The reason Black Bull Barbecue is so popular is due to a lot of factors; it didnât just happen overnight.
In response to Jiang Taoâs questions, Tian Wei was totally open and shared everything she knew, holding nothing back.
She actually wasnât worried about Jiang Tao opening his own barbecue place and becoming a competitor, nor did she see him as an enemy.
There are more than a dozen barbecue restaurants in the Huilongguan commercial districtâone more, one less, doesnât make much difference.
Tian Wei also knew that anyone who could be friends with Du Enan had to be pretty remarkable.
And when she found out Du Enan was actually Jiang Taoâs daughterâs godmother...
Tian Wei started taking him even more seriously than before.
By the time lunch was over, it was past 2 in the afternoon.
Jiang Tao, Du Enan, and Tian Wei said their goodbyes and got ready to head out.
As they parted, Du Enan chuckled:
"Jiang Tao, donât forgetâyou promised to invite me over for dinner at your place tonight."
"Donât worry, I havenât forgotten. Just tell Xu Li whatever you wanna eat, and sheâll get it ready."
Jiang Tao definitely hadnât forgotten about having Du Enan over for dinner.
He was actually planning to use the opportunity to complete the âPity All Parents in the Worldâ quest tonight too.
That quest couldnât happen without Du Enan.
"Where else would I find a guy who throws all the work at his wife? After work, Iâll just go to the supermarket with Lili."
Du Enan shot Jiang Tao a look and giggled as she spoke.
Tian Wei, watching them, picked up on something different in their conversation.
"Looks like Jiang Tao and Du Enan are even closer than I thought."
Tian Wei just smiled at them and didnât butt into their conversation.
Jiang Tao and Du Enan chatted a bit longer, then finally headed for the escalators.
Watching Jiang Tao leave downstairs, Du Enan and Tian Wei lingered for a moment and chatted some more.
Both of them eventually returned to their offices to work.
...
Jiang Tao went down to the underground parking lot, found his car, but didnât drive off right away.
After unlocking the doors, he got into the back seat and shut the door behind him.
In the dim lighting of the parking garage, cars of all brands flashed in different colors.
Every so often, footsteps and voices echoed through, but nobody was close to Jiang Taoâs spot.
The windows of the Mercedes GLS were all tinted with anti-peek film.
Sitting inside, you could see outside clearly, but from the outside you couldnât see in at all.
Jiang Tao first took the barbecue sauce recipe heâd just bought today out from his jacket pocket.
Then he summoned the Daily Intelligence System panel and tried to analyze and optimize the recipe.
[The Host is currently unobserved. Do you want to analyze and optimize the barbecue sauce recipe?]
"Yes!"
Jiang Tao answered in his mind, choosing to analyze and optimize the newly acquired barbecue sauce recipe.
[Barbecue sauce recipe is being analyzed and optimized. Estimated time needed: 5 minutes. Please wait...]
Swooshââ
A column of dazzling sapphire blue light shot out from the system interface, enveloping the recipe in Jiang Taoâs hand.
Beep beep beep, beep beep beep, beep beep beepââ
Jiang Tao could hear a faint buzzing like a swarm of bees, a sign that Brother Tongzi was at work.
[Recipe analysis in progress. Current progress: 1%... 3%... 6%...]
Jiang Tao stared hard at the progress bar, patiently waiting for it to finish.
Five minutes later...
[Black Bull Barbecue Sauce recipe successfully analyzed and optimized!]
[Your Black Bull Barbecue Sauce recipe has been upgraded to Delicious Barbecue Sauce. Want to learn it now?]
Seeing the system prompt, Jiang Tao couldnât help but smile with excitement!
"Yes! Learn it!"
Without any hesitation, Jiang Tao mentally selected to learn the recipe.
The next second, a loud boom went off in his head as a massive stream of information appeared out of nowhere.
Jiang Tao closed his eyes tight, let his mind go, and started absorbing all the info flooding his brain.
The info stream included all the necessary ingredients for brewing barbecue sauce, plus quality control standards for each material.
For example, the recipe specifically mentioned using one tomato.
But it didnât mean you could just pick any old tomato off the veggie stall.
You had to select a tomato that matched the quality level in the recipe.
A tiny mistake, and youâd miss the mark by a mile.
If you botched quality control on the tomatoes, got the wrong kind, the barbecue sauce would taste way off.
There were other crucial points to pay attention to when making the sauce too.
Proportions for every ingredient, water ratios, heat controlâjust tons of details...
If Brother Tongzi wasnât able to directly print the steps into Jiang Taoâs brain,
With just his own mind, itâd easily take him three to five months to master that recipe.
The information absorption felt like ages, but actually just lasted ten or so minutes.
Once Jiang Tao finished downloading all the info to his brain,
He had fully mastered how to make the barbecue sauce.
The recipe, after Brother Tongziâs analysis and optimization, had gotten a major boost in quality.
The difficulty of making it had shot up by several levels too.
Without Jiang Tao himself there as a mentor, the chance of anyone copying Delicious Barbecue Sauce was basically zero.
"Nice, Iâve got another product with insane competitive power!"
"This Delicious Barbecue Sauce could be even bigger in the market than Eight Treasure Pickles."
"Iâll head to the rental and whip up a batch to see how it really tastes."
Jiang Tao exited out of the system interface with a thought.
Then he climbed out and moved to the driverâs seat up front.
He started the car and drove straight for Xiaoshanhe Village, leaving the Wanxianghui parking lot behind.
He still hadnât ended his lease at Old LĂŒâs place in the Xiaoshanhe Urban Village.
Lately, heâd been using it as his own "lab."