Most of the employees had gone to the local rec center to play ping-pong and pool. Only Ah Bao remained in the break room, livestreaming while he had tea with Su Chen and Shang Mingke.
There weren’t many people in the stream. Just one, in fact.
Lu Yongliang was so antsy that he immediately joined Ah Bao’s stream for a voice call.
"Boss Su, hehe, how have you been?"
Su Chen was still in the dark. He had no idea that if Lu Yongliang hadn’t fanned the flames, the whole affair would have already blown over.
"Doing fine. And you, sir? I trust you’re well?"
"Couldn’t be better!" Lu Yongliang’s voice boomed. "When are you coming to visit E Province? I’ll cook something delicious for you!"
Su Chen smiled. "I’ll be sure to visit when I have the time."
Aside from sampling the food at a few time-honored restaurants and copying down some recipes, the biggest takeaway from this trip was Su Chen learning what Lu Yongliang had done after returning to E Province.
It didn’t matter whether it was a famous dish or not. The best part was that the new, revised recipe collection included Su Chen’s name.
It wasn’t that Su Chen was in a hurry to break into the culinary world; it was that something like that was perfect for flexing!
’Later, I’ll buy a copy of that cookbook, pull out that specific page, and get it framed on the wall. My name right next to National Banquet Master Lu Yongliang—how badass is that!’
"Uncle Lu, our guests are here, so we have to go now," Shang Mingke said, waving a hand over Ah Bao’s head to signal him to end the call.
From the window, they could see a car pulling into the courtyard below.
An elderly woman in a loose-fitting sweatsuit got out, followed by Wang Peixing.
Manager Wang was carrying bags of all sizes, though it was impossible to tell what was inside.
Su Chen watched the elderly woman from a distance. "Old Shang, are you sure everything’s okay? I can’t shake the feeling she means business."
"It’s fine," Shang Mingke said, suppressing a laugh.
’If anyone was here to cause trouble, it wasn’t Cui Yufen—it was Lu Yongliang!’
Shang Mingke had figured out the whole story from that brief exchange. He knew his uncle all too well; Uncle Lu’s instigation was undoubtedly behind this.
’Uncle Lu, are you trying to wipe out the entire Lu Cuisine scene in the Capital City...?’
A moment later, Shang Mingke and Su Chen went to the door to greet the pair.
Cui Yufen stood at the door, first sizing Su Chen up from head to toe. "The younger generation is truly formidable!"
’It was hard to believe this was the seemingly unremarkable man who had defeated her apprentice.’
’No, not just that—he even fought Master Lu to a draw.’
After they sat down, Cui Yufen held her teacup and said, "Mr. Su, I heard about you cooking at Cuihua Building. May I ask which culinary school you hail from?"
This was the question she had been mulling over on her way here.
’Lu Cuisine and Hubei Cuisine are completely unrelated. How could someone who has mastered both just appear out of nowhere?’
’And the crucial part is, Mr. Su is so young. Even if he’d started learning to cook in the womb, could he really have reached this level?’
"I don’t have a master... I just love good food and figured things out on my own," Su Chen said, sticking to the same story he had told Lu Yongliang.
It was also the truth.
In reality, every improvement he made was the result of his own deep focus, practice, and careful thought in his training room.
’I definitely don’t have a cheat system!’
"Oh," Cui Yufen replied, thinking, ’This Boss Su isn’t very forthcoming. I can’t even get him to name his school.’
"I was out of town for a while, so I wasn’t aware that such a master had come to the Capital City. As soon as I returned, I hurried to bring my apprentice here to pay you a visit."
Su Chen shifted in his seat. Being addressed with such constant formality by a woman in her sixties or seventies made him feel genuinely awkward.
He also felt that this elderly woman was rather aloof, not nearly as down-to-earth as Lu Yongliang.
"I’m actually planning to head home today, otherwise I would have been the one to pay you a visit," Su Chen replied just as politely.
Cui Yufen smiled, but her expression suddenly turned serious. She tilted her head slightly, her tone hardening. "Peixing, what was it you said you wanted to ask Boss Su for advice about?"
Wang Peixing: ???
’I don’t know what she’s talking about!’
’I didn’t say a thing!’
’Wait, Master, are you just making this up as you go?’
"I... I was saying, um, that..." Wang Peixing was sweating buckets. "Oh, right! I wanted to ask why, after so many attempts, I’m still unable to remove the gamey flavor from diced chicken before it’s cooked. Yes, that was it!"
Su Chen put down his teacup and spoke candidly. "It’s quite simple. The critical temperature for chicken to begin cooking is 53 degrees Celsius. Above that temperature, the proteins in the meat will start to react. Below it, they won’t. You can think of this method as an accelerated version of soaking the meat in cold water."
Huh?
Wang Peixing was stunned. "You mean to say... you were turning the heat on and off like that just to keep the water at that constant temperature?"
Su Chen nodded. "That’s right."
Still finding it hard to believe, he pressed, "So you’re saying you can maintain the water at a constant temperature just by controlling the flame, without using a thermometer?"
Su Chen nodded again. "That’s right."
He sucked in a sharp breath.
’I was right there and saw it with my own eyes. So why does hearing it explained now make it sound like he’s just bragging?’
Ah Bao, however, was unfazed. Boss Su used this exact technique for his stir-fried chicken at Delicious. He had been learning it for a while himself and had managed to pick up about thirty or forty percent of it.
He glanced at the livestream chat. For a stream with only one viewer, there was a surprising number of bullet comments!
Lu Yongliang wasn’t a fast typer, but the voice messages he sent were automatically transcribed into text.
[Lu Yongliang: What is this? Get to the fighting already! Why are they analyzing recipes?]
[Lu Yongliang: Master Xiaosu can control temperatures to that degree now? Incredible! Just incredible!]
[Lu Yongliang: Point the camera at Cui Yufen, I wanna see if she’s getting mad, haha!]
Ah Bao reluctantly turned the camera, feeling like he was just his master’s pawn.