Gourmet: The Master Chef Just Wants to Leisurely Set Up a Stall - Chapter 72

“I owe my fast progress to your detailed teaching, Master Sun! Without your guidance, I wouldn’t have improved this quickly,” Zhao Xiaojing responded, her face lighting up with joy as she expressed her gratitude.

“Hehe, your own talent and determination are the real reasons. Over the years, I’ve trained quite a few apprentices, but you’re definitely one of my proudest students!” Sun Dehai smiled, clearly proud of Zhao Xiaojing’s rapid development.

“Xiao Zhao, let me grab my phone. Show me that flip again—I want to record a video and send it to my fellow chefs so I can finally show off a bit!”

“I’ll get my phone too. Master Sun, how about we take a picture together?” Zhao Xiaojing suggested, seizing the opportunity while Sun Dehai was in high spirits.

The group photo from Mid-Autumn Festival, taken by Wen Yulan, had lingered in Zhao Xiaojing’s mind for days. As she scrolled through her phone, she realized it was the only group photo she had taken with people over the past few years.

At that moment, a sense of time slipping away had washed over her, making her reflect on how the years had passed in a blur. Today, as she came to work, she suddenly had the urge to capture a memory with her kitchen colleagues, who had treated her so well. Yet, she hadn’t even taken a single photo with them.

“Great idea! I’ll go grab my phone right now,” Sun Dehai responded cheerfully.

Zhao Xiaojing, equally excited, ran over to fetch her phone from the cabinet.

Once back, Sun Dehai gave her a few more pointers on her right-hand flipping technique. Afterward, he enthusiastically recorded a video of Zhao Xiaojing demonstrating her wok-flipping skills and immediately sent it to a group chat with two of his fellow chefs.

“Old Jia, Old Gu, check out my apprentice! She’s been practicing wok flipping for less than a month, and look at her now!”

“I remember it took you two three months, didn’t it?”

“And Old Gu, didn’t you show us a video of your top apprentice last time? How long did it take them?”

“Ah, still, I started later in life. At my age, I’ve only just trained one decent student, and she learned how to flip a wok in just a few days! She’s got the same natural gift for this work that we do. Meanwhile, you guys have apprentices lining up, each with better prospects than mine, sigh…” Sun Dehai couldn’t help but gloat, sending multiple voice messages with a tone of playful boasting.

Zhao Xiaojing, overhearing this, couldn’t stop laughing.

After Sun Dehai finished his bragging, he called over some of the kitchen staff to help take a picture with Zhao Xiaojing.

The timing was perfect—the workers had just finished eating, and the kitchen was quiet. Seeing this, everyone joined in the fun, and soon the initial two-person photo turned into a group shot with nine people posing from various angles.

All the photos ended up on Zhao Xiaojing’s phone, and at everyone’s request, she added them as WeChat friends and sent the pictures one by one.

After sending the last photo, Zhao Xiaojing returned to her messages and noticed nine unread notifications.

Six were from Guo Gaoang, and three were from a parent in the fried skewer group.

“Zhao Xiaojing, I’m really sorry. Those two people who started the argument in the group chat were the ones I added. They’re just rookies, and they haven’t even tasted your skewers yet. They didn’t know how good they are, and I deeply apologize if they’ve caused you any trouble.”

“I don’t actually know those two very well. I had no idea they’d come in with such a bad attitude right off the bat. I tried to talk them down, but they blocked me.”

Following that were two screenshots showing Guo’s attempts to reason with the trolls, telling them not to insult others and praising the deliciousness of the skewers. In return, he was met with insults and a red exclamation mark indicating he had been blocked.

The next two messages were further apologies.

“Zhao Xiaojing, I didn’t expect all this trouble to come out of what was supposed to be a reunion after so many years. I just wanted to help promote your business, but clearly, I messed up. Please, I hope you believe me!”

“Please, Zhao Xiaojing, for the sake of our old classmate friendship, forgive me! My love for your skewers is as vast as the sky and as bright as the sun and moon!”

Feeling puzzled, Zhao Xiaojing went back to check the messages from the parent in the group.

The first two messages, sent at the same time, read:

“Boss Zhao, I know you’re busy and don’t have time to deal with idiots. Don’t worry about it—someone badmouthing our skewers is like badmouthing me personally! We’re all gathering in the group to give them a piece of our minds. I swear I’m going to curse them out until they’re drenched in shame!”

“Don’t worry, boss. Focus on your work and don’t let this get to you.”

An hour later, they sent another message:

“Oh, boss, my bad! I sent that message by mistake! I was sleepwalking! Forget we talked. Just pretend I’m your file transfer assistant. My apologies!”

What’s going on? Who badmouthed the skewers? In the group?

Zhao Xiaojing quickly honed in on the key information.

She opened the group chat and saw 2,736 unread messages. Wow, these customers sure can talk.

“Xiao Zhao! Come on, it’s time to eat!” Sister Hou called to Zhao Xiaojing from across the kitchen, holding a bowl of food. Zhao Xiaojing responded, walking over while scrolling through the chat on her phone.

The group messages were mostly incomprehensible nonsense. Everyone seemed to be talking over one another with no clear focus.

Holding her phone with one hand and her chopsticks with the other, Zhao Xiaojing scrolled through hundreds of messages as she ate.

It wasn’t until she was almost done with her meal that she finally found something meaningful. She noticed several messages from Li Donglai, instructing everyone to spam the chat to prevent her from seeing what had happened.

Scrolling further up, she found a long explanation by Li Donglai about how the skewer business had gotten started.

Finally, after scrolling even more, she found the source of the problem—a few unfamiliar people arguing with regular customers, trading nasty insults. One of them even started spreading lies, claiming there were maggots in the skewers.

Zhao Xiaojing read through Li Donglai’s handling of the situation and nodded in approval. She skimmed through a few more pointless, mean-spirited exchanges before quickly scrolling through the rest of the chat, piecing together the full story.

Her emotions were mixed as she took a deep breath, trying to calm her swirling thoughts. She finished her meal, cleared away her things, and hurried to clock out.

She still needed to get the first batch of skewers fried and deliver today’s orders to her customers.

Even though her shift ended half an hour earlier now, the sheer volume of orders made it a long process. By the time she had completed everything and biked over to the supermarket on Chushan Road, it was already 8:20 PM.

That afternoon, Zhao Xiaojing had also prepared a large batch of red bean and mung bean milk ice pops. They were all packed and ready to be given out as a Mid-Autumn Festival gift, along with the skewers.

“Boss is here!”

“Hi, Boss!”

“Good evening, Boss!”

The familiar scene greeted her as the customers smiled and called out to her one by one.

However, compared to their usual loud and boisterous greetings, today’s hellos felt more restrained. Zhao Xiaojing even sensed some nervousness underneath it all.

Still, she didn’t want to dwell on it, nor did she want to ruin the atmosphere. She wasn’t sure how to handle everything just yet, and she didn’t want to disappoint everyone’s good intentions.

“Good evening, everyone! Today, I’ve made red bean and mung bean milk ice pops. When you pick up your skewers, feel free to choose one. The red bean ones are in the red bag on the left, and the mung bean ones are in the green bag. Consider them a thank-you gift for all the Mid-Autumn Festival presents.”

Zhao Xiaojing pulled out two large foam boxes filled with chilled treats and placed them on her vending cart, letting the customers help themselves.