Chapter 327: The Technique Must Be Impressive

“Because if other people go along with you, they’ll end up getting on your bad side.”

The car-selling boy handed the strawberry milk to Zhu Niao. “Girls like you are pretty hard to figure out. Sometimes I need to nod along with you, and sometimes I can’t.”

With that, he took off his apron. “You two can head over to the dining table. Just one more dish left.”

Executives in other industries might not have truly experienced the front lines, but executives in the restaurant industry definitely know how to cook.

Zhu Niao gained a much deeper understanding of that statement.

When she and the store manager lady walked over to the dining table, quite a few dishes were already set out, and just looking at them was a feast for the eyes.

It wasn’t that kind of over-the-top plating with elaborate carvings, or an empty plate with one delicate glutinous rice ball in the center. It was glossy with oil, carrying a rich, enticing aroma.

Even without refined plating, without the so-called artistic negative space, Zhu Niao could still see the deliciousness in it.

Even the dessert—lotus root slices stuffed with pink sticky rice in their holes—were just casually lined up in a row, leaning against one another like dominoes, carrying an inexplicable beauty and making anyone’s appetite stir.

The last dish, boiled fish slices, was brought over, signaling the official start of the meal.

Zhu Niao swallowed hard, picked up a big piece of meat into her bowl, then added a small leafy green on top.

That one bite would be insane, the kind of insane where you eat a burger from the edges and by the last bite, only the meat patty and a sliver of bun remain.

Unfortunately, Zhu Niao wasn’t exactly well-educated. She just covered her mouth in awe, then gave a thumbs up in approval.

“See? I told you he’s a chef, right?” the store manager lady said with a grin.

Zhu Niao was fully convinced now.

The car-selling boy beside them curled a smile at the compliment but still tried to play it cool. “As long as it tastes good.”

It was a pretty pleasant lunch, so much so that Zhu Niao felt a little stuffed.

Afterward, once the cleanup was done, the car-selling boy came over to the two who were sitting on the living room couch watching TV.

“So I heard you two had nothing to do today and came to me to learn how to cook?” His gaze shifted between Zhu Niao and the reddish-brown haired girl.

“You two?” Zhu Niao tilted her head and looked at the store manager lady next to her.

“Yeah, I’m here to learn how to cook too. I don’t know how either,” the store manager lady admitted without hesitation. “If I did, wouldn’t I just take you straight to my place?”

That makes sense, actually.

Zhu Niao accepted it right away.

Then, the car-selling boy in front of them clapped his hands to get their attention.

Once both of them turned to face him, he pulled out two aprons from who knows where and tossed one to each of the two who had been resting on the couch for the past half hour.

“Now follow me to the kitchen. We start right away.”

His expression was still serious.

He knew the true purpose and difficulty of this task.

The reddish-brown haired girl beside him, who was always smiling and chatting with Zhu Niao, was there to ease the tension as much as possible throughout the whole practice.

Even the choice to come to him, someone she’d only met once, instead of the chefs around the store manager lady, was for the same reason—so Zhu Niao wouldn’t feel so nervous.

And what he had to do was take someone with almost zero cooking foundation and, after this afternoon’s practice, at least teach her two or three dishes.

One main dish, one side dish, and anything more would be a bonus.

Normally, kitchen training starts with cutting vegetables, and who knows how long it takes before you get to hold the wok. That’s how he went through it too.

But in a situation this urgent, that kind of gradual growth method doesn’t apply.

This kind of situation calls for single-point breakthrough.

The car-selling boy’s home had four stations meant for showing off skill, and each station had a spotless wok sitting on it.

There were all sorts of cooking tools around, and there was even a frying pan, the kind Zhu Niao thought she’d only ever see in the home of a wolf king whose sheep she could never catch.

“What do you want to make?”

The car-selling boy asked Zhu Niao directly.

“Uh, seafood. Crab, lobster, something like that.” Zhu Niao had never cooked before and didn’t really know what she was talking about.

“Alright, got it.”

Without asking a single follow-up question, the car-selling boy went straight to grab the ingredients.

That only made Zhu Niao feel like he was a truly skilled chef.

After all, even when she went out to buy iced black tea, the shopkeeper would ask whether she wanted the Kangtong or the Kangshifu brand.

But the car-selling boy, after learning what she wanted to cook, didn’t ask a single thing. He just went to get the ingredients.

See, that’s professionalism.

Zhu Niao and the store manager lady sat by the table, waiting as the car-selling boy came over carrying tied-up crabs.

Zhu Niao noticed that even rich people’s crabs were different. Not only were they noticeably bigger, but even the crab claws had no mud on them.

She remembered that every crab she’d ever encountered before had mud on its claws.

“Do you know what the most important thing in cooking is?” The car-selling boy pushed up his sleeves under the heater, catching his breath slightly.

“The ingredients?” The store manager lady cooperatively chimed in.

The car-selling boy gave no reaction and instead looked at Zhu Niao.

Zhu Niao thought for a moment, then shook her head. “I don’t know.”

All she knew was that the most important thing in life was timing, something an old man named Hannibal had taught her.

“It’s respect for ingredients. Every ingredient has a life. When you cook, you have to think about whether the final result you present can honor the life the ingredient sacrificed.”

The car-selling boy’s expression was quite serious.

Zhu Niao shrunk her neck a little. She had a feeling that when it came to respecting life, she might be about to commit culinary mass murder.

“Dying by my hand is already their honor. They should stop asking for so much.”

The store manager lady also chose the perfect moment to lighten the mood, even throwing a glare at the car-selling boy.

The car-selling boy just shrugged helplessly and continued. “I’ve got a few methods here: stir-fried crab, crab porridge, curry crab, salt-baked. Which one do you like?”

Zhu Niao’s head spun a little at the options, and she pursed her lips in thought.

The store manager lady beside her raised her hand. “Is there an even simpler method, teacher?”

“Yeah. Steaming.”

After saying that, both of them looked at Zhu Niao, who was still thinking.

A moment later, Zhu Niao spoke up. “Wouldn’t steaming be a bit too simple…”