Chapter 714: Stir-frying Tea Leaves

“Cough. Thank you, System, for contributing toward my path of becoming a Master Chef,” Yuan Zhou did not directly check the new ingredients; rather, he earnestly thanked the system.

After saying that, Yuan Zhou went looking for the new ingredients.

On a small cabinet door, Yuan Zhou saw a huge character of “tea” written there. The “tea” here was written in archaic seal script, giving it an ancient feeling.

“Nicely written,” Yuan Zhou took a bit of time to look at the word before opening the cabinet.

“Eh, no. I have yet to put on the gloves,” Yuan Zhou recalled that he did not have any gloves on, nor had he washed his hands. Therefore, he immediately went to wash his hands and put on a pair of gloves.

Of course, the pair of gloves were provided by the system as well. It was very light and fitted him nicely. It did not affect his sense of touch, but Yuan Zhou still rarely wore it.

But this time, he needed to touch the tea leaves. That was why he used the gloves. Moreover, he only used one of the gloves and wore it on only one of his hands. With that, he ensured that not a single trace of foreign smell was left on the tea leaves, retaining the purity of the tea leaves’ smell.

“Everything is ready now,” Yuan Zhou opened the door with his left hand that did not have a glove on.

Immediately, his face was blasted by a fresh scent. The smell was like orchids, fresh and pleasant.

“Wow, it’s quite refreshing,” Yuan Zhou carefully used his hand with the glove on to lightly grab a handful of tea leaves and placed them into a bowl he had prepared beforehand.

Of course, after grabbing three handfuls of tea leaves, Yuan Zhou closed the cabinet. He did not allow more of the scent to escape from the cabinet.

The bowl used by Yuan Zhou was a white bowl with no markings on it, forming a contrast with the lush green Longjing tea leaves in the bowl.

That’s right, the tea leaves he was given was the Longjing Tea. Yuan Zhou was able to recognize it.

“It is indeed a Pre-Ming Longjing Tea. Last time the system even mentioned there were only a couple kilograms of these available,” Yuan Zhou berated softly.

The system displayed, “A new spring has arrived. These are newly harvested tea leaves.”

It was quite rare for the system to give an explanation that did not really explain anything.

“Yeah, yeah, system, you are omnipotent,” Yuan Zhou flattered the system.

Then, Yuan Zhou shifted his attention to the tea leaves before him.

The tea leaves were smooth, tender, and was a beautiful striped shape. The width of each leaf was the same, and even through the glove, he could still feel the tenderness of the leaves.

Even the point where the leaves were snapped from the plants looked perfectly even, not a single trace of scar could be seen. This caused Yuan Zhou to recall a certain legend.

“Wait a moment, System, these leaves are not picked by unmarried women, right? They are not picked using the lips, right?” Yuan Zhou asked in shock.

The system displayed, “The temperature of a person’s mouth would spoil the layer of membrane surrounding the tea leaves.”

“So that’s a no? Good,” Yuan Zhou heaved a sigh of relief.

Yuan Zhou did not mind if fresh 18 years old girls were used to pick the tea leaves. After all, girls were more gentle when handling the tea leaves. But if it was picking using lips, Yuan Zhou had no interest in something like that.

“Time to boil some water,” Yuan Zhou muttered and started going through the steps of stir-frying tea leaves.

The tea leaves were extremely fresh and tender, to the point the dew left on the leaves were still visible. Therefore, Yuan Zhou did not wash the leaves. Instead, he boiled a pot of water and directly poured the tea leaves inside.

After pouring the tea leaves inside, a dense fresh smell spread out in the water.

Immediately, the restaurant was filled with the fragrance of tea.

“What a pleasant smell,” Yuan Zhou lamented and immediately scooped out the tea leaves with a ladle.

Now, a layer of yellowish green had appeared on the tea leaves. The leaves appeared to have withered slightly, yet still appeared very fresh at the same time. The water in the pot had turned a light dark brown.

The fragrance emanating out of the water was very pleasant to smell.

Whoosh. Whoosh. Yuan Zhou lightly waved his wrist and used the strength of his wrist to filter out any additional moisture on the leaves before putting the leaves onto a plate.

Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh. Yuan Zhou quickly picked up the ingredients he had already prepared before this. Then, he added chili, salt, vinegar, and sugar onto the tea leaves.

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Lastly, Yuan Zhou stirred the tea leaves with a pair of chopsticks.

“Done. Tea Salad. The taste should be quite nice,” Yuan Zhou stared at his own masterpiece in satisfaction.

Just as Yuan Zhou was about to eat it, the system suddenly spoke.

The system displayed, “What is this?”

“Tea Salad. It looks nice, right?” Yuan Zhou nonchalantly answered.

The system displayed, “Host, are you not going to stir-fry the tea leaves?”

“Yeah. These tea leaves have already been stir-fried,” Yuan Zhou nodded seriously.

“Of course, the stir-fry here is not the same as the conventional stir-fry,” Yuan Zhou continued explaining.

The system displayed, “This is Pre-Ming Longjing Tea, and less than one catty is harvested per year. In short, only 500 grams are harvested per year.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. But this dish will only be delicious when good tea leaves are used. The best quality ingredients will turn into the best quality dish,” Yuan Zhou said with a nod.

While Yuan Zhou spoke, he had a smug and proud expression on his face. After all, this Tea Salad really looked good.

The fragrance was very alluring, and it felt as if the dish was urging him to immediately eat it.

The system stayed silent for a long while. Just as Yuan Zhou thought that the system had nothing else to say, suddenly, the system spoke again.

The system displayed, “MMP.”

“System, are you cursing or something?” Yuan Zhou asked in astonishment.

The system did not respond. Yuan Zhou asked again.

“Wow, so you know how to curse?”

“No, that isn’t right. How can you curse?”

However, it was as if the system was dead. It did not give any response whatsoever.

“The system isn’t dying for real, right?” Yuan Zhou muttered. But there was still no response from the system.

“Forget it. I’ll focus on trying my Longjing Salad,” Yuan Zhou gave up on questioning the system and decided to continue with what he was doing.

Yuan Zhou picked up some tea leaves with his chopsticks and stuffed them into his mouth.

Before he could even chew on the leaves, the fresh aroma mixed with a spicy taste spread all over his mouth.

Chomp. Chomp. Chomp. He started chewing the leaves. The leaves felt both tender and crispy, and the more he chewed, the more a fresh aroma spread. Not a single bit of pure bitterness could be felt from the leaves.

Rather, a different kind of bitterness could be felt. It was a type of bitterness that was first sweet and subsequently slowly transforming into bitterness. But with the mixture of the sour and spicy taste, the bitterness that emerged after sweetness turned into a distinct flavor instead.

The mixture of various tastes further enriched the taste of the tea leaves.

“It’s delicious. Sure enough, eating tea leaves like this is helpful in refreshing and clearing one’s mind,” Yuan Zhou sighed in satisfaction. He was very satisfied with his masterpiece.

He continued eating without stopping.

The more he ate, the more satisfied he was. One ought to know that Yuan Zhou personally did not like drinking tea. Moreover, the system had only given him a method of preparing Pre-Rain Longjing Tea. Therefore, that was the only method of tea-making Yuan Zhou knew.

But Yuan Zhou still enjoyed eating the tea leaves this way.

“With this, I get to both eat a delicious dish and remove my spring fatigue. I am such a genius,” Yuan Zhou looked at the plate that only had half the Longjing Salad left.

Right this moment, some hurried footsteps sounded. Moreover, it was two pairs of footsteps.

“Boss Yuan, are you here? I come bearing good news,” this forceful voice definitely belonged to the old grandpa.

“Can you run slower? Since the door is opened, Boss Yuan is definitely here,” this was the voice of Wang Shuyuan who hadn’t come for quite a while.

By the way, these two loved eating, but they loved tea more than eating. It was unknown why they had suddenly come.