Chapter 74: Gu Zhiwei's Taste Buds

  Shandong Province's Zhou Nan City was formerly known as 'Jizhou', with the element of water, not only producing good water but also good wine. With these two things as a foundation, countless elegant and refined characters who "travelled far and wide, renowned throughout the land" were born.

  This is indeed the cradle of gourmets and the birthplace of foodies.

  White Horse Crossing the Cave ~ Cave, time is like a changing sister, Zhou Nan City has changed a lot after experiencing turmoil and changes. Even the Tuta Spring looks like an old bachelor over 60 years old, no matter how hard he tries to squeeze out water, it's still not much; but this foodie's tone hasn't changed much.

  At least with Master Gu as the leader of this group of old gourmets, it is enough to suppress the momentum of Zhou Nan's food world and ensure that Lu cuisine does not lose its status.

  Sunlight passes through the lattice wall and shines on the bluestone ground of the quadrangle courtyard, stretching Gu Zhimi's shadow very long.

  The old man wore a traditional green cotton-padded jacket with horn buttons, and his feet were already clad in winter socks. He looked like an old bear ready to hibernate at any moment. At this moment, he was sitting upright on the octagonal stone table under the grape arbor, looking at a bowl of eight-treasure porridge and a dish of eight-treasure sauce from the "Liu Le Ju" branch in Zhou Nan City in front of him, holding a salted duck egg that had already been cracked open in his hand, apparently ready to have breakfast.

  "Okay, Yoshiko, is everything all right?"

  Sitting opposite him was a middle-aged man wearing a branded suit, with his hair slicked back and a pair of gold-rimmed glasses perched on the bridge of his nose, exuding an air of leadership. Upon hearing the old man's question, he hastily smiled and said: "Don't worry, Dad, I personally went to buy these myself, without letting my secretary help; it's just that I was afraid he wouldn't be able to find the right place, and it might not be to your taste again."

  "Hmm... things are not that simple now... take the Eight Treasures dish at Liu Liu's place, for example. The taste is different when you have it in Kyoto and when you have it at the branch in Shunan... haha, if it can maintain 60% of the original taste, that's already good enough. Don't look at you being the vice mayor of Shunan, eating luxurious food every day, but actually, you're just stuffing your face, do you even understand anything? You're just ruining your own tongue..."

  Gu Zhiwei let out a sigh, took a light bite of the eight-treasure rice, slightly furrowed his brow, and then picked up another piece of eight-treasure sauce dish with his chopsticks to put in his mouth. Just as he had chewed for a moment, he spat it out with a "Ptooey" sound, and angrily exclaimed: "What kind of trash is this? Is this something people can eat?! The flavor is all wrong, completely wrong!"

  "Dad, this is the most authentic fermented vegetable dish in Zhou Nan, what's this..."

  Guo Liang was very depressed, he could become the vice mayor of Zhou Nan, this provincial capital city, and also a high-ranking official at the provincial level. It can be said that in Zhou Nan City, there is nothing he cannot handle, but this matter of Lao Ye Zi has left him at a loss for what to do.

  Ever since the old man was invited by Zhou Nan Daily to attend some kind of long table banquet in Yunshui Mountain, he seemed to have changed into a different person after returning home. He forced the head chef at home to study what's "beautiful tofu" every day; as a result, when the head chef finally managed to make it, the old man took one bite and threw it away, saying the flavor was not right, and eventually drove away the specially invited top-grade chef.

  Originally, Gu Liang thought this was just an accidental event and after a while, the "Tofu Gate" incident would pass; but he never expected that Old Master's temper would get worse and worse, nothing tasted good to him, if it continued like this, it would threaten his physical health. There were several times when Old Master got anxious and almost took matters into his own hands, but Gu Liang managed to persuade him down with great effort, this wasn't a joke, Old Dad was old, his hands shook so much that he couldn't even hold a kitchen knife steadily, how could he cook for himself?

  Gu Liang's mother passed away early, and his father raised him alone, taking care of all his needs. He is very grateful to his father and has always been a filial son. In the official circle, the most important thing is also filial piety. If you are not filial, people will avoid you. This doesn't mean that everyone in the official circle is a big filial son, but rather that having an official career comes with risks, and one must be cautious when making friends. When making friends, the first thing to look at is this filial piety!

  So, in both public and private life, Gu Liang did not dare to take Master's "illness" lightly. Some time ago, he even put aside his urgent official business and accompanied Master to Kyoto to change his taste, let alone, some old brands of Kyoto dishes that Master could barely swallow, temporarily restored normalcy.

  Who would have thought that after coming back for less than two days, the old man's illness relapsed, nothing tastes good to eat, and when he gets annoyed, he smashes dishes and bowls. Can't Gu Liang hurry up? It can't be let the old man stay in Kyoto for long, or his competitors on the political stage will have another excuse to attack him. Buying online? By the time the express delivery arrives, the taste has changed too...

  "Dad, isn't the three-flavor tofu you mentioned made by the chef from Yunshui Mountain? If so, I'll just send someone to invite him over. If he dares not come, I'll have him tied up and brought here!"

  Gu Liang has this hatred... It's all because of that Cloud Water Mountain's tofu kitchen causing trouble, isn't this adding chaos for the leader?

  "Stop messing around, otherwise I'll break your dog legs!"

  Every time Gu Liang says this, the old man blows his beard and stares at him, then warns him that Master Hong is a seeker of truth, a rare true master in today's culinary world! You dare to disturb him, I...I'll die for you to see!

  Now Old Master Gu is a die-hard fan of Master Hong. Whoever dares to harass Master Hong, he will fight with his life!

  "It's just a cook, why are you being so stubborn, Dad..."

  Guo Liang couldn't understand Old Master's thoughts at all. In his opinion, cadres lead the masses, and the masses should respond to the cadres' urgency, solve the cadres' worries, give up small interests for the sake of big interests, individuals yield to collectives, and collectives yield to the country. Isn't this what it means to be a good 'citizen'? But this surname Hong actually hooked Old Master like this, just thinking about it makes him angry!

  "Oh no, Uncle Gu! What's wrong with you? Grandpa Gu's appetite hasn't even opened up yet..."

  The father and son were each worried about their own affairs when they heard a faint laugh, and a beautiful shadow flashed by as a big girl entered the courtyard.

  It's Yang Cai this beautiful foodie girl.

  Yang Caijia and the Gu family have been acquainted for generations. In public, she and Old Master Gu both attended as judges, so she called him "Old Master", but in private, she had to call him "Grandfather" according to their generational difference.

  "Is that Yang Cai? You've come at just the right time, didn't you also go to Yunshui Mountain last time? You'd better say something, is your Master Gu thinking clearly or not? He's just a cook, isn't he? Uncle wants to invite him to be our family chef, but your Master Gu insists on saying that's 'seeking the Tao', now that we're in a new society, what's this nonsense about seeking the Tao?"

  In front of Yang Cai, Gu Liang didn't put on any airs of being a leader and spoke as if they were just chatting like one family.

  "Ah... this is what Uncle Gu doesn't understand. That Master Hong's craftsmanship... tsk, tsk..." Yang Caiqin couldn't help but stick out her little tongue to lick her lips, leaving Gu Liang stunned: "It's truly incredible! And he has such exceptional culinary skills, yet he still chooses to live a simple life in the mountains, free from worldly desires. This is indeed seeking enlightenment; Grandfather Gu was right, we shouldn't have gone to disturb him..."

  "Look at you, a young girl understands things better than you, and you're still a deputy mayor."

  This made Old Gu even more indignant. In front of Yang Cai, he scolded his son without mercy.

  "Ah... Dad, you're okay with this? Yang Cai, since you and my dad are on the same page, why don't you advise him to eat a few more bites? I have another engagement, so I'll take off first."

  Gu Liang's eyes rolled over, and he was about to take Yang Cai as a free volunteer.

  "No need to persuade him, I guarantee that Grandfather Gu will immediately have a big appetite and eat very well."

  Yang Cai mysteriously smiled and swung the small Kun bag in her hand.

  "Isn't Xiao Yaotou's tone a bit too arrogant? Are you trying to deceive Uncle Gu?"

  Gu Liang was about to turn around and leave, but after hearing this, he couldn't help but turn back again, curiously looking at Yang Cai.

  "Heh heh, 'Tian Shang Pai' pickled radish has arrived, but Grandfather Gu's appetite is not open, what are we waiting for!"

  Yang Cai took out a small glass jar from the bundle with a pleased expression, and placed it on the octagonal stone table in front of Gu Zhiwei, just like Xian Bao did.

  "What's this thing called 'pickled mustard greens from heaven'?"

  During this time, in order to help Old Master Gu open his appetite, Gu Liang had taken him to Kyoto and naturally did not know about the Tian Shang Pai pickled radish incident. The influence of Zhou Nan Daily was only in Lu and Su provinces after all, and it didn't reach Kyoto...

  PS: Thanks to '帅哥佐助', '青山依旧2016', '天残天弃' and '爬上墙头等勾~引' for their generous rewards, thank you guys:)

  Thank you for your clicks, recommendations and collections. I'm calling out for recommendation votes again, everyone must be strong and give me their support... Ga ga...

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