Chapter 90 Home Visit
Tongfu Inn is separated from Hantie Inn by three alleys and is also located in Xianyuanfang.
Tongfu Inn occupies a fairly large area, but its facilities are simple. The upstairs is for guests to stay in, the downstairs is the restaurant, counter and kitchen, and the backyard is where Bao Yingjun's family lives.
What was beyond Qin Ziling's expectation was that Bao Yingjun's father was actually quite handsome, except for his thin stature. So when Qin Ziling saw Bao Yingjun's father, he once suspected that Bao Yingjun might be the neighbor's father.
However, when Qin Ziling saw Bao Yingjun's mother, who was nearly 1.8 meters tall, with a big head and face full of flesh, he immediately dispelled that guess.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Bao were very surprised by Qin Ziling's arrival, and even felt flattered. They entertained him very warmly and asked about Bao Yingjun's situation from time to time, which made Qin Ziling feel like he was visiting a home.
"Yingjun has a strong personality and high comprehension. He is a good candidate for martial arts training." Qin Ziling commented.
"Really? Is it true? Our Yingjun has a talent for martial arts ? We saw that he was weak and small, and every time he came home from martial arts practice, he had bruises here and there. He said that he got them accidentally when sparring with the apprentices in the martial arts gym. We thought he was not cut out for martial arts!" Shopkeeper Bao and his wife couldn't help but get excited when they heard this.
The muscles on Bao Yingjun's ugly bruised face were shaking constantly, and he looked at Qin Ziling with complicated eyes, including surprise, excitement, and indescribable gratitude.
From childhood to adulthood, he had been ridiculed and mocked by countless outsiders because of his height, appearance and stuttering. Even the waiter in his own inn often mocked him as the young master in private.
This was the first time he heard someone praise him like this!
"When practicing martial arts, injuries are inevitable. Suffer a little now so that you will suffer less in the future! But Yingjun's bones are indeed a little weak, and practicing martial arts consumes a lot of energy, so we need to try to give him supplements on a regular basis. For example, Yiyuantang's Yixue Pills are quite effective in replenishing blood, so it's best to give him a few pills every month, and other meats are also necessary. Only in this way can he strengthen his qi, blood, tendons and bones, and make rapid progress." Qin Ziling said.
Upon hearing this, Mr. and Mrs. Bao looked at each other with a trace of embarrassment on their faces.
After a long while, Shopkeeper Bao sighed and said, "Mr. Qin, to be honest, if it were in the past, I would have bought blood-enhancing pills for Yingjun every now and then, but now I am lucky to be able to guarantee a daily meat supply."
"I see your inn is not small!" Qin Ziling said with some surprise.
"Alas, Mr. Qin, you don't know. Our inn mainly provides accommodation for traveling merchants or other travelers who come to the city to do business. In the past few years, the world was relatively peaceful, there were many people coming and going, and business was good. But these years the world is getting more and more chaotic, and it's unsafe on the road. In addition to the increasing number of refugees and displaced persons, there are fewer and fewer merchants and other travelers. Our business is getting worse day by day!" Shopkeeper Bao said with a wry smile.
"That's true. However, since the accommodation business is not doing well, you can focus on developing the restaurant. Anyway, your inn provides accommodation upstairs and food downstairs." Qin Ziling suggested.
"We have thought about this, but if you want to run a good restaurant, you must have a few signature dishes. Our restaurant used to do business with tenants. These tenants are unfamiliar with the place, and they are often out and about, sleeping in the open air, and going hungry. As long as they are full, they are not picky about food. Eating at my place is average in taste, but it is very convenient and the portions are large, so generally, tenants who are not particularly picky about food will eat at my place directly.
But now there are fewer tenants. If we want to do food business for city people, with my wife's cooking skills, we can't attract many customers. I want to find another chef, but his cooking skills are similar to my wife's. Once I met a chef with good cooking skills, but the salary he asked was too high. "Alas!" Shopkeeper Bao shook his head and sighed.
"Bah, there's nothing to shake your head and sigh about! As long as our Yingjun is a good martial artist, I will give him daily tonic even if I have to sell this inn!" Seeing her husband shaking his head and sighing, Qian Huihua slammed the table.
Qian Huihua slapped the table, and Shopkeeper Bao's thin body trembled noticeably, and then his face became even more bitter.
"Mom, mom, Senior Brother Qin is here. He, he used to be a scholar." Bao Yingjun saw his mother's true nature revealed and hurriedly reminded her.
Qian Huihua suddenly realized that her action just now was too violent. The fat on her face trembled. She lowered her head and fiddled with the hem of her skirt with her hands, saying in a muffled voice: "Mr. Qin, please don't laugh at me. I tend to lose my temper when I get angry."
"Haha, it's okay. This is how a family should live. Why should they always be so harmonious and pretentious?" Qin Ziling looked at Qian Huihua acting coyly and almost got goose bumps all over his body. He quickly waved his hands and laughed.
"Mr. Qin is absolutely right!" Upon hearing this, Qian Huihua immediately let go of her skirt, spread her thighs, and said with a majestic and imposing posture, "Mr. Qin, please tell me the truth. Does my Yingjun have the hope of becoming a martial artist of the level of Niupi? If so, I will risk it all. At worst, I will sell this inn!"
Looking at Qian Huihua's decisiveness and ruthlessness, Qin Ziling began to understand where Bao Yingjun's hidden ruthlessness came from.
"As long as Bao Yingjun has no problem with taking supplements, with his character, talent and qualifications, there will be no problem with his level of bragging. But it's not necessary to sell the inn. I do know a few delicious family dishes. If Mrs. Bao is willing to learn, I can teach you now. I think it should be no problem to make a name for your Tongfu Inn." Qin Ziling said the latter, emitting a strong self-confidence.
Just kidding, all he could remember in his mind were the classic recipes left over from the gold rush in another world.
There are those suitable for high-end restaurants and those suitable for mass-market restaurants.
It’s no small task to pick a few signature dishes of Tongfu Inn.
The three members of the Bao family looked at Qin Ziling in a daze.
They never dreamed that Qin Ziling would come up with such an idea, and he did it with such a brazen and confident attitude.
Of course, no matter how confident Qin Ziling was, the Bao family didn't believe that he could make dishes that could become the signature dish of Tongfu Inn.
However, since Qin Ziling had asked, the Bao family had to give him face even if they didn't believe him. So after being stunned for a while, the Bao couple stood up and bowed, saying insincerely, "Of course we are willing to learn, but we are afraid of troubling Mr. Qin too much."
"It's just cooking a few dishes. There's nothing to bother with. It's getting late . Let's do it now. I still have to teach Yingjun his homework later." Qin Ziling said with a wave of his hand.
The Bao couple had no choice but to look at each other, and then reluctantly led Qin Ziling to the kitchen with Bao Yingjun.
The customer base of Tongfu Inn is mainly ordinary people, who generally prefer heavy taste in food and prefer large quantities, cheapness and fillingness as the main ingredients used.
So Qin Ziling selected dishes from his mind that were relatively simple to cook and suitable for the general public to eat.
One is braised pork, one is mapo tofu, one is beggar's chicken, and the other is braised pork rice.
Too much, too time-consuming, and not necessary for the time being.
When Qin Ziling's first dish of Mapo Tofu came out of the oven, it almost blinded the eyes of the three members of the Bao family. It also made Qian Huihua cry and sweat profusely in the middle of winter.
When the last dish, beggar's chicken, came out of the oven, the three members of the Bao family were convinced and grateful to Qin Ziling. The shopkeeper Bao even hurried to the inner room to take out nearly half of his savings to give to Qin Ziling as a token of his gratitude.
They were the owners of an inn, so they naturally understood the extraordinary significance of these four dishes to their inn.
Qin Ziling doesn't need this little fortune now, so he naturally won't accept it. Moreover, he helps the Bao couple so that they can have more financial resources to support Bao Yingjun's martial arts training.
Since Qin Ziling didn't accept any money, the people in the Bao family were naturally more grateful.
Bao Yingjun's progress was much faster than Qin Ziling had imagined, which surprised him. In addition, Bao Yingjun's character had temporarily passed his test, so Qin Ziling was more attentive and careful in his guidance this time.
Qin Ziling left in a hurry only when the city gate was about to close.
…
The next evening, Qin Ziling came alone to Zuixianglou opposite the "Huayun" powder and rouge shop.
Qin Ziling asked the waiter and learned that Zheng Xinghan was already in private room number three on the second floor, so he went straight up to the second floor.
When he was at the stairs, he looked up and saw two men walking towards the stairs. One of the younger men whispered something in the ear of the other tall and thin middle-aged man. Then the man looked at Qin Ziling with a suddenly sharp look, and he stretched out his hand to stop Qin Ziling who was about to step into the second floor.
