Chapter Fifty-Four: Braised Pork Belly and Learning Boxing

  He walked away with a huff, and Jiang Feng looked at Liu Guan's back, which had obviously straightened up a lot, with a slanted gaze. He cursed lightly, but he also felt a bit strange in his heart. When he saw Liu Guan a few days ago, his temper was a bit hard, but how could he be so arrogant now? Wasn't it just that Liu Xueshi's rank had changed from sixth grade to fifth grade? It was just a change of two ranks, was it worth speaking so loudly?

  He was not aware that the Hanlin Academy of the Ming Dynasty, as a reserve base for high-ranking officials, was also divided into different levels. If it is a compiler, lecturer, or reviser below the sixth rank, it is very likely to be sent out to serve as a local official after a few years.

  That's when they can enter the cabinet and pay their respects. During the Jiajing period, the conflict between the emperor and officials was extremely great, so the turnover of officials was frequent. As a result, the value of Hanlin scholars as a reserve team was even higher. Two years ago, due to the Great Rites Controversy, he rose to prominence overnight. Now, if Zhang Cong, who is now deputy prime minister, was just a small sixth-grade Hanlin Shuyuan scholar at that time.

  So now Liu Xueshi can almost certainly be said to have a great future ahead of him. As the saying goes, "the gatekeeper of the prime minister's mansion is a seventh-rank official", naturally Liu Guan is quite arrogant.

  But to tell the truth, even if he was arrogant and overbearing, in front of Jiang Feng, it would be like making eyes at a blind man, Jiang Feng didn't care at all. The gatehouse is no longer as dilapidated as before, in just a few short days, Liu Xueshi's family and his official career have undergone tremendous changes.

  It was probably because of what Jiang Feng said that he closed the door, picked up the fire tongs and stirred the charcoal brazier inside the house. The room immediately warmed up, and he took out the braised pork shoulder he had brought with him today, placed it on top of the fire tongs, and started to roast it. As the meat fragrance gradually wafted out, Jiang Feng's anger gradually subsided along with the aroma, but his heart still felt somewhat unsettled, as if he had forgotten something.

  The door creaked open with a loud noise, and Jiang Feng, who had been pretending to sleep with his eyes closed, suddenly opened his eyes and shouted in a fierce voice:

  "Didn't I tell you not to come in and bother Grandpa? You don't learn from being beaten, is that it?"

  The person who came in didn't seem surprised either, and just stood there smiling and saying:

  "What's with the fierce attitude, you're scaring people to death."

  Jiang Feng took a look at the person who came in, and it was actually Liu Zheng, whom he hadn't seen for several days. Looking at the servants in Liu Xue's mansion, they were all wearing brand new clothes, but Liu Zheng was still wearing that coarse linen garment. In Jiang Feng's opinion, this must be because as a low-ranking servant, he didn't have time to change his clothes yet.

  Seeing a familiar face, Jiang Feng's anger naturally dissipated without a trace, but he also didn't have any good feelings. His eyes closed again, and he leaned back in his chair, ignoring everything.

  Liu Zheng didn't care about Jiang Feng's cold face, he curled up his little nose and sniffed a few times, and suddenly a delighted and infatuated expression appeared on his clear face, and he called out:

  "What a delicious smell, Master Jun, what tasty food have you brought today?"

  He said, as he himself went to the charcoal brazier, familiarly picked up some of the braised pork knuckle that was being roasted on top with chopsticks, and the cool savory flavor was now hot and slightly oozing out oil, fragrant all over. This was Jiang Feng's sauce made with ginger, scallions, star anise, licorice root, tangerine peel, bay leaves, cinnamon, sand ginger, plus bone broth and rock sugar, then added the usual soy sauce and other seasonings.

  Although there were similar sauces in the Ming dynasty, rock sugar was not a commonly used condiment at that time. The formulas for seasonings learned in vocational schools later on may be somewhat rigid, but they are still based on the most acceptable taste and have the advantage of precise quantification compared to this time.

  This flavor, if tasted by later masters or customers, would be praised at most as mediocre, but this method of sweetly supporting the freshness of meat was a pioneering work at that time.

  If it's just the sea intestine powder that sells, the dishes and soups are fresher than others, this is only one of the highlights. Jiang Feng, as a professional chef in modern times, naturally has some skilled techniques, otherwise he wouldn't be an assistant chef at a big restaurant.

  Add a bit of sugar to the meat, it's even more fragrant and delicious. As expected, Liu Zheng hehe smiled and ate a piece of braised pork belly, first biting into the fatty meat, without any greasy feeling, after a few bites, his mouth was full of freshness, and he quickly picked up another piece, with a smile on his face, he continued eating.

  Liu Zheng was delighted with his food and repeatedly praised it there.

  "Mmm, so delicious, so delicious..."

  At this time, Jiang Feng liked it when others said that the dishes he made were delicious. After all, in his modern school days, he was notorious for being good at fighting and being fierce. In a restaurant with so many great chefs, who would have paid attention to a small assistant? But after coming to the Ming Dynasty, these skills of his had become techniques that everyone praised.

  The anger that had been blocked by Liu's housekeeper when he entered the door this morning had dissipated, and Jiang Feng stood up with a smile, preparing to praise himself for a few words. But as soon as he saw Liu Zheng, his face froze, and he shouted angrily:

  "Don't eat them all, leave some for me."

  Jiang Feng had been coming to Liu Xue's residence for some time now, and every day he would make some delicious snacks and share them with Liu Zheng. The two of them would eat together, chatting casually about this and that, and it was quite a relaxing thing to do. After all, even though there were beauties at home and business to attend to in the Hui Feng Building, a man still needed friends.

  Two people finished eating, Jiang Feng still felt unsteady in his heart, feeling that he had forgotten something, and directly asked Liu Zheng:

  "Little Liu, where is your old man?"

  "My...my master left home early this morning, is there something you need, sir?"

  Jiang Feng heard this and suddenly became angry again, saying bitterly there:

  "How would I dare to have anything to do with your esteemed family's master?"

  This sentence of losing temper suddenly made the atmosphere in the house a bit chilly. After a moment, Liu Zheng suddenly remembered something and whispered mysteriously:

  "I saw you and Old Liu arguing there, General Jun, your moves were really beautiful, you directly knocked down those two strong men, this is kung fu, too powerful, can you teach me?"

  Jiang Feng heard this and thought to himself, "You're so amazed by the two stances in my Split Hanging Stance. If I were to use the Eight Extremes, wouldn't that make your eyes pop out? This person had always been unable to withstand praise, and immediately became complacent, smiling as he looked at Liu Zheng's expectant face, teasingly saying:

  "Little brother, you're still young, it's no use practicing if you don't put in effort."

  Everyone's collection and recommendation to me, I will definitely code out the text that makes everyone satisfied, please rest assured.