Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Lunchtime passed quickly and during the afternoon, Yuan Zhou was about to investigate what was going on in his confusion when his phone suddenly rang.
The caller was Chef Li.
Although Yuan Zhou’s personal phone number wasn’t exactly a huge secret, it was still not something one could easily obtain. Thus, it was a mystery how Chef Li had obtained it.
The first thing Chef Li said was, “How is it? Are you going to accept our seafood challenge now?”
His voice was filled with pride and satisfaction. And from this, Yuan Zhou was finally sure Chef Li was the culprit behind the lunchtime incident. At first, he only suspected Chef Li as that trick was too dumb. Yuan Zhou had never expected that someone this stupid would really exist.
And the reason for his suspicion was because that was the first time things had gotten so chaotic since his restaurant was opened.
Even the numbering machine incident wasn’t as chaotic as those people had all arrived after business hours. They also spoke politely as to not cause any actual altercations.
As of recently, Chef Li was the only person who had threatened Yuan Zhou. Thus, it was natural his first target of suspicion was Chef Li.
In truth, Yuan Zhou had rejected Chef Li’s challenge because he did not see Chef Li as a chef. Rather, he thought of Chef Li as a businessman.
Of course, not many people knew themselves. Chef Li was one of them, and therefore he thought Yuan Zhou was terrified of him. Moreover, he was also interpreting Yuan Zhou’s current silence as a form of fear.
Thus, he continued pushing on, “If you still refuse to accept the challenge, you can only dream of conducting your business peacefully during dinner as well.”
Those words were spoken with complete confidence, as if victory was already within his grasp.
Finally, Yuan Zhou spoke.
“I originally thought that since you are already about 40 years old, you already have sufficient life experience and won’t do something this stupid,” said Yuan Zhou with a strict tone while standing perfectly straight.
“But it would seem like I have overestimated you. Who gave you the misconception that you can get away with pulling such tricks?” Yuan Zhou said.
Before Chef Li could reply in anger, Yuan Zhou continued on.
“The chairmen of both Sichuan Cuisine Alliance and China Chef Alliance are very close with me. To be honest, Chairman Zhou is even treating me as his successor.”
“So wha—” Chef Li replied arrogantly but was interrupted before he could finish his sentence.
“Simply put, I can let Chairman Zhou and Chairman Zhang to exert some pressure on your Shrimp and Crab Gathering. Do you think that will work? Or I don’t even need the two chairmen to do anything. I just need to get the food critic, Mr. Lee, to pay your restaurant a visit…”
“Ah, let me clarify who Mr. Lee is. He is Lee Yanyi, a first-tier food critic. Moreover, his words are sharp with no holds barred. Of course, your Shrimp and Crab Gathering is a place that is not even worthy of his visit,” Yuan Zhou declared firmly. He then continued, “But I trust he will be willing to do me this favor.”
The word “sharp” alone was probably insufficient to describe Lee Yanyi. Perhaps the term “extremely sharp” would be more apt. Of course, Yuan Zhou had underestimated the destructiveness of Lee Yanyi as his food had never been criticized by Lee Yanyi before.
Yuan Zhou was merely speaking the truth, yet the truth struck Chef Li hard like a sledgehammer.
Of course Chef Li knew who Zhou Shijie and Zhang Yan were. However, he was not qualified to have any dealings with Zhou Shijie. As for the Sichuan Cuisine Alliance chairman, Zhang Yan, he once spent an entire night trying to strike a conversation with him when they were both attending the same banquet. Alas, he failed.
As for Lee Yanyi, that was a name Chef Li hoped he did not know. That was a top food critic in the country. If a person like that criticized his restaurant, everything would be over for him.
Which restaurant that had invited Lee Yanyi before was without their signature dishes?
Although Chef Li had a certain level of confidence in his cooking skills, he was not confident he could conquer Lee Yanyi’s mouth.
As Chef Li had personally conducted some investigations on Yuan Zhou, he was naturally aware that Yuan Zhou was speaking the truth.
After realizing the current status of Yuan Zhou’s restaurant, Chef Li broke out in cold sweat when he calmed down.
He suddenly understood something. Even if his tricks against Yuan Zhou were successful, he would have offended Zhang Yan, Zhou Shijie, and Lee Yanyi. And the consequences of that would be…
“But that’s beside the point. What I want to tell you is, I accept your seafood challenge,” Yuan Zhou said, his words sharp.
“Huh? But…” Chef Li was trying to say something but Yuan Zhou did not give him that chance.
Word by word, Yuan Zhou declared seriously, “You should never have done that to my customers!”
“I will defeat you. Regardless of what seafood you decide to cook, I will defeat you, defeat you so decisively you concede defeat yourself, to the point you apologize for your actions, to the point you realize the stupidity of your actions!” Yuan Zhou was truly furious this time. Thus, he used an extremely firm tone when speaking, not bothering to pull his punches at all.
Holding his phone, Yuan Zhou’s eyes were as sharp as the edge of a blade, his face completely solemn.
As far as Yuan Zhou was concerned, he did not care what the other party did. But disturbing his customers was a taboo for Yuan Zhou.
After saying all that, Yuan Zhou ended the call directly. There was no point for the system to exist if an apology could solve everything.
“Huh? System?” Yuan Zhou was suddenly stunned. Why had he suddenly thought of the system?
After calming himself, Yuan Zhou discovered that the system had released a mission.
The system displayed, “Little comrade, please accept the mission.”
[Urgent mission]: Defeating the clown.
(Mission description: Teach the alliance of 28 seafood restaurants that when cooking, the heart is what matters, not numbers. If the host can’t even deal with these trashes, then the host is no better than trash.)
(Mission requirement: Obtain overwhelming victory. The opponent must wholeheartedly accept the defeat.)
[Mission reward]: A fragment of Zhama Banquet
(Reward description: The fragment contains one of the dishes in the long lost Zhama Banquet. It might be roasted lamb, or roasted beef, or even roasted suckling pig. Little comrade, please complete the mission as soon as possible.)
[Failure penalty]: None
(Penalty description: No punishment for this mission, but if the host can fail a mission like this, what else can be said?)
Yuan Zhou was stunned when he saw the mission. Firstly, there was no penalty. The system had never issued a mission without penalty. This was the first time this had happened.
“System, I never expected you to stand by me against the same enemy,” Yuan Zhou said.
Of the missions issued by the system, they were separated into main missions, side missions, hidden missions, title missions, and urgent missions. Of these missions, only the main missions were issued independently by the system. All the other missions would only be issued if certain conditions were triggered.
In other words, those missions would not be issued without triggering the conditions.
Chef Li had already issued the challenge once before, but no mission had been issued at that time.
If the mission was issued back then, with the reward, Yuan Zhou would definitely complete it.
But the mission was not issued. Rather, the system seemed to have decided to issue this defeating the clown mission after Yuan Zhou accepted the mission today.
When Yuan Zhou thought about it, he realized that apart from the system’s preference in pulling tricks, it was different than other systems who would always force their hosts to do things they were unwilling to do.
“Worthy of being my system. You are at an entirely different level,” Yuan Zhou lamented.
