I Awakened to a Farming TALENT

**Chapter 76: Goat, Cabbage, and Vermicelli Clay Pot**

With the goat meat and broth already prepared, making this clay pot dish was pretty straightforward.

She picked out the best-textured pieces from the deboned, cooled goat meat and sliced them into thin pieces.

Then she soaked the vermicelli in water, cut the fried tofu puffs in half, and washed and tore apart the fresh, crisp cabbage she'd grown herself.

With all the prep work done, she took out a clay pot and laid down a generous layer of cabbage on the bottom.

The more cabbage you add, the sweeter the broth. Of course, the main reason was that there wasn't *that* much goat meat, so she couldn't skimp on the veggies.

Then she added the fried tofu puffs, the soaked vermicelli, and some homemade goat blood curds. Finally, she poured in the star of the show — the rich, flavorful, slow-simmered goat broth.

Xu Zijun didn't wait in the dining area. He ran to the kitchen and leaned against the door frame like a pro.

"Smells so good." He happily breathed in the rich aroma of goat.

Then something occurred to him. "Hey, Boss Jiang — do you remember Zhang Xinzi?"

Tingyun paused for a moment. The actress who'd collapsed in her eatery? She hadn't followed celebrity news in ages. No idea what had happened to her after that.

Xu Zijun smiled. "She recovered pretty well. Got out of the hospital a while ago and called my teammate Cheng Yuanqi to let him know she was okay. But she won't do any interviews. She hasn't shown up anywhere since — I heard she went abroad to recover."

"Anyway, Boss Jiang, you kind of saved her life, but she never even thanked you."

Tingyun chuckled. "What's there to thank? I just did what I was supposed to do. Her recovering is good enough."

Cardiac arrest was no joke. A lot of people — even if they got resuscitated — never woke up.

For Zhang Xinzi to recover fully... that wasn't easy. She definitely needed plenty of rest.

Cabbage and vermicelli cook fast. Before long, the pot was bubbling away.

Tingyun added salt and white pepper to season, then laid the sliced goat meat on top. Right before taking it off the heat, she sprinkled on some chopped garlic sprouts. And just like that — the delicious goat, cabbage, and vermicelli clay pot was done.

When she brought the steaming, bubbling hot pot to the table —

Xu Zijun completely forgot what they'd just been talking about. All his attention was on the clay pot.

The flavor was completely different from the spicy hot pot. One was red-broth, one was white-broth.

Even without the fiery kick of the red broth, the sweet, savory aroma of the white broth was nothing to sneeze at. It smelled warm, soft, and subtly sweet, with a faint creaminess that lingered on the tongue.

Xu Zijun didn't even wait for his rice. He grabbed a spoon and scooped up a big mouthful of broth.

"Ahhh..." He swirled the soup around in his mouth, savoring it. Sweet, savory, smooth — no gamey taste at all, no weird spices either. Just pure, unadulterated flavor.

The broth slid down his throat into his stomach. One sip, and his whole body warmed up instantly.

He couldn't wait any longer. He picked up his chopsticks and grabbed a slice of goat.

The slices weren't super thin — on the thicker side, actually. With just a gentle nudge of his chopsticks, the meat trembled as he lifted it from the milky white broth. The sight alone made his mouth water.

He chewed. The goat was tender but not fatty, flavorful but not gamey. It was melt-in-your-mouth tender but still held its shape, smooth and delicate. The cooking time was perfect.

Xu Zijun suddenly turned into a food critic — adjectives exploding in his head one after another.

The fried tofu puffs, having soaked up all the sweet, savory broth, tasted incredible too. One bite — and a burst of hot, savory broth flooded his mouth.

But as good as those were, the best part — the absolute, undisputed champion — Xu Zijun declared, was the cabbage.

He'd noticed it before — Boss Jiang's vegetables were out of this world. This cabbage was crisp, tender, and juicy, with the perfect texture. The stalks were crisp, the leaves were soft. It added sweetness to the broth, and in return, the broth gave the cabbage incredible savory depth.

Bite after bite — he couldn't stop.

After he'd scraped up every last bit of the ingredients, Xu Zijun poured his rice directly into the remaining broth.

It definitely wasn't the most dignified way for a big star to eat. But after starving himself for days to lose all that extra weight —

One warm, comforting sip of that goat broth, and he felt like every pore in his body was breathing easy. How could he possibly stop eating?

The Qionghua Sect crew had already devoured that huge pot of spicy goat spine hot pot, plus an entire basket of cabbage and radishes. But watching Xu Zijun eat like this — even they were feeling a little hungry again.

Luckily, they weren't completely brainwashed by the goat broth. They knew they still needed to sell it. Otherwise, they'd each be downing several bowls.

"Don't worry, don't worry," Tingyun whispered quickly. "I'm braising the goat hooves and innards this afternoon, plus the stomach-wrapped meat. None of that is for sale — we're keeping it for ourselves."

---

Zeng Haiguo had been blown away by Chef Jiang's cooking ever since he'd come to Qionghua Eatery with Old Man Qi last time.

Whether it was the osmanthus jam or the osmanthus lotus root with sweet rice — both showed off the chef's real skill.

He'd even secretly joined Qionghua Eatery's WeChat group.

When he saw the post that morning that Qionghua Eatery was selling goat, his interest was instantly piqued. In winter, his favorite thing was a bowl of goat soup.

Sure, Qionghua Eatery was near Fenghuang Mountain — way too far from downtown. But when it came to good food, he never minded the trouble. He immediately decided to take the tourist bus from the city center.

He didn't think much of it. But his wife and kids were worried sick.

Old Zeng was a character. Despite his age, he was still obsessed with food — well-known among his friends as a true gourmand.

Once, he told his family he was going out to eat some goat dish. They thought he was just going to some local restaurant. Next thing they knew — the guy had bought a plane ticket and flown to Xinzhou.

Late that night, they couldn't find him. They called him up — and found out he'd traveled over a thousand kilometers just for food. Almost gave the family a heart attack.

Now he was talking about eating goat again. No way were they letting him go alone.

"I'm not going far this time. Just over an hour away. I'm going to Fenghuang Mountain for a meal." Zeng Haiguo sighed helplessly.

His wife and kids didn't believe him for a second.

His grandson, Zeng Fubai — who'd inherited his picky palate and love of food — said directly, "Grandpa, what's so good to eat at Fenghuang Mountain? The vegetarian noodles at Fenghuang Temple are decent, but we already tried all those farmhouse restaurants near there before. Defa Farmhouse is terrible. Fenghuang Mansion is barely passable — nothing special."

Zeng Haiguo smiled mysteriously. "For someone who calls himself a foodie, you're pretty out of the loop. There's a new place — Qionghua Eatery. The food's amazing. You haven't even heard of it?"

Zeng Fubai thought for a moment. "Guess I'm more out of the loop than I thought. Why don't you take me with you? I'll drive you there. I want to see what this Qionghua Eatery is all about."