That remark-"even better than state banquet ingredients"-landed in the livestream like a nuclear bomb, blasting the minds of nearly a million viewers completely blank.
At the table, Two Hundred Is Also had completely shut down his capacity for speech.
He was now a precision-engineered, human-shaped eating machine.
His eyes locked onto the dishes, his chopsticks blurred, his mouth chewed at high speed, and his throat swallowed in a steady rhythm.
The entire process radiated the utmost respect for the food.
And after delivering that earth-shattering verdict, Tang Renjie abandoned all resistance too.
He picked up a tender morsel from the Chopped Chili Fish Head and put it in his mouth.
Spicy!
Fresh!
Fragrant!
Tender!
The four sensations swept in like four highly trained special forces units, instantly seizing every taste-bud stronghold in his mouth before converging to unleash a gloriously satisfying storm of flavor.
He ate more slowly than Two Hundred Is Also, but with even greater focus and reverence.
With every bite, he closed his eyes and savored it.
His utterly enraptured expression left nearly a million livestream viewers beside themselves.
"I'm losing it. I'm seriously losing it! I just ordered pork trotter rice, but now that I'm watching this, the pork trotter in my mouth doesn't taste good anymore!"
"Don't even start. I already dumped out the instant noodles I just made!"
"These two really aren't holding back around us! One's eating like nobody else exists, and the other's eating like his soul has left his body, but neither will tell us what it actually tastes like!"
The meal ended in a strange yet harmonious atmosphere.
Only after Two Hundred Is Also precisely plucked the final vegetable leaf from a plate and stuffed it into his mouth did he release a long, satisfied sigh.
He slumped in his chair and rubbed his round belly, radiating the serenity of someone who had attained enlightenment.
Tang Renjie, meanwhile, slowly wiped his mouth with a napkin.
All his scrutiny and pickiness had vanished, replaced by an almost fanatical awe.
He stood up and walked straight over to Chen Lin, who was directing workers unloading goods in the courtyard by the entrance, and actually gave him a slight bow.
"Mr. Chen, may I ask where exactly these ingredients... came from?"
Seeing how solemn he was, Chen Lin smiled and casually pointed toward the vegetable patch out back and the distant Fish Pond.
"We grow them ourselves."
"You grow them yourselves?"
Tang Renjie repeated it, disbelief written all over his face.
Chen Lin nodded. "Yes. The fish were caught in the Fish Pond, and the vegetables were just picked from the garden."
Tang Renjie fell silent.
They grow them themselves?
How was that possible?
He had traveled far and wide, sampled countless rare delicacies, and visited any number of so-called "ecological farms" and "organic growing facilities," yet he had never encountered ingredients of such outrageous quality!
"Mr. Chen, could you take me into the kitchen?" There was a note of earnest pleading in Tang Renjie's request.
"Of course."
Chen Lin led Tang Renjie into the kitchen, with an equally curious Two Hundred Is Also following along.
Inside, Uncle Qin and several aunties were preparing for the next wave of customers.
In the sink, several large fish freshly caught from the Fish Pond were still flapping vigorously.
Uncle Qin's knife rose and fell as he deftly scaled and gutted them.
Tang Renjie hurried over to the sink and froze.
He stared intently at the fish Uncle Qin had just finished cleaning.
Its snow-white flesh lay exposed to the air on the cutting board, yet there wasn't the slightest fishy smell!
Not only did it lack any fishiness, but an extremely faint, fresh fragrance lingered beneath his nose.
Everything he had learned over decades as a chef came crashing down at that moment!
"This... this fish..." He could barely form a coherent sentence.
Two Hundred Is Also leaned over beside him and sniffed hard, his face full of shock. "Holy shit! It's true! Not fishy at all! It even smells good!"
The livestream chat exploded again.
"What the hell? Fish that smells good instead of fishy? Renjie, are you sure you haven't eaten yourself into hallucinating?"
"To the person above, have you considered that maybe all the fish we normally eat are just stinky?"
"I'm losing my mind. What kind of heavenly place is this?"
Ignoring the uproar in the livestream, Tang Renjie reached out with a trembling hand and picked up a freshly cut, thin carrot slice from the nearby cutting board, where it had been prepared to accompany a dish.
He didn't eat it, merely held it beneath his nose and sniffed.
There was none of the distinctive pungency of an ordinary carrot, only an utterly pure, fresh fragrance.
He placed the slice in his mouth.
Crunch.
A crisp sound rang out.
The next second, Tang Renjie's eyes flew wide open.
A clean sweetness burst forth, mingling with abundant juice.
This wasn't a vegetable. Wasn't this fucking fruit?
Seeing his reaction, Two Hundred Is Also copied him, tearing off an utterly ordinary cabbage leaf from the basin of washed vegetables, stuffing it into his mouth, and chewing vigorously.
"Mmm! Sweet! Crunchy! Delicious!" he shouted indistinctly, then immediately tore off another leaf.
"Can raw cabbage really taste good?"
"Sweet carrots? Sweet cabbage too? Is this for real?"
"Second Brother isn't putting on an act for us, is he?"
The livestream spectators buzzed with speculation.
Watching two top influencers ravenously munching raw carrots and cabbage in his kitchen, Chen Lin found the scene more than a little absurd.
Tang Renjie swallowed the carrot with difficulty, then turned to look at Chen Lin with the gaze of a pilgrim beholding a deity.
"Mr. Chen!" His voice trembled. "I have a presumptuous favor to ask!"
Chen Lin's heart gave a jolt. He could already guess most of what was coming.
"That wouldn't be right, would it? You're a guest, Tang!"
"Mr. Chen!" Tang Renjie was almost pleading, his manner utterly humble. "Please let me make a few dishes with your ingredients! With ingredients this exceptional, only getting to taste them without cooking them myself would be the greatest regret of my life!"
Chen Lin considered it for a moment, taking in his expression of sincerity bordering on obsession.
He was indeed curious about what sort of miracle the executive chef of a five-star hotel could create using ingredients he had grown with Spirit Spring Water.
"All right!" Chen Lin nodded in agreement.
"Fantastic!" Tang Renjie nearly jumped with excitement.
He immediately took off his jacket and accepted a long cloth bundle from his assistant.
He opened it to reveal a complete set of Chinese Chef's Knives gleaming coldly.
He expertly tied on an apron, and his entire presence changed in an instant.
The picky food blogger disappeared, replaced by a king who held absolute dominion over the kitchen.
"Uncle Qin, aunties, let me take over from here. Sorry for the trouble, but could you assist me?"
His words were concise and forceful, carrying a natural authority.
Uncle Qin and the aunties all froze, instinctively looking toward Chen Lin.
Chen Lin smiled and nodded. "Follow Executive Chef Tang's instructions."
Hearing the commotion, the online followers in the courtyard all crowded around the kitchen entrance, forming a dense mass as they craned their necks to look inside.
Tang Renjie drew a deep breath and pulled a large carp weighing over three jin from the sink.
He pinned its head with his left hand, then brought out the slicing knife in his right, its blade as thin as a cicada's wing.
Cold steel flashed as the blade slid precisely along the fish's spine. A flick of his wrist, and an evenly thick fillet came away intact.
That masterful display of knife work instantly drew a chorus of gasps.
Next, he worked on the sharp-snout fish, cutting its flesh into almost transparent slices and chilling them in ice water.
Meanwhile, a huge clay pot had already been set over the heat. He fried the fish head in lard until both sides were golden, then added boiling water, instantly turning the broth milky white.
Finally, his gaze fell on the largest grass carp.
"Sashimi."
That was all he said.
Chen Lin and Two Hundred Is Also exchanged a glance, each seeing the shock in the other's eyes.
Grass carp sashimi?
Had he gone mad?
Yet Tang Renjie was brimming with confidence. His knife moved like lightning, and translucent slices of fish, each as thin as a cicada's wing, were arranged on crushed ice like a work of art.
In less than half an hour, all four dishes were ready.
The Sweet and Sour Carp gleamed a translucent golden red.
The Blanched Sharp-Snout Fish Slices were snowy white and curled.
The Grass Carp Sashimi had the soft luster of jade.
And the pot of milky-white Clay Pot Fish Head Soup bubbled and steamed, its rich, savory aroma forcefully invading everyone's nostrils.
In both appearance and aroma, these four dishes were clearly more than a notch above those Liu Shuqin and the aunties had made earlier.
"Here, give them a try."
Tang Renjie untied his apron, fine beads of sweat dotting his forehead, but he was in a state of extreme exhilaration.
Chen Lin was the first to reach with his chopsticks.
He picked up a slice of blanched sharp-snout fish and put it straight into his mouth.
Supremely tender and silky, supremely fresh and sweet.
The savoriness was so pure, so overwhelming, that it felt like an umami bomb exploding on his tongue, its ferocious shock wave racing along his nerves straight to the crown of his head!
Two Hundred Is Also went straight for the plate of Sweet and Sour Carp. The moment a large chunk entered his mouth, he froze completely, even forgetting to chew.
Watching their reactions, Tang Renjie swallowed nervously.
He picked up a piece of the Sweet and Sour Carp he had made himself-a dish he had cooked countless thousands of times and knew in his bones.
The instant the fish entered his mouth-
He froze.
Sourness, sweetness, savoriness, fragrance-every flavor had reached an unprecedented, perfect balance.
The deliciousness of the fish had been brought out to its absolute limit, without a single off-note.
Did I really fucking make this?
Before you continue