Chen Mo was really cautious. He had seen news like this before.
Especially since he just helped Liu Yang capture a theft gang, which made Chen Mo feel that the security might not be as good as imagined.
Some crime gangs would use girls to stop vehicles by the roadside, pretending to hitchhike. Once a truck driver dared to stop, five or six hulking men would immediately rush out from the sides.
They would directly rob money and goods!
And the places they chose were exactly like the national highway where Chen Mo had stopped now, desolate with few people around, and very few cameras. Even if you called the police, it would be hard to recover the losses.
The car door was locked immediately!
Then Chen Mo watched vigilantly outside the window, only to see a girl with short hair leaning against the car door, knocking on the window.
"Driver, driver, please give us a ride, we are too tired to ride any longer!" Su Shasha knocked on the window with her left hand and shaded her forehead with her right, looking inside the car.
Chen Mo continued to play dead, thinking to himself that his windows were one-way, and they couldn't see inside!
Yino walked around to the driver's side, tiptoeing to lean on the window as well, "Driver! We are students from Yu Technology University. We originally intended to cycle to Pang Donglai for shopping, but now we really can't make it. It's getting dark soon, can you give us a ride?"
At the same time, Yino pressed her about-to-expire student ID against the window.
Chen Mo squinted his eyes for a closer look.
"Haha... The passport-sized photo is not even of the person herself, this acting is too clumsy."
Whether Yino heard Chen Mo's muttering or she had a clear self-awareness, she shouted, "The passport photo was taken when I graduated from high school! I'm already a senior now!"
Chen Mo took another careful look, the passport photo showed a mushroom cut and a chubby face. But in reality, it had become wavy hair, and her face was sharper, her eyes bigger, and her eyelashes longer.
Can one change that much in four years of college?
Yino saw that the person inside the car still hadn't reacted, and anxiously took out her ID card.
Both IDs were set side by side, "Driver, please, please!"
Crunch!
Chen Mo unlocked the car door. The names on the ID card and student card matched completely, so he decided to trust her for now. If anything went wrong, his cart had defense mechanisms too, taking down criminals with nerve toxin in minutes!
"What do you mean?"
Chen Mo got out of the car, not looking at the three girls, but scanning the deserted areas on the sides of the road for any hidden people.
"Oh wow! It's a young man!" Su Shasha ran over from the other side, "Young man, the three of us originally planned to cycle to Xuchang to visit Pang Donglai, but halfway through we couldn't pedal anymore. Please give us a ride!"
Yino clasped her hands, "Please, please!"
Chen Mo noticed another girl on the other side, who was also looking this way but hadn't come over.
"Cycling to Xuchang? What were you thinking?"
Over a hundred kilometers, cycling over is just too much, can you make it there on a Xiao Huang bike?
Even those who live for cycling wouldn't dare attempt that!
Yino admitted they had overestimated their cycling ability, but at this point, what else could they do?
Chen Mo saw that the three of them indeed didn't look like criminals, "Alright then, since I'm passing by Xuchang anyway, I can take you there. But..."
Lamb slices were already prepared on the cart, and the pot base was also ready.
The pot base Chen Mo chose was simple, as it was commonly found in Capital City hotpot — a pot of clear water with some scallion segments and ginger slices.
He added some soaked dried mushrooms and a bit of seaweed, this kind of broth could maximize the fresh taste of the lamb while enhancing its umami flavor.
"But?" Yino saw Chen Mo looked troubled and immediately said, "We can pay you for the ride! Hmm... Taking a cab over fifty kilometers would cost at least a hundred, how about we three give you two hundred?"
Only a fool wouldn't make money when it's on the table.
"Two hundred is fine." Chen Mo nodded, "But I meant, I was planning to eat before hitting the road, I've got all my ingredients ready, how about you three wait a bit, I'll leave after I finish my meal?"
Yino and Su Shasha were stunned.
See here, is that what a normal person would say?
But no other cars seemed available on the road, so Shasha and Yino had to nod and agree, then thought of opening the door to wait in front.
Chen Mo kindly reminded them, "There's only one co-pilot seat, for the three of you, two must sit on the bed in the back."
Yino stepped on the bumper to peek inside, "There really is a small bed!"
Chen Mo kept the cockpit very clean, seeing as it was a place he rested often.
He found a clean sheet from the storage cabinet in the cockpit and tossed it inside, "Lay it out to sit."
Then he crawled into the kitchen in the back of the cart.
Through shape shifting, Chen Mo raised a chimney-like cylinder in the center of the black pot, the broth around the chimney bubbling up hot steam.
Of course, this was just for ceremony. In practice, the heating was done with a burner.
Without adding any other aromatics, just with dried mushrooms, seaweed, scallions and ginger, the broth was already emitting a really fresh and fragrant aroma.
Chen Mo took out lamb from the cabinet, with a small bowl of 80:20 sauce full in front of him.
This sauce was just store-bought, packaged peanut sesame sauce, not particularly high-quality but decent enough, though true 80:20 sauce value lies in pairing with other seasonings.
For instance, in this bowl, Chen Mo had added half a cube of red fermented bean curd and a spoon of chive flower paste.
Sesame oil and salt are responsible for enhancing the aroma and flavor, and the addition of a bit of sugar can enrich the taste with layers.
This simple-looking two-eight dipping sauce actually has a lot of knowledge behind it. If there were some shrimp paste oil, the flavor could be elevated to another level!
"Oh, I forgot there's one more thing!"
Chen Mo opened the cupboard, where some frozen tofu was stored.
It was leftover from the first day of setting up a stall at Huimin Hospital when there were no customers, so a lot was frozen. After being frozen for so long, the once smooth and tender tofu became full of holes, looking like something similar to gluten.
Even the firm frozen tofu was no match for Black Blade, easily cut into blocks and arranged on a plate.
"All set!"
There weren't many ingredients on the counter, namely: red and white lamb rolls, frozen tofu, hand-pulled noodles, cabbage leaves, and white radish.
The night was falling, the food cart was bright inside, and Chen Mo dumped a whole plate of lamb into the pot.
He wasn't that particular, and he didn't like eating one bite at a time like in many videos.
What's the point of eating? The point is to enjoy!
Isn't it more satisfying to cook a whole plate of meat and gobble it down?
As for the saying that cooking too much at once makes the later meat tough, Chen Mo thought that was nonsense. How can such thin slices get tough?
Besides.
Even if they could, who would wait for them to get tough?
The lamb rolls entered the pot, and the bubbling broth immediately calmed down, as the lamb rolls changed color and loosened at a visible speed.
Chen Mo stirred it with chopsticks, then picked up a big chopstick-full of meat.
He swirled it in the small dipping bowl, and the freshly cooked lamb was covered in the two-eight sauce, shoving such a big bite into his mouth.
Fresh!
The first sensation was the freshness and aroma!
Each chew filled the mouth with the unique fresh aroma of the two-eight sauce. As the sauce's flavor faded, the inherent fresh taste of the lamb stood out.
The lamb Chen Mo sliced himself was very different from the pre-sliced ones on the market.
The market ones, sliced after rolling fat and lean meat layers, had alternating red and white rings.
Chen Mo's, however, was cut directly without rolling.
This resulted in a slice of lean meat connected to a slice of fat meat. The fat part became even more delicate and transparent after the broth boiling.
Such a big bite, no gaminess, just pure meaty freshness, with an extremely rich and fatty mouthfeel!
It's so good!
Chen Mo ate slowly, as there was no need to gobble it down. The point was to eat slowly and savor it, giving the taste buds and body the ultimate enjoyment.
In the driver's cabin.
Yino was sitting in the passenger seat, while Su Shasha and Lu Yingqiu were on the small bed in the back.
Their positions were quite interesting.
Su Shasha was squatting with her calves outwards, her butt directly resting on her calves.
Lu Yingqiu, meanwhile, had her long legs bent back in one direction, her feet in white sports socks resting against her hips.
Yino petted Xiao Juzi's head, "Smell it, smell it! Is your owner even human, enjoying hotpot in the back and leaving us three beautiful ladies here?"
"Huh!!!" Xiao Juzi hissed fiercely at Yino, which only prompted Su Shasha to start petting it too.
"Having a ride is good enough." Su Shasha fondled Xiao Juzi's chin, making the cat calm down instantly, its eyes squinting in comfort, "But I'm really hungry..."
"Yingqiu, you're the prettiest. Go talk to this guy and see if we can pay to get some hotpot? After all, hotpot is better with more people!" Yino suggested, turning her head.
Indeed, Lu Yingqiu was definitely the beauty of the trio.
Five feet five tall, her legs almost a meter long.
Lu Yingqiu shook her head, "I won't eat, and I won't ask."
"Oh, right." Su Shasha remembered something, "Yingqiu's from Sichuan, she doesn't eat lamb hotpot or sesame sauce. She only likes spicy hotpot with duck intestines and beef tripe."
They often had dormitory dinners, and Lu Yingqiu would always prepare her own dipping sauce at hotpot meals.
Moreover, she refused to eat lamb, saying that she couldn't tolerate its aroma.
Since the beauty strategy failed, Yino considered the hardship tactic.
"I think this guy seems nice. You should ask for his help, Shasha. We can pay, anyway, the car is stationary." Yino said.
Su Shasha was quite simple-minded and genuinely hungry.
"Well, I'll... give it a try?"
Yino nodded happily, "Just tell him I have a stomach condition and that I'll get a stomach ache if I don't eat dinner! I think he'll definitely help, I'll pretend to be sick here."
One of the thirty-six stratagems, the hardship tactic!
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