Chapter 69 - Date

A week had gone by since the day at the factory. The police had scoured the entire factory building and around the factory but didn't find a single trace about the people Wang Ming had talked about. But since the police found Gang Gou's body in the room, they investigated HouZi Gang, sadly they didn't have any proof. So the only thing the police could do was to interrupt HouZi Gang's businesses and launch an investigation, which led nowhere.

Weng Ting survived the incident, but he's badly injure and will probably be bedridden for six months. As for Uncle Weng, they had found him in the back alley behind his shop. A baseball bat hit him to the back of the head, but the hit wasn't too strong, so he only fainted and didn't sustain a severe injury.

If the hit had just been stronger, then with Uncle Weng's age he probably would have been dead. The police sadly didn't get any information out of the couple either, as both of them only saw a man with a mask on. Weng Ting tried to rat out his friend Bo Hou Zhang as the one instigating everything, but with zero evidence, the police didn't believe him.

Wang Ming's injury had healed well, way better than the doctor thought it would. Only after four days, he could go without bandaging his head. The wound had closed and only needed more time to heal, though his ear didn't fully heal until a full week had passed.

He scheduled the date with Lang Lin and Fu Ya to be today. This wasn't just a date but also a celebration that he's recovered. This past week had been pretty bad, as Wang Ming wanted to work in the restaurant, but he kept getting headaches and felt excruciating pain in his ears, not only this but his ears also discharged blood.

But after today he could finally work at the restaurant again, the doctor had cleared him to work, which is why he's even more excited today.

Wang Ming had wanted to go out to eat, but realized that they could just eat in his restaurant. He's a chef. There was no reason for them to go out to eat unless they wanted to eat something special, Wang Ming could just make the food.

Fu Ya and Ming Ming had arrived at his restaurant early even though he had scheduled the date to be at 6pm, they had already arrived at 4.30. Fu Ya had explained it with Ming Ming caught wind of Wang Ming inviting them to his restaurant, so she wanted to come as soon as possible.

When they arrived Ming Ming instantly hugged Wang Ming's legs and wanted him to carry her. It was then she also saw Wang Ming's wound, even though it had healed, mostly. You could still see raw flesh, which had still not healed. When Ming Ming first saw his injury, she kept crying for five minutes straight.

Wang Ming tried to calm her by saying he was ok, sadly she didn't want to stop. Even Fu Ya tried to calm her down, stroking her back but nothing worked, she had never seen Ming Ming act up like this.

But luckily after 5 minutes she ran out of tears, standing on Wang Ming's forearm, Ming Ming kissed his forehead and tried to say in a soothing voice, but she had hiccups.

"Da 'Hicc' ddy, It's ok 'Hicc' Ming Ming's here! 'Hicc' I love you."

Ming Ming kept kissing Wang Ming's forehead to make his pain go away. Though Wang Ming barely felt the wound now as long as he didn't touch it. Hugging Ming Ming, it was Wang Ming's time to kiss her. He showered her bubble cheeks with kisses and even tickled her, which made her scream.

"Daddy! Stop, please. Ming Ming will be good, stop tickling meeee!"

Hearing her beg for mercy, Wang Ming stopped. But seeing her pitiful face, he couldn't help but laugh. Hugging her again Wang Ming said.

"Ming Ming's the best! Do you want to eat some seafood today?"

Seeing her nod multiple times, Wang Ming felt satisfied.

"Okay, then today I'll make you some stir-fried noodles with shrimp and king crab. Is that ok with you Fu Ya?"

"That's perfectly fine, Ming Ming has never eaten seafood before, so this is going to be a special moment for her."

Pinching Ming Ming's cheek, Wang Ming said.

"Then, I will make this the best seafood dish you will ever eat, little girl."

Ming Ming just nodded and went to play with her mother.

Walking into his kitchen, Wang Ming felt so good. He had cooked nothing this past week. He was afraid that he could never serve someone ever again. But he had settled all the victims, even the lady who had tried to slap him, gave up the case after she got the police report.

Wang Ming wasn't sure what to make today, but earlier this morning he had seen some frozen king crab the sellers had caught this morning. After hearing the price, Wang Ming had to buy it, since these crabs were smaller than normal, Wang Ming got them at 100 yuan a kg which is half of the normal price. He bought four, one for each of them.

Though he wouldn't need the head part for this recipe which is a delicacy for many Chinese People, but only used the legs and claw.

Cooking the egg noodles up Wang Ming made everything else ready. He cut up some onions, green pepper, garlic and then peeled the shrimp he had thawed earlier today. He also had to cut open the top of the shrimp to take out its digestive tract, shrimps has a vein on the top which can taste bitter. You can eat a shrimp without doing this, but to give Ming Ming her best experience, he cut it.

Then Wang Ming cut open the crab legs and claws to extract the meat inside. He didn't want to use the crab innards, as he was afraid that the taste would be too intense for Ming Ming.

It didn't take long before everything was ready for cooking. The egg noodles only took 10 minutes before it finished. Wang Ming wanted to do only a basic Lo Mein (Dish with egg noodles), but since this was the first time Ming Ming eats seafood, he wanted to make it special.

The Lo Mein dish itself is very easy to make, stir-fry any greens that's not used as a garnish with the meat, then add condiments and you're done. But Wang Ming would add his own spin to the traditional dish. It isn't something unheard of.

Wang Ming started off by stir frying the ginger, green onions, peppers, bokchoy and some mushrooms, with the crab and shrimp. To this he added just a tad bit of sesame oil, sugar, water, cornstarch and fish sauce to flavor the crab and shrimp.

It only took 5 minutes for the sauce to thicken up, Ming Ming and Fu Ya could smell the smell from 10 meters away and it smelled delicious. Ming Ming couldn't hold her curiosity, so she ran towards Wang Ming to check what he was cooking. But she wasn't tall enough to look inside the pan, her head was almost a foot too low.

"Daddy! Let me see, let me see!"

Wang Ming doesn't like that people interrupt him when he's cooking. But since it's Ming Ming he made an exception, grabbing her and putting her over his shoulder Ming Ming could now clearly see what Wang Ming was cooking.

"Mom! See, I'm so tall. Daddy's cooking looks so good!"

"Be careful that you don't fall off and don't salivate into the food!"

Seeing Ming Ming having so much fun, Fu Ya couldn't help but tease her a bit.

"Ah, I won't!"

Ming Ming then held her hands over her mouth so that nothing would leak out. Wang Ming laughed, seeing the funny interaction between the pair.

"See here Ming Ming, I've stir-fried the ingredients, now the sauce is really thick it's going to taste great. But this isn't all you like noodles, right?"

Feeling her nod over him, Wang Ming then said.

"Good girl, here now I'm going to add the noodle, but then I'm going to add a secret ingredient! I'm going to add soy sauce, but not only one type three types! This is light soy sauce, here Ming Ming. It's used for dipping, but also great for marinade. Then it's the dark soy sauce, only because its name is dark doesn't mean the taste is heavier than the light soy sauce. It's actually less salty, but has a much darker color, it's used for marinades and giving dishes a dark color. But the best part about using dark soy sauce is that it has a strong umami flavor which enhances the flavor of the dish with a big margin."

Ming Ming kept nodding her head but didn't understand much, but since Wang Ming was so engrossed in his explanation he didn't even realize.

"Then Ming Ming! My surprise to you today to make everything even better, I have Xi Zai Qing! It's the best soy sauce you can get on the market, it's made with premium beans and they ferment it longer. But with this I need to cook it fast on low heat, that's why I cooked the meat earlier. Since high heat warps the taste of this soy sauce, it costs 30 times the normal soy sauce and even if you have the money, it's hard to get."

Letting Ming Ming down Wang Ming realized she had a blank expression, it seemed like all his talk had made her confused. Ruffling her hair, he apologized.

"Sorry, Ming Ming for boring you little girl."

"No! Daddy is funny, but. Ming Ming only loves to eat, she can't cook."

"It's fine, lets eat. I'm finished with the dish."

Wang Ming had used a large wok, so it was more than enough meat and noodles for four persons, but the clock was 6.10 but Lang Lin was still not here.