"I'm off, Uncle. Let me know next time you want to eat."

Jie waves goodbye to an elderly man and hops on his little electric scooter, heading towards his own shop.

With Shen Teng and Wang Fan looking after his store, he wasn't worried at all; their friendship over the years couldn't be measured by the few thousand yuan in the shop.

He hadn't expected that just as he reached the entrance, he'd hear Shen Teng mysteriously say to him, "Jie, try what we've just made."

"Already?"

Jie was a bit surprised at their speed, but then thought they might have used ready-made ingredients, just added a bit of extra salt.

"Let me see what's different from mine."

While he said this, he wasn't really convinced internally.

If just adding a bit of salt could enhance a snack's flavor greatly, wouldn't everyone be a culinary god?

"Crunch..."

The crispy texture of the fried Five-Spice was flawless. To be fair, Wang Fan's deep-frying skills likely weren't inferior to his own.

"Hmm?"

But when his teeth broke through the crispy skin and reached the meat inside, Jie suddenly widened his eyes.

What's in his mouth?

A stream of scalding juice rushed into his mouth as soon as his teeth pierced the crispy skin.

"Phew... phew..."

Opening his mouth to exhale sharply and taking two deep breaths of cool air, the temperature in his mouth finally cooled down a bit. Thanks to this, the taste buds that had only felt the heat before finally tasted the richness of the juice.

The hearty aroma of pork combined with the unique sweetness of water chestnuts, along with a light yet clear salty flavor, completely melded these flavors together.

The sweetness was different from the sugar he'd used; it had an inexplicable natural freshness.

His teeth finally met, and at that moment, he felt several springy and tender bits burst between his teeth. Though they were similarly small pieces, their flavor and texture were entirely different when they burst.

What's going on?

Jie was completely stunned.

This rich and savory juice flowing into his mouth, what was it? Nobody's fried Five-Spice was supposed to burst with juice!

And how did he get so many different textures between his teeth from just one bite?

It's like various ingredients exploded simultaneously, the rich textures sending chills down his spine in sheer enjoyment.

Seeing Jie's expression, Shen Teng knew his old friend had been completely won over by Wang Fan's culinary skills.

He wasn't surprised by this at all; his buddy was so amazing that he still reminisced about yesterday's lunch.

Watching Wang Fan create this improved fried Five-Spice, with the two key ingredients he himself purchased, he was skeptical of his own experience eating the new Five-Spice, let alone Jie's.

"So, Jie, how is it? Tastes good?"

Jie's lips trembled, but after a while, still didn't know what to say.

This is ridiculous!

He'd just gone out for a bit, no more than twenty minutes, and here they were, making him this miraculous fried Five-Spice?

"No way? This is fried Five-Spice? How could this be the flavor of fried Five-Spice? It makes no sense!"

Jie muttered in disbelief, racking his brain but unable to figure out how Wang Fan achieved this.

The taste conveyed by his taste buds was still that of fried Five-Spice, but that touch of unique salty flavor was unusually prominent.

For someone used to bland flavors, he should instinctively resist something so salty, but that taste was the final straw that pushed him to desperately want more of the fried Five-Spice.

And then... and then...

Jie felt he wanted to know so much more that his mind was about to crash.

"It's onions. I added onions."

Seeing Jie's bewildered look, Wang Fan couldn't bear it. Fearing his CPU might overheat, he quickly explained: "I replaced the sugar in the meat filling with onions. I diced small purple onions, stir-fried them, and added them to the meat filling to give it a unique sweetness.

Then I reduced the tenderloin proportion in the filling and added more minced suet, so there'd be more juice in the fried Five-Spice.

Oh, and I diced the water chestnuts and stir-fried them too, squeezing out the excess moisture to enhance their flavor."

Jie was utterly dumbfounded.

This explanation made him feel worse than clueless.

Add onions? Did they think he'd not seen Stephen Chow's movies?

But those small granules had tasted somewhat onion-like just now.

The other two textures were probably the suet and the stir-fried water chestnuts?

Shen Teng laughed heartily, "What do you think, Jie? Surprised, right? I told you earlier to ask, but you hesitated. Luckily, I'm his close buddy, hahah!"

Finally snapped back to reality, Jie quickly ate the other half of the fried Five-Spice in his hand. The fresh, rich flavor hadn't dwindled at all.

His gaze towards Wang Fan changed, like he was looking at the culinary god himself.

Who else but a culinary god could possess such skills?!

"Are you a celestial envoy sent by Mazu to save me?"

At that moment, Jie felt Wang Fan was glowing with a halo all over.

Surely Mazu sent him due to his diligent and honest hard work without any deceit!

Wang Fan shook his head repeatedly: "No, no, I just like experimenting with food. I've made similar things before, so I wanted to try, didn't expect the flavor to change so significantly."

He'd heard people in Fujian highly respected traditional culture, especially Mazu. They say you can't deceive Mazu even if you deceive heaven, earth, fathers, and mothers.

Apparently, even in Uncle Hat's interrogation room, there's a statue of Mazu. Few could stand unwaveringly before Mazu.

He was just there to help out and travel, not daring to promise anything more.

What followed was naturally a teaching session.

Regardless of Wang Fan's denial, Jie already regarded him as Mazu's special envoy, studying earnestly like a first-grader.

He was thoroughly familiar with it, and Wang Fan's improvements were quite simple, so he quickly mastered it. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Tasting his own creation, it still had a subtle, indescribable difference compared to Wang Fan's, but was much more flavorful than anything he'd made before.

Excited, Jie carried his freshly made fried Five-Spice out, leaving no instructions for Wang Fan and Shen Teng.

He planned to bring this freshly made fried Five-Spice to his regular customers nearby, letting them taste the flavor. If they approved, he'd make all of it like this tomorrow.