Chef Hua-Chapter 690 - 364

A year ago, he had bought the Lianshun Escort Agency from Ke Zhenwu, and now he was truly the boss, yet at the end of the day, compared to sitting in the Escort Agency handling affairs, he always felt more at ease escorting goods himself. Fortunately, now that people like Han Hu had gradually become stable and reliable, even when he was away, they could manage all kinds of miscellaneous affairs thoroughly. Without hesitation, he agreed and made a night-and-day journey on the way back, finally making it home before the New Year.

"This trip went pretty smoothly, and there were no hitches on the road."

He sat at the table, turned his head, and smiled at Hua Xiaomai, who was standing behind him wiping his hair, "It’s been a long time since I escorted goods. Going out and about felt pretty good, and when I have time in the future, I should move around more. By the way, I also checked out some shops for you in Lingxiu Prefecture, found three or two that were quite suitable. I gave a local broker some money to help keep the shops for a while, especially since it’s close to the New Year when there won’t be many people buying shops. When you have time, we should also set aside a time to go there again, the decision is yours to make."

"Okay."

Hua Xiaomai smiled at him in the mirror, "The people there have quite different dietary tastes from us in Tong’an Prefecture. I’m considering that both the shopkeeper and the chef should be hired locally. If we were to go again, it’s inevitable that we would have to stay there for some days. Let me first settle things here before that. For now, you better go and take care of your son—you don’t know, he almost drove me mad today, and because of him, mom and I had a fight and she’s still sulking!"

Meng Yuhuai turned to look at the two little girls, who were playing cheerfully on the couch and weren’t paying attention, then squeezed Hua Xiaomai’s hand on his shoulder and chuckled softly, "I just got back and you’re already giving me a tough problem?"

As he spoke, he stood up and walked to the door, composed himself and said sternly, "Meng Zhao, come here!"

It was rare for the little walnut to be called by his full name at home; when these words were spoken, it often meant that he was in trouble. He immediately looked bitter, stood up obediently, and slowly walked to Meng Yuhuai.

"What did you do? Tell me yourself."

"I didn’t..." The little walnut sneakily glanced at Hua Xiaomai beside him, his voice as low as a mosquito’s buzz.

"Still saying you didn’t? You still won’t admit your mistakes now?"

Hua Xiaomai felt a surge of anger rise again and raised her voice to Meng Yuhuai, "Today at Daoxiang Garden we had our New Year’s Eve dinner, and the new chef, Master Geng, isn’t he from the north? It was his first New Year in our shop, and to accommodate him, we specially made dumplings. And what—Meng Zhao, do I need to spell out what you did? If you don’t confess now, I’m going to get the ruler!"

"Mom, don’t..." The little walnut jumped in fright, sniffed his nose, and looked timidly at Meng Yuhuai, stammering, "I went down to the fish pond..."

"You went down to the fish pond in this cold weather?" Meng Yuhuai suddenly furrowed his brows, "Did you catch a cold, having headaches or feeling feverish..."

"Cough cough!"

Before he could finish, he heard Hua Xiaomai coughing forcefully at his side.

"You went down to the fish pond, then what?" He quickly shelved his concerned expression and spoke roughly.

"Then..." The little walnut pouted, wanting to cry, "Then I dug up two chunks of wet mud and mixed them all into the dumpling filling."

"...What were you thinking?"

Meng Yuhuai was speechless, rubbed his temples, "What good does doing this bring you, don’t you want to eat the dumplings?"

The little walnut shook his head, then fell silent again.

Hua Xiaomai, utterly infuriated, said indignantly to Meng Yuhuai, "I really don’t understand, I’m a cook and yet my son turns out to be a picky eater, it simply doesn’t make sense!"

Then, turning her head angrily towards the little walnut, "Mom has told you so many times, it’s okay to be picky, if you don’t like something, you don’t have to eat it, mom won’t force you, but how could you waste ingredients? That big bowl of dumpling filling, with both meat and vegetables, could have fed everyone in Daoxiang Garden for a meal, do you know how many families can’t even afford to eat that?"

"But..." The little walnut became anxious, "I heard Aunt Yun say that the dumpling filling was too greasy, she felt nauseous just by smelling it, which shows it wasn’t good, and if you all ate it, you would definitely have stomach problems!"

"What?"

Hua Xiaomai was momentarily stunned, and it took her a while to understand, "Your Aunt Yun is..."

Meng Yuhuai couldn’t help laughing out loud, pulling the little walnut closer, "Ah, so you were trying to do a good deed but went about it the wrong way? The reason Aunt Yun felt nauseous smelling the dumplings was that she was unwell, but you didn’t ask a single question and mixed wet mud into the filling, causing everyone to miss out on eating. Do you think what you did was right?"