I Awakened to a Farming TALENT

## Chapter 26: Where Did Those Peanuts Come From?

Although it was just a small birthday dinner for a dozen or so people, customizing the menu and preparing the ingredients was no easy task.

Jiang Tingyun ignored the wails in the WeChat group and simply announced that the restaurant would be closed the next day.

She knew she couldn’t make those extremely delicate, refined dishes. To avoid making a fool of herself by imitating things she wasn’t good at, she decided to stick to simple vegetarian dishes and focus on perfecting the flavors.

Jiang Tingyun drafted the menu directly. The Qi couple would be responsible for purchasing the ingredients, except for the vegetables—she would bring her own. No matter how expensive store-bought vegetables were, they might not taste as good as the ones she grew with her talent.

She also made it clear upfront that she wouldn’t provide tableware, only on-site cooking. Because the Qi family practiced individual plating—even though she was cooking Chinese food, each person still needed their own portion served separately. That required a lot of dishes.

Soon, the day of the birthday dinner arrived. Although it was an evening dinner, Jiang Tingyun prepared to leave early. After all, preparing ingredients and simmering broth took time.

When Uncle Liu heard she was going alone to cook at someone else’s house, he was very uneasy and insisted on coming along to help.

Jiang Tingyun quickly refused. Uncle Liu was older, after all; he couldn’t do heavy lifting. Besides, the Qi family had said that the old man’s villa had several cooking helpers who could assist.

Unable to persuade her, Uncle Liu said she had to at least bring Pei Jingmo. This senior disciple might look young, but he was strong enough to carry things, and his martial arts skills were high—he could handle any trouble.

Jiang Tingyun was the sect master, but she was still a young woman. Uncle Liu felt uneasy letting her go alone.

Jiang Tingyun didn’t argue. She took out her plastic sacks and filled them with all the vegetables, mushrooms, ingredients, and handy cooking tools she would need—several large bags in total. Seeing that someone would help carry things, she also decided to bring the big jar of pickled snow cabbage (xuěcài) she’d been experimenting with. The car the Qi family sent to pick her up was packed to the brim.

The car drove along the road toward the city center. To have such a large villa with a garden in such prime real estate—Jiang Tingyun couldn’t help but feel a twinge of envy. Having never been wealthy herself, she thought, *This really makes you envious of the wealthy.*

The car drove straight through the gate and across the lawn to a side entrance. This door led directly to the kitchen, very convenient.

Jiang Tingyun got out carrying her pickled cabbage jar and was directing Pei Jingmo to unload the plastic sacks when she suddenly heard a mocking laugh.

“Tsk. The cook my second uncle hired is so tacky. Look at that junk she brought.”

Jiang Tingyun looked up and saw a girl in her twenties standing on the second-floor balcony, arms crossed. Her face was quite pretty, but her words were like thorns.

Hearing “second uncle,” Jiang Tingyun guessed this was probably Qi Cong’s cousin. *Like uncle, like nephew—apparently, rudeness runs in the family.*

She never bothered arguing with such arrogant people. Getting angry would only give her stress and do no good. She gave the girl a brief glance, then looked away.

The girl on the balcony froze for a moment. She’d already heard that her second uncle hadn’t invited Chef Sun from Boti Garden this time, but instead had hired a female chef—reportedly in her late twenties, running an unknown farmhouse restaurant by the scenic area.

When she first heard it, she thought it was utterly ridiculous. Food made by such a person would be coarse and inedible.

She had imagined the female chef must be plain and heavyset, at the very least unattractive. But she never expected this woman to be slender and pleasant to look at.

Her complexion wasn’t pale white, but healthy and rosy. Her features were fine, not outstanding, but put together they were very agreeable.

Seeing that Jiang Tingyun completely ignored her, the girl bit her lip in frustration. *How irritating.*

Pei Jingmo’s eyes turned icy for a second. He quietly pulled an uneaten peanut from his pocket. Somehow, with a flick of his wrist, a sudden *ouch* came from upstairs.

The girl’s knee buckled and hit the railing hard.

“What was that?!”

Pei Jingmo’s expression didn’t change. He continued unloading the plastic sacks diligently.

Jiang Tingyun’s senses were sharp. She had noticed Pei Jingmo’s little move but didn’t call him out. She laughed to herself. *This senior disciple is a real character!*

But where did that peanut even come from? She didn’t have any in her kitchen.

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When she stepped into the large villa’s kitchen, Jiang Tingyun nodded approvingly.

The Qi family didn’t live here; only the old man and the eldest son’s family resided. Yet the kitchen was enormous, fully equipped with various woks, steamers, and ovens.

After unloading the plastic sacks, she took out all the vegetables and fruits. These were harvested from her garden early that morning—so fresh they still had soil on them.

She directed a few of the house helpers to clean them while she started soaking dried ingredients and began preparing a vegetarian stock using ingredients like black moss and daylily buds. The vegetarian stock required a long simmer, so she needed to start early.

Although she had decided to make simple, home-style dishes, a banquet of this scale—desserts, cold dishes, appetizers aside—required something impressive for the main savory courses. Otherwise, people wouldn’t be impressed.

She’d stayed up all night researching and decided to recreate a top-tier vegetarian dish from the Manchu-Han Imperial Feast: Dinghu Vegetarian Delicacy.

This dish wasn’t uncommon nowadays, but most versions were simplified. The authentic Dinghu Vegetarian Delicacy required nearly twenty types of precious ingredients, including bamboo shoots, mushrooms, and various other mountain delicacies.

But even with all the ingredients, most cooks ended up with something that was merely savory—maybe even meaty—but essentially just a hodgepodge.

Preserving the original flavor of each ingredient while harmoniously blending them together was no easy task.

Her hands kept moving, but inside she was anxious. *Time is so tight. I hope the Qi couple can find all the ingredients on my list.*

By the time the other preparations were done, the Qi couple finally returned under Jiang Tingyun’s eager gaze.

“Boss Jiang! We bought everything you asked for!”