Chapter 33 Memory
After taking the Bulanzi into your mouth, the first thing you feel is the fragrance of Sophora japonica flowers. The light, elegant and fresh aroma sweeps between your lips and teeth, like a refreshing spring breeze that awakens your dormant taste buds, just like new leaves blooming between branches, stretching out energetically, letting you fully appreciate the flavors of the world.

Then the soft and glutinous rice cakes are rolled on the tips of the teeth. After being steamed and then stir-fried at high temperature, the rice cakes are crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. The crispy wheat bran on the outside breaks open with a light bite, revealing the soft and glutinous inside, gently embracing the tip of the tongue and teeth, rotating and moving between the opening and closing of the teeth, and dancing in the mouth.

The carrots and potatoes are also steamed until soft, but each has a different taste from the noodles, some are soft and refreshing, some have a hint of sweetness lingering in the mouth, and some bring a unique fragrance.

At this time, the original flavor is revealed, and a field seems to appear in the mouth. Countless dancers appear on the stage and dance passionately and unrestrainedly in the vast fields.

The spicy aroma of onions, ginger and garlic is hidden behind the scenes, providing accompaniment for this gorgeous dance. They have changed their distinct presence in the past and are content to be the unknown background, yet constantly push the whole scene to a climax.

With every chew, different flavors bloom one after another. As the previous dance ends, the next one immediately follows. The graceful dances are performed one after another, keeping your taste buds from resting for even a moment.

Under constant stimulation, the primitive appetite is liberated, and the feeling of hunger is like a demon breaking free from its chains, baring its fangs and claws in the body.

Driven by hunger, the sturdy man waved the spoon desperately like a possessed man, constantly putting the shrimp into his mouth.

He kept chewing and swallowing over and over again, never having a moment's rest.

The familiar feeling in his mouth made him feel as if he was back in his childhood, when his family always had insufficient food to eat.

In spring and summer, his mother would take him to the mountains to pick wild vegetables. They were called wild vegetables, but they were just weeds growing in the wild. They wouldn't kill you anyway, so after eating them a lot and getting used to them, they gradually became a dish.

There are as many weeds in their family's diet as there are weeds. Every day they just mix some flour with it, and he eats it voraciously despite the indelible smell of earth and grass.

He was so hungry that his strongest thought at that moment was to fill his stomach and never go hungry again.

How long had it been since he felt hungry? The strong man himself had forgotten how long it had been since he had felt hungry. He was eating delicious food and drinking spicy drinks every day. How could he have ever felt hungry?
Hunger disappeared, and along with it the sense of satisfaction.

In the past, a bowl of wild vegetable porridge with a strong earthy smell could fill him up.

But now I can never get enough to eat.

No matter how much I eat, I am never satisfied.

No matter how good the food is, you will never be satisfied.

No matter how much you get or how much you have, you still want more.

Just like an insatiable glutton, it just opens its mouth wide and devours desperately.

However, at this moment, he regained the taste of hunger, and along with it, the memory of poverty in the past that he had deliberately forgotten was also regained, and at the same time, he also regained the original thoughts in his heart.

I really want to have a full meal!

Not now, not in the luxurious restaurant, not eating delicious food, not as glamorous as he is at this moment.

Instead, go back to the past, back to the most difficult time, and give yourself, who was deeply hungry, a chance to have a full meal.

The original flavor in his mouth seemed to take him back to the beginning, and he seemed to have become the starving boy again, chewing the most delicious food in the world.

An unprecedented sense of fulfillment and happiness arose from the bottom of his heart. The strong man put down the spoon in his hand, stared at the sky, and tears welled up in his eyes.

He cried silently, not out of sadness, but just to celebrate this belated happiness.

“Brother…” Seeing the strong man in tears, the younger brothers suddenly panicked.

Xu Qing brought the plates over at the right time and handed them spoons.

The younger brothers looked at each other, then silently lowered their heads and started eating the dumplings.

After eating for a while, they couldn't eat any more. The tears in their eyes dripped onto the dishes, making them salty.

The first time Xu Qing saw them, he knew that although these people were dressed richly, they were not from wealthy families.

In this day and age, how many people are born rich?
As long as I have clothes to cover my body and food to fill my stomach, I am lucky enough to survive.

For them to be able to rise to prominence and work in the Governor's Mansion, even if they were just ordinary servants, it would already be a remarkable achievement.

However, people who have been living in poverty will feel that everything they see is unreal once they become rich overnight.

What they hold in their hands is a hundred times or a thousand times better than before, but it cannot bring them the most real sense of satisfaction.

It’s as if they are telling themselves subconsciously that this is just a dream and everything in the dream is not real.

Even though they know rationally that everything they see is real, they are unable to accept it emotionally.

In their hearts, there is a deep gap between their real but poor past selves and their rich but illusory present selves, which cannot be filled or crossed.

Xu Qing realized this, so he used food as a bridge to connect the two ends of the ravine, allowing them to bring their true selves to the other side and truly feel satisfaction and happiness.

It may sound mysterious, and sound like the magic performed by immortals, but in fact, there is nothing special about it. It is just a communication between hearts.

Taste is memory.

Xu Qing simply awakened their dormant memories by mixing the flavors, allowing them to return to the past and experience life again.

After a long while, the strong man calmed down and asked hoarsely, "What is the name of this dish?"

Xu Qing replied: "It's called Bulanzi. But it has another name, called Kulei."

"Kulei, Kulei... what a good name. Hey, after living a rich and luxurious life for so long, I have forgotten who I am."

The sturdy man smiled self-deprecatingly.

He raised his head and looked around. The people around him avoided his gaze as soon as they met his eyes, as if they had encountered a poisonous snake or a ferocious beast.

The sturdy man sighed softly, "Boy... No, little brother, your cooking skills are really amazing. To be honest, I was fortunate enough to eat the dishes made by Mr. Chang when I was in the Governor's Mansion. I was amazed at the time and thought that there was no better food in the world."

"But now, after eating the dishes you made, I understand what real deliciousness is. Real deliciousness is not just about exquisite cooking skills, precious ingredients, and wonderful taste, but more importantly, it's about the heart."

The strong man patted his chest and said, "The real deliciousness is not in the stomach, but here. Mr. Chang's dishes are indeed delicious, so delicious that it is beyond words, but they only stay in the mouth, not in the heart. As for your dish, from now on, until the day I die, I will still remember its taste completely."

(End of this chapter)