Cheng Su made another bottle of strawberry jam, with the most devout and serious attitude, because it contained her gratitude and longing for her friends from a past life, and it was a tribute to their past friendship.
She experimented over and over again, not afraid of failure, high costs, or complexity. When she put her heart into making it, the result was often astonishing. As soon as Cheng Su was satisfied with a batch of jam, she jotted down the recipe and measurements and went to a bakery to buy bags of square bread.
After the lunch rush, when everyone was resting, she brought out the cooled strawberry jam and called everyone to sit down. She personally spread the jam on bread for them and handed it over.
"Try it."
Li Qiulan and the others felt somewhat embarrassed and hurriedly said, "Sister Su, we can do it ourselves."
"No problem, I can serve you this once." Cheng Su said with a smile, "Try the strawberry jam, how does it compare to the pineapple jam?"
Song Xiaojang was the first to take one and eat it. He swallowed it in a few bites, and before he could taste it, he could only look at Cheng Su sheepishly and say, "It’s quite tasty, but I haven’t caught the flavor yet."
Cheng Su smiled and handed over another spoonful of jam.
Old Song took on the attitude of a professional chef, quietly tasting, from flavor to texture.
"Sweet yet with a slight tang, the sauce is rich, and the taste is aromatic. Is this the ingredient you wanted to add to that duck dish with herbs?" Old Song looked at Cheng Su and asked.
Indeed professional, Cheng Su nodded and said, "I didn’t add it to the previous batches, but I felt it wasn’t aromatic enough."
"Adding it does indeed make it refreshingly tasty." Old Song tasted a bite of the jam and said, "But I reckon the young girls and children might like it more; we old guys have poor teeth, too sweet for us."
Li Qiulan and He Yue nodded, "I think it’s quite distinct from the pineapple jam, this is sweeter and fresher."
"You find it fresh because you’ve never had it before." Cheng Su said with a smile.
And that freshness was exactly what she wanted, as it would stimulate their desire to buy.
Cheng Su also took a slice of bread, spread the jam, and carefully tasted it; indeed, it was the same flavor as the one Luh Wei had once made for her.
She couldn’t help but feel pleased; could this be considered an emotional tribute across time to their friendship?
Now that the experiment was a success, it all depended on whether Ning Ge could find the cheapest source of fruits.
Everything on Cheng Su’s end was proceeding orderly, while far away in Xiangxi, Qi Taiguo had also obtained solid evidence.
Sun Tianlong was indeed the mole; no wonder their ambushes had been fruitless for so many days.
It turned out Sun Tianlong had long been colluding with those tomb robbers, even allowing someone from the Public Security Bureau to be killed because they discovered his secret and let that group murder him.
The tomb robbers gave him a good sum of money, with which Sun Tianlong even kept a mistress. If it hadn’t been for his attempt to show off a watch in front of the mistress, Qi Taiguo wouldn’t have caught a whiff of something amiss.
Huo Wang and Liu Yong had been following Sun Tianlong to his mistress’s place. When Sun Tianlong left, they immediately seized the mistress and interrogated her, confirming Sun Tianlong had always been a mole.
According to the mistress, those tomb robbers were very shrewd; they always initiated contact with Sun Tianlong by phone to get the operation plans and never let him know their whereabouts.
"Those damn bastards, they’re too clever. Go, bring Sun Tianlong back to me, hand him over to the Public Security Bureau for interrogation." Ma Guangshe was livid with rage.