Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Shortly after, they entered the car. Dean was seated at the back. With his head stretched forward, he looked on curiously as he waited to see Yuan Zhou’s map.
As for Bai Guo and Jiang Meisi, they directed sat around Li He waiting for him to open the envelope. Behind them and outside the opened door, cameras were aiming at them.
“I’m opening it,” Li He said with the envelope raised, intentionally keeping the suspense.
“Quickly, I can’t wait to know our next location,” Bai Guo urged in excitement.
This was a special feature of Roll, Dear Beef. They would be informed by the producers of the first filming location while the second location would have to be figured out by the celebrities with some clues.
The clues would be given in advance to the owner of the first location. The owner would be given full reign on how and what to give the celebrities. For the previous few episodes, they had been given riddles.
Li He opened the white envelope with the show’s logo on it.
“What is this?”
“Wait a minute. What am I looking at? This is a map?”
Right after they opened the envelope and saw what’s inside, they were stunned, an exaggerated expression that was a true reflection of their feelings frozen on their face.
Indeed, a map was drawn on the paper. But only a line was drawn in this map. The line would go straight and turn at times, and at the end of the line, the word “destination” was written. And at the corner of the map, a map scale of 1:50,000 was given.
“Um, his handwriting is nice,” Bai Guo gave an honest review.
“But what in the world is this drawing?” Jiang Meisi was speechless. “Look, he even has a map scale down there.”
Both Bai Guo and Jiang Meisi looked at Li He, trying to see if he could do anything with this.
“Don’t look at me. I don’t think I understand this map either,” Li He stared at the map for a bit before declaring helplessly.
The map scale was definitely accurate. The kind and helpful Yuan Zhou had even bought a ruler and drew his map as he measured.
Unfortunately, rather than hoping that Yuan Zhou could draw a map, one might as well tell him to sculpt a map instead. If it was a sculpted map, it would definitely be incomparably clear and easy to read, with the map being in 3D to top it off. But when it was a hand-drawn map by Yuan Zhou, it was no different than getting a dog to stamp its paw on the paper.
On the other hand, the mission description written at the back of the paper was extremely clear: “Look for the special soccer ball hidden in the gym.” They stared at the map as they collapsed mentally. If it wasn’t for Bai Guo and Li He stopping Jiang Meisi, she would probably start raging right then and there.
“Um, excellent,” Dean nodded. Nobody had any idea what he was talking about. He had probably been dazzled to stupidity by Yuan Zhou’s cooking.
Yuan Zhou was completely oblivious of what they were feeling. After the filming crew left, he felt completely relaxed with the filming had ended. He started researching cooking skills again.
To review the old and learn the new was always something Yuan Zhou would do.
Meanwhile, Yang Shuxin had already arrived at Chengdu for the sake of his dragon ice sculpture. He had even prepared to visit Yuan Zhou’s restaurant.
Yang Shuxin and Zhou Shijie had a simple relationship. Whenever Zhou Shijie was preparing some unique dishes and required unique ice sculptures or ice plates, he would look for Yang Shuxin.
An example would be the dish that earned Zhou Shijie his initial fame: Phoenix’s Return. The nest that the phoenix was returning to was sculpted by Yang Shuxin.
One could say that when Zhou Shijie needed Yang Shuxin’s help, Yang Shuxin had made things very difficult for him. And now, Yang Shuxin was the one needing Zhou Shijie’s help.
Would Zhou Shijie take this chance to have his revenge? The answer was obvious. During lunch, Zhou Shijie cooked a Bitter Gourd Stir-Fried With Meat dish, with Yang Shuxin being the one eating the bitter gourd while he was the one to eat the meat.
It was worth noting that in the past, it had always been the other way around.
After finishing the meat, Zhou Shijie sighed in lamentation. Yuan Zhou was indeed his pride and joy.
From this, one could see that a person would indeed turn childish when they grew older.
It had already been two days since Yang Shuxin arrived at Chengdu. The only reason he had decided to go to Yuan Zhou’s restaurant tonight was because he had heard about the filming of Roll, Dear Beef at the restaurant.
For the past two days, since there were too many people at the restaurant, he decided to not go there. Finally, after the filming crew had left, he decided to go right in the dark of the night. In any case, this was his personal business and he had no intention to disturb Yuan Zhou during his time of business. As such, he concluded that it was the best for him to go visit at night after the business hours ended.
Under Zhou Shijie’s lead, Yang Shuxin arrived at Taoxi Road. When he reached Yuan Zhou’s restaurant, he looked at the environment around the restaurant and formed his judgment.
“Zhou Shijie, look at how much of a money-grubber you are. Someone with such great sculpting skills like Yuan Zhou should definitely be staying in a luxurious place, not a run-down place like this if he was at Harbin,” Yang Shuxin cried out against the injustice he was seeing.
“Don’t forget your conscience while speaking,” Zhou Shijie glanced over at Yang Shuxin.
“My conscience is hurting when I see a talented sculptor stuck at a place like this,” Yang Shuxin said righteously.
Zhou Shijie sneered but had no fear since he had not done anything wrong.
In the current economy, even a skilled person was not without worries. Therefore, a person daring to open his restaurant in a place like this was definitely someone with true skills. Zhou Shijie was sure that Yang Shuxin was aware of this as well. He was merely acting dumb so as to look for a reason to steal Yuan Zhou away.
“Chairman Zhou, you’re here.”
A hawker that was closing his stall greeted when he saw Zhou Shijie. He then proceeded to offer a bowl of Sad Liangfen to Zhou Shijie.
“Chairman Zhou, I was keeping this bowl for myself but you can have it instead.”
Zhou Shijie did not reject the offered Sad Liangfen. He thanked the vendor and started eating the grass jelly. The taste was still the same: sour and spicy. It was spicy enough for him to tear up when eating. It was said that a Sad Liangfen would only be considered authentic if it was spicy enough to make someone tear up from eating it.
“Excellent. Keep it up,” Zhou Shijie said.
The hawker was extremely happy to receive Zhou Shijie’s acknowledgment. Next, he closed the stall and took his leave. One must not look down on this hawker because he was dressed blandly. He was, in fact, the boss of a chain restaurant.
Naturally, three months ago, he was still a normal hawker. What actually happened was rather complicated. To cut it short, during Chinese New Year, his wife got sick and required a huge sum of money for treatment. Since the hawker had already spent part of his savings to open this stall, he did not have enough money to get her treatment.
Then, Man Man found out about this and mentioned it in Yuan Zhou’s restaurant. What happened next was a series of “coincidences”.
Chairman Zhou Shijie of China Chefs’ Alliance “passed by” and had a bowl of Sad Liangfen from this stall. After that, he started recommending this stall on a special article.
With Zhou Shijie’s status and the fact that it had been a long time since he recommended any food, the stall became popular.
The hawker was also a hardworking person, while his Sad Liangfen was indeed superior to the Sad Liangfen of others. And thus, more and more people sought to invest in him.
And thus, the Sad Liangfen of this stall transformed into a special brand unique to Chengdu. Although it had only been three months since then, he already had three branches opened.
One could say that a single recommendation by Zhou Shijie had transformed the hawker’s life. Because of that, the hawker was filled with gratitude towards Zhou Shijie.
Strictly speaking, the hawker was already at a level he could accept disciples and make them pay membership fees so he could start making money from it. He hesitated for a while about this but ultimately, he decided to remain in front of Yuan Zhou’s restaurant. No matter how many branches he would open in the future, this tiny hawker stall here would always be the main branch. His wife was very supportive of this as well.
When Zhou Shijie and Yang Shuxin entered the restaurant, they saw Yuan Zhou researching something.
“Little Yuan, what are you doing?” Zhou Shijie asked when he saw Yuan Zhou with full concentration.
“Looking at Steamed Bun Wrapped In Leaves, trying to find out if there are better leaves than the tangerine leaf,” Yuan Zhou answered. He then lifted his head to see that Zhou Shijie had brought along someone unknown.
“Little Yuan, this is Yang Shuxin, an ice sculptor,” Zhou Shijie said.
Yuan Zhou greeted him as Master Yang, yet his eyes were still filled with doubt.
“You…”
Yang Shuxin interrupted Zhou Shijie. He intended to say the rest himself. Zhou Shijie nodded in agreement as it would definitely be more polite for Yang Shuxin to voice his request himself.
“Master Yuan, I saw you sculpting a dragon using non-specialized tools. That was very eye-opening for me. And thus, I am here to visit,” Yang Shuxin said.
Yuan Zhou nearly felt embarrassed by the praise he was receiving.
Since Yang Shuxin was also a person who focused on his craft, he wasn’t good at speaking in twists and turns. He immediately went straight to the point, “I am hoping to invite you to cooperate with me on completing the Nine Dragon Sculpture.”
