Life is a Game

As soon as Xia Mubing walked outside, Wen Er greeted him enthusiastically. Seeing this, the other tea servants could only stay where they were angrily, cursing Wen Er in their hearts.

Xia Mubing has lived in this hotel for so long, and almost all the tea servants know that he is generous and does not make things difficult. Er's cleverness was not as prudent as his, so Xia Mubing usually went to Wen Er for anything.

"Can you borrow your kitchen?" Xia Mubing asked.

"Mr. Xia, look at what you said. You are a valuable customer of our store. Others may not borrow it, but you must use it if you want it. If you want to eat something, let me tell you, and I will run errands for you and buy it for you." , A place like the kitchen is not clean, so it's not appropriate for you to go there." Wen Er's good words spread like he didn't want money.

"I want to use the kitchen to make a dish," Xia Mubing said.

"I'll take you there. You can use whatever you want. I'll buy anything you want." Wen Er led the way.

The hotel's kitchen is not big, but it has everything, including basic seasonings. Xia Mubing looked around and made some calculations in his mind.

"Shaojiu, sugar, the cabbage leaves have been dried, get some fresh ones, chicken thighs, and flour." Xia Mubing gave the money very readily.

"Okay, just wait a moment, I'll bring the things to you soon." Wen Er ran out in a hurry.

Wen Er went to buy ingredients, Xia Mubing tried the seasonings in the kitchen one by one, held the kitchen knife, and stretched his fingers.

He hadn't touched a kitchen knife for a long time. Since he left Beiping, he had touched a big knife more often than a kitchen knife.

Wen Er's work was very efficient, and he brought back what Xia Mubing asked for in a short while, but what he bought was not a chicken leg but a whole chicken.

"Mr. Xia, I'm really sorry, those vendors who only sell chicken legs don't sell them, so I just bought the whole chicken." Wen Er smiled apologetically.

"It's okay, come and light me a fire." Xia Mubing said.

"Okay!" Wen Er went to light the fire.

Xia Mubing started to kill chickens very quickly and skillfully. He had been a helper in Taifeng Tower for so many years, and he had done a lot of chicken and duck slaughtering. Even though he hadn't touched a kitchen knife for a long time, he was still proficient.

After killing the chicken and bleeding its leg hair, Xia Mubing skillfully scratched off the strips of meat on the chicken leg, that is, chicken tenders. After getting the desired part, he put the whole chicken aside first.

He cut the chicken tenderloin into strips that were very similar in length, width and thickness, and marinated them with ginger rice, diced green onion, Shaoxing wine, sugar, oyster sauce, light soy sauce and soy sauce. While marinating, Xia Mubing began to process the chicken other parts of.

"What chicken dish do you like?" Xia Mubing asked.

"Ah?" Wen Er was immersed in the fire, but after a while he realized that Xia Mubing was actually asking him, and said, "Mr. Xia is really joking, our tea servants can't eat chicken twice a year, sometimes Meat is good, how can I choose!"

"But if you want to eat it, you must like to eat it. Although the braised sauce is wasteful, it tastes delicious!" Wen Er smacked his mouth, as if he had already eaten the chicken.

Xia Mubing continued to lower his head to handle the chicken.

After handling the chicken, he started to work on the cabbage. The water in the pot was already boiling, so Xia Mubing threw the cabbage leaves into the boiling water, passed through the hot water quickly, spread it on the table, and reached out to knead the chicken tenderloin that was being marinated to see how it was marinating. .

There was no clock in the kitchen, so Jiang Feng couldn't judge the time, but he estimated that the chicken tenders had been marinating for nearly an hour.

Xia Mubing looked at the quality of the chicken tenderloin and thought it was all right, so he wrapped the chicken tenderloin in the middle of the cabbage, with the seal facing down, and placed it on a plate. Xia Mubing made three of them, just enough for Rouge's meal.

After setting it up, Xia Mubing beat the eggs and took only the egg whites, mixed the egg whites with the flour, and stirred them into a thick egg white paste. Use chopsticks to stir up the egg white paste in the bowl, the egg white paste becomes streamlined and slides down, it is done.

Cover the vegetable-wrapped chicken with egg whites and fry them in a frying pan. Xia Mubing quickly took them out after half a minute of frying, and asked Wen Er to heat up the fire.

Wen Er added some hay and firewood into the stove, and the flame inside burst into flames, and the oil in the pot was heated up even more, crackling and exploding outward.

This is the time!

Xia Mubing put the vegetable-wrapped chicken back into the oil pan and turned it over with chopsticks until the surface was lightly browned, then took it out and drained the oil.

Vegetable-wrapped chicken is a very authentic Beiping dish, characterized by its crispy skin and tender chicken. Almost every household in Beiping City cooks it. Ordinary people can only eat this dish during the Chinese New Year.

"I've already processed the chicken, you can take it home." Xia Mubing left with the plate.

Wen Er froze in place, knelt down, and kowtowed firmly to Xia Mubing.

"I thank you on behalf of my parents and sister." Wen Er said, even though he didn't know if Xia Mubing, who had left the kitchen, could hear him.

The vegetable-wrapped chicken was eaten while it was still hot. Xia Mubing went back to the room, asked the mother-in-law to go out, helped Yan Zhi up, let him lean against the edge of the bed, and handed her a pair of chopsticks to hold the plate in front of her.

"I'll just eat one, I can't eat the rest, you can eat it." Rouge actually didn't have any appetite, so she picked up a vegetable-wrapped chicken and took a small bite.

As if a switch had been turned on, Rouge took another big bite before she could swallow this small bite. This bite took half of the chicken wrapped in vegetables, and it was difficult to chew it in her mouth.

Rouge chewed hard, her eyes suddenly turned red.

After eating a vegetable-wrapped chicken, Rouge looked at Xia Mubing and asked, "Who did you ask to make it?"

"I did it." Xia Mubing said.

"Who are you? Do you know Master Chen? What's your name?" Yan Zhi had tears in her eyes.

Xia Mubing didn't answer, moved a chair to Yanzhi's bed, and put the plate on the chair.

"Eat if you're hungry." Then he left.

Xia Mubing went out of the city again. Jiang Feng thought it was because he was leaving by train tomorrow, so he had to take away all the buried money today. As a result, Xia Mubing only took a few dollars and a stick like the previous few times. The little yellow croaker buried the burden back under the tree.

Is he not leaving?

Jiang Feng followed Xia Mubing, guessing as he walked.

Jiang Feng's guess was right, Xia Mubing was not going to leave, he asked Wen Er to book a train ticket for next week, but Yan Zhi's health had not recovered, so he was worried about letting her get on the train at this time.

"Mr. Xia, those two train tickets of yours can still be transferred out now. Do you want me to ask someone to transfer them out for you? I'm sure I can transfer them out for you at the original price." Wen Er said.

Xia Mubing nodded and gave Wen Er the train ticket.

Xia Mubing returned to her room, instead of going to Yanzhi's side to look, Jiang Feng ran over there to take a look. Rouge had already fallen asleep, and the mother-in-law was watching over her. The two vegetables and chicken on the plate were still intact, and they looked cold on the table.

Jiang Feng felt strange, this memory was Xia Mubing's memory, and the recipe should be an impressive dish that Xia Mubing had tasted, but Xia Mubing these days, besides porridge, is steamed buns, and the only vegetable-wrapped chicken that Xia Mubing made himself is rouge food.

He has been in this memory for almost 10 days, and there is still no sign of going out.

That night, Rouge developed a high fever.

A persistent high fever is simply a symbol of death in this era when quinine is more expensive than gold.

Wen Er invited the doctor over overnight, but the doctor could only shake his head and say to Xia Mubing, "Let's prepare for the funeral."

"Xia Mubing, I'm dying, can you tell me your name?" Rouge's voice was hoarse because of the persistent high fever.

"My name is Xia Sheng." Xia Mubing said.

Rouge squinted her eyes, trying to remember who Xia Sheng was, but couldn't.

"Did you admit the wrong person? I don't know you." Yanzhi said, "You are so unlucky. You have wasted so much money on the wrong person. Now this person is going to die."

"I'm Chen Qiusheng's apprentice." Xia Mubing said.

At this time, Rouge was already in a daze, her logic was confused, and her speech was slurred.

"Chen Qiusheng, who is Chen Qiusheng, I only know Master Chen, I don't know Chen Qiusheng." Yan Zhi murmured.

"Ah, I remembered, Master Chen's name is Chen Qiusheng."

"Yes, I seem to have heard from my aunt that Master Chen's apprentice is called Sheng Sheng, and he is the assistant cook of Taifeng Building."

Yanzhi suddenly burst into tears, crying and shouting: "I want to go home, I want to eat my mother's chicken wrapped in vegetables."

"Who are you?" Rouge was so burned that it was almost impossible to distinguish between people.

"I'm Xia Sheng." Xia Mubing said.

"Who is Xia Sheng?"

"Xia Sheng is Chen Qiusheng's apprentice."

"Master Chen's apprentice? Are you sent by my aunt to find me? You came too late, I'm almost dead, and my aunt will definitely scold you when you go back."

"Yes, Mrs. Li sent me to pick you up." Xia Mubing said.

When Jiang Feng saw it, Xia Mubing cried.

Rouge spoke some vague nonsense intermittently, and suddenly became sober again, forgetting what Xia Mubing had said to her before.

"Xia Mubing, why are you crying?" Rouge asked, "Did you see that I was dying and feel sorry for spending money on me? I told you that I'm a short-lived ghost, and you spent money on me It’s just going to be in vain.”

Yan Zhi turned her head to see the chicken wrapped in vegetables on the table: "Why don't you eat it? You are such a waste."

"I'll eat." Xia Mubing said, without using chopsticks, he directly grabbed a cold vegetable-wrapped chicken and put it into his mouth.

"Xia Mubing, do you know my original name?"

Jiang Feng was gradually shrouded in thick fog, unable to see the rouge on the bed clearly.

"My name is Li Fen, fragrant Fen."

"Can I ask you to burn me to ashes and send me back to Peiping when I die?"

"I want to go home."