Super Zoo

Hong Feifei had just come out of her father, Hong Bo's office, and learned that the family's two restaurants could no longer be sustained. Hong Bo had finally made up his mind, preparing to work through the last month, file for bankruptcy, and after liquidating what little assets they had left to pay off debts and sell what could be sold, give the old staff at the restaurant a severance pay before he and his daughter left Jiangjin City.

Upon hearing this news, Hong Feifei felt sad, but deep inside, there was a sense of relieved ease. Growing up, she watched her father dedicate so much to reviving Hong Family Cuisine and endure countless joys and sorrows, especially in the past two years as business slid downhill. On the surface, Hong Bo maintained a glamorous front, but behind closed doors, he was really straining too hard, even resorting to deception for loans under the guise of starting a farm—if Cheng Yaojin hadn't emerged out of the blue, if Hong Bo had succeeded then, it would not have helped matters, only delaying the inevitable shutdown by a few months and would have ended up cheating the honest farmers of Sun Town.

Unlike Hong Bo, Hong Feifei inherited the ancestral culinary skills of the Hong Family. Her world revolved around the kitchen. She had neither the interest nor the knack for business. Now that Hong Family Cuisine was closing down, perhaps they could finally live a comfortable and laid-back life. After all these years, father and daughter had managed to save some personal funds and with her culinary prowess, she would never go hungry wherever they went.

Hong Feifei dressed in her chef's attire, and as soon as she entered the kitchen, she saw several master chefs, along with seven or eight kitchen workers chopping and washing vegetables, all gathered together chatting. Hearing someone entering, they all turned to gaze at her in unison.

"What are you doing chatting in broad daylight?" The kitchen was Hong Feifei's domain, where her authority exceeded even her father's. With a quick sweep of her eyes, she demanded.

The kitchen workers dared not speak, an older master chef with gray hair chuckled bitterly, "Feifei, the hotel is going under. How can we still have the heart to cook?"

"Uncle Yang, with your age, I really shouldn't be the one to say this." Hong Feifei walked to the chopping board with a stern face and pointed at the pots and pans covering the table, "Whether the company fails or not is for my dad to worry about, and even if it does, no one will be shortchanged. What are we? We're chefs, and as long as there is a single customer upstairs, we have to do what chefs are supposed to do. In modern terms, it's called professionalism; in the words of our ancient and diligent trade, it's called duty."

Diligence refers to culinary trade. Though the status of those in this trade wasn't high and lacked public face in a feudal society, they had their own set of rules, and strictly speaking, belonged to a fraternity of sorts. Despite being less than a third the age of this master chef, Hong Feifei had a way of preaching that even felt somewhat like an ancient female warrior, leaving the master chefs speechless.

Old Master Yang himself was also a well-known national-level chef, capable of being the lead chef in any large hotel's kitchen, always holding his nose up high in front of other chefs. But in front of Hong Feifei, he didn't even have the spirit to talk back.

There was no helping it, as diligence didn't reckon age but skill and virtue. Whoever had the higher skill and better virtue was respected. This virtue wasn't referring to what ordinary people considered righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faith, nor to the core values of socialism. It was the set of rules handed down from old times for chefs. The Hong Family's heritage was rich, not just in skill but also in rules. Having been raised with this education from a young age, Hong Feifei, though young, surpassed these teachers without family backgrounds in terms of 'virtue.'

"Feifei, there aren't many customers today, just one table. Mr. Xia reserved it yesterday and specifically asked for snake. We only have one emerald green snake left in the kitchen, and we were afraid to mess up its preparation and tarnish the restaurant's reputation," another middle-aged chef explained.

The chefs weren't intentionally giving her a hard time. They all knew how to cook a snake, but preparing it well was a different matter. Since starting in the restaurant's kitchen at the age of fifteen, Hong Feifei had dominated these chefs with her prowess. If the customers were unsatisfied, Hong Feifei would genuinely get angry.

"They wouldn't know if it had a fart's worth of flavor!" Hong Feifei scoffed, unsympathetically swearing, then snapped her fingers, "Snake."

Old Master Yang brought over a bamboo cage about half a meter tall, inside was a green snake with a yellow belly and dark red eyes coiled within—this bamboo pit viper was thicker than the rest by a circle, over one meter.

Such 'great bamboo vipers' were rare, found in only one place in the country—the Shunan Bamboo Sea depicted in the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The great bamboo viper, known as the 'King of Bamboo Vipers,' its name alone signified its extremely potent venom.

The more venomous the snake, the more exquisite its flesh. The dark red eyes of this great bamboo viper indicated it was even three times more venomous than a regular one. Costing over ten thousand to purchase, cooked by the hands of Hong Feifei, it could sell for a whopping 28,888 yuan, which highlighted the high-end strategy of Hong Family Cuisine.

The poisonous nature of ordinary bamboo vipers was already alarming, let alone this bamboo viper king. As soon as it was brought out, several younger kitchen workers leaped away as if dodging the plague, worried about being bitten. However, they couldn't bear to leave the kitchen either, as watching Miss Hong personally cook was not an opportunity they got often, even a few learned moves could benefit them for years.

The master chefs rubbed their hands together, looking at Hong Feifei with gleeful smiles.

"Hey, I've never seen such blatant stealing of skills. Never mind, consider this as handing out some benefits before we disband," Hong Feifei said, amused yet exasperated, as she glanced at everyone present, then lifted the cover off the bamboo basket and stared at the bamboo viper inside for a few seconds before reaching swiftly into the basket. Two fingers, slender like green onions, firmly grasped the viper at its vital area, and a great bamboo viper over one meter long, once in her hands, seemed no more than a noodle being picked up.

"Here, for you." A young kitchen worker handed her a sharp knife and a board studded with nails, eager to please. Killing a snake was much like killing an eel: you nailed the snake's vital area to the board and then made an incision to peel off the skin and open the belly.

"Foolishness, can you even eat it if killed that way!" Hong Feifei disregarded him, pulling out a small porcelain bottle. With a flick of her thumb, she popped the lid off, and instantly a scent of herbs wafted out.

"Sis, what's this? It smells so good. Is it snake medicine?" the apprentice asked flatteringly.

Mr. Yang, who had been scolded earlier, let out a chuckle, showing off his seniority, and said to the apprentice, "What do you know? This is cornelian cherry juice."

"Ah?" The apprentice obviously hadn't heard of this before and looked curiously at Hong Feifei. Hong Feifei didn't explain but just gestured to him with a hook of her finger, handed him the small bottle of cornelian cherry juice, and told him to hold it carefully. Then, with her free hand, she used her thumb and middle finger to pinch the space between the upper and lower jaw of the bamboo snake, causing it to instantly open its mouth, flipping out its two fangs.

"Feed it this but be careful not to get nicked by the fangs, or not even a god could save you," Hong Feifei said.

The apprentice tremblingly brought the bottle to the bamboo snake's mouth, pouring the cornelian cherry juice into it. After the snake had drunk it all, Hong Feifei opened the bamboo cage and casually tossed the snake inside.

The bamboo snake started writhing about in the cage as if under the influence of drugs. It twisted and rolled, causing the whole cage to shake. But soon, it stopped moving, and when Hong Feifei took it out again, it was limp, having actually passed out.

The apprentice boldly poked the bamboo snake's belly, but there was no reaction.

"My word, sis, so this is like an anesthetic!" the apprentice said, amazed.

"Heh, baffled, aren't you? Cats consider catnip their wine; snakes consider cornelian cherries their wine. The bamboo snake is drunk. Feifei fed it cornelian cherries, which makes the flesh tender," Yang explained from the side.

"There's another reason," Hong Feifei rarely took the initiative to speak. "With normal killing methods, whether you smother, disembowel, or crush, animals and people alike become tense and scared when facing death, secreting an amino acid that slightly alters the flavor of the muscles. Although that guy upstairs wouldn't notice, we chefs can't deceive ourselves. By letting it get drunk, dying in a daze, this problem doesn't arise. Remember this, not just with snakes, but with any animal: it's best not to let it die in fear. First, it's more humane, and second, the flavor is better."

"I'm impressed, truly an eye-opener!" The apprentice gave a thumbs-up and said with genuine admiration.

Next, they watched as Hong Feifei swiftly wielded her knife like performing a blade technique, deftly removing the drunk snake's teeth, skinning it, and shedding its scale coat. Throughout the entire process, the bamboo snake didn't even shed a drop of blood. One could faintly see the blood flowing through the vessels beneath the muscles, until she made a final cut to bleed it.

A few minutes later, the bamboo snake was disassembled into many pieces, with the snake meat, intestines, and gallbladder – every edible part – all sorted out. Most people think snake skin is just scales, but in fact, beneath the scales lies a semi-transparent membrane that, when boiled into a porridge, is extraordinarily delicious – even more delightful than the finest bird's nest. Of course, most people can't properly handle the scales.

"Alright, Feifei, leave the rest to us," said Yang. Whether a snake tastes good depends mainly on how it's killed. The cooking process is quite similar. At least with the skills of the chefs present, they were confident that they wouldn't waste the snake.

"Then I'll leave you to it," Hong Feifei said as she washed her hands and removed her apron. While preparing ingredients with a chef she was close with, she asked, "Feifei, the fishing festival starts in Changjiang in Huayin County next week. Are we still going?"

Hong Family Cuisine always selected the finest ingredients. After half a year of a fishing moratorium, the fish in the Yangtze River grew plump and strong. The festival in May marked when the fish were at their most succulent, and occasionally, one could also catch some rare, precious species. Therefore, Hong Feifei would go every year to Huayin County for the start of the fishing season.

Now that Hong Family Cuisine was on the brink of closure, going seemed meaningless. Find your next adventure on My Virtual Library Empire

"Forget it, you guys stay home. I'll manage by myself," Hong Feifei said.

The fishing festival in Huayin County was also a culinary extravaganza. As a top chef, Hong Feifei certainly didn't want to miss out. Moreover, even though Hong Family Cuisine couldn't continue, she still planned to remain in the cooking profession. She couldn't pass up good ingredients, though she no longer needed to purchase on such a large scale.

There was another, deeper reason. In Yangchuan City, not far from Huayin County, she had an 'old friend' with whom she shared a deep connection. This old friend attended the fishing festival every year.