Family, who gets it?

I struggled to chase from Hangzhou to Guizhou, drifted upstream for three hours, and even the cameraman fell into the water twice, all just to taste Boss Wang’s cuisine, only to be told that what he served today is West Lake Vinegar Fish!

And the sign for the West Lake Vinegar Fish even had two small words on it — authentic!

Everyone on Earth knows that vinegar fish, authentic, and delicious can only exist as two words together at best.

Is it too late to get a refund now?

At worst, we can just skip the materials for this episode...

Fu Zixin was crying with a mournful face, "Did we come all this way just to eat vinegar fish that even the locals don’t eat?"

Sanxin’s face was similarly twisted and quite pale, looking like a water ghost, but the words of complaint turned into, "Since we’re here already?"

Fu Zixin looked at Sanxin in shock, "Isn’t this unnecessary?"

Even though we’ve come this far, is it really necessary to come for something like this? Like a biochemical weapon-grade dish?

I can pretend I never met you!

Seeing Fu Zixin’s slightly pleading look, Sanxin cleared his throat and said, "How about we trust Boss Wang just this once? After all, Boss Wang has never let us down, and if we miss this chance, we might not get another. You might not catch Boss Wang next time."

Fu Zixin felt that Sanxin’s words made some sense.

After all, although Boss Wang is active, he only updates his location once a week and only operates from Monday to Friday, so it’s quite a challenge for an average person to catch him.

"So, should we give it a try?"

"Since we’re here already!"

They quickly changed into clean clothes and headed straight to Wang Fan’s stall.

Seeing Sanxin again, Wang Fan was quite surprised, but he didn’t overthink it, merely smiling and greeting, "Hello, we meet again."

Sanxin laughed heartily, "I followed you here, just didn’t expect you to sell West Lake Vinegar Fish on the first day."

Wang Fan pointed to a large water tank in front of the food cart, "The grass carp is raised in spring water, each about two pounds, starved for three days, so they’re tender with no fishy smell."

Even while listing these preconditions, even Wang Fan felt sometimes certain cuisines are rightly lost to time.

The requirements are just too many!

No wonder Mr. Su Dongpo ate all the way while being demoted, and when he reached Hangzhou, he had to come up with Dongpo Pork.

And it’s not surprising that small eateries or even large restaurants can’t make it taste good.

This dish really shouldn’t be on a small eatery’s menu, and even few large restaurants can pull it off.

Which big restaurant can maintain an entire pond of grass carp just for one dish?

And starve them for three days to get rid of the fishy taste.

Starving them for three days makes them lose weight — isn’t that just bad for business?

He’s just lucky, and there’s the story of what happened yesterday afternoon.

After much practice and research, Wang Fan finally determined what kind of fish he needed.

But after reaching the conclusion, he worried that even the system couldn’t have such perfectly meeting requirements fish, right? Especially when the system doesn’t create things out of thin air.

However, things tend to align in unexpected ways for him.

A friend he knows well, Gang Ge, happened to be in Guizhou, not far from him.

Most importantly, Gang Ge wasn’t busy these days and started a catch-the-whole-pond event.

Even more coincidentally, the pond he rented was filled with spring water.

And even more coincidentally, the pond owner was an 80-year-old grandpa who hadn’t fed the fish due to health issues for three or four days!

That fulfilled all the conditions.

The only problem was that Gang Ge had always been unlucky with renting fish ponds, losing each time, hence earning the nickname "Li Pei Guang".

However, this pond master grandpa was a man of principle, and after draining the water, Gang Ge found that the pond indeed had many fish, making it the first profitable occasion.

As Wang Fan happened to see his fish-catching video, he immediately contacted him.

The grandpa’s pond had plenty of grass carp, most weighing over five pounds, some even ten or twenty pounds, but upon hearing Wang Fan only wanted the one-and-a-half to two-pounders, Gang Ge was thrilled.

Although these one- to two-pound fish were tender, they had too many small bones, making even the local villagers buy only the big ones. Apart from giving them away or setting them free, not much else could be done.

But now that Brother Wang wanted to buy them, what more was there to say?

Give them all!

Yet Wang Fan still insisted on paying, eventually agreeing to buy 100 fish at a rate of 4 yuan per pound after much negotiation.

Gang Ge also gifted him a small air pump, which wasn’t worth much but was enough to keep the fish alive in a large fish tank for a few days.

He also said he would make sure to come to support once he was done for the day, but who knows if he would get cold feet upon hearing the fish was for West Lake Vinegar Fish?

Although as a native of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, he had criticized this dish for a long time, hardly anyone knew why the dish was not tasty or what made it special.

But since the modern term "not understanding but feeling there is a great deal to it" has emerged, it indeed has its reasons. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Even though he didn’t quite understand what’s special about what Boss Wang said, he surmised it meant that the fish tasted good?

"What does large portion and small portion mean?"

Wang Fan explained, "A small portion is about one and a half pounds, while a large one is a bit over two pounds."

Sanxin said, "Then give us two small portions to taste first."

Wasting food is shameful, and small portions have half a pound less meat, so even if it didn’t taste good, one might gulp it down with eyes closed.

Upon hearing this, Wang Fan took out a small fishing net and scooped up two smaller grass carp from the live fish tank.

Though starved for three days, these grass carp were still very lively, still jumping energetically into the net.

With two solid hits, both fish met their end, and within two minutes, they were cleanly processed.

Sanxin’s agitated mood finally settled down.

Not for any particular reason, but he felt watching Wang Fan clean the fish was a treat.

Every step was quick and clean, with each fish processed neatly.

"Boss Wang truly lives up to his fame as the national strongest wilderness culinary boss, even the cleaned fish seems delicious raw."

Wang Fan chuckled and replied, "You don’t have to flatter me; I grew up watching your shows."

Sanxin was quite surprised, "Really?"

Wang Fan confirmed, "Really, though I didn’t get to watch TV much as a kid, I really liked the children’s show you hosted."

Sanxin touched his face, feeling the tides of time and the swift passage of years, "Am I that old already?"