Chapter 115: Operation Proposal

While Cheng Xiaoyu was singing and playing with complete concentration, he failed to notice that the camera had already made a full circuit around the restaurant, lingering particularly long on his table. After all, everyone loved looking at beautiful women, and visual appeal had always been the eternal theme of television.

When Cheng Xiaoyu finished singing and playing “Cute Woman,” the applause that erupted throughout the restaurant was even louder than the applause that had greeted the successful marriage proposal.

Cheng Xiaoyu rose and bowed in thanks. As he turned around, he suddenly noticed a middle-aged man pointing a camera at him, which startled him. Beside the cameraman, a female host with her hair pinned up and wearing a pink dress immediately raised her microphone.

“Hello, young man. We’re from Oriental TV’s Marriage Proposal Battle. Have you ever watched our program?”

Faced with the sudden situation, Cheng Xiaoyu was at a loss and could only shake his head blankly.

“My studies are rather demanding, so I usually don’t have much time to watch television.”

The hostess did not seem to mind and continued, “Judging by your school uniform, you attend the Affiliated High School of Fudan University, don’t you?”

Cheng Xiaoyu could only nod.

“What grade are you in?”

Only then did Cheng Xiaoyu realize that this was not a recorded video but a live television broadcast.

“Senior year.”

The hostess made an exaggerated “Oh!” expression, as though everything had turned out exactly as expected, then continued, “Wow, then let me wish you success in your college entrance examinations. Did you go up there to sing and play a song because you were moved by the romantic proposal and wanted to offer your blessings?”

Cheng Xiaoyu smiled.

“First, thank you for your kind wishes. Yes, the proposal was very touching, and it happened to be my friend’s birthday as well, so I took the liberty of asking the restaurant manager for permission to go up and play a song.”

The hostess pointed toward Su Yuxi and Xu Qinning.

“Is that their table?”

Cheng Xiaoyu nodded.

The camera turned in that direction as well.

The hostess immediately called for the cameraman to follow, no longer paying attention to Cheng Xiaoyu. Clearly, beautiful women held a greater attraction.

However, before the camera could reach them, Su Yuxi waved to indicate that she did not wish to be interviewed. She took Xu Qinning by the hand, led her around the camera, and walked toward Cheng Xiaoyu.

The hostess watched the two girls with an expression of regret. If she could interview beauties like them, the show’s ratings would probably rise by several percentage points.

Seeing that Su Yuxi had not even finished her meal and was signaling that they should leave, Cheng Xiaoyu went to the front desk to pay. Clearly, Su Yuxi had no desire to remain there any longer.

Juan, the Italian manager of Turandot Restaurant, saw Cheng Xiaoyu approaching to settle the bill and hurriedly applauded.

“Bravo, bravo! I don’t know how good your piano playing is, but your singing was absolutely wonderful. Would you be interested in performing regularly at our restaurant? The pay is excellent!”

Cheng Xiaoyu smiled and shook his head.

“Thank you for the compliment, but I’m still a student. I don’t have time to perform for the moment.”

As he spoke, he took out his wallet and produced a card.

Juan smiled.

“That’s such a shame. If you ever feel like performing during your holidays, you’re welcome to come find me. I’ll give you half off tonight’s dinner. Don’t think that’s nothing—our restaurant never offers discounts. Your music simply moved me too much.”

Cheng Xiaoyu smiled and expressed his thanks before paying by card. The discount was indeed substantial. The three of them had spent nearly two thousand yuan, but after the discount, the bill came to just over nine hundred.

After saying goodbye to the manager, Cheng Xiaoyu left with Juan’s business card in his pocket.

Xu Qinning and Su Yuxi stood hand in hand at the entrance of the restaurant, waiting for him.

Xu Qinning’s face was radiant with happiness. To her, this was an extraordinarily special birthday gift, more precious than any jewelry she had ever received.

Holding Su Yuxi’s hand with one hand and linking her arm through Cheng Xiaoyu’s with the other, Xu Qinning said, “I love this song, ‘Cute Woman,’ so much. Brother Xiaoyu, you absolutely have to teach me how to sing it. This song was a gift for me, wasn’t it? You’re not allowed to sing it for any other girl!”

After saying this, Xu Qinning felt her cheeks grow hot and her heart race. She immediately regretted speaking so bluntly. Had she been too forward? Would Cheng Xiaoyu misunderstand what she meant?

Before Cheng Xiaoyu could answer, Su Yuxi spoke first.

“I’m still hungry. Shouldn’t we go eat something else?”

As she spoke, she turned her head slightly toward Cheng Xiaoyu and Xu Qinning, as though asking for their opinions.

Cheng Xiaoyu naturally had no objection to his little sister’s suggestion.

“Me too. I barely ate anything just now.”

They had left before the main courses were served, so they really had not eaten their fill.

Seeing Su Yuxi naturally steer the conversation elsewhere, Xu Qinning breathed a sigh of relief. She was glad that no one had noticed how suggestive her words had sounded. Once she relaxed, she suddenly remembered that Cheng Xiaoyu had said he liked men.

Thinking of Su Yuxi’s family, which had only one son, she felt that Cheng Xiaoyu truly should not irresponsibly walk down such an irreversible path. She felt obligated to correct him. After all, he was the elder brother of her very best friend.

The three of them entered the elevator and began discussing where they should go to eat. The two girls naturally left the decision to Cheng Xiaoyu, provided they did not have another elaborate meal.

In Cheng Xiaoyu’s memories, the only place in Shanghai known for snacks was the City God Temple. He also knew that, as a tourist attraction, the food there would probably be merely average. He therefore asked Su Yuxi and Xu Qinning, “Do either of you know of any other famous snack streets in Shanghai?”

Both girls shook their heads.

Su Yuxi had never cared what she ate or whether it tasted good. As far as she was concerned, being full was enough.

Xu Qinning, meanwhile, had practically never had the chance to visit places like snack streets. The only time her father had ever taken her to a park was on her ninth birthday. He had gone with her and her maternal aunt, accompanied by six or seven members of his staff. Her father had reserved the entire park in advance, so the vast grounds contained no one but his secretary, who ran around with Xu Qinning and took her to whichever attractions she wanted.

After that, Xu Qinning never asked to go to a park again. She also disliked her father’s secretary, that foxlike woman whose body seemed saturated with her father’s scent.

With no other option, Cheng Xiaoyu suggested the City God Temple. It was not particularly far from Jinding Tower. After passing through the Renmin Road Tunnel, they would arrive in no time, making it quite convenient.

Cheng Xiaoyu had expected his suggestion to be met with disdain. Instead, Xu Qinning became rather excited. As a native of Shanghai, she had never even passed through the City God Temple, let alone gone inside.

Su Yuxi had been there once, but she disliked crowded places and had never returned. She had gone only because Su Hongwen and Su Feifei had visited Shanghai during the summer vacation, and Zhou Peipei had taken them there.

Shanghai’s City God Temple was first built during the Yongle era of the Ming Dynasty. The old temple stood beside Yuyuan Garden, in the commercial heart of Shanghai’s old city. Even today, the area retained the ancient character of a Chinese town and marketplace. Almost every visitor, Chinese or foreign, who came to Shanghai made a trip to the City God Temple.

The district was famous for its many Shanghai-style snacks: the specialty pastries at Green Wave Corridor, the vegetarian buns at Songyue House, the Eight-Treasure Rice at Songyun House, Nanxiang steamed dumplings, Ningbo rice cakes, fermented-rice dumplings, and countless other delicacies that no visitor to Shanghai could afford to miss.

Besides its local specialties, the City God Temple area also brimmed with flavors from every corner of the country. Along the winding old streets stood restaurants, dining halls, and food shops of every description. Amid the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds, people could be seen everywhere carrying freshly steamed buns and flaky pastries. All of this made the district yet another enduring “culinary paradise” in Shanghai.

Its tempting flavors continually embodied the essence of old temple snacks and Shanghai-style cuisine. In this historic landmark, rich with ancient charm and woven through with streams of visitors, those distinctive flavors continued to deepen and flourish.

When visiting Shanghai’s City God Temple for snacks, there were two essential things to do: eat crab-roe steamed dumplings at Nanxiang Steamed Bun Restaurant and drink tea at Huxinting Teahouse. In Shanghai, the word “mantou” did not refer to a plain steamed bun, but rather to what was traditionally called a filled bun.

With Su Yuxi and Xu Qinning on either side of him, Cheng Xiaoyu walked through the crowded City God Temple. Since they had not stayed long at the Italian restaurant, it was only a little after seven, nearly eight o’clock, and the dining crowds were still substantial. Most of China’s popular tourist attractions never seemed to have a quiet moment.

The appearance of Su Yuxi and Xu Qinning in this famous Shanghai landmark instantly became a spectacle in its own right. They had barely walked a few steps before several groups of foreign tourists approached to ask for photographs.

Following the Chinese tradition of warmth and hospitality, the two girls found it difficult to refuse too firmly. Poor Cheng Xiaoyu, however, had to take every picture. Whenever he called out, “Say cheese!” the foreigners would stare at him with bewildered, adorably blank expressions.

Chinese people, on the other hand, were generally too reserved to ask for photographs. Yet as the two girls walked down the street, countless flashes lit up around them. People took surreptitious photographs with absolutely no restraint.

With no alternative, Cheng Xiaoyu casually chose a restaurant called Little Changzhou, known for pork ribs with rice cakes. He planned to eat something quickly and leave. If they continued walking, he felt certain he would appear on the front page of the next day’s newspapers.

The restaurant was fairly spacious. A counter for ordering stood immediately inside the entrance. Cheng Xiaoyu glanced over the menu, consulted the two girls, and ordered three pork-rib-and-rice-cake set meals. After paying, the three of them found a table and sat down.

The restaurant was quite busy at that hour. Cheng Xiaoyu noticed that there was also a second floor. The overall decor was already quite old, but that only enhanced its old-Shanghai character. The waiters possessed the unmistakable air of employees from a state-run establishment.

Cheng Xiaoyu found that manner strangely familiar and thought with a sigh that it ought to be declared an intangible cultural heritage.

Pork ribs with rice cakes were an inexpensive snack unique to Shanghai. Little Changzhou prepared the dish using pork spine meat from Changzhou, Wuxi, and the surrounding regions. The meat was marinated in soy sauce, then blanched in a wok of oil mixed with soy sauce, sugar, scallions, ginger, and wine. It was removed once it had turned purplish red, its texture was tender, and its fragrance had fully developed.

At the same time, Songjiang rice was cooked and placed in a stone mortar, where it was repeatedly pounded with a mallet. Once the rice had been beaten until no whole grains remained, it was removed and cut into twenty pieces for every five hundred grams. Each piece was wrapped around a small portion of the blanched ribs, then returned to the wok of seasoned oil and sauce to cook.

When served, the dish was sprinkled with five-spice powder. The result combined the rich fragrance of pork ribs with the soft, chewy crispness of rice cakes. It was exceptionally delicious.

The food at Little Changzhou arrived quickly. A waiter placed three white plates on the table. Cheng Xiaoyu looked down and saw one rib and two pieces of rice cake on each plate.

The “rib” was not the kind of bone-in rib northerners generally imagined. It looked more like a meat patty. There was still bone inside, but to a devoted carnivore like Cheng Xiaoyu, it was genuinely delicious.

Who would have thought that rice cakes and pork ribs—two things that seemed utterly unrelated—could be combined into something so tasty? It was nothing short of miraculous.

People in Shanghai always ate pork ribs with rice cakes dipped in spicy soy sauce. Every table had a bottle of it.

Cheng Xiaoyu did not understand this custom, and neither did Xu Qinning. Only Su Yuxi knew what to do. With a calm expression, she sprinkled spicy soy sauce over the ribs, which gleamed with a golden sheen.

Cheng Xiaoyu followed her example and poured a generous amount over his own rib. It really did taste much better. The slightly sour, mildly spicy sauce cut through the richness of the fried rib and brought out its flavor. The palm-sized rib was coated in a thin layer of batter, while the meat inside was tender and springy. One bite released a burst of juice. It was truly delicious.

Xu Qinning rarely ate such unhealthy food. This was her first time trying it, and the high-calorie, high-fat dish stunned her with its deliciousness. She stared at Cheng Xiaoyu in astonishment.

Looking at her expression of complete satisfaction, Cheng Xiaoyu wondered whether taking her to KFC or McDonald’s to eat junk food would make her even more impressed.

(Thanks for the generous tips from Pure and Kind Little Pervert, Nightwood Wind, and Fallen Wind! Writing this left me hungry too, so I’m going to make some instant noodles to calm myself down. Speaking of instant noodles, they absolutely have to be boiled. Instant noodles prepared merely by soaking are truly hard to swallow. I used to think the best instant noodles were Shin Ramyun, the boiled kind. There is also a Thai brand with a sour and spicy flavor that tastes quite good. These days, I think the pickled-cabbage-flavored sauce noodles are excellent. Japanese and Hong Kong instant noodles are not really to my taste—they are too light. I still haven’t tried the Singaporean instant noodles people recommend online. If I get the chance, I’ll be sure to tell everyone what I think. Forgive me for spending so many paragraphs writing about food. I’ve said before that the only things in life that must never be let down are food and love. I hope chapters like this don’t seem too dull to everyone. Hopefully they’ll make you feel a little hungry too. Haha!)