Chapter 38: Chapter 38: The Dayan People Who Don’t Eat Pork Are Won Over

Du Xuan: "In that case, I’ll have an order of this Glistening Honey-Crisp Pork today! The name alone sounds delicious!"

Ming Lingyi hung up the wooden plaque. "Please wait a moment. It’ll be right out."

Three plaques now hung on the wall of Ming Lingyi’s shop.

As Ming Lingyi went into the kitchen, Mrs. Wei, Zhang Qi’s wife, arrived.

Today was the seventh of the month. After breakfast, Little Hu Zi had gone to his lessons, and Zhang Qi had gone to work. Left alone for lunch, Mrs. Wei decided to stop by Ming Lingyi’s shop to give her some business.

In truth, it wasn’t entirely fair to say she was only there to support Ming Lingyi’s business. That morning, Little Hu Zi had bought a pastry and a drink, but Mrs. Wei hadn’t paid it much mind, making breakfast for the family as she always did. However, when Little Hu Zi walked through the door carrying a steaming bowl of milk tea and a plum blossom cake, both she and Zhang Qi found their eyes drawn to the items in their son’s hands.

The couple from the Zhang Family had given their son a few copper coins to buy himself a snack—after all, kids love eating out. As for them, they were used to their usual breakfast of congee with pickled vegetables and a homemade steamed bun. But who could have expected the milk tea and the pastry to be so incredibly aromatic? After sharing a look with her husband, Mrs. Wei took the pastry and milk tea from her son’s hands and divided everything into three portions.

Mrs. Wei had no idea if her son was stunned. All she knew was that ’this breakfast from Mrs. Ming is just too delicious!’

’I just didn’t give our son enough money today. Tomorrow, I’ll have to buy portions for all three of us!’

So, when lunchtime rolled around, Mrs. Wei thought for a moment, then decided to skip making lunch altogether and head straight for Ming’s Restaurant.

The moment she stepped inside, she knew she had made the right choice.

’Just the aroma filling the air is something I could spend a lifetime in the kitchen trying to replicate and still fail. It smells delicious!’

"Xiao Chun, what’s for lunch today?" Mrs. Wei asked.

As she spoke, she handed over the porcelain bowl from Ming’s Restaurant, which she had washed after Little Hu Zi brought it home that morning.

Xiao Chun: "The Glistening Honey-Crisp Pork! It’s our Miss’s new signature dish for today!"

"I’ll have one," Mrs. Wei said without hesitation.

"You got it!" Just then, Xiao Chun brought out the order of Glistening Honey-Crisp Pork for Du Xuan, and Mrs. Wei’s gaze was immediately drawn to it.

The color of the pork belly on the plate was gorgeous on its own—the strips of meat were a crispy, golden brown all over. The alternating layers of fat and lean meat shimmered with a crystalline sheen of oil, as if coated in a layer of amber candy. The skin had fractured into a fine network of cracks, the crisp shell puffed up slightly, resembling the crazed glaze on old porcelain.

She stared at the plate of crispy pork belly. As Mr. Du at the next table picked up a piece with his chopsticks, she could hear the faint CRACKLE of them rubbing against the crispy skin.

Its five distinct layers were like slices of agate stacked together. Hot oil trickled down the chopsticks and pooled into a small, golden lake on the porcelain plate. Under the light, every piece of meat shone with a moist gleam, so bright you could almost see your reflection in it.

’The aroma was intoxicating!’

Mrs. Wei watched Du Xuan take a bite. He seemed to move for a second piece with his chopsticks before he had even fully tasted the first.

She furrowed her brow. ’How can he taste anything when he’s gobbling it down like that?’

Just as she was thinking this, Xiao Chun brought over a plate of Glistening Honey-Crisp Pork and a bowl of white rice.

Mrs. Wei finally tore her gaze away from the neighboring table. She was about to pick up her chopsticks when she suddenly looked up again. "Xiao Chun, do you have any of that milk tea from this morning left?"

Before Xiao Chun could answer, Mr. Du at the next table, his mouth glistening with oil, chimed in without even turning his head.

"Don’t even think about it. They only make a small amount of that milk tea. Miss Ming said she only serves twenty cups a day. They’re long gone!"

’If there were any left, I’d be drinking one myself.’

Mrs. Wei: "..."

’I thought that because the milk tea was pricey, it wouldn’t sell all that well!’

’Goes to show that flavor is the best reputation.’

With no milk tea to be had, Mrs. Wei picked up a piece of the Glistening Honey-Crisp Pork with her chopsticks.

She had intended to savor it slowly, but after a single bite, she couldn’t resist swallowing it almost whole.

’It’s so fragrant!’

’It’s impossible to chew slowly. I just want to devour the whole thing in one go!’

After devouring three or four pieces in quick succession, Mrs. Wei realized her own way of eating was no different from what she had just witnessed from Mr. Du at the next table.

She let out a small cough and deliberately forced herself to slow down. Instantly, she was so overcome with bliss she couldn’t help but let her eyes narrow in pleasure.

’So this is how satisfying one good bite of pork belly can be! I’ve never experienced anything like it!’

The crispy, fried pork skin, sweet like caramel with a faint salty fragrance, immediately enveloped her tongue.

Her teeth then broke through the layers of fat, creating a burst of oil in her mouth. The fragrance of the pork fat, rendered completely free of any unpleasant gaminess, conquered her senses first. A deep, savory flavor followed, spreading across her tongue. The layer of lean meat wasn’t the least bit dry; it was unbelievably tender. It all mixed with the rendered fat to create a rich, layered texture that made her unable to resist taking another piece.

When Mrs. Wei came back to her senses, she found that she had already eaten all the pork on her plate.

Meanwhile, she had only taken two bites of her rice.

She rarely bought pork for her own cooking, and yet now... she had polished off an entire plate of it without even noticing.

Mrs. Wei blinked, finding it hard to believe what she had just done.

But that thought was quickly replaced by another: ’I have to bring my husband and son here to try Miss Ming’s cooking. It’s absolutely divine.’

Mr. Du, at the table beside her, was already lost in the aftertaste. Unfortunately, the Glistening Honey-Crisp Pork wasn’t cheap—a single portion cost a surprising eighty-eight copper coins. He had just opened his own shop for the day and hadn’t even made that much yet. ’Eating two portions by myself would be too extravagant,’ he thought, consoling himself, ’I’ll just have to come back tonight.’

While Mrs. Wei and Mr. Du were eating, an elderly man in simple cloth robes entered.

He had likely come in after seeing the sign for Ming’s Restaurant; after all, the first thing he did upon entering was ask Xiao Chun who had brushed the calligraphy for their sign.

However, once his food arrived, the old man was completely absorbed in tasting the Glistening Honey-Crisp Pork—a crispy pork belly dish the likes of which he’d never had. Everything else was forgotten, flung to the farthest corners of his mind.

It was Ming Lingyi’s first official day of business, and she knew that the people of Dayan weren’t fond of pork. Therefore, today’s lunch service was something of a trial run.

She had prepared twelve portions of the crispy pork belly in total, figuring that even if they didn’t all sell, her losses wouldn’t be too significant.

Who would have thought that of those twelve portions—from which she had planned to set aside two for herself and two for Xiao Chun—every last one would be sold?

As a result, any customers who arrived later had to be apologetically informed by Xiao Chun that they would have to wait until the next day.