I'm the Culinary God-Chapter 573 - 276: Cui Qingyuan: The roasted gluten is a pleasant surprise, and even more surprising is finding a promising newcomer! [Subscribe please]_3

Chapter 573: Chapter 276: Cui Qingyuan: The roasted gluten is a pleasant surprise, and even more surprising is finding a promising newcomer! [Subscribe please]_3

"I’m not really sure," Shen Baobao said. "I live in a villa, so there’s no one downstairs. If you’re worried about disturbing the neighbors, you could just buy a thick carpet; then it wouldn’t be a nuisance."

Shen Baobao casually flexed a bit, then immediately offered a sincere suggestion.

Exercising before bed is essential; it burns fat, you know.

However, it’s best to exercise half an hour after meals. That way, fat has nowhere to hide, and it can also boost your stomach’s motility, preventing indigestion.

Lin Xu placed the hand-torn cabbage on the dining table. "Whoever’s hungry, eat up. The Four Happiness Roasted Gluten still needs a little more time. Besides, you might not be used to this kind of local Shanghai cuisine."

Zeng Xiaoqi said, "We didn’t specifically come for local dishes! We just want to try it. If it’s good, we’ll eat it more often in the future. Roasted gluten is a whole grain, so it’s good for you."

Lin Xu looked at the Sour Plum Soup she was holding and smiled helplessly. "Is that your second or third cup? If you want to be healthy, you should drink less Sour Plum Soup. That kind of cold drink isn’t very good for girls."

Sour Plum Soup is considered a "cooling" food, and pregnant women or girls on their period should avoid it.

Zeng Xiaoqi was speechless.

I was just making a casual comment! Why are you taking it so seriously?

Do you think we girls collect so many fitness videos and tutorials because we’re really planning to work out? Aren’t they mostly for a bit of psychological comfort after overeating?

When the Four Happiness Roasted Gluten in the pot was almost done simmering, Cui Qingyuan arrived.

After greeting Shu Yun, he sat alone at a window-side booth on the second floor, working on his laptop. He dealt with teaching matters while waiting for his food.

In the kitchen, Lin Xu lifted the pot lid. The broth inside had reduced significantly and thickened as well.

Turning up the heat, he began to further reduce the sauce.

The Four Happiness Roasted Gluten dish requires no visible liquid on the plate when served, but when eaten, the gluten should burst with sauce in every bite. That’s what makes it authentic.

To achieve this, one needs to reduce the sauce over high heat right before plating, to thicken it and remove excess moisture as much as possible, meeting the standard of "no sauce on the plate, but sauce in the dish."

When the sauce in the pot was almost perfectly reduced, he drizzled in a bit of Sesame Oil.

He mixed it evenly, then plated the dish.

Half a pot of roasted gluten yielded three plates. One plate was brought to Professor Cui, and another was for Shen Baobao and the others to try.

The remaining plate was split in half again: one half for the kitchen staff to taste, and the other half packed up for his father-in-law to take home, so he and his mother-in-law could also try it.

It wasn’t often one made this kind of dish, which isn’t commonly eaten in the North, so it was best to let everyone have a taste.

At the dining table, Professor Cui’s eyes lit up at the sight of the roasted gluten on his plate.

It was actually hand-torn, not sliced with a knife, and it exuded a rich, savory soy aroma. Through the honeycomb-like pores of the gluten, one could see the dark sauce nestled within.

Hmm, this roasted gluten is quite interesting.

He picked up a piece with his chopsticks and put it into his mouth. As he chewed gently, the salty-sweet sauce burst from the pores in the gluten.

Delicious!

This sauce instantly awakened a deeply buried memory.

He remembered the first time he went to his maternal grandmother’s house in Shanghai. He had eaten Four Happiness Roasted Gluten, and it tasted exactly like this. Was he five or six years old then?

After eating the roasted gluten, he had followed his grandmother to buy candy. At the entrance of the alley, he met Yan Lin for the first time. She was wearing a floral dress and red shoes; that sharp-tongued girl who, upon seeing him for the first time, had called him a ’little rascal’...

Gently chewing, the tender yet chewy texture of the roasted gluten brought Cui Qingyuan back from his reverie.

Yes, this is the texture, this is the taste.

The young owner of Lin Ji’s Food was truly full of surprises, having recreated the Four Happiness Roasted Gluten exactly as he remembered it from his childhood at his grandmother’s house.

I’ll have to come here often.

There might be even more surprises in store.

He took out his phone, tapped on Yan Lin’s profile picture, and quickly typed a message: "Boss Lin’s cooking skills are truly excellent. The Four Happiness Roasted Gluten he makes is simply divine! Next time you come to Beijing, you absolutely must..."

He typed this far, paused to think, then deleted the message letter by letter. After exiting the chat, he nonchalantly slipped his phone back into his pocket.

His childhood playmate had become the high and mighty President Yan. Perhaps... it’s better to keep some distance.

He gave a wry smile. Just as he was about to continue eating, he saw a quirky little girl run up the stairs.

"Is this the roasted gluten? How does it taste? It looks a bit like stir-fried gluten, huh?"

Zeng Xiaoqi said, "It’s so yummy! It has a sweet and salty flavor, and the gluten is packed with rich sauce. I’ve decided, I’m going to eat this every day from now on. I get to eat whole grains, and it’s delicious too. My body fat is bound to plummet, right?"

Geng Lele, after tasting a bite, immediately called out to Lin Xu, "Lin Xu, I designed a set of personal logos and online avatars for you. Take a look when you’re not busy."

Lin Xu, who had just come out of the kitchen, heard this and asked curiously, "Weren’t you supposed to be working on practice papers this afternoon? How did you get sidetracked again?"

"I went through two sets of last year’s Math Olympiad papers, but they were boring. Then I self-studied some advanced algebra and spatial analytic geometry for a while, but that was boring too. So, I just fiddled with the computer and designed a set of avatars and personal logos for you..."

Everyone: ???

Good heavens, she did all that in one afternoon?

It feels like many people couldn’t finish that much in an entire summer vacation. How is this girl’s brain wired?

Cui Qingyuan hadn’t initially paid attention to the commotion, but as he listened, the disappointment and melancholy he’d felt while messaging Yan Lin earlier were replaced by surprise.

Going through two Math Olympiad papers in an afternoon was nothing special.

Self-studying advanced algebra and spatial analytic geometry wasn’t a big deal either.

And people who knew design were a dime a dozen in the country.

But for all these abilities to be combined in one person, and for all of it to be accomplished in a single afternoon—now, that was genuinely impressive.

He closed his laptop and strode over to Geng Lele, who was proudly showing off her work. "Young lady, may I see what you’ve designed?"

Geng Lele had just taken out her phone and was about to open her photo album to show Lin Xu her designs. Seeing this stranger approach, she instantly became wary. "What for? You’re not planning to squat on the trademark, are you?"

With the implementation of copyright law, many people had started looking for ways to make claims. Registering trademarks and then suing for infringement had enriched a whole host of ’copyright trolls.’

Geng Lele was worried that someone else might preemptively register Lin Xu’s trademark. So, she designed one for him today. If it looked okay, they should hurry to register it, staying one step ahead of these copyright trolls and leaving them no recourse.

The girl’s wary words made Cui Qingyuan chuckle. He smiled and said, "I know a little about design myself. May I see what you’ve created?"

Geng Lele glanced at Lin Xu. After confirming he was an acquaintance, she opened her phone and displayed the icons she had designed that afternoon.

Cui Qingyuan had initially assumed the girl was just tinkering for fun, but upon seeing the icons, he realized they were nearly at a professional designer’s level.

If she also knew how to ’tell a story’ with her designs, she could even help major corporations revamp their logos.

"Did you teach yourself the software?"

"Yes."

"How long did it take you to learn?"

"Just a few hours, I suppose. Back then, I wanted to make a store logo for Lin Xu, so I didn’t study the software in depth. I just tinkered for a few hours and got the hang of it. Later, I designed a few other things for the shop... Why are you asking all this?"

"Is self-studying advanced algebra difficult?"

"Not difficult, just a bit dry. I usually only glance at it when I’m bored. It’s not on the college entrance exam, and I’m worried that studying it too much might affect my performance on the actual tests."

The more Cui Qingyuan listened, the more delighted he became.

He casually pulled paper and a pen from his bag. On the spot, he wrote down a math problem typical for second or third-year university students and placed it before Geng Lele.

The girl promptly solved it and then asked, "What exactly do you do?"

"I’m a professor at Tsinghua University. I’m hoping to find a group of exceptionally talented young people to research some unconventional topics. Are you interested in joining us?"

Geng Lele’s eyes darted around, and then she said to Lin Xu, "Lin Xu, call the police, quick! This guy is running a pyramid scheme!"