Grasp the farming script in the famous book

——The right to speak in this city is still in the hands of the rich.

Roland stood in front of the big house used by Wei Yingdi when he got married, and couldn't help but secretly sigh.

This Spanish-style building with whitewashed exterior walls was temporarily borrowed as a venue for the "selection".On the grass outside, well-dressed people gathered and talked in twos and threes.

The ladies held parasols and showed off their competing hats;

The gentlemen in top hats exchanged greetings with glasses of champagne, and casually chatted about current affairs and business topics.

"Excuse me, are you the owner or the chef of the restaurant?"

A waiter came forward to lead the way.

Roland was with Mrs. Munro, who answered both.

The waiter was stunned: "Accordingly, the owner should go this way to attend the reception, and the kitchen is over there..."

"understood!"

Roland took Mrs. Munro's arm and strode towards the kitchen, ignoring the surprised eyes of other waiters and guests.

It's hard to imagine a combination of restaurateurs who don't know what to do, and chefs who can never get involved in running a restaurant.

When they first arrived in the kitchen, Roland and Mrs. Munro were different among the male chefs.But fortunately, people saw that they were beautiful and well-behaved, so they came to their convenience and left them the stove and cooking table in the best position.

The two immediately put on their aprons and began to pack the materials they had brought.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, someone came to inform: "Everyone, after cooking, please go to the hall. There, the restaurant owners who finally entered the 'Best Restaurant' candidates will give speeches."

"There is still this stubble?"

Roland was astonished.

It seems that this selection is still a stage for "proprietors" in the final analysis, not the cooks, not the managers, and ultimately the speeches made by the owners are the decisive factors for the results.

"Listen to me," Mrs. Munro grasped Roland's hand as soon as she heard the words, "Scarlett, after you finish cooking those dishes, go make preparations. If you are lucky enough to be selected, go to the stage to speak Bar."

"But……"

Obviously Mrs. Munro is the one who owns the restaurant.Roland felt that she was the one who should step onto the stage to receive people's attention and applause.

Besides, she didn't bring a change of clothes, so will she have to go on stage in a greasy fume?

"Silly boy, without you, this restaurant would not exist."

Mrs. Munro looked at Roland lovingly as if looking at her own child.

"You deserve to embrace the fruits of your own creation."

Roland said nothing more, she stretched out her arms and hugged Mrs. Munro.

She has made up her mind in her heart that she must win this best restaurant for Mrs. Munro.

"This is an important place for the kitchen, and idlers are not allowed to enter. Little girl, which family's servant are you?"

A waiter shouted and asked outside the kitchen door.

As soon as Roland turned his head, he saw Prissy jumping up outside the door and looking for him.

The little girl had stayed at home with Mammy and Wade.

"Miss Scarlett, I brought this from home."

Priscian held a travel bag in his hand.

Roland went to pick it up and saw that it contained her dress made of green taffeta—this relieved her urgent need.After a while, she finished cooking the appetizer and main course, mixed the fun wine, and slipped out to change clothes.

"How could you imagine..."

Roland thought to himself why this little girl has become enlightened today.

Before she could finish her question, Pulixi was invited away by the waiter.

"Please don't disturb the chefs cooking."

Roland had no choice but to look inside the travel bag again. She reached in and fumbled, and found a paper bag inside the bag.

Opening the paper bag, Roland saw that it contained a brooch inlaid with brilliant diamonds—it looked so familiar.

"I remembered!"

Isn't this the diamond brooch Rhett had lent her when she first came to New Orleans?

So it wasn't that the little girl Pulixi suddenly became enlightened, but someone helped her think of everything in advance.

Although that guy has never appeared in front of her, he has been paying attention to her secretly, and quietly lends a helping hand when she needs it.

So he should be fine.

Roland immediately lifted his spirits and became full of confidence.

She no longer has any scruples, and she doesn't have to worry about the oil splashing all over her body - she just needs to treat this big kitchen as her own kitchen and do her best.

"Tommy's Kitchen" is a candidate for the best restaurant, and the "signature dish" reported, the appetizer is secret crayfish, and the main course is gumbo soup with seafood risotto-this is indeed the restaurant's most popular daily hospitality signature dish.

But both of these have their own problems: one is that the appearance is not good enough, and the other is that the appearance is not easy to look good.

The unique Creole cuisine in New Orleans pays attention to rich soup, but the finished dishes tend to look sticky and sticky.

Gumbo is just that, rich and tasty, but just looking like a brown, dusty bowl of soup.

The crayfish itself is a shelled food with teeth and claws. It cannot be disassembled with a knife and fork.

So Roland made some improvements to both of them. He specially picked out the tails of the big crayfish and made them into shrimp balls for stir-frying. Then he used the lobster shells and shrimp brains to make a broth and condensed it into a sauce.

This "secret crayfish" becomes "secret crayfish balls", which are served in a deep plate, topped with sauce, and served with thin slices of bread toasted with garlic and butter.When eating, diners put the shrimp balls and sauce on the bread slices and put them in the mouth together, so that they can enjoy the fresh, tender and fragrant crayfish effortlessly.

It's just that this will lose the fun of peeling shrimp by yourself - Roland thought to himself.

But she tasted it herself, and it is true that the crayfish balls made in this way are more fragrant.After all, even the umami essence of the shrimp shells and shrimp brains are all integrated into the sauce.

Roland also made some improvements to the restaurant's most classic gumbo soup and seafood risotto.

She added a little fresh wormwood juice to the gumbo soup, so that the originally tawny, gray gumbo soup became pure and bright green.

She added the saffron-soaked broth to the seafood risotto, which was golden and bright in color.

These seafood risottos are served in small bowls, then buckled in a deep plate, surrounded by dark green okra soup, like a "golden island" emerging in the dark blue lake.Finally, she garnished a tube of green shallots on top of the risotto, and the whole dish immediately looked extremely delicate and beautifully presented.

A cook next to Roland caught a glimpse of this "jasper lake with golden island" and asked in surprise, "This... is this still our Creole dish?"

At this time, Roland had finished loading all the plates, so he generously gave the remaining okra soup and risotto to the chef for tasting.

The chef who had tasted it blinked his eyes, and his face flushed immediately.

"Ma'am, I shouldn't doubt you. You are... a real Creole."

Roland was recognized by his peers, and immediately smiled.

Look at Mrs. Munro, who is preparing bread pudding with a peaceful face.

Bread pudding is not a particularly exquisite pastry, but a very homely home-cooked dessert, even specially used to consume leftover pudding at home. Oven is fine.

And Mrs. Munro's twist on this "homemade treat" is a whiskey cream sauce.When the hot pudding is out of the oven and the whiskey cream sauce is poured on the top of the puffed pudding, the unique aroma of whiskey and malted caramel cream permeates the whole kitchen, which is so enviable.

"Stable!"

Roland took a look at the dishes they prepared together: secret crayfish balls, gumbo soup and seafood risotto, bread pudding, and specially made "layered" Funques in glasses.

Led by her restaurant, the "sunset fun drink" that gradually spread throughout New Orleans has now produced dozens of variants.Inspired by this wine, people began to create more new flavors, and bourbon, brandy, and whiskey gradually joined the ranks of "base wine"—things are developing in the direction Roland hopes to see.

Yet she still has a way to innovate: using the different densities of different ingredients, she can create "layered" funques served in glasses that are colorful and eye-catching.Almost regardless of taste, this wine can already guarantee the highest score-not to mention that it is also a "famous product" with extremely classic taste.

"Scarlett, go!"

Seeing that everything was ready in the kitchen, Mrs. Munro urged.

"Leave all the rest here to me, just go for it for the restaurant!"

Roland gave a "hmm", took off his apron, picked up the travel bag that Prissy gave him, hurriedly left the restaurant, and asked the waiter where there was a dressing room for female guests.

From the dressing room to the kitchen, you have to go through the large lawn crowded with people in front of the hall.

Roland took a quick glance and saw many acquaintances.Mrs. Merriwether was told she had gone back to Atlanta, but Mrs. Elsing and Mrs. Meade were still there.

Wei Yingti was dressed in fancy clothes, and was circling among the guests, but still had a cold face.The whole event was nominally managed by the New Orleans City Hall, but in fact all the cumbersome organizational work was pushed to Indy. She was the one who contributed both money and effort, but she didn't get much praise.

Melanie... well, Melanie was there too.Standing on the lawn, she was naturally surrounded by many people.She just stood in the crowd, speaking softly, and people couldn't help but listen.She is like a magnet, always able to attract all kinds of people to her side.

Roland was worried that it would take too much time to greet everyone, so he simply carried the clothes bag and trotted towards the dressing room.

She didn't know that when she ran, there were two eyes following her at the same time.

The women's changing room is large, with high windows that let sunlight stream in from overhead.

The locker room was very quiet, there were not many people who chose to come here to change clothes and make up at this time, all the locker rooms were empty, and the heavy curtains used to block the view were all open.

It is worthy of being a dressing room haunted by high society people. There are not only seats, mirrors, but also powder puffs and cologne in the dressing room.

Roland changed into her green taffeta gown in a dressing room, re-powdered a little, then sprayed the cologne in the dressing room into the air, stepped into the fragrant mist, Turn in a circle.

She looked in the mirror, and the person in the mirror had a pair of emerald-like dark green eyes, with a confident light in her eyes-she believed in herself, and she would soon win the title of "Best Restaurant" up.

She pressed her lips together again to make those red lips look more bloody and alive.

At last she pinned the diamond brooch carefully on her chest - just the right size and shape, neither shabby and restrained nor too dazzling, to draw people's eyes away from her vigorous face Turned away.

"All right!"

Roland cheered himself up: she was fully prepared.

"Scarlett—"

A low voice on the other side of the curtain said, "May I see you?"

Roland felt his heart pounding.

Not to be alarmed by a man's voice in the ladies' locker room, but—

With a bang, she opened the curtain hanging on the dressing room, and Ashley's handsome and pale face suddenly appeared in front of her eyes.

He leaned feebly against the wall, like a man about to drown.

"Ashley, are you sending a message for the ladies to see if I change my mind?"

Roland suppressed the excitement in his heart, and tried his best to make his voice into a straight line without waves or ups and downs.The last time he had talked with her, Melanie and Rhett had ended without a problem—he and she had never discussed it to an end.

"I just wanted to see you."

He said it like a whimper.

The sun shone down from above his head, framing a bright line in his short gray hair.Beneath this graceful outline, about half of his hair is gray.

Looking at the new wrinkles on his forehead, Roland could imagine that Ashley had a hard time recently.

"Since last time, the ladies haven't made things difficult for you, have they?"

The corners of Ashley's mouth turned up, and his eyes turned away, as if to say: Scarlett, so that's what you were thinking.

"Of course not," he replied.

"Of course the ladies are heartbroken, but Melanie has been vehemently defending you."

Roland sighed in his heart:

That's Melanie, and that's why Melanie is always a magnet for everyone.

She is the only person in this world who judges others by the simplest standard of right and wrong.

"Did Scarlett do anything wrong? No!"

"Did Scarlett kill anyone? No!"

She could almost hear Melanie's voice, saying this out loud.

"Then why do you accuse Scarlett?"

"Things eased up later, firstly because Mrs. Merryweather returned to Atlanta, and secondly because they heard that Rhett Brad had also left." Ashley added.

Roland suddenly wanted to laugh out loud.

She really never thought that Ruide's influence on her "reputation" was so limited.

The prodigal son and the widow, as long as they keep a sufficient physical distance, do not violate the moral requirements of the wives, and are not "criminal".

Seeing Roland's half-smile, as if he guessed what she was thinking, Ashley looked as if he was about to drown.

"This time you're competing for 'best restaurant,' and that's just as worrying."

Ashley said, "Melanie quarreled with Indy several times, and she wanted Indy to persuade Rhodes to allow restaurants run by women..."

Roland: ...So that's the case.

She had been mentally prepared and even thought that she might not be eligible for the competition: firstly, she was a woman, and secondly, her restaurant catered to everyone.

At that time, she just felt lucky, as if she had entered the final round of selection smoothly, but in fact, there were other people escorting her.

When Ashley told her this, she immediately put a heavier burden on her shoulders, and her debt to Melanie suddenly became a little more.

But these things, Melanie can do, Indy can do, but what about Ashley?What did he do for her?

He was alone, and ran to meet her in the ladies' dressing room.

"I really... just wanted to come and see you."

"Scarlett, I had a dream last night that we were back at Twelve Oaks, me and you..."

Ashley's eyes did not focus on Roland's face, on the contrary, he seemed to look beyond Roland's face, looking into the infinite distance.His voice also seemed to be sleepwalking, and he was completely immersed in memories.

"I can see you in that green floral dress and warm white trimmed shawl... you sit under one of the Twelve Oaks surrounded by a dozen boys Surrounding you...and I can only stand there from afar, watching..."

"I've been having this dream over and over all these years, and I've also watched myself turn and leave where you can't see it at all, regretting it... It's like this in the army, it's like this in a prisoner-of-war camp , and it's the same at Tara..."

Roland really wanted to remind him: this is all in the past.

"And yet the day I got back to Tara, you told me you never looked back."

"I thought...how can I not look back?"

"Other than the memories of the past, I obviously have nothing left!"

"Why you can, Melanie can, but I still can't."

The speaker's voice was still calm, but it could be heard that he was already crying bitterly in his heart.

Roland felt a sharp pain in his heart.

She understood Ashley for a moment—or she understood why she didn't understand Ashley.She is a person without a past, and her "past" is all movie clips that she has never personally experienced. There is no piece that can poke her, move her, make her recall tears at the end of the long night, make her extremely painful but cautious Take care of, never forget.

The music and lyrics of the blues band seemed to ring in my ears again.

"...the smiles and tears of all these years,

It still hurts my heart like a knife. 1"

"Ashley..."

At this moment, she suddenly began to sympathize with Ashley sincerely—what he misses and misses, she should also miss and miss him.

So she took a step forward, and opened her arms like a friend: "Ashley, come on!"

"Scarlett, I have always envied you. Over the years I have wanted to be my true self. But you have always been yourself..."

With tears in his eyes, Ashley thanked her for opening her arms to him.

He lowered his head, wrapped one arm around her waist, gently supported the back of her head with the other hand, and gently pressed her cheek against the collar of his gray coat.She could feel his chin resting lightly on her head.

Suddenly, the door of the women's dressing room creaked.

Roland felt Ashley tense all over, and suddenly let her go.

The sunlight coming in from outside the door was a bit dazzling.Roland first saw Vince's poker face, and Mrs. Elsing seemed to put her head close to Indy, whispering something.

She moved her gaze to the side, and saw Melanie's petite face, with snow-white skin and shallow beauties, making the owner of this face look like an innocent child.