Agent Yi Leng

Zhang Cong came along with him. As soon as he heard this, he was puzzled: “Master, you can tell the model just by looking at it?”

Yi Leng said: “This is too simple. The length determines the model, it's obvious at a glance. Especially for grand pianos, the longer it is, the more high-end it is. The top-tier Steinway is the D274 flagship model, used for concert performances. 274 refers to the length. There are also C227, B211, and this A188 is the largest among the medium-sized grand pianos, with a length of 1.88 meters, which is pretty good. People who can afford a grand piano are usually not from ordinary families.”

Zhang Cong, a child who would never come into contact with pianos and was even less interested in them, was just curious about how his master knew so much. Not only did he know a lot, but he also could do a 360-degree spinning kick, being both literate and martial; was there any justice in this?

The van was loaded with gas cylinders, stoves, boiling pots, cutting boards, rolling pins, pots, bowls, and pans, all to be moved to the classroom. The teaching building didn’t have an elevator, so it was impractical for the two chefs to carry everything by themselves. Ah Li got the boys to help, and Feng Xiaoxiao led a group of boys downstairs to carry things upstairs.

A boy secretly said to Feng Xiaoxiao: “Class Monitor, that person looks really familiar. Whose dad is he?”

Feng Xiaoxiao glanced at Yi Leng and recognized that he was the one who had saved everyone during the internet cafe fire. Afterward, she had hidden the near-death experience from her parents, and the classmates who went with her kept it as a mutual secret. Never would they have thought that the life-saving benefactor would be standing right in front of them.

“Class Monitor, do you think he will recognize us and then expose us?” the boy asked. “If the school finds out, we might be punished.”

Feng Xiaoxiao was a little troubled and responded: “Adults probably don’t have that much time.”

Even though she said this, she still couldn’t rest easy. Her mind quickly spun with two options: one was to admit their mistake to the class teacher before they got exposed, to patch things up; the second was to ask this uncle for forgiveness and to keep the secret. A few seconds later, Feng Xiaoxiao made the best decision: she chose the second option.

After moving the first batch of things, Feng Xiaoxiao and a few of the boys who had been with her in the internet cafe reached a consensus. They decided to take advantage of the second trip downstairs to bow collectively to Yi Leng in front of the van.

Yi Leng recognized the boy. He wasn’t a bad person and had even helped Nuan Nuan before. In gratitude, he smiled and said, “So polite, are students like this now?”

Feng Xiaoxiao said: “Uncle, you might not remember us. We were at the internet cafe that day…”

Yi Leng understood and put his finger to his lips: “Shh~ can you speak about this? If the teachers or parents find out, they’ll scold you. I don’t remember anything about the internet cafe.”

The boys were so moved they nearly cried. This uncle really knew how to play along. Feng Xiaoxiao immediately asked: “Uncle, which student’s parent are you?”

Yi Leng said: “I’m Yi Nuan Nuan’s uncle. From now on, you just need to look after my niece.”

Feng Xiaoxiao said: “Hello, Uncle Yi.”

Zhang Cong said: “Who said my master’s surname is Yi? His surname is Huang, Huang Pi Hu, call him Tiger Lord.”

So, Feng Xiaoxiao led a group of boys to stand in line and call out together: “Tiger Lord, hello.”

Yi Leng waved his hand: “Move the stuff!”

The meal of dumplings was organized by class. Each class did their best, but there wasn’t much variety. Most classes brought induction cookers and ready-made dumpling fillings and skins bought from the market. However, Class 2-5 was different. They hired a professional chef, and the tools and ingredients were all top-notch.

In Tiger Lord’s words, induction cookers couldn’t give that authentic wok aroma; they were amateur. Real cooking required a hot wok. But since the school wasn’t going to use large commercial gas tanks for cooking dumplings, he only brought a regular-sized gas cylinder

The dough for the dumpling skins was no ordinary dough. It used medium-gluten flour with starch and lard, kneaded three times and rested three times until it became smooth and delicate. It was wrapped in plastic wrap. Some steps had to be done by the students, to make it fun. So, Yi Leng just demonstrated how to roll the dough into a long shape and divide it into evenly sized dough pieces. His hands were as precise as a machine, and each piece weighed exactly 12 grams.

In addition to the regular dumpling skins, Uncle Huang also prepared four kinds of colorful skins, adding juices from spinach, purple cabbage, carrots, and dragon fruit into the dough, making it colorful. Many of the girls were itching to try it.

Some were rolling the skins, others were mixing the fillings, which came in various types. Some were from students’ homes, while others were brought by Tiger Lord. There were pure meat fillings, pork with fennel, chives, shrimp, and egg, three-flavor vegetarian fillings, and even yellow croaker dumplings, a favorite of coastal people.

Yi Nuan Nuan, wearing an apron, mixed the dumpling filling under Huang Pi Hu’s guidance. The meat filling was already prepared. She added the right amount of salt, sugar, five-spice powder, white pepper, rice wine, soy sauce, oyster sauce, and ginger, and then mixed it by hand, making the filling even. Nuan Nuan was having a great time, and Yi Leng looked at his daughter with loving eyes.

The boys had already spread the secret: this man was Yi Nuan Nuan’s uncle. Even though some other parents were there, like some of the students’ mothers, they weren’t professional chefs, so they couldn’t do anything fancy. They just helped the kids wrap the dumplings.

There were very few dads present. The older men from the shipyard looked down on participating in the kids' activities. Ma Xiaowei, however, was an exception. As the deputy chief engineer, he abandoned work to attend the parent-child event, which deeply moved the class teacher. She kept chatting with him, and Ma Xiaowei was getting impatient, unable to escape. He could only search for Ah Li with his peripheral vision.

Preparations were rushed, mainly because Ma Xiaowei was still figuring out how to collaborate with Ah Li for a performance. He wanted it to look classy but also require coordination, which was why he had been slow in coming up with a plan. It wasn’t until the morning that he thought of the idea of piano accompaniment for a poetry recital. The key thing was, he hadn’t even talked to Ah Li about collaborating yet.

Ma Xiaowei didn’t even know if Ah Li could play the piano. He just assumed that children from elite families must learn the piano, especially since Ah Li had long fingers, perfect for playing.

Just as the principal and the head of the teaching department came to inspect, they saw Ma Xiaowei there. The principal’s eyes lit up, and Ma Xiaowei knew he was stuck for even longer.

One of the girls, Yin Weiran, who was feeling down, had her right leg in a cast. Her dad said he’d come in the afternoon but hadn’t shown up yet.

At that moment, Yin Bingsong was on his way. He was coming from far away, and the highway had been closed due to heavy fog in the morning. He only got through in the afternoon. Having driven for dozens of kilometers, he suddenly remembered that he had forgotten to bring the prepared items.

Yin Bingsong had put a lot of effort into preparing a barehanded brick-breaking trick for the party to impress everyone. He hadn’t trained his iron palm, so he had soaked ten bricks in vinegar all day to soften them for easier breaking.

He had forgotten the bricks, and it was too late to go back. So, he called the owner of the farmhouse restaurant to get the ten bricks from his room and send them over.

The owner went to his room and searched but found nothing. The cleaning lady had been too thorough and had cleaned everything. The owner thought to himself that they were just bricks, so he randomly picked ten to send.

...

The dumplings were ready, and to eat them, you needed vinegar for dipping. Simply dipping in vinegar was too plain, so Zhang Cong set up a series of small condiment bowls, separating dry ingredients and wet ingredients: minced garlic, chopped onions, cilantro, chili peppers, sesame seeds

The steaming dumplings came out of the pot. The students took their dumplings but didn’t eat right away. First, they offered them to the teachers, then went to the next class to show off and exchange. At that moment, Ma Xiaowei finally found the opportunity to talk to Ah Li, but as soon as he walked over, he received a call from Gao Ming, asking where he was.

“I’m at the kids' school...” Ma Xiaowei replied. Gao Ming had invited him to drink in the evening, and he was a bit upset. He had already informed his leaders that he had personal matters to attend to today. How could Gao Ming forget? His memory wasn’t as good as before, probably because of all the drinking.

Gao Ming started talking about other things, and Ma Xiaowei patiently accompanied him. But when he looked for Ah Li, she was nowhere to be found.

Ah Li wasn’t just responsible for Class 2-5; she was the English teacher for the entire school. She had to go around to every class, so naturally, Ma Xiaowei couldn’t find her.

After finishing the meal of dumplings, Yi Nuan Nuan's prestige in the class skyrocketed. If parents paid more attention to their children, their sense of happiness and self-confidence would increase. If parents could provide resources to the class, the children's sense of honor would be even stronger, and their classmates would recognize them as not easy to bully. This would prevent group bullying.

This was one of the compensations Yi Leng made for his daughter.

It was a taboo for a chef to go out during meal hours. Fortunately, it was the end of the year, and there weren’t many people dining out today. The restaurant was empty.

The students washed the dishes and cleaned up the garbage. Feng Xiaoxiao led a group of people to carry everything downstairs and load it into the van, enthusiastically inviting Uncle Tiger to join the party.

At this point, he still didn’t know that his good intentions had dug a pit for his biological father.

Originally, Yi Leng had no plans to attend. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, but Yi Nuan Nuan had told him that her aunt was coming, and he was afraid of business coming into the restaurant. He had planned to decline politely. However, when he turned around and saw Yi Nuan Nuan’s worried face, he asked what was wrong. Yi Nuan Nuan said her aunt called to say she had urgent matters and couldn’t come today.

“I’ve already signed up for the program. Now it’s going to be canceled,” Yi Nuan Nuan said.

Yi Leng said, “Then I’ll take over. I’m good at arts and crafts too.”

Yi Nuan Nuan looked at Uncle Huang’s curly hair and black leather pants, shook her head, and thought, I can’t let this happen.

The school loudspeaker started calling for students to enter by class. Feng Xiaoxiao and Yi Nuan Nuan quickly rushed off.

Yi Leng thought for a moment, told Zhang Cong to go back first, and decided to take a look at the situation himself. He walked to the back of the school auditorium, just as the principal passed by. Seeing him standing around, the principal asked what he was doing.

“I’m a student’s parent,” Yi Leng replied.

“Then go to the backstage to help. We need some labor,” the principal said.

So, Yi Leng was recruited and became a worker backstage.

His first task was to move the Steinway A188 grand piano, which weighed 700 kilograms. It took several workers and parents to lift it onto the stage.

At this moment, Ma Xiaowei finally found Ah Li and said he wanted to collaborate with her on a program—piano accompaniment for a poetry recital.

Ah Li was stunned. “Why didn’t you say that earlier? I can’t play the piano.”

Ma Xiaowei was also stunned. Ah Li then raised her bandaged finger and said, “I just cut my hand earlier. I’m really sorry. Let me find the school’s music teacher to help you.”

Unfortunately, the music teacher was not a professional and didn’t even know how to read sheet music, let alone play the piano. It was too late to find someone else, and Ma Xiaowei couldn’t blame anyone but himself for being unprepared.

At this point, the teachers and students sitting in the auditorium were already in awe of the Steinway piano. They were whispering among themselves, waiting in anticipation.

Feng Xiaoxiao was particularly smug, telling everyone around her, “My dad’s about to perform.”

Ma Xiaowei made a last-minute decision: forget the piano, he would play the piano music as background and perform on stage himself. He had to present the program no matter what.

He asked someone to play the Blue Danube Waltz as the accompaniment.

The announcer had already taken the stage and announced the first program: "Now presenting the performance by Ma Xiaowei, Deputy Chief Engineer of the Group, father of Feng Xiaoxiao from Class 2-5, who will perform a poetry recital with piano accompaniment: Beethoven's 'I Will Be the Rapid Flow.'"

Ma Xiaowei was furious—he had forgotten to update the program!

He had no choice but to step onto the stage, stand under the spotlight, and hold the microphone, dressed in a suit, looking composed and dignified.

He waited for the music to start, but backstage was a mess. The laptop had crashed, and it would take a while to restart. The entire auditorium was silent, waiting for Ma Xiaowei to begin. He was so embarrassed, and Feng Xiaoxiao was equally mortified, wishing she could find a hole to crawl into.

At this moment, someone walked out from backstage, approached the piano, and sat on the bench. In black leather pants and a curly hairstyle, it was none other than Yi Nuan Nuan’s uncle, Uncle Tiger.

He pressed a key, and the sound of the Steinway piano made the entire room go silent.

He hadn’t played the piano in years, but some things are like riding a bicycle—once learned, never forgotten. The Blue Danube Waltz was a song Yi Leng had listened to a lot when he was younger, and it was a song everyone knew. Each note was deeply engraved in his memory.

Sitting at the Steinway grand piano, Chef Huang Pi Hu closed his eyes. When he opened them, he was no longer just the chef but a former top student from National University. His hands glided across the keys, from unfamiliar to familiar, as the beautiful melody flowed smoothly through the auditorium.

Ma Xiaowei was caught off guard. The sudden piano accompaniment threw off his rhythm and mood. He hastily began reciting, “I will be the rapid flow, a small river in the mountains, passing over the rocky road, as long as my lover is a little fish, happily swimming in my waves...”

He recited with passion, full of emotion, thinking it must have been Ah Li playing the piano for him.

There’s a saying, “to be outshone,” which perfectly described the situation. Ma Xiaowei had set the bar too high—what with the Steinway, the formal attire, and the grand expectations—only to falter when the piano was nothing more than a prop. Meanwhile, Yi Leng, dressed in worker attire, played the piano as if the Blue Danube was flowing happily by the side. Though the students were young, they could naturally tell the difference between the two.

In fact, Yi Leng had tried to be considerate of Ma Xiaowei, playing in tune with his rhythm, stopping the music as soon as he finished reciting, making the music come to a sudden halt. The entire auditorium was silent.

It was Ah Li who started applauding backstage, and soon the whole auditorium erupted in applause. This wasn’t polite clapping—it was heartfelt and enthusiastic praise.

Ma Xiaowei turned around, his smile frozen on his face. It turned out it wasn’t Ah Li; it was Chef Huang!

He felt disappointed and frustrated, but he was a seasoned man of the world and knew how to handle situations. After a quick calculation, he walked up to Yi Leng, took him by the arm, and together they walked to the center of the stage, under the spotlight, so everyone could see their contrasting outfits.

One in a padded jacket and leather pants, the other in a tuxedo with a bow tie. They bowed to the audience.

The applause was thunderous once more. The two of them gracefully exited the stage, and the curtain fell.

Ah Li approached and asked, “Uncle Huang, you played the piano so well. Where did you learn?”

Yi Leng replied, “I don’t know how to play the piano. I used to work as a piano tuner. I can only play The Blue Danube Waltz. If you asked me to play anything else, I’d be lost. But forget about it, I’m going to help lift the piano.”

They moved the piano down, and the announcer came on stage, announcing the second program: "Yin Weiran’s father, Mr. Yin performing barehanded brick breaking."

Yin Bingsong had already arrived, carrying a bag with ten bricks. His Iron Palm was already itching to break them.

[--------------------------------------------]

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