The Heartbeat at the Tip of the Tongue

Jiang Qian Fan’s thoughts = don’t try to guess

“What’s the matter? Where are you now?” Song Yi Ran’s voice was short of being lazy, with a little strictness that made people feel pressured.

“A bathroom in a shopping mall. Drank too much soup.” Lin Ke Song rubbed her nose, she was full with water.

“What’s with the reclusive training? What shopping mall’s bathroom, aren’t you supposed to be minding the cashier in your uncle’s restaurant?”

Lin Ke Song could give Song Yi Ran a once over about everything that had happened to her, including her experience of being forced to drink eight servings of mint cabbage soup.

Song Yi Ran was silent for two seconds, laughing till the heaven turned over at the other end of the line.

Lin Ke Song did not need to look at his face to know that he was definitely clutching his stomach, laughing all over the place!

“Hey! Are you my bro or not ah! This master is totally obsessive compulsive disordered with self-centred complex ah! His house floors are so shiny they blind the blind! And you can’t even produce a smidgen of sound! These aren’t the symptoms of being over the top, I think he is sick in the mind!”

“Bro, I sincerely don’t think that you are suited to be a chef. You better go back to your uncle’s to work early, gather enough for your school fees and study with me ba. This older brother will protect you, you will definitely graduate smoothly without missing a single module.”

“Tch. You think I’m not suited to be a chef?”

Song Yi Ran gave a sigh at the other end of the phone: “Ke Song, in Europe, the impressions that people have of chefs and the chefs who toil in the back kitchen in China are very different, they are artists. From young, you have no artistic cell in your body, while bringing you around to look at the modern art exhibitions, you head directly for the seating area to sleep. So why do you have to force yourself? If something doesn’t suit you or you don’t like to do something, just don’t do it.”

Lin Ke Song was silent.

Did she really not like these things?

Then, why was it when Jiang Qian Fan was preparing lunch for representative Thomas, she has observed every move and step with concentration greater than when she was revising for the college entrance examinations?

Why did she rejoice when she was able to figure out the cherry taste in the mint cabbage soup?

“I want to try again.” Lin Ke Song said in a muffled voice, “If I win, I would have enough for my school fees! Anyway, it’s only three months!”

Song Yi Ran was silent for a rare moment. Lin Ke Song cocked her head, and thought that there was something wrong with her phone.

Until a few seconds later, his voice sounded again.

“Alright. But you have to tell me, who is your mentor?”

“This, is a secret la! I can’t tell you!”

Song Yi Ran laughed, his sound of laughter was very pleasant to the ears, and it carried some frustration: “Okay, okay! Anyway it’s only a little, don’t force yourself to do things you don’t want to do.”

After chatting mindlessly for a little while more, and the call was hung, did Lin Ke Song sit up.

Ai ya, having a conversation on the phone in the bathroom with her crush and all that, it’s totally unromantic ah.

She exhaled, bowed her head and walked out of the bathroom.

Just as she was about to walk through the door, a cold voice sounded at her ears before she could look up.

“So sorry, I just have obsessive compulsive disorder and a self-centred complex. And not only that, but also am over the top and have a weak mind.”

Lin Ke Song abruptly realised, Jiang Qian Fan was actually holding onto his cane, standing vigil outside the bathroom.

Mayer had followed behind him. And Mayer shook his head helplessly at Lin Ke Song.

Lin Ke Song was totally stunned, why did Jiang Qian Fan come here? Wasn’t he sitting in the car?

Did he need to use the bathroom too, so he just happened to hear her conversation with Song Yi Ran?

Jiang Qian Fan! You seem so cold and aloof, why were you eavesdropping on the conversation at the corner of the ladies’!

But these are not the problems!

Jiang Qian Fan turned around without saying anything.

The view of that back, was extra cold and stern.

How many times has she made him unhappy today?

Lin Ke Song ah Lin Ke Song, are you seeking death today?

You will definitely have a hard time in the future!

Meditate upon the tips from Song Yi Ran, if the roads are congested, hurry give up and go around!

“Ms Lin, do you know how long you’ve been in the washroom?” Mayer asked Lin Ke Song softly.

“Three minutes?”

Mayer shook his head.

“Five minutes?”

Mayer shook his head again: “its 15 minutes. And your phone line was constantly busy.”

Lin Ke Song 囧-ed. She had spoken to Song Yi Ran on the phone in the bathroom, and had forgotten about the time.

“Mr Jiang was worried about you, and personally came up to take a look.”

Once Mayer said that, Lin Ke Song started feeling guilty.

But…… no matter how you look at it, it didn’t seem like Jiang Qian Fan was worried about her ah?

Which part of her deserved his worry? Isn’t it just a visit to the bathroom? It can’t be that the moment she flushes that toilet bowl, she’d be sent to the other world?

“He really said that he was worried about me?” Lin Ke Song asked Mayer with uncertainty.

“I guessed it.” Mayer answered seriously, and hurried to catch up to Jiang Qian Fan.

How can a guess be treated as accurate ah!

They got back to the car, and after Mayer answered a phone call, he turned around and said to Jiang Qian Fan who had not said a single word: “Mr Jiang, Li Yan insists on seeing you.”

“I don’t see any need to see him again.”

Mayer hesitated for a couple of seconds, and decided to say what he really thought: “Mr Jiang, Li Yan sounded very agitated.”

“If he sees me, he will only get more agitated and lose control, and will not reflect on his problem.”

Mayer exhaled, “I understand.”

Lin Ke Song thought that the name “Li Yan” sounded familiar. Wasn’t this Jiang Qian Fan’s assistant?

You meant to say that he was already fired by this big ice block?

But its right too, this big ice block has such high expectations, would any commoner be able to meet them?

With the silence through the roads, Lin Ke Song got back to Jiang Qian Fan’s villa.

Actually Jiang Qian Fan’s villa, apart from being too clean, too quiet, and too big with no sense of humans, everything was very good.

Just as she was squatting at her luggage that she had used great effort to move, Mayer walked in, and put a pile of books on Lin Ke Song’s table.

“These are the basics of the preparation of food, main dishes, different types of soups and desserts. The contents are extremely detailed, hope that you will be able to reap the benefits.”

Lin Ke Song counted the books from the base to the peak of the pile, there were a full dozen or more books.

What《 how to prepare your dinner》,《 origins of ingredients 》,《 the art of balancing tastes》, and what not.

Lin Ke Song looked at Mayer: “you want me to read all these in three months?”

“Three months?” Mayer smiled, “you wish to spend three months on these books? These are what you need to read finish and familiarise yourself with within the first week.”

Lin Ke Song almost spit her lungs out.

“Apart from that, every day from 8 am to 12 pm, Mr Jiang will guide you on how to segment ingredients without damaging them.”

Its knife skills already?

“I’m flying to Atlanta tonight, to help Mr Jiang settle some things. I wish you sweet dreams in advance.”

Mayer left the room, Lin Ke Song randomly picked a book to flip through, her eyeballs were about to fall out.

It’s actually the English version! Everything was the English version!

Even if she didn’t neglect her English in university, but there were so many words related ingredients and preparation methods, she had never even seen them before! Does this mean that she has to go back to the “good” times of burning the midnight oil?

But after those eight bowls of soup were digested, Lin Ke Song was ferociously hungry.

She opened the door, looked left and right, didn’t see Mayer and couldn’t find Nina…… she also did not dare to walk around casually…… she could only take out the bag of crackers that her mother had stuffed into her luggage when she came to New York. Even though it was a little crushed, Lin Ke Song still ate it deliciously, squatting in front of the wastebasket.

What signature dish of a Michelin restaurant ah, it couldn’t even compare to the biscuit crumbs now.

After eating the biscuits, Lin Ke Song laid on the bed lazily, looking at the tall stack of books, with a premonition of a stormy kind of relentless sadness.

Lin Ke Song knew, to do things subpar will only make things more difficult with Jiang Qian Fan.

So many books, and having to read and understand them all and be familiar with them, it must be a way that Jiang Qian Fan had thought up to make things unhappy for her.

But as long as she understands everything, Jiang Qian Fan will not be able to be happy!

Lin Ke Song sat up, found the thinnest book 《 origins of ingredients 》and started reading it.

She remembered when she was in high school, while memorising, reciting and transcribing whatever, she could fall asleep even when seated at the table. So at this moment, Lin Ke Song had already made preparations at the table for when she crashes on the table.

But when she flipped open the book, she was stunned. There were many notes on the pages, all written by a fountain pen. The words were tiny, but neat and elegant. Some places even had phonetic marks, others had explanations. It was like someone knew that Lin Ke Song was going to learn from this book, so they had done adequate preparations in advance for her.

Without knowing why, Lin Ke Song just felt that these words were written by Jiang Qian Fan.

But Jiang Qian Fan couldn’t see. He couldn’t have made annotations for her.

Lin Ke Song flipped open the books, and the things that put her in disbelief was, every book had similar annotations. She could sense the kind of focus the person who had written the annotations down had while sitting at a table, reading each page under a light with a calm and quiet heart.

With these kinds of annotations, Lin Ke Song suddenly felt that the originally choppy book became interesting. She never knew that the French would use sows to help them collect truffles! And she never knew that corn was actually a hermaphrodite (have male and female reproductive organs)! And she couldn’t even begin thinking that salmons would swim against the currents up stream to reach their destinations during the spawning period!

Lin Ke Song only felt that things were getting interesting. She didn’t even realise when Nina brought her dinner.

When she had flipped to the last page of 《 origins of ingredients 》, she realised that it was already nine thirty in the evening.

She packed up and walked into the shower.