A/N: for those who missed out on my previous post, I've uploaded Chapter 11 yesterday due to my error of publishing a blank chapter.
Here is the daily upload of the chapters. So far, I'm managing good time with tbe uploads! The votes really do encourage me! Thank you!
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Su Chen sneezed. For her, the weather was neither too cold nor too warm, yet inadverdently she was afflicted with bouts of sneezes once in a while.
Her co-worker and "mentor", Old Lu said it was the symptoms of a hated person. Many people were probably talking bad about her. She sniffed in disdain. Hmmph! She snorted as she stirred the huge iron pot before her. What if people were simply praising her to the skies? Have you thought about that Old Lu?
Yet as she looked around her, she felt far away from the person she used to be. In those ten months, she had always kept a gentle smile to war against the rude and blunt Sun Rui. Even before, at the Sun Residence, she felt bound to the role she had to play. But now, away from it all, she felt... Free.
Around her, a mix of children, stocky middle-aged women and grumpy elderly were moving about busily at the quarry. The children were running around happily, playing along with each other as they chased one another. The elderly around them were either smoking pipe and chatting or playing go.
Some of the ladies were busy washing their laundry while the other ladies were doing their best to dry the produce they had gathered under the sun. A mish mash of the old and young toiling made for an odd scene under the beautiful sunset in the twilight sky.
Su Chen has been living here for the past month or so. After searching through North Wind and narrowing down her choices, this village hidden in the quarry was the most probable place to find the man that stole her medallion.
It took a while for her to gain the trust of the villagers but her short stature (finally) helped her for once. Mistaken for a young girl who was missing her parents, many people came to help her settle down.
It was too bad that it was a farce she had to come up with. She prayed that the villagers forgive her of her lies as she quickly scooped a little more porridge for the people that were starting to queue in the meal line.
Su Chen was biding her time at Yín Village. She had managed to earn her place as assistant chef to the toady cook of the village that seemed less like a village and more like a welfare home for the poor, weak and homeless.
But she knew better than to believe in its outer facade. Su Chen vowed that she would exact her revenge on that pervert that had dared call her a pipsqueak after peeking at her. This lady's youthful body is not for you to look at for free. She smirked evilly. She doesn't think that that man realised how much compensation she would be exacting from him.
Once she found him.
"Lass! Lass! Stop dreaming!! You're spilling precious porridge off the bowl!!" Old Lu shouted.
At his shout, Su Chen quickly ladled off the excess and dripped the porridge back into the huge pot.
The toady old cook behind them glared at her as she continued scooping sheepishly for the people in line.
Once a day, the Silver Wolf Sect would dole out porridge to the widowed, orphaned, elderly and homeless that resided in the village. In Su Chen's eyes, such charity was probably hiding something deeper and darker within. Everyone knew that the sects in the jianghu were not as simple and benevolent as how Silver Wolf portrayed itself. Even entering the sect was something quite difficult to do.
She had been here for a month yet had only seen one or two sect members appearing to monitor the village ocassionally. Other than that, Su Chen rarely saw anyone from the sect.
Throughout the three months since her divorce, Su Chen had no time to reminisce on her past. She was busy with her new business and could not even avail herself to find that pervert.
That day, despite them combing the area once she had noticed her missing medallion, not a trace of the person nor her keepsake could be found.
If their resources had not been running low, she would have stayed to look further.
But money could only last them for so long to get them by.
With a plan in mind of her end, she had already purchased a shoplot at North Wind even before her divorce.
But what business she would start had eluded her.
It was only the fortuitious meeting of an elderly couple in the outskirts of North Wind, near the Choal Borders that she finally found inspiration.
When the elderly couple first served them the grilled fish dish, it only took a few more tweaks to the recipe before Su Chen decided to sell it in her restaurant.
North Wind fish was something not seen nor tasted before in the capital. With a fresh, wild taste that if not cleaned and cooked well, might end up with a strong unpleasant aftertaste, the fish had not been popular in restaurants and were only eaten as a staple among the poorer families.
Yet, after experimenting with sauces, cooking style and coming to a mutually beneficial agreement with the local fishermen, Stork Pavillion opened for business.
But the whole ordeal took her a month plus to settle.
Once she had the time to breath, she quickly investigated the people who were seem to be around the forest. It was difficult as many cultivators and fighters from the other countries and continents were also streaming in through the forest road to head to the capital.
Yet, Su Chen removed them from her list of suspects. The man had the typical accent of those from Da Li. And in fact, after being in North Wind for a while, she realised that his accent was not purely the accent she was used to in the capital. His voice had signs of having the coarser sounds of the North Wind people.
So it was either the man was a local from North Wind or a fighter from one of the few sects situated in North Wind.
Sui had deduced that the man was a formidable fighter. To have escaped her notice was no mean feat, especially when Sui could not feel his presence at all.
After inquiring and listening in among the guests while she moonlighted as a waitress in her Stork Pavillion, Su Chen gathered that there were two sects who were there at the forest around that time.
When she had decided to begin investigating White Moon Sect, to her surprise, White Moon Sect was eradicated. At their hideout, a conspicious building high above one of the mountain peaks, Su Chen was greated with a desolate scene. No life seemed to flicker in the rundown building. Only splashes of blood indicated of the bloody scene prior to her arrival.
Disheartened, Su Chen considered the other sect she had shortlisted. Silver Wolf Sect was the biggest sect in North Wind. They had many dealings there and were said to control one third of the businesses in North Wind. In fact, the person Yun Yang liased with was one from Silver Wolf's faction.
But the Sect kept to themselves and members were rarely seen. If it had not been for a slip of tongue about the quarry village she had overheard during one of the conversations at the restaurant, Su Chen would have been left in the dark on where to start looking for Silver Wolf Sect.
It had not been long since Su Chen managed to take up a job as assistant chef at the village. She had to work her way up as a scullery maid washing the dishes and pots before finally hitting jackpot when the chef happened to taste a bowl of her porridge made from the limited resources they had.
The rice that she used was still of average quality and meat was a rarity. But what she did to make the porridge a smooth silky consistency rather than the watery rice gruel the villagers usually ate was to stir the pot continuously for the few hours of cooking. Rather than cooking the rice with more water and leaving it to cook, she stirred the pot throughout the cooking process. Tiring, yes, but that smooth milky soft texture that slides down your throat was irreplaceable. Adding to the porridge were her secret ingredients: century egg and beancurd skin. That creamy yolk that blends into the congee and the black transparent bouncy flesh of the egg white was heavenly when scooped up in a spoon. The beancurd skin would meld with the rice through the stirring process making for a sweet soy taste that mingled oh so well with the gruel.
For the villagers, once they had tasted her porridge, they had practically worshipped her as a goddess. Even she was surprised at how well things were turning out. To think an Eldest Miss like herself would be able to cook so well.
Su Chen had to admit that she underestimated this talent of hers.
The only time she had ever cooked was when she had persevered to learn how to make nutritious soup for Sun Rui. It wasn't much. She was not tasked to chop and cut the ingredients. All she did actually was to mix the ingredients she desired together in the pot and ensured the flavour was to her liking.
But now that she thought about it, it made sense that her maids and servants were so adamant to not throw the soup away when Sun Rui rejected them. She had been touched at her servants' fervent distaste for wastefulness but now the stampede to her kitchen each time after the soup was rejected by Sun Rui made some sense to her. She felt that Yuan had exaggerated when Yuan had praised her cooking. Can you consider it cooking if you barely have done the prep work??
Yet whatever turned out by her hands did suit her liking and tongue. And it so happened that she was rather well-versed with good food since young with a foodie Father. But anyone from a good noble family would have turned out the same way as her.
Hence, she did not think too much about it but felt glad that her meagre porridge had paved a path to the Silver Wolf's village.
She had heard that every two months, the more senior members would pop by to deliver the food ingredients. The time of their visit should be soon. She would take this chance to request to be sent to the main headquarters.
However, Su Chen did not account for the ambush and chaos that suddenly errupted around her.
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Food porn inspiration of the day: Cantonese-style porridge with century egg.
I much rather prefer the milky taste of Hong Kong porridge. Some said that the secret to the milky smooth taste is to blend the rice gruel but the old way was to stir tirelessly.
Look at how luxurious some Cantonese Porridge can be.
And they usually come with deep fried dough fritters on top. The especially crunchy ones go soooo well with the porridge/ congee.
I like to top it a little with soy sauce and white pepper. Some restaurants do throw in a teaspoon of sesame oil on top and that smell when it arrives! Mmmmm!! Really good!
Photos not mine as usual. Credit goes to them.