Chef Hua-Chapter 557: Episode 298 Late Night Drinks_2

As the conversation reached this point, he stopped, gestured with his hand, and turned towards the direction of the riverbank, lifting his chin slightly.

"Take a look at this riverside. Before my wife married me, she used to set up a stall here."

"Set up a stall?" Wang Zhanrui glanced up at him.

"Yes, a noodle stall," Meng Yuhuai said with a smile, "the cheapest bowl was four or five copper coins, and the most expensive was only around ten to twenty. Unless it was the rainy season and no one would come out at night, she would be busy here every evening. Before Daoxiang Garden expanded, it was just a small eatery, and the money to open that eatery came from her saving up coin by coin from this stall, selling sauces, and catering for banquets."

Wang Zhanrui remained silent, involuntarily looking towards the east of the village.

When he had arrived in Fire Knife Village, Daoxiang Garden was already undergoing expansion, so he didn’t know what the eatery used to look like. However, he figured that accumulating enough to open a restaurant surely took considerable effort.

"Back then... she worked tirelessly day and night," Meng Yuhuai continued in an understated tone, "It’s especially tough for a girl to work as a chef. When she first started the stall, she worried whether she would get any business. As the trade gradually picked up, she inevitably encountered troublemakers. Girls her age in the village didn’t have to worry about making a living; they just waited for their families to arrange their marriages. But she... Well, there’s something I’ve never told her—and I’m not hiding it from you either—watching her back then gave me an uneasy feeling in my heart."

Wang Zhanrui silently nodded and, tilting his head back, he drained the wine from his bowl: "Did she meet with trouble?"

Wasn’t that inevitable? Meng Yuhuai sighed.

Those looking for a bargain, those jealous, those seeking trouble... they really were plenty.

"Fortunately, she set up her stall in the village, so I could look out for her whenever I got the chance, and besides..." He chuckled, "she’s no easy person to deal with, you’ve never seen her wield a stick to hit someone—she’s really tough."

"Hmm." Wang Zhanrui responded, and then smiled, refilling his wine bowl.

"I know you’ve been feeling frustrated, feeling overlooked, possessing great culinary skills with no one to appreciate them."

It was finally time for Meng someone to get to the point, speaking earnestly: "As I said before, I don’t understand the first thing about cooking, but in my view, my wife’s skills might not be inferior to yours. The reason I’ve been telling you all these past events is just to say that it isn’t easy for anyone. You only see her successful restaurant now, with customers specifically asking for her dishes, but have you ever thought about how she used to push the cart out and set up the stall every day and what that was like?"

Wang Zhanrui didn’t speak, merely continued to pour wine into his belly, bowl after bowl, while Meng Yuhuai simply sat by his side, occasionally advising him to "drink less."

The two sat quietly by the river for a good while, Wang Zhanrui already staggering and hardly able to stand straight, then he flailed his arms and started blurting out.

"I get what you’re saying, but my... my situation is different from your wife’s," his body reeking of alcohol, he raised his thumb, mumbling incoherently, "My father, he’s a renowned chef known all across the country! He only fancied a leisurely life, so he confined our whole family to live humbly in the mountains. Either he forced me to help him with tea cultivation or dragged me to learn cooking. After mastering it, he wouldn’t let me leave the mountains. What good was learning then? I’ve argued with him countless times before finally leaving home, thinking with such skills, I should manage quite well, but who would have thought..."

He slanted to one side, sliding off to the other: "I know my temper’s not the best, and I can’t last in any restaurant or tavern, but... think about it for me, if you were in my shoes, would you be content? After all the fuss to leave home, to end up like this—I’m too embarrassed to say I’m Wang Tonghe’s son, feeling inadequate and like I’ve disgraced him. I have nothing against your wife, and I understand that running such a big establishment is hard for a woman, but... all the customers come for her,"

"I understand," Meng Yuhuai patted his shoulder gently.

He didn’t expect to resolve all of Wang Zhanrui’s frustrations in one evening, but at least the latter was willing to speak his mind now, not keeping it all bottled up. That alone was quite an achievement. freёweɓnovel_com

Wang Zhanrui, thoroughly inebriated, clung to the boat’s gunwale, babbling incessantly. At first, it was still possible to make out what he was saying, but as time went on, his words turned into a muffled hum and then completely silent as if he had passed out drunk.

Meng Yuhuai, having only consumed two bowls of wine, was still quite sober. He exhaled deeply, stood up, packed up the lunchbox and oil lamp, and then hoisted Wang Zhanrui onto his shoulder, taking him back to Zhenwei Garden.

...

Hua Xiaomai and Old Lady Meng had been home for quite some time, yet Meng Yuhuai hadn’t returned. Although confident that he was always reliable and needn’t be worried about, she couldn’t help feeling anxious. She had been leaning on the courtyard gate waiting for a long while, ultimately hearing his firm and steady footsteps approaching, so she hurried out to meet him.

Meng Yuhuai, holding an oil lamp in one hand and carrying a lunchbox in the other, saw her coming from afar and cracked a faint smile.

"Master Wang got drunk, drank too much—his head will definitely ache when he wakes up. If he’s late tomorrow, do show some leniency as his host,"

Hua Xiaomai pursed her lips, stepped forward to take the oil lamp, sniffed him closely, and immediately knitted her eyebrows tightly.

"Drunkard!" (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, you are welcome to vote for it with a recommendation ticket or a monthly ticket on Qidian. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to continue reading.)

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