Chapter 414

The morning meeting at Zhi Wei Ju is held in the staff lounge.

Yes, it is the very staff lounge where the various master chefs often come to blows and argue.

Qin Huai didn't really enter the staff lounge yesterday; he only took a few glances. His impression of the staff lounge was that the renovation was okay, the area was quite large, and it contained standard lounge tables and chairs, as well as some sofas and armchairs.

Following Master Zhou in today, he found it was about the same as the impression he got from those few glances yesterday, except that one table was piled high with boxed meals, and each boxed meal had a piece of paper stuck to it with the corresponding name written on it.

Eh, boxed meals.

Qin Huai was instantly attracted by the boxed meals.

As soon as Master Zhou entered the staff lounge, he saw Master Hua; the two of them can now be said to find each other very unpleasant to look at. So unpleasant that Master Zhou could directly ignore Qin Huai, stride forward, and stand opposite Master Hua for a face-to-face confrontation.

Master Hua did not show weakness either; although he was a little bit guilty and afraid, he still stubbornly stuck his neck out and glared at Master Zhou. It looked like a great battle was about to break out, and a full-scale martial arts fight was about to be staged in the lounge.

The two master chefs at the door started arguing first.

"Ying Hetian, what do you mean by this? Yesterday I made Honey-Glazed Nine-Layer Cake and you made Honey-Glazed Nine-Layer Cake; today I make Pine Nut Sandwich Cake, and you make Pine Nut Sandwich Cake. Then tomorrow if I make Ruyi Lock Slices, are you going to make Ruyi Lock Slices too?"

"Is there any point in always copying me making dim sum? Is your dim sum as good as mine?"

"Chen En, don't be so narcissistic. Also, is this how you address your senior brother? Don't think that just because Master praised you a few times back then, your level is much better than mine. These dim sums were all taught by Master back then; so what if I make them? Can't I make them? I haven't even said anything about you making the same dim sum as me every day, yet you are the one accusing me first and shifting the blame."

"Pah, Senior Brother, you still have the nerve to say you are my senior brother. When you came to Zhi Wei Ju for money back then, why didn't you think about being my senior brother?"

"Chen En, is there something wrong with your brain? I didn't sign a slave contract. Zhi Wei Ju offered better conditions and treatment, so what's wrong with me coming to Zhi Wei Ju? Didn't you come to Zhi Wei Ju too?"

"I came because Master told me to!"

"Master didn't say I couldn't come back then either!"

"You @%&*/!"

"You are the one who is 《%&@】#*!"

Qin Huai was stunned watching this.

Because at this very moment, in the staff lounge, it wasn't just Master Zhou and Master Hua, Chen En and Ying Hetian arguing; there were several others looking at each other with disdain and rolling their eyes, the atmosphere tense as if they were rivals who could not coexist.

It didn't look like a company morning meeting; it looked like a scene from a gold-medal mediation show.

Wang Jiayi had long been accustomed to this situation. He calmly pulled Qin Huai to the table with the boxed meals, helped Qin Huai find the box that belonged to him, and then found an empty seat far away from the strife to sit down and start eating.

"Wang... Master Wang, is it okay for us to just eat?" Qin Huai was truly bewildered now. He felt that there wasn't a single normal person in this staff lounge, including Wang Jiayi.

The morning meeting was about to start, and it was one thing that they were arguing or even potentially fighting over there, but why were they starting to eat here?

Wang Jiayi opened his boxed meal very calmly. The configuration of four dishes and one soup was very rich: pan-fried hairtail, pineapple sweet and sour pork, stir-fried water spinach, and garlic baby cabbage; the soup was winter melon and pork rib soup.

Seeing that Qin Huai hadn't sat down yet, Wang Jiayi pointed to the chair beside him: "Sit down and eat. Our morning meeting at Zhi Wei Ju is originally meant for eating lunch. Today is only your first day here for the exchange; in a while, Boss Su will definitely introduce you to everyone. When he introduces you, everyone will be able to eat, but you won't have time to eat, so you have to eat first."

Although Qin Huai didn't understand, he respected it. He sat down blankly and opened his lunch box. The dishes inside were the ones Qin Huai had sent to Boss Su yesterday, the dishes recommended by Tan Weian. They were still hot and looked quite appetizing.

Seeing that Wang Jiayi had already started eating heartily, Qin Huai was no longer reserved; after all, he had already sat down, so he started eating directly.

He ate while accompanied by the arguing voices of master chefs who were clearly from the same sect but had now become sworn enemies.

"Master Chen and Master Ying are basically like this every day. You'll get used to it. Although they argue fiercely, they won't actually fight. Before, people would try to mediate, but now everyone is used to it. Moreover, they won't argue anywhere else; they only seize the time to argue during the morning meeting. It doesn't affect normal work, which is quite good."

Qin Huai:?

"Then... what is the situation with these two masters?" Qin Huai asked with some curiosity.

Wang Jiayi picked up the soup and took a sip, then turned his head to look at the two who were still arguing explosively: "Master Chen and Master Ying are fellow disciples from the same sect. About 20-plus years ago, Master Ying was dissatisfied with the treatment at his original restaurant. It just so happened that Boss Su was poaching people everywhere with high salaries at that time, so he poached Master Ying to Zhi Wei Ju."

"Actually, this is nothing. In the early days of Zhi Wei Ju, many masters were poached by Boss Su with high salaries. But Master Chen has always been very dissatisfied with Master Ying because of this, feeling that Master Ying betrayed the sect for money."

"Does this count as betraying the sect?" Qin Huai exclaimed in a low voice.

Wang Jiayi shrugged, indicating that he couldn't judge: "Maybe there are some very detailed things we don't know; after all, that was 20-plus years ago. About seven or eight years ago, the restaurant where Master Chen worked went bankrupt due to poor management. Master Chen's master entrusted someone to find a connection and introduced Master Chen to work at Zhi Wei Ju."

"From the day Master Chen came to Zhi Wei Ju, he and Master Ying have been at odds. They have a big argument every three days and a small one every two days. After so many years, everyone is used to it."

"These past few years have actually been considered quiet. I remember 6 years ago, there was an argument that was particularly fierce. After work, they directly made an appointment to find a place by the lake to have a fight. Many masters secretly ran over to watch, and some even brought cameras to record it."

Qin Huai:...

Can you guys ever just get along?

"Is the video still around?" Qin Huai lowered his voice even more and asked in the tone of a spy making contact.

"Old San definitely has a backup. Go ask him for it later."

"Okay!" Qin Huai buried his head in his food.

After eating for only a few bites, at about 11:05, the door to the lounge was pushed open again. A person who wasn't wearing a staff uniform, but who one could tell at a glance was Boss Su, Su Qi, made a shining entrance.

Su Qi's appearance was very similar to what Qin Huai had imagined. Of course, the reason it could be so similar was mainly because Qin Huai had seen photos of Su Qi, just photos from over a decade ago when he was still relatively young.

Now in middle age, Su Qi had not gained weight, his hair was still thick and black, and he looked very energetic, clean, scholarly, and full of vitality. Looking at him made one feel that he was a successful person with a good personality, very kind, and very charismatic.

Seeing that Boss Su had arrived, the master chefs who hadn't finished arguing stopped arguing and went to collect their boxed meals and find places to sit.

Master Zhou sat directly beside Qin Huai. Master Hua had originally wanted to sit over too, but upon seeing Master Zhou, he snorted coldly and found a distant seat to sit down unwillingly.