Chapter Sixty-Four: Creativity

  At night, Ning Qingming took her grandmother and mother to the TV station's venue to watch "Delicious Road".

  The ingredients have been prepared in advance, and the chef operates while explaining the process. He made four dishes with the same material: sweet, salty, sour and spicy. After he finished, the host smiled and let the audience below come up to taste one after another, to see which flavor is most popular.

  "This dish has chicken cubes, it should be slightly spicy and delicious." Ning's aunt had been making snacks for many years and was quite experienced. She held up a sign that said "spicy" and asked people to try some.

  After one round, the slightly spicy dish was indeed the most popular. The host made a comment and smiled: "Now it's time for the final segment, 'Creative Dish'. After the chef finishes cooking, there are still some leftover ingredients. Let's see which lucky audience members will be selected to cook, and whoever makes the most creative dish will receive a 'Midea' microwave oven from the TV station. Note that the cooking time is limited to five minutes."

  "Oh, there's a prize! It's a microwave oven!" Ning's aunt turned around and asked Ning Qingmian: "Xiao Min, he said they're going to draw for the lucky audience, how are they going to do it?"

  "Grandma, he's having someone bring out a box, probably to draw a number and then compare it with the admission tickets in our hands. If the numbers match, we can go up and perform!" Ning Qingming said with a smile: "Going up to cook, limited to five minutes, where can you think of any creativity in five minutes? At most, just show your face and come down. That microwave is hard to give away."

  Just as they were talking, the host had already drawn out five numbers from the box and read them out. Someone below matched theirs and shouted: "I won!" Ning's grandmother also narrowed her eyes to look at the admission ticket number in her hand. When the host read out a certain number, Ning's grandmother pulled Ning Qingmian and said: "Xiao Min, help Grandma take a look, is it the same as the number he just read?"

  "Grandma, you really got picked!" Ning Qing said with a smile. "With so many cameras around, Grandma, are you brave enough to go up and perform cooking?"

  "Mom, don't go!" Ning's mom smiled and pulled Ning's grandma's hand. "Creative things are for young people, you're an old person, just don't play with this."

  "But there are prizes!" Ning's grandmother muttered, "No way, I'm going up to fight for them!"

  "Haha......" Ning Qingmin couldn't help but laugh loudly, and said to her mom: "Mom, just let Grandma go up and try! It's only five minutes, I guess she'll just go up and come right back down, not even enough time to get nervous!"

  As the host read out a number, a young man walked up, took the white chef's hat handed over by the host, put it on his head, and then walked to the cooking utensils. The timer started timing. The young man hastily picked up a few slices of chicken liver, cut some ginger slices and put them together, but before he could even stir-fry, the timer went off. It was clear that this was someone who wasn't very good at cooking. The host made a stopping gesture with his hand, laughing and saying: "Time's up!"

  "Someone, I love you. If you're willing to marry me, I'll cook for you for the rest of my life!" The young man took advantage of the opportunity to speak in front of the camera, seemingly making a confession to his girlfriend, which led to a burst of laughter from the audience below.

  "Haha......" Ning Qingmin laughed along with everyone else. The joy was overwhelming. She didn't expect a food show to have something that made her laugh so hard.

  The host then read out the number in Ning's grandmother's hand and said with a smile: "Please ask the next lucky audience to come on stage."

  "I'm going up!" The prize gave Grandma Ning infinite courage. She stood up excitedly and said in a low voice, "I'm definitely better than that young man."

  "Be careful!" Ning's mom wanted to help Ning's grandma. But she pushed her hand away. She had no choice but to withdraw her hand. Smiling, she said: "You've been cooking for decades backstage. Now you're on stage and cooking for just five minutes. Of course, it's better than the young man."

  "Come on, Grandma!" Ning Qingming smiled and urged her grandma to go up. Her grandma was only sixty-five years old, and because of her outgoing personality, she had never been nervous in front of an audience, so there was nothing to worry about.

  Grandma Ning went on stage, and the host smiled and handed her a chef's hat, saying: "Grandma, you only have five minutes, so make good use of it."

  "Start!" Ning's grandmother didn't say much, standing in front of the stove, seeing the host press the timer, calmly poured half a pot of milk left over from the chef's dessert into the pot, lit the fire, then poured a plate of chicken claws next to it, covered the lid, increased the firepower, stretched out her hand to pull down the white chef's hat, pressed down her eyebrows and one eye, making a terrifying expression. "Bang" turned off the stove, opened the lid, and said in a gloomy tone: "My dish is called 'Nine Yin White Bone Claw'." As soon as she finished speaking, the timer rang, time was up.

  The audience was startled by Grandma Ning, and then listened to Grandma Ning's dish name. On the screen behind her, another of Grandma Ning's dishes was featured: chicken feet in a milk pot, bobbing up and down in the boiling milk. The audience was stunned for a moment before erupting into applause.

  Ning's grandmother was a woman of that era, originally not very literate, but Ning's uncle was a teacher and taught several sisters at home to recognize characters. Ning's grandmother was relatively smart and once she learned, she would remember. Later, she liked to watch plays and recognized more words, in that era, she could be considered an educated woman.

  Since Ning's uncle went to Hong Kong, Ning's grandmother missed her son and took out the martial arts novels he had bought, including those by Jin Yong, Gu Long, and Liang Yusheng. At night, she would read them under the lamp, and could come up with dish names like "Nine Yin White Bone Claw", probably because she had read too many martial arts novels.

  Ning Qingmin heard the name of Ning's dish from under the stage and almost burst out laughing, applauding loudly, and said to Ning's mother: "Mom, Grandma might really be able to take home the microwave! Not to mention anything else, it only took five minutes to cook a dish, and she could even come up with such a 'unique' name. I think the other three people are unlikely to be more creative than her."

  The host on stage also burst out laughing and said to Ning's grandmother, "Grandma, this dish of yours is really creative, at least it scared me."

  "That chicken claw was originally cooked, now put it in milk and boil it for a while, add some milk flavor, you ask someone to try it." Ning's grandmother took off her hat and returned it to the host, smiling and saying: "This looks terrifying, but the taste should be good."

  "Hehe!" The host picked up a chicken claw and took a bite, intentionally widening his eyes to say: "It's really not bad at all!"

  "See, I didn't lie to you?" Ning's grandmother couldn't help but laugh when she saw the host take a bite of chicken feet, and looked in the direction of Ning Qingming and Ning's mother below the stage, looking extremely pleased.

  The audience saw the host also praised it as delicious and they all held up their signs asking to go up and taste it.

  "Haha, but putting it in milk and boiling it, how delicious can it be? They just want to make a fuss!" Ning's mom laughed and waved at Ning's grandma on the stage, indicating that she could come down. Fortunately, this was a recorded show, if it were live, an old lady would have been allowed to say so much on stage.

  Ning's grandma found herself dominating the show for too long and hurriedly waved goodbye to the host before getting off the stage.