Joy of Life: The Mei Family's Son Grows Up

Chapter 80 Daoxiang Village

It's just that the leaves are a little fatter than before steaming, and although the texture has become blurred, the overall shape remains the same.

The brother and sister stared at the tea and snacks with burning eyes and swallowed their saliva at the same time.

Huanggua took down this layer of steamer, put the lid on the next layer, carried the steamer, walked out of the stove and said to the brother and sister.

"Master and Miss, let's go to the table over there to eat. It's still a little hot and needs to cool down a little. Let me make some tea for you. According to my idea, this snack is best eaten with tea."

The brother and sister nodded vigorously, their eyes never leaving the snacks.

Huanggua smiled and led the two to the small dining table, then made a pot of tea and poured a cup for each of them.

The brother and sister sat at the small dining table quietly waiting for the snacks to cool down. During this time, Mei Yuxi would touch the snacks with her fingers from time to time to feel the temperature.

When she extended her hand for the fourth time, Mei Chengan was unhappy. He patted the back of her hand and glared at her.

"Just try to warm one piece. What's the point of ordering them one by one? Who did you learn this bad habit from?"

Mei Yuxi covered the back of her hands, with a rare look of embarrassment on her face.

"Hehe, these dim sum are soft and plump and fun to look at, and they feel very soft and bouncy to the touch. I couldn't help but want to try if they are all like this. I won't do it next time. Brother, if you think my hands are dirty, at worst I can touch these four dim sum and take care of them myself!"

Mei Chengan's eyes widened.

"Hey~ So you, little girl, are using this method to occupy the snacks in the circle, right? You are not greedy. You only occupied four of the six in total, and you even remembered to leave two for me, your brother."

Mei Yuxi chuckled, revealing a hint of cunning, without any embarrassment of being exposed.

"Oh! Brother, you have been watching over Sister Cucumber all day long. What do you want to eat? It's not easy for her to eat once. Brother, just think of it as giving way to your sister."

Mei Chengan rolled his eyes and said, "You've been here a lot too!" He was too lazy to complain about her little tricks. Besides, there were several more drawers at the back. What's the point of panicking?

Huanggua watched the quarrel between the young master and the young lady, covering her mouth and laughing.

After waiting for a while, Huanggua picked up a piece of dessert that Mei Yuxi had not touched. Mei Cheng'an's eyes widened at that moment. It was over, there was only one piece left.

Cucumber took a bite of his snack and nodded.

"Master and Miss, you can eat now."

As soon as he finished speaking, Mei Yuxi couldn't wait to pick up the snack and started eating. Mei Chengan was not slow either. He quickly picked up the only remaining snack and rolled his eyes at the cucumber.

Cucumber was confused by the young master's cold look. What happened to her?

Mei Cheng'an didn't have time to pay attention to her. He looked at the snack in his hand. It was indeed soft and elastic. Since it had been left for a while, the snack was warm but not hot.

Take a gentle bite, the dessert melts in your mouth, with just the right amount of sweetness and not too greasy. After chewing it a few times, the fresh and elegant flavor of Longjing tea fills your mouth, leaving a lingering fragrance on your lips and teeth.

Mei Chengan's eyes lit up. It's delicious!
Looking at the remaining half of the dessert, the outer skin and the filling are slightly different in color, stacked alternately on top of each other, with distinct layers, and each layer is as thin as a cicada's wing.

Put the remaining half into your mouth and savor it carefully.

The outer skin is chewy and smooth, and the filling is soft and glutinous, intertwined together to perfectly blend with the aroma of tea.

After swallowing it, take another sip of tea to fully display the tea aroma and sweet aftertaste of the tea snack.

Huanggua looked at the young master expectantly, silently waiting for his evaluation.

The lady doesn't need that. Every time she would just say "it's delicious, it's so delicious, I love it so much", that's all. Although the cucumber is happy to be praised, she would like to hear more practical comments and suggestions.

Mei Cheng'an thought about it, then met Huanggua's expectant eyes and did not let her down.

"For now, the sweetness is just right, and it is really a great drink with tea, but the texture of the crust is too similar to the filling, which lacks a sense of layering and feels a little monotonous. But overall, it is above standard."

Cucumber seemed to be thinking about what she had said. She was already thinking about how to improve it to make the taste richer.

Mei Yuxi finished eating the last piece and couldn't wait to give the cucumber a thumbs up.

"Sister Cucumber, don't listen to my brother. In my opinion, it's already perfect. It's delicious. I love it."

cucumber:"……"

Mei Chengan: “…”

Cucumber smiled at Mei Yuxi.

"As long as the lady likes it."

After saying that, he fell into deep thought again.

Mei Cheng'an glanced at his sister and said, "Why are you everywhere? Just do your thing honestly. Why do you, as a child, have to interrupt when adults are talking?"

Re-watch cucumber.

"I don't know much about dim sum making. I just said it and you just listened. Maybe you can try to bake it over the fire after steaming it to make the outer layer crispier. This will create a contrast with the soft and glutinous filling and make the taste richer."

Cucumber's eyes lit up when she heard that. Why didn't she think of that? Now that there was a direction for improvement, Cucumber couldn't stand it anymore and ran to the stove.

"I'll try it now." Well, it's too early. I'll eat another tray first. Now I don't know how long I have to wait.

Mei Yuxi was not disappointed when she saw that there was no more trays. It was so delicious now, wouldn’t it be even more delicious after some improvements? Wait! Must wait!
Mei Chengan stayed here for a while, then left the two of them and went out for a walk. Baking snacks was not a manual job, and there was nothing good to see, so he was too lazy to wait here.

After coming out of the small kitchen, Mei Cheng'an called Green Ant to the main hall to play Go.

When it came to the middle plate, the improved cucumber dessert was finally ready, and a tray of it was brought over to him.

Mei Cheng'an looked up and saw that the surface of the baked snack was a little burnt and the skin was a little cracked. It looked a little worse than before. He picked up a piece with his fingers and some crumbs fell off the outer layer of the pastry when it was stressed.

Mei Cheng'an quickly put his left hand underneath and took a bite.

The outer layer is crispy and delicious, and paired with the soft, glutinous and sweet filling, the taste is indeed better than before.

Mei Chengan gave a thumbs up immediately.

Cucumber was very happy to see that the young master was satisfied. He jumped back to the small kitchen, where he had a little ancestor to serve.

Mei Cheng'an was eating snacks while thinking about the layout of the chessboard.

Because he was waiting for snacks and was not focused enough, he made a few bad moves. So the current situation was not very good. He had to think of a way to turn the bad moves into good ones and see if he could struggle again.

Both sides added a few more pieces.

Green Ant laughed.

"Master, why don't you just forget about it? It will be hard for you to make it out of this situation now."

Mei Chengan raised his eyebrows.

"Why are you in such a hurry? I've already defended myself. I'm going to start the counterattack soon."

Green Ant smiled and said nothing, then made another move.

Mei Cheng'an stared at the chessboard while holding the chess piece in his hand. The effect of this move was like the last straw that broke the camel's back, a fatal blow.

Mei Cheng'an originally thought that he had stabilized the situation and was just waiting for a counterattack, but now he realized that his death was imminent.

It's not impossible to struggle a little longer, but it's meaningless because the situation is already over.

"Come again, come again."

Green ants are quick to follow advice.

Both sides quickly collected their chess pieces and reorganized the board.

Until the end of lunch time, the two played a total of three games. Mei Cheng'an won one and lost two. Except for the first game where he was defeated just after the middle game, the two played the next two games until the endgame to decide the outcome.

Mei Chengan only admitted that the two sides were tied at 1:1, and the first one that distracted him did not count.

Green Ant didn't have any objection and agreed with the young master's statement. The first one was indeed not up to the young master's level.

Mei Cheng'an finally ended the battle with satisfaction and strolled off to have lunch.

After lunch, I lay on the recliner, eating the fruit fed by sweet potato and reading a book.

Wang Qinian came when I was almost halfway through the book.

Mei Cheng'an didn't stand up to greet him, and let him move a recliner by himself. After he lay down, Mei Cheng'an spoke.

"Old Wang, how come you have time to come here today? The dim sum shop is not busy?"

You heard it right. Wang Qinian's rouge shop officially closed in July last year. The reason was that the rouge shops around his house thought that their price cuts and promotions were only temporary and would not last long. Who would have thought that they persisted for a whole year. Later, Mrs. Wang could not hold on any longer and followed suit to lower the prices. Business picked up slightly, but only slightly. At the end of the month, they still suffered a loss when they counted the accounts. They persisted for another two months and could not hold on any longer, so they closed the rouge shop.

Having lost her main source of income, Mrs. Wang was extremely anxious. In fact, it was not a problem to support the whole family with Wang Qinian's salary, but she would have to downgrade her consumption. However, it is easy to go from simple to luxurious, but difficult to go from luxurious to frugal. After being used to eating pork belly, how many people can bear to suddenly eat steamed corn bread?

Mrs. Wang was in a bad mood, and the father and daughter suffered a lot. They were worried all day at home and dared not even breathe.

Wang Qinian was thinking all day about what kind of business he could start to make his wife busy and happy again. As he was thinking, he thought of Mei Chengan. The Mei family canteen business was so big, he must have no shortage of good ideas to make money.

What good ideas could Mei Cheng'an have? He was not a business genius. It was just a coincidence. He was worrying about what advice to give to Wang Qinian when cucumber brought a new snack for him to taste. Mei Cheng'an slapped his thigh and thought, "That's it."

After Wang Qinian discussed it with Mrs. Wang, they both went to see Mei Cheng'an. After agreeing on the share ratio, the dim sum shop was opened. Mei Cheng'an invested 40% of the shares by providing the recipe, while Wang Qinian and his wife invested the money and were responsible for the management, accounting for 60%.

After that, Mei Chengan had nothing to do. The selection of the shop site and the preparations for its opening were all coordinated by Huanggua and Wang Qinian and his wife.

He just gave the shop a name, Daoxiangcun.

Mei Cheng'an had to wait until Huanggua came to him excitedly to tell him the good news, only then he learned that the dim sum shop, known as Daoxiangcun, had become popular throughout Kyoto in just one month due to its affordable prices, novel styles and good taste, and that countless people lined up to buy dim sum every day.

Back to the present.

Wang Qinian didn't treat himself as an outsider. He picked up the teapot, poured himself a cup of tea, and drank it all in one gulp.

Then he answered.

(End of this chapter)