Love, Chef. - A Chen Qing Ling/Modaozushi Fanfic

Chapter 12

Wei Wuxian

Past:-

After Lan Wangji told me off that day, I kept my distance from him. After weeks of me just walking past Lan Wangji, Jiang Cheng started to notice it.

"Hey, what happened between you and Lan Wangji?" He asked me one day at home.

"Not much. He kinda told me off." I said.

I was kinda disappointed and it has been years since someone told me off. The unpleasant feeling just came back when he said he didn't wanna be involved with me.

"He seems to be the unfriendly kind, so don't go around making trouble for him." Jiang Cheng said.

I pulled myself together and concentrated on the meat in front of me.

"Jiang Cheng, you know you're no fun right?" I said, pulling suibian out of its case.

"Whatever, you ass." He said with a smirk on his face.

We were incharge of dinner tonight and we worked on making biang biang noodles and rou jia mo (pork burger) since it had been a while. I wiped suibian with a cloth before coming to my pork, it was a juicy and tender pork. Just the right amount of marbelling on the meat of fat and lean meat, I started to cut the pork as Jiang Cheng took care of noodles. Since he made noodles from the scratch, it gave me time to make the perfect buns for the rou jia mo. I cut the pork in bite size first and then with my special chopping knife pair chenqing to mine the meat to its finest. In order to get fine cuts both of my hands had to be co-ordinated and the slicing should be followed by left-right.

I started the fire and placed the wok over the stove, I drizzled oil and let it come to a boil and throw some fat in there to flavour the oil further.  While the fat did it's magic, I chopped the scallions and set them aside. Since I was frying the meat instead of braising it, I needed to work fast. I threw all the spicies and let it cook for a minute before throwing the pork and letting it cook for 4-5 minutes. The buns were done so all that was left was assembly, I cut the buns in half and filled it with pork to the brim.

I looked over to Jiang Cheng's side carefully plating the noodles with croutons and vegetables.  After 40 minutes we were finally done with our dishes, so I called on Mr. Lin.

"Mr. Lin, can you please set the table?" I asked politely.

"Yes, young master Wei." He said as he set the table.

I plated my rou jia mo and set it in a tray.

"You done bro?" Jiang Cheng said.

"Yeah."

We brought the dishes to the table and shijie helped us serve. We sat down and ate quietly, I felt kinda out of it today. Lan Wangji got the better of me but I should have atleast said something instead of a pathetic sorry?! I let out a sigh.

"Wei Ying, no sighing on the dinner table!" Maa said.

"Sorry maa, I didn't mean to." I said, not looking up at her.

It's as if she read my mind, her next words came to me as a surprise.

"Wei Ying, you'll be coming to the restaurant with me tomorrow. We are short on staff." She said.

My eyes gleamed up at this offer, a day off from the stuffy Lans? Heck yeah!

"Wait a minute mom! Why does he only gets to go?!" Jiang Cheng said.

"What, you jealous bro?" I said, snickering.

"Both of you, calm down. Stop pulling a-cheng's leg, a-xian." Shijie said.

Suddenly, the mood was light. I was back to my happy self.

Present:-

I woke up but it was still early, around 4 in the morning. It has been a while since I dreamt of the past, I guess everything that has happened in past few days have taken a toll on me. I sat up for a few minutes before leaving my bed, I fetched for my track suit and threw them on.

The air was still cool outside, with my headphones in and a calm music playing I started to jog. I ran and ran until I was out of breath, when I stopped, I was in the park where Jiang Cheng, Shijie and I used to play as little kids. Maa was a strict mother but she was also very loving, her bitterness towards me came because dad, apparently, was in love with my birth mother but she was in love with my birth father. My birth father and my adoptive father were best friends, but my birth father came from a family of butchers and Jiang Cheng's father came from a respectable family. Jiang Cheng's father was forced to marry Madam Yu, while she was in love with him, Jiang Cheng's father could never love her like he loved my birth mother.

I remember whenever maa used to bring us to this park, she would sit in a bench and zone out with a melancholic expression on her face. Snapping back to present, I see the same bench maa used to sit on. I walk up to it and sit there, the sunrise could be seen clearly from this place. There's building around the park but since it was a huge park and there was no obstruction of buildings, one could see the azure skies clearly from here, like I was, right now.

I guess, I do understand what maa felt.