Chapter 724 - Discovering and Solving the Problem

Yuan Zhou adhered to a strict schedule every single day. Although he was not obsessive enough that he would stick to a precise timing on when to do each day, there was little variation to his schedule.

Therefore, it was extremely rare for Yuan Zhou to still be awake at three in the morning.

People would always say that the brain would be more wide and open at night. Therefore, inspiration would come easier if one thought of something in the dead of the night.

Yuan Zhou ate the eighth bowl of Spring Water Tofu Pudding without adding any sauce.

There was no problem with Yuan Zhou’s cooking skill. Even with his strict standards, this tofu pudding could still be considered a delicacy. Now, he started preparing to make the ninth bowl of tofu pudding.

Tofu puddings would usually be made in a huge pot. If a scoop was used, the tofu pudding would definitely fail to take shape. Normally, in the smaller restaurants, scoops would only be used to take out the finished tofu pudding. At the larger restaurants, pieces of square tofu puddings would be prepared instead.

To determine if a dish was truly delicious, the simplest method was to eat it again and again to see if one would get sick of it.

Therefore, Yuan Zhou’s cooking skill was indeed very good as even after eating eight bowls in a row, the tofu pudding still felt as tender as ever in his mouth. He wasn’t the tiniest bit sick of it.

However, Yuan Zhou had already eaten his dinner before this, and it was quite a large dinner. Therefore, his stomach was currently bulging.

If one overeats, even if one was only eating tofu puddings, one’s stomach would still start to hurt.

Yuan Zhou was lying limply on the chair. As his stomach was hurting, he did not move around much. He had paused his plan of making the ninth bowl of tofu pudding and decided to take a rest first.

“Is there a problem with my brain today? Why do I keep failing to figure out what’s wrong with a single Spring Water Tofu Pudding dish?” Even while lounging on the chair, Yuan Zhou’s brain did not stop working. He started recalling the eight bowls of tofu pudding he had eaten.

The room sank into silence. After a bit of rest, Yuan Zhou’s stomach wasn’t hurting that much anymore. He started preparing the ninth bowl. Yuan Zhou would usually go out on a jog at five thirty in the morning. Even if he skipped that, he still needed to start preparing breakfast at six thirty in the morning as his restaurant would be opened at eight.

In other words, he only had three hours left.

Ten bowls…

Eleven bowls…

Yuan Zhou ate another five bowls of tofu pudding in a row. He analyzed it from every angle he could think of. He had even tried using three different types of brine water. In truth, there were quite a few variations to brine water.

Different regions would have their own method of making tofu pudding. Some would use beef stock, some would use brine water, and the simpler recipes would use gypsum instead. Yuan Zhou had already tried using each of them.

Yuan Zhou had even figured out how to remove the gypsum smell that would usually be unavoidable when cooking using brine water. One could say that Yuan Zhou had already tried his best.

After many tests, Yuan Zhou discovered that the brine water provided by the system had the faintest smell. And after undergoing his filtering process, this brine water no longer had any smell, a perfect brine water.

Furthermore, Yuan Zhou’s intuition was telling him that the issue was not with the brine water.

There was no problem with the soybeans, plain water, brine water, and the sauce. The tenderness of the tofu pudding was also not the problem. The source of this weird feeling the tofu pudding was giving him was very well concealed.

On his twentieth try, the system that had remained silent for a long time suddenly spoke: [My scan detected that the recipe for the Spring Water Tofu Pudding is correct. There is no problem there.]

[There is also a possibility that there is a problem that the host has yet to discover.]

It was now 5:21 am in the morning. Not even the system could stand Yuan Zhou’s stubbornness anymore. Therefore, it scanned the recipe it provided to see if there was any problem.

This was something very rare for the system.

“My intuition will not be wrong,” Yuan Zhou was very confident and stuck with his judgment. After inhaling deeply, he pressed on his stomach and continued eating.

“Huh? This smell…”

This time, Yuan Zhou was able to lock onto an odd smell. He quickly added two spoonfuls of tofu pudding into his mouth before finally discovering what smell this was: a fresh scent.

Since he was using top quality soybeans, the tofu pudding had a natural fragrance to it. And it was this natural fragrance that had covered this fresh scent. Let alone an ordinary person, even food critics would have a hard time discovering this fresh scent. Yuan Zhou had only managed to detect it after eating 20 bowls.

“The fresh scent is similar to the smell of a green leaf. Where does it come from?” Yuan Zhou frowned as he could not figure out the origin of this scent.

The fresh scent was mixed with the natural fragrance of the soybean, spoiling the overall taste of the tofu pudding. This was why Yuan Zhou kept having an odd feeling when he ate the tofu pudding.

While Yuan Zhou was in serious thought, his phone rang.

“Wow, it’s time to jog. I’ll go jog for now since I have already discovered the issue,” Yuan Zhou turned off the alarm and washed up upstairs before leaving after putting on his sportswear.

“It feels good to go out and refresh the mind,” Yuan Zhou took in a deep breath at the morning air and started jogging.

Ta. Ta. Ta. Yuan Zhou jogged while his mind contemplated on the tofu pudding.

“Good morning, Boss Yuan,” greeted Huang Ling who was sweeping the street.

“Morning.” Yuan Zhou nodded his head.

“Boss Yuan, erm…” Huang Ling would usually only greet him when she saw him jogging but today, she called out to him and started hesitating instead.

“Yes?” Yuan Zhou stopped jogging.

“I noticed the light in your restaurant being turned on all night. Is there a problem?” Huang Ling carefully probed.

Huang Ling was worried that something had happened, yet when she saw Broth peacefully sleeping near the door, she started doubting her judgment. That was why she was hesitating.

Due to her past experience, Huang Ling was a very cautious person.

“Don’t worry. I was the one leaving the light on,” Yuan Zhou answered.

“That’s good to hear. Boss Yuan, don’t stay up all night too much just because you are still young. When a bamboo rots, the rot will start within,” Huang Ling advised.

“Bamboo?” Yuan Zhou was hit by a flash of inspiration. After thanking Huang Ling, he ran off.

“What’s going on with Boss Yuan?” Huang Ling muttered doubtfully while looking at Yuan Zhou who was running fast.

Yuan Zhou could not be bothered with anything else. He directly ran back to his restaurant.

“Hu. That is definitely the case. That’s right. Hahaha, I am indeed a genius,” Yuan Zhou started laughing while speaking to himself the moment he entered the restaurant.

Even though he was in a rush, he still thoroughly cleaned himself before he started making tofu pudding again.

After he finished making the breakfast, the 21st bowl of tofu pudding was done as well.

“Perfect taste. Indeed, I’m right,” Yuan Zhou quickly ate the tofu pudding and smiled in satisfaction.

He smugly asked the system, “What do you think? Do you acknowledge my genius?”

The system ignored him. Yuan Zhou did not bother pushing on. He was currently feeling elated from having solved this problem.

Although he had not gotten any sleep, he stayed excited the entire day. Even during the evening, he only took a short nap before he started his usual schedule of sculpting and placing the sculptures on the shelf. As the school was not on holiday, there would be a lot of children coming to take the sculptures.

His excitement lasted the entire day until the night when Zhou Shijie arrived.

This was a perfect Spring Water Tofu Pudding, one that not even the system could come out with.

It was Zhou Shijie’s lucky night.