### Chapter 13: As Long as You’re Bold, Even the Boss Can Be…
Yuan Yafang said, “I know you. Even though we haven’t officially met yet, I’ve heard a lot about you these past few days. I heard you were personally recruited by Mr. Cheng? What a coincidence, I was directly recruited by Mr. Cheng through campus recruitment. I’ve been with the company for three years now, and I’m also in the stock strategy group he leads.”
Lin Siyi enthusiastically extended her hand, “Yafang, nice to meet you. We’ll definitely be working together a lot in the future, so please guide me.”
Lin Siyi graduated after four years of undergraduate and three years of graduate studies, making her 25 years old this year. Yuan Yafang looked about the same age, so it didn’t feel right to call her “sister,” and calling her “junior” didn’t seem appropriate either since she had more work experience. So, she decided to just call her by her name.
“Isn’t Mr. Cheng supposed to be at the fire drill today? How come he’s back at the office now?” Yuan Yafang feigned curiosity, but her eyes were sneakily glancing towards Cheng Yixiu’s office.
Lin Siyi didn’t notice her little actions and casually replied, “I accompanied Mr. Cheng to the drill this morning, but it ended just now. Mr. Cheng said he needed to come back to the office to get some materials to work from home, so we came up together.”
“Lin Siyi, we can go now.” Cheng Yixiu finished packing and called for his assistant to follow, then instructed Yuan Yafang, “Once you’re done with your work, you can leave early too. It’s the weekend, so if you have time, relax a bit.”
“Sure, thank you for your concern, Mr. Cheng. Take care.” Yuan Yafang gave a slight bitter smile behind their backs where they couldn’t see.
The two of them got into the driver’s seat and the passenger seat respectively. Lin Siyi fastened her seatbelt, “Boss, to save time, let’s split up for shopping later. I’ll head to the fresh produce section, and the daily necessities are in the other direction.”
Cheng Yixiu was intrigued, “Are you going to buy groceries to cook? It’s rare for young girls to cook these days. I’ve seen you bring takeout several times, so I thought you didn’t know how to cook.”
“Well… I can cook a little bit.” Lin Siyi felt a bit guilty after saying that.
Since she didn’t plan to buy much, Lin Siyi grabbed a small cart from near the checkout, while Cheng Yixiu inserted a coin to unlock a shopping cart.
“Boss, let’s agree that whoever finishes shopping first will wait at the self-checkout. I shouldn’t take too long.”
Cheng Yixiu said, “I’m more familiar with this place than you are. Just don’t get lost.”
With that, Lin Siyi pulled out her phone from her pocket to check the ingredients she needed and headed straight to the fresh produce section.
Earlier, while waiting for Cheng Yixiu at the hospital, she had been bored and searched online for ingredients that could help with lumbar muscle strain.
As the brightest star in the world of dark cuisine, Lin Siyi completely overestimated her practical skills.
Faced with rows of freezers, Lin Siyi found pig trotters too greasy, goose feathers too many and itchy-looking, and oxtails too scary. In the end, she reluctantly chose beef tendons, which looked clean and normal.
“Sir, could you please give me two pounds of this?” Lin Siyi asked boldly, without considering how to cook it.
After the vendor weighed it and handed her the bag, she remembered to ask, “Sir, do I need to buy any other ingredients for this?”
“That depends on whether you want to make it sweet or savory.”
Lin Siyi: “…” Is it that complicated?
The vendor said, “If you want to make it sweet, you can buy some codonopsis, goji berries, dried longan, dried lychee, angelica, and add some cooking wine and rock sugar. Put it all in a pressure cooker on high heat for half an hour, then transfer to a clay pot and simmer on low heat for an hour. It’s not easy to handle, so I’ve already cut it into small pieces for you. Just wash it and you can cook it.”
Lin Siyi: “…And if I want to make it savory, how should I handle it?”
“It’s similar to how you would make braised pork with preserved vegetables, but beef tendons are harder to cook.”
Not knowing how to make braised pork with preserved vegetables, Lin Siyi quickly declined the vendor’s alternative suggestion and decisively chose the first cooking method. “Okay, I got it. Thank you, sir. I wish you good business.”
Following the vendor’s instructions, Lin Siyi successfully found all the ingredients she needed.
As she walked towards the checkout, she saw a pile of chips on sale. After a minute-long internal struggle, she grabbed a few bags. After all, buying at a discount is a win.
Although she’s gained a bit of weight recently, how can she have the energy to lose weight if she’s not full? Yes, young girls often comfort themselves this way before they actually become overweight, and then it’s a different story.
From a distance, Lin Siyi saw her boss already waiting at the checkout. “Boss, you’re so fast?”
Cheng Yixiu glanced at her, wanting to sigh but forcing himself to hold back. “Didn’t I say I’m more familiar with this place than you are? The self-checkout machine is broken today, so we have to use the manual checkout. Hurry up, I gave up several spots waiting for you.”
“Sorry, I’m coming right away.” Lin Siyi felt very guilty. How could an assistant make the boss wait?
After the cashier finished with the greasy uncle in front, she looked up to see a handsome couple and immediately became enthusiastic. “Hello, would you like your items bagged? Medium plastic bags are 20 cents each, large ones are 30 cents.”
Lin Siyi looked at the items on the counter, “Please bag our items separately, thank you. Just a medium bag for me.”
Lin Siyi noticed that Cheng Yixiu only had a pack of tissues and a few towels, which didn’t really need a separate bag. She could just put the towels in her bag.
After she finished directing, the cashier politely asked, “That’ll be 195.8 yuan. Will you be paying with cash or scanning a code?”
Cheng Yixiu was quicker than Lin Siyi, and before she could react, he had already pulled up the WeChat scan code interface. “Scan, thank you.”
“Have a nice day, and we hope to see you again.”
Once outside, Lin Siyi whispered to Cheng Yixiu, “Boss, did you notice the cashier seemed extra enthusiastic today?”
“Did she? I didn’t notice. It’s always like this when I come to buy things.”
Lin Siyi: “…”
That’s because the cashier lady is captivated by your charm, okay? At least she never received such treatment before. Beauty is nice, but male charm is even more alluring.
“But what did you buy earlier? As your boss, do I have the honor of tasting your cooking?”
“Uh… you’ll have the chance this afternoon.” You’ll definitely get what you asked for.
As it turns out, as long as you’re bold, even the boss can be won over.
Since moving into this apartment, Lin Siyi had used the open kitchen less than ten times, and those few times were just to cook instant noodles when she was too hungry.
After studying the steam oven’s manual, she figured it wouldn’t be easy to steam the beef tendons. She rummaged through the cabinets to see if there was a pressure cooker, and luckily, she found a dusty mini pressure cooker in the corner.
Lin Siyi first blanched the beef tendons with cold water, scallions, ginger, and garlic, then rinsed them twice with cold water. Following the vendor’s instructions, she put the beef tendons in the pressure cooker, covered it, and let it cook on high heat for half an hour.
When using a pressure cooker, Lin Siyi knew to keep an eye on it to prevent it from exploding due to excessive pressure.
After the pressure cooking, she waited for the gas to release before transferring all the ingredients into the cleaned clay pot, added the other ingredients, and set it on the stove to simmer on medium-low heat.
Thinking the cooking time was long enough, she went to the study to review financial reports without any worries.
Perhaps it was too much joy, but Lin Siyi was feeling proud of finally being able to make a dish to bribe her boss. However, what woke her up wasn’t the aroma of food but a call from the security downstairs.
“Miss Lin, this is the security room. Are you at home right now? We received a call from other residents saying there’s a lot of smoke coming from your window. How’s the fire situation? Do you need us to come in and help?”
Lin Siyi: “…”
“Please hold on a moment. I’ll go check the kitchen right now. Don’t hang up.”
“Okay, let us know if there’s any situation.”
Then Lin Siyi dashed out of the study like a gust of wind and rushed towards the kitchen.
Earlier, she had indeed opened the kitchen window for ventilation. As the security mentioned, smoke was indeed coming from her kitchen, and her pot of ingredients had once again turned into a dark culinary disaster…
Is she doomed to never escape this curse?
After quickly turning off the gas, she swiftly turned on the range hood.
Yes, she thought the dish would only produce steam, not smoke, so she didn’t plan to turn on the range hood to save money.
In hindsight, this was a very frugal decision. Otherwise, she might have had to perform a real-life version of “burning down the mansion” and attract even more onlookers.
After dealing with everything, she remembered the security guards waiting for her response. She hung up the phone and opened the door to explain in person.
In a mix of emotions, Lin Siyi saw Cheng Yixiu standing tall behind the security guards at her door.
Lin Siyi was so frustrated she wanted to curse, “What kind of earthly suffering is this? No, boss, please let me explain.”
But Cheng Yixiu’s probing gaze seemed to say, “Let’s see how you explain this.”
Lin Siyi: “…”