Chapter 199: Let You Open a Food Shop, But You Operate at 3 AM

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Protagonist:

Lu Feng

Cheng Fan is the last disciple Qi Dachu accepted; he has been learning the culinary arts under Qi Dachu for five years now, yet he still hasn't completed his apprenticeship.

He feels he is already capable of holding his own just like those senior brothers and sisters, but Qi Dachu thinks his heat control isn't sufficient yet, and this has left a constant knot of resentment in his heart.

To prove himself, Cheng Fan volunteered before Qi Dachu, asking to go work at Li Hong'an's place for a while.

Qi Dachu considered it for two days, feeling this disciple was usually restless and impatient; letting him go out to temper his culinary skills and settle his mind would benefit him too, so he agreed.

Thus, Cheng Fan became the new Head Chef at Li Hong'an's Restaurant.

Following Qi Dachu these years, Cheng Fan has learned a fair amount of the basics.

After his signature dishes were launched at Hong'an Restaurant, they immediately won much praise from many customers.

Li Hong'an also leveraged the promotional gimmick of a State Banquet Chef's disciple, attracting quite a few new diners.

Over the next few days, Hong'an Restaurant's daily declining sales finally showed signs of recovery, which put Li Hong'an's mind at ease considerably.

Toward this State Banquet Chef's disciple Cheng Fan, Li Hong'an also behaved very courteously.

Although he felt this young man was a bit arrogant, after Cheng Fan arrived the back kitchen became his one-man show; many chefs working under him complained bitterly.

But one must admit, Cheng Fan's ability is indeed real — far better than that Liang Da Chu.

Regarding Cheng Fan's arrogance, Li Hong'an let him have his way.

As long as he could make the restaurant's business pick up, the back kitchen was his to run however he wanted.

A couple days ago, after the restaurant closed, Li Hong'an chatted idly with Cheng Fan and casually mentioned the previous attempt to poach Lu Feng with a high salary, which ended in rejection — this instantly sparked Cheng Fan's interest.

He asked Li Hong'an who had better culinary skill, him or Lu Feng; Li Hong'an hemmed and hawed for a long time without giving an answer.

This immediately made him unconvinced; even his master Qi Yunfeng had said that although his personality was arrogant, in the realm of culinary skill he still had talent.

He refused to believe that in this small place Jiangcheng there could be someone with better culinary skill than him, and on the spot declared he would go test Lu Feng's cooking.

And so came today's scene of him showing up at Lu Feng's shop.

"Bang!"

The office's main door was shoved open with force,

Li Hong'an frowned; without even looking up he knew it had to be Cheng Fan.

In his restaurant, aside from his hot-tempered wife, the only one who dared barge into his office without a greeting was Cheng Fan.

Li Hong'an's gaze shifted from the computer screen and landed squarely on Cheng Fan's anger-filled face.

"You're back?"

Li Hong'an asked with some puzzlement: "What's the matter?"

Cheng Fan plopped onto the sofa in a huff and stayed silent for a few seconds, then gritted his teeth and said: "I just came back from that shop you mentioned — he blacklisted me."

"Blacklisted? What did you do?" Li Hong'an asked with some surprise.

Although he'd only interacted with Lu Feng a few times, he knew Lu Feng was a person with a relatively gentle temperament.

How did Cheng Fan manage to offend Lu Feng — did he go to his shop and start a fight?

"I didn't do anything, just followed my usual habit."

Cheng Fan's tone carried dissatisfaction, and he proceeded to tell Li Hong'an everything that happened at Lu Feng's shop.

"There's even this kind of thing?"

Li Hong'an expressed surprise after hearing it; he hadn't expected Lu Feng to be quite principled — over a portion of uneaten xiaolongbao, he could list a customer as a refused patron.

But this Cheng Fan is also single-minded to a fault; he could've just packed it up and taken it back.

He insisted on clashing head-on with Lu Feng's rules and ended up offending the man.

To put it bluntly, this kind of person has no brains.

But right now we still need this kid to help turn the restaurant's decline around, so we have to humor him.

"Xiao Cheng, Lu Feng can be a bit stubborn sometimes; you shouldn't lock horns with him. If they blacklisted you, then so be it — just don't go there again."

Li Hong'an poured a cup of water, stood up, and placed it before Cheng Fan: "Besides, our priority right now is getting our own restaurant's business going; you want to compare culinary skills with him, there'll be chances later."

"Who's locking horns with him?"

Cheng Fan stood up, walked a few steps toward the door: "I just want him to know, the dishes taught by a State Banquet Chef aren't something a street-side little eatery's home cooking can compare to! Boss Li, if he comes to the shop these few days, let me know."

Finished speaking, he didn't care about any response from Li Hong'an and walked straight out of the office.

Couldn't even be bothered to close the door behind him.

Li Hong'an shook his head helplessly, stood up, walked over and closed the door.

He mentioned Lu Feng's culinary skill to Cheng Fan originally thinking to have him go exchange pointers with Lu Feng.

Maybe he could learn a trick or two from Lu Feng, which would benefit the shop's business later.

Who'd have thought this kid would be such a troublemaker — first time going to Lu Feng's and he got put on the blacklist.

This kid's culinary skill isn't bad, it's just that his personality is too arrogant — truly a bit troublesome.

…………

In the conference room of Tong'an Hospital's administrative building, a projector cast an anatomical diagram of human organs onto the screen.

Sun Rongguang sat at the head seat, facing the content on the screen and expounding fluently.

Over twenty department directors and attending physicians sat in the conference room, all listening intently to Sun Rongguang's explanation of the surgical steps.

Just then, the conference room's main door was pushed open a crack, and Zhang Xianyang's head cautiously poked in.

In his hand he carried a takeout box, inside which was the Red Braised Pork just bought from Lu Feng's Shop.

To get the Red Braised Pork back as soon as possible, Zhang Xianyang ran all the way back from Food Street, not even having time to eat dinner.

The Red Braised Pork in the takeout box was still steaming, its rich fragrance seeping out through the gaps in the box, making his Du Chong growl nonstop and saliva constantly secrete in his mouth.

Seeing that the meeting inside didn't seem to be over yet, he felt too embarrassed to go in and interrupt, quietly shrinking his body back a bit.

But the fragrance in the box slowly drifted into the Conference Room through the door gap, and the few doctors sitting at the Door smelled it first.

Their attention was instantly drawn, and their gazes followed the drifting aroma to the Door.

"What smell is this? So fragrant..."

As the aroma kept drifting in, the doctors who had been listening attentively gradually had their attention drawn away by this sudden fragrance.

Sun Rongguang, seated at the head of the table, was speaking when he suddenly smelled a familiar aroma in his nose.

He immediately remembered that this was the smell of Red Braised Pork he had smelled at Lu Feng's shop Door not long ago.

That aroma, carrying the mellow Meat Fragrance and the base scent of spices, made him unable to help swallowing his saliva, and his Du Chong couldn't help but "gurgle gurgle" once.

This sound seemed somewhat clear in the quiet Conference Room, and many doctors heard it.

Zhou Zhengbang, sitting beside Dean Jiang Yanhui, had long noticed the small movements of the other doctors in the Conference Room and also heard the sound from Sun Rongguang's Du Chong.

He quietly turned sideways, leaned close to Dean Jiang's ear and said softly: "Dean, Sun Lao has been busy for a long time and still hasn't eaten dinner; why don't we pause for a moment and let Sun Lao eat something first?"