CH 1

When Bai Xianzhi arrived at the hospital, his uncle was already in a critical condition. The elderly man, with white hair and wrinkles, lay on the hospital bed struggling to breathe. Seeing his only relative in such a state, tears instantly welled up in Bai Xianzhi’s eyes. He took two steps forward, holding the old man’s hand, and shouted, “Uncle!”

Upon hearing the sound, the old man’s eyelids lifted slightly. He saw Bai Xianzhi’s difficult attempt to smile and took a breath as if sighing, calling out, “Zhi Zhi.”

Bai Xianzhi quickly replied, “Uncle, I’m here.”

The old man weakly said, “Uncle has… a small shop… in… Wutong Lane… number 231… From now on… from now on… it’s up to you… you!”

As the old man spoke, he lifted his other hand, and Bai Xianzhi quickly reached out to receive it. A simple, ancient brass key fell into his palm.

“This… is… the key… keep it well… you must… open the business,” the old man said.

With these words, the old man’s hand suddenly dropped, and Bai Xianzhi looked up to see that the old man’s eyes had closed. In an instant, several doctors and nurses rushed into the room. After a tumultuous commotion, a doctor in a white coat approached Bai Xianzhi and said, “Mr. Bai, the patient has passed away. Please accept my condolences.”

Tears streamed down Bai Xianzhi’s face in an instant.

Four days had passed since Bai Xianzhi took care of his uncle’s funeral. He gathered his strength and emotions, and arrived at 231 Wutong Lane.

A small storefront appeared before Bai Xianzhi, with a tightly closed silver rolling shutter. The signboard, with red background and white letters, displayed a few square characters: “Three Thousand Food House.”

This was his uncle’s small restaurant, and he was now going to be the owner, carrying on the operation of this little establishment.

Bai Xianzhi is twenty-four years old this year and has been unemployed. His daily routine consists of livestreaming his cooking videos on the internet, making him a small-scale food influencer. He has a modest fan base of around twenty to thirty thousand followers, which doesn’t make him wealthy but provides him with enough pocket money.

Since the third grade of elementary school, Bai Xianzhi found his lifelong passion: cooking. When his uncle asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, his immediate response was a chef. He still remembers how happy his uncle smiled upon hearing his answer.

With the support of his only relative in pursuing his dream, young Bai Xianzhi’s determination grew stronger. He started cooking all the meals at home. Furthermore, after turning eighteen, he decisively began working at various restaurants, and luck was on his side as he caught the attention of an elderly person.

The elderly man came from a lineage of royal chefs, possessing extraordinary culinary skills. However, none of his descendants showed any interest in carrying on the tradition. He feared that his skills would be lost, but Bai Xianzhi’s passion for cooking touched him deeply. As a result, he decided to pass on his exceptional culinary skills to Bai Xianzhi.

Bai Xianzhi spent four years learning the elderly man’s culinary skills. When he left, the old man remarked that Bai Xianzhi had surpassed him, feeling gratified as he watched him depart.

With his newly acquired culinary skills, Bai Xianzhi had a strong desire to open his own restaurant. However, he lacked the necessary funds. So, he started live streaming his cooking to save money for his dream restaurant. Little did he know that his own uncle had a small restaurant named “Three Thousand Food House.”

It was strange that after all these years of being together, Bai Xianzhi had never known about the existence of this restaurant.

However, with his uncle’s passing, Bai Xianzhi had no one to ask. Inheriting a small restaurant was not a bad thing for him. It actually fulfilled a large part of his dream to open a restaurant. As long as he could cook and serve food to others, whether it was a restaurant or a small eatery, it made no difference to Bai Xianzhi.

Pulling out the brass key, Bai Xianzhi approached the door. The contrasting colors of the aged brass key and the silver rolling shutter seemed mismatched, but they truly belonged together. He took out the key, lifted his hand, and opened the rolling shutter, revealing the chaotic interior of the small restaurant.

Bai Xianzhi wasn’t surprised. His uncle had never been good at household chores; he could even break a broom while sweeping. So, the fact that his uncle’s small restaurant was clean and well-maintained had always puzzled him.

At that moment, a voice came from the entrance of the shop, saying, “Boss Bai, Boss Bai.”

Bai Xianzhi turned around to see a middle-aged man with a square face, wearing a leather apron. He was slightly overweight, with a beer belly creating an arc beneath the apron. Seeing Bai Xianzhi’s puzzled expression, he asked, “Who are you? I’m looking for Boss Bai.”

Bai Xianzhi replied, “I am Bai Song’s nephew. And you?”

The man with a square face responded, “Oh, you’re the nephew. I sell pork at the Wutong Market. Boss Bai used to order pork from me every day. But I haven’t seen him for several days, so I thought I’d come and ask if he still needs pork.”

Ordering pork every day? Does this small shop, located deep in the alley with hardly any passersby, really have such good business?

As a newcomer, Bai Xianzhi pondered for a moment and said, “We don’t need it for today, but you can deliver it tomorrow.”

The man with a square face nodded with a smile and said, “Alright, um, young man, can I ask where Boss Bai went?”

Bai Xianzhi lowered his gaze and softly replied, “My uncle passed away a few days ago.”

Immediately, an awkward expression appeared on the man’s face as he hastily said, “I’m sorry to hear that. My condolences.”

Bai Xianzhi shook his head lightly and said, “It’s okay.”

The man with a square face sighed with relief, bid farewell to Bai Xianzhi, and quickly left.

After the man left, Bai Xianzhi continued to survey the small restaurant. In the not-so-spacious space, there were six wooden tables and stools. The stools were the kind of long, low ones that were meant to be neatly placed, but at this moment, they were scattered on the floor with their legs up in the air.

Bai Xianzhi thought to himself, “Shouldn’t the stools be placed on the tables?”

Then, he noticed some dark objects in the corners of the tables. Bai Xianzhi bent down and picked one up, only to find that it was a piece of cabbage covered in a layer of dust! Looking around, he realized that the corners of all six tables were filled with these dark food residues!

Bai Xianzhi: “…” How did his uncle manage to run this shop? Could it pass the annual hygiene inspections?

As he walked further inside, the kitchen was even more of a disaster scene. Grease-stained white plates occupied the sink, and there was a thick layer of grease congealed on the gas stove. Surprisingly, there were leftover dishes in the pots.

Bai Xianzhi approached a black iron pot and found it filled with a dark substance that occupied almost half of the pot. After careful examination, he recognized it as stir-fried cabbage with pork. Thinking about the dark food residues on the table legs outside the kitchen, he suddenly realized that the cabbage wasn’t black because of dust; it was black when it came out of the pot!

Bai Xianzhi, with a bewildered expression, leaned closer to the pot and took a sniff. Surprisingly, there was no peculiar smell. He was astonished. It had been so many days, and this dish should have gone bad by now. But besides a burnt smell, he couldn’t detect any other odors.

Moreover, this burnt smell was familiar, evoking a sense of nostalgia for his uncle. This dish was the last one his uncle had cooked. If he missed this opportunity, he would never again taste the meals his uncle had prepared with his own hands.

So, Bai Xianzhi reached out, picked up a piece of cabbage from the pot, put it in his mouth, and then he spat it out. It almost made him regurgitate his last night’s dinner. He wiped away his tears and looked at the dish in the pot with a complex expression.

After all these years, his uncle’s culinary skills had not changed one bit. Even with the nostalgia, Bai Xianzhi still couldn’t swallow the food cooked by his uncle. He couldn’t help but think, “Truly, he lived up to his reputation as the black hole of culinary skills.”

Coming back to his senses, Bai Xianzhi noticed a door on one side of the kitchen. He opened the door, and warm-colored lights instantly illuminated the small square room. Inside, there were two heads of cabbage and a piece of pork. The cabbages looked fresh and vibrant, as if they had just been picked from the ground, and the bloodstains on the pork indicated its freshness.

Most importantly, this small square room had no cooling system, so how did the cabbage and pork remain so fresh for nearly half a month?

Bai Xianzhi furrowed his brow, contemplating this question, when someone called out from outside the door again, “Boss Bai, is Boss Bai there?”

Bai Xianzhi walked out, and there stood an elderly lady with white hair. She took out two heads of cabbage from her basket and said, “Boss Bai, you finally opened the door. These are today’s cabbages.”

Bai Xianzhi initially wanted to refuse, but upon seeing the patched clothes on the old lady, he took the cabbages and asked, “How much?”

The old lady was taken aback, staring at Bai Xianzhi carefully and said, “You’re not Boss Bai!”

Bai Xianzhi explained once again, and the old lady accepted the payment for the vegetables. She sighed about the uncertainties of life, offered some comforting words to Bai Xianzhi, and left shakily.

After seeing the old lady off, Bai Xianzhi placed the two fresh and watery cabbages into the small room. Just as he put down the cabbages, he noticed a white envelope on the floor. He picked it up and opened it, recognizing the familiar handwriting.

“Zhizhi, your uncle has passed away and left nothing for you. The only thing I can give you is this small shop. Our shop is very special. You discovered that the room mentioned in the letter is the storage room of the shop, which also serves as a semi-processing room. Regardless of the ingredients we buy, they must be kept in the small room for a day. Only by doing so can we make dishes that satisfy the customers. This was also the secret to the success of your uncle’s restaurant! By the way, whatever you put in that small room will never spoil. It will maintain its freshness from the moment you put it in. It’s a very useful thing, and Zhizhi, you can make good use of it. Our shop usually opens at 11 AM and closes at 11 PM. It would be best if you followed this schedule, but you can change the operating hours if you want. Zhizhi, your uncle has relied on you for so many years… Oh, your uncle forgot to mention that we will have some strange customers in our shop. Don’t be afraid, though. Just use the ingredients that have been in the small room for a day to cook for them, and they will leave. Zhizhi, do your best. Your uncle is watching over you from another world!”

This is the letter from Bai Xianzhi’s uncle, and he explained many things in it, such as the function of the small room and the existence of strange customers. Bai Xianzhi finds it strange how an ordinary room without air conditioning or any noticeable machinery could have such capabilities, and he has no idea how strange these customers could be.

But Bai Xianzhi trusts his uncle. He doesn’t delve deeper into it. This is the small shop his uncle left him, and he will follow his uncle’s advice.

His uncle left this letter early on, so he must have known about his own health condition. Bai Xianzhi feels sad, but that emotion dissipates immediately after he opens the only refrigerator in the kitchen.

Inside the small refrigerator are filled with beer, and there is nothing else, not even a single green onion. The freezer is full of fresh milk and ice cream.

These are all the things his uncle repeatedly told himself to consume less!

Feeling angry, he closes the door and turns around. Bai Xianzhi’s temples throb even more when he sees the large trash bin in front of the refrigerator filled with various takeout boxes!

Bai Xianzhi takes out the trash and throws it away, feeling indignant. He thinks to himself, “Which restaurant owner orders takeout from other places every day? Aren’t they afraid of tarnishing their own reputation?”