Chapter 514: Yearning for Life

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Meng Gui had been in Carefree City for more than a year. In this year, he had personally witnessed the rapid development of Carefree City.

In a short period of time, the construction materials workshop he was in had undergone a tremendous change.

There were also many cement factories, wood factories, furniture factories, steel rebar factories…

When he entered the workshop, his monthly salary was two taels of silver. When there were many orders in the workshop, he could earn four taels of silver a month by working overtime.

Seeing that others were fighting to take out loans to buy a house, he thought that the work in the workshop was stable, so he also took out a loan for a two-bedroom house.

Although he was happy to have a house, the debt was weighing on his heart. It also gave him the intention to open up another channel to earn money.

Especially after knowing that his colleague had set up a stall to sell clothes at night and earned a lot of money, he became even more anxious to earn money.

He was short. Even if he bought a house, although the southern frontier was now monogamous, there were more men than women. Until now, no one liked him.

If he could earn more money, he might be able to get a wife.

He also tried to go to the clothing factory to sell some clothes, but he had poor taste and he was not likable with his words. When the season passed, he did not sell many clothes.

After the clearance sale, he even lost some money in the end.

Because of this, Meng Gui was even mocked by his colleagues that he was envious of everything, but was useless and a fool.

Meng Gui endured it but swore in his heart that he would make a name for himself and impress everyone.

Every day after that, he would go to the night market to observe carefully what he could do.

Soon, he realized that the snack stall in the night market was also doing very well.

Suddenly, he thought of the fact that some workshops had a canteen, while others did not. Many people needed to eat at noon and often ate in the canteen. Since they had to spend money anyway, they would want to change their food options outside.

Meng Gui suddenly had the idea of setting up a stall outside the workshop.

Before Meng Gui came to the Southern Frontier, he was working in an inn. Later on, his business was really poor and he could not afford to support his workers. He had nowhere to go, but he did not want to sell himself as a slave, so he signed up for the Southern Frontier.

He studied in the kitchen and knew a few home-cooked dishes.

He thought that his culinary skills were not inferior to that of the canteen. If he could set up a stall, he would definitely be able to earn money with the daily traffic of the workshop.

However, in order to be safe, Meng Gui still decided to make a signature dish for himself.

When he saw that the roast duck shop was doing well, he wondered what kind of duck he could make.

Stewed duck and roasted duck still felt a little ordinary. Suddenly, he saw someone selling tea eggs.

Meng Gui immediately bought two tea eggs and tasted them carefully.

The salty tea egg was very fragrant and gave him inspiration.

Perhaps he could use the secret recipe for tea eggs to make ducks.

For this, he spent a lot of money to buy the recipe for the tea egg with five taels of silver.

For the first time, the duck that he had braised with the tea egg formula tasted very light and tasteless.

He felt that it was a matter of proportion, so he increased the dosage of the tea egg formula.

However, the taste of the duck still did not meet expectations.

When he went to the canteen to eat, he suddenly ate a plate of very delicious pickled fish.

Inspiration popped up in his mind.

Would it be enough to soak and marinate the duck in advance before braising it?

He left work in a hurry and returned to the apartment to experiment again.

Moreover, he added the tea egg formula to the oyster sauce and soya sauce newly developed from the food factories.

The next day, before the braised ducks could come out of the pot, the entire apartment emitted an irresistible fragrance.

The neighbors surrounded him and asked, “Meng Gui, what are you making? It is too fragrant for us. Can you give me a taste too?”

In the past, Meng Gui would definitely not be willing to share food with them.

However, he needed everyone’s opinions and comments now, so he smiled and said, “It’s not cooked yet. When it’s ready later, everyone can try a little.”

Hearing Meng Gui’s words, everyone hurriedly moved the stool and sat in the corridor of the apartment, waiting for Meng Gui’s braised duck to be ready.

After a while, the fragrance became stronger. Even the dormitory manager ran up and waited to take a bite.

Looking at so many people surrounding him, Meng Gui seemed to envision many customers surrounding his stall and constantly throwing money into the money box. His anticipation for the braised duck in the pot increased.

Finally, Meng Gui felt that it was time.

The moment he lifted the lid of the pot and scooped up the braised duck, the golden and shiny duck looked extremely tempting.

Everyone swallowed and couldn’t help but say, “It smells so good. It’s really too fragrant. I didn’t expect the quiet Meng Gui to have such amazing skills.”

When Meng Gui heard this, he was extremely happy.

He had braised a total of two ducks and cut them up like others. In the end, his skills were too lousy and everyone urged him. He might as well chop them up and fill the plates haphazardly.

He brought it to the dormitory manager first. The dormitory manager was very satisfied that he knew to serve him first. He picked it up and tasted it. Suddenly, his eyes widened, scaring Meng Gui a little. “Does it taste bad?”

The dormitory manager said excitedly, “This is too delicious!” He wanted to try another piece, but when he looked at the people behind him, he retracted his hand and asked, “I’ll give you a duck. Can you help me braise it?” Then he said, “I won’t let you do it for nothing. Help me braise one. I’ll give you 20 copper coins.”

20 copper coins was a lot of money. The other party was the dormitory manager, so how could Meng Gui accept it? He kept rejecting it.

The Imperial Court was very strict about corruption and bribery. If someone reported that he had used his authority to get someone to braise duck without paying, even if he was not fired, it would be a huge problem.

The dormitory manager said firmly, “If you don’t accept it, forget it. I won’t look for you to braise duck.”

Since the dormitory manager had already said so much, if Meng Gui did not accept it, he would have offended him.

He quickly accepted the money. He was also very happy. The fact that the braised duck could be recognized by the dormitory manager meant that it would definitely become the signature dish of the stall.

When the neighbors tasted it, they all praised Meng Gui’s culinary skills and said that he could even open a restaurant.

This gave Meng Gui great confidence.

That day, he wondered where he could set up a stall at the entrance of the workshop.

He realized that there was the greatest traffic at the crossroads of the workshop. After confirming that he would not be chased away at that spot, he went to the market to buy a cart.

Then, he went to buy the wooden stools, rice buckets, pots, bowls, and other things needed to set up the stall.

In order to have a place to park the cart and cook, he even rented a family’s villa courtyard.

This time, the investment was huge and the preparations were sufficient. He looked at the various vegetables he had bought with a firm gaze. If he did not succeed this time, he would obediently work in the workshop in the future and trouble himself again.

On the day of Meng Gui’s vacation, he pushed his cart and carried all his hope to the entrance of the workshop.

At this moment, everyone had already entered the workshop to start work. There were not many people on the way.

Meng Gui took everything down from the cart and set up pot to heat up the rice. Then, he stir-fried a few home-cooked dishes and poured them into the large iron plate to accompany the braised duck that had just been cooked.

The tempting dishes instantly attracted many passers-by..