Gourmet: Midnight Vending

If you bring one girl to set up a stall, I might envy you for having a girlfriend or wife to start from scratch with.

If you bring two girls to set up a stall, I would despise you, thinking you're treating such a noble endeavor as a joke?

But bringing three girls to set up a stall?

Li Xiaobo's mind was a bit overwhelmed. His always-proud stall-setting experience was insufficient to help him analyze what was happening before his eyes.

"There was a news story once about a man living with three women in harmony. Could this be..."

Li Xiaobo looked at Chen Mo again, and all the disdain in his eyes vanished, replaced by endless envy.

And then he saw the next scene.

Yino, wearing a black long dress, proactively went to the other side of the food truck to help set up the small stools and tables.

The youthful and beautiful Bai Shasha helped carry out a large aluminum basin, filled it with water, and submerged frozen chicken in it.

The one in jeans, about 165 cm tall, stood by for a while, then directly went into the back of the food truck and crouched down!

Hiss...

"Bringing three girls along is already not easy, but having them get along well with each other is even harder, and making them willingly help out, could it be this guy is more handsome than..."

Li Xiaobo saw the male owner of the food truck who had been crouching stand up, squint to take a closer look, "Really damn more handsome than Wu Yanzu! Damn, is there no justice?"

Lu Yingqiu stood up too, "I..."

"You?"

Lu Yingqiu's words stuck in her throat; the more she couldn't speak, the more anxious she became.

After all, she hitched a ride yesterday too and wanted to help out with something.

"I..." Lu Yingqiu squeezed out the remaining words, "I can do something."

Chen Mo looked at his clue character with keen interest. Interesting.

Lu Yingqiu truly had that cool, elegant aura about her when she stood there, but when interacting with her, people would realize she was genuinely socially anxious.

And her efforts to communicate were rather endearing.

"What can you do?" Chen Mo asked back.

"I can..." Lu Yingqiu spoke slowly but not hesitantly, "I can do a lot. What are you planning to make today?"

"Oh right." Chen Mo remembered something. Last night, when hitching a ride, her roommate joked that she should take his car to Sichuan, "You're also a Sichuan person, right? Do you know Bangbang Chicken, this delicious dish? That's what I'll make today."

Bangbang Chicken?

Lu Yingqiu's eyes became momentarily dazed, which Chen Mo keenly noticed.

[Familiarity +1]

As the conversation continued, such words occasionally floated by.

To others, Bangbang Chicken might just be a delicacy from Sichuan, but to Lu Yingqiu.

Perhaps no one in this world knew better how to make it taste good than she did.

"I can make it." Even as Lu Yingqiu spoke, she was already washing her hands at the chef station, "When I was a child, I learned to make it at home."

"Oh?" Chen Mo was genuinely interested now, "Your family runs a restaurant?"

Lu Yingqiu nodded, then shook her head, opting not to speak further.

After washing her hands, Lu Yingqiu went through the spices Chen Mo had bought, "What flavor are you making?"

Her voice was always soft, with a gentle tone, making it hard to tell if she was asking or stating something.

"I'm making the strange flavor."

The recipe just said, Super Delicious Strange Flavored Bangbang Chicken!

"I can help make a prickly ash flavor, do you need it?"

Chen Mo quickly scanned the recipe in his mind again. The food truck's recipe didn't mention that Bangbang Chicken could have other flavors.

"Of course! The more flavors, the better the business should be. I'll make the strange flavor, and you do the prickly ash flavor."

Lu Yingqiu nodded, her hair slipping down behind her ear, obscuring her profile.

Chen Mo temporarily put aside his curiosity about his clue character.

After all, in this day and age, female university students who could cook were rare. Even those who could mostly made simple stir-fry, and making something more akin to a snack was rarer still.

There's no time to waste.

Lu Yingqiu only needed to help with the prickly ash flavor, while Chen Mo still needed to prepare the chicken. Fortunately, this dish wasn't difficult to make.

Bangbang Chicken isn't a snack that has popped up in the last few years; this dish has been around for a long time. As early as 1913, people in Mountain City were making it at street stalls, and its longevity is a testament to how delicious it is.

That's partly due to the simplicity of its cooking methods back in the day, owing to limited conditions, resulting in many simple recipes handed down.

The whole chicken bought from Pang Donglai was well-processed. It was naturally thawed in water and then simply cleaned. With the help of three young women, Chen Mo temporarily put aside his own skills.

Afterwards, Chen Mo returned to the food truck and took out a pre-prepared black pot from the cabinet.

The diameter was a full meter!

Lu Yingqiu was slightly stunned looking at the pot, opened her mouth but said nothing, wondering how Brother Xiao Chen's cabinet could fit such a big pot?

Horizontally? Vertically? Both seemed quite challenging...

The pot was set on the fire, and clear water was added. The thawed whole chicken was scored with some knife cuts by Black Blade and placed in the cold water to simmer.

It's important to know, at this moment, there were no added seasonings or spices in the pot!

As the water temperature rose, a layer of foam gradually appeared on the surface of the water. Chen Mo, holding the black spoon, carefully skimmed off the foam. Once the water boiled, he covered the pot with a lid.

At this moment, ten chickens were cooking in the pot.

The progress bar indicated this process would take fifteen minutes, and Chen Mo began working on the sauce.

"Sizzle~"

Outside, Yino, crouched on the ground helping thaw and clean the chicken, let out a small noise through her teeth. An engrossed Su Shasha looked up at her.

Yino gestured towards the food truck with her chin and whispered, "Do you want a couple act?"

Su Shasha tilted her head to look.

Ah!

In the food truck's display window, the man was picking chilies to put in the pot while the girl next to him, donning an apron found somewhere, was diligently trimming prickly ash branches with scissors.

The giant black pot was bubbling away in front of them, creating a surprisingly serene and beautiful scene.

Su Shasha watched intently, quietly saying, "If only Yingqiu could always be like this."

Yino turned her head back, sighed, "Everyone's fate is different."

Such a beautiful scene lasted only two seconds before Yino and Su Shasha simultaneously furrowed their brows and looked back.

"Sichuan Chicken Skewers, one yuan per skewer!"

Little boss, what's going on — playing the speaker this loud, is there something wrong with you?