Super Zoo

Chapter 355 Chefs Are Tough People

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Glancing sideways, Su Ming saw a dapper young man in a suit with an almost aristocratic air about him, a handsome fellow with a striking brow and starry eyes; by his side was a girl who looked the epitome of innocence, so much so she could be mistaken for a female student—a pretty chick indeed. Ren Chen was the only one among Su Ming's acquaintances who seemed to change women as often as he appeared.

How come the guy's here for the fishing and chef event, what's it to him?!

"Brother-in-law, you're amazing, you even know the chairman of our school!" Nangong Huang muttered admiringly on the sidelines.

With that, Su Ming remembered that Ren Chen's company specialized in educational training. Dongfang Culinary School, **** Excavator Technical Center, and a few well-known schools for college entrance exams, professional qualification exams, and civil service training were all part of Ren Chen's empire.

Strictly speaking, Ren Chen could be considered the leading figure in the private education sector of Yangchuan City and held a certain status in the national education industry as well. His several training centers were already integrated and going public, having passed inspection and currently in the listing queue.

"Leading astray!", Su Ming lamented in anguish, then turned to look at Nangong Huang by his side, patting his shoulder, "I understand now. Your previous behavior wasn't without reason, it's not your fault." His tone brimmed with sympathy as if a loving and naive young man had encountered an ignorant youth who had gone astray, not blaming him for his mistakes but comforting him instead, suggesting that society was to blame.

"Huh?" Nangong Huang was taken aback with his mouth agape.

In the blink of an eye, Ren Chen, arm in arm with the youthful girl, approached Su Ming. He greeted him with great enthusiasm, chuckling, "Mr. Su, what a pleasure, I didn't expect to see you here. Let me introduce you—this is Nana, Nana, Mr. Su is your boss's boss."

The youthful female student sweetly greeted him, "Hello, Mr. Su, please take care of me in the future." It seemed she was the little chick that Ren Chen had Wang Hao hook up for a spot on the streaming platform through backdoor connections.

Su Ming responded coolly, quite unable to grasp why Ren Chen, who was economically stronger than himself, favored these vulgar and coarsely made-up women.

Not far away, a person wearing a tall chef's hat strode to the center of the banquet hall and hammered a large gilded gong hanging in the center with a long-handled mallet.

The hall echoed with the sound of the gong...

"The annual Changjiang in Huayin County Fishing and Culinary Exchange event now officially begins."

Ren Chen waved his hand slightly, "Mr. Su, a chance meeting is preferable to a formal invitation, let's sit together."

"Ahem, Akihito Ren, I think we should each stick to our own seats," Su Ming said, chuckling. Ren Chen was not particularly detestable and might have been somewhat interesting if it weren't for Nangong's previous incident. After that, Ren Chen had taken the initiative to bow out, and Su Ming, although he didn't plan to make things hard for him, also had no intention of becoming friends with him.

Su Ming left without much courtesy, which made Ren Chen a bit awkward, shaking his head with a bitter smile.

"Akihito Ren, why are you so polite to him? He's not some big boss..." Nana pouted and complained.

"Is that something you should be saying?" Ren Chen's face darkened.

...

After the opening, everyone took their seats. Su Ming's seat was towards the back, but since the banquet hall was spacious and the guests were fairly spread out, with only the chefs who would be showcasing their skills seated in the front row, the other guests all had their own tables, scattered around the center of the hall. Even sitting at the back, Su Ming had a clear view of everything happening on the main stage.

First came the customary speeches by local leaders from Huayin County.

In any case, it's a cruel story, so from a certain point of view, chefs who handle knives carry a hint of a killer instinct.

Today, many chefs came from different lineages. To avoid offending anyone, the organizer listed all the ancestors they could think of, resulting in a grand assembly of ancestral chefs.

After paying respects to the goddesses, several leaders stepped off the stage, and the culinary exchange meeting officially began.

"Next, please welcome the head chef from Jiangjin City's Pingchao Building, Master Sheng Weidong."

Pingchao Building has a significant reputation throughout the province as an absolutely high-end dining club. When Suming and his classmates were in school, they'd brag by saying, 'When I make it big, I'll treat you all to a meal at Pingchao Building.'

A chef whose head was nearly as thick as his neck walked onto the stage, greeted everyone with a fist salute, and his assistant slammed a large box onto the chopping board. In front of everyone, Sheng Weidong opened the box to display its contents.

Suming craned his neck to see, expecting some rare delicacies.

But unexpectedly, the box had several compartments, and in each compartment, there was nothing but white rice... The first performer, Chef Sheng Weidong, was actually going to demonstrate cooking white rice!

Cooking white rice... white rice... rice...

Suming nearly lost it. Had he traveled all this way just to eat plain rice?

Besides rice, Sheng Weidong prepared quite a few other tools, like lotus leaves and bamboo tubes, and he started working.

The host explained on the side: The two types of rice used by Master Sheng Weidong today are special products of Jiangjin. The first is Jiangjin's little sticky rice, which is hard to the touch due to the dry weather and natural sunlight used for drying. The second type is Yangzhou fragrant rice, which is quite the opposite due to the humid southern weather. The rice is machine-dried, appearing dry on the outside but very soft on the inside...

Sheng Weidong was separately stewing the two types of rice: the little sticky rice was wrapped in lotus leaves and steamed in a bamboo steamer, with what appeared to be a layer of some unknown oil smeared on the leaves; the fragrant rice was stuffed into a bamboo tube, wrapped in a layer of mud, and placed on a stove to roast over an open fire.

Since it was being cooked in small quantities, the banquet hall soon filled with the aroma of rice.

"This is truly the work of a master!" Suming sniffed appreciatively, his mouth watering. He hadn't expected such ordinary rice to smell so irresistible, its scent like invisible hooks drawing out one's desire to eat.

You should know, he wasn't the least bit hungry at the moment. On the trip over, the three of them had bought quite a few snacks along the way.

"Lotus..." Su Meng said with a silly smile on the side, his drool already flowing.

About twenty minutes later, servers carried plates to each table, delivering a bamboo bucket of fragrant rice and a small package of little sticky rice.

Just as Suming took out his chopsticks, he looked up to find the table empty; Nangong Huang had snatched up the bucket of rice, while Su Meng was holding the scalding hot packet of lotus rice. It seemed there was just enough for him to have one mouthful.

"Is there no justice left!" Suming was furious.

————Division Line————

Chapters 353 and 354 had repeated titles, but the content is not repeated, so everyone please rest assured.