Leisurely Traveler with Check-in System

Chapter 163: Chapter 100: My Disciple’s Cooking Skills

The ability granted to Li Younan by the system was that he didn’t need to deliberately calculate—he would naturally know what ingredients to add and when, and could adjust dynamically as needed.

It was an indescribable sensation, a mysterious understanding.

Honestly, this feeling couldn’t be directly taught to others.

But there was a rather simple way: determine the amount of base ingredients each time, and then follow a templated approach so that gradually, Chen Kunjie could get the feel for it.

When Chen Kunjie realized that everything during the cooking process was in a state of dynamic change, he was completely stunned.

In disbelief, he said, ”Buddy, you’ve really changed my perception of cooking skills. How did you figure it out?”

Li Younan tapped his head and said, ”It’s not calculated; it’s a feeling. Don’t overthink it, just follow along. After you’ve cooked enough times, you’ll slowly get a similar feeling.”

Chen Kunjie was also very diligent in learning.

After all, growing up in a hotpot restaurant exposed him to basic cooking methods, so Li Younan didn’t need to teach him the foundational stuff.

A few days later, the hotpot base cooked by Chen Kunjie was already quite impressive.

With hotpot base ingredients, when ordinary diners eat, they compare horizontally. It’s not like other products that can be directly compared for quality.

Like digital products where you can check specifications, flavor varies from person to person. A hotpot base rated 70 and one rated 100 might not taste that different to someone, but those subtle differences are enough to make it stand out.

Now, when Chen Kunjie used his own cooked hotpot base, he particularly enjoyed it. Li Younan thought he was almost ready to work independently.

In the evening, Li Younan called over Chen Kunjie’s girlfriend, and the three had a meal together.

Chen Kunjie’s girlfriend was a reserved yet passionate girl. She occasionally gestured her small fists to threaten him, but she never actually hit him.

Instead, every time, she’d get teased by Chen Kunjie in front of Li Younan, making her blush and say, ”Why are you so annoying...”

Li Younan silently drank water.

The next day, Li Younan had Chen Kunjie seriously film a video while cooking hotpot base.

The content of the shoot was the entire process of cooking the hotpot base.

Nowadays, whether in Chongqing or Chengdu—the main hubs of Sichuan-Chongqing hotpot—the practice of manually cooking hotpot base is becoming less common.

To expand stores, relying solely on manual labor can’t meet daily sales demand. Therefore, industrial production methods are essential.

But both Li Younan and Chen Kunjie agreed on one thing...they didn’t aim for huge or numerous franchise stores; the tradition of manually cooking hotpot base must be maintained.

To standardize and unify the taste of the hotpot base, the quantity of each batch has been fixed.

This way, proportions, timing, and other details can be precise, and the resulting product is consistently good.

Chen Kunjie was already daydreaming about recruiting many apprentices in the future.

Li Younan sent the filmed video to Brother Long, proudly saying, ”Brother Long, look at my apprentice cooking the hotpot base; he’s almost mastered my true skills.”

Brother Long sent a disdainful emoji, then said, ”Didn’t expect the young lad to be so good at cooking hotpot base. Looks like it would taste great. Hmm, just this video of the hotpot base is enough to draw people in. Did you really invest in this hotpot restaurant?”

Li Younan replied, ”Indeed, and next, I plan to drive more traffic to the hotpot restaurant!” Brother Long paused and asked, ”That’s good, but how much did you invest?”

Li Younan said, ”I didn’t invest any money, just offered the recipe for the hotpot base and helped with the decorations for free.”

This time, Brother Long sent a rolling eyes emoji and said, ”You’re really into this. So the hotpot base recipe is yours too, right? It’s like learning carpentry by playing with building blocks?”

Li Younan realized that Brother Long was increasingly fond of using emojis, deviating from his originally aloof image—maybe he was actually a funny guy.

Brother Long continued, ”This video of cooking the hotpot base can be released as a standalone video, and editing it is quite simple. You’ve already captured enough footage in the shoot, give me an hour and I can finish it. Once it’s done, you can directly post it.”

Li Younan replied okay, no problem.

An hour later, Brother Long indeed sent the video over.

Li Younan watched it once, confirmed there were no issues, and chose to upload it.

In the video caption, he wrote: ”Under my guidance, my apprentice cooked this amazing hotpot base. What do you think, everyone?”

As expected, once the video was posted, Li Younan received a comment section full of banter.

The top-liked comment was: ”Oh wow, he called him his apprentice!”

Other highly liked comments also played on the ”apprentice” joke.

The core idea was everyone mocking his boasting.

No one believed it.

Looking at the comments, Li Younan found them very amusing and chose not to argue back.

Unexpectedly, the number of comments on this video was growing faster than any of his other videos.

The next day, the batch of wood that Huang Xiaoyang helped order finally arrived.

Li Younan had Chen Kunjie film a video of him, then rented a set of carpentry tools nearby, and started working right in the hotpot restaurant.