Chapter 41: Just a Memory Filter?

Xu Tao said with a somewhat guilty conscience, "Mr. Lu actually has a very good temper. It must be because that Jin Baolai was too much of a jerk..."

"Then you walk in front when we go in," Lin Xiao said.

"You don't trust me?"

"I trust your actions far more than your words."

While the two were whispering and arguing, the servant had already tidied up the study.

Butler Li stepped forward and said, "Please forgive the unseemly sight, gentlemen. The master will see you now."

Seeing Lin Xiao gesture for him to go first, Xu Tao raised his head and walked in.

Lin Xiao followed Xu Tao into the study and saw an old man sitting behind the desk.

When Lu Mingyuan turned his head to look over, Lin Xiao felt a slight tremor in his heart—this sixty-two-year-old richest man in Donghai looked like a man well past seventy.

The ravages carved by time on his face were much deeper than those of his peers, his sideburns were as dazzlingly white as frost and snow, and even his eyebrows were tinged with silver.

Yet those eyes were startlingly bright; within sunken sockets, a pair of amber pupils gleamed with the sharpness of a blade.

"Uncle Lu!" Xu Tao greeted him first and introduced, "This is the friend I mentioned to you earlier, Lin Xiao."

Xu Tao's words caught Lin Xiao slightly off guard.

When handling the communication earlier, he had introduced him as a friend rather than a chef with exceptional culinary skills.

This detail warmed Lin Xiao's heart.

"Little Tao, your friend looks like a good kid at first glance. Don't stand on ceremony, take a seat anywhere," Lu Huaiyuan said, pointing to the chairs in front of the desk.

The two chairs had not been pulled out from beneath the desk, making it obvious that when Jin Baolai had entered earlier, he hadn't even managed to get a seat before the scolding began.

After Butler Li served tea and withdrew, Xu Tao cautiously asked, "How did Jin Baolai offend you just now? You lost your temper so badly."

Lu Mingyuan sighed and said, "That fellow is simply incorrigible! When subordinate to others, he doesn't regard himself as human; when superior to others, he doesn't regard others as human. Forget it, let's not talk about him, it makes me sick to my stomach!"

Xu Tao picked up the thread, "Indeed rather nauseating. I hope it won't affect your appetite shortly."

Hearing this, Lu Mingyuan laughed. "Little Tao, don't worry. No matter how Mr. Lin performs later, I will savor it carefully."

Lin Xiao sensed a different undertone in those words.

While it sounded magnanimous, wasn't it also an admission of his lack of confidence?

Could a bowl of plain noodle soup really be that difficult to replicate?

Seeming to guess Lin Xiao's thoughts, Lu Mingyuan looked at him and said, "Mr. Lin, please don't take it the wrong way. I am not looking down on your culinary skills.

It's just that my late wife's method was truly somewhat unique. Over the past few years, I've also sought out more than a dozen top-tier master chefs.

Yet not a single one was able to replicate that flavor, so gradually I stopped holding out hope."

He paused slightly and continued, "You shouldn't feel any burden, nor need to worry about disappointing me."

"I'll do my best," Lin Xiao said without elaboration, knowing that actions spoke much louder than words.

Lin Xiao and Xu Tao stood up, followed Butler Li through the corridor, and arrived at the kitchen located at the back of the mansion.

"The tableware and ingredients have been fully prepared. I won't disturb the two of you any further." After leading them to the kitchen, Butler Li turned, closed the door, and left.

Only Xu Tao and Lin Xiao remained inside the kitchen.

Lin Xiao walked over to the stove, where the ingredients were neatly arranged: handmade dried noodles, scallions, farm eggs, dried shiitake mushrooms... every single item was as ordinary as could be.

The cost of such a bowl of noodles probably didn't exceed two yuan.

Were these the ingredients for the plain noodle soup that even a billionaire like Lu Mingyuan couldn't stop yearning for?

Lin Xiao had originally expected a low-key luxury clear broth noodle soup akin to boiled cabbage in supreme broth, never imagining it would actually be such an utterly mundane bowl of plain noodles.

"Shall we start now?" Xu Tao asked.

Lin Xiao looked at him as if he were an idiot.

"What kind of look is that?"

"I haven't experienced the taste from your memory yet. Do you expect me to conjure it out of thin air?"

Only then did Xu Tao realize that he needed to let Lin Xiao read his memory.

Most people are extremely sensitive about others touching their memories.

This was why Xu Tao hadn't suggested letting Lin Xiao directly satisfy Lu Mingyuan through his memory from the start.

Hesitating for a moment, Xu Tao said, "Don't go wandering around looking at my memories later, especially not my private ones!"

Lin Xiao: (눈益눈)

There were simply too many things to吐槽 about. Lin Xiao immediately retorted, "I don't want my eyes to rot either. You're this nervous—are you afraid I'll despise you after seeing them?"

This remark seemed to step on Xu Tao's tail. "Despise? I'm afraid you'll feel inferior after seeing them, alright? A girl who was pursuing me last month went to the mountains to play with me.

She said she was terrified of big snakes in the bushes, and that the sight of such huge snake heads would make her faint from fright.

As soon as she finished saying that, I immediately told her she wasn't fit to be my girlfriend."

With that, Xu Tao wore a smug expression.

Lin Xiao: "..."

The young lady was employing a classic feminine tactic, feigning vulnerability to let you display your masculine charm and protect her.

And yet you couldn't wait to display your fragile male ego???

Lin Xiao could only nod perfunctorily and say, "I understand, I understand!"

He certainly understood men putting up a front of stubborn pretense in this regard. In his past life, when the male colleagues in the research institute couldn't leave the assembly line during the first trial production run, they had no choice but to relieve themselves right on the spot.

Every single one of them insisted on using Nutrition Express or Mading drink bottles to hold their urine, with the absolute minimum being a Teaπ bottle—when a standard Nongfu Spring bottle would have been more than spacious enough.

Oh, this stubborn male pride!

"What is it that you think you understand?" Xu Tao asked with dissatisfaction, having failed to show off.

"Let's make time count. Come over and let me read your memory." Lin Xiao didn't want to engage in idle chatter with him anymore and prepared to get straight to the point.

Lin Xiao stepped behind Xu Tao and pressed his right hand against the back of his head.

The moment he closed his eyes, Lin Xiao entered the ocean of Xu Tao's memories.

Xu Tao had told him before that he used to live at Lu Mingyuan's house frequently when he was a child, and thus had tasted Madame Lu's plain noodle soup many times.

Lin Xiao swam upstream against the torrent of memories until he finally reached the target memory, and immediately immersed himself in it...

A seven-year-old Xu Tao sat high in a dining chair, his little legs dangling in the air.

The light in the memory was exceptionally warm, and the setting sun cast dappled light spots through the lace curtains onto the mahogany dining table.

"Little Tao must be a good boy and finish eating, okay?" Madame Lu's voice came from above, as gentle as a spring breeze.

She set down a steaming bowl of plain noodle soup, with scallions floating gently on the amber broth.

Following the young Xu Tao in the memory, Lin Xiao eagerly grabbed his chopsticks and prepared to eat, but Madame Lu showed not the slightest concern that he might scald himself.

Only then did Lin Xiao notice that although the noodles were steaming, there were only a few wisps of faint, gentle vapor.

The first mouthful entered his mouth, and true to form, it wasn't hot at all, but Lin Xiao froze.

This taste... it was completely devoid of the deliciousness he had imagined; it could even be said to be utterly ordinary.

It was simply home-style plain noodles with no complex seasoning and no stunning texture.

Because they had been boiled for too long, the noodles were even somewhat mushy.

As for the broth... although it had the umami of shiitake mushrooms, it fell far short of the rich deliciousness of specially simmered stock.

Just this?

This level of cooking was enough to keep Lu Mingyuan reminiscing endlessly?

Could it be a filter of memory?

Lin Xiao began to feel troubled. If it truly was just the nostalgic filter of memory...

Who could ever defeat the white moonlight preserved in memory?