Chapter 758: Chapter 757 Anticipation

Jiang Feng had the most peculiar dream that night.

It was both realistic and magical.

He dreamed that time had advanced to the next day’s noon when Chef Arno, full of vigor and pomp, arrived at Taifeng Building for a banquet. After eating the chicken beancurd, he was so astounded that he immediately wanted to acknowledge Jiang Feng as his “big brother” and begged tearfully to be taken on as his junior.

Just as Jiang Feng was about to reach the pinnacle of his life in his dream, a compliment from Chef Arno jolted him awake.

“Big brother, the chicken beancurd you made today is ‘shit’ good!”

He said it with a translator’s accent.

It left Jiang Feng sitting on his bed for a long time after waking, dazed, as he savored the dream that seemed to plot like a clichéd martial arts saga, before finally glancing at his phone.

Five-thirty, no wonder he felt it wasn’t very bright outside yet.

After such a rollercoaster and splendid dream that left more to the imagination, Jiang Feng truly couldn’t fall back asleep, so he got up quietly. After brushing his teeth and washing his face, it wasn’t even six o’clock and Wu Minqi hadn’t woken up yet. Jiang Feng thought he might as well give Minqi a surprise; today, instead of wontons, he would go downstairs to buy her pancakes and soy milk.

At the pancake stand around six o’clock, only early-rising elders were present as customers. Among them, Jiang Feng, bleary-eyed and rubbing his eyes, wearing a casual T-shirt, seemed utterly out of place.

It wasn’t until Jiang Feng had bought two pancakes and was about to leave to buy soy milk from next door that he noticed Sun Maochai in line as well.

At an age barely qualifying as an elder, with a middle-aged face and brimming with energy after a morning jog, Sun Maochai blended in perfectly with the queuing elders—with not a hint of awkwardness.

Sun Maochai also noticed Jiang Feng and greeted him with a smile, “You’re up early.”

“Just today, so I’m buying breakfast downstairs,” said Jiang Feng with a smile, then suddenly remembered that Sun Maochai, as the head chef of Taifeng Building, might not know about Chef Arno coming to eat there at noon, so he added, “By the way, Master Sun, Arno is coming to our restaurant for lunch today.”

Sun Maochai turned his head in surprise, “Why?”

“It’s a bit complicated. It’s because of the reality show. I think…” Jiang Feng was about to say they could talk about the details when they got to the restaurant when the pancake seller interrupted him.

“How many?” the seller asked, an impassive pancake-making machine.

“One, with two eggs, extra sauce,” Sun Maochai’s gaze shifted instantly from Jiang Feng to the pancake seller. Clearly, pancakes took priority over Chef Arno at the moment.

Between paying attention to his pancakes, Sun Maochai found a moment to say to Jiang Feng, “We’ll talk later when I’m at work.”

Jiang Feng: …

“Oh.”

Jiang Feng silently carried the pancakes home.

Since the round trip wasn’t short and he strolled without hurrying, it was already past seven when he got home. Usually, at this time, Wu Minqi would have already woken up and finished her morning routine, ready to show off her culinary skills in the kitchen.

But today was different—Wu Minqi hadn’t gotten up yet. Jiang Feng tiptoed to her bedroom door and listened for a while; there was no movement inside, she was clearly still asleep.

Jiang Feng knew it was his time to shine.

After searching the fridge, Jiang Feng realized there wasn’t much room for him to show off. After all, he had already bought pancakes, so it wasn’t an option to make another crepe, prepare dumplings or noodles, or even fry a frozen pancake with two eggs, a sausage, a few slices of tomato, and a lettuce leaf.

Jiang Feng had no choice but to select one of the few available ingredients to smash a cucumber for Wu Minqi.

[A Nearly Perfect Smashed Cucumber]

Jiang Feng looked at the familiar yet unfamiliar dish of smashed cucumber in front of him, his eyes moistening.

Who would have thought, the place where the dream began has become so incredible.

He, Jiang Feng, could actually make a nearly perfect smashed cucumber.

After smashing the cucumber, Jiang Feng excitedly ate it himself, and by the time he came to his senses, he had already finished the entire plate. He could only silently wash the dish and smash another fresh batch of cucumber, waiting for Wu Minqi to wake up.

When the clock hit seven-forty and the pancakes he had bought had long gone cold, Wu Minqi still hadn’t woken up, and Jiang Feng realized something might be wrong.

Sick?

Jiang Feng hurried to Wu Minqi’s bedroom door, knocked twice, and, hearing no response, he pushed the door open to find Wu Minqi lying on the bed, half-propped up, wrapped in a small blanket, with the air conditioning set to a low temperature.

Wu Minqi was still asleep, and she was sleeping so soundly that even the noise of Jiang Feng pushing the door open didn’t wake her up.

“Qiqi, get up. It’s almost time for work,” Jiang Feng said loudly.

Wu Minqi remained unmoved, even turning over, showing no sign of wanting to wake up.

Jiang Feng had no choice but to go over and push her firmly a couple of times, forcefully waking her up. Wu Minqi woke up suddenly, looking confused. She sat up in bed in an instant, her hair a mess—worse than Jiang Feng’s had ever been at his peak—still in a groggy state between sleep and wakefulness.

“What happened? Was there an earthquake?” Wu Minqi’s eyes weren’t even fully open, obviously extremely sleepy.

With his extensive experience of pulling all-nighters during his university days, which resulted in struggling to wake up for early morning classes, Jiang Feng could easily tell that Wu Minqi’s apparent difficulty waking up was due to staying up too late the night before.

“It’s almost eight o’clock, time to get up, have breakfast and get ready for work. What time did you go to bed last night, Qiqi? Do you need me to call in sick for you this morning?” Jiang Feng said helplessly.

Now more awake, Wu Minqi shook her head, yawning. “No need, I just went to bed a bit late last night, still a bit sleepy now. I’ll be fine after eating; no need to call in sick. If it really comes down to it, I can come back in the afternoon to catch up on sleep, and then I won’t go to work in the evening.”

Wu Minqi went to the bathroom for her daily wash-up, and Jiang Feng sat in the living room waiting for her to join him for breakfast. In less than ten minutes, Wu Minqi appeared by the dining table in the living room, looking refreshed with her hair back to being smooth, though she still seemed a bit lackluster.

The pancake and fruit had already gone cold, but Wu Minqi didn’t mind; she grabbed it and bit fiercely into it.

“Qiqi, did you stay up late watching TV last night? What time did you go to sleep?” Jiang Feng asked.

Wu Minqi swallowed the pancake and fruit in her mouth, then drank a cup of equally chilled but still delicious and sweet soy milk before recovering a bit.

“Probably past five, I can’t quite remember. Anyway, I felt it was already getting light outside when I went to bed,” Wu Minqi couldn’t quite remember what time she had gone to sleep. “I fast-forwarded through the remaining episodes of that reality show we watched, and I stayed up until the champion was announced before going to bed.”

“Who was the champion?”

“That tall one with brown hair. I can’t remember his name.” Clearly, in this reality show, the contestants did not have the luxury of being remembered by name.

The moment the reality show was mentioned, Wu Minqi became suddenly energized, excitedly telling Jiang Feng, “Fengfeng, let me tell you, the finale was absolutely amazing. You can’t imagine what happened!”

“Their final was to take charge of an evening shift in a two-star Michelin restaurant, with all the dishes completed by the contestants and Chef Arno working together, with Chef Arno leading and managing as the head chef. The champion was determined by the customers’ evaluation of the dishes and Chef Arno’s assessment of the contestants.”

“But during the final, that girl with the golden hair—the one whose cooking skills were subpar but who was quite pretty and got scolded by Chef Arno seven or eight times in one episode—she accidentally messed up the sauce and even knocked over the main lamb dish that Chef Arno had just made.”

Jiang Feng’s interest was immediately piqued. Such a significant error would surely make it hard for the ‘vase’ girl to finish the competition as normal.

In the episode Jiang Feng watched, Chef Arno was quite critical of the ‘vase’, believing her to stay in the competition solely because of her looks rather than her culinary skills.

Of course, that was indeed the case.

“That table had ordered a set meal. I think there was some translation issue. It should have been a lamb set meal, so lamb had to be the main course. I believe the dishes for the final were pre-designed by the production team; otherwise, it couldn’t have just so happened that there was only one serving of lamb chop left, and there were no extras after the golden-haired girl knocked it over.”

Jiang Feng nodded, understanding. After all, it was a reality show, not a real restaurant operation. Would it still be a reality show if there were no scripts? If they didn’t deliberately create issues to attract attention and generate conflict, would it still be a competitive reality show?

“What happened next? How did Chef Arno handle it?” Jiang Feng asked, curious.

Talking about it made Wu Minqi’s eyes light up, showing her immense admiration for Chef Arno. “He was furious. He drove the golden-haired girl out of the kitchen on the spot. While furiously scolding, he sought out the remaining ingredients. It turned out the production team had only left him a bag of lamb offal. He used less than twenty minutes to make a new roasted offal set meal with the offal, vegetables, and seasonings for the main course, and also made a spiced offal soup as a side dish, transforming the lamb set meal into an offal set meal.”

“After the dishes were served, he walked out of the kitchen and went straight to the directors, giving them an earful.”

Jiang Feng could imagine the scene quite vividly.

Chef Arno, while angrily cursing, managed the crisis in a very cool manner, like a savior, though this savior had a foul temper and often swore shit, shit like a sailor.

For a reality TV show, this segment was already quite exciting.

It was clear why Chef Arno became a sensation across America and the most popular chef with not just his ability to curse but also because of his dedication and exceptional cooking skills.

Although he liked to scold, his professional competence was top-notch.

“Fengfeng, you have to take the chicken jidouhua seriously today. You must get Chef Arno to agree on the competition. I’m really looking forward to competing with him on the same stage!” Wu Minqi said excitedly.

Jiang Feng: ?

Looking forward to it?

Source: Webnovel.com, updated on N𝘰vgo.co

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