Don’t think at malatang is simply blanching ingredients in a pot.
When the ingredients were put in at different timings, the food will acquire the appropriate hardness or softness, which results in adding more layers to the flavours. Then, pour in the special soup and add in your own condiments and seasoning, and you’ll have a different kind of delicious from hot pot.
For example, the lady boss here likes to use a spicy and numbing bone broth for her soup.
The bones are the huge ones that are boiled for an unknown number of hours every day. The very thin bits of meat remaining on it will be boiled until it becomes utterly soft, completely melting into the soup.
The spicy and numbing flavour comes with the addition of spices.
A hefty portion of pepper, along with Sichuan pepper and chilli.
As for the other spices, that was the lady boss’s secret recipe, and she would not share it easily.
Meng Xiaoni brought the malatang she cooked out.
The aroma was overwhelming.
She divided it into two bowls, one especially for Guifeng and one for herself.
When the customers saw Guifeng, who was perched on her head, they couldn’t help glancing over frequently.
Guifeng ignored their gazes; he flew down elegantly, folded his wings and pecked at his bowl of malatang.
Spicy oil trapped the malatang’s heat, causing the whole bowl of malatang to be much hotter than expected, and cool down much slower. However, Guifeng had no worries in this regard; no one understood things like high temperatures better than he did.
Topping his bowl of malatang was the heart-shaped egg Meng Xiaoni made.
The doneness of an egg required a watchful eye on the time, down to the second.
If it is a pasteurised egg, it can be eaten raw; if it is a normal egg, it should be cooked for more than three minutes, but not more than fifteen minutes. Past fifteen minutes, eggs will taste very dry and also lose some nutrition.
The heart-shaped egg in Guifeng’s bowl had a yolk that was slightly solid, but not completely so. The centre of it was still somewhat moist, but not liquid either.
He carefully pecked at the egg, filling his stomach, feeling a little complicated.
He didn’t know whether the complex feelings were a because it was the first time in all his years of life that someone had specially made an egg filled with love for him, or because of the power contained within the egg.
Meng Xiaoni was also eating quite happily.
Malatang was really delicious.
Everyone has different tastes; Meng Xiaoni especially likes baby cabbage that’s been cooked till limp, winter melon, and potatoes, along with some starchy meatballs that hardly contain any actual meat, and crab sticks.
Shrimp dumplings were even more delicious.
The best shrimp dumplings were the long, rectangular shrimp dumplings from the brand, Haibawang. Unlike the shrimp dumplings in Cantonese dim sum that contain real shrimp, the shrimp dumplings in malatang have not much shrimp at all—the actual shrimp content was less than that in shrimp paste.
She didn’t know how that manufacturer did it; the quantity in one box seemed to be quite a lot, and the wholesale price was about six yuan, yet it just wasn’t enough to eat.
Simply not enough to eat at all!
Meng Xiaoni secretly only gave one to Guifeng, and kept the rest all for herself.
The two fellows with bizarre thoughts that did not overlap at all finished their meal like this.
She paid the bill and headed home.
The workers also had to rest at noon.
There were time restrictions for things like renovation. Different places had different restrictions; basically, the timings were largely in the morning and afternoon. Occasionally, there was overtime during noon, but at night renovation works were absolutely not allowed.
If there was renovation going on at night, it became a real nuisance to the residents, and it was permitted to report such occurrences.
Meng Xiaoni knew about this only after she went to university.
With no one is working, it was a little less irritating to stay at home.
Meng Xiaoni greeted everyone quickly; she took advantage of Lao Lu’s free time to talk to him about the modification of the store after the plumbing and electrical wiring were installed.
Lao Lu tossed the newly revised designs to Meng Xiaoni as he ate.
Father Meng and Mother Meng were discussing in a low voice at one side as to whether or not to take advantage of the renovation to go for a trip. Not far, just for about two to three days before returning.
Meng Xiaoni flipped through the drawings and found that a phone number had suddenly been added to the last page.
She pointed at the phone number and asked Lao Lu, “Uncle Lu, whose phone number is this?”
Lao Lu swallowed the rice in his mouth. “A very talented student. He’s my ex-classmate’s apprentice, and I asked him to help out. He said this underworld theme of yours sounds quite interesting, and he can paint for you for free. But if you want to buy out the artwork’s copyright, you will need to negotiate separately.”
Meng Xiaoni was puzzled. “Hmm?”
“Him painting for you is kind of like giving you the rights to his artwork for free. But if you want to use his artwork for other purposes and not let others use it, you will have to buy out the copyright. It costs money, a lot of it,” explained Lao Lu. “In the long run, if you want to open branch stores, buying out is more cost-effective. In the short term, there is no need for this.”
Meng Xiaoni understood. “How much does it cost to buy out the copyright?”
Lao Lu looked at Meng Xiaoni, “Even if he’s still a student, the set of paintings will cost at least a few tens of thousands.”
The impoverished Meng Xiaoni said honestly, “Okay. I have no money.”
Lao Lu expected it and laughed out loud. “My ex-classmate is very particular about accepting apprentices, so this student’s character must be good. Even though you’re not buying out now, but if you want to do so later, it certainly wouldn’t be too much of a hassle. Just buy out as soon as possible when there’s money.”
Meng Xiaoni hurriedly agreed.
After their conversation ended, Father Meng and Mother Meng came over and asked Meng Xiaoni, “Ni Ni, your mother and I are thinking of taking advantage of the current renovation to go out for a trip of about three days and two nights.”
Meng Xiaoni smiled happily, “That sounds good. I’ll take care of things at home. You should relax in your retirement; if you want to open the store, open it; if you want to go out and have fun, then go out and have fun.”
The couple laughed happily. “We wanted to ask you to go with us. Just three days, if we really have to, we can ask the aunt next door to help watch the store.”
Meng Xiaoni thought about it and decided to decline.
Recently, there have been many more ghosts around the store, making her always feel uneasy. Also, after Guifeng’s health examination, she would still have to sort out the paperwork and submit it to the Forestry Bureau.
There were too many things to do, and no time to play.
“No, no. If I go, what’s going to happen to Guifeng? He’s not allowed on the high-speed rail, and animals don’t seem to be allowed in cars either, right?”
All forms of public transportation didn’t seem to allow animals to be brought on willy-nilly.
Father Meng looked at Guifeng, “It’ll be fine. Let the auntie next door look after it. If there’s really no choice, then hand him over to the Forestry Bureau.”
“I won’t be at ease,” refused Meng Xiaoni unhesitantly.
If she handed him to the auntie next door or the Forestry Bureau, she was afraid Guifeng would attempt to stage a ‘parrot prison break’ again.
Meng Xiaoni turned to persuade her parents, “Look, you’ve raised me for so long, and there weren’t many opportunities for the two of you to travel. Nowadays, it’s more popular to travel in pairs, if I go, it won’t be easy to book a room for three.”
She reasoned rationally, listing one reason after another.
From the number of beds in the room, to the inconvenient sharing of meals, and then to the issue of the couple’s relationship.
Father Meng and Mother Meng hesitated for a long time, but finally looked at each other and agreed to Meng Xiaoni’s arrangement. Let it be a two-person trip then; Ni Ni seemed really unwilling to travel.
So, the issue of their trip was tentatively finalised.
When you get down to it, Father Meng and Mother Meng were not at ease with the idea of Meng Xiaoni being alone at home. They also spoke with Lao Lu about the situation, hoping that Lao Lu would take care of Meng Xiaoni, and went to the shopkeeper next door, hoping that she would also help look after her.
After some fussing, Meng Xiaoni was finally able to stay behind to watch the house.
Having eaten and drink his fill, Guifeng’s temper was much improved. He perched peacefully on Meng Xiaoni’s head, lazily waiting for the damned health examination.
There will be no faeces, not in this lifetime.
What kind of damned habit of the humans was this, that they would like studying faeces.
The time for the arrival of the Forestry Bureau’s staff drew near; Meng Xiaoni searched through the entire house, and still could not find any traces of Guifeng relieving himself. Since she couldn’t force Guifeng to poop on the spot, she could only decide to play dumb later.
The Forestry Bureau’s staff arrived at Meng Xiaoni’s door at 2 pm sharp.
That Zhao Ke was also amongst them.
He had brought gloves and a camera, but he didn’t expect Meng Xiaoni’s house to be undergoing renovation.
The two staff members could only pull over a table and make do with it; they gave Guifeng a full health examination package on the spot.
Guifeng knew that humans had health examinations, but he didn’t know how birds’ health examinations go.
Even for Meng Xiaoni, it was her first time seeing a bird’s checkup.
They were both first-timers. None of them ever expected that Zhao Ke would put on his gloves, then stroke Guifeng’s feathers, from his top, all the way to his bottom.
He checked to see if his eyes were normal, if his mouth was normal, and if his feathers and wings were normal.
Tugging his eyes, tugging his mouth, tugging his wings.
What was even more outrageous was that he flipped Guifeng upside down, observed his rear end in an extremely humiliating manner, and even touched it!
Guifeng was stunned.
Before he had the time to make any extreme reactions, his entire body had been briskly tugged and pulled this way and that, then received an evaluation of being “very healthy”.
Meng Xiaoni also stood stunned at the side, thinking that would most likely go down as the darkest point in Guifeng’s life.
Probably not even his parents did such things to him when he was young.
When Guifeng was set down to take a breath test, he finally regained his senses. “…Why are your human physical examinations so improper!”
Zhao Ke laughed till his hands shook. “Some of the physical examinations for humans even require internal probing. This has nothing to do with propriety, you should keep up with the times. Don’t hide your troubles and take no remedial measures. Ah, this saying is a bit difficult… Just don’t be afraid to say something about your illness, and don’t be afraid to be treated by the doctor.”
Guifeng was quite shocked.
He couldn’t imagine the idea of something probing up his rear end.
On the other hand, Meng Xiaoni thought of the medical examinations her parents had to do, and realised in hindsight, “……some of the medical examinations for humans are indeed more in-depth. Of course, you can choose whether you want to do it or not.”
Guifeng: “……”
Human beings actually treated themselves like this!
Medical examinations were too frightening.
Then, Zhao Ke took out two containers. “Next, I’m going to take a feather and a little blood. Don’t be afraid, Guifeng, it will be over soon, it won’t hurt.”
The staff next to him quickly buckled Guifeng down.
Three minutes later, Guifeng was missing a feather and a little blood.
Guifeng emptied itself out; his pair of red eyes stared dully into the distance. He felt that bird life was too hard.
He didn’t want to be a bird anymore.
He wanted to become a human! A human!
The staff let go of Guifeng and rubbed his head. “It’s done.”
Zhao Ke also took out some millet. “Here, do you want some?”
Guifeng did not want to talk, he flew bleakly back to Meng Xiaoni’s head, butt facing the two staff from the Forestry Bureau.
He wants to, turn into a human!
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