Chef Hua

"Haha."

The old man stroked his beard and laughed as if he were intimately acquainted with her, tapping Hua Xiaomai’s face with his finger, "Young lady, you sure are forgetful! Two years ago, we met at Huayin Pond in Provincial City. The ’Mashed Treasures’ dish you made had quite the flavor and even won first place in the meat dish category—do you remember now?"

With that reminder, Hua Xiaomai immediately recalled, exclaiming, "You were one of the five gourmet judges at the Eight Treasures Conference! Back then, you said that my Two Treasures Sashimi looked even prettier than the famous Golden and Jade Sashimi!"

If her memory served her right, this old man was indeed one of the judges from the Eight Treasures Conference two years ago, who sat in a pavilion in the middle of the lotus pond. The chefs would bring each dish to him for appraisal. Among the five judges, he was the one who spoke the most, babbling to her for a long time, and thus she retained a vivid impression of him.

However, it was still an event from two years ago, and she couldn’t immediately recognize the old man.

"Right!" The old man chuckled as he stroked his beard, "It’s really not easy to find you. I thought that since you helped Taoyuan House win the top prize at the Eight Treasures Conference, you would have settled down there. But to my surprise, I heard you had gone back home. What’s more unexpected is that Daoxiang Garden, which everyone in Tong’an City’s food scene talks about, turned out to be owned by you. I didn’t even know where you lived, so I had to ask Old Han at Biyue Pavilion and found out you were from Fire Knife Village, so I came looking for you."

"You were looking for me? Oh, I don’t even know your honorable surname!" Hua Xiaomai was puzzled and a bit uneasy.

The old man mentioned the "Eight Treasures Conference" and "Biyue Pavilion," and she wondered... Had Song Jingxi’s tampering with the ingredients leaked? But it had been so long, wasn’t it a bit late to investigate now?

"My surname is Xue; you can just call me Uncle Xue." The old man, unaware of her thoughts, leisurely stroked his beard, "As for why I’m looking for you... there’s no hurry. Just now I heard you saying you wanted to do some grilling at Daoxiang Garden, which piqued my interest. Would you mind taking me along?"

Hua Xiaomai, growing more suspicious but seeing that he was intent on keeping it a mystery, didn’t press him and merely responded with a laugh, "Why not? It’s rare for you to visit, so I should certainly treat you well. I only hope you won’t find fault."

After asking him to wait a moment, she went to tidy up the backyard, fed the little walnut, and then they left together.

...