Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
After some casual conversation, some started asking about the ice sculpture from the day before.
“Boss Yuan, Boss Yuan, where can I see the dragon you sculpted?” asked a young man in glasses with a curious expression.
“Yeah, yeah, that dragon is amazing. It looks like a real dragon! I heard that there are mountains and water, with the dragon at the center looking the most tyrannical,” said a middle-aged woman with a basket of vegetables.
Yuan Zhou started sweating when he heard that question. She was obviously talking about Yang Shuxin’s sculpture. He promised that he would not beat the person who told her that was Yuan Zhou’s sculpture if he found out who that was. As Yuan Zhou did not stop jogging, everyone was jogging along with him. Fortunately, Yuan Zhou had slowed his steps while those people were talking to him.
“It has already been taken away by someone. You won’t be able to see it for now,” Yuan Zhou gave a serious reply.
“Ah? That’s too bad,” said the young man in glasses.
“Sigh, I was too busy taking care of my grandson yesterday and did not have the chance to see it. So how does the dragon look like?” asked the middle-aged woman with vegetables.
Someone else was feeling that it was a pity as well. He had rushed over here after watching the video online. Unfortunately, He could only long for the sculpture instead of seeing it with his own eyes.
“Let me tell you. I heard that yesterday, Boss Yuan was totally awesome with his kitchen knife. With a couple swishes and swooshes, a huge block of ice had transformed into an ice dragon. There were mountains and water, the entire work looks even better than a painting. Simply put, it looks amazing,” a warmhearted middle-aged woman explained when she saw the looks of disappointment in some of the people there.
Her descriptions were incredibly exaggerated, causing Yuan Zhou to feel somewhat embarrassed. Of course, it would be good if she could actually give an accurate description. But she was basically bragging and laying praises on him.
More importantly, she was not there to witness it either and had merely heard of it from someone else.
Yuan Zhou had a rather deep impression on this middle-aged woman. She had never eaten anything in his restaurant, but she would always stroll around Taoxi Road with her grandson. The moment someone asked her if the food at Yuan Zhou’s restaurant was nice, she would immediately start bragging and praising the restaurant. Of course, she would never neglect to mention that all those were heard from someone else. Strictly speaking, this middle-aged woman was a spreader of joy.
Since that was the case, there was nothing Yuan Zhou could do. He could only hasten his steps.
“So who took it? I want to have a look even if it means buying a ticket,” asked the young man in glasses.
“It was taken by Mr Yan. I don’t know the address either. You can ask the next time you’re in the restaurant,” Yuan Zhou said.
“Oh, sure,” said the young man in glasses as he stopped following Yuan Zhou.
After the young man in glasses and the man who had rushed over left, some other people approached Yuan Zhou. Most of them were asking about the sculpture. And without a doubt, this gave the middle-aged woman a great opportunity to showcase her storytelling ability.
There were even two reporters trying to interview Yuan Zhou. Yuan Zhou insisted that this was his exercise time and soon he would be busy opening up the restaurant. However, one of them, a reporter with short hair, seemed to be taking advantage of Yuan Zhou’s good temper and kept bothering him.
“Young man, where are your manners? Boss Yuan already told you he’s busy. If you want to do your job, come ask me. I know everything,” said the middle-aged woman who had suddenly appeared.
The short-haired reporter did not seem interested to waste his breath with unrelated people. Therefore, he wanted to bypass the middle-aged woman to chase after Yuan Zhou. Unfortunately, the middle-aged woman seemed to have exquisite footwork, perhaps something she had gained from the supermarket or public transport rush hours. She flickered with her odd footwork, successfully foiling the reporter’s attempt to bypass her.
“I told you, ask me any questions you have. Young man, didn’t you hear me?” the middle-aged woman started lecturing the reporter instead.
When the reporter saw that Yuan Zhou was about to return to his restaurant, he started getting angry. He glared at the middle-aged woman, seemingly about to use physical force.
Not only was the middle-aged woman not frightened by the fierce glare, she even stepped forward, “Let me tell you something. If you have the guts, touch me. Any slight touch and I will immediately suffer a fracture. Any bump into me and my bones will be crushed. And when I reached the hospital, I will need to be admitted due to high blood pressure complications. With your tiny salary, I only need to be hospitalized for two months to drain your bank account dry.”
And before the reporter could muster a reply, the middle-aged woman continued speaking, “I know the law. I have millions upon millions of neighbors here. Even if you are a reporter, you won’t be able to escape the blame.”
And this successfully frightened the reporter. He could only watch on helplessly as Yuan Zhou left.
With Yuan Zhou’s sharp hearings, he heard everything. He praised the middle-aged woman inwardly.
Unknowingly, Yuan Zhou was now giving off a feeling to outsiders that he was a magnanimous person. But truthfully, Yuan Zhou was a person with a cold exterior but passionate heart, also a person who looked magnanimous yet was inwardly a person who held a grudge.
And thus, he investigated which newspaper those two reporters were from. Then, he agreed to do an interview with the other reporter who had been obedient after breakfast time. Yuan Zhou was doing this so the other annoying reporter could see that even if he was free, he would not give him any time. This way, that annoying reporter would be annoyed, would feel envy, and would feel vexed.
“The reporters nowadays sure wake up early,” Yuan Zhou said as he wiped the sweat on his head. He headed to the second floor to wash up before started the breakfast preparations.
However, there were even more customers for breakfast today. After all, a lot of them had been unable to witness the ice sculpting competition yesterday and were now here to see the main character of the competition.
Most of them were those in Chengdu’s ice sculpting field. Fortunately, they knew that Yang Shuxin was the one who had competed against Yuan Zhou. Thus, none of them came mouthing off to Yuan Zhou.
They merely stared at Yuan Zhou curiously from afar. Although Yuan Zhou was already used to being gawked at like this, it did not mean he was accepting toward this. Inwardly, he was unhappy and started considering if he should charge them for looking at him as well.
But then again, if he charged them to look at him, was he not the same as the animals in the zoo? Thus, Yuan Zhou sank into deep contemplation.
As for why had the people from Chengdu’s Ice Sculpting Association not came looking for Yuan Zhou, one had to ask Zhou Shijie for the answer.
Nobody dared to steal a man from Zhou Shijie. After all, when negotiating, Zhou Shijie would visit the other party carrying a kitchen knife. One had to know that Zhou Shijie was a chef and he had kitchen knives in abundance. In any case, the Internet war was still going on. Nobody knew if it would spread to real life as well.
Therefore, although the restaurant was very crowded during breakfast time, everything had still progressed without incident. The interview after that also proceeded smoothly. But at lunch time, a certain person had arrived.
“Good afternoon, Sister Ya,” Zhou Jia greeted.
“Hello, Jia Jia,” answered a crisp woman voice.
This voice caused even Yuan Zhou who was busy cooking to raise his head.
He was met with the sight of Yin Ya in a deep blue tight-fitting formal dress walking in gracefully on her heels.
“Translucent Beef Slices, Zhou Jia,” Yuan Zhou said as he set the plate down.
