Chapter 137

·

·

·

Protagonist:

Lu Feng

Upon seeing Lu Feng, An Liang's brows raised slightly; just now he hadn't noticed, so it turned out the owner of this restaurant looked this young.

However, right now his focus wasn't on that; he asked Lu Feng with a solemn face: "What if I just don't want to finish eating, and insist on leaving?"

He didn't believe this shop would actually stop him from leaving just because he hadn't finished that half bowl of noodles.

An ordinary roadside little shop — what right did it have to restrict his freedom?

Lu Feng smiled faintly, then said seriously: "You can of course leave; I have no right to force you to finish eating before you can go."

Hearing Lu Feng's words, An Liang smiled in satisfaction, turned around, and prepared to walk out of the shop.

But the next words Lu Feng spoke made the foot he had stepped out freeze in mid-air.

"Just that after you leave, from now on you'll be on my blacklist here." Lu Feng shrugged, saying to An Liang's back with an indifferent look.

"What does blacklist mean?"

An Liang turned to look at Lu Feng, frowning and asking with some puzzlement.

"It means if you come to my shop to eat in the future, you will not be received."

Lu Feng's face still carried a smile, looking very friendly, but the words he spoke weren't what An Liang wanted to hear.

Then he added: "Oh right, since I opened this shop, no one has ever been on my blacklist; if you walk out directly today, you'll be the first."

"Boss, I merely left a bit uneaten; do you have to be this ruthless?"

An Liang felt it somewhat inconceivable; he hadn't committed a capital offense, did the boss have to be this serious about it?

Even setting aside the foodie identity, he was still a customer in this shop; don't they all say the customer is God?

"I don't want it this way either, but who made me the chef here?"

Lu Feng's voice wasn't loud, yet carried an undeniable firmness: "If you can't eat that much you can say so in advance, I can make you less; if you can't finish you can take it away, but you cannot waste food."

In the hall, diners still queuing and still eating noodles all turned their gazes toward the few people at the entrance.

Grandpa Qin wiped the soup from his mouth, stood up, and said loudly: "I think Xiao Lu is absolutely right! Some young people nowadays just don't know how precious grain is; when I was young, we could eat at most two meals a day, let alone leftover rice — even if a single grain fell on the ground, we had to hurry and pick it up to eat!"

Grandpa Qin's words had just fallen when the diners in the hall immediately chimed in.

"Brother, do you know how many people queue up and still can't buy what Boss Lu makes? You actually managed to leave leftovers — you're a ruthless one too!"

"Exactly! Boss Lu's culinary skill — forget one portion, even if you let me eat three portions in one sitting I could eat it all!"

"So many people want to eat Boss Lu's food and can't get it; brother, you're too wasteful."

The other diners in the hall also echoed one after another, all starting to condemn An Liang's wasteful behavior.

Listening to everyone's clamorous accusations, An Liang's face flushed red and white by turns.

He hadn't expected that merely leaving half a bowl of noodles would not only get him lectured by diners, but also "threatened" by the boss.

In front of everyone, his face really couldn't hold up.

"Teacher An Liang..."

Xiao Yue tugged An Liang's sleeve from the side, persuading carefully: "If you don't want to eat, why not take it away packed?"

An Liang took a deep breath, stood in place for a long while, and finally walked back to the dining table helplessly and picked up his chopsticks.

Seeing his action, Lu Feng said no more, turned to Hu Xiaoyun standing nearby and said: "Alright, continue receiving customers."

Finished speaking, he turned and walked toward the kitchen; there were still that many queuing diners, he was very busy.

An Liang ate the noodles in his bowl unwillingly; although the earlier incident made him feel a bit embarrassed, eating the still-delicious Mushroom Stewed Chicken Noodles, his hand movements weren't slow at all.

Seeing him like this, Xiao Feilong and Xiao Yue glanced at each other, standing quietly at the shop entrance waiting for An Liang to finish.

Before long, An Liang drank the last sip of soup in the bowl, slammed his chopsticks onto the table with a *pa* sound, wiped his mouth haphazardly with a tissue, and waved at Hu Xiaoyun.

"I'm finished eating; can it be considered done now?" An Liang pointed at the empty bowl with not a drop of soup left, and said to Hu Xiaoyun with a dissatisfied look.

"Thank you for your cooperation." Hu Xiaoyun nodded politely, her face carrying an apologetic smile: "For the inconvenience caused, please be understanding."

An Liang hmphed, pulled two tissues from the table, wiped his mouth, and stood up.

"Take care, welcome next time." Hu Xiaoyun said behind him.

An Liang turned his head angrily and glanced at her, saying: "Still welcome next time? Your place has so many rules; I'm never coming again!"

Finished speaking, An Liang left the shop without looking back.

Hu Xiaoyun watched An Liang's departing back, and shook her head helplessly.

This was also an expected result; this customer looked like an unruly sort, and today he'd been surrounded and condemned by so many people in the shop.

Anyone with even a bit of temper would say that.

But Hu Xiaoyun didn't dwell on it long; the queuing diners over there soon started urging her to come take orders, she hurriedly agreed, quickly cleared the table, and returned to her post.

…………

The next day near noon, An Liang and Xiao Yue sat in the first-floor hall of the hotel, the two discussing where to go eat for lunch.

An Liang flipped through his phone for half a day but never found a restaurant that satisfied him, so he simply stuffed the phone into his pocket and let Xiao Yue arrange it.

"Teacher An Liang, how about Wangyue Lou? I saw you ate there yesterday noon and seemed quite satisfied." Xiao Yue flipped on her phone for a while, looked up at An Liang and asked.

"Switch to one we haven't been to."

An Liang didn't even think before shaking his head and refusing directly.

Yesterday noon at Wangyue Lou he had already tasted all their signature dishes; going again to eat the same flavors he felt was meaningless.

Xiao Yue lowered her head and searched on her phone again, looked up and asked: "Then how about Cui Zhu Xuan? I saw quite a few people recommending it online, and we haven't been to this one yet."

An Liang took Xiao Yue's phone, looked at Cui Zhu Xuan's dishes, then handed the phone back: "Switch to another; I don't really like this shop's cuisine."

Xiao Yue helplessly took the mobile phone and could only keep her head lowered, searching on her phone for some of the more famous restaurants in Jiangcheng.

Seeing Xiao Yue's troubled expression, An Liang thought for a moment and said: "No need to find a big restaurant; just find any small shop that's about the same."

"There happens to be one nearby; I saw online reviews saying their ramen is quite delicious."

Xiao Yue found another restaurant that looked decent again, handed the mobile phone to An Liang, and said.

Ramen?

An Liang couldn't help but think of the unpleasant experience he had eating noodles at Lu Feng's shop last night, and his brow furrowed.

Although yesterday's experience wasn't enough to make him angry, he still felt somewhat displeased in his heart.

"Fine, let's go with this one."

After considering for a few seconds, An Liang nodded and agreed.

Soon, the two of them arrived at this ramen shop; the shop's decoration was reasonably clean, but compared to Lu Feng's shop, it was naturally far inferior.

Standing at the door, An Liang couldn't help but compare this shop with the Lu Family Restaurant, finally reaching this conclusion.

However, what made him feel relatively satisfied here was that there were far fewer people queuing than at Lu Feng's place.

The two walked into the shop and ordered two portions of signature beef ramen.

After a few minutes, the Waiter brought steaming hot ramen to the table.

This ramen shop's business was also quite good; it was said that the Chef had specifically studied under a master from out of town, and his culinary skill was very authentic.

An Liang looked at the ramen on the table and thought the appearance was acceptable; the soup was milky white, and the beef smelled braised and quite flavorful.

He picked up chopsticks, took a bite of noodles, put them into his mouth, and savored them carefully.

Although the noodles were also handmade, their texture was much worse than those made by Lu Feng, and they felt a bit stiff when eaten.

The taste of the soup base also carried a distinct essence flavor; although the taste was still acceptable, the seasoning flavor was too heavy, masking the food's own taste.

The bowl of ramen before him did not make An Liang feel satisfied, but since he just wanted to eat something to fill his stomach, he therefore didn't say anything.

An Liang chewed the noodles in his mouth, his gaze wandering back and forth in the restaurant,

Suddenly, his gaze settled on the semi-open kitchen.

"Pfft!"

The next second, the ramen that An Liang hadn't yet managed to swallow in his mouth spurted out all at once.