In the lobby, everyone was in high spirits, talking animatedly, when suddenly a delicious aroma wafted in from the kitchen.
“Wow! It smells so good!”
The fragrance momentarily dispelled everyone’s fear, especially Mo Xiao Bei.
She had always been fearless.
Bai Zhan Tang was also invigorated.
“Smells great! Absolutely amazing! This can’t be Da Zui’s cooking. To think that little beggar is so skilled!”
Speaking of which, Bai Zhan Tang felt his mouth watering.
He had never felt this way even when he stole food from the imperial kitchen.
Tong Xiang Yu’s eyes lit up, and she exclaimed with delight: “I knew I hadn’t misjudged him! If we make this our inn’s signature dish, business will surely soar!”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
On the inn’s rooftop, Guo Fu Rong and Xiao Qing, who were taking a break, also smelled the aroma.
“Miss, what a delicious fragrance! Even better than Madam’s cooking. This inn’s chef is amazing,”
Xiao Qing exclaimed.
“It is very fragrant. But Xiao Qing, we’re not here to eat, we’re here to uphold justice! This inn beneath us is our target tonight!”
“Miss, you think this inn is a black shop again? We just made a mistake earlier today.”
Xiao Qing said helplessly.
“This time, we’ll be right! Look, what time is it? They have their doors shut tight, no lanterns at the entrance, and there’s bloodstains. It’s clearly suspicious. I’ll go down and scout the place first, you act accordingly.”
“Alright.”
Remembering Guo Ju Xia’s instructions, Xiao Qing could only agree reluctantly.
Guo Fu Rong flipped over and landed at the inn’s entrance, knocking on the door that would change her fate.
Everything proceeded as usual.
In the kitchen, the aroma filling the room let Li Da Zui know that he had lost.
“Done! Twenty-Four Bridges Under a Moonlit Night!”
Huang Rong opened the steamer, and in an instant, countless wisps of white steam billowed out from the steamer, filling the entire kitchen. At the same time, the fragrance reached its peak.
Inside the steamer, on top of the dark red ham, twenty-four tofu balls like bright pearls lay silently.
Huang Rong flicked her fingers, and the twenty-four tofu balls obediently jumped out of the ham cavity and landed on a plate that had been prepared beforehand. With the already carved decorative vegetables, it resembled a beautiful painting. Even if you didn’t eat it, just looking at it was a feast for the eyes.
“Such a beautiful dish. The ancients said that a good dish is nothing more than color, fragrance, and taste. Huang Miss, your dish truly embodies all three. The name complements the dish perfectly,”
Lu Yu exclaimed, his eyes wide with admiration.
“Of course! Try it, see if I’ve won against this chef.”
Huang Rong said.
Hearing this, Lu Yu glanced at Li Da Zui, who looked away nervously. It was where he had just finished making his Mapo Tofu.
“Let’s bring it out and let everyone judge, just judging it myself wouldn’t be fair,”
Lu Yu said.
“Alright.”
Huang Rong didn’t mind.
Li Da Zui’s eyes lit up. Having everyone in the inn judge, maybe they’d give him a chance to win.
“Good, I have no objection.”
The three of them agreed quickly, each carrying their plate and walking into the lobby.
“Everyone, come and try, see who wins,”
Li Da Zui said loudly as he walked out, and everyone immediately gathered around.
Huang Rong’s Twenty-Four Bridges Under a Moonlit Night had a light color, but its aroma was rich, making people reluctant to take a bite, afraid of ruining its beauty. Li Da Zui’s Mapo Tofu, on the other hand, was a fiery red, also looking quite tempting.
“This is my Mapo Tofu, that’s some kind of moon made by the little beggar,”
“It’s Twenty-Four Bridges Under a Moonlit Night,”
Huang Rong explained.
She was quite dissatisfied that Li Da Zui hadn’t even remembered his own dish’s name.
“Beautiful, beautiful, I’ll try it,”
Tong Zhuang Gui didn’t hesitate, she picked up a tofu ball with her chopsticks and put it in her mouth.
For a moment, Tong Zhuang Gui was completely entranced.
Delicious! It was absolutely delicious!
She had never tasted anything so delicious in her life. She came from the Dragon Gate镖局, a prestigious family, and was no stranger to delicacies, but those were nothing compared to this dish.
“Twenty-Four Bridges Under a Moonlit Night, where did the jade beauty go to learn how to play the flute? What a beautiful name. The name is good, the dish looks delicious, and the fragrance speaks for itself,”
Lü Xiu Cai, his fingers twitching, commented and immediately picked up his chopsticks to take a bite.
The next moment, Lü Xiu Cai was also entranced.
Delicious. A taste beyond words.
Seeing the expressions of the two, how could Mo Xiao Bei restrain herself? She immediately grabbed a tofu ball with her hand and stuffed it into her mouth.
“So good!”
Mo Xiao Bei’s eyes widened in delight, and she immediately grabbed a second one to eat.
Lu Yu also picked up a piece to taste at this time.
Stunning. That was the only word to describe it.
The tofu had absorbed the flavor of the ham, combined with its own soft and delicate texture, the two simple yet ingenious elements combined, complementing each other perfectly. A perfect masterpiece. The control over the heat was exquisite. More or less, and the taste would be off. The knife work was also perfect. The size of the tofu balls had been carefully designed, just right for a single bite, allowing the texture of the tofu ball to burst completely in the mouth. After taking a bite, the small amount of gravy was the finishing touch, exploding all the taste buds. At that moment, Lu Yu felt like he could actually hear a flute melody playing in his ears.
Seeing everyone lost in Huang Rong’s cooking, Li Da Zui anxiously said: “Don’t just eat hers, try my dish too.”
Hearing this, everyone looked at each other.
“Right, right! Try Da Zui’s too,”
Tong Xiang Yu gave Li Da Zui some face and took a bite of Mapo Tofu.
Actually, the dish was pretty good, but after she had just eaten Huang Rong’s Twenty-Four Bridges Under a Moonlit Night, the Mapo Tofu seemed a bit ordinary.
Lu Yu and Lü Xiu Cai also took a bite, feeling the same way.
As for Mo Xiao Bei, she didn’t even eat the Mapo Tofu at all, her heart was set on the Twenty-Four Bridges Under a Moonlit Night.
The outcome was clear.
“Da Zui, I think Huang Miss’s Twenty-Four Bridges Under a Moonlit Night is better,”
Tong Xiang Yu concluded.
“I agree with the proprietress!”
Lü Xiu Cai said.
“Da Zui brother, there’s really no comparison, the gap is too big. Why don’t you try it too?”
Lu Yu said with a wry smile.
“Really that much worse? I don’t believe it!”
Li Da Zui was like a frostbitten eggplant, completely deflated. Then he picked up a tofu ball and stuffed it into his mouth. After savoring it carefully, he was even more dejected. He admitted defeat with a heavy heart.
“How about it? I won, right?”
Huang Rong said proudly.
“I lost…”
Li Da Zui admitted defeat.
“Hee hee, now you know how powerful I am?”
Huang Rong chuckled triumphantly, then winked at Lu Yu with a playful and adorable expression.
Seeing this, Lu Yu smiled and said nothing.
But at this moment, he noticed a problem.
“Where’s Bai brother? He was just here, where did he go? Let him come and try too,”
“A guest just arrived, I didn’t want to take him in, but he was very generous, so I asked Zhan Tang to take him upstairs,”
Tong Xiang Yu said.