Originally, one of the female car owners found a popular roast duck restaurant known for being photogenic online, but given the late hour, a general restaurant wouldn’t be able to accommodate so many people without a reservation, so they ended up going to an extremely famous old restaurant in Yi County...
This century-old establishment was founded during the Guangxu era of the Qing Dynasty, and its signature dish, "Yicheng Roast Duck," was listed as a provincial intangible cultural heritage. It has been popular in Ming City for forty years. Zhou Wang remembered that the Ming City branch already existed back in ’85, so it really had a long history...
Their slogan, or rather the goal they set for themselves, was quite interesting, "In the North, there’s Quanjude; in the South, there’s Lan Old Duck."
This restaurant only stayed open until nine in the evening, but fortunately because of this, after Cheng Qing contacted the owner, Xuecheng Restaurant turned into a "late-night canteen" exclusively for them, no need to queue anymore—
Xuecheng Restaurant could sell over 2000 ducks a day. According to Cheng Qing, if you came at mealtime, there were always fifty or sixty tables ahead of you in line. It’s not an exaggeration at all.
Zhou Wang and others, a group of about twenty to thirty people, didn’t choose the private rooms on the second floor but directly connected three large tables in the most spacious hall on the ground floor and sat down in a mighty crowd.
The reason they chose the hall was that it was Zhou Wang’s first time there, and he was quite interested in the so-called "stove-opening ceremony."
Xuecheng Restaurant had a stove known as "The World’s First Stove." According to the owner’s introduction, this stove was somewhat interesting.
The stove was 1.29 meters high, 1.46 meters in diameter, and weighed 666 kilograms. The water and soil used to build the stove came from famous mountains and rivers worldwide. The soil contained various rare and beneficial trace elements, which gave it its name.
Xuecheng Restaurant specifically designed a "stove-opening ceremony" for this, which became one of the restaurant’s major features.
The ceremony usually took place once every evening at six. The twelve ducks roasted in this "World’s First Stove" were called the "Blessed Ducks" of the twelve zodiac signs. They would be randomly given to lucky diners who came to dine.
But because Zhou Wang and his group were "special guests," the owner held a special ceremony for them.
"From this perspective, we’re all lucky people; there’s nothing wrong with that," Zhou Wang casually remarked, causing a burst of laughter among the crowd.
To Zhou Wang, the ceremony didn’t seem particularly special, just a bow and a show, focusing on a sense of "ceremony," but the ducks roasted in the stove truly smelled delicious...
Zhou Wang couldn’t tell if the flavor differed from those roasted in an ordinary stove, but probably because the duck was inherently delicious, plus the psychological boost from the "Blessed Ducks," it was incredibly tasty.
Compared to the legendary Quanjude, it was probably just the difference between slicing it or not...
Having never tasted Quanjude, Zhou Wang, the country dog, thought so.
The liquor was naturally handled by Cheng Qing, who pulled two cases of Flying Maotai from his home.
But to be honest, this was the first time Zhou Wang had seen such liter-sized Flying Maotai, no, it was also the first time he had heard of it...
Zhou Wang asked Cheng Qing about the price with great interest and learned that the official guide price was 3799, but just like most series of Maotai products, people didn’t accept the guide price; the actual market price was over 5000...
However, Zhou Wang did a bit of calculation on his own. Buying two bottles of 500ML regular Flying Maotai would cost about six thousand, so doing the math, it seemed more cost-effective to drink from this large bottle...
Of course, that’s assuming you ignore the additional attributes like gifting and collecting.
"Brother Yuan, Brother Dog, there’s something I need to ask for your opinion on."
After three rounds of drinks, Cheng Qing clinked glasses with Zhou Wang and Zhang Zhiyuan and then spoke.
Zhou Wang and Zhang Zhiyuan looked over in surprise.
Because Cheng Qing’s serious demeanor didn’t seem like it was an ordinary matter.
"Well, it’s . I went home just now and happened to catch my dad at home. I was scared to death at the time, thought I was going to get scolded, since my dad hates it when I use family connections to bully others, let alone in such a public setting..."
Cheng Qing brought this up with some sheepishness. Clearly, from the past, he didn’t have a particularly illustrious history.
Zhou Wang found it somewhat amusing, as Cheng Qing was almost thirty, yet seemed to deeply fear his father.
"What did Uncle Cheng say?" Zhang Zhiyuan, who had met Cheng Qing’s father, asked with concern right away.
"To my surprise, my dad wasn’t angry at all. He just asked me to recount the events from the beginning and in the end, didn’t express much, just said since the government was involved, let the law handle it," Cheng Qing chuckled.
"However, in the end, he did mention one thing... Brother Dog, my dad actually knew your name!"
"Oh?" Zhou Wang was taken aback.
"My dad has a habit of reading newspapers and subscribes to papers from all over the province, so when he heard me mention you, he immediately asked if you were that ’Outstanding Youth’ from Jing City..."
When talking about this, Cheng Qing’s eyes toward Zhou Wang obviously held some admiration.
"My dad seems to admire you quite a bit, even told me to learn from you properly. His original words were roughly, in this era of survival of the fittest, any self-made millionaire must have real skills, let alone someone as young as you..."
No, I just had a cheat...
Zhou Wang coughed, feeling a little embarrassed.
"So the matter you wanted to consult us on, was it related to your dad?"
"Partly. But it’s not just his idea. The thing is, the commotion we caused today might have been a bit too much. A major figure in the government’s publicity ranking has been in contact with my dad."