The Female Supporting Role Shows Out

Meeting an old friend was a happy occasion. Aunt Wang took Lin Dan's hand and chatted with her for a while. Lin Dan came back and acted as though she had come home. She tied a headscarf on her head and rolled up her sleeves before starting to do some chores. When the handsome man came back with two buckets of water, he saw that she was already sitting in the kitchen and was grinding soybeans. Aunt Wang was adding firewood to the stove while talking about what she had been through all these years. "It’s true that the master starves when his apprentice has mastered his skill. if I had known that the couple were such unscrupulous people, I would never have imparted my skills to them."

"Not everyone is like this. Isn't there another saying that goes, ‘when the master teaches well, the apprentice returns to repay the kindness’. My skills in making tofu were taught by you. Look, I’m here to repay your kindness." Lin Dan said with a chuckle.

Aunt Wang hurriedly waved her hand and said, "That’s not true. I’ve only taught you for three months, and you did so much work for me. It was me who benefited from your kindness, how could you say that you’re here to repay mine? You don’t have to worry too much about my son and I, we can still manage to get by." Her eyes turned red as she spoke. Her biological son did not care about her while the girl who had only learned a dish from her treated her like family. She felt so embarrassed at the thought of it.

Aunt Wang’s young son walked in with teary eyes and said, "Lin Dan, thank you for your kindness. I recently found a permanent job at Landlord Zhou’s house where I’m hired to feed the animals every day. I’ll be able to support my mother and it’s also not a very tough job, you can rest assured."

Lin Dan waved his hand and said, "I believe you have misunderstood what I meant. Aunt Wang, since you taught me one dish in the past, I can now teach you three dishes. I’m sure your business will improve once you learn how to make them. Let's bring back those prosperous days, shall we?" As she was speaking, she repeatedly filtered the ground soymilk with a cloth and poured it into a large pot to boil.

The handsome man did not say a word, but he had already taken over the job of grinding the soybean. As he worked, his eyes did not leave Lin Dan who was having a conversation casually.

Lin Dan diced the coriander, shallots, mustard greens, and other side dishes before stir-frying the sesame seeds and peanuts with oil and putting them in a bowl for use later. She asked, "Since you only sell a single dish throughout the year, I believe customers would get bored of it after a while and will naturally affect your business. Your tofu is very delicious, why don’t you come up with more tofu dishes? What I am teaching you now is a dish I learned in Fushun County. It is called bean curd, which is a semi-finished product of tofu, but the taste is as good as tofu. It can be made into two flavors, sweet or savory. Since your shop is set up next to the main road, I’m sure there will be customers from all over the world. If you have customers that come from the north, you can serve the savory bean curd; if the customer came from the south, you can serve them the sweet one instead. The bean curd is best served warm in spring, autumn and winter, and while the chilled bean curd is best served in summer. Since bean curd is tasteless in itself, it all depends on the sauce to achieve the taste. There are also different types of sauces. For savory sauces, it includes hot and spicy sauce, sour and hot sauce, and so on, while sweet sauces include cane sugar, brown sugar, malt syrup, and so on. You can create a wide variety of flavors with just two spoonfuls of sauce and a bowl of bean curd, which can easily satisfy the needs of any customer. Isn’t this better than simply selling tofu balls? Besides, the bean curd is simple and easy to make. If it’s sold out, you can make another bucket of bean curd in less than forty-five minutes. In this way, you’ll be able to serve the customers with the freshest food. Wouldn’t they come back for more?"

When it comes to cooking, Lin Dan could talk endlessly. As she spoke, she had already made two bowls of bean curd – one bowl with the spicy flavor and the other bowl with the wolfberry brown sugar flavor. The colors were all bright and attractive, and it looked very delicious.

The handsome man quietly took the savory bean curd and took a bite. The fresh and tender bean curd immediately satisfied his taste buds. The strong aroma of the beans tumbled in his mouth with the spicy gravy and slipped into his throat. It was an amazing ride. His eyes lit up slightly, and he immediately took another bite of the sweet flavored bean curd. The sweet and tender bean curd slowly melted on the tip of his tongue, but after biting through the wolfberry a tinge of astringency emerged. He thought that was ingenious. The bean curds were so flavorful that he could not stop after taking the first bite.

Aunt Wang and her son took a bite skeptically but were taken aback by the taste.

Lin Dan made another plate of Zhenxiang tofu which was also served with a sweet and savory sauce. It was a dish where the customer could adjust the taste to their liking. Finally, she modified Aunt Wang’s specialty dish tofu balls into deep-fried tofu balls, which were solid when they entered the wok, but hollow when they were taken out. If one were to gently break the crispy shell of the balls, they would see a layer of sweet and tender soymilk on the inside which created an amazing crispy yet tender texture, with a dry yet juicy taste. With a dipping sauce made of pepper, garlic, and minced wild onions, it could be added into the hollow inner layer of the tofu ball to enjoy the crispy yet tender texture on the inside, fresh and spicy taste on the inside. If it was eaten by one who could not take spicy food, the dipping sauce could be replaced with bean paste, sesame, or peanuts and the taste would also be superb.

These dishes were extremely flexible and were able to provide a good variety of tastes, and they could be made into any flavor that would suit the customers’ liking. Aunt Wang and her son were not dull-witted. After trying the dishes and listening to her, they were both happy yet embarrassed and hesitated whether they should accept the “gift”.

Lin Dan had always kept her promises. After giving them the instructions to make the dishes, she also gave some business advice. "You can provide free hot tea for your customers in spring, autumn, and winter. In summer, make some chilled jelly but hang a sign that says ‘free tea provided'. There will naturally be tired customers stopping by for a drink. You can then ask if they want to have some food and your business will pick up naturally. Since there are not many people who are literate, your son can sit along the roadside and bring people in whenever there are carriages passing by. You’re a good cook, Aunt Wang. I’m sure the customers will be satisfied with the food you make. If the customers are satisfied, it will build the reputation of this stall and your stall will soon by popular, don’t you think so?"

"Yes, yes!" Wang Auntie and her son nodded, their eyes were teary. They could tell that Lin Dan really wanted to help them, or she would not have shared so much of her knowledge. They did not expect to receive kindness from someone whom they had shown kindness to. They believed there were still many good people in this world.

She was busy the whole day and it was soon nightfall. Lin Dan walked carefreely on the main road with the starlight above her head, feeling a sense of happiness in her heart. She would definitely get back what belonged to her and would return what she owed to others. She believed that one should live in fairness.

The handsome man silently followed behind and looked at her with mixed emotions.

As the three dishes could not be mastered overnight, Lin Dan had no choice but to stay in the town for a few more days and went to Aunt Wang's stall daily. The boy made hot tea and sat on the roadside, attracting customers and inviting them in. Sure enough, many carriage fleets and passers-by stopped by. They had planned to leave after drinking the free tea, but they were attracted by the aroma that came from the kitchen and decided to order a few bowls of bean curd to try. Little did they expect that they were unable to stop after trying the first bowl. Some of them who had had a huge appetite could even finish four or five bowls of bean curd. Customers who came from both the north and south also enjoyed their food.

It took only three days for Aunt Wang’s stall to be popular and filled with patrons. Three days later, when Lin Dan left, Aunt Wang continued to come up with new flavors which had also received a good response. Over time, the dilapidated straw shed turned into a sturdy earthen house, which was then upgraded into a wooden house in a few years’ time before finally developing into a restaurant that specializes in bean curd dishes. Her daughter-in-law’s business was badly affected and eventually ran out of business. She came before Aunt Wang and kowtowed to apologize for what she did, but she was chased out of the house and became the joke of the town.

Of course, Lin Dan was not aware of what happened after she left. She took her mother back to the capital and settled it in a small courtyard that she had bought earlier. Before she could take a rest, she immediately went to the West District to check out her shop. She had already planned to return to the capital and open a store for the past two years, but everything was now ready except for one thing.

The capital was known for having "the rich in the east, and the powerful in the west; the poor in the north, and the shabby in the south". The West District was mostly filled with the rich and powerful; the East District was mostly wealthy; the North District was inhabited by the poor; while the South District was filled with migrants who worked as coolies and were considered to be low in status.

Lin Baotian was good at Shandong cuisine. Lin Dan had studied Shandong cuisine a lot in the past few years and naturally wanted to continue making Shandong cuisine when she returned to open a shop. In the culinary world, it was well-known that the Shandong cuisine was made for the officials, the Cantonese cuisine was made for businessmen, the Sichuan cuisine was for civilians, while the Huaiyang cuisine was for the literates. Since she wanted to serve the officials, her restaurant would have to be set up in the West District to attract more customers.

Lin Dan had previously sent a few servants back to the capital to search for a suitable shop. After waiting for two to three months, they finally found a grocery store in Qingyun Alley of the West District that was winding up and was ready to sell the shop. The Yan's restaurant was set up right opposite that grocery store.

The handsome man should have left since Lin Dan had arrived in the capital safely, but he refused to go and did not explain why. Instead, he followed Lin Dan silently like a guardian. Knowing that he harbored no ill intentions, Lin Dan let him be and went on to negotiate the price of the store with the owner of the grocery store.

The handsome man stood at the door waiting while looking at Yan's restaurant with an unexplainable expression.

"Did you say that you want to set up a restaurant here and serve the Shandong cuisine as well?" The grocery store owner looked around and changed his tone. He said, "Manager Lin, I don't mean to put you in a spot, but something happened in my family and I need the money. Although the price you offered is reasonable, it’s not good enough. Several groups of people have come here these days and have offered a higher price than you did. The one who offered the highest price will win the bid. I’m sure you’d understand this business rule?"

Lin Dan frowned and said, "Perhaps you could tell me your preferred price and I’ll see if it’s reasonable. I’ll take it if it is reasonable, or we can forget about this deal."

The grocery store owner quoted a price, which was way beyond Lin Dan's current capability. She calculated in her mind and said decisively, "Give me one day and I will bring the silver taels here tomorrow. Meanwhile, you will get all the documents ready for the transfer."

After the negotiation, she asked the servants to go back to pick up the goods, while she wandered around Qingyun Alley to observe the situation.

"Three hundred and sixty taels of silver. This is enough to buy two of the same shop. Looks like you’ve made a loss." The handsome man followed behind her and said in a deep voice.

"You don't understand. I only want this shop." Lin Dan waved her hand firmly.

The handsome man turned his head around and looked at Yan's restaurant where the business was booming, and looked at the grocery store opposite. He could not help but exclaim in his mind, “Looks like Lin Dan is planning to fight against Yan's restaurant head-on?”