Chapter 12: The young master has no spare money either

"Just this one, this one is the best in this area, and the Cantonese cuisine is the best, especially seafood!" Zeng Zhi said, pointing to a hotel that looks quite elegantly decorated from the outside.

"You are right. We came from Beijing to Hong Kong from all the way, and you invited us to seafood. We have eaten in Guangzhou. I admit that this hotel may be of high quality and the chef's skills may be very high, but you don't think it is too attractive to us." Li Siming said.

"Then what do you want to eat?" Zeng Zhi asked, "Since you made barbecue for me in the Great Northern Wilderness back then, you can choose any choice today. Although I am a little poor, it is still okay to invite you to have a big meal."

"The one next to you!" Li Siming pointed to a French restaurant.

"Eat a French meal?" Zeng Zhi suddenly realized, "This idea is good, it is rare enough for mainlanders!"

As soon as I walked into this French restaurant, I saw a foreigner who spoke fluently and Cantonese warmly greeted him.

"It turns out that Mr. Zeng is visiting our store, it is so glorious!" Foreigners gave Zeng Zhi an appropriate hug when they saw Zeng Zhi, which made people feel enthusiastic and not disgusted. It seems that Zeng Zhi is a regular customer here.

"It's easy to say, I'll take my friends to have dinner. Are there any free seats?" Zeng Zhi asked with a smile.

"Yes, of course, please come with me." The foreigner gracefully led the three of them to a good location beside the window. As soon as he snapped his fingers, someone immediately delivered the recipe. The foreigner was the manager of this restaurant.

"You want to order something, just order it?" Zeng Zhi said to Li Siming in Mandarin.

Recipes are regarded as the facade of Western restaurants, and Western restaurant owners have always attached great importance to them. They use the best ingredients to make the cover of recipes. Some even put various beautiful patterns on the soft sheepskin, which looks particularly elegant and exquisite.

"Please give me a glass of sherry to give me an appetizer, then give me a foie gras sauce, and give me a steak and French bread at the staple food. I want the ridge on the beef, and the best roasted 70% cooked, and then a fruit salad with a smaller portion. Also, give us a bottle of French Bordeaux wine, and the best in Latourburg in the Meadows region. Finally, give us a coffee each, I like Vienna coffee."

"Sir, from Lattuburg, Meadow, you really know the goods, and you are really lucky. We have just arrived here. Can we have those from 1975, sir?" asked the restaurant manager.

"Okay." Li Siming pointed to Xiaodao and said, "Is there any fish in this gentleman who wants the meat he wants? He likes to eat fish!"

"Yes, sir! Do you want it?"

"Yes."

"Okay, sir!" the manager replied.

"Mr. Zeng, what do you want to order?" the manager asked Zeng Zhi, who was stunned.

"Ah? Oh... like this gentleman!" Zeng Zhi woke up from his stunned gaze.

"Three gentlemen, please wait. What you want will be delivered immediately!" The manager closed the account book and left.

"Why are you looking at me like this?" Li Siming asked Zeng Zhi.

"I'm wondering, have you ever been to Hong Kong before, and do you have authentic French restaurants in Beijing?" Zeng Zhi asked, wondering that Li Siming was so familiar with French dinners.

"Nothing strange. I haven't eaten pork before and I can't let people see what the pig looks like!"

"Give us a bottle of French Bordeaux wine, the best in Latourburg in Meadows. Finally, I give each of us a coffee. I like Vienna coffee." Zeng Zhi learned from Li Siming's tone just now, "It will be in 1975. Do you want to be poor?"

"Isn't it just a bottle of wine? I'll invite you back another day!" Li Siming smiled and pointed to the brilliant restaurant with golden walls. "Look at this decoration with French romanticism. Such soft lights are like the dusk of early summer, and the gentle and elegant music. Eating in such an environment, do you want to have a Chongqing hotpot and some old white dryers?"

"You are right. I'm not surprised that you can speak foreign languages. How can you speak Hong Kong? Although you are not very fluent!" Zeng Zhi asked.

"You don't know much, do I have to tell you!" Li Siming did not answer his question, thinking that this was cultivated by me watching countless Cantonese movies.

"I doubt how you became a professor in college. Do you specialize in Western diet?" Zeng Zhi asked.

"After leaving the Great Northern Wilderness, I didn't have time to study my belly problem. I haven't been idle for a day in the past few years, and I've been through life and death." Li Siming said half-truely and half-falsely, changing the topic.

"Born and die? Stop joking. I think you left Beijing on purpose and did something wrong in the south! Otherwise, I would go to Beijing every year and never see you every time. If I hadn't seen Yang Yue, I would have thought you had taken good women to disappear!" Zeng Zhi actually went to the mainland every year, but he never saw Li Siming every time he went to Beijing, especially since 1979.

"I know you miss me so much, don't I come here now?" Li Siming said.

"Xiaodao, he is not willing to speak?" Zeng Zhi said to Xiaodao, who was sitting on the side and looking around in the restaurant.

"He, don't worry about him, he doesn't care. Let's talk about us." Li Siming said, and he saw that Zeng Zhi apologized for neglecting Xiaodao.

"When I was buying clothes just now, when you talked about money, you seemed to feel a little touched?" Li Siming asked. A hint of helplessness and self-deprecation flashed in Zeng Zhi's face.

Before the founding of New China, his family was a big family in Shanghai. Of course, they belonged to the type of national capitalists and had a lot of assets. After the liberation, part of them was jointly operated by public and private enterprises. His father and his uncle stayed in the mainland and were called the Red Capitalist. Another part, including his uncles who were younger than his father, went to Hong Kong. This part in the mainland gradually declined and was hit hard by all domestic political movements. Zeng Zhi, as a descendant of the capitalist, never had his share of "good things" in all movements. He joined the Young Pioneers when he was a child, joined the Communist Youth League when he was in middle school, and joined the army when he was an adult. He was either the target of attack or the target of investigation, so he told himself since he was a child that he must pursue "progress", so he went to the Great Northern Wilderness. This was also what he tried every means to obtain this "right". He wanted to prove that he was also an "ordinary person".

Fortunately, the Cultural Revolution has finally passed, and his former identity has now become a popular one. His uncle is now a senior member of the CPPCC meeting in Beijing. It is said that it is very likely to go further in the future. However, the family has gradually grown and grown in Hong Kong. Although it is not a wealthy family, not as good as some big families, and not as good as another big family surnamed Zeng, it still has a certain influence in Hong Kong. According to the results of the family discussion, Zeng Zhi, as a member of the third generation of children, is in the third place in the order of inheritance rights in family property, but this is only obvious, and family property cannot be divided. However, he comes from the mainland, grew up and received education in the mainland, and is at a disadvantage in the Hong Kong family. Among the Hong Kong family members, they are inherently prejudiced and look down on family members from the mainland.

"So, I should express sympathy for you?" Li Siming said. He now has no hope for the purpose of his trip. There is a saying that goes: the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment.

"Don't let me down. At the so-called celebrity drink party, people also call me Prince Zeng! Humph, only the princes of high-ranking officials who come from the capital can be called Prince!" Zeng Zhi said self-deprecatingly, "Villas and luxury cars are essential goods for Hong Kong rich people. I have them too. If you don't even have these two things, you will be shameless to go out, because I have a surname on my head. Besides that, I am a poor person."

After using the previous dish, the wine is delivered. When tasting, you usually smell it deeply in the wine glass before the wine is in your mouth. Then you can feel the fragrance of red wine. Then swallow a sip of red wine, let the red wine stay in the mouth for a while, roll two times on your tongue, so that the senses can fully experience the red wine, and finally swallow it all, a faint fragrance immediately lingers in it. For most people, tasting refers to sipping a sip of wine and swallowing it quickly. But this is not called wine tasting. Wine tasting is a thing that uses taste buds to engage in. Remember to let it cover all around your mouth; both sides of your tongue, back of your tongue, tip of your tongue, and extend to the bottom of your throat. If you drink wine like most people, you will ignore all important taste buds.

Li Siming picked up the wine glass, shook it, sniffed it, and then took a sip of authentic French Bordeaux wine, allowing the wine to stay in his mouth for a while, half-closed his eyes, and he seemed to be very intoxicated with this feeling, which was quite like a master of wine tasting.

"How is this wine?" Xiaodao saw Li Siming intoxicated for most of the day and couldn't help asking. Anyway, he felt that it was not as pleasant as Erguotou.

"I don't know! I don't know how to taste wine either!" Li Siming put down his wine glass and answered very simply. His answer almost made Xiaodao and Zeng Zhi fall under the table in shock.

"What else is intoxicated there? It's like a wine tasting master!" Zeng Zhi cursed with a smile.

"If we don't understand, it doesn't mean we can't try to understand it? Don't you think I looked a bit like a taster just now?" Li Siming replied with confidence.

"I always feel that you don't look at me specifically. Tell me, what's wrong with you? Are you making some big color TVs or something?" Zeng Zhi asked.

"You are cheesy. I have traveled thousands of miles to this evil capitalist Hong Kong, just for the color TV? I remember Bethune back then..." Li Siming said contemptuously.

"Okay, okay, stop lying, tell me what you are doing? Don't tell me to come to Hong Kong to cause a revolution!" Zeng Zhi quickly interrupted him.

"It was originally there, but now it seems to be gone. Because you look poorer than me!"

"What's the matter with you? Tell me, whoever we are with you, treat me as a brother, just tell me!" Zeng Zhi said. Li Siming was not surprised by his performance at all. Zeng Zhi, who was cynical on the surface, was a person who was very loyal and affectionate in his heart.

"I originally wanted to find you to see if I could ask you to invest in me and lend you your identity. I wanted to start a company, right in Shenzhen Special Zone. You know, the opposite side of Shenzhen River is very prosperous now. But now it seems that you are poorer than me!" Li Siming said directly.

"What? Do you want to be a boss?" Zeng Zhi was surprised by Li Siming's plan, because all those who opened companies and factories in Shenzhen were Hong Kong or foreign companies. To this day, mainland individuals are not allowed to run private enterprises, unless they are self-employed. Li Siming obviously has a grand plan to ignore his decent job, dare to take risks and think, and even came to him with ingenious intentions.
Chapter completed!