The moment Silly Zhu heard that Lin Zhen wanted to take Ma Hua as his apprentice,
he immediately laughed.
"Heh heh! You, Engineer Lin, are really something. What, is workshop work no longer challenging enough for you? You want to compete with me?"
Lin Zhen smiled. "Just tell me, did Ma Hua ever kowtow to you and become your apprentice?"
Silly Zhu shook his head. "No."
"Then there you have it. Those of us with skills never want to miss promising talent. This young Ma Hua is decent and honest. I appreciate him, and I'm planning to take him as my apprentice and teach him divine culinary skills. If you disagree, we can have a contest."
"Hahaha... Fine, enough already, Lin Zhen. Stop fooling around. Divine chef? Go home and cook for your wife, Lou Xiao'e. This is the cafeteria, so quit messing around!"
Silly Zhu smiled so broadly that he could not close his mouth.
He had absolute confidence in his own cooking.
At the same time, he had never heard that Lin Zhen was the heir to any particular culinary tradition.
At most, Lin Zhen was just relying on his cleverness to show off.
"Master Lin, can you really cook? Are you really going to poach an apprentice right in front of us? Then we have to see the result."
The chefs in the back kitchen all wanted to watch the excitement.
Although they knew Lin Zhen was a genius, that was only what people in the workshop said. They had truly never heard that he was a master chef.
Lin Zhen genuinely wanted to take Ma Hua as his apprentice today.
If he entered the culinary world in the future, Ma Hua would definitely be his most loyal subordinate.
That was why he intended to reveal his full-level cooking skills for everyone to see.
"Whether I can cook or not isn't decided by talk. With the same dish, I can definitely beat Silly Zhu."
Silly Zhu said disdainfully, "Oh, give it a rest, Lin Zhen. Tell me, whose culinary tradition are you the heir to? I'm the heir to Sichuan cuisine and Jingpai Tan Family Cuisine. What about you?"
"Me? Sorry, but I know a little of all Eight Great Cuisines."
"Oh, come on... You, you're really bragging!"
"Are we competing or not? If not, I'll take Ma Hua and leave right now."
"Compete! You think I'm afraid of you? Right now. Pick anything from the back kitchen, and we'll use the same ingredients."
Ma Hua was overjoyed. He had only been working for a few days, yet two master chefs were fighting over him.
Lin Zhen looked over the vegetables stored in the back kitchen.
Then he smiled faintly. "Let's use the most ordinary cabbage."
"Fine! Cabbage it is, but I have an extra condition."
"Say it."
"If you lose, lend Qin Huairu some money. She's quite pitiful."
"You don't need to play saint. I'm taking Ma Hua away for the sake of the Jia family anyway, but I have an extra condition too."
"What is it?"
"If I win, Ma Hua will work in the workshop for a few months, then return to the cafeteria and keep working under you. You have to teach him all the cooking skills you've been keeping hidden."
"What about you? So you won't teach him, but you still get to claim the title of master?"
"You don't need to worry about that. Just tell me whether you agree or not."
"Hahaha... Fine, I'll agree on Silly Zhu's behalf!"
It was the Cafeteria director who spoke.
He had come to check on how the employees' lunch preparations were going and happened to run into this scene.
Silly Zhu scratched his head and said awkwardly, "Then... then let's begin. Don't waste time."
Silly Zhu was going to make the Sichuan dish Hot and Sour Cabbage.
He selected half a head of prime yellow-heart cabbage.
Lin Zhen chose to make the northwestern dish Golden Edge Cabbage, picking only a few cabbage stems.
On the surface, Lin Zhen was at a disadvantage when it came to ingredient selection.
But every knowledgeable chef knew that Lin Zhen had already won by half a point.
Using inferior ingredients against top-quality ones meant he had already taken the lead in terms of momentum.
Both of them moved quickly.
Their blades flashed several times, and the main ingredients and seasonings were ready.
Silly Zhu began stir-frying first.
His movements were measured and orderly, his control of the heat just right.
Without haste, he set a plate of Hot and Sour Cabbage before the Cafeteria director.
The Cafeteria director took a bite.
He nodded. "As expected of Silly Zhu. No matter where I travel for work, I can never find a dish more flavorful than yours."
When it was Lin Zhen's turn, he turned the flame to its highest setting.
With a flick of his wok, the long-cut cabbage stems somersaulted through the flames.
The sight stunned the chefs who had gathered to watch.
"That's the Four Gates Flower Strike. Without more than a decade of hands-on experience, no one could toss it that evenly!"
"My master is from the northwest. He knows this technique, but I never learned it!"
"A true master hides his skills. Who would have thought Master Lin was an heir to northwestern cuisine?"
"Ah! No, that's even more impressive than the Four Gates Flower Strike. His wok tossing is simply miraculous!"
"Hiss—"
Silly Zhu also sucked in a sharp breath.
With one hand, Lin Zhen tossed the wok, allowing the raging flames and ingredients to collide completely.
With the other, he added the seasonings at precisely the most ingenious moments.
Dried chilies, scallion segments, oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar.
Not only was the timing perfect, but he controlled even the amounts flawlessly.
Silly Zhu cooked in pursuit of the ultimate deliciousness.
But Lin Zhen cooked through the perfect coordination of timing, opportunity, the five flavors, and the five senses.
He had already reached the realm of unity between man and nature.
Lin Zhen turned off the heat and plated the dish.
Its fragrance filled the back kitchen, and every edge of every cabbage stem had been seared golden.
The Cafeteria director took a bite and could not help closing his eyes as he savored it.
"Director, how is it? Say something! You're the judge here! Hey, why are you just eating without saying a word?"
Silly Zhu was growing frantic and quickly picked up a stem himself and put it into his mouth.
The next second, he too fell silent.
The simpler the ingredient, the more it tested a person's cooking skill.
And the Golden Edge Cabbage Lin Zhen made was enough to remind Silly Zhu of the time when Father He Daqing had forced him to learn cooking as a child.
"Flip it, toss the wok! What the fuck are you standing there for? Once you learn to cook, you'll never starve for the rest of your life..."
Silly Zhu wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes.
"Lin Zhen, I admit defeat. Take Ma Hua with you!"
When he looked up, Lin Zhen and Ma Hua were already gone from the back kitchen.
The chefs in the back kitchen were all closing their eyes and savoring the lingering taste of the Golden Edge Cabbage.
Silly Zhu's worldview was about to collapse.
So a delicious dish could influence a diner's emotions and memories.
"Master, who did you learn such amazing cooking skills from?"
As Ma Hua jogged alongside him, he asked Lin Zhen like an awestruck fan.
"Haha, from the heart and from passion. As long as you stay focused and love it, you'll also be able to make food that leaves diners speechless someday."
"Mm! I love cooking, and I can endure hardship!"
"Good. First, go to the production workshop and fill Jia Dongxu's position for a few months. Besides your eight-yuan monthly wage, I'll give you another nine yuan as hardship pay."
As an apprentice in the cafeteria's back kitchen, Ma Hua earned only eight yuan a month.
His master was actually giving him nine yuan, and Ma Hua was so moved that he nearly cried.
"Thank you, master. Um... will the workshop director agree?"
"He will. I've already discussed it with him. Work hard—I think highly of you!"
"Mm!"
"Oh, right. Be careful around the Level Eight fitter Yi Zhonghai in the workshop. He's Jia Dongxu's master. Don't be fooled by his kindly appearance. He's an old fox."
"Don't worry, Master. At the rolling mill, I recognize only you!"
When First Elder Yi Zhonghai saw Lin Zhen bringing a young man to Jia Dongxu's position,
he immediately became uneasy.
He hurried over and asked in a low voice, "Lin Zhen, what are you doing? Why did you find an outsider to fill in for him?"
"Sigh, First Elder, why are you so nervous? He's my cooking apprentice, borrowed from the cafeteria's back kitchen. I've already spoken with the workshop director. He can absolutely fill in for three months, and he isn't interested in a fitter's position."
"Oh, you startled me. So I'll still give him my ninety-nine every month?"
"How could that be? He's still just a vegetable-cutting apprentice, so we can't mess things up. Besides his eight-yuan monthly wage, I'll give him another nine yuan."
"Ah? So with just a few words, you're swallowing ninety yuan of mine every month? You... you... sigh!"
Yi Zhonghai felt that he had been trapped, yet it was the kind of trap he could not speak of.
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