Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 1019

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 1019
I had decided to make cold noodles and was preparing various dishes, but nothing I created quite satisfied me.
Then I shifted my approach entirely and conceived of a menu that, while broadly falling under the cold noodle category, could hardly be called cold noodles at all.
Only after creating such a dish did I gain confidence that I could win this cooking competition.
‘Phew, as expected… if you put in the effort, you can do it!’
But that wasn’t the real problem.
The problem was that I needed to prepare at least five dishes!
Because.
This competition was a tournament!
Unlike the previous dumpling competition, which had been a one-on-one clash of pride between Geumbong Hyeolmi Cheolsan and myself as the Minor Sect Leader of the Jegallim Family, this tournament was structured like the Yongbong Jihoe—a proper bracket system.
One dish for the preliminary round.
Then four more dishes for the subsequent matches: sixteen competitors, eight competitors, four competitors, and two competitors.
Though I had already decided on my final dish, I couldn’t neglect the other menus either.
So I was devoting myself entirely to developing the remaining dishes.
Since it involved refrigeration, I also prepared warm dishes to subvert the obvious assumption that everything would be cold.
Specifically, I decided to use cold-aged meat.
In the past, I had made dumplings using dry-aged meat, but there are actually many other types of cold-aged meat distinct from dry-aging.
I was thinking of creating dishes using such varieties.
I wondered what the other master cooks would prepare.
I was so curious about their dishes that sleep eluded me.
‘…However, I will not spy!’
In the dumpling competition, I had to win for the sake of the Jegallim Family’s honor, but this tournament wasn’t fought under their name.
As one of the Ten Greatest Master Cooks of the realm (self-proclaimed), I would simply participate with humility!
“Let’s see… I’ve decided on two dishes…”
Cold noodles that aren’t quite cold noodles.
And a meat dish using cold-aged meat rather than dry-aged.
I still needed three more dishes.
“I’m having trouble coming up with ideas…”
I stood in the kitchen, pondering for a moment.
The Hyeonwon Jeondan Singeong was a remarkable martial technique and could even draw upon memories from my previous life on Earth.
But no matter how good one’s memory, inspiration was something else entirely.
No matter how thick an encyclopedia is, you can’t write poetry with it alone, can you?
After all, I had only discovered the need for refrigeration because I stayed at an inn in Nanjing other than Baekrin’s, and noticed its poor sanitary conditions.
Had I not discovered that, the development and production of refrigeration would have been postponed to the distant future.
Thus.
Inspiration and new ideas often strike suddenly.
I checked the time. Lunch hour would be ending soon.
“At times like this… I need input.”
Input.
Feeding something into the mind.
How do I decide on a menu for cooking?
I need to go out and eat!
I quickly prepared myself and stepped outside.
And there, walking toward me from a distance, was my younger brother.
“Hyeong~ What’s this~? Did the timing work out perfectly?”
“You… No. It’s my fault. My fault.”
Sama Hyeon, arriving with talk of timing!
But thinking about it, it did feel like my own doing.
Especially lately, I seemed to be using Earth language indiscriminately without restraint.
I was using it so unconsciously that even the Hyeonwon Jeondan Singeong couldn’t immediately correct my memories.
Well, this wasn’t the time to worry about such trivial(?) matters.
With so much work lately, I couldn’t even tell how the days were passing.
“You always seem to run into me whenever I go out. These days… So what’s going on?”
“I came to see you, Hyeong. There’s still time before the competition. Where are you headed?”
“I’m going to eat something.”
“A meal?”
“It’s a meal, but I want to eat a lot. And something unique.”
“Research beforehand?”
“More like I can’t come up with any ideas at all.”
“That happens sometimes. I know that pain well~ I’ve been thinking about a rental service lately and my head’s been spinning~”
‘Wait. How did he know about the rental service? When did I ever mention such a term?’
I walked alongside Sama Hyeon with a bewildered expression, chatting away.
And naturally, we ended up deciding to go eat together.
Sama Hyeon would be the guide.
I rarely left the Baekrin Medical Guild, so I was surprisingly unfamiliar with the good restaurants in the city.
Wasn’t it Sama Hyeon who introduced me to that soy butter egg fried rice place last time?
I heard even Master occasionally visits there because he enjoyed it.
‘Now that I think about it, Sama Hyeon’s usual scent has become much stronger.’
There was a faint smell of blood.
What could have happened during that short time?
I was concerned about my younger brother, but deliberately pretended not to notice.
* * *
The two brothers walked along, exchanging casual conversation.
“Hmm, you’re surprisingly serious about this, Hyeong?”
“Why?”
“No, the cooking competition is just for publicity and this is purely a hobby… No, you do put genuine effort into your hobbies~”
When one works, one suffers proportionally. Isn’t that only natural?
If that were possible, humans would work all day long and still live happily, and work efficiency would always be good.
There would be no need for Sama Hyeon to introduce work hours that don’t exist in Gangho.
Soon, Sama Hyeon began to think.
‘Come to think of it, Hyeong must be carrying an enormous amount of fatigue from his usual responsibilities. Such mental exhaustion… or should I call it stress? Is he relieving that stress through this hobby?’
In a way, perhaps Hyeong’s ability to work so frantically is precisely because of this secret method.
“Very well, Hyeong. I shall guide you to an excellent restaurant, so please leave it to me~”
“You are… hmm… no, never mind.”
I stared intently at Sama Hyeon before shaking my head.
“?”
As Sama Hyeon looked at me, I suddenly spoke.
“There’s been a change in your Cheonbyeon Geomman Gong, hasn’t there? You’re exploring a new realm or something.”
“…How did you know?”
“Just… I know.”
The manner of speech stripped of exaggeration, gestures that felt close to essence itself.
It was different from Sama Hyeon, who had been wearing mask upon mask upon mask for so long.
Yet even so, the differences were so subtle that those around him would struggle to notice.
Especially enemies or subordinates—they likely wouldn’t catch on at all and would simply move past it.
As for Sama-hye… she might have sensed that her brother was slightly different from usual, but since she knew nothing of Cheonbyeon Geomman Gong, she probably just accepted it as nothing unusual.
Only I could detect the change in Sama Hyeon.
‘Is it related to that spoon standing upright in midair that he showed at the restaurant?’
It was different from Void Grasping.
Normally with Void Grasping, objects would gently oscillate up and down, floating about.
It didn’t stop in midair as if nailed in place.
It felt as though an invisible arm extended from his hand and held it fast.
In a way, it almost seemed as if time itself had been frozen.
‘Hyeon would answer if I asked… but well… if I try to explain while he’s awkwardly grasping at enlightenment, it might only confuse him further. I’ll leave it be.’
Instead, I thought that by spending time around him, I would eventually understand something different.
Thus Sama Hyeon had the hidden agenda of ‘I need to learn Hyeong’s method of relieving stress.’
And I had the hidden agenda of ‘That mysterious power Hyeon possesses… I’m curious what martial art it actually is.’
Without discussing anything truly important,
the two of us simply embarked on a peculiar culinary journey.
* * *
A culinary journey, as it were, didn’t take us far.
We merely wandered through the villages surrounding Baekrin Uiseon.
Of course, even that covered quite a wide radius in an era without vehicles, but we had Hwang-gu and our martial arts refined to the extreme.
Woof woof!
Moreover, though we had no telephone, there was Noeji, who carried letters back and forth to Baekrin Uiseon.
Chirp chirp!
The master’s culinary tastes were their culinary tastes!
They were unusually passionate about it.
Thus the two of us made our way through restaurants at a terrifying pace.
‘He certainly knows his way around, doesn’t he.’
Sama Hyeon remarked.
“You wouldn’t know this, Hyeong, but remarkably, the city of Baekrin Medical Guild has gathered all the finest restaurants under heaven~”
“Baekrin Inn?”
“That’s right. The Baekrin Inn is at the center of it all, but this place—Sichuan Pavilion—specializes in Sichuan cuisine. Their twice-cooked pork is absolutely exquisite!”
Twice-cooked pork carries the meaning of ‘meat returning to the wok’—a cooking method where previously boiled or roasted meat is placed back into a wok and stir-fried once more.
It’s one of Sichuan’s signature dishes!
“How does twice-cooked pork have such incredible texture?!”
The pork, stir-fried in the wok until it curled at the edges, burst with savory juices across my palate.
And the spicy seasoning returned with violent intensity!
After tasting their twice-cooked pork, my eyes transformed with pure bliss.
Another establishment.
Suckling Pig House—a shop selling roasted suckling pig. This place was also a gem!
A whole suckling pig placed over charcoal, slowly rotated as it cooked.
The crucial element was the special sauce brushed onto the skin during roasting.
By continuously applying this sauce while rotating at a steady pace, the resulting skin became a true delicacy.
Sama Hyeon spoke.
“But there’s a slight deception involved.”
“Hmm, deception?”
“Using suckling pig every time doesn’t make financial sense, so they only display it that way out front. What they actually sell is just regular pork.”
“Is that so?”
“The flavor is admittedly inferior, but the seasoning is so strong that the difference is hardly noticeable. More importantly, their fire control is masterful, making the meat incredibly tender. People see how tender it is and assume it’s from suckling pig, but it’s actually not.”
My eyes gleamed.
“So fire control alone can deceive the palate?”
“Exactly. Hyeong~ but strictly speaking, it’s not illegal?”
“Why not?”
“Their menu clearly states they sell pork—it never says suckling pig. People just assume based on what they see rotating out front.”
Truly, this is Gangho.
Deception right before your eyes.
And in this Gangho world without food safety regulations, there’s no way to catch such tricks.
‘Well, it’s delicious regardless.’
Separate from the owner’s cunning, the meat was impossibly tender. Moreover, it seemed they’d added medicinal herbs generously, giving it a deep, complex aroma.
Sama Hyeon’s recommendation was well-deserved.
Clang!
Squeak!
Hwang-gu and Noeji had also emptied their bowls with enthusiasm.
‘Truly Gangho. One moment of carelessness and disaster strikes. Still, I should send someone later to ensure they make corrections.’
The meat tasted excellent enough that they could simply write “pork” honestly on the menu without issue.
‘Is the “suckling pig” title really that important?’
But I couldn’t honestly say the suckling pig tasted significantly better.
Wouldn’t adult pigs, which produce more meat, be preferable?
‘Well, I suppose in modern times, meat-production chickens are slaughtered after only five to seven weeks of raising.’
In modern times, that would be possible.
However, in this era, the meat yield from slaughtering a single pig is critically important.
In that sense, piglets are nothing but pure waste.
With an average lifespan of thirty years and people starving to death in this age, slaughtering and eating a pig before it was fully grown represented an enormous luxury.
The next place I visited was a chicken specialty restaurant called the Rooster’s Palace.
A dish called Kung Pao Chicken!
It was created for a high-ranking official, and since that official’s title was Kung Pao, the dish became known as Kung Pao Chicken.
After that came a tofu specialty shop.
The Tofu Overlord.
A place that served Tiger Skin Tofu, a fermented tofu grilled dish—the tofu was aged until it took on a slightly yellowish hue that resembled tiger skin, hence the name Tiger Skin Tofu!
This tofu, brushed with a secret sauce and grilled, was truly a delicacy!
And then.
I even discovered a shop that served cold dishes.
“Ohhhhh!”
The shop’s name was Liang Pi Noodle Shop.
Liang Pi is a dish that, in Korean terms, resembles a kind of spicy mixed noodles, and it’s known to have existed since the time of Emperor Qin Shi Huang.
Originating from Shaanxi Province, it consists of flat, thin noodles mixed with a sweet and tangy sauce.
They even add a sauce made from ground meat and crushed peanuts, and the flavor is absolutely exquisite.
‘Moreover, the Liang Pi Noodle Shop has an open kitchen system where customers can see the kitchen! How interesting.’
I took a spoonful of the liang pi noodles and put it in my mouth.
‘Wow, this… reminds me of spicy mixed noodles from Earth.’
The hotter it is, the more appetizing it becomes.
I was eating so intently that I didn’t notice anything else.
Then I sensed a presence and turned my gaze to see the Liang Pi Noodle Shop Proprietor looking at me with a meaningful, sly grin.
Seeing that expression, I instinctively understood.
‘This fellow intends to enter the cooking competition.’
However, the same applied to me.
I had no intention of losing either!
The proprietor, meeting my gaze, spoke thus.
“A distinguished guest has arrived. Would you care to taste the flavor of tomorrow’s champion, Minor Sect Leader?”
You will be defeated by my cooking, Jin Cheon-hee.
That was what he was saying.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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