Chapter 263: Chapter 262: Deliver Vegetables (Request for Monthly Pass)
Jiang Feng was in the back kitchen steaming marinated vegetable dumplings, while Wu Minqi had just finished cooking Mapo Tofu and turned around to grab ingredients to start on the next dish.
“Are you sure there won’t be any problems with your Magnolia Tablets hodgepodge?” Wu Minqi was still a little worried.
The destructive power of Jiang Feng’s Magnolia Tablets hodgepodge could be attested by all the staff in the back kitchen, everyone who tasted it praised it, and everyone who ate it ended up crying, except for Jiang Weiguo.
“There won’t be any problems, remember how everyone felt much relieved after crying last time?” Jiang Feng thought there shouldn’t be any big issue, probably no stress needing to be released either.
Hardly had his voice faded when a waitress rushed into the back kitchen in a panic.
“Master Jiang, a customer who ate your Magnolia Tablets hodgepodge is now… now crying uncontrollably, and no one can calm them down, not even Qi Rou. You’d better go take a look!”
Jiang Feng:
He felt as if he had been slapped hard in the face.
“Qiqi, can you keep an eye on the dumplings for me?” Wearing his chef’s uniform, Jiang Feng followed the waitress out.
The customer who couldn’t be calmed down by Qi Rou and was sobbing over the table was the same office worker who had an especially bad day today.
Xue Hua was standing beside Xue Shaoheng, looking somewhat concerned; it had been Xue Shaoheng who had insisted on giving the dish to the person, and now that the office worker was crying like this, Xue Hua was worried that there might have been something wrong with the dish.
“Mr. Jiang, please come and see what’s going on here!” Xue Hua was slightly panicking.
The customers at the surrounding tables were all sitting still watching the commotion.
“This is a normal reaction; it’s common to cry when eating this dish,” Jiang Feng explained.
Xue Hua: ???
Waitress: ???
“Cry, cry!” Xue Shaoheng suddenly spoke, pointing at the office worker in front of him.
“That’s right, Shaoheng, he’s crying, but don’t point at people like that with your hand; it’s rude,” Xue Hua said.
“Cry, cry!” Xue Shaoheng pointed again at the bowl of Magnolia Tablets hodgepodge in front of the office worker.
“Are you trying to say he started crying after eating this? I’ve just explained it to Mr. Jiang,” Xue Hua tried to understand Xue Shaoheng’s point.
Xue Shaoheng shook his head, pointed once at the Magnolia Tablets hodgepodge, then at the office worker, and finally back at the hodgepodge.
“Cry, cry!” Xue Shaoheng kept repeating the two words.
“Cry!” Sitting in her seat, Huang Yiting pointed at the large pot of Magnolia Tablets hodgepodge and said to her mom.
“I know, Yiting, you mean to say someone cried after eating this, right?” Huang Yiting’s mother understood it the same way as Xue Hua.
Huang Yiting, who didn’t have the same patience as Xue Shaoheng, became anxious when her mother failed to understand her, and pulled her mother toward the table where the office worker sat.
“Cry, cry!” Huang Yiting pointed at the bowl of Magnolia Tablets hodgepodge in front of the office worker and then turned back to point at the hodgepodge at their own table.
Seeing the gestures of Huang Yiting and Xue Shaoheng match so exactly, Jiang Feng seemed to grasp their actual meaning.
But he couldn’t say it out loud.
Jiang Feng could tell that both Huang Yiting and Xue Shaoheng had what seemed to be a scholar’s syndrome; they both meant the same thing.
The Magnolia Tablets hodgepodge can make people cry, or rather, it allows people to release stress.
They could see the buffs on these dishes.
Huang Yiting’smother, not feeling comfortable leaving the other three adult friends at the table by themselves, asked Xue Hua to take good care of Huang Yiting before returning to look after the other three and ensure they didn’t run around.
“I understand what you mean, you’re saying this dish has made him cry,” Jiang Feng said to Huang Yiting and Xue Shaoheng.
Xue Shaoheng and Huang Yiting nodded.
“You two kids, what’s the difference whether he’s crying because he ate this dish or this dish made him cry?” Xue Hua said somewhat helplessly.
Xue Hua would never know the difference between the two, and neither would the vast majority of people in this world.
Perhaps it was the pressure of so many onlookers, but the office worker’s crying gradually ceased, and he sobbed, “I’m fine. I’ve just been under too much pressure lately and suddenly felt like crying.”
Since the person involved had come out to explain that he was fine, everyone else assumed that he had truly experienced a mental breakdown from excessive stress, which led to him bursting into tears after eating a dish, and they prepared to disperse.
The office worker took a napkin to dry the tears on his face, turned to Xue Shaoheng, and said, “Thanks, man.”
Then he picked up a piece of Magnolia Tablets with his chopsticks and continued to cry.
Everyone:…
Jiang Feng:…
This guy really had character, pausing his crying only to pick it up again.
Xue Hua, along with Xue Shaoheng and Huang Yiting, returned to their original seats and began to explain the situation to Huang Yiting’s mother.
Unnoticed by the others, Xue Shaoheng and Huang Yiting were up to something again.
Xue Shaoheng held a spoon in his left hand and a bowl in his right, which was Huang Yiting’s bowl since his own was currently at the office worker’s table.
By the time Xue Hua noticed, Xue Shaoheng had already, with the help of three other adults, transferred the hodgepodge chicken into his own bowl.
“Shaoheng, your sister is just talking to Yiting’s mother. If you want to eat something, just tell your sister, and she’ll help you,” Xue Hua said.
Xue Shaoheng pointed to the chopped chili fish head.
Xue Hua added a piece of fish meat to his bowl.
Xue Shaoheng continued to point at the chopped chili fish head.
Xue Hua gave him another piece of fish.
Xue Shaoheng’s finger remained fixed on the chopped chili fish head.
Xue Hua hesitated for a moment and picked up the last piece of fish for him, saying, “This chopped chili fish head is too spicy. You can’t handle it.”
Seeing that Xue Hua wasn’t going to give him any more, Xue Shaoheng took his bowl and ran off.
Xue Hua: ??
Xue Shaoheng, bowl in hand, ran up to a table with four young men who looked to be students, possibly roommates from a dormitory.
“San, I think you should just muster up the courage to confess your feelings, hey, who is he?” one of them asked, pointing at Xue Shaoheng.
Xue Shaoheng silently moved his bowl in front of San.
“Shaoheng, how could you…” Xue Hua started, slightly irritated to see Xue Shaoheng offering dishes to others again.
“I’m so sorry, my younger brother has run off again. This dish, well, just leave it here for now, sorry about that,” Xue Hua apologized to the four while pulling Xue Shaoheng back to their seat.
“Shaoheng, if you keep this up, I won’t bring you here to eat Sweet and Sour Yam tomorrow!” Xue Hua said sternly.
Xue Shaoheng looked hurt.
But he couldn’t express it and could only tug at Xue Hua’s clothes, hoping she wouldn’t be angry anymore.
Xue Hua resignedly took his hand and said, “Shaoheng, you can’t do this anymore.”
“This can be a bother to others.”
“This …” San, suddenly presented with a bowl of food by Xue Shaoheng, was somewhat befuddled.
“That guy probably has some intellectual disabilities. I thought I saw him running around with a bowl earlier,” one of his tablemates said.
“It’s fine, just leave it here. San, you just move the bowl aside,” another person chimed in, “Back to the matter at hand, San, you really ought to muster the courage to confess. Otherwise, you won’t even have a place to cry when you regret it later.”
The group didn’t dwell on this interruption and, after San moved the bowl aside, they continued with their previous discussion.