As far as Su Zhen could remember, it had been quite a long time since he last came to Wu Jin's house.
Wu Jin's house was located in another community that was not far from where Su Zhen lived, it was just that the other party's community was much older.
Su Zhen's BMW was quite conspicuous in this community where most people had low incomes. When Su Zhen stopped his car, he didn't immediately come out and went upstairs, but made a call to Wu Jin instead.
"Wu Jin, are you at home now?"
"Yes, what's the matter, Brother Su? Are you coming now?"
"No, I'm already downstairs, I'm just calling to confirm."
"That's great."
After hanging up the phone, Su Zhen got out of the car with the two boxes of TOST and tilted his head to look at this apartment building.
Soon, Su Zhen came to the second floor and found Wu Jin's house.
After a few knocks, Wu Jin opened the door and greeted Su Zhen enthusiastically, "Brother Su, you're here! Let's come inside and sit down."
Su Zhen nodded, handed the two boxes of champagne to Wu Jin, and bent down to take off his shoes.
When Wu Jin received the champagne and saw the name on it, he couldn't help but blurt out, "Fuck, Brother Su, isn't this TOST? You actually bought TOST?"
As a person who worked in the bar himself, how could Wu Jin not be familiar with this brand of champagne? He knew that this champagne was not cheap, but he never thought that Su Zhen would buy it today, and brought two over at that.
Su Zhen stepped into the house and smiled, "Take it, let's drink one and you keep one."
At this moment, Cheng Weixiu, Wu Jin's mother, walked out of the kitchen with a frown, "Xiao Jin, what's the noise?"
But when she saw Su Zhen, she was taken aback and scolded Wu Jin with a smile, "You noisy brat, why didn't you inform me of Little Su's arrival?"
Then she turned to Su Zhen and said happily, "Little Su, take a seat first. The meal will be ready soon."
Su Zhen greeted her and asked her to take things slowly.
He found that compared to the last time he saw her at the hospital when she had just finished the operation, she was much more energetic than before, that haggard look was completely gone, and she seemed to be very happy life with her big son now.
As soon as Su Zhen sat down, he was instantly attracted by the sudden aroma that drifted over. As a person who could cook good food himself, Su Zhen could naturally recognize the quality of food based on the smell alone. Undoubtedly, Wu Jin's mother was a good cook.
Su Zhen turned to Wu Jin who was admiring the beautiful bottle of TOST but didn't dare to drink and asked him, "Is aunt so good at cooking?"
Hearing this question, Wu Jin put down the TOST bottle and instantly looked proud, "Hehe, Brother Su, you may not know this, but my ancestors used to be royal chefs. Among my mother's relatives, except for my mother, none of them has inherited the cooking skills from our ancestors."
"Is there a reason why she doesn't open a restaurant or a stall?"
Su Zhen asked straight to the point.
Speaking of this, Wu Jin sighed, "My mom looks quite simple, right? Others may not know, but as her son, I know her best. She is very stubborn. Well, the reason why we don't open a restaurant is because of our financial situation, but that's just a secondary reason, the main reason is that my mom wants to honor her ancestors' will."
"As you know, my ancestors are royal chefs, so how could allow their descendants to use such precious skills to open a third-rate restaurant or a low-level stall? They made a will, strictly stating that any inheritor of the skills must use those skills in a big restaurant, so as to not waste the value of those skills. If the inheritor doesn't have the ability to do that, then might as well not open a restaurant at all."
"It's such a weird will, right? Also, even if I take loans from the bank, how much do you think I can borrow? And how big of a restaurant can I rent? As for investment... forget it."
Su Zhen listened silently and analyzed what Wu Jin just said. Strictly speaking, the will of Wu Jin's ancestors was not unreasonable. If this will was put back in the days when Wu Jin's mother's family was still famous, then even if the family became poor due to a particular reason, as long as there was a successor that could prove his identity to be a descendant of the royal chefs, how many people would wave their money, scrambling to invest in that successor?
But in the current century, let's not talk about knowing, in reality, how many people could remember the names of the royal chefs of the past dynasties? What was more, let's say that Wu Jin's mother was really a royal chef successor by default, but was there a way to prove her identity and guarantee the investors that the restaurant would really achieve success?
Nowadays, most people would scoff when hearing about the royal chef's successor, probably thinking that this title was nothing more than a typical marketing line used to trick people.
Anyhow, Su Zhen was pretty sure that Wu Jin wasn't lying to him at all, after all, he had Profile Detection. Now, he had as many as 1,069 Golden Points, so he wasn't afraid to spend a mere 100 Golden Points at all.
Turning on his phone, Su Zhen opened the Golden WeChat silently and operated it indifferently.
[Please select a target.]
Su Zhen glanced at the busy Cheng Weixiu and a prompt popped up. Su Zhen clicked on Cheng Weixiu's photo and a line of words came up.
[Would you like to spend 100 Golden Points to use Profile Detection?]
[Yes/No]
After choosing yes, a panel flashed, and 100 Golden Points were deducted.
Name: Cheng Weixiu
Gender: Female
Species: Carbon-based lifeform, Homo Sapiens, Human
Age: 47 Years Old
Weight: 52 Kilograms
Height: 165 Centimeters
Information: An authentic and talented descendant of the past dynasties' royal chefs with genuine skills.
Spouse: Deceased
Descendant: [100 Golden Points to expand]
Without much thought, Su Zhen spent another 100 Golden Points to see the information about her descendant, which was none other than Wu Jin.
Name: Wu Jin
Gender: Male
Species: Carbon-based lifeform, Homo Sapiens, Human
Age: 20 Years Old
Weight: 82 Kilograms
Height: 178 Centimeters
Information: An honest man with a hidden talent related to cooking.
Cheng Weixiu was indeed a master chef, and as her son, Wu Jin also had a talent related to cooking. Therefore, Su Zhen was not surprised at all.
Knowing that Cheng Weixiu was really a top chef, he became looking forward to tasting her food. If nothing went wrong, then this might be his first step into the business world... no, first step into the mission of hiding his source of income.
Soon, Cheng Weixiu carried a plate of food over and put it on the table.
The first serving was pork belly with salted vegetables, which was a Han dish. The big and even slices of golden pork belly covered the salted vegetables, and the top of the pork was sprinkled with green onion, ginger slices, and so on.
The second dish was bearded chicken. The bearded chicken was a medium-sized meat breed, with a strong physique, a large head and a thick neck, a deep chest and a wide back, well-developed chest muscles, and a chest angle generally above 60 degrees. This bearded chicken was seasoned evenly and roasted to a golden-brown color, which looked salivating.
The third dish was just a simple plate of stir-fried vegetables, but the green vegetables looked sparkling with a brilliant luster, so much so that they looked like jade.
The fourth dish was seaweed tofu soup. Each piece of tofu had the same size, was extremely white, looked very soft to the touch, and was accompanied by dark-green seaweed.
The final serving was a big plate of two-color water chestnut cut. This cake had a total of 13 layers of white and golden, every piece gave off a precious feeling just like gold.
Su Zhen couldn't help praising Cheng Weixiu, "Aunt Cheng, your skills are very top-notch."
Su Zhen calmly picked up the chopsticks, made his way to the pork belly with salted vegetables, stretched them out, and put them directly into his mouth.
When he chewed it, it was extremely soft, almost melted at the touch of his tongue, and it was indeed very tasty.
Wu Jin also enjoyed his mother's cooking, but just after taking a few bites, he finally couldn't help it and opened a bottle of TOST in a grand manner.
Since it was a non-alcoholic drink, it was not a problem for Cheng Weixiu to have a few glasses of it, too.
With ice cubes in the glasses, Wu Jin poured TOST for everyone excitedly, as if he couldn't wait to taste it himself.
As Su Zhen took a sip of it, he wisely picked a slice of pork belly and ate it. Sure enough, these two really went well together. No, TOST went well with every dish except for the soup, and it had this refreshing taste, which refreshed everyone's throat alongside that.
The three people chatted and ate happily. As the topics changed, Su Zhen finally made a suggestion to Cheng Weixiu.
"Aunt Cheng, I don't like to beat around the bush, I've heard about your story from Wu Jin and after tasting your dish, I feel like it will be a waste to not open a restaurant. With your level of craftsmanship, I can't guarantee anything else, but I'm sure that the restaurant will enter a booming period very quickly."
Cheng Weixiu took a sip of the champagne and sighed slightly.
"Actually, I'm also aware of my own stubborn personality and rigid way of thinking, and it's precisely because of this that Xiao Jin had to take a big burden all these years. Truth to be told, before falling ill, I honestly expected my relatives to at least lend some help, but thinking about it now, I couldn't help laughing at my own foolishness. Human hearts are made of flesh, but never made of kindness all the same..."
Maybe she felt it was time to reveal some of her inner feelings, or maybe it was because of the non-alcoholic champagne, Cheng Weixiu revealed what was hidden in her heart all these years.
"When I was young, my siblings loved me like a princess, they would help me with everything. But unfortunately, everyone changed after they grew up. In the face of profit, blood is no different from wastewater, it can be discarded at will."
Until here, as if she reminisced the enjoyable recollection of past events, Cheng Weixiu fell silent.
Her life could be said to be like a boat that had just set sail. Initially, what she encountered were beautiful scenery and warm sunshine. But soon, as the boat went farther and farther into the sea, dark clouds and furious storms appeared from time to time.
But maybe because of the gloomy memories, Cheng Weixiu became very strong now. Even when talking about her estranged siblings and relatives, she didn't have even a bit of sadness, not to mention shedding tears.
Perhaps the storms ended and the boat had reached a brand-new shore, Cheng Weixiu came back to her senses and smiled, "Perhaps it's time for a new change."
Her eyes then fell on Su Zhen and she became serious, "Little Su, aunt trusts you unconditionally. Just say whatever plan you have on your mind; aunt will listen and accept it all."
She understood that Su Zhen simply wanted to invest in her.
For a dozen minutes, Su Zhen elaborated on the plan about opening a big restaurant for Cheng Weixiu and Wu Jin. Su Zhen also didn't forget to emphasize heavily, "If possible, I also want you to impart your skills to Wu Jin. I believe that as your son, his talent in cookery shouldn't be bad either.
At the end of his speech, Cheng Weixiu's eyes shone and Wu Jin couldn't control his excitement.
The three then continued to chat about the plan until 10 pm, and Su Zhen said goodbye to them.