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After seeing off her good friend, Feng Ruoruo and her father pushed her grandfather together, and then holding her mother's hand, they slowly walked back along the old street.
Being cared for by her parents like this, the little girl did not forget to turn her head to look at her grandmother from time to time and say a few words to her grandmother. Only when they talked and laughed along the way did Feng Ruoruo feel very satisfied.
Back at Su Ji, when Dad opened the door, Feng Ruoruo was the first to rush in and helped hold the door shut.
This would make it more convenient, so Dad pushed Grandpa's wheelchair into the door.
As Su Jinrong was pushed into the door, he looked at his granddaughter helping to hold the door and said with a smile, "Thank you Ruoruo."
Feng Ruoruo responded with a smile: "Grandpa, you're welcome."
When her father pushed her grandfather into the door, the little girl was still holding the door, shouting to her grandmother and mother outside: "Grandma, Mom, hurry up too, or Ruoruo won't be able to hold the door."
Lu Cuiling smiled and agreed: "Okay, okay, grandma is here."
Su Ruoxi pretended to be unhappy: "What's the matter? Can't you help mom open the door?"
Feng Ruoruo was stunned for a moment, but soon realized that her mother did it on purpose, and said with a smile: "No, Mom, let's go in quickly. We still need to take a shower. We can only go to bed after we smell good."
The daughter deliberately spoke in a coquettish tone, which immediately made her mother laugh.
Su Ruoxi hurried in and reached out to gently pinch her daughter's face: "You little thing, you are really getting better at talking now."
After everyone entered the door, Feng Ruoruo finally let go of the hand holding the door, and said with a hard look on her face: "Oh, I'm really tired."
The little girl acted like she was working hard, and the whole family couldn't help laughing.
In the following time, grandma and mom gave Feng Ruoruo a bath.
Dad was giving grandpa a bath and a wash.
After letting his father-in-law lie down on the bed, Feng Yifan sat beside the bed and talked to his father-in-law seriously about Su Lanxin.
"Dad, you don't have to tell Aunt about the recipe. Telling her will only arouse her fighting spirit. Have you noticed that Aunt is not in a good state?"
Su Jinrong looked at his son-in-law with a somewhat surprised expression: "Oh? You also noticed that Su Lanxin is not in good condition?"
Feng Yifan didn't see it, but made a judgment based on some memories from his previous life.
He could imagine that Su Lanxin's mental state might be bad now and there might be problems, which is why she had mental problems later.
Feng Yifan thought for a moment and said, "Although I don't have much contact with my aunt, judging from her extreme mood swings, I think she may have some mental problems."
Su Jinrong also sighed helplessly: "Yes, I can see that she seems to be unable to control her emotions."
Although he has not had contact with Su Lanxin for many years, Su Jinrong, as her biological brother, still knows his sister better.
Su Lanxin was a very strong-willed girl since she was young. When she was little, she would not eat for a whole day and stay in her room to think because she did not get first place in the class on the exam.
She won't go out to eat by herself until she figures it out.
Later, because of the issue of learning cooking, she had direct arguments with her father more than once.
As for the matter of stealing skills, Su Jinrong was actually very clear about it. Her father knew about it at that time, but he pretended not to know and let her learn secretly from her senior brothers, or even from Su Jinrong.
Feng Yifan asked curiously, "Dad, what did you and aunt compete in back then?"
Su Jinrong did not hide it and said directly: "We will compare three things: knife skills, sugar frying, and one dish."
These three things may sound simple, but among them, knife skills and frying sugar are absolutely the basics, and they are the things that test a chef's basic skills the most.
Needless to say, knife skills are important. Any cook who can't even do basic knife skills is really not qualified to be called a chef.
The second thing is to stir-fry sugar, that is, stir-fry sugar color. This is also something that tests basic skills.
Many people feel that the color of the dishes they make when braising or stewing at home is not as good as that of the dishes in restaurants.
And no matter whether you use dark soy sauce or something else to color it, it always seems to be lacking something.
In fact, a key issue here lies in the stir-frying of sugar color.
People who don’t know much about it may think that the bright red color in braised dishes is brought by soy sauce or other colored seasonings, but in fact, the red in braised dishes is often brought by fried sugar.
There are generally three types of fried sugar color: fried in water, fried in oil, and a mixture of water and oil.
Moreover, different sugars need to be fried in different ways, and the uses of the fried sugar colors will also be different.
The three frying methods, as well as the frying methods of different types of sugar, are all extremely challenging for the chef's skills.
For example, during the frying process, the control of oil temperature, the ratio of oil and sugar, and the control of heat.
Each step is a test of one's ability. Whether one can finally fry out the right sugar color while not overfrying the sugar, causing the pan to become burnt or leaving a bitter taste, these are the difficulties in frying sugar color.
Su Jinrong talked about the competition that year, sighed and said: "In fact, your aunt lost at the second fried candy."
Then, through his father-in-law's narration, Feng Yifan discovered that his aunt really had no regrets about losing back then.
You know, being a chef is often a test of one's patience, especially during the cooking process. The most taboo is to be impatient and anxious. One must be able to calm down and endure loneliness in order to cook well.
Stir-frying sugar color is a task that tests a lot of patience. You have to keep an eye on the process of sugar and water or oil blending together, and always pay attention to the changes in sugar color in the pot.
But at that time, Su Lanxin was eager to challenge herself and was a little impatient, so she actually lost the sugar-cooking competition.
As for the third dish, according to my grandfather’s rule, the dishes cooked by my father-in-law and aunt must use their respective fried sugar color.
So my aunt failed in the second step, and naturally she was destined to lose to my father-in-law in the third step.
The father-in-law sighed when he said this: "In fact, Su Lanxin is indeed very talented. When she made a mistake while frying sugar, she came up with a way to make up for the failure while cooking."
I heard my father-in-law talk about what happened back then, and how my aunt made up for the failure of making sugar color.
Feng Yifan had to admit that his aunt was indeed very talented back then, and it was amazing that she was able to make up for the failure in sugar speculation.
Unfortunately, failure was inevitable. Although Su Lanxin tried her best to make up for it, she was still slightly inferior to Su Jinrong.
Feng Yifan couldn't help but feel strange when he heard this: "Since Auntie lost at the beginning, why is she so unconvinced now? She should not be qualified to come back and ask for the old plaque again."
Su Jinrong sighed and said, "Because your grandfather made a promise that if you figure it out, you can come back to Su Ji."
When Feng Yifan heard this, he was stunned at first, and felt very uncomfortable about the promise made to his wife's grandfather.
But on second thought, it seemed that grandpa didn't mean to let my aunt come back to snatch the old plaque.
After thinking for a while, Feng Yifan figured it out. He looked at his father-in-law and asked, "Grandpa, do you mean that you hope that Auntie can come back? Can she take on the responsibility of Su Ji with you and continue to pass on Su Ji?"
Su Jinrong sighed helplessly: "Yes, but..."
Feng Yifan naturally understood his father-in-law's helplessness, and also understood that his grandfather had good intentions, but was always misunderstood by his aunt.
After thinking for a moment, Feng Yifan said seriously: "Dad, I don't know what you think, maybe in your opinion, aunt is always your sister, so you can forgive her for what she did.
But Dad, I still want to say that I don’t want to have too much interaction with her, I hope our family can be simpler.”
Su Jinrong looked at his son-in-law with some surprise. He didn't expect his son-in-law to say such a thing.
Feng Yifan continued to face his father-in-law's gaze, "Dad, I admit that I was also competitive in the past, and I always wanted to become famous and have a family. I even thought about becoming a master like grandpa.
But after I went abroad for five years, I experienced those troubles and witnessed many successes.
Fame and glory are not what I want. I just want our family to be happy together.
We just run our small restaurant and use our dishes to convey our happiness and joy to every diner.
I think that’s enough.”
Su Jinrong stared at his son-in-law's eyes for a long time. He saw determination in his son-in-law's eyes and understood that these words were indeed what his son-in-law really thought.
Su Jinrong then asked: "So, you don't want to compete anymore?"
Feng Yifan shook his head and said, "If they insist on competing, I will of course accompany them. It's not to win them, but to protect the old plaque of Su Ji and prove to them that we are worthy of the Su Ji brand."
Su Jinrong nodded, agreeing with his son-in-law's decision.
Feng Yifan continued, "Dad, don't worry. I won't lose to my aunt and the others. Su Ji will definitely be ours. I will protect this ancestral legacy for you."
Su Jinrong thought for a moment and asked, "After you hold on, how are you going to run it?"
When his father-in-law asked about the future operation, Feng Yifan smiled and said, "Just as I said before, Su Ji will maintain the private kitchen restaurant model. In the future, I may launch full reservations in the evening to ensure the quality of our Su Ji."
Su Jinrong was a little surprised: "All reservations?"
Feng Yifan immediately explained: "Dad, full reservations are not going to increase the price. We only accept a fixed number of tables of guests every day. You need to make a reservation in advance to dine in."
Su Jinrong nodded. He was not unfamiliar with this model.
Because my grandfather attended the state banquet that year and the reputation of Su Ji spread out, there was a period of time when many customers came to the restaurant because of its reputation. My grandfather also introduced this reservation and ordering model.
The reservation system may not be suitable for some large hotels, but it is very suitable for a small restaurant like Su Ji.
Because of the reservation and ordering system, we can decide the purchase amount based on the number of seats occupant each day, thus saving a lot on purchases.
Of course, this is Feng Yifan’s future idea, and he probably won’t do this in the short term.
Su Jinrong was also more accepting of his son-in-law's future plan. After thinking for a while, he said, "Soon, the master uncle will come again. You have to think clearly whether you should accept the challenge and stick to your own plan."
Feng Yifan had already thought about the fact that Mr. Zhuang would come again.
After all, after being provoked by her father-in-law, Su Lanxin will definitely find a way to let Feng Yifan compete with them. The best way is naturally to let old man Zhuang Daozhong come forward.
Hearing his father-in-law asking him to stick to his plan, Feng Yifan nodded seriously: "Dad, don't worry, I will stick to my principles."
Su Jinrong is still very confident in his son-in-law. He nodded and let him go back to sleep.
Feng Yifan said goodbye to his father-in-law, turned off the light and door in his room, and then returned to his room.
Little Feng Ruoruo played a lot today and was very tired. He went to bed early with his grandmother and did not stay in his parents' room to disturb their world of two.
After Feng Yifan came in and took a shower, he went to bed and held his wife in his arms.
Su Ruoxi leaned on her husband's chest and said softly with some worry, "Dad is really a fool. He has to go and provoke Aunt. If Aunt is ruthless when she returns, how are we going to deal with it?"
Hearing his wife's concerns, Feng Yifan hugged her and comforted her: "Don't worry, your husband is here and will not let your aunt succeed."
Su Ruoxi was still a little worried: "Do you think my aunt would have some extraordinary means?"
Feng Yifan shook his head and said, "That shouldn't happen. If Auntie really wanted to use some means, she would have used it long ago. Don't you realize that Auntie and Dad are actually very similar?"
Su Ruoxi asked curiously, "How are they similar?"
Feng Yifan continued, "Think about it, aren't aunt and dad equally stubborn? And they both stick to their principles and want to get the old plaque in an upright manner."
Su Ruoxi curled her lips and said, "Auntie, is that what you call upright? When she first came to our house, she almost killed Dad..."
Speaking of this, recalling what happened that day, Su Ruoxi was still a little excited.
Feng Yifan hugged his wife tightly and comforted her softly: "Don't get excited. In fact, if you think about it carefully, it was indeed your aunt who was wrong about what happened that day, but she also made amends afterwards and sent Dad to the hospital for treatment in time."
When Su Ruoxi heard this, she recalled that after her father was admitted to the hospital that day, her aunt was indeed very anxious and went to look for the dean and the attending physician.
Moreover, all the expenses for Su Jinrong's treatment in the hospital were paid by his aunt, who also contacted several domestic experts.
From Su Lanxin's performance that day, it was not difficult to see that she did not want Su Jinrong to have a stroke.
Overall, Su Lanxin still hopes to win back the old plaque in an honest manner rather than trying to seize it by any means.
Feng Yifan finally comforted his wife: "Don't worry, no matter what means my aunt uses, I will definitely protect Su Ji. I will not let the disputes outside affect our warm little home."
After receiving such a promise from her husband, Su Ruoxi finally felt at ease. Now she was willing to believe her husband and understood that he was sincere.
The couple slept in each other's arms, enjoying this warm night together.