The Age of Discovery: Chinese cuisine swept across Europe

Yun Ji found a pair of scissors and a comb, untied Min Xi's hair, and combed it neatly.

Min Xi has very thick hair. The hair is very soft, dark and shiny. It is usually tied up and cannot be seen. Only Yun Ji can see it often.

Min Xi waited for a while and said, "Seventh Brother, why don't you cut it?"

Yun Ji said: "I feel it's a pity."

"What's a pity? Hair will grow again after being cut. If I weren't a chef, I would have cut it close to the scalp because short hair would easily fall into the food. In the hot summer, short hair is cooler." Min Xi said.

After hearing what he said, Yun Ji quickly started using the scissors.

This is probably what Mr. Lu Xun said. If you ask him to open a skylight, he will not agree. But if you say you want to lift up the roof, he will agree to open the skylight.

This time, more than two inches were cut off. Min Xi reached out and touched the end of his hair, saying, "It can be shorter, but it's okay like this. Brother Qi, do you want to cut it?"

Yun Ji hesitated for a moment and said, "Let me cut it too, to a similar length to yours."

"Then sit down and I'll cut your hair." Min Xi stood up, pushed Yun Ji down to sit, helped him untie his hair, and combed it neatly. "Seventh brother, your hair is really thick. You don't have to worry about middle-aged baldness, right?"

Yun Ji asked: "Bald?"

"The hairline has moved up and the hair on the top of the head has fallen out. Did your grandfather and father experience hair loss?" Min Xi asked.

"Nothing."

Min Xi laughed: "Then don't worry. You said you are so good-looking, if you are bald, it will affect your appearance."

"What is appearance?" Yun Ji felt that Min Xi had a lot of strange ways of speaking.

Min Xi was stumped by the question. He thought for a moment and said, "Appearance refers to the score of appearance."

Yun Ji's mouth curled up slightly when he heard that. Min Xi was probably praising her for her good looks.

The next day, before lunchtime, Min Xi was frying pumpkin pancakes, and several employees were watching. At this time, the ingredients were all prepared, and it was time to make staple food and snacks, and also time to learn skills.

While he was busy, he suddenly heard voices coming from outside. Guests were coming. Gale hurried to the front hall. It was two elderly gentlemen who asked, "Are the guests coming to eat now?"

One of the old men with a gray mustache said, "It's okay to eat now, but I want to meet your boss first, the one who knows how to count."

Gale understood and hurried to the backyard to call Yun Ji who was baking buns: "Boss, there is a guest looking for you."

Yun Ji asked: "What guest?"

Gail said, "I don't know, old gentlemen."

Yun Ji said, "Ask Diego to help me watch the fire for a while."

Gail said, “Okay.”

Diego came over soon. Yun Ji gave him a few instructions, then took off his apron and went to the front hall. The old man who gave him math problems last night came over: "I'm here again, and I've called my old friend with me. He's a professor of mathematics at the University of Coimbra. He heard that you have a magical calculator, and he's very interested. What's your name, sir?"

Although Yun Ji didn't know what a university was, it should be similar to the Imperial College. Professors should be teachers, equivalent to the doctors of the Imperial College, that is, scholars. Respecting teachers is a Chinese tradition. He said respectfully, "My last name is Yun. May I know what your last names are, gentlemen?"

The old gentleman who spoke said, "Hello, Mr. Yun! My last name is Greeley, and this is my friend, Professor Boyle."

Yun Ji extended his hand to them and said, "Hello, sir! Please take a seat."

The two old gentlemen sat down at the table, and Yun Ji took out his abacus from the drawer under the counter: "This is our Chinese calculator, called an abacus."

Professor Boyle looked at the abacus in Yun Ji's hand with burning eyes and said, "Can you tell me how to use it?"

Yun Ji explained to the other party the meaning of the abacus beads, demonstrated simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, and briefly explained the abacus formulas.

Professor Boyle said, "Please wait a moment." He took out a goose feather pen and paper from his pocket, drew the general shape of an abacus on the paper, and then said, "Can you tell me the rules of calculation again? And the formula?"

Yun Ji thought, is this old man here to learn how to use an abacus from me?

Professor Boyle devoted his life to mathematical research, looking for the simplest mathematical calculation method and calculation tools. Europe introduced the place value counting method and the Roman counting method, and the most commonly used method was the Euclidean calculation method. Now seeing the Chinese abacus opened up another way of thinking for him, so he was very interested and tried to understand the Chinese calculation method.

Yun Ji looked at the kitchen and said, "Professor Boyle, we are busy in the kitchen now. If you want to discuss math problems, you can wait until after lunch. I will talk to you in detail when I am free. Is that ok?"

Greeley, the professor's friend, said, "Excuse me, sir. My friend only cares about mathematics. He is a very pure person. Please forgive our impoliteness. Please go ahead and wait until we finish our meal before asking you for help with math questions."

Professor Boyle looked at Yunji's abacus and said, "Can I borrow your abacus to study it?"

Yun Ji valued his abacus very much, and when he heard the other party's request, he became a little hesitant.

Greeley said, "Don't worry, sir. We will use it carefully and won't damage it."

Yun Ji finally agreed: "Then please keep my abacus. I don't have one here, so I carved them one by one by myself, which took me nearly half a month."

"I'll take care of it for you," Greeley said.

Yun Ji wanted to ask the other party what dishes he wanted to order, but thinking that it was still early, he decided not to order yet.

Min Xi saw that Yun Ji had been gone for quite some time, so he asked, "Seventh Brother, who's here? What are you doing here?"

Yun Ji said, "Yesterday a guest saw my abacus and said that a professor friend of mine likes mathematics and asked me to discuss the use of the abacus. He is a math geek."

Min Xi laughed when he heard this: "Have you communicated with him?"

Yun Ji said: "After a brief exchange, he insisted that I tell him the abacus formulas and operation rules. He didn't come to the restaurant to eat, but came to discuss math problems. He is really a weirdo."

Min Xi laughed: "It's okay to exchange ideas. You can also learn some European mathematical algorithms from him."

Yun Ji did not respond when he heard this. He actually did not have much interest in mathematics and only regarded it as a tool.

Yunji was right about Professor Boyle. He was indeed a math geek. He was indifferent to everything else except math. Eating was just a way for him to replenish his energy and fill his stomach. He rarely cared about anything other than math. If his friends hadn't discovered that Yunji had an interesting plan, he would never have taken the time to come here to eat.

At this moment, Professor Boyle was studying an abacus. Seeing that he was immersed in the world of mathematics again, Greeley went to study calligraphy and paintings, recipes, and the new dish rating list.

He was a professor of biology and a colleague of Boyle, and they were invited to Lisbon for academic exchanges.

Yesterday, his biology colleague invited him to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. It was his first time here. The food in the restaurant was already a surprise to him, but he unexpectedly discovered something interesting, so he called his old friend over today.

Now he had some time to slowly observe this Chinese restaurant and found it to be a particularly interesting place. He even spotted peppers and tomatoes planted on the second-floor balcony. He seemed to have seen these two plants before, brought back from the New World. He didn't expect that this Chinese restaurant also planted them.

Greeley looked at the lush plants and could not help but become very interested. He walked to the kitchen door and asked, "Excuse me, can I go upstairs and take a look?"

Min Xi, who was busy, looked back and said, "You can go up to the second floor. The second floor is a private room. The attic is a private residence. Guests are not allowed to go there."

"I'll go to the second floor and take a look. It looks like there are wolf peaches planted there, right?" said Greeley.

Min Xi said: "Yes, the peaches and chilies are planted on the balcony. They are my food."

Greeley looked at him in surprise: "You think they are food? Wolfberries are poisonous."

Without even turning his head, Min Xi said, "Green wolf peaches are indeed poisonous, but red wolf peaches are non-toxic and taste sweet and sour."

Greeley's eyes widened, as if he had heard something horrifying: "Who said it's edible?"

Min Xi said, "I tried it myself and it is indeed non-toxic. The diners in my restaurant have all eaten it and no one has had any problems. Baron Fernando and Lord Merlot have also confirmed it for me. At the birthday party of His Excellency Duke Fernando, His Majesty and the Duke also ate the sauce made from wolfberries."

His Majesty has eaten it before! Greeley was stunned for a long while before turning around and going upstairs to check on the peppers and tomatoes.

There is a tomato plant and two pepper plants planted upstairs. Although there are not many branches, each of them has many fruits. The tomato fruits are larger than those in the school botanical garden.

This is the result of Min Xi's branch thinning. Tomatoes are afraid of having too many branches and leaves. If there are too many branches and leaves, the nutrients will be divided and it will be difficult to bear fruit, and even if they do, they will not grow big.

When Greeley came down from upstairs, he saw that there were already customers in the restaurant and the waiter was taking their orders. Professor Boyle was still concentrating on studying the abacus and certainly hadn't ordered anything yet. Greeley raised his hand and said, "Waiter, take our order."

Gail said, "Yes, sir, please wait a moment."

Greeley ordered fried fish, pot-fried pork and chicken stewed with mushrooms on Gail's recommendation, and also ordered a main course and dessert. Professor Boyle did not even look up during this process.

When the food came, Greeley couldn't bear to watch it anymore, so he took the abacus and put it back on the counter: "Professor, let's eat first."

Professor Boyle pouted and looked at Greeley like an angry child. Greeley could stand his temper and handed him a fork and spoon. "If you want to do research, you have to eat first. Try Chinese food. You won't be disappointed."