Chapter 171 (2/2)

Yet, these words weren’t heard by Yuan Zhou, who was busying with other dishes.

After lamenting for a while, Boss Tong continued to eat her Steamed Tofu with Minced Pork slowly, but with slower and slower speed. While looking at somewhere far away, she acted as if she had recalled of something.

When Boss Tong was young, she was sent by her family to a tofu house to be an apprentice. Girls seldom did this kind of work, but her family was poor at that time. Moreover,she was the eldest daughter. Although the work in the tofu house was tiring, she could at least earn a little more.

For that alone, she had to go there.

Carrying water and soybean and helping to operate the hand mill, she did various kinds of heavy and hard works. Looking at the white and tender tofu taking shape, she felt proud and also felt like eating it. That was right. Boss Tong’s simple wish in the past was just to eat the tofu freely. That was probably the most delicious dish for her.

Despite her work in the tofu house, the miller only gave the young Boss Tong 1 kg of the tofu during Chinese New Year as a festival gift.

In the past, even the boiled tofu added with some salt and cabbage leaves was considered to be fragrant and appetizing, not to mention the sautéed tofu.

All year long, Chinese New Year was the most expected period for her to get 1 kg of the tofu. This strong expectation along with the nice taste of the tofu itself became the most impressive memory in Boss Tong’s mind when she was young.

As society progressed gradually , the manually-operated mill died out. After that, Boss Tong entered the business of producing and selling tofu for a period of time, but the business was really slow. Since she could no longer live on that business, she opened the current dry cleaning store.

Nevertheless,Boss Tong no longer liked to eat tofu and always felt that the tofu was not as tasty as before.

Right now while she was eating tofu, she seemed to find the delicious taste again.

Having finished the meal and returned to her home, Boss Tong went to buy vegetables to cook. No matter how delicious the dishes were, she couldn’t afford to eat in Yuan Zhou’s restaurant every day.

“Sister Tong, what would you like to eat today?” The butcher’s greeting woke Boss Tong up.

“I’d like to buy some minced steak,” Boss Tong recovered herself and said to the butcher while looking at him.

“How much do you want? Lean meat or fat meat?” The butcher lifted up the pork for her to choose.

“Please get me some streaky pork and mince them,” Boss Tong said after taking a look at the streaky pork.

After she bought the pork and returned to her home, Boss Tong was a little speechless when she saw the prepared tofu pudding that she had added with the brine water.

“I’m really too old to know what I should do,” Boss Tong revealed a helpless look on her skinny face.

Only after a little while, she began to get busy again in the kitchen.

While busying, she muttered to herself, “It seems I can only eat some fried tofu for dinner tonight.”

That was right. The appetizing Steamed Tofu with Minced Pork cooked by Yuan Zhou reminded Boss Tong of the old days when she had learned to make tofu. Therefore, after coming back and closing the store, she made herself a pot of the tofu without realizing it.

Boss Tong was lamenting relentlessly that she was old and didn’t even know what she had just done.

In the bottom of her heart, however, she was both expectant and hesitant, as she hadn’t made tofu by herself for a long time.

After the tofu took shape, Boss Tong cooked a plate of home-style tofu as per her liking.

On a brown square table placed a plate of home-style tofu and a bowl of white rice, with a chair standing beside.

The blocks of tofu on the white plate had been mashed into small pieces due to too much strength used during the stir-frying. Only a few blocks of tofu were still intact. If the tofu was not intact, the taste would also disperse.

Nonetheless, Boss Tong picked up a piece of tofu and ate contentedly.

“The tofu seems to be as delicious as before.”

A conspicuous smile showed up on Boss Tong’s skinny face. Despite her face was full of wrinkles, her whole person appeared to be warm….