Chapter 41 - Absolute Counterattack
Ch41 – Absolute Counterattack
The next day, Ruan Tang got up early and made some meaty glutinous rice cakes. Served with a glass of hot milk, they tasted delicious. The meaty glutinous rice cake was a typical snack in Ruan Tang’s hometown. It was convenient and tasty. It was very suitable as a canteen dish, so Ruan Tang planned to teach this to his apprentices this morning.
He packed the remaining meaty glutinous rice cakes in preservation boxes and sent them by express delivery to He Yun Yi and He Yun Chen.
Although he was going to the military and could bring He Yun Chen’s share, but today was the day they were preparing to counterattack online. He was bound to be very busy and Ruan Tang didn’t want to add any bother.
Ruan Tang called for a suspended car and headed to the military headquarters.
With the consultant status that He Yun Chen gave him, he successfully passed the inspection of the smart terminal at the door. At the doorway, many military special-purpose pick-up vehicles were parked. He randomly selected a car and used his light brain to let the car door scan his information. The car door automatically opened and after giving the instructions, it speedily navigated towards the temporary kitchen classroom.
Inside the room, all six of his apprentices had already arrived and they were reviewing the content of the lessons yesterday. The room was full of the smell of eggs. Teachers were always fond of diligent and earnest students like these and Ruan Tang couldn’t help but reveal a very satisfied smile.
“Teacher Ruan!” When everyone saw him come in, they saluted him.
He smiled and nodded, then asked: “Have you all eaten breakfast?”
The crowd nodded first, then shook his heads again.
One who has seen the ocean thinks nothing of mere rivers. Having eaten dishes from natural ingredients, the tasteless nutrient solutions became difficult to swallow. They came to practice early, on the one hand, to consolidate what they had learned yesterday, and on the other hand, they were planning to eat the successful dishes as breakfast. So when Ruan Tang arrived, they had already eaten a small bowl of egg custard, but they were still hungry.
He smiled and said: “Perfect timing then, I will teach you how to make meaty glutinous rice cakes today.”
Ruan Tang took out the glutinous rice flour and streaky pork from the storage. He washed the pork belly first, then chopped it into minced meat. In a bowl, he mixed it with an egg and a small amount of scallion-ginger juice to take away the fishiness. After seasoning it with salt and soy sauce, the meat filling was ready.
Next he poured glutinous rice flour into a bowl and added a spoonful of flour. Adding some flour to the glutinous rice flour will give the dough a little toughness. It will also prevent the dumpling from sticking to your teeth when you eat it. After adding warm water, he started to knead until it became a smooth and elastic dough. Because it was made from glutinous rice, there was no need to let the dough rest. It could be directly divided into small lumps.
As he made the dough, he explained, “The glutinous rice dough must be kneaded until it’s smooth and even. This will prevent your cakes from cracking.”
Like when he made dumplings, he rolled out the small lumps of glutinous rice dough and put in the meat filling. Then he pinched the edges shut. With a gentle press of his palm, he slightly flattened the cakes and placed them on the plate one by one.
He took out a frying pan and heated some oil. When the oil had heated up, he put the glutinous rice cakes in the pan and let it fry on medium heat. The glutinous rice cakes were suddenly surrounded by a ring of oil bubbles and sizzling sounds could be heard for a while. The bottom of the cakes slowly turned golden. Ruan Tang added a little water to the pan, covered it with the lid and let it continue to fry. He waited until the water had mostly evaporated before turning it over and frying the other side. Not long after, the glutinous rice cake became golden on both sides, and when it began to develop a slight char, it was ready to be taken out of the pan.
“When you add water, don’t pour it over the cake, add it around the edge.” This time, Ruan Tang didn’t only let them observe the demonstration, he also explained to them the details they needed to pay attention to. He wanted them to succeed on their first try. “Do you see?”
“Yes!”
“Well, come over and try it.” He put the freshly done meaty glutinous rice cakes on a plate for his apprentices to try.
The crispy golden meaty glutinous rice cakes exuded a tempting aroma, not a lot, but just enough.
The meaty glutinous rice cakes were relatively small. Because they had used the softer and more fragrant glutinous rice flour instead of wheat flour, once fried, the outer layer would be crisp while it was still tender inside. It’s texture was soft and it had a bit of sweetness. The stickiness of the glutinous rice together with the tastiness of the meat — it was simply delicious. With just one bite, the meaty juices would fill your mouth.
“It’s delicious! It’s so delicious!” Several people wolfed down their food, evidently enjoying the taste of this meaty glutinous rice cake.
“Once you’re done eating, you can try making it yourself. Try to get it right on the first try!”
“Yes!”
These soldiers had great strength. Whether it was mincing meat or kneading dough, there was no problem. However, they weren’t so confident when it came to adding the seasoning. They were afraid that adding too much or too little would affect the taste.
Ruan Tang saw the problem and after thinking about it, said, “Two spoons of scallion-ginger juice, one spoonful of soy sauce, and half a spoonful of salt.”
With the spoon as the unit of measurement, everyone now had a basis. Their movements became even faster and soon they were already frying their cakes.
When adding water along the side of the pan, the oil will inevitably explode in small bursts. But these people had no reaction, they didn’t even try to dodge the oil.
Soon, meaty glutinous rice cakes were being fished out of the pan one after the other. In terms of outward appearance there were no big problems, all that was left was to taste them.
Ruan Tang took a knife and cut a small piece from each one to taste. After all, glutinous rice was a heavy staple food, if he didn’t only eat a small portion, there was no way he’d be able to eat all six cakes.
Zhao Guangming and Wang Jun did the best. The two most important elements — the taste of the filling and the texture of the glutinous rice cake, crispy on the outside but sticky and soft on the inside, were both executed well. Although the others were somewhat lacking in their control of the heat, their end products could be considered as passable. In particular, the round-faced Liu Haitao and the soldier who was a bit lacking in culinary talent, Cui Liang gave a good showing today.
“Everyone did very well, keep it up!” Ruan Tang wasn’t at all stingy in praising everyone. He then let everyone who hadn’t eaten their fill yet, eat some more.
After everyone was full, they entered the second stage of the lesson. This time, it was also a relatively simple beginner level dish — hot and sour shredded potato.
There was almost no difficulty to this dish. The only thing that needed to be tested was the knife skills. Looking at the awkward movements of these soldiers as they peeled the potatoes, Ruan Tang really wanted to laugh. In particular, Xue Rui, who had consistently performed well, had already peeled his potato until it looked like it had been gnawed on by a dog. It looked very sorry indeed.
Just as he was patiently teaching his apprentices, the star network had already exploded.
After two days of cold treatment, because Wei Zhuo was too late in digging up any new allegations, the enthusiasm for this incident had died down quite a bit and many of the netizens had begun to return to reason. They began to doubt why Ruan Tang hiding his identity was considered a malicious act. After all, according to ordinary logic, this was clearly a good selling point to attract fans. Not only was he a film emperor, he was also a four-star chef. Any other celebrity would have issued an entire network release.
After thinking about it, it was Wei Zhuo’s Weibo post that was too misleading. Underneath all this was a water army that swept the netizens up in their tempo and led their thoughts astray. Another factor was that Ruan Tang had shot to fame too fast, although he had a lot of fans, he had very few true fans. So in the face of the water army’s tempo, they were easily swept away.
At the time when public opinion had begun to question matters, the Empire’s most celebrated, first rate lawyer, Zhou Jing, issued a post on Weibo, expressing that he will be representing the four-star chef Ruan Tang in filing a lawsuit against Wei Zhuo. This immediately reignited the interest of the netizens.
“Zhou Jing V: I am authorized by Mr. Ruan to file a lawsuit on his behalf for the infringement of trade secrets and personal privacy. [Photo][Photo]@ Ruan Tang Zhuo V”
Of the two pictures attached, one was a power of attorney and the other was a formal lawyer’s letter. In the lawyer’s letter, Wei Zhuo’s illegal collection of information regarding a contract covered by a confidentiality agreement and the illegal collection of the hospital’s medical records were all stated, rending him unable to refute.
According to the serial number of the lawyer’s letter, it could be seen that Zhou Jing had already registered and filed this case in the Imperial Court, indicating that they were serious in proceeding with this lawsuit and they weren’t just deliberately scaring people.
“Zhou Jing V: [picture] [picture] [picture], for deliberately ruining someone’s reputation @Gossip King @Come eat Melon Seeds with Me @Vast Media... We have also filed lawsuits.”
Not waiting for everyone to return to their senses, Zhou Jing sent another Weibo post, this time informing those marketing accounts that had help Wei Zhuo to establish his rhythm that lawsuits have also been filed against them.
Zhou Jing’s strong attitude made Wei Zhuo and his men panic. They didn’t think that that business contract had been covered by a confidentiality agreement. They thought having an insider take a picture of that contract had been their smartest move. They never thought that it would be the stone that would smash their own feet. For a time, these media outlets began to madly delete their posts and issue apologies, but Zhou Jing was like the devil and he followed it with another Weibo post.
“Zhou Jing V: All Weibo content has been backed up and notarized. [Image][Picture][Picture]”
Who would have thought that Zhou Jing seemed to have long expected that they would delete their previous posts, and had already archived and notarized their statements? Such a reversal of fortunes, suddenly made the netizens pick up their melons seeds and become spectators.
[I want to eat late at night: hahahaha, I laughed so hard, I couldn’t talk [doge]]
[Eating herbal pills: May I ask @Wei Zhuo V? Does your face hurt? ]
[Ba ba V: Hahahaha, I could die from laughing. Wei Zhuo: I don’t dare to break any sensational news anymore! ]
Because Wei Zhuo’s marketing accounts had been jumping about the past two days but was still unable to find any scandalous material, while on the other hand Ruan Tang had turned even quieter, now, the situation had unexpectedly turned and they were now on the receiving end of public opinion’s backlash.
However, they couldn’t just remain with their hands tied waiting to be captured. Although they were more or less done for regarding the issue of infringement, they wouldn’t be satisfied if they can’t take a bite out of Ruan Tang as well.
Breaking out of their pretenses, their statements were now ever more straightforward.
“Wei Zhuo V: An honest man doesn’t make insinuations, I will ask you directly. @Ruan Tang V, I will be so bold as to ask you. You were an actor who has entered the entertainment industry from a young age and you had devoted your entire life to conscientiously study acting, how did you suddenly awaken your extraordinary cooking skills. So many new ingredients, don’t tell me you knew how to cook them with just one look? So many never before seen dishes and cooking methods, don’t tell me you are just that gifted? Or could it be that you have some unspeakable secret!]
The most doubtful aspect about Ruan Tang was his extraordinary cooking skills. After all, his cooking techniques and speed at innovating was simply too magical. It had completely exceeded the current level of development of the interstellar world’s culinary industry.
[Can’t stop hugging trees: I am suffocating, when had it become wrong to be so good?]
But no matter what, the way most people saw it, this kind of “ability” was unusual and shouldn’t exist. Although public opinion would no longer attack Ruan Tang, it was inevitable that many people would still be whispering regarding this matter.
At this time, the Academy of Sciences officially but quietly changed its name and published a new post.
“The Unspeakable Academy of Sciences V: With the help of the consultant of the Academy of Sciences @Ruan Tang V, the shopping site is proud to introduce three unique sauces, and a new batch of processed ingredients will also be launched soon, so stay tuned!”