore, Lin Jue had already discussed with hunter Liu Laohei and others that, in the future, every month at the middle or end of the month, if there were no other important matters, the group would go hunting together up the mountain.

Following Lin Jue's instructions, Yuan Rou smeared the written menu with flour paste, carefully pasted it in a conspicuous position on the counter, then copied it onto a wooden plaque and hung it under the signboard at the entrance of the tavern.

The menu prominently displays the following information in large print: Starting from the end of this month, our shop will be offering the following dishes.

After resolving the issue at the tavern, Lin Jue hurriedly returned to his room.

The smell in the room had dissipated by then, and he stared intently at the frying pan on the table, its rust gone.

The surface of the pot was covered with scale-like patterns, as if dragon scales were tightly connected, shimmering with mysterious multicolored light.

Dragon-patterned slab?