Chapter 1027: Chapter 425: A Surprise from Shen Jiayue! Lin Xu: Thanks, I Really Was Surprised!

Going downstairs, Lin Xu was about to hold Dundun for the lottery draw.

He only then realized the little guy wasn’t lying on the service desk as usual, but had crawled into his little house, currently sleeping soundly on his back with his belly up, the small blanket not properly covered.

"Why is he sleeping in broad daylight?"

Shu Yun said:

"During lunch, Mr. Chen was here, and Dundun was afraid of being bullied by him, so he snuck into his little house and never came out. Only after Mr. Chen left did we find out he was already asleep inside."

Lin Xu reached in and gently touched the little guy’s soft belly.

Dundun let out a small whimper, then used his paws to hold Lin Xu’s hand, rolled over, and continued sleeping.

Apparently, he wouldn’t come out if he hadn’t slept enough.

Lin Xu wanted to withdraw his hand, but Dundun was holding it cozily to sleep, so he figured he might as well take this opportunity to draw the lottery.

Let’s see how Dundun’s lottery skills are while he’s asleep.

"Draw the lottery!"

He silently thought, and the lottery draw interface appeared in his mind.

Following the system’s guidance, Lin Xu chose a triple draw with a higher chance of winning.

The dish technique is a one-pot approach, so he doesn’t need to keep drawing and disturb the child’s rest.

Soon after pressing the draw button, the lottery wheel slowly came to a stop, and the system’s prompt immediately appeared in his mind:

"Congratulations to the host for winning the Perfect Level lost recipes—Blessed Fish Stewed Duck (from the book ’Suiyuan Shidan’), Chicken Beak Soup (from the book ’The Golden Lotus’); and winning the Perfect Level cooking technique—Pot Roast."

This is it???????

Lin Xu was somewhat confused.

The Pot Roast technique is fine; using this technique, you can make Pot Roasted Elbow as part of the Jinan Three Elbows, as well as dishes like Pot Roasted Beef and Pot Roasted Mutton, which are big dishes suitable for winter.

And the Blessed Fish Stewed Duck isn’t bad either, as the so-called Blessed Fish is actually processed dried abalone.

Stewing duck with abalone is actually not lost, as many people tend to add some expensive ingredients like matsutake or abalone when stewing duck.

But the Blessed Fish Stewed Duck recorded in ’Suiyuan Shidan’ is different from the common market preparation nowadays.

Firstly, the method is not stewing but simmering, and it includes ingredients like ham, and most importantly, the soup must be clear and incomparably delicious.

This is something almost no one can achieve.

Even if they do, the recreated Blessed Fish Stewed Duck isn’t the taste and texture recorded by Yuan Mei.

Because while the book ’Suiyuan Shidan’ is still around, the Suiyuan cuisine has long been lost, and even if it’s encountered now, it doesn’t match the records in the book.

Lin Xu didn’t expect to get this dish in the draw, feeling it might surprise some cultural figures again.

The only surprise was winning the Chicken Beak Soup.

The origin of Chicken Beak Soup in ’The Golden Lotus’ is quite simple; after Ximen Qing’s death, the family declined, and Pan Jinlian’s former personal maid, Chun Mei, married the Garrison Commander, stepping up the social ladder.

Transformed into a dignitary’s Chun Mei, she inadvertently saw Sun Xue’e, the Ximen family’s former fourth wife and head chef, among refugees.

These were old foes. When Pan Jinlian first joined the Ximen family, she established her position by conspiring with Chun Mei, using Lotus Leaf Cake and Silver Shrimp Soup to stir up trouble between Ximen Qing and Sun Xue’e, leading to Sun Xue’e getting beaten.

Upon seeing Sun Xue’e again, Chun Mei still sought revenge, so she bought Sun Xue’e back home to cook and serve her.

All was peaceful, but not long after, Chun Mei’s former lover, Ximen Qing’s son-in-law, Chen Jingji, appeared, rekindling Chun Mei’s restless heart.

She wanted to rekindle her affair with Chen Jingji, yet feared Sun Xue’e informing the Garrison Commander, so she plotted to kill Sun Xue’e under some pretense.

And the pretense Chun Mei found was Chicken Beak Soup.

What she called Chicken Beak is not the chicken’s tail end as commonly understood, but the chicken wing tips.

Meager and tasteless, fine for braising or grilling, but it’s difficult to make soup with them.

Chun Mei made Sun Xue’e prepare this soup, originally just to give a hard time, much like Lu Tixia sitting at the butcher’s booth demanding Zhen Guanxi to chop ten pounds of minced meat—it was all just a pretext to make things difficult.

But winning this soup out of the blue left Lin Xu speechless:

"System, are you trying to make fun of me?"

How good could a soup made just for giving a hard time be?

Relatively speaking, Lin Xu still longed for the dish called the finest in ’Dream of the Red Chamber’: Braised Eggplant.

Who knows what kind of flavor it has to make Grandma Liu praise it so highly.

Lost in thought, a flood of experience surged into his mind.

After absorbing everything, Lin Xu once again had a perplexed expression.

Because the Chicken Beak Soup he just disdained turned out to be quite an excellent dish.

After blanching and deboning chicken wings, cutting them into thin strips, and adding sour bamboo shoots, pepper powder, and other ingredients and seasonings, it turned into a tangy and spicy soup that’s rich in color, aroma, and flavor.

Turns out I was narrow-minded!

He bent over to look at the sleeping Dundun in the little house and whispered:

"Good boy, I’ll make you some bullfrog to eat today."

As soon as he finished speaking, Dundun, still in his dreams, hugged Lin Xu’s hand and started licking it with his scarlet little tongue.

What the...

Did you mistake my hand for a bullfrog?

Gently withdrawing his hand, Lin Xu took a small dolphin pillow Shu Yun bought and stuffed it in, letting Dundun continue hugging it to sleep.

Back upstairs, he washed his hands and saw Shen Jiayue staring resentfully at the sweet-skinned duck and rabbit head in front of her without taking a bite.

"Why aren’t you eating?"

"I can’t eat anymore... Xu Bao, do you think it’ll still taste good when it cools down?"

Lin Xu laughed and said:

"I’ll heat it up for you, and if that’s not enough, we’ll just make it ourselves. It’s not difficult, as long as my Baobao wants to eat, it’s no problem at all."