“Very well,” said Liu Qingfeng. “Then this competition has reached its end with Mengmeng’s Restaurant as the final victor. Now, I have a few things to say to the members of the press who are present here.”
Liu Qingfeng turned his eyes to the reporters below the stage.
“I have come to understand that the reason this competition was held in the first place was because Aslin Restaurant was envious of Mengmeng’s Restaurant’s recent success and had therefore decided to cause trouble for them. And they had even f*cking involved the press. Shameless, isn’t it? Come, Mr. Niu. You should give us an explanation and clear things up for everyone!”
Now that Zhang Han had left, Liu Qingfeng held nothing back. On the surface, his behavior seemed arrogant and vain, but he knew he was on the side of righteousness.
Right now, he was ruthless; he openly and directly questioned the owner of the restaurant right inside their own restaurant. The crowd was mildly shocked by such a scene.
Niu Xuebo’s palm trembled slightly after hearing Liu Qingfeng’s remark.
Intense panic rose inside his heart. He shot an angry look at the manager and Lv Chao.
“Chairman Liu, I’m afraid you have misunderstood. Those two were the ones who had created this mess. I’m only here because I was asked to become one of the panel of judges,” Niu Xuebo explained.
Then, he glared at the manager and Lv Chao. “Aren’t you two going to explain yourselves?” he asked in an interrogative tone.
“Forget it. Don’t bother explaining,” Liu Qingfeng said, cutting in. “As human beings, it is important to be self-aware. For those of you who are responsible for today’s fiasco, I want you to take a good look at yourselves. How dare you try to cause trouble for others when your own abilities are worthless and sh*tty. It’s fine to be envious and competitive. But to provoke and deliberately cause problems for others out of envy? That, I’m afraid, is a matter of integrity and character. I don’t need any explanations from people who lacked integrity and character. I won’t say anything about the manager. Mr. Niu, he’s your employee, so you take care of it as you see fit. As for this, what’s his name, Chef Lv, is it? Well, Wang Long, I heard he’s your grand-disciple? Is that the case?”
Wang Long’s face grew taut when he heard the question. He glanced at the members of the press and said, “there’s no such thing. Since the press is here, let me make myself clear. I have no grand-disciples, but only six disciples. When I took in my disciples, I chose them based on their characters. As far as I can tell, my disciples all had decent characters. Still, that was a few years ago, and I have no idea how their characters had developed since then, especially under the lure of self-interest and profit. This is a wake-up call for me personally. Rest assured that I will perform a second screening on all my disciples. Those who fail to pass my test will no longer be my disciple.”
Swish!
Lv Chao’s face turned pale in an instant.
That statement had made it clear to Lv Chao that he no longer had any ties with Wang Long. At the same time, he might have just ruined the lives of many of his comrades! In Hong Kong, a lot of people had been basking in the glory of being Wang Long’s grand-disciple. Lv Chao was pretty sure that each and every one of those people was cursing his name right about now.
Lv Chao was not the only one whose face had changed. Even Luo Sheng’s face had undergone a transformation; his face was now entirely red. Deep down, he hated himself. I never should have been complicit in this!
After hearing Wang Long’s declaration, Liu Qingfeng clapped his hands and stood up. “Very well, I have no other questions as well. Oh, right, there’s one more thing I wish to say to all members of the press. I demand veracity in anything you publish. If I see any article that tries to distort the truth? Well, let’s just say that your publishing house needs to watch its back.”
Those words echoed in the arena, which had suddenly gone utterly silent.
All members of the press who were present immediately felt a mild tremble in their hearts. They knew very well just how influential and powerful Liu Qingfeng was.
They also knew that Liu Qingfeng was a man of his word. Nobody there would dare take his words lightly.
“Let’s go,” Liu Qingfeng said and began walking towards the exit.
Little Ling and Tian San followed behind him closely. The former was dressed in her uniform with black panty hose and low heels while the latter was walking with so much pride that his chin was almost touching the sky.
The three of them left the restaurant straight away.
Just then, Lv Chao ran towards Luo Sheng. “Master! Master! They cheated. This is cheating!”
“Shut up!” Luo Sheng yelled angrily.
Ignoring Lv Chao entirely, Luo Sheng walked towards Wang Long and muttered, “I’m sorry, master. I’ve caused you trouble!”
By now, Lv Chao had also run up to Wang Long looking like someone who was in the middle of a mild panic attack. “Grandmaster! You have to help me! It’s clear that I’m the winner!”
Wang Long merely gave him an bland look. “Do I know you?” Wang Long said before he stood up and walked away.
The other three master Chefs and all the other chefs followed Wang Long towards the exit.
“Boss…” Lv Chao glanced at Niu Xuebo, whom he deemed as his final hope.
Sure, he had lost the competition and had had his apprenticeship with Wang Long severed. But none of that mattered to him as long as Boss Niu would keep him in his employment. As long as he could still earn his keep, he could live with that.
However…
“You’re fired,” Niu Xuebo said. With a cold sneer, Niu Xuebo stood up and glanced at the people beside him. “President Li, President Feng… Ugh, all this must seem like a joke to you.”
“Oh, no, no. We were able to meet Chairman Liu personally, which is a fantastic thing. How can it be a joke?”
“That’s right. It isn’t every day that we get to meet Chairman Liu face to face.”
“Well, I’d definitely say that coming here today is worthwhile. President Niu, we shall take our leave, then. We’ll hang out again some other time.”
Several hums of agreement sounded among the few presidents. After that, they headed outside together.
The manager had been standing there quietly in fear the whole time. When the boss walked past him without saying anything, he thought he had dodged the bullet.
But the moment Niu Xuebo was several steps out the door, he suddenly turned his head around to look at the manager. “You should settle your salary for this month.”
After that, Niu Xuebo strode off with his companions.
“This…” The manager wanted to cry. “F*ck! What kind of terrifying person have I messed with!”
This was supposed to be a publicity ploy to further promote the restaurant, which would then provide him with a steppingstone to a promotion; however, the irony was that the restaurant had now just become the enemy’s steppingstone to glory.
The manager regretted his actions deeply. Still, there was no use crying over spilled milk. Now he had no other choice but to find another way to earn his living.
How he regretted not following his first instinct. His first instinct had been to dismiss the crazy idea and just let things go. Which idiot came up with this idea to taunt other people at their restaurant and to bring the media along, no less? How did he end up agreeing to this crazy sh*t? He must have lost his f*ck*ng mind!
In that moment, the manager was in astupor, of the “who am I? Where am I? What the hell am I doing?” kind.
Zhang Han and the others were now inside their car, heading towards their own restaurant.
Zi Yan glanced out the car window and saw the beach of New Moon Bay afar. Something in her face shifted.
“Zhang Han, it’s only 10:30. Why don’t we head down to the beach and spend some time sunbathing?”
“Oh, sure,” Zhang Han said with the kind of look on his face showing that he was nothing but putty in Zi Yan’s hands. Zhang Han turned to their driver, Zhao Feng. “Then let’s head to the beach first,” Zhang Han said.
“Got it,” Zhao Feng said.
After that, Zhao Feng pulled out a miniature walkie-talkie which was part of the car’s system. Zhao Feng uttered a brief statement into the walkie-talkie, something about going to the beach. Then, the motorcade changed its course.
Five minutes later, Zhao Feng pulled up in a carpark and everyone got out of the car.
Zhou Fei and the others headed towards them. “Are we having fun at the beach?”
“Yep. We have to stay out in the sun and lie down,” Mengmeng answered while she was still cradled inside Zhang Han’s arms.
“Let’s go, then,” Zhang Li said before she led the way towards the beach.
The few women walked in front, leading the way. Zhao Feng was walking behind the women. He did not let Ah Hu and his team come along. With the boss here, safety would not be an issue at all. Plus, their presence would draw too much attention.
Zhang Han and Zi Yan were walking behind the group.
While they walked, Zhang Han gave Zi Yan a sidelong glance and cleared his throat. “Ahem, well, do you want me to buy you a swimsuit? Or some sunscreen?”
“Huh?”
Zi Yan froze slightly. Then, she flicked a glance at Zhang Han. That was when she saw that Zhang Han’s eyes were trained on her voluptuous bosom.
Swish!
In an instant, Zi Yan felt a tingling numbness in her body.
Zi Yan shot a dirty look at Zhang Han. “Keep dreaming!”
Those eyes of his, so sly and naughty. Hmph! Pervert.
What was it that he had said? Sunscreen? Puh-lease. He just wants an excuse to touch my boobs.
His eyes kept staring right there. It was like he felt no shame at all. Hmph! I bet the idiot would have styes all over his eyes if I ever put on sexy attire!
Zi Yan felt a tidal wave of emotions right then. One moment, she felt shy and embarrassed. Then, another moment, she felt butterflies in her stomach. There were even moments where she felt pleasure coursing through her veins.
Zi Yan was very confident when it came to her own figure.
If he stared at her like that, it only meant that he found her very attractive.
The thing was that although Zi Yan would feel those emotions deep down, she would never allow them to show on her face during the day. If all this were to occur at night, when she was all alone with Zhang Han, she would probably be drooling by now.
Settled against Zhang Han’s chest, Mengmeng raised her head and looked up at Zhang Han. The kid began mimicking Zi Yan’s tone.
“Hmph. PaPa, you, you, keep dreaming!”
