Oh Mr General - Chapter 174

With a deep long breath out, Ming entered his family’s front gate. The slightly rusted black gate felt familiar to the young man. As he swung the gate open, a familiar screech sounded and a small head peaked out of the house. The young boy had similar features to Ming and when he saw who had come home, had shouted out in excitement.

“Big brother!” As he shouted, the young boy ran and gave Ming a big hug.

“Jun, have you been behaving yourself?” Ming smiled warmly after seeing his little brother.

“Yes! I don’t fight with Jin anymore!” The young boy named Li Jun, said proudly.

“Are you sure?” Ming asked again with a more serious expression.

“Fine, maybe once or twice a month, but not more than that!” Jun came clean after seeing how Ming did not believe his words.

“It’s okay to fight, but make sure to patch up with your brother afterwards.”

“Yes, hehe. We always do.” Ming rubbed the cheeky boy’s head as he entered the house.

Li Jun and Li Jin are the youngest twin brothers in the Li Family and were the biggest worry for Ming. From young, they were very mischievous and many times, Ming had to be the mediator between the two. Obviously, the two of the really looked up to their big brother and would listen to Ming most of the time.

Within seconds of Ming entering the house, loud sounds of feet clambering down the stairs came around the corner. A boy that looked identical to Li Jun had ran up and gave Ming a hug.

“Big brother, welcome home!” The boy was Li Jin. He smiled joyfully after seeing that his big brother was home.

“Jin ah, you seem to have grown since I last saw you.” Ming rubbed his other brother’s hair.

“Hey big brother, why did you only say Jin had grown? I grew too!” Jun did not want to lose out on getting a compliment from his brother.

“Yeah, you have grown taller too, Jun.”

“Hehe. Soon enough, Jin and I would be taller than you!” Jun wrapped his arm around Jin’s shoulder as he made his proclamation. As Ming was 182cm tall, the two 10 year olds had a long way to go from their height.

“Okay, okay. Let me put down my bag in my room before I come down to prepare dinner for everyone.” It was 5.30 pm and so, his parents were not home yet. Typically, Ming’s mother would get off work and reach home at 6 pm. She would immediately start cooking and If so, their dinner would normally be at 7 pm. As Ming had already told his parents that he would be coming home today, they knew that their oldest son would be preparing the family’s dinner.

This was the norm in the Li Family when Ming was still in high school. Only as Ming had went on to University, did their family’s eating time become later.

Ming headed upstairs where he realised that the room next to his, was closed. That could only mean one thing. With a nice sounding knock, he spoke, “Li Dong, I’m back.”

With Ming’s words, light foot steps could be heard approaching the door. As the door swung in, a boy that wore glasses and had slightly frizzled hair appeared in Ming’s sight. The boy named, Li Dong had just woken up from a nap and was looking all tired.

“Welcome home, big bro.” Li Dong yawned as he tried to energise himself up.

“Haha, carry on with your nap then. I’ll be downstairs making dinner.” Ming smiled as he realised that his 15 year old brother was still the same old sleepy boy.

“Okay. Wake me up when it is time to eat.”

“Sure thing.”

With that, Li Dong closed his door and went back to sleep. Ming turned to his left to see that his little sister, Li Xin’s room door was open. It seemed that the 14 year old girl was not home yet.

Ming placed down his haversack and proceeded to the first floor to start cooking. His twin younger brothers were already waiting for him with his signature blue apron that he wore in high school. It seems that the two boys wanted to be his sous chef for today.

Looking in the fridge and remembering what his mother had told him about the ingredients that were about to turn bad, Li Ming decided on the menu for today’s dinner. It was a special day as he knew it in his heart and so, he wanted to make the best dishes possible.

Although he hasn’t cooked in about a year, Ming’s hands moved with muscle memory as he recalled his signature dishes that he used to make for his family.

He had asked his brothers to peel the fibres off the fresh spinach to make the texture less chewy. The first dish was the twin’s favourite, garlic sautéed spinach. The taste was subtle and addictive, meaning that Ming usually had to make double the portions as the boys would eat it non-stop.

The second dish was a steamed whole fish, topped with ginger, scallions and chilli. The sauce used to simmer the fish was Ming’s custom sauce that was perfected after years of cooking. The secret ingredient was vinegar and provided an extra kick of sourness when a person bit into the soft white meat.

The third dish was braised spare ribs that Ming chopped up skilfully with a butcher knife. The dark soy sauce gives a satisfying colour. Coupled with hoisin sauce that provided a strong salty, but sweet aftertaste, the spare ribs underwent a transformative change.

With the Bok choy that is quite old, Ming swiftly chopped off the ends of the vegetable and left it to one side. For the fourth dish, he was going to cook up a typical chinese vegetable dish that made used oyster sauce as its main factor point. The authentic flavour shine through with little ingredients, only using garlic to stir fry up the vegetables. It was a simple, yet, delicious dish.