Plans for the Farmhouse Restaurant

At that very moment, a storm had already taken shape online.

Less than an hour after Li Shishi posted her one-minute video, it had set the entire platform ablaze.

The comments section exploded.

"What's going on?! Is this the latest kind of eating show? A reunion dinner for newly released convicts?"

"Holy crap! Shishi, where did you film this? The way these people are eating is terrifying!"

Some viewers who had watched yesterday's livestream and clips also weighed in with burning questions!

"Damn! This restaurant really must have something going for it!"

"Nobody can escape eating their words once the food arrives! Now I'm wondering just how good it has to be to make people eat like that!"

The video went viral, with likes and shares rocketing past a hundred thousand.

And the two most-liked comments were:

"@Two Hundred Is Also Second Brother! Stop playing dead! Get out here and get to work!"

"@Food Detective Tang Renjie Brother Jie! You're the only one we trust! Go taste it for us!"

Hangcheng, Zhejiang Province.

Inside a Hangzhou Cuisine restaurant that had just earned Michelin recognition.

An honest-looking, slightly chubby man sat with a miserable expression, finding the beautifully plated Dongpo Pork in front of him as tasteless as wax.

He was Two Hundred Is Also, a top food-review creator on Douyin with twenty million followers.

"I can't take it. I really can't take it anymore. I can't spend another day in this culinary wasteland called Hangcheng!"

Just then, his assistant handed him a phone.

"Second Brother, a restaurant in Yicheng has gone viral these past two days. Loads of people tagged you yesterday, and today, a comment tagging you under this video has over fifty thousand likes!"

Intrigued, Two Hundred Is Also took the phone and opened the video.

When he saw the people in it wolfing down their food like they had lost their minds, he abruptly sat up straight.

Those eyes, those movements-there was no faking them!

That was pure instinct, reason utterly abandoned after being conquered by the ultimate flavor!

"Holy crap, is it really that incredible? That doesn't look like acting!"

His assistant asked, "Second Brother, should we reply?"

Two Hundred Is Also slapped the phone down on the table, his eyes blazing with a light that had been absent for a long time.

"Reply, my ass!"

He sprang to his feet and gave his assistant an order.

"Book the next flight to Yicheng!"

At the same time.

Magic City.

Tang Renjie, another food-review creator with over twenty million followers, had also finished watching the video his assistant had handed him.

"Good grief! These people look possessed!"

"Brother Tang, how should we reply?" his young assistant asked cautiously.

"Why reply? We'll just go there. Book a flight for tomorrow morning!"

"But tomorrow's schedule..."

"Cancel it. We're going to Yicheng." Tang Renjie cut his young assistant off before the sentence was finished.

With four new full-time employees, the farmhouse restaurant had enough hands for now, but the fire inside Chen Lin only burned hotter.

The place was too small.

Four private rooms and six round tables-at absolute maximum capacity, it could accommodate a hundred people.

For an ordinary farmhouse restaurant, that was plenty.

But Chen Lin knew that today's booming business was only the tiniest beginning.

His second uncle's cautious approach had, in the end, limited his imagination.

They had to expand, immediately!

And he was done thinking small.

His second uncle's remark about "getting a whole page to yourself in the family genealogy" had struck like a thunderbolt, clearing the fog in Chen Lin's mind and igniting his deepest, most primal ambition.

Making money?

The hundred-million-plus yuan in his bank account had already given him financial freedom.

But bringing glory to his ancestors, leaving a mark all his own in the Chen family's centuries-old genealogy, making future generations speak the name "Chen Lin" with reverence!

That temptation hit far harder than a hundred million in cash. It made his blood race!

Chen Lin walked to the village entrance, his gaze passing over the lush green field ridges to the vast reservoir nearby.

Covering nearly a hundred mu, the reservoir shimmered like a giant sapphire nestled among the mountains.

The corner nearest Chen Family Village, roughly twenty mu, had once been the fruit of his parents' hard work.

An utterly wild idea burst into shape in his mind.

Lease it!

Not just the village's twenty mu!

He would negotiate with the neighboring village and secure the entire hundred-mu reservoir!

Once the possibilities opened up, his ideas poured forth like a river bursting through a dam.

With the reservoir at its heart, he would build a massive resort combining dining, entertainment, and leisure.

The Water Restaurant would stand beside the rippling water, allowing diners to savor peerless food while admiring the water and sky blending into one.

A water park, a fishing center, the Water Restaurant...

He could almost see it: in the near future, this place would become a tourist destination that all of Yicheng, and even several surrounding cities, would flock to.

And the first step toward all of that was to build a breathtaking Water Restaurant!

At that thought, Chen Lin could no longer contain himself. He turned and hurried back to the Orchard behind the restaurant.

His second uncle, Chen Guofu, stood with his hands clasped behind his back like a general inspecting his troops, directing the workers as they planted saplings. His face was full of anticipation for future harvests.

"Second Uncle!"

Chen Lin had run so fast that he was slightly out of breath.

Seeing his frantic appearance, Chen Guofu's brow immediately knotted. "What is it? Why are you rushing around like that? Is the sky falling?"

Chen Lin took a deep breath and laid out his idea for building the Water Restaurant.

Naturally, he deftly sidestepped the question of where his hundred-million-plus yuan had come from.

After hearing him out, Chen Guofu left the cigarette butt dangling from his mouth, forgetting to flick off the ash. His brow furrowed deeply enough to crush a fly.

"Build on the reservoir? Have you gone mad, boy? Do you know how much that would cost?"

But Chen Lin was brimming with confidence. He pointed toward the front courtyard, where the echoes of the lunchtime crowd still seemed to linger.

"Second Uncle, you saw what happened today! This is only the beginning. Business will only get better! Our place is too small. It simply can't handle it!"

Chen Guofu fell silent.

The crowds today, rivaling a market-day fair, had truly stunned an old farmer like him.

He had to admit that his nephew was telling the truth.

He nodded slowly, acknowledging the need to expand.

Chen Lin struck while the iron was hot and dropped the real bombshell. "So I want to lease the entire reservoir!"

"What? The whole thing?!"

Chen Guofu's voice cracked, his eyes widening like brass bells.

"That's over a hundred mu! Our village's twenty mu alone would give you plenty to work with!"

"It's not enough!" Chen Lin shook his head, his gaze unwavering. "If we're doing this, we're going to make it the biggest and the best! Limiting ourselves to our village's twenty mu is thinking too small!"

Chen Guofu stared hard at his nephew, as though seeing him for the first time.

This boy's ambitions were bigger than that enormous black carp in his Fish Pond!

After a long while, Chen Guofu let out a deep sigh and nodded as if resigning himself to fate. "All right! I'll discuss it with the village Party secretary tonight! As it happens, those cigarettes and bottles of liquor you bought me last time will finally come in handy!"

Chen Lin didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

He had bought those cigarettes and liquor ages ago, yet his second uncle hadn't opened a single pack or bottle, keeping them like precious treasures.

He looked at his second uncle and said solemnly, "Second Uncle, keep those cigarettes for yourself! I'll go buy some better ones in a bit!"

"You're the general manager of our farmhouse restaurant now. You'll be dealing with all kinds of guests."

Chen Lin paused, his tone turning half-serious, half-teasing.

"If you offer our guests cigarettes that cost ten yuan a pack, anyone who doesn't know better will think your nephew is an ungrateful brat who mistreats his elders!"

Chen Guofu was left speechless for a good while by that twisted reasoning.

Good grief. With all that flattery piled on him, what could he possibly say?

He waved a hand irritably, giving his tacit approval. "All right, all right. Suit yourself! Having money doesn't mean you should throw it around like that!"

Chen Lin chuckled, knowing the matter was settled.

He returned to the farmhouse restaurant, where the young man named Gao Qisheng immediately approached him, his face alight with excitement.

"Boss, your food is divine! We've talked it over, and we're staying for another feast tonight!"

"No problem!" Chen Lin nodded with a smile, then went to the kitchen to let Liu Shuqin know.

With everything arranged, he was about to drive into town to buy cigarettes and liquor when his phone suddenly rang.

The caller ID read: Song Qiuya.

"Chen Lin! You jerk! Two whole days, and not a single phone call!"

The instant he answered, Song Qiuya's cool voice came through, carrying a trace of wounded reproach.