Zhou Yan stared at the painting for a long time until a small head popped out from underneath it. She tilted her face up, her eyes crinkling into a smile, and asked sweetly, "Brother, what did Yaoyao’s letter say? Did she say anything about Momo?"

Mrs. Zhao peeked her head out from the restaurant, her face a mask of gossip.

"Mhm, she did. She asked me to say hello to you and Mrs. Zhao," Zhou Yan said with a smile. He lifted Zhou Momo onto his lap, put away the two-page letter, and showed the painting to her. "Here, this is a sunset that Yaoyao painted. Isn’t it beautiful?"

Zhou Momo’s eyes sparkled as she nodded. "It is! It’s so pwetty! Yaoyao is so amazing!"

"Let me see." Mrs. Zhao came over too. She stared at the painting for a moment, then exclaimed in admiration, "It’s so beautifully painted! Xia Yao is a college student, after all. She’s really talented!"

At that moment, Mrs. Zhao’s admiration for college students reached its peak.

Zhou Yan took the painting back into the shop, found two wooden boards, carefully sandwiched it between them, and placed it on the second floor.

The envelope had been too small, so the painting was folded several times. He wanted to flatten the creases first before finding a box to store it in.

’Oh, right. I should also put a lock on it to keep it safe from any little monsters.’

He never used to understand the saying: "In the past, carriages were slow, and letters traveled far..."

Now, he was beginning to understand.

It felt much sweeter than a WeChat message popping up in the middle of the night: "Hey, are you free tonight? I can have ice cream today."

Coming downstairs, Zhou Yan wondered how he should reply to Xia Yao.

A lot had happened at the shop recently; there were plenty of things he could share with her.

But when he thought of her fresh and elegant writing style, his mind went blank.

’The last time I wrote a letter... was probably for a grade school essay?’

’How should I start the letter to match her "To see your words is to see you; may this letter bring a smile to your face"?’

’Dear Xia Yao: Hello?’

Zhou Yan scratched his head.

’You always regret not reading more when you need the knowledge.’ 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

A man who’s been competitive his whole life can’t possibly lose to a woman when it comes to writing!

Even if it was just a casual letter, it absolutely had to match her level!

’If I write poorly, I won’t just be embarrassing myself—I’ll be embarrassing my language arts teacher.’

"Envelope, letter paper, and I even put the stamp on for you. Remember to write back when you have time." Mrs. Zhao suddenly appeared and stuffed a pile of things into his hands.

"Huh?" Zhou Yan looked at the items in his hand, surprised that Mrs. Zhao was even more anxious about it than he was.

But he did need them. He smiled and nodded. "Alright."

’If I can’t write it now, I’ll just set it aside. I’ll write it tonight when it’s dark and quiet.’

Zhou Yan tucked the spice list that the old Mrs. Zhang Shufen had written for him into his pocket, wheeled his bicycle out, and went to do some shopping.

The restaurant had started selling braised dishes and stir-fries these past few days, and they had been so busy spinning in circles that the matter of the braising liquid had been delayed.

The old lady had promised to teach him how to prepare and maintain the braising liquid, so it was time to move forward with that.

He couldn’t get his hands on an old master stock, so he would just have to cultivate a pot himself.

The old lady was right. A stock you cultivate yourself has the right flavor, and you learn to cherish it more.

To make braised dishes, he first needed a large braising pot.

An iron pot wouldn’t work. Iron pots rust easily, which would turn the braising liquid black and ruin a whole batch in just a few days.

A stainless steel pot would be suitable, but unfortunately, there was nowhere to buy one right now, making an aluminum pot the best option.

In this era, aluminum pots hadn’t yet been universally condemned; every household was still using them.

When Zhou Yan was renting in Rongcheng, his landlady’s ninety-eight-year-old mother used an aluminum pot every day to cook rice and make soup. It was a small, Jade Bird brand aluminum pot from ’82, maintained so well it shone.

Zhou Yan first went to buy all the spices, spending eight yuan and twenty cents. Fearing his first attempt might fail, he bought a little extra just in case.

Besides, during the braising process later on, he would need to constantly add more spices to the stock to ensure the flavor remained strong enough.

He rode his bike to the docks to find Zhou Jie. He was well-connected and knew a lot of people, so he might be able to find a big, cheap aluminum pot for him.

It was already past mealtime, but there were still two or three scattered customers at the stall eating Kneeling Beef.

Zhou Hai was squatting to one side washing dishes, while Zhou Jie stood behind the stove counting money.

"Jie, Hai." Zhou Yan stopped his bike and greeted them.

"Zhou Yan, you’re here." Both Zhou Jie and Zhou Hai stopped what they were doing and came forward with smiles.

"Looks like business was good today," Zhou Yan said, looking at the two of them.

Zhou Jie nodded. "We listened to you, and business is indeed good. We sold over seventy bowls this afternoon, and almost everyone ordered the sixty-cent portion."

"Everyone who ate it praised the soup for being savory, the beef for being tender, and the offal for being fragrant," Zhou Hai added with a simple-minded grin.

"That’s good." Zhou Yan nodded, then told Zhou Jie why he had come.

Zhou Jie pondered for a moment. "A large aluminum pot... you probably won’t find one at the supply and marketing cooperative. I’ll take you to see Old Qian. He can always get his hands on some good stuff, but his prices are a bit higher."

"Let’s go take a look first. If we find a suitable one, we can negotiate the price," Zhou Yan said.

Zhou Jie took Zhou Yan to the black market and found Old Qian, the same person they had bought the large iron pot from last time. After some haggling, they spent eighteen yuan to get an aluminum barrel-pot with a sixty-centimeter diameter.

It was a Jade Bird brand, very sturdy. It had been sitting around for over a year and had a layer of dust on it, but a single wipe made it shine.

A small aluminum pot for home use would only cost a little over two yuan at the cooperative, provided you had the ration coupons.

This large, commercial-grade type was usually only purchased by workplace canteens. It was made with solid materials, could boil one hundred forty liters of water at once, and could stew seventy jin of meat.

You couldn’t even be sure of finding something like this in Jiazhou, so even though it was expensive, Zhou Yan gritted his teeth and bought it.

’When you’re doing business, you have to think long-term.’

There are so many types of braised dishes: braised duck parts, braised chicken parts, braised goose, braised pig’s trotters, braised pig’s head, braised beef, braised pork...

You can also braise vegetables: lotus root, bamboo shoots, tofu skin, dried tofu...

These were all potential expansions.

Even if he only sold a few of these, if they sold well, a hundred jin wouldn’t be too much.

If he bought a pot that was too small, he wouldn’t just have to replace the pot later, but also the matching stove and everything else.

Zhou Yan tied the pot to the back seat of his bicycle. On the way back, he found some masons and had them come over that same day to build a dedicated earthen stove according to the pot’s dimensions.

He had also considered using a honeycomb briquette stove, which would save money and trouble, but he gave up on the idea because the heat was difficult to control.

All in all, he had just spent thirty-six yuan and twenty cents, and that didn’t even include the bones and free-range chicken needed to make the braising stock.

’Getting into the braised food business... the initial investment is really no small amount.’

In an era of scarcity, things grown from the ground weren’t worth much, but industrial products were not cheap.

Question Zhou, understand Zhou, become Zhou.

"Are you really getting into the braised food business? Did your grandmother agree to give you her master stock?" Mrs. Zhao asked Zhou Yan as she watched the mason build the stove.

"The old lady would never part with her master stock. But she did promise to teach me how to prepare and maintain a new one, and how to braise beef and all that," Zhou Yan replied casually while helping move bricks to speed things up.

Mrs. Zhao said with a touch of emotion, "The braised dishes your grandmother makes are the absolute best in Suji. Even the state-run restaurants can’t match that flavor. A couple of years ago, during the market days, more than one person came to ask if she was still selling braised beef and pig’s head. If you can learn how, you’ll definitely have a lot of customers."

"Are you talking about the Mrs. Zhang who used to sell braised beef and pig’s head under the tree at Stone Bridge Head?" Master Zhang, the mason, stopped what he was doing and turned to ask with a smile.

"Yes, that’s my mother," Zhao Tieying said, nodding with a smile. "You’ve had it before too, Master Zhang?"

In the Sichuan and Chongqing area, it was common to address artisans and craftsmen by adding "Master" after their surname, a term that was both familiar and respectful.

"When I was a young lad, my old man would take me to buy her braised pig’s head and beef offal for a snack with drinks every other day. The flavor was just awesome, I still remember it to this day." Master Zhang smacked his lips, a nostalgic look on his face. "Especially the braised pig ears. They were soft and waxy, with a springy bite from the cartilage. The braising aroma was so rich, the taste was simply out of this world. My mouth waters just thinking about it."

"Master, was it really that good?" his apprentice asked, swallowing his saliva.

"What do you know?" Master Zhang chuckled. "Back in the day, Zhang’s Braised Shop made a huge name for itself. It wasn’t just people from Suji; folks came all the way from Jiazhou just to buy it and take it home. There were even restaurants in Jiazhou that bought her stock to sell in their own shops. Business was ridiculously good." He then looked at Zhao Tieying and Zhou Yan and asked, "Why did she stop selling later on? Haven’t they allowed private businesses now?"

"My mother is seventy-five now. She’s getting old and doesn’t have the energy for all that," Zhao Tieying said with a smile.

In truth, there was another reason: her sons had all married and started their own careers, so she no longer needed to sell braised dishes to support the family.

As for Zhou Weiguo, his disability allowance was quite high, so he wasn’t short on money.

The old lady was worried about him getting married, and that wasn’t a problem that selling braised food could solve.

Zhou Yan had persuaded him to accept a job arrangement. As long as the job was secured, this matter would likely be resolved soon.

Zhou Yan felt a bit emotional listening to all this. When he heard the old lady talk about it herself, he had always felt there was a bit of bragging involved.

But hearing it from the old master mason, it felt different. His grandma really had been a superstar in the world of braised food back in the day.

A taste from childhood so deeply ingrained that Master Zhang was still savoring the memory in his forties. How many other people like him were there in Suji?

These braised dishes.

They would sell!

...