Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle
Chapter 36 - 34 Arid Wasteland in a Lean Year (Part 5)

Chapter 36: Chapter 34 Arid Wasteland in a Lean Year (Part 5)

It’s not because there are so many refugees in the city lately that everyone has gotten used to it. It’s mainly because no one thinks Chen Huihong is a refugee. Most people just think she’s a lunatic from a wealthy family.

Even some young people from rich backgrounds express sympathy for her tragic situation.

"Whose family does she belong to? It’s just too inconsiderate. Look at her, even if she’s an idiot, she shouldn’t be neglected like this. If any servant from my family dared to treat a master like that, they would have been dragged out and beaten to death already." A wealthy young man playing with a snuff bottle commented, "Why haven’t they come looking for her?"

"Maybe they’re just lazy and haven’t noticed."

An older man lamenting while crick fighting: "Times have changed, if Old Buddha were still around..."

The person next to him quickly covered his mouth.

The middle-aged man could only shake his head, showing inexplicable compassion for Chen Huihong as he fumbled through his pockets and pulled out 5 Copper Coins, tossing them to her as if giving a handout.

"Take it."

Chen Huihong: ?

Chen Huihong looked at the middle-aged man inexplicably, her eyes full of questions as if asking him if he was okay.

After such a long prelude, only five Copper Coins were given, which was less than what she just stuffed into Hui Niang’s hands.

Chen Huihong didn’t pick up the Copper Coins on the ground, grabbing her half of a wooden horse instead and happily went ahead to watch the fight.

Onlookers couldn’t help but shake their heads and sigh: "She really is a crazy fool."

Chen Huihong was still unaware that she had already gained a reputation as a crazy fool on the street in a short time. She just purely felt that everything was new and interesting. Indeed, Beiping lived up to its name as the emperor’s city, the roads were much more level than in other places.

Chen Huihong wandered around happily all afternoon.

Qin Huai also followed her around happily all afternoon.

What can be said... shopping is really fun.

Especially those few fights at the martial arts hall entrance, which not only decided the outcome but also life and death, were flawless except for the somewhat gory scenes. Every punch landed, more ancient than Jin Yong and Gu Long, the martial arts scenes within martial arts films.

By dinner time, the restaurants on the street began to open.

The beggar children hiding in the corners all started their begging shifts, while the staff of major restaurants could only keep driving them away at the entrance. Those slightly more lenient and unable to bring themselves to act would be surrounded by the beggar children at the entrance, waiting for the shopkeeper to come out and chase them away, all the while scolding the staff.

Chen Huihong wasn’t interested in eating; she just passed by the entrance of each restaurant, smelled the aroma of the food, and gauged the skill of each establishment.

Thanks to the crazy fool reputation she had gained in the afternoon, most restaurant staff and shopkeepers believed Chen Huihong truly was a lunatic from some rich family, so they didn’t dare to drive her away by hand or scold her loudly. They basically just gave her some cheap food to coax her to leave, their attitude exceedingly polite.

Of course, Chen Huihong didn’t accept any of it. Seeing someone trying to drive her away, she quietly left, which further solidified everyone’s suspicions.

In the end, Chen Huihong stopped at the entrance of a bakery.

A bakery here is essentially a pastry shop in the northern regions.

Flour goods, buns, pancakes, various types of snacks, even dumplings could be called ’bo bo’.

The bakery where Chen Huihong stopped was obviously newly opened. The sign was old, but the tables and chairs inside were very new. The location wasn’t great, and business inside was slow, with only two staff members present.

Qin Huai went in for a circle, not sure if it was due to the era or the shop itself having issues, but there was very little variety of snacks. Most of them were gray flour, black flour, or yellow flour buns, looking no different from regular buns, while the walnut cake among them seemed like a delicacy.

However, the pastry chef’s skills seem decent, with good bun shapes and appearances, except for the black steamed buns which looked particularly bumpy and unappetizing, everything else was quite good.

If he were to rate the chef’s skills at this bakery, Qin Huai would give it above 80 points.

Standing at the entrance without getting chased away by the staff, Chen Huihong simply sat down at the side to rest.

Qin Huai took the opportunity to go inside for a tour.

Unexpectedly, this bakery was quite large.

The first floor had a pastry counter and several small tables for dine-in; the second floor had small tables, private rooms, and an open space, probably for performances or storytelling sessions. Judging by the menu, this bakery not only sold pastries but also tea and other items, quite a wide range of offerings.

The reason the staff on the first floor could slack off was because their boss was up in a second-floor private room discussing something.

Upstairs in the private room, a man with a square face who seemed sturdy, appearing to be the boss, around the age of 20, was talking to a woman with her hair tied up and a slightly bulging belly, seemingly about five or six months pregnant.

The two sat facing each other, with a two-layer tiffin box placed on the table.

"Second sister, I know our family only has you who learned our dad’s skills. I also know you have long-held resentment towards our dad, but we cannot let our Qin family’s name down. Help me, just this once, I promise I won’t ask again after this!" The man pleaded sincerely.

The woman remained silent, gently touching her belly.

"Second sister, if you’re unwilling, you could at least help me persuade brother-in-law. He will definitely do it."

The woman sighed, saying: "Back when I advised you not to move our family’s shop from outside the border to Beiping along with Boss Lu, you didn’t listen."

"When you insisted on coming, I couldn’t stop you, so I only advised you not to close the family’s old store, to keep the name outside the border, and you didn’t listen."

"When choosing a location, I told you to come yourself and not leave everything to Boss Lu, yet you still didn’t listen."

"I told you not to fall out with Manager Liu, but you thought he was taking advantage of his old age. Boss Lu recommended a new manager who was diligent and asked for less pay, so you were determined to fire Manager Liu."

"Now you’ve sold the shop outside the border, sold the old house, and Zhang Cai ran off after stealing the recipe and taking the money, and you remember me."

"Qin Yanxing, do you think at this point there’s anything a woman like me can do to help you?"

Qin Yanxing begged: "Sis, I never expected that the Zhang Cai recommended by Boss Lu would be so terrible, stealing the recipe and running off with the money, selling the recipe to six places. Now those bakeries everywhere are selling our family’s Fermented Rice with Steamed Buns at cheaper prices, and our business is declining day by day, not to mention, rent is due soon."

"To gather funds back then, I sold the shop in our hometown. Now, even if I wanted to close the shop and go back home, there’s no going back, Sis."

The woman angrily said: "You are aware of what the situation has become, what use is it to come to me?"

"If you hadn’t been poor in your skills, even if other stores got a hold of the Fermented Rice with Steamed Buns recipe, it wouldn’t matter. A recipe is lifeless, but people are alive. Dad taught you hand-in-hand for so many years, and you still haven’t learned our family’s unique skills. Did Zhang Cai stealing a recipe mean he stole the lifeline of Qin’s Steamed Bun Shop?"

"If it weren’t for your overestimating yourself, if it weren’t for you wanting to fire Manager Liu, disdaining operating outside the border wanting to come to Beiping to make big money, renting this mismatched two-story shop, selling the old house and shop for funds, would things have come to this?"

"At this point, you still want to shirk responsibility, thinking it was Boss Lu, Zhang Cai, or Manager Liu’s problem. Are they the ones making decisions for you? Weren’t these all choices you made yourself?"

Saying this, her eyes started to redden.

Qin Yanxing, having no other options, bit the bullet and directly knelt: "Sis, it’s all my fault, I admit I was overestimating myself, I was poor in my skills, unable to handle criticism, unable to accommodate others."

"But Sis, our century-old renowned brand cannot end in my hands. If Qin’s really closes under my management, I wouldn’t have the face to see Dad! Please help me, ever since you secretly watched Dad teach me to make Fermented Rice with Steamed Buns, I never tattled, I know you must have a genuine recipe."

"I also know brother-in-law has developed a new locust flower buns recipe, please help me beg brother-in-law to teach me, ask him to save Qin’s!"

The woman, enraged, stood up, pointing at Qin Yanxing with a trembling finger: "You..."

"Sis, please save me. If I go back outside the border after closing the shop, the third uncle and others will truly kill me!"

"Bam!"

A loud noise suddenly came from downstairs, followed by the staff’s shouting.

"Where did the little beggar come from? This is not a place for you to come in, get out at once!"

The woman, recovered emotionally due to this sudden commotion, sniffed and picked up the tiffin box on the table: "I still have to take food to Bo He."

"You... take care of yourself."