Chapter 101 - 98: You Have an Act in the Circus Tonight

Chapter 101: Chapter 98: You Have an Act in the Circus Tonight

Trimming the bougainvillea didn’t take up much time. Chen Jingle focused more of his attention on cooking.

For dinner, he prepared clear-stewed Lion’s Head meatballs with cordyceps flowers. This was a Huaiyang dish that severely tested a chef’s fundamental skills, one often served at state banquets. The key lay in highlighting the rich aroma of the meat and the pure umami of the broth. When eating it, one should clearly feel the smooth, tender, and bouncy texture of the meat, as well as the refreshing crispness of the water chestnuts.

Making Lion’s Head meatballs naturally required fresh water chestnuts. Fortunately, they were available at the supermarket.

Although clear-stewed Lion’s Head meatballs might not look like much on the surface—just massive meatballs—the preparation process was actually quite cumbersome. It was difficult for the average person to make at home, so it was usually only found in restaurants or hotels. This was a classic regional banquet dish, a true centerpiece.

It was just like the pickled mustard greens with braised pork belly made in the Lingnan Region. The uninitiated might think it was just sliced pork belly stewed in a pot, but it really wasn’t. The process was incredibly complex. The steps for braised pork belly were intricate, and the same went for Lion’s Head meatballs. Making even a single mistake would drastically alter the flavor.

Take the broth, for example. If ingredients were limited, one could use the original meat-stewing broth and cover it with some cabbage. If well-equipped, one would add a carefully simmered clear chicken broth, followed by cordyceps flowers, to stew together. The latter elevated the flavor to an entirely different level. Ultimately, you made whatever your resources allowed.

Chen Jingle was making the version with chicken broth and cordyceps flowers, so the taste would certainly be exceptional.

The chicken broth he simmered didn’t use a whole or half chicken. Instead, he minced a piece of chicken breast into a paste to absorb the impurities and clarify the broth. This was a rather high-end and rapid method of making premium stock. The minced chicken paste could be scooped out afterward and used to feed the tiger cub.

Even though it was only a two-person portion, he made more than two meatballs. If they were going to eat, they might as well eat to their hearts’ content.

"Since I’m already making it, I might as well make more. It’s not like I can’t afford it," Chen Jingle mused. He was a pure carnivore who loved taking massive bites of meat.

This dish was quite time-consuming and labor-intensive, but luckily, he had all the steps memorized by heart, so he didn’t find it difficult. A beginner might encounter many problems, such as failing to grasp the proper ratio of meat to water chestnuts or failing to control the heat, requiring a lot of time and repeated practice. However, if an average person practiced for a week, they could guarantee a decent standard that was perfectly fine for family gatherings.

Chen Jingle held himself to a high standard, hoping to create Lion’s Head meatballs with the ultimate texture. The benchmark was that they should be stewed until completely tender in the pot without falling apart. Upon entering the mouth, a gentle press of the tongue should make the meat melt away, revealing the crisp and fragrant water chestnuts mixed within.

Next was the dessert he had promised Chen Qiyun at noon, which he couldn’t just throw together carelessly.

"I’ll have to prepare this properly," he told himself. Although Chen Qiyun sometimes ate like a little piglet, she actually had a very picky palate. If it didn’t taste good, she would definitely complain.

Therefore, Chen Jingle decided to make a snow pear soup with silver ear mushrooms and red dates. This was a dessert highly suitable for the elderly and children during the change of seasons.

Even though the Lingnan Region was still quite hot at the moment, autumn had already arrived. The transition between seasons brought a noticeable shift from the humid heat of summer to a much drier climate. At times like this, a bowl of pear soup to moisten the lungs was an excellent choice.

He still had plenty of silver ear mushrooms, red dates, and lily bulbs left over from making sweet soups before, all purchased from a certified pharmacy. The quality of ingredients sold in the outdoor markets was simply absurd—not the prices, but the quality. Sulfur-fumigated goji berries were standard practice there. Some vendors even sold outright fakes. If an ordinary person lacked a discerning eye, they could easily be scammed.

These days, the profit margins on fake medicinal herbs were more exaggerated than drug trafficking. For example, many unscrupulous merchants online loved to pass off cassava as angelica root. They were pure scum.

The most important ingredient was the snow pear. Chen Jingle hadn’t found the specific variety he wanted at the supermarket, ultimately tracking it down at the wholesale fruit market. The quality of the pear directly impacted the dessert’s overall quality. Some pears looked like snow pears but tasted awful—grainy, dry, and bland. Chen Jingle didn’t know any better in the past and had been fooled several times, leaving him full of resentment.

The pears he bought this time were large and sweet. He bought quite a few; aside from the portion used for the dessert, the rest could be eaten as after-dinner fruit. Pears weren’t like apples, so he didn’t have to worry about them rotting in the fridge.

Obsessed with the thought of good food, Chen Qiyun rushed to Chen Jingle’s home the moment classes ended.

"What are we having tonight?" she couldn’t help but ask the moment she arrived, panting heavily.

Chen Jingle had already finished cooking and brought the food to the table. "Clear-stewed Lion’s Head meatballs with cordyceps flowers, and snow pear soup stewed with silver ear mushrooms and red dates."

Chen Qiyun was shocked. "How dare you eat lions? Aren’t you afraid of getting arrested?!"

Chen Jingle rolled his eyes at her. "Claypot ’boy’ rice doesn’t actually involve cooking little boys, so why would Lion’s Head meatballs be made of real lions? They’re just pork meatballs. It’s just a fancy name."

"Oh, oh." Chen Qiyun finally understood. She peered into the pot and looked puzzled. "These don’t look like they have anything to do with lion heads, either!"

"Eat it or don’t!"

"I’ll eat it, of course I’ll eat it!" Chen Qiyun hurriedly went to wash her hands. "Can I drink the sweet soup first?"

Chen Jingle decisively refused. "No, eat the main course first! If you drink the sweet soup now, it will ruin the taste of the food."

"Oh..." Chen Qiyun reluctantly sat down to eat the food first.

To her surprise, the Lion’s Head meatballs actually tasted fantastic. Even though they were just meatballs, they were leagues better than the beef balls, beef tendon balls, or juicy beef balls sold outside. And the broth was incredibly rich in umami!

She was someone who disliked drinking broth at home. The only exceptions were corn and pork rib soup or lotus root and pork rib soup. However, she found the broth of this Lion’s Head to be quite good—extremely good, in fact. It was delicious!

After eating two of the massive meatballs, she focused entirely on drinking the broth.

Chen Jingle had to remind her, "Don’t drink too much, or I’m afraid you won’t have room for the sweet soup later."

Right! There was still the sweet soup! She had almost forgotten.

Seeing that her stomach was almost full, Chen Qiyun quickly went to serve herself a bowl. Although the texture of the snow pear was a bit strange after being stewed, she loved the texture of the silver ear mushrooms, and the soup itself was wonderfully sweet. It was truly excellent.

Unable to hold back, she slurped down two more large bowls with a few loud GULPS. Unsurprisingly, she was overstuffed again.

She frowned slightly at the thought of having to eat another meal when she went home later.

"I’ll just eat later!" she decided immediately.

She would finish her homework at Chen Jingle’s place first, then go back, pick at whatever was served, and watch TV. After taking a shower, she could just read a book. Such a schedule was perfect!

Chen Jingle felt quite satisfied when he saw her take out her extracurricular exercises. It seemed that she had developed good study habits. The key now was for her to persist.

Meanwhile.

Zhong Qing, who had just come out of the library, went to the cafeteria to eat first, then bought some food for her roommates. Since there were no classes in the afternoon, they were all holed up in the dorm room, refusing to go out. By the time senior year rolled around, everyone—except for those preparing for graduate school exams or doing internships—avoided leaving the dorms as much as possible.

Zhong Qing, who went to the library every day, had become everyone’s lifeline.

One portion of braised chicken with rice, one river snail rice noodle soup, one crossing-the-bridge rice noodle soup, two cups of milk tea, and one cup of lemonade. Zhong Qing felt like she owed them in a past life.

"I’m back." Pushing open the dorm room door and feeling the cool blast of the air conditioner, she finally let out a long breath of relief.

Li Yuting pounced over first to help carry the food. "Mommy Qingqing, I love you!"

"Knock it off!"

"Wow, Qingqing, you’re finally back." Ye Zixing and Yang Qiuyun quickly climbed down from their beds, ready to eat dinner.

"Let’s get one thing straight. You are not allowed to eat the river snail rice noodles in the room!" Zhong Qing frowned.

"Agreed!"

"Agreed!"

"I protest!"

"Protest invalid!"

And so, Li Yuting was banished to the balcony. However, the sliding door was left open, so it wasn’t too hot out there.

After finishing their meals and drinking their milk tea, the girls finally felt like they had come back to life.

Li Yuting, who was sucking on her milk tea, suddenly leaned over. "Hey, Qingqing!"

"Yeah?" Zhong Qing looked at her, confused.

"How are things going with your blind date?"

"Blind date?" Zhong Qing didn’t react immediately. Her brain took two seconds to process before she realized. Chen Jingle? She replied blankly, "Pretty good. We’ve successfully developed a teacher-student relationship."

Yes, that was right. And she was the student.

At first, Chen Jingle had been asking her various questions about her political science major, but gradually, she became the one asking him for advice. Chen Jingle was a genuinely fast learner!

Zhong Qing even suspected that he had swallowed entire books and simply digested them. How else could he have finished reading all the ideological and political course materials, as well as many extracurricular books, so quickly? He was even touching upon content meant for the graduate school level. So now, she had become the one asking him questions.

"Huh?" Li Yuting froze. "No, what’s wrong with you? The guy went on a blind date with you. What the hell is a teacher-student relationship? Or is this some kind of special roleplay?"

"Get lost." Zhong Qing rolled her eyes. "It’s just that we chat less about daily life and more about professional knowledge. Between a man and the grad school entrance exams, I have to succeed in at least one, right?"

Li Yuting’s eyes widened. "Looking at it now, it seems like the chances of you passing the exam are much higher."

"Mhm."

"Poor Qingqing." Li Yuting first shook her head, then added with mock heartache, "You were given a chance, but you proved useless!"

Zhong Qing only wanted to roll her eyes at her. "If you’re so capable, you go for it!"

"In my opinion, you should just make a direct move on him," Yang Qiuyun egged her on.

Zhong Qing curled her lips. "I think you’re just dying to see me headline the circus tonight."

"How will you know if you don’t try?"

"What if I really do end up as a clown?"

"At least it would give everyone a good laugh."

"Ugh, no thanks!"