So You Were a Master Chef in Disguise?

"Tsk, tsk."

"Oh, Lin, now I finally know why you've been so against getting together with our dear Li."

"You've found someone new!"

Dan Teng looked at Lin Xiaomeng's retreating figure, then at his friend, and immediately felt he had spotted the "key detail."

To be fair, although Lin Xiaomeng didn't know how to apply makeup or dress herself up, she had excellent natural looks.

Her features, looks, and bearing were all impressive. On a scale of one to ten, Dan Teng would give her a solid nine.

With a little makeup and a slightly better outfit, she would absolutely be a perfect ten!

On top of that, she was gentle, down-to-earth, and kind. She really was a rare gem of a girl.

"You're a Taoist. Could you stop gossiping about other people's love lives all day? If you have so much time, go study the Eight Trigrams at your temple."

Lin Zhe chided him with a laugh, casually took the egg fried rice he had saved for Dan Teng out of the insulated box, and said:

"Here, eat. I saved this egg fried rice especially for you."

"Come on, man. You're treating me to a meal, and all I get is egg fried rice? I came all this way, eager to see you, and this is what you're feeding me?"

Dan Teng pointed at the food container Lin Zhe had tossed him, disbelief written all over his face. Seriously, folks, who treated a guest like this?

"You sure you don't want it?" Lin Zhe folded his arms and looked at Dan Teng with a grin.

He could already picture Dan Teng wolfing down the egg fried rice and declaring how delicious it was.

Dan Teng smacked his lips and pointed at Lin Zhe with a look of disdain. "I swear you're getting stingier by the day. Treating someone to egg fried rice? You're one of a kind.

"Keep being stingy, then. Let's see how long it takes you to scrape together a new car worth over three hundred thousand and five hundred thousand for the bride price!

"You turned down a gentle, mature, charming woman who wouldn't even ask for a bride price and would spend money on you instead. But no, you're stubbornly determined to make it on your own. You won't turn back until you hit a brick wall, huh?"

"..."

Seeing the fatty seize yet another opportunity to trick him into becoming his stepfather, Lin Zhe was speechless.

For all his grumbling, Dan Teng wasn't actually dissatisfied. As he talked, he had already opened one of the containers, revealing the egg fried rice inside, still giving off wisps of steam.

The moment he lifted the lid, the aroma of egg fried rice escaped into the air and drifted straight into his nose.

Gulp...

Dan Teng swallowed hard, then held the container of egg fried rice under his nose and took several deep sniffs.

"Holy crap, this egg fried rice smells promising today. Lin, where's the spoon? Hurry up and give me a spoon!"

The mouthwatering aroma sent Dan Teng's appetite soaring. He hurriedly asked Lin Zhe for a spoon, then shoveled a heaping spoonful straight into his mouth.

"Holy crap, is this really egg fried rice? How is it this good?"

The moment the egg fried rice entered his mouth, Dan Teng's already small eyes narrowed until they practically disappeared, and pure enjoyment spread across his chubby face.

His spoon moved at lightning speed as he shoveled mouthful after mouthful into his mouth, demolishing a standard serving of egg fried rice in no time.

"Got any more, Lin? Hurry up and bring it out! Who's supposed to get full on that little bit?"

"This is the last portion."

After handing Dan Teng the last portion, Lin Zhe watched with a smile as he devoured it, praising it between bites.

"One word: incredible!"

Dan Teng picked a grain of fried rice from the corner of his mouth and popped it in, then gave Lin Zhe a thumbs-up before asking in puzzlement:

"Lin, we've known each other for years. How come I never knew you could cook like this? Were you a master chef in disguise all along?"

"Master chef in disguise, my ass," Lin Zhe said with a laugh. "Xiaomeng made it."

"Xiaomeng can cook like this, too? Holy crap, is there any justice in this world?"

"She's pretty, has a great figure and a nice air about her, and she can cook this well?"

"Did she save the Solar System in her previous life?"

"And you must've saved the entire Milky Way Galaxy!"

"How else could you land an employee as amazing as Lin Xiaomeng?"

Once Dan Teng learned that Lin Xiaomeng had made the incredibly delicious egg fried rice he had just eaten, he couldn't help launching into a barrage of complaints at Lin Zhe.

Honestly, he was a little envious of his buddy's luck, though not jealous.

Although Lin Xiaomeng was excellent in every way and very pretty, she wasn't Dan Teng's type.

Dan Teng preferred petite, cute girls. Anyone taller than 155 centimeters was an automatic pass.

At 172 centimeters, Lin Xiaomeng was far beyond his height limit.

Dan Teng added one final reminder. "Lin, you'd better hold on to a fantastic employee like Xiaomeng. Don't let someone else poach her!"

"I'm already thinking about giving her a raise."

Lin Zhe replied with a smile. He wasn't particularly worried about Lin Xiaomeng leaving for another job.

The eggs deserved more than half the credit for how delicious today's egg fried rice had turned out.

Ordinary eggs could never have produced this flavor.

Even if the worst happened and Lin Xiaomeng really did leave, Lin Zhe could quickly find a Wang Xiaomeng or a Zhang Xiaomeng to replace her.

The eggs with attribute bonuses were the truly irreplaceable, scarce resource in today's egg fried rice.

"She deserves one. Hold on to Xiaomeng and keep her at your inn. With her cooking skills, you two could switch to running a restaurant."

"You wouldn't even have to bother figuring out all kinds of other dishes. Selling egg fried rice alone could make you rich!"

Dan Teng gave the two portions of egg fried rice he had just eaten extremely high praise. Every word came from the heart, without a trace of exaggeration.

"Go on, then. What do you need me to do?"

Picking his teeth with a toothpick, Dan Teng looked at Lin Zhe. Knowing his buddy as well as he did, he was certain something was waiting for him.

"That's my buddy! Straight to the point!"

Lin Zhe gave Dan Teng a thumbs-up and praised him with a smile.

"Why does that smile of yours give me the creeps?"

Dan Teng rubbed his hands in front of his chest and shook his shoulders, pretending to shudder all over.

"You must be imagining things!" Lin Zhe said with a smile. "Everyone calls me the god of smiles from Ancient Greece. They all say my smile makes me look approachable."

"Approachable, my ass. Gross. Ptooey!"

Dan Teng had nothing but disdain for Lin Zhe's shameless self-flattery.

Bickering and undercutting each other whenever they met was already routine for the two friends.

Even so, their friendship had never capsized. If anything, it only grew stronger.

"Look at you, assuming the worst about an honest man! Of course I came to you because I have something good to offer."

Lin Zhe stopped beating around the bush and got straight to the point:

"Tomorrow, I'll give every Taoist priest at your temple a free serving of egg fried rice. Pretty generous of me, right?"

"You? Generous? Like I don't know you. You're trying to expand your business into our temple!"

The moment Dan Teng heard Lin Zhe's proposal, he saw straight through it to his real objective.

Of course, it wasn't some shameful secret. It was perfectly normal business practice.

Between the Taoist priests and their fellow disciples, the Three Pure Ones Palace had more than twenty people.