Tang Renjie trembled, tears spilling from his eyes without warning.
He was crying.
A man who had dominated the culinary world for twenty years, tasted every imaginable delicacy, and been hailed as a "walking food textbook" had been moved to tears by a plate of sweet-and-sour carp he had cooked himself.
Who the fuck would believe that if word got out?
But he couldn't help it.
This flavor went beyond anything his lifetime of training could explain.
This wasn't cooking.
This was a miracle!
Beside him, Two Hundred Is Also and Chen Lin stared in disbelief, along with the dense crowd gathered at the kitchen doorway.
The three men demolished all four dishes. Two Hundred Is Also even used rice to scrape up the last traces of sauce, leaving the plates spotless.
Tang Renjie set down his chopsticks, the turmoil in his heart refusing to subside.
He made a decision that nearly stopped everyone's heart-including those of the almost one million viewers watching the livestream.
He abruptly stood, walked up to Chen Lin, and bowed deeply without a moment's hesitation.
"Boss Chen!"
When he raised his head again, his face held an all-or-nothing resolve, and his eyes burned with unprecedented fervor.
"I don't want to leave! I want to stay here and work as your cook! Pay me whatever you like. I'll even do it for free!"
Boom!
Inside and outside the kitchen, everything fell deathly silent.
After freezing for a second, the livestream chat erupted like a geyser.
"Holy shit! Am I hearing things? Did Renjie just say he wants to stay and work here?"
"He's lost it! A top food influencer with twenty million followers, a former executive chef at a five-star hotel, wants to cook at a rural restaurant? For free?"
"Holy shit! This has to be scripted!"
Chen Lin's brain stalled for a moment.
Two Hundred Is Also was dumbfounded too.
For real? Seriously?
If you stop reviewing restaurants and become a cook, doesn't that mean I get all the food-content traffic to myself?
Two Hundred Is Also was rejoicing inside, but his face looked more shocked than anyone's. "Tang, calm down! Have you lost your mind?"
Chen Lin's mind raced.
You've got to be kidding!
Let Tang Renjie stay as a chef?
With you two livestreaming here today, we'll probably have two or three hundred customers tomorrow. I don't even know whether the temporary shelter I'm putting up will be big enough.
If you stay too, how am I supposed to cope? Forget running this place-over a thousand people will trample it flat tomorrow!
Sometimes, being too popular really wasn't a good thing.
"Renjie, I couldn't possibly! Absolutely not!" Chen Lin refused firmly, looking deeply troubled. "This is just a small business. Someone of your stature is far too big for my little establishment!"
Seeing how decisively Chen Lin refused, Tang Renjie immediately realized he had been too simplistic about it.
All he could do was shake his head with a bitter smile, disappointment written all over his face.
Two Hundred Is Also screamed inwardly, No, no! Come on, stay! I still want to rule the food scene!
And with that, the livestream that had set all of Douyin ablaze finally came to an end.
Tang Renjie and Two Hundred Is Also headed back to their hotel in town to rest, both promising to return for dinner.
After they left, many of the viewers who had rushed over after hearing the news dispersed, thoroughly satisfied. Some fishing enthusiasts took their rods and eagerly headed to the fish pond in the backyard, ready to experience its heavenly fishing for themselves.
The rural restaurant regained a temporary measure of peace.
Chen Lin had barely breathed a sigh of relief when he spotted three young people carrying enormous hiking backpacks at the courtyard entrance. They were peering around, checking a map on a phone and discussing something.
"There don't seem to be any campsites around here."
"Why don't we just find somewhere by the reservoir?"
Camping?
Chen Lin's heart skipped a beat.
He suddenly remembered the large stretch of flat grass beside their village's reservoir. Where that grassy area extended into the reservoir, the water was shallow and crystal clear. Never mind swimming-it would even be perfectly safe to soak there and have water fights in summer.
Turning it into a campsite with a natural swimming area seemed like a great idea!
Once the thought took hold, he couldn't push it aside.
He immediately found Chen Guofu, who was directing the workers building the steel shelter.
"Uncle, what did the village secretary say about leasing the reservoir?"
Chen Guofu slapped his thigh, looking both frustrated and excited. "Look at my memory! The secretary called this morning and asked me to come sign the contract. I've been so busy that I completely forgot to tell you!"
Chen Lin was delighted.
"Let's go! Right now!"
Without further delay, they headed straight to the village committee office.
The village Party secretary, Chen Guoguang, already had the contract prepared and was making tea while waiting for them.
Ten minutes later, the deal was finalized.
The twenty mu of water belonging to Chen Family Village would be leased for twenty years.
The annual fee was fifteen thousand yuan, and Chen Lin paid the full three hundred thousand upfront.
Watching Chen Lin transfer three hundred thousand yuan without batting an eye made Chen Guofu's heart ache. Seeing money spent like water left him terrified.
After signing, Chen Lin took the opportunity to ask, "Secretary, what's the situation with the remaining eighty mu of the reservoir over in neighboring Mang Village?"
At the mention of this, Chen Guoguang's smile faded. He seemed reluctant to speak.
"Secretary, just tell me what's going on."
Only after Chen Lin pressed him did Chen Guoguang sigh and tell the truth. "Li Youtian, Mang Village's secretary, is an utterly shameless bastard! He says leasing the reservoir is fine, but we have to buy all one hundred thousand jin of fish in it at market price! On top of that, the lease is eighty thousand a year, not a penny less!"
The moment he finished, Chen Guofu exploded.
"One hundred thousand jin of fish? Fucking bullshit!" Chen Guofu's face flushed with anger. "That reservoir has fifty thousand jin at the absolute most! And eighty thousand a year? Why doesn't he just rob us!"
Chen Guoguang looked equally helpless. "I argued with him for ages, but that old bastard Li Youtian wouldn't budge!"
Yet after hearing this, Chen Lin merely waved it off.
What he lacked most right now was time. Haggling with someone like Li Youtian over this amount of money wasn't worth it.
Besides, fifty thousand jin of fish?
Once it's in my hands, those six bottles of Spirit Spring Water will let me turn that into one hundred thousand jin in a month! And by then, they won't be ordinary fish anymore. They'll be worth ten million!
The sooner he secured it, the sooner he could make money.
"Uncle! Secretary!" Chen Lin made the decision on the spot, his tone calm but leaving no room for argument. "Time won't wait for us! We'll pay his price!"
"What?"
Chen Guoguang and Chen Guofu froze at the same time, wondering if they had misheard.
"Xiao Lin, don't be rash! This is obviously a rip-off!" Chen Guofu said anxiously.
But Chen Lin remained utterly resolute.
On the way back, Chen Guofu wore a dark expression and said nothing, clearly unhappy with Chen Lin's "reckless spending."
Helpless, Chen Lin could only explain. "Uncle, those two influencers who came today are both huge. I guarantee our business will explode starting tomorrow! We urgently need to expand. We can't afford to wait even a moment. And you really don't need to worry about those fish. We won't lose money."
Chen Guofu let out a long sigh.
"All right! I don't understand all these twists and turns you young people come up with. You decide."
Yet a complicated mix of feelings welled up inside him.
Xiao Lin really has grown up.
When they returned to the rural restaurant, several women were already standing in the courtyard. They were the ones Chen Guofu had called earlier who had agreed to come help.
Chen Lin glanced over them. There were six in total.
Five were women in their forties or fifties who looked kind and capable. All were of his elders' generation.
But when his gaze landed on the last person, he froze in place.
She was a woman of about thirty, at least 1.7 meters tall, with a slender, well-proportioned figure.
She wore a plain short-sleeved top and jeans faded from washing.
Yet they did little to conceal her striking curves.
Her clean, unadorned face only made her natural beauty more apparent.
At that moment, she stood with her head lowered awkwardly, her hands nervously twisting the hem of her shirt, seemingly afraid to meet anyone's eyes.
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