Chapter 42: The Most Important Person

When Su Taotao came out holding the little angel who was rubbing his eyes, Fu Zhengtu had just finished his shower and walked out of the bathroom. The conspicuous mark on his Adam's apple was particularly striking. Su Taotao almost lost her grip on Chenchen.

There was no denying it. Even if she wanted to, she couldn't refute the evidence.

At this point, she was beyond caring about her blush or feeling embarrassed. She walked over, gave him a meaningful look, and said in a low voice, "Go get dressed and button up."

Fu Zhengtu lowered his deep, affectionate eyes and stared intently at Su Taotao's slightly embarrassed, watery eyes. His slender fingers touched his Adam's apple, and he suddenly leaned closer, asking without any emotion, "Do you have a thing for this spot?"

Last night, she had taken care of this spot the most.

She was mortified!

Su Taotao took a step back, closed her eyes, and in a "what-the-hell" manner, said, "Yeah, I like it! But there's a kid here, so can you be a bit more careful?"

Fu Zhengtu curled his lips and reached out to pat Chenchen's head. "Go wash up, and later Dad will teach you how to play checkers."

Chenchen bit his chubby fingers, looking back and forth between his dad and mom. His eyes rolled around a few times, then he shook his head, hugged Su Taotao's neck tightly, and said in a baby voice, "No, I want mama."

Su Taotao hugged her son back and gave his cheek a big kiss. "Good boy, Mom will take you to work today."

In the bathroom, the little guy obediently opened his mouth wide for Mom to brush his teeth. After Su Taotao finished, she gave him a cup of water. He gurgled for a bit and then spit it out, showing off with a grin, "All clean."

Su Taotao praised him, "Chenchen is great, very clean."

Su Taotao wrung out a towel for him to wash his face. For things he could manage on his own, Su Taotao usually let him do them himself. Finally, she combed his hair and carried the fragrant little one out for breakfast.

Today's breakfast was sweet potato porridge with wild vegetable cakes, and there were five bowls of malted milk. There was an extra small bowl of egg custard in front of Chenchen.

Su Taotao let the little guy eat the custard first and teased him, "Uncle didn't go to get the sheep's milk today, so we don't have sheep's milk tea. Can we drink your malted milk instead?"

Chenchen looked up from his custard, his big eyes focusing on the malted milk, and nodded in agreement. "Yes."

Most two-year-olds are pretty protective of their food, but not this little guy. Su Taotao was very pleased.

She picked up the first bowl and asked, "Who gets this?"

Chenchen didn't hesitate. "Mom."

Su Taotao's eyes smiled, feeling a bit touched. She had finally become the most important person in the little guy's heart.

After that, Su Taotao didn't ask anymore. She gave everyone a bowl, and the order of importance didn't matter, as long as she was the first.

When she handed the bowl to Fu Zhengtu, he shook his head and pushed it back. "I don't want to drink it; you all drink."

Fu Zhengtu was sitting next to Chenchen, and the little guy, who was busy with his egg custard, stopped what he was doing and pushed his own bowl of malted milk towards him. "Drink."

Fu Zhengtu: "..." He lowered his eyes and stared at the little guy, eyes locked.

Chenchen wasn't afraid at all and tilted his chin up. "Drink."

Seeing Chenchen's 'you'll-hurt-my-feelings-if-you-don't-drink' look, Su Taotao couldn't help but laugh.

Everyone laughed.

Fu Yuanhang explained, "We have a family rule to share good things, but it's not like this every day."

Fu Zhengtu looked like he'd rather eat something bitter than drink that overly sweet malted milk. He really couldn't stand it.

Looking into the little guy's big, expressive eyes, he couldn't bring himself to refuse and had to force himself to down the drink in one gulp.

Chenchen nodded in satisfaction as he watched Fu Zhengtu finish, his small, chubby hand patting Fu Zhengtu's arm encouragingly before burying his head to continue his battle with the egg custard.

Su Taotao couldn't stop laughing at the look on Fu Zhengtu's face, which seemed more pained than when he was drinking bitter Chinese medicine.

After breakfast, Fu Zhengtu was about to drive Su Taotao to the county town again, but she said, "Today is market day, I'll take the tractor. You take some candies to the school so Yuanhang can have a proper farewell with his teacher and classmates. Come to pick us up at noon."

Fu Zhengtu was not adept at navigating social niceties. His job didn't require him to fawn over others, and he saw no need to make this trip. In his view, it was common for kids to drop out of the village school to help with younger siblings, and the teachers wouldn’t bat an eye. They wouldn’t even ask questions when busy. For Fu Yuanhang to inform the teacher himself was already a sign of respect.

But still, he followed Su Taotao's arrangement.

Fu Yuanhang was the happiest. He wouldn't have had the courage to ask for this himself. Although he knew his older brother was only making this trip for his sister-in-law's sake, he was overwhelmingly glad. He could already imagine the envious looks from his classmates when they saw his brother.

Before leaving, Fu Yuanhang changed into the green military uniform and canvas shoes that Su Taotao had bought for him. He also slung on the new schoolbag that Zhou Linglan had sewn for him, looking clean and spirited.

In a rare moment of childlike excitement, he spread his arms and twirled in front of Fu Zhengtu, saying proudly, "Big sis-in-law bought this for me. Chenchen has the same, it's a brother set."

Fu Zhengtu reminded him, "It's an uncle-nephew set."

Fu Yuanhang just smiled and didn’t argue. He knew that Su Taotao raised him and Chenchen like a mother.

Fu Yuanhang's schoolbag was filled with lots of candies. He patted his schoolbag and said, "Let’s go, Brother."

Then he strutted out of the house like a proud rooster.

It was hard to say whether it was time that changed a person or the influence of good company, but Fu Yuanhang had truly transformed. He was no longer the timid little boy he once was.

Fu Zhengtu thought to himself that Su Taotao really knew how to teach kids.

When Su Taotao arrived in the county town, she first went to the meat processing factory to buy fresh pork intestines. She bought quite a lot, intending to take some home for lunch.

This time, she didn’t have to do the work herself. She kept Chenchen on her back and personally supervised Chef Xu and the others as they prepared the ingredients and cooked a passable batch of braising liquid.

"As long as you remember this recipe and the steps carefully, you won't go wrong. It'll save you a lot of trouble, and you won't have to work so hard," she said.

Chef Xu nodded and said with a smile, "Yes, I heard that the second restaurant has started selling braised dishes too, but the flavors aren’t quite right, and people aren’t buying them. They’ve come to expect your recipe."

Su Taotao smiled. "Even the most delicious food can get old if you eat it too much. That’s why we need to keep innovating. The steamed pork intestines with fermented black bean sauce can be added to the pot now. Let’s see if the fire is right."

Chef Xu didn’t take over the task. The ingredients were already prepared, so he let the second chef handle it.

Fresh pork intestines didn’t need to be cleaned too thoroughly; the starch inside was the essence of the dish. Just run a garlic clove around the inside to make sure there were no parasites or other dirty things.

There was a small trick to selecting pork intestines. You had to choose the section where the starch inside was white or light pink. You couldn’t choose the yellow section, which was the bitter part. It could be used to make a fire-reducing soup, but it didn’t taste good.

That was one reason why people often said pork intestines didn’t taste great. Many people cooked the whole thing together, and the bitterness ruined the entire pot.

Cutting the intestines properly required precise knife skills. First, you cut the intestines into ten-centimeter sections, then scored the back to ensure the spacing was consistent. Each cut should sever the section but leave the fatty part intact so it didn’t break apart.

This was key to making the pork intestines easy to chew.

Then, control the heat. Scald the intestines in boiling water for ten seconds, then drain them. Mix the prepared garlic and fermented black bean sauce with perilla leaves, and steam it over high heat for three minutes.

As soon as the time was up, take it out immediately, sprinkle some scallions on top, and drizzle a bit of hot oil to finish.

While offal itself wasn’t expensive, preparing the dish was labor-intensive. This was one of the reasons why offal in the 21st century sold for more than meat.

Many traditional cooking techniques had been lost over time. In this fast-paced era, taking the time to perfect a dish and truly savor it had become a luxury.

Su Taotao tasted a piece and gave the second chef a thumbs up. "Comrade Xiao Ding, I'm passing this dish down to you. From now on, it will be your signature dish, and you must carry it forward and make it shine."

Su Taotao asked for some rice and let Chenchen eat a little with the rice. The little guy loved it, his eyes practically glowing with joy.

Su Taotao said, "Even Chenchen can chew it, so you've got the fire timing just right. A little more and it would be overcooked, a little less and it would be raw. It really tests your skills."

Xiao Ding was very excited, his hands fidgeting nervously, unsure where to rest. Usually, he was responsible for simple home-cooked dishes like steamed fish, steamed eggs, stir-fried greens, and tomato scrambled eggs. Today, for the first time, he was officially in charge of a signature dish. He put his heart into it but was genuinely worried about messing up.

Unexpectedly, he succeeded, and Su Taotao even passed the dish down to him.

"Thank you, thank you, Comrade Su," he said, then glanced at Chef Xu.

Chef Xu said, "Why are you looking at me? You did well. Naturally, it'll be your responsibility from now on. I'm happy to have less work."

Xiao Ding beamed with joy. "I understand, thank you, Chef."

They had also tried making a few of the other nine dishes over the past few days, and it seemed to be going well. Su Taotao's recipes were very detailed, and even if they couldn’t replicate them exactly, they were nearly spot-on.

Before leaving, Su Taotao gave some final instructions.

Before she left, Chef Xu gave her an envelope and a bag of things, and he patted Chenchen on the head. "I’ll miss you, but I hope everything goes smoothly for you."

Su Taotao accepted the gifts. "Things will go well for you and the restaurant too."

As she looked at the red and black signboard that read "First Restaurant," she felt a deep sense of emotion. This was her first job after arriving in the 1970s. Though her time there wasn't long, she had grown quite attached to it.

When she came out of the restaurant, Fu Zhengtu was already waiting outside, leaning casually against the car, one hand resting on his chest, the other holding a cigarette between his fingers. He gazed up at the sky, a trail of smoke curling lazily around him. As soon as he saw Su Taotao, he stubbed out the cigarette and strode over to take Chenchen and the things from her hands.

His steady voice followed. "Time to head home."

Su Taotao was momentarily lost in thought, then slowly smiled. "Yes, let's go home."

Perhaps one day in the future, she and Chenchen would become his most important family. Love or no love, maybe it wasn’t worth being so serious about.