I'm the Culinary God

Lin Xu said:

"We don’t have everything we need at home today, and there’s no time to soak dried bean curd sticks either. Actually, there are a lot of dishes you can steam together with Soy Sauce Meat."

Basically, all the vegetables you can steam with cured meat, you can steam with Soy Sauce Meat too—like smoked Bamboo Shoots, radish greens, Dried Vegetable, tofu, dried bean curd sticks, Gu fish, Egg, perch, taro, and so on.

And this kind of meat can be both a dish and a seasoning; it’s actually a lot less trouble to make than most dishes.

Shen Jiayue listened, looking completely stunned:

"You can make that many things with it? Xu-baby, can you make all of them for me to try? They all sound so yummy."

She really hadn’t expected that just the dishes you could steam with Soy Sauce Meat would already make such a long list. If you added stewing, boiling, pan-frying, stir-frying and all that, wouldn’t there be even more?

Lin Xu said:

"No problem, as long as you want to eat it, we’ll make it. It’s pretty easy anyway."

Simple, tasty, and effortless—there’s no reason to say no.

Lin Xu picked up a bite of cabbage and Soy Sauce Meat. The fat from the meat had been completely absorbed by the cabbage, so the meat tasted fragrant and delicious without the slightest greasiness, while the cabbage was like it had been stewed with meat, fresh and flavorful.

No seasoning had been added to the cabbage, but after it soaked up the Soy Sauce gravy, the cabbage’s own sweetness was actually brought out. It really did taste different from stir-fried or stewed cabbage.

After breakfast, Shen Guofu and Han Shuzhen went to work, Chen Yan went to the company to keep an eye on today’s shooting schedule, and Lin Xu tidied up the kitchen, then picked up Dundun and headed to the shop with Shen Jiayue.

A new day began.

With the New Year approaching, there was more of a festive feeling on the streets. On both sides of Y迎春 Street, people from the subdistrict office were busy hanging lanterns.

Even though it wasn’t yet the fifteenth of the twelfth lunar month, once the Laba Festival passed, it was basically New Year. Hanging them up early let nearby residents feel the holiday atmosphere sooner.

After parking the car, Lin Xu got out holding Dundun. As soon as he walked into the shop, he ran into Shu Yun, Zeng Xiaoqi, and Dou Wenjing coming downstairs after breakfast.

"Boss, Maple went to the village committee of the land Uncle Shang contracted. They were arrogant at first, but once Maple revealed his identity, they started trying to pull connections and talked a whole bunch of trash about Uncle Shang."

Hearing Dou Wenjing, Lin Xu asked:

"Did Maple give any suggestions?"

"He suggested we just ignore them. Anyway, Uncle Shang won’t be there after the New Year. But he thinks you won’t agree, so he plans to work with Officer Ren and see if they can dig up any black material."

Lin Xu thought for a moment and said:

"Have Maple look into it and see. If it doesn’t work out, just forget it. It’s not that we’re afraid of trouble, mainly this kind of thing can involve a lot, and there’s no need for us to wade into muddy water."

In the rural outskirts of Beijing, there are plenty of people with deep connections and long arms.

On their side, they might accidentally provoke some big shot. If someone ends up unlucky, it might very well be... huh? Unlucky? With Dundun, this walking luck-BUG, around, they shouldn’t end up unlucky, right?

Thinking of that, Lin Xu rubbed Dundun’s head.

From start to finish, the little guy hadn’t shown any sign of opposition. When Chen Yan mentioned investigating, it had even high-fived her.

Could it be that there really was something to uncover in that village?

But asking a lawyer and a criminal cop to investigate this kind of thing was a bit much. Besides, they all had jobs; looking into this on their off hours wasn’t exactly appropriate.

Just as he was thinking this, Old Sun’s voice came from behind:

"Xiao Lin, got anything good to eat today? It’s too cold to go fishing. At home I can’t stand, can’t sit, I’m about to be bored sick."

Huh?

He’d just been worrying about who could investigate, and Old Sun turned up. Isn’t that like someone handing you a pillow when you’re dozing off?

Lin Xu said:

"I do have something pretty exciting here. Want to hear it?"

At that, the listless look in Old Sun’s eyes vanished, replaced by a spark of interest:

"What is it, Xiao Lin? Tell me, tell me."

"Here’s the thing. A couple of days ago, we ran into something a bit infuriating. As a retired cop, could you give us some advice?"

Lin Xu’s original plan was just to ask for his opinion. If Old Sun volunteered to go investigate, he’d have Dundun give him a little luck BUFF.

If he didn’t want to go, or wasn’t too keen, then Lin Xu would just listen to his advice and see what they should do.

Putting Dundun on the service counter, Lin Xu, Old Sun, Dou Wenjing, and the ever-curious Zeng Xiaoqi sat down together at a nearby table.

Pouring some hot tea, Lin Xu recounted the whole encounter with Uncle Shang.

For Old Sun, who had seen all kinds of storms, this was nothing. He chuckled and said:

"Send me the address of that Black Pit. I’ll go scratch my fishing itch. As for the rest, I’ll see how it looks. You make a WeChat group and pull everyone in; we’ll discuss it ourselves."

He didn’t speak too definitively, but it was obvious he was tempted.

After all, in this long winter when he couldn’t fish, having something to do to kill time wasn’t bad.

He was a man of action; once he finished talking, he was ready to head out and, incidentally, get some fishing in. Seeing this, Lin Xu turned to Dundun on the service counter and said:

"Dundun, your Grandpa Sun is leaving. Come say bye."

Dundun reluctantly lifted a paw.

So... it didn’t think Old Sun was in any danger?

Lin Xu immediately felt relieved. As long as nothing would happen, it was fine.

He created a WeChat group and pulled in Ren Jie, Maple, Old Sun, as well as Chen Yan and Dou Wenjing.

After Old Sun left, he went upstairs. Che Zai said:

"All the pork knuckles are here. They’re really uniform—each one weighs about two and a half jin."