Chapter 456: Chapter 454 I Saw It

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Tan Wenwen talked a lot with Ji Xue.

It was mostly about herself, the happy things, the unhappy things, every little detail. She started with her senior year in high school, talking about teachers, classmates, herself, the part-time jobs she did during the summer break, the differences she noticed between university and high school, and whether the leftover bread from the bakery was better than the fast food from the convenience store.

When Tan Wenwen got to the part about working in a bakery during her sophomore summer break, and how she ate leftover bread the whole vacation to the point where she felt nauseous at the smell of bread now, Jiang Feng came out.

Jiang Feng timed his entrance, spotting Tan Wenwen and Ji Xue engaged in a lively chat from afar. Ji Xue would nod silently while eating her meal, and Tan Wenwen talked nonstop, just like in the memories of their past interactions, making it difficult to interrupt them.

But he had to interrupt, for if Ji Xue didn’t return to the kitchen soon, they wouldn’t be able to serve the clay pot chicken on time.

“Ji Xue, it’s about time,” Jiang Feng reminded her.

Tan Wenwen reacted faster than Ji Xue and said, “Then I won’t bother you with your work anymore. Contact me when you come back home for the New Year’s break.”

With that, Tan Wenwen got up to leave.

The dishes on the table were all finished, with only an empty chicken carcass left in the clay pot; all the meat had been picked clean by Ji Xue and Tan Wenwen. Jiang Feng truly admired their skill in eating the meat and leaving the bones neatly in the bowl, which made it very convenient for the staff wiping the tables.

“Yeah, see you New Year,” Ji Xue nodded, following Jiang Feng toward the kitchen.

“When is your friend leaving?” Jiang Feng casually asked.

“Tomorrow morning. She works in Guangdong Province, so it’s pretty far,” Ji Xue replied.

“Wait, wait a second!”

Jiang Feng turned his head and saw Tan Wenwen, who should have been at the door by now, rushing back toward them. From the look in her eyes, she wasn’t coming back for Ji Xue but for Jiang Feng.

Jiang Feng stopped walking.

“I’m sorry, may I ask if you are the person in charge of this restaurant?” Tan Wenwen inquired.

“Sort of,” Jiang Feng replied.

“My name is Tan Wenwen, the granddaughter of Tan Weizhou, the founder of the Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon,” Tan Wenwen said.

Ji Xue also stopped, looking at Tan Wenwen perplexingly, wondering why she suddenly needed to stop Jiang Feng to say this.

“Since you have employed Ji Xue, you must be aware of the theft recorded in her file, and that the amount involved was substantial. I came all the way here from Guangdong Province just to clarify this matter,” Tan Wenwen continued, “I am very grateful that you do not mind the theft record in her file, but I must clear her name. The full story involves some private family issues that are hard to discuss; however, her character is beyond reproach!”

“I just heard from Ji Xue that, like my family’s, your restaurant has a legacy of professional skills passed down through generations. I know that these ancestral skills are generally guarded against outsiders. Ji Xue was my grandfather’s apprentice—though she didn’t go through the formal ceremony of apprenticeship, my grandfather taught her everything she had to know. If anyone, maybe my parents, attempts to disparage her by using the theft in her file or questioning the integrity of her skills, please contact me immediately. Ji Xue has my number, and I can step in to clear things up,” Tan Wenwen declared.

“Wenwen…” Ji Xue looked at Tan Wenwen.

Tan Wenwen looked back at Ji Xue, giving her an encouraging smile, “Just because I didn’t dare to speak up back then, doesn’t mean I can’t do it now. Don’t worry.”

Jiang Feng looked at Tan Wenwen and felt an age-incongruous sense of satisfaction surge within him.

The once timid girl who would only dare to complain to Ji Xue about her parents’ partiality, and who even envied Ji Xue for earning 500 yuan a month for the same chores while she didn’t receive a dime, resorting to childish acts like eating sunflower seeds in secret as a form of payback, had grown into an independent, assertive, and mature woman in just a few short years.

Tan Wenwen had left.

Jiang Feng exclaimed, “It seems that you really are great friends!”

“Yes, she’s my best friend,” Ji Xue replied.

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Her eyes curved into a smile.

That evening, after Jiang Feng had “supervised” Jingjing in noodle pulling, Jiang Feng deeply felt that what he really should have taught Ji Xia was not culinary skills, but rather, how to be an effective and proper temporary mentor.

Jiang Feng’s cooking skills were imparted to him by Sir, and Jiang Feng considered his own teaching abilities to be somewhat better than Sir’s. Ji Xia’s cooking skills were taught by Jiang Feng, and although it seemed to have little effect for now, apart from noodle pulling, Ji Xia didn’t really have any cooking skills to speak of.

But Ji Xia’s teaching abilities were truly somewhat lacking, even worse than Sir’s.

At least Sir knew to use special means — the stick-and-carrot approach — to urge his descendants to learn cooking well, whereas Ji Xia didn’t even have that.

Although she was good at fighting, that didn’t mean she would dare to hit Jiang Feng.

In the deep of the quiet night, Jiang Feng reopened the familiar interface and found the video tutorial for clay pot flower-carved chicken, and he clicked to start playing it.

In the past, when Jiang Feng watched video tutorials, his attention was either on the clay pot’s chicken or on Tan Weizhou’s hands.

This time, he decided to watch the video from a completely new perspective; he was going to fixate on — the clay pot lid — the entire time.

The clay pot lid was almost constantly in the frame throughout the entire video, from every angle; wherever there was a clay pot, there was the clay pot lid.

Because Jiang Feng was intentionally staring at the clay pot lid, he noticed something from the very beginning of the video.

When Tan Weizhou put the chicken and some other seasoning ingredients into the clay pot, a small cluster of honey could be seen at the edge of the lid when it was lifted.

It was probably only as big as a fingernail and was very inconspicuous on the lid, which had been stained by various seasoning colors. It was such a tiny cluster that nine out of ten people would probably ignore it entirely.

The exception would be Ji Xue.

Seeing this, Jiang Feng felt as though he understood something.

He had spent so many days in Ji Xue’s memories and had never seen Tan Weizhou smear honey on the clay pot lid; if he had, such a conspicuous action would definitely have been remembered.

If the honey on the clay pot lid was truly the secret to the perfect clay pot flower-carved chicken, then some things that Jiang Feng had once found abnormal could now be explained.

Tan Weizhou was always the first to arrive at Tan Family Small Restaurant, even earlier than Ji Xue. Jiang Feng initially thought it was because the elderly man couldn’t sleep and thus went over early, but now it seemed he must have gone early to smear the honey beforehand.

Every day at noon, when Tan Wenwen and Ji Xue washed dishes, only the clay pot was there, not the lid. Jiang Feng first thought this was because the lid didn’t need to be washed meticulously and a quick rinse would do, but now it seemed that the lid required separate treatment.

This habit of Tan Weizhou’s of keeping a trick up his sleeve was something Jiang Feng could understand. In Tan Weizhou’s era, masters would habitually keep a trick hidden when teaching their apprentices, usually only passing on their true expertise to someone they truly approved of at the very end.

Or like Sun Zheran, who, even when facing his most beloved little apprentice, didn’t pass on everything, instead entrusting his true expertise to his own son, Sun Guanyun. It was the same with Sun Guanyun, who had many disciples but not a single one truly mastered the Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon. Jiang Feng’s own mastery came with the help of cheats and assistance from Sun Jikai, and only then did he come to realize it.

Without a doubt, Sun Guanyun was also holding back his true expertise, waiting for when Sun Jikai’s culinary skills were solid enough to pass them on to him.

Jiang Feng continued to watch the tutorial video; he already knew the first line “Do you see it?” was Tan Weizhou asking Ji Xue if she had noticed the honey on the clay pot lid. So what was the second “Do you see it?”

Jiang Feng quietly waited; the video quickly came to a closeup of the whole clay pot, which also meant that the second “Do you see it?” would soon follow.

Jiang Feng focused on the clay pot lid, especially on the side smeared with honey, and he really did notice something.

At the edge where the lid met the pot, Jiang Feng saw a faint trace, the honey that had seeped out a little, mixing with the water vapor to form a very pale color, barely poking through.

The patch of honey on the lid had melted.

Jiang Feng finally saw it.