By noon, there were fewer people on the road.

The line for buying vegetables had shortened, and victory was soon within reach.

Qi Kai finished serving the last few customers and covered the empty vegetable baskets with a cloth.

He turned back to the kitchen and saw Lin You preparing lunch.

Tong Lan was peeling garlic and onions for her, helping out.

Qi Kai said: “Don’t overwork yourself, take a break.”

Lin You looked up and smiled at him: “I just cracked two walnuts from the freezer earlier. What’s strange is that I now feel like I have my energy back. I might need to ask Fu Qingze to recheck whether this new walnut contains any mind-refreshing ingredients.”

Qi Kai was half-skeptical: “Are these walnuts really that amazing?”

Lin You pointed to the table, where a small bamboo basket was placed.

The basket was packed with dozens of round walnuts she had just taken out from the freezer.

“Try it. You can’t find this taste in the market now,” Lin You said.

Qi Kai reached into the basket, picked up a walnut, looked at it, and curiously asked: “Green-skinned walnut? I’ve seen this, but never tried it before.”

Lin You explained: “What’s sold in supermarkets more often are old walnuts. The outer green skin is peeled off, leaving only the brown hard shell that wraps the walnut meat in a dark-colored outer layer. This one is fresh walnut, not dried. The walnut skin is lighter and whiter, it’s very tender, and when you bite it, it’s crispy. I personally prefer the taste of fresh walnuts.”

Qi Kai said, “Oh, I see. I’m going to try it.”

He squatted down, gently peeled off the green outer skin, leaving the brown hard shell.

Then he took a small hammer and hit it hard.

However, before using much force, the walnut cracked with a “pop.”

Qi Kai stared at this walnut that cracked so easily, looking at it from left to right, and exclaimed: “The skin of this walnut is so thin? Are all green-skinned walnuts like this? I thought I would need to hit it hard.”

Lin You, while chopping meat on the cutting board, looked up and said: “Oh, I forgot to tell you, this walnut skin is indeed very thin. If you have strong hands, you can just squeeze it and it’ll crack. But green-skinned walnuts aren’t usually like this. It’s probably because the variety that popped out of the freezer has been improved.”

Qi Kai understood. He lowered his head, squeezed the walnut skin open a little, and then carefully removed the thin outer layer of the walnut. Only then did he put a piece of walnut meat into his mouth.

It was indeed different from any walnut he had tasted before.

It was both crispy and tender, with a sweet aftertaste.

He chewed a few more times and found it so fragrant that he couldn’t stop eating. Soon, he had eaten almost half of the basket.

When he finally managed to stop himself and stood up from the table, Qi Kai vaguely felt that the energy he had lost from being busy earlier seemed to have really returned.

Now, he felt refreshed, his mind clear, and when he saw Qu Fei bringing in an empty basket, he had an impulse to fill it up.

He steadied himself and saw Qu Fei place the basket in front of him. Suddenly, he was inexplicably moved, stepping forward and reaching for the basket.

Qu Fei quickly pressed his hand down: “Stop moving the baskets, take a break. We’ll work again in the afternoon.”

Qi Kai held onto the basket and refused to let go: “No, let me do it. My hands are itching. I can’t stand it unless these baskets are filled.”

Qu Fei was momentarily speechless: “…”

Lin You, while kneading the dough in her hands, looked at Qi Kai and couldn’t help but laugh: “Now you understand why I wanted to cook… It’s the same, just itching to do something.”

Qi Kai nodded: “I totally understand you now.”

Seeing that Qu Fei was insistent on not letting him return to work, Qi Kai had no choice but to give up.

He used one hand to crack open a walnut, peeled off the skin, and handed it to Qu Fei: “Here, try one, it’ll immediately refresh you.”

Qu Fei had the same expression as Qi Kai had earlier, skeptical.

After a moment, he finally took it, putting the walnut into his mouth.

Two minutes later, the basket of walnuts was completely empty.

Qu Fei was one step ahead of Qi Kai, grabbing two baskets and running behind the curtain to stuff the unfinished vegetables into them: “Qi Kai, go rest, I’ve got it.”

Qi Kai also took two baskets and blocked Qu Fei’s way, not giving an inch: “No, you go rest, I’ll do it.”

Tong Lan, who was peeling garlic, looked at the two of them and said: “If both of you want to work, that’s easy. There aren’t enough baskets. Every time we sell, you two have to keep running back and forth to fill them. Why don’t one of you go to the supermarket and buy some big vegetable baskets to keep in the shop? It’ll save some trouble when filling the baskets next time.”

Upon hearing this, Qi Kai immediately volunteered: “I’ll go!”

Without saying anything further, he dashed out of the door, not even bothering to fill the baskets anymore.

Lin You was still washing a few green and red peppers.

The chopped onions and potatoes were already prepared.

A few three-yellow chickens had been cleaned and their innards removed.

When the ingredients were nearly ready, Lin You began chopping the three-yellow chicken into small pieces.

She then freed one hand to spread a layer of oil on several flattened dough balls. This was to make the dough more elastic when pulling the noodles later.

Tong Lan stood by, peeking at what she was doing.

Lin You started boiling a pot of water, tossing in the chicken pieces and bringing it to a boil.

Similar to the previous method of stewing yams with pork ribs, she removed the scum, then took the chicken pieces out and set them aside.

Next, she heated a pot with oil, adding dry red chili, ginger slices, Sichuan peppercorns, and star anise to sauté until fragrant. Then she added two spoons of bean paste.

While stir-frying the base ingredients, Lin You explained to Tong Lan: “The bean paste needs to be fried for a while, it should produce red oil. The color should look like this, bright red, and that’s about right.”

Tong Lan nodded, signaling that she understood.

Once the base was ready, Lin You picked up a small bowl and poured the chicken pieces into it.

At this point, soy sauce, salt, cooking wine, and other regular seasonings were added.

She continued to stir-fry until the chicken pieces were coated in the red oil, then added enough water to just cover the chicken pieces, and let it simmer.

While the chicken was simmering, Lin You started preparing the pulled noodles.

She pinched both sides of the flattened dough and pulled. The dough stretched longer and longer, continuously.

Tong Lan saw this and hurriedly washed her hands to help: “I think I can do this too.”

She mimicked Lin You, stretching the dough until it became a short, fat noodle.

At this point, she needed to apply some force with both hands and slap the noodles onto the board, giving them a tossing motion.

With each toss, the distance between her hands increased, and the noodles grew thinner and longer.

Tong Lan looked at the noodles in her hands, amazed: “I tried making hand-pulled noodles before, but whenever I pulled the dough, it just broke.”

Lin You told her: “Noodles that are hard to break have a method to them. In addition to the basic kneading of the dough, you also need to add a certain amount of salt and coat the dough’s surface with a thin layer of oil. That way, the noodles become more elastic and don’t break easily.”

Tong Lan had an epiphany: “So my method was wrong before.”

The water in the other pot had boiled, and Lin You put the hand-pulled noodles into it.

She asked Tong Lan to keep an eye on the pot and take the noodles out once they were cooked.

Lin You opened the pot of stewed chicken, adding the potatoes, onions, green and red peppers, and other ingredients.

When the potatoes became soft and the peppers were no longer raw, Lin You sprinkled some chopped green onions on top, and the big plate of chicken was ready to be served.

Since there were five people eating, the plates weren’t big enough.

Lin You divided the dish into two large round plates.

After placing the chicken and vegetables, she poured the rich red oil and broth from the pot over the dish.

The broth flowed from the surface of the vegetables to the bottom of the plate, making the whole dish of chicken look even more appetizing.

Tong Lan stared at the chicken, her eyes shining, swallowing her saliva, and said: “Youyou, today I’m going to dip the noodles in the sauce and finish it all!”

Lin You handed her the rice and smiled: “Well, good luck, that’s quite a large portion.”

Tong Lan took the other plate, which was even fuller, and brought it to Qu Fei, who had just finished filling the baskets: “Eat while it’s hot. Youyou’s cooking is simply amazing.”

Qu Fei thanked her, and as he sat down on a chair, he saw Qi Kai walk in from outside.

He had already smelled the aroma of the meat outside.

So, he quickly walked in and said: “Is it ready? I came back at the perfect time.”

Qi Kai entered the kitchen, washed his hands, and pointed at the big baskets placed by the wall: “How’s it? Are you satisfied?”

Lin You took a glance and nodded, saying, “I’m satisfied, as long as it’s convenient for you to use.”

Qi Kai then picked up his chopsticks and placed a piece of chicken covered in sauce onto his rice: “I’ve completed my task, now I can start eating…”

One bite, and the combination of the sauce and three-yellow chicken was so delicious that he couldn’t say a word.

Looking at the translucent rice in his bowl, Qi Kai dug in, and after a few bites, he realized that the rice was perfectly separate, not sticky, and had a richer fragrance than regular rice.

He continued eating for a while before looking up and sighing: “I think anyone who has bought ingredients from our shop probably won’t be interested in their own stockpiled goods anymore. This is on a whole different level…”

Qu Fei, who was eating from the same plate, nodded in agreement: “Exactly, you can’t find chicken this delicious in the market. White-feathered chicken is too dense, especially the legs; it’s like biting into a steamed bun with no chicken flavor. Free-range chicken has a stronger chicken taste, but the meat is too tough to chew. The three-yellow chicken is slightly better, but this improved variety from the freezer… the taste… It’s like it has some fresh herb in it. I bet it would be great even boiled. Of course, Boss Lin’s cooking only makes it better.”

Lin You felt a little embarrassed at his flattery: “If you guys like to eat it, I’ll make it often. It’s no problem. You’re helping out here, so you’re working hard too.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Gu Hong, who had been delivering fresh milk to several supermarkets, came back.

He looked pretty cool, wearing sunglasses. He jumped out of the driver’s seat, closed the car door, and walked with long strides into the shop.

Tong Lan was momentarily stunned, still chewing on a piece of chicken, frozen in place.

Qi Kai, who had just waved his hand to invite Gu Hong over to eat the big plate of chicken, caught sight of her still posture.

Following her gaze, he realized she was staring at Gu Hong.

Qi Kai seemed to realize something, and with a smile at the corner of his lips, he waved his hand in front of her: “Hey, girl, what are you looking at? So fascinated?”