Chapter 89: Chapter 89: Scared of Being Alone

Jiang Liu poured out the secret-recipe soy sauce and ground a few dozen grams of wasabi on a wooden board.

Following his memory, he skillfully sliced the tuna meat along its grain into perfectly sized sashimi pieces.

He cut five slices from each part of the fish, ensuring every piece was identical in size and thickness.

Jiang Liu found a white plate, covered it with some crushed ice, and laid two vibrant green lettuce leaves on top before arranging the sashimi.

He arranged them in a triangular "品" shape, placed ten grams of ground wasabi in the center, and added a small dish of thick, dark, aged soy sauce.

A plate of wild bluefin tuna sashimi was complete!

It looked simple, but it was far from it.

Just the plating required skill. The sashimi was stacked aesthetically: otoro (fatty tuna) on top, chutoro (medium-fatty tuna) on the bottom left, and akami (lean tuna) on the bottom right.

"First, I’ll try the fattiest part, the otoro."

Jiang Liu licked his lips, picked up a bit of wasabi with his chopsticks, and placed it on a piece of otoro.

Then he dipped it in soy sauce and put it in his mouth.

The first sensation was the cool texture of the fish.

Jiang Liu closed his eyes, savoring the taste.

The flavor was incredible!

It was rich in oil, with a succulent texture that melted in his mouth, carrying a hint of creaminess.

Paired with the wasabi and soy sauce, the taste was absolutely heavenly.

To put it simply, it was the Rolls-Royce of food!

He tried the chutoro next. The texture was smooth and tender. This one was more balanced—not too fatty, not too lean, a perfect combination.

The akami was very tender, with a fine texture and the unique, slightly acidic flavor characteristic of wild tuna.

Next came pricing and naming the dish.

Jiang Liu took out a calculator and started crunching the numbers.

’A standard platter of bluefin tuna sashimi would have one hundred grams each of otoro, chutoro, and akami.’

’The wasabi would be twenty grams, costing about two yuan.’

Jiang Liu ignored the cost of the soy sauce.

This meant that a cost of around 1,100 yuan could produce five platters of this tuna dish.

Jiang Liu frowned as he slowly made a decision:

’According to my original plan, the buns and juice are for attracting customers. If I introduce a high-end dish, it’s meant to be a high-priced item for making big money...’

Jiang Liu did a quick search online.

A portion of regular tuna like his would go for a few hundred yuan.

As for bluefin, the prices were all over the place, so it was hard for him to use them as a reference.

But the one thing he could be sure of was that wild bluefin tuna was very rare.

Jiang Liu asked the[Gourmet Album].

"Hello, Gourmet Album. What’s a good price for the tuna?"

...It didn’t answer him.

"In that case... I’ll price it at 1,800 per platter!"

Jiang Liu made up his mind.

He would test it out first. With the buns and juice supporting him, he wasn’t short on money.

Since the wild tuna was his high-end offering, the price couldn’t be low.

If it didn’t sell, he could always lower the price later. In any case, his product was top-quality; he wasn’t worried it wouldn’t sell.

「Just then.」

Tongtong called out for her daddy from the room.

Jiang Liu hurried into the room and asked,

"What’s wrong, Tongtong?"

"Daddy, I gotta pee-pee."

Jiang Liu’s mouth twitched. "Then go pee. How old are you?"

Tongtong whined and kicked her legs. "Tongtong is a little baby who’s one year and forty months old! Daddy, hurry up and carry me!"

"You’re really something."

Jiang Liu had no choice but to carry his daughter to the toilet.

Who knew that the little rascal would fall asleep mid-pee.

Jiang Liu was exasperated.

He put Tongtong back in bed.

Jiang Liu sent a message to the wholesaler he’d added two days ago, telling him he’d come by the shop tomorrow morning to pick up a hundred white porcelain plates and stainless steel knives and forks—all of the best quality.

As for ice, Jiang Liu figured he could just freeze some mountain spring water and crush it himself.

"Phew, time for bed!"

Jiang Liu was in a pretty good mood.

Back when he was married, at a time like this, he’d still have to ’hand in his homework’ and cook dinner.

But now things were different.

He could do whatever he wanted.

And there was no one nagging him.

Tongtong, of course, wouldn’t argue with him.

Before he knew it, Jiang Liu was sound asleep.

「Around three in the morning.」

Jiang Liu tossed and turned, his body burning up.

"Daddy, what’s wrong?"

Tongtong, who was using Jiang Liu’s arm as a pillow, opened her eyes and reached out to touch his forehead.

"Ah, Daddy, you’re so hot! Are you sicky-sick?"

Jiang Liu groggily waved his hand. "I’m fine."

Overcome with thirst, he got up, took some juice from the fridge, and chugged a whole liter.

After finishing the juice, Jiang Liu returned to the bedroom. He felt that his body had undergone some kind of change.

Walking felt effortless.

He went back and slept for another hour.

The alarm clock rang.

Tongtong groggily sat up and immediately gave the sleepy Jiang Liu a push.

"Daddy, are you still alive?"

Her little face was filled with worry.

’Holy crap,’ Jiang Liu thought, jolting wide awake and sitting bolt upright.

Tongtong breathed a sigh of relief and quickly felt his forehead again.

"Huh? Daddy, you’re not hot anymore."

"Your daddy’s gone cold," Jiang Liu grumbled.

The two of them, in perfect sync, slipped on their slippers and went to brush their teeth and wash their faces.

He helped Tongtong get dressed.

Jiang Liu took out all the ingredients and got them organized.

He carried the drowsy Tongtong down to the underground garage.

Jiang Liu wanted Tongtong to go back to sleep for a bit, but the little one insisted on clinging to him.

He didn’t want to press the issue.

If his daughter wanted to come, he’d let her.

He placed Tongtong in her car seat, and she fell asleep just as he finished buckling her seatbelt.

Jiang Liu locked the car and went back up to get the ingredients.

There were five basins of filling, covered in plastic wrap and refrigerated. They had been in the fridge for less than eight hours, so they were still very fresh.

Then there were two large barrels of drinks sealed with plastic wrap, fifteen kilograms of tuna meat and two and a half kilograms of wasabi, both wrapped in plastic, and a few bottles of soy sauce.

It took him eight minutes to get everything done.

Jiang Liu was surprised. Normally, this much physical labor, running up and down, would have left him panting.

But today, it felt unusually easy, almost trivial.

’Could it be related to my body heating up this morning?’

Jiang Liu suddenly recalled that the Gourmet Album had flashed a "constitution reward" for a moment last night.

He hadn’t gotten a clear look at it.

But it was probably a good thing, so Jiang Liu relaxed.

He started the electric car.

He took out his phone and glanced at the time.

There were several unread WeChat messages.

Jun Qingmeng: "Are you awake yet?"

Yang Yixue: "I sent you a message, didn’t you see it???"

Yang Yixue: "I had a few drinks with my blind date last night. I have a good impression of him, but we haven’t started dating yet. What are your thoughts?"

Yang Yixue: "My stomach feels uncomfortable. How do you make that stomach-warming soup you used to cook for me?"

Yang Yixue: "Can you just answer me?!"

Jiang Liu didn’t reply to any of them.

He casually tossed his phone onto the wireless charging pad.

’Having a car is great.’

’I can charge my phone anytime without being at home or at the shop.’

Soon, he arrived at the wet market.

Jiang Liu still needed to buy some fennel.

He couldn’t buy this from the Gourmet Album; he had to get it from the market.

But this was also good. Popping over to the market now and then would keep people from getting suspicious.

No one would dig too deep into his business.

Jiang Liu whispered to the sleeping Tongtong,

"Tongtong, how about you sleep in the car? Daddy’s just going to buy some vegetables, I’ll be right back."

Tongtong woke up instantly.

"No! You have to take Tongtong with you! I’m scared to be alone."

"I’ll lock the car. It’ll be fine."

There was no risk of carbon monoxide poisoning in an electric car. As long as Jiang Liu left a window cracked and took the key, it would be perfectly safe.

"I wanna go with you. Carry me."

Tongtong kept her eyes closed and held out her arms.

"Alright then, we’ll go together."

Jiang Liu got out of the car and lifted Tongtong from the passenger seat.

She snuggled into Jiang Liu’s arms and went right back to sleep.