With only one day left before Hong Feifei's battle to salvage her reputation, Suming spent a few hours addressing the aftermath of the sunken ship incident.
There wasn't much to deal with, to be honest. It mainly involved giving a statent and providing evidence, pinning everything firmly on Wu Dacheng. This local hoodlum from Baihe Town beca a prisoner overnight, a target of public scorn, saddled with a notoriety larger than an Overlord Turtle's shell—without any chance of redemption.
For the rest of the ti, he continued fishing on the river with Zhao Yun.
In his heart, Suming still harbored a sliver of hope that he might find the Reeves' shad, so while he was ostensibly fishing, he secretly controlled the Overlord Turtle to search in the river.
As it turned out, the Reeves' shad was probably truly extinct. At least, after half a day's search, where the Overlord Turtle scoured every inch within two kiloters, not a single trace of the fish was found.
Suming took it in stride. Before a species goes extinct, one should protect it as much as possible; but once it's gone, there's no use being overly sorrowful. With hundreds of thousands of years of Earth's history, innurable species have gone extinct—even dinosaurs, the mighty beasts, t their end. Why should the Reeves' shad be an exception? The only pity was its high economic value.
In the end, Zhao Yun didn't manage to catch a single Yangtze herring. Not even the dozens of fishing boats from Huayin County caught any that day. The population of the fish was on the verge of disappearing, making yesterday's catch extraordinarily lucky.
The next day, at noon, the sa hotel's banquet hall reunited all the prominent chefs, and when Hong Feifei showed up with her crutches, the room erupted in applause.
As today's event featured only Hong Feifei, it was essentially a solo performance. When she appeared, the lights in the entire venue dimd, concentrating all the illumination on the stage, lighting up Hong Feifei.
A whiff of Chanel No. 5 filled the air. Having learned her lesson, Ding Jing didn't show up haughtily in high heels to steal Hong Feifei's thunder. Instead, she silently took a seat at Suming's table as a ghost might, undetected in the darkness.
"Mr. Su, you really can't sit still. Just a day or two out of sight, and you've turned the Yangtze River upside down," Ding Jing casually remarked, having heard about the river incident from the day before last.
"Turn the world upside down? Might as well say I'm Nezha causing chaos in the sea," Suming said with a laugh.
Ding Jing glanced at Suming with twinkling eyes, imagining him in a red bellyband with pigtails setting off firecrackers. She couldn't help but purse her lips and smile, then spoke seriously, "Please, take good care of her in the future."
The 'her' she referred to was, of course, Hong Feifei. Suming nodded toward the stage and said, "You're that confident about her? What if she sses up again today?"
Ding Jing shook her head, squinted, and murmured as she looked at Hong Feifei on the stage, "You're not a chef. You don't understand. A chef of her caliber will definitely not fail a second ti."
...
How the next two hours passed, Suming later couldn't quite rember. His mind was filled solely with the aftertaste of that divine dish.
In the county's parking lot, Suming, Su ng, Nangong Huang, and Zhao Yun, each holding a bottle of mineral water, squatted on the ground to rinse their mouths. The taste of the divine dish seed to have been deeply imprinted on their taste buds, and several bottles of water did nothing to erase the mory.
"Brother-in-law, damn it, we've been royally screwed by that old lady Hong Feifei!"
"Absolutely cheated by that da! We shouldn't have given in to temptation and tried it!" Suming nodded vigorously.
"You can't say that. 'To die under a peony flower is to be a romantic ghost.' Having tasted such a delicious dish, I feel at peace. Those old ginseng roots were worth it," Zhao Yun said.
That one dish, heavenly in its taste, stunned all who were there. It was not served in large quantity, and only a lucky few among those present, including the four from the Su Family who provided the ingredients, got to taste a small bite.
Confucius said, "For three months, one did not know the taste of at." Suming agreed with Confucius.
The mont that bite of divine at was savored, one felt almost celestial, as if the taste buds were exploding in ecstasy. It was undeniably a peerless delicacy of this world.
Its aftereffect was that Suming now found any at dish tasteless. Though forgetting at for three months might be an exaggeration, for the next ten days to a half month, he feared any food would hardly appeal.
To capture a man's heart, one must first capture his stomach. This saying might be nonsensical for most won, but obviously, Hong Feifei was different. With premium ingredients, she could indeed create irresistibly attractive dishes.
"Brother-in-law, this isn't right!" Nangong Huang muttered, "I think that old lady is trying to seduce you!"
"Which old lady?" Suming asked.
"Hong Feifei! Think about it, if her cooking is so delicious and she marries soone else, we won't get to taste her food anymore. How depressing. You might as well keep her for yourself. You're not short on money, just buy a house and provide for her."
"Stop talking nonsense. Where did a student learn all this? We have a pure working relationship," Suming stared at him for a while, "You're not testing on behalf of your sister, are you?"
"What's wrong with being a student? There are plenty of girls being kept in our vocational school," he retorted.
Zhao Yun said, "Anyway, no matter what, if you can keep this woman at your restaurant, the business there will definitely boom."
In the hotel, Hong Feifei was on the phone with Hong Bo.
"You've made up your mind? To go work for soone else rather than start your own business? If you want to start a business, I still have so money. It's not enough to open a big restaurant, but renting a small storefront and starting from scratch is still viable," Hong Bo asked from the other end of the line.
"Dad, I've thought it through; I'm really not cut out for business."
"As long as you're clear about what you want, that's fine. Just one thing, you absolutely cannot go work at Xiankelai, otherwise I'll smash my head on the wall..."
Hong Feifei, frustrated, interrupted Hong Bo, "Dad, can you not say things like that? You're a grown man, always threatening suicide and using death to threaten your daughter, does that sound right to you? Relax, this ti I'm going to work in the catering departnt of the Zoo Scenic Area, and from the boss to the staff, all are real n through and through!"
"That's good, that's good. Hey, I want to ask you, does Mr. Su have a girlfriend?"
Hong Feifei: "…Dad, how desperate are you to get rid of that you're so eager to marry off? Let's talk serious. Since I've promised to work for them, I want to do it well. The restaurant at the zoo is just starting up and needs people. Our restaurant still has a bunch of old staff to place, right? If the other party is willing to take them, ask them, Dad, if anyone wants to co with to the zoo."
…
The four-day trip to Huayin County ended, and they returned with a limping Hong Feifei.
To Suming's surprise, Hong Feifei turned out to be remarkably capable, not only could she cook, but she knew everything related to restaurant affairs. For the construction of the Whisperwind Pavilion at the zoo, Suming didn't need to worry at all; just allocating the funds was enough. Even the selection of waitstaff and kitchen hands was ready-made, largely comprised of skilled workers she brought from Hong Family Cuisine.
Hong Feifei, dragging her injured leg, imdiately got to work, personally overseeing the redesign of Whisperwind Pavilion. On the renovation site, one could see her frail body limping around, giving orders and inspecting every day.
The current key projects - the hot springs on the back mountain, the tomb scenic area, and road construction - were proceeding smoothly. The one project that needed Suming's most attention, the construction of Whisperwind Pavilion, was no longer a concern with Hong Feifei's help. Consequently, Suming found himself with plenty of free ti, so he shifted his focus to the fisheries company.
A not-so-large wharf had already been built on the reservoir, with twelve new small yachts and a cruise ship moored alongside. They were mainly used by the fisheries company for breeding fish, but were also open to tourists for fishing trips. Although it was a new service and not many tourists were coming yet, more and more citizens were learning through various channels about this new leisure and travel destination by the reservoir.
The few types of fish they brought back included three sturgeon over a ter long with long snouts, and a family of Yangtze river dolphins, all of which were living in the large tanks of the aquarium.
Initially, Suming was worried that the sturgeon and river dolphins might fight, more precisely that the sturgeon would beat up the dolphins. Sturgeon are not known for their patience and would often prod and poke with their long, hard snouts – when there were still many sturgeon in the Yangtze River, small fishing boats would sotis get holes out of nowhere, the work of sturgeon, whose snouts are powerful weapons, more formidable than fish spears underwater.
But in reality, the three sturgeon and the family of river dolphins got along very harmoniously. Sotis, the two little river dolphins would even playfully roll around and hug the sturgeon's long snouts with their short fins. The sturgeon didn't get angry and would carry the small dolphins around in the water like riding a Cloud Soaring Roller Coaster.
The atmosphere in the aquarium livened up considerably and the number of visitors increased, most of whom were parents with children.
The paddlefish and the Chinese alligators, after a period of 'cohabitation,' still didn't quite see eye to eye but had finally quieted down and stopped fighting. Instead, they turned their focus to the caras, putting on various 'shows' during the live broadcasts to steal the spotlight.
However, the arrival of the Overlord Turtle imdiately made it the common enemy of the other two! Both the paddlefish and the Chinese alligators had four legs, but this newcor had only three!
Why should we all have four legs and you have only three, deliberately stealing the spotlight?
Suming had even given the pair a special lecture: it's difficult to turn three legs into four, but much simpler the other way around. If you two are willing, I can definitely help you beco three-legged.
The paddlefish and the Chinese alligators imdiately fell silent.
Fortunately, the Overlord Turtle knew its place as the newcor and didn't try to confront the alligators, choosing instead to keep a low profile.
The biggest gain from the Huayin County trip, however, were the yellow draft fish and river pufferfish, which were a few types of river fish with good economic value. Liang Shi, along with so students, fenced off an area in the reservoir to try breeding them. If successful, the reservoir would gain several new economically valuable fish species next year.
The twelve sawfish, two given to Zhao Yun, and the remaining ten beca a focus of protection. Should they achieve success in artificial breeding, their economic value would be the highest among all fish species in the reservoir. There were still a few technical difficulties to solve, and Liang Shi was organizing a team to tackle them.
Science is the primary productive force. Valuing talent and prioritizing scientific research, Suming had allocated a special research grant to Liang Shi who had now established a small research departnt within the fisheries company dedicated to fish breeding research, leveraging science and technology to promote production.
That afternoon, Suming was dealing with a docunt sent from Xiangjiang Ocean Park. Since lending out the two giant pandas, the Ocean Park communicated regularly with the zoo every week to check on the pandas' status, showing great professionalism.
The internal office phone suddenly rang. Picking it up, it was Li from Xiongshan.
"Boss... the two giant pandas are... not so well... Maybe co and see?" Li hesitated.
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