Episode 3 · Charles, Chef Lawrence, Zhao Meilan
Charles carries white plastic barrels past the village store, where men by the fire mock him. The villager in the leather jacket sneers that pond weeds cannot turn his life around. In town, hot pot customers praise the pickled cress and order extra portions. The restaurant boss immediately orders thirty jin for tomorrow, warning against flavor changes. Charles pushes his cart home to work.
Charles carries plastic barrels past the village shop. Men warming by the fire laugh and claim he begs in town. When he returns carrying water buckets, a villager in a leather jacket sneers that wild pond grass will never change his life.
Inside the town hot pot shop, customers praise the pickled sour cress for cutting through grease and buy two extra orders. Seeing the demand, Chef Lawrence orders thirty jin for tomorrow, warning he will return any batch with altered taste.
Charles pushes his wooden handcart along the dirt road, determined to fulfill the thirty-jin quota without dropping quality. As he reaches the village entrance, the men gathered by the fire watch him approach and resume their mocking chatter.
“你别以为几根草就能让你翻身。塘边草，谁不会腌？”
“明天三十斤，能不能送送？”
“记住，客人认的是今天这个味。明天差一口，我照样退！”
“三十斤，得稳。”
Charles heads back into the village with a major thirty-jin order to prepare by the next day. Idle villagers continue sneering from the roadside fire, waiting for him to fail. Can Charles harvest and pickle that much sour cress overnight without losing the exact taste Chef Lawrence demands?