Chapter 714

“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 .

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 . Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www . webnovel . com for visiting .

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 .