The pairing of ingredients for a marinated hot pot base is not difficult.

Sichuan-style hot pot uses beef fat to enhance the fragrance of the base, but marinated hot pot is different, it uses lard.

The aroma of lard is unparalleled by other animal fats, it can even work wonders in cooking.

A plain and ordinary bowl of clear soup noodles becomes wonderfully fragrant with just a small piece of lard added.

A simple stir-fried vegetable dish becomes unique with a little lard in the pan.

Therefore, when Chen Mo adds lard to the black pot, simply adding chopped scallions, ginger, and garlic fills the parking lot with a rich aroma.

Moreover, adding red shallots thoroughly stirs the fragrance of lard before adding star anise, cinnamon, bay leaves, tsaoko, Sichuan pepper, dried chili, and fennel seed.

These are basically essential seasonings for making marinated flavors, sometimes modified based on different marinated ingredients, but generally, they're quite similar.

It must be said, during this time, Chen Mo's skills and cooking knowledge have improved significantly, as various spices continue to stir-fry in the lard.

Chen Mo feels increasingly adept with the black spatula in his hand!

It's like... this black spatula is a part of his arm, functioning like an extension of his hand.

Just like earlier, Chen Mo saw some spice residue floating on the surface of the lard, and with a light scoop of the spatula, he fished it out, as precise as if he had pinched it by hand.

"Works well, I wonder what kind of cooking tool rewards are upcoming, a whole black series set would look pretty cool!"

Chen Mo stirs the spices in the pot at a leisurely pace, needing only to completely draw out the aroma of these spices, then strain out the residue, add other seasonings, and boil the water, and the hot pot base is done.

...

Wanglong Mountain, at the foot of the mountain.

"The coach is nuts, all this just because we've gained two pounds? I'll just get rid of the two pounds by taking a dump tonight."

A young man, wearing Da Yao's No. 11 Rockets jersey, with knee pads on his legs, looks up at the stairs of Wanglong Mountain, unable to help but lose composure.

"Brother Hu, stop talking, or the coach will add extra training on us again."

"It's all Boss Xiao Chen's fault, if it weren't for those days of having two bowls of noodles daily, we wouldn't have all gained weight."

Zhou Hu, unimpressed, looks at the speaking godson, thinking Ma Qiang is too slick, managing five portions of fried rice during an all-nighter, and now saying bullshit like this.

"Wasn't it you begging for them back then? How come you're blaming Boss Xiao Chen now?"

Ma Qiang bends down, supporting his knees, the mountain ahead being their conquest target tonight.

Just a week ago, Zhou Hu's group joined school pre-competition training, and the coach noticed their performance had clearly declined!

Upon investigation, it turned out they had recently gained weight!

The coach was puzzled at that time, thinking how could they possibly gain weight with high training volume and our cafeteria catering?

To ensure Zhou Hu's group wouldn't mess up at this city-wide university sports competition, the coach decided to be ruthless.

This has been a long-standing tradition at Jingtai University—hiking Wanglong Mountain.

To protect students' knees, they generally hike up and take the cable car down, choosing to hike at night mainly to avoid crowds during the day.

Coach Gao Yang reclines comfortably in the van at the mountain base visitor center, holding a walkie-talkie, "None of you better slack off, on those 1,600 steps, be finished by midnight, any delay by five minutes, and you'll run five more kilometers tomorrow! Accumulative!"

The six people at the mountain base, Zhou Hu among them, immediately pulse with energy, the walkie-talkie at their waist feels like a death warrant, as they look at the stairs going upward and swallow hard.

"Let's do it, brothers!"

"Let's do this!"

Though the slogans are loud, the six didn't hurry their stride, taking very steady, one-step-at-a-time movements.

It's not the first time climbing Wanglong Mountain, Zhou Hu's group is experienced, knowing that running wildly early on would soon lead to their bodies feeling burdened, with leaden legs they can hardly lift.

The steps must be steady, breathing even, and even if thirsty, they should only rinse their mouths to trick their brain, never drinking the water.

At this moment, Wanglong Mountain is pitch black, but fortunately, there is a dim line of light on both sides of the pedestrian stairs, allowing Zhou Hu's group to manage some chat initially, though their breathing becomes heavier as they near the top.

"Come on!" Zhou Hu shouts hoarsely while lowering his head, his voice turning raspy, "Almost at the top!"

Ma Qiang feels like those legs aren't his anymore, hardly under his control, merely walking forward numbly.

"Brother Hu, I'm hallucinating from fatigue."

Zhou Hu continues walking, "No, absolutely don't stop!"

Stopping now would make one's body collapse utterly, barely able to rise again!

Better to push through to the summit at once!

"No, Brother Hu." Ma Qiang pants heavily, "I really am hallucinating, I'm smelling meat!"

Zhou Hu almost chokes on air at his words, "Didn't you already have dinner tonight?"

Ma Qiang is speechless, wondering how climbing just led to a sudden meat scent, perhaps his recent diet control's been too harsh.

After climbing, gotta get some meat for sure.

Continuing, the group, with just a hundred or so steps to the summit, suddenly comes to a stop when Zhou Hu halts.

"Damn, Boss Zhou, you almost tripped me." says Ma Qiang, colliding with the abrupt stop.

"Qiangzi, what did you just say?"

"I said, do you have a problem?"

Zhou Hu shakes his head, "No, on the lower path, what did you say?"

"I said..." Ma Qiang thinks, "I said I'm hallucinating from fatigue, smelling meat."

Zhou Hu twitches his nose, "Am I hallucinating too?"

The other roommates all sniff around, taking in the mountain air which is incredibly fresh at night, with cow dung aromas everywhere.

"I smell it too, seems like beef!"

"No, no! Let me smell again... it's pork, yes, it's pork!"

"Bullshit, it clearly smells like chicken, haven't you eaten stewed chicken?"

Halting in place, the six are baffled by the sudden meat aroma here, is this even reasonable?

In the deep mountain jungle, is anyone stewing meat here?

Ma Qiang suddenly thinks, "Brother Hu, could it be someone at the temple on the summit's stewing meat?"

At Wanglong Mountain's summit, there stands Haiyue Temple, maintained by some monks attending to incense offerings, and visitors to see the sunrise always pass through the temple.

Zhou Hu tilts his head, looking at Ma Qiang.

"Are you speaking human language here? Stewing meat in a temple, hey Ma Qiang, how's your brain even wired?"

Yet Ma Qiang feels his idea isn't that far-fetched.

Why can't there be meat stewing in a temple?

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