At night on Taoxi Road, although there were no stars, the street was still bustling.
"It's cold outside, wear thicker clothes," Yuan Zhou said to Mao Ye.
Mao Ye was shocked at first, but she replied after she recovered, "Ah, I know. Thank you, boss."
The old drinker had told Mao Ye before that there was no need for him to guard the pub on the second floor all the time, because he was used to working for himself. Only when there were new customers in the pub did he need to introduce various things to them.
But Mao Ye was also honest. She didn't stay in the pub, but stood in front of the door of The Kitchen God to see if the boss had any instructions.
"You have to take sick leave when you are sick, and you are not feeling well, so take care of yourself," Yuan Zhou said.
Mao Ye nodded quickly, then paused and said, "Boss Yuan, someone asked me to ask you a question."
"What question?" Yuan Zhou asked.
"It's the The Kitchen God, the kind that doesn't need waiters and only needs to work for free," Mao Ye said a little embarrassedly.
Yuan Zhou said, "Only needs to work for free? It's not a black shop, and two waiters are enough. "
Mao Ye nodded embarrassedly. Actually, this question was asked by her roommate, who nagged her for a long time.
In fact, Mao Ye didn't understand why her roommate was willing to work for free, but after working here for a week, she roughly understood. This job was very popular, so Mao Ye felt she should work harder.
Yuan Zhou said to Mao Ye, "I'm going out for a while."
"Okay, boss. I will definitely look after the shop," Mao Ye said immediately.
She was holding a high-tech insulated box in her hand. That's right, it was the one provided by the system. Yuan Zhou just got off the phone and knew that Xiao Ya was working overtime today and had no time to eat.
Staying up late for a long time was also bad for her health, but according to Yin Ya, the vice president of the company's secretariat would retire at the end of this year, so she had a very good chance. She wanted to stay up late and fight for it while she was still young.
Yin Ya's words reminded Yuan Zhou of the online saying that when you are young, you exchange your life for money, and when you are old, you exchange your life with money. But if you don't have money, you don't even have the chance to exchange your life.
Another paradox arose. Could it be that if one didn't risk their lives when they were young, they wouldn't have to risk their lives when they were old? Yuan Zhou couldn't figure it out, but he still supported Yin Ya to fight for the position. At the same time, he would make a very nutritious soup for Yin Ya to drink, just like tonight, which was filled with peanut and papaya soup.
Papaya could clear away heat. Staying up late was easy to get inflamed. Peanuts could calm the liver and moisten the lungs. Pork ribs could nourish Yin. Most importantly, the peanut and papaya soup could improve skin dryness. Yuan Zhou had secretly studied it before. Girls were most afraid of skin problems if they stayed up late.
By the time Yin Ya got off work, sent her home, and returned to The Kitchen God, it was already half past eleven. Mao Ye had already cleaned up the pub, and the customers were leaving in twos and threes.
"Boss, I'm off work now."
"Okay, be careful on the road."
Another fulfilling day had passed.
"Today, we have peanuts, papaya, and spare ribs." Before going to bed, Yuan Zhou noted down the ingredients used to make the soup today. In order not to let Xiao Ya get sick of it, he tried to separate the ingredients and not repeat them.
It should be known that Yuan Zhou was a man who had completely mastered Cantonese cuisine. Cooking Cantonese soup was known as "anything can be cooked." It was too easy for him not to repeat it for a month or two.
"Do you really think staying up late will make you thin? Xiao Ya, you're still too naive, hehehe. "Yuan Zhou revealed a devilish laugh and went to sleep happily.
A new day arrived as scheduled.
For Wuhai, the meaning of a new day was that he could go to the "canteen" to eat again.
"Eaves Wu, when is your art gallery opening?" A customer asked. This customer was a fan of Wuhai. To be precise, he came for Eaves Wu, but after seeing Wuhai's image … he was very disappointed. It was completely different from the elegant gentleman he had imagined.
To be precise, the fan thought that Wu Shou was more like a professional rice bucket, not like an artist.
However, when the fan saw "Monster Eating", he was instantly shocked. This was a real artist!
"There's still some time. The renovation is not done yet. I thought of a new idea the day before yesterday and asked the renovation workers to make some changes for me," Wuhai said.
"That … Eaves Wu, the art gallery has been changed 17 or 18 times, right?" the fan asked.
Wuhai said nonchalantly, "17 or 18 times? That's normal. Isn't it normal for the art gallery to be changed 40 or 50 times? "
"40 or 50 times?" A drop of cold sweat dripped from the customer's forehead.
Wuhai said, "Jiawei told me that. He said that many famous art galleries in the world have been changed 40 or 50 times. So, he told me to think more when I have nothing to do and make changes until I'm satisfied."
He could be very domineering. The fan did not say anything else.
After lunch, Wuhai excitedly shouted at Yuan Zhou, "Let's go, let's go."
Yuan Zhou, "I don't know the place. Wait for Mr. Zhao."
"What do you mean I don't know the place? With me, the little prodigy of finding the way, is there a place I don't know?" Wuhai meant to ask Yuan Zhou to follow him.
"Hehe." Yuan Zhou could only reply with these two words.
Wuhai tried to prove to Yuan Zhou that he was the little prodigy of finding the way, but Yuan Zhou did not give him such a chance.
About 10 minutes later, Zhao Lunze came and took the sculpture of Dai Zong from Yuan Zhou. It was a sculpture of "Dai Zong Yue Temple Laughing". Zhao Lunze praised it again. Now, all 108 generals were completed!
Zhao Lunze drove here, so when he got in the car, he went directly to Zhao Lunze's private museum.
That's right. Since the 108 generals were officially completed today and the group of observers had gone to Engineer Cheng's place, Yuan Zhou accepted Zhao Lunze's invitation to visit the museum.
Coincidentally, Wuhai found out about it and excitedly said that he would be coming as well. As a famous artist in the country, he could be said to be the most famous one. Therefore, Zhao Lunze formally invited Wuhai on the spot.
Although it was a private museum, it was quite spacious. Zhao Lunze had also divided it into several exhibition areas.
"Head Chef Yuan and Eaves Wu, please have a seat and have some tea first. I will come to accompany you after I finish preserving this sculpture of Dai Zong Yue Temple Laughing." Zhao Lunze continued, "It might take some time. You two can also visit my private museum first. The exhibition hall of Head Chef Yuan's 108 generals is on the other side. I will bring you there when I come."
That's right. Zhao Lunze had specially set up an exhibition area for Yuan Zhou's sculptures.
"Um. You can go first. Business is more important," Yuan Zhou nodded.
"Go ahead. Me and Yuan … Yuan Zhou can look around by himself. You don't need to lead the way. Also, you don't need to make tea. Anyway, your tea is not as good as Yuan Zhou's." Wuhai had originally wanted to call him Compass. But when he realized it wasn't appropriate to call him that in front of outsiders, he immediately changed the way he addressed him.
Zhao Lunze couldn't help but smile bitterly. However, he did not retort. He could be considered half a tea lover. He had also ordered Savory Fragrant Herbal Tea and Tofu Stir-Fried with Tea Leaves at Yuan Zhou's restaurant.
Strictly speaking, these two dishes were both Yunnan Cuisine. The taste was very different. One used green tea while the other used Pu 'er tea. But the similarity between the two dishes was that the tea used was of the highest quality.
It wasn't a joke. If it wasn't for the fact that Zhao Lunze felt that the chances of him winning were not high if he turned hostile, he would have probably exploded on the spot.
Actually, from Yuan Zhou's point of view, he was too restless. One must know that there was a famous dish in Zhejiang Cuisine called Longjing Prawns. This dish was created by Weng Shuping. It was made from Longjing Tea harvested before the Qingming Festival. According to the standards provided by the system, Yuan Zhou felt that he might be ganged up and beaten up if this dish was released. Of course, it was still very safe for now.
"Alright," Zhao Lunze was still carefully carrying the sculpture in his hands. He had to hurry up and do some processing.
Yuan Zhou felt that Wuhai had learned bad things from Lee Yanyi. Wuhai even knew how to criticize others. But after thinking about it, it didn't seem to be the case. When it came to food, the Wu Beast had always been good at criticizing others.
Wang Hong had once written that the Kitchen God had four Vajras — Lee Yanyi who criticized others for his food, Chu Xiao who criticized others for his passing, Yu Chu who criticized others for his data, and Wuhai who criticized others for his data.
Soon, the two began to browse the private museum.
"He's quite capable. He actually has something like this," Wuhai said as he looked at a pen on display.
Yuan Zhou didn't know how to draw, so he couldn't tell what was so special about the pen. He waited for Wuhai to explain.
"This kind of pen is called Water Drop Ink Fragrance. I don't know the specific craftsmanship, but it's said that ink strips are wrapped around the shaft. When you want to write, you just need to drip a drop of water on the tip of the pen, and the ink will come out," Wuhai explained.
Wrapping ink in the shaft? There shouldn't be such a process, right? Yuan Zhou thought for a moment. The Water Drop Ink Fragrance Pen shouldn't be such a process.
"I'm not too sure about the specifics, but no one made the Water Drop Ink Fragrance Pen in the late Qing Dynasty. I've only seen it once. I didn't expect it to still be preserved here," Wuhai said.
Many craftsmanship had been eliminated by the advancement of technology, but it was still meaningful to be recorded.
After walking around for about 40 minutes, Wuhai was able to recognize a lot of things. Although Wuhai was unconventional, as an artist, he knew a lot of things and was very knowledgeable.
Yuan Zhou also recognized a lot of things. Many of them were things that Carpenter Lian and Master Flying Finger had told him.
After another 10 minutes, Zhao Lunze walked over from the back.
"Is it done?" Yuan Zhou asked.
"The preliminary preservation is done. To preserve it for a long time like those, there's still one more process that will take a few more hours. So, I can finish it later," Zhao Lunze said.
That was really complicated. However, it would be strange if the craftsmanship wasn't complicated to preserve a radish sculpture for a few years or even longer.
"How is it, Head Chef Yuan, Mr. Wu? Is my private museum okay?" Zhao Lunze asked.
Wuhai asked, "It's quite interesting. There are a lot of things, like ink tools and the Water Drop Ink Fragrance Pen. Where did you find them?"
"I often go to the mountain villages where transportation is less convenient to buy a lot of old objects," Zhao Lunze said.
It seemed like Zhao Lunze was indeed treating this as a career. Yuan Zhou felt that he had made the right choice to give Zhao Lunze the sculpture.
"I heard that there was a very powerful old carpenter who was recuperating in your province. But when I rushed over, he had already passed away. His family was packing up his belongings. Many of them were old objects that were very rare nowadays. There was also a treasure chest."
Zhao Lunze's mood became heavy when he talked about this.
"At that time, I wanted to buy it with money. But the descendants of the old carpenter said that they had to follow his will and burn everything for him."
"Sigh …" Zhao Lunze let out a heavy sigh and said, "The old carpenter's children were very filial. In the end, I could only watch as the treasure chest and many old objects were burned to ashes in the fire."
A treasure chest was not a box that contained a lot of treasures. Rather, it was a type of ancient box with many hidden compartments and layers. It was said that it had a very high space utilization rate.
Here was the main point. Every treasure chest was different. Even within the entire country, there were less than 10 of them.
That was truly a pity.
"These things belong to the old carpenter. He can do whatever he wants with them. But seeing such an exquisite object being burned by fire is really unbearable," Zhao Lunze said.
It was indeed unbearable. It was also hard to imagine why the old carpenter would make such a decision. After all, most craftsmen hoped that their creations could be passed down to the world.
"Alright, Head Chef Yuan, Mr. Wu, let me bring you to the sculpture area," Zhao Lunze said as he led the way.
Yuan Zhou's special exhibition area was on the left side of the central axis. It was a narrow room that was very long, similar to an alley.
When the door was opened, one could see that the exhibition area was very well built. The entire wall was built in the shape of a sand table. The sand table was an imitation of ancient landscapes, battlefields, and buildings. One hundred and eight sculptures were neatly placed on the sand table. It was like a painting.
"This can even be considered a tourist attraction." Wu Hai observed carefully, "This sculpture is really good. The strength and the conflict scenes are too good. Apart from Yuan Zhou, no one else in this world has sculpting skills like this."
It was indeed very spectacular. One hundred and seven generals. Apart from Dai Zong, all of them had returned to their positions. Each of them had their own story and background. This was a magnificent piece of art.
"This exhibition area will be opened to the visitors the day after tomorrow," Zhao Lunze said.
"I suddenly feel like drawing a painting of one hundred and eight generals," Wu Hai suddenly said.
It was simply too difficult to display one hundred and eight people in different forms on a single painting.
Even with Yuan Zhou's sculpture as a template, it was still too exaggerated.
But Wu Hai seemed to be possessed. He started dancing and waving his hand in the air as if he really had a pen in his hand.
Then, he would imitate the movements of Yuan Zhou's sculpture. For example, Lu Zhishen would imitate Lu Zhishen pulling up a tree. But in reality, it looked like Wu Hai was squatting.
Those who knew the cause would know that Wu Hai was imitating. Those who didn't know would think that he was a mental patient who ran out of a mental hospital when it rained.
"I need to go back and do some research." Wu Hai suddenly stopped and ran out.
"This …" Before Zhao Lunze could say anything, the person disappeared.
"Don't be surprised, Director Zhao. Wu Hai often does this," Yuan Zhou explained. "He will come back two more times later."
"You came back twice?" Before Zhao Lunxue could finish his words, Wu Hai ran back hastily.
"Don't release it to the public first. After I finish my painting, I will release it to the public in my art exhibition. Only then will your exhibition be released to the public. Then, Yuan Zhou and I will work together. Hahaha." Wu Hai ran back and said to Zhao Lunze.
Before Zhao Lunze said whether he agreed or not, Wu Hai ran out again.
Zhao Lunze sighed. "It seems that the behavior of a genius is different from an ordinary person like me."
Yes, Zhao Lunze always felt that Yuan Zhou was also a genius. That was why he was the only ordinary person present.
But Wu Hai's method was very good. If Wu Hai could really draw one hundred and eight generals, then this painting would definitely shock the world's art world.
And if the prototype of this painting was released at the same time, its popularity would definitely be world-class.
After all, Wu Hai's painting was world-class, and so was Yuan Zhou's sculpture.
…
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