Chapter 14

Chapter 14 Chapter 14 This video must have been paid for!...

In the end, the photographer still got to eat a piece of lion’s head.

Qiu Xian was very envious and repeatedly praised Zhu Nan: “Blogger, you’re really good to the photographer!”

Zhu Nan felt very pained inside, but after all, they were colleagues who spent all day together; eating alone wasn’t very nice.

“Let’s all share… No, no, I mean sharing between the two of us, not taking yours.”

Only then did Qiu Xian remove her hands; she still had some lion’s head broth mixed with rice left!

Among the four, the fastest eater was actually Ms. Wang; she was the first to finish her two lion’s heads.

After finishing the lion’s heads, Ms. Wang’s posture returned to her usual elegance as she slowly savored the other few refreshing side dishes.

For Ms. Wang, who had seen the world, these side dishes were not at all surprising. However, in the lingering aftertaste of the lion’s heads, these fresh side dishes seemed like a mountain rain after the storm, softly complementing the memories just experienced.

Meanwhile, inside the classroom nearby, the dining scene was much livelier.

Besides the remaining fourteen lion’s heads, Chen Ran also made three cold dishes and six hot dishes—nine main dishes total—perfectly completing a table of perfection.

All the kindergarten staff combined, including Chen Ran, each got one lion’s head, and everyone happily ate.

“Since Ranran came, meals have become so much easier.”

“Who says not? Qian Rui even gained weight! Two jin!”

Teacher Wang exaggeratedly showed two fingers.

“But Zhuo Kuangkuang has lost weight, what’s going on,” Teacher Li ate the lion’s head, very absorbed, “Ah, if Ranran leaves, we’ll never get such delicious lion’s heads again.”

“My sister losing weight is normal; Sister Ran cooks very carefully! Though tasty, it’s low fat and low sugar, so of course she lost weight!”

The kindergarten teachers, perhaps the group closest to the kids, showed less obvious effects from the lion’s heads.

Chen Ran took small bites of her tasteless lion’s head—she still had no sense of taste, so naturally didn’t perceive the flavor effects.

However, Yuan Guozhong next to her reacted strongly.

The man in his forties with a dark reddish face had tears swirling down from his eyes. The older brother lowered his head in embarrassment and left; from outside came loud sounds of nose wiping.

Chen Ran was about to get some tissues and go see when Zhuo Chenchen went out first.

Then everyone in the room heard the older brother’s wailing apology.

“Chenchen, I shouldn’t have thought you were useless… You have so much courage, thinking to come directly to the kitchen to apply when you want to eat. If I had your courage, I’d already have my own barbershop!”

Several teachers went out to comfort Yuan Guozhong. Chen Ran was stunned—she never expected Yuan Guozhong’s childhood dream was to be a Tony?

But thinking about how every day after work, Yuan Guozhong would spend extra time styling his hair before leaving... well, it fit his character.

She forced herself to finish the tasteless lion’s head and was about to clear the table when she suddenly saw the little director leading a little boy inside.

It was Qian Rui!

Qian Rui held a huge greeting card in his arms, walking in shyly.

“Teacher Chen! This is for you!”Chen Ran was a little surprised.

When she opened the card, several teachers had quietly gathered around without her noticing.

The card was as big as a whole book, and the patterns on it weren’t drawn but made by collaging various beautiful materials.

There were butterflies they had caught, cut-and-paste pictures made from pretty fabric scraps, and little cars folded from pretty candy wrappers.

Inside the card were various simple line drawings, mixed with crooked writing and a few pinyin characters.

Qian Rui tried hard to express himself: “Teacher Chen’s cooking is really delicious! The lion’s head is tasty and juicy… the fried egg is crispy…”

It seemed like he wanted to describe every dish he had eaten these days, and the impressive thing was that he remembered each dish and even gave a little description for each.

This child who didn’t like to eat was repaying her with the greatest enthusiasm for every meal she made.

Chen Ran couldn’t taste anything herself; even the golden shiny lion’s head tasted like chewing wax in her mouth. Without flavor, even the texture became vague.

But through Qian Rui’s evaluation, she seemed to roughly imagine what each dish she made tasted like.

Even the lion’s head just now—the texture seemed to start dancing between her lips and teeth.

What was her happiest moment in childhood? Playing with friends? Getting her first cloth doll?

Chen Ran recalled the first time she picked up a kitchen knife, the first time someone held her to use a spatula, and the first time she made a dish.

It wasn’t exactly true that she made it herself; she was only seven years old then, and the dish was made with an adult’s help. That dish… was sour plum ribs made for her mother.

The system’s dinging sound rang out.

[The praise of innocent children is the highest reward for a chef, triggering a reward recipe.]

[Reward recipe: Sour Plum Ribs (S-rank)]

[Do you still remember the first sour plum ribs you made? It was out of worry that your sick mother had no appetite, and a desperate hope for her to get better soon.]

[With this feeling, the sour plum ribs can keep those cared for by the chef having a good appetite.]

[Recipe usage limit: three times per month]

Always having a good appetite? That powerful?

Chen Ran couldn’t indulge in the memory and asked the system: “How is the usage limit counted? Is it once per plate? Or once per pot?”

This time the system responded quickly.

[Cooking interrupted for no more than ten minutes counts as one time.]

“So basically, for this limited recipe, as long as I keep cooking without long breaks, the effect can keep continuing?”

The tsundere system didn’t reply again, but Chen Ran had now figured out some of its ways. If she misunderstood, it would pop up and correct her.

Looks like before leaving the kindergarten, she has to make sour plum ribs once!

She had already confirmed with the little director—after finishing this week, she could leave the kindergarten.

Then she would change her workplace and still receive the system’s reward!

However, others who knew Chen Ran was about to resign weren’t so happy. Among them was Zhu Nan, who rarely wanted to stay in one place just to eat lion’s head a few more times.After returning to the hotel, Zhu Nan quickly finished editing this episode and posted it on his account.

“Are you going to post the kindergarten’s lion’s head together with the Chen’s Restaurant one?”

The cameraman was a bit shocked.

As a self-media blogger known for an “objective” style, Zhu Nan usually only evaluates cooking and ingredients, rarely engaging in the kind of praise or criticism typical of other bloggers.

At first, he thought Zhu Nan would post the Chen’s Restaurant lion’s head and the kindergarten one separately, maybe even insert other videos in between.

“Posting them together like this—isn’t that a bit…”

As a longtime collaborator, Zhu Nan naturally understood the cameraman’s meaning.

“The second time we went to eat the lion’s head, you ate it too, right? You could tell they’d changed the chef, right?”

The cameraman was surprised and tried hard to recall.

During the time they were taking the child to kindergarten, the two had gone to Chen’s Restaurant a second time, partly to film more footage and partly to be more authentic.

Because of the likes mechanism in the comment section, when they visit restaurants, they often encounter situations where the restaurant prepares in advance.

Like this time at Chen’s Restaurant: the first lion’s head was made by Chef Chen Shu Zheng, but the second time it was clearly not him.

“You mean they changed the chef the second time? But their lion’s head costs 200 yuan per serving, right? Isn’t it because it was made by Chen Shu Zheng that it’s sold at that price?”

“We ate twice and could tell the difference, but ordinary customers might only eat it once during a holiday—could they tell?”

The cameraman understood—Zhu Nan was openly planning to criticize Chen’s Restaurant this time.

He remembered those hints from the little director about how Chen Ran was being blacklisted by the Chen family…

“Post it!”

As restaurant visits increased, the account “Cooking for You” had long been renamed “Zhu Nan Restaurant Visits” and accumulated a large number of fans.

However, this account hadn’t updated for a week! Under the last video, a large group of eager fans gathered.

“Didn’t you say you were going to Chen’s Restaurant to eat lion’s head? Why such a long wait? Food poisoning?”

“Zhu Nan, are you still alive? If you can play dead, you can open the door too!”

Suddenly, two videos appeared simultaneously on the fans’ constantly refreshing homepage!

Zhu Nan’s account was always known for high quality, but high quality meant fewer videos.

Two videos at once—this kind of treatment couldn’t even be seen during New Year!

Zhou Jianming, who had just been chatting in the comments about team building, immediately rushed into the two latest videos. When he opened the comment section to post a “1” to grab a front spot, he found he was already several hundredth in line.

Unable to get a front spot, he exited to the homepage to check what the two videos were about and planned to order takeout to watch the two videos with his meal.

“Both lion’s heads?”

Zhou Jianming was very surprised.

This was the first time in Zhu Nan’s account history that he made such a clear and explicit statement.

Countless fans became excited.The barrage of comments was almost breaking through the screen!

At the beginning of the first video, Zhu Nan’s first sentence was full of tension.

“This Chen’s Restaurant, recommended by many, we went twice in total. The first time, the boss was very enthusiastic, and the food was too, but the second time...”

Zhu Nan still gave a relatively objective evaluation of the lion’s head from the first visit.

“The first lion’s head, when the chopsticks pierced it, it was loose; the fat-to-lean ratio was about 30-70, and it was stewed just right...”

“The second time, the lion’s head...”

He didn’t even explain but used his hand to show everyone directly—a big meatball stuck rigidly on the chopsticks...

“The fat-to-lean ratio, forget about 20-80, I suspect it might even be 10-90. It makes me wonder if this is from the era of meat ration tickets fifty years ago, where the chef took all the fat home to render lard.”

Since there was no direct evidence, Zhu Nan never explicitly said the chef was changed in the video, but every sentence hinted at it.

The comments below erupted into chaos.

“I was wondering why it tasted different the two times... so they really changed the chef?”

“No, the restaurant is so big, the boss personally makes the lion’s head for 200 yuan, can he really squat there and cook it every day?”

“Hey, I’m just a regular customer, why are you empathizing so much with the restaurant boss? Do you get fifty cents commission for selling one lion’s head?”

“Our city only has this one famous restaurant... no need to be so harsh, or it’ll give bad impressions to tourists.”

“No, is it that we are too harsh and give tourists a bad impression, or did they change the chef and give tourists a bad impression?”

Zhou Jiaming was also liking comments all over the place, enjoying the lively atmosphere.

But then he remembered another lion’s head video posted together—clearly one praising and one criticizing.

Could it be from a different restaurant in another city?

Zhou Jiaming’s feelings became complicated; he opened Zhu Nan’s latest video on the homepage and paused to check the comment section.

Unlike the previous video’s comment section, this one was filled with a familiar food-loving atmosphere.

“Don’t say much, who can lend me a child!”

“Hey, where can I see the kindergarten menu?”

“Do you think Zhu Nan’s talk about tasting the chef’s love is true? Can you really feel that? Must be rhetoric...”

It resonated!

Zhou Jiaming eagerly opened his takeout—a lion’s head set meal. He adjusted his phone and played the newest video.

Zhu Nan’s slightly magnetic and weathered voice sounded.

“Before eating this lion’s head, someone told me the best lion’s head in this city was at Chen’s Restaurant. I agreed at the time.”

“But after eating this lion’s head, I can only say, that statement is half true.”

“The top three lion’s heads I’ve ever eaten, even in my life, include the one here—in the kindergarten cafeteria behind Chen’s Restaurant in this city.”

Kindergarten cafeteria?Zhou Jiaming recalled that Zhu Nan had been to Zhìwèi Zhāi before! In that store review video, the lion’s head on the table was made by the contemporary famous chef Chen Boduan!

With the hype and the contrast, this video quickly surged to the trending list that day!

Not only ordinary customers saw Zhu Nan’s comments in the video, but even the boss of Chen’s Restaurant, Chen Yijin’s own father Chen Shuzheng, saw it.

slam

The phone was smashed on the ground, and Chen Shuzheng’s angry voice even cracked.

“This video must have been paid off! How is that possible!”

He definitely had to find someone to re-evaluate it—his lion’s head could never be worse than that flavorless little girl Chen Ran made!