I'm the Culinary God

And besides, Chinese cuisine doesn’t need to be scored or ranked; you just eat according to your own spending power. Doing all this grading only makes you fall into the trap of consumerism.

After watching the video, Lin Xu turned to Chen Yan and asked:

"This piece must have cost quite a lot to make, right?"

Chen Yan shook her head:

"Apart from that insider who paid money, all the other interviews were done as a favor. The travel bits were all set up by President Liu Zhengyu, and on the Culinary Association’s side, a few old masters in Beijing helped make the connections."

Zeng Xiaoqi held her yam juice and took a sip:

"The station just finished singing the praises of a Michelin three-star head chef, and then we went and exposed the inside story of Michelin’s rating system. There really is a chance that ’Food Tastes of the World’ will get pulled off the air... Such a good show, and they just played it to death like this."

She felt a bit regretful.

But thinking about it, it was normal. Didn’t ’A Bite of China’ get taken off the air too?

With this type of program, once the higher-ups get involved—laymen managing professionals—and there are even vested interests in the mix, this is the inevitable outcome.

That’s why Director Chen from ’A Bite of China’ chose to resign, and why she herself jumped out of the system.

Chen Yan said with a smile:

"There probably won’t be many people coming to your house with marriage proposals this New Year."

Zeng Xiaoqi nodded:

"Yeah. Before, at least I had a job at Yanjing TV Station, I was inside the system, so there were quite a lot of people coming to propose. Now I’ve resigned, no more iron rice bowl, and my value on the blind-date market has nosedived..."

But it was just as well—she could hide out and get some peace and quiet.

Work hard a few more years and try to pay off a small apartment in Beijing. After that, if her parents want to come to Beijing, they can; she herself is not going back to her hometown anyway, and they can say whatever they like.

Shu Yun pinched Zeng Xiaoqi’s cheek:

"Why so pessimistic? How about going downstairs to worship Dundun and have our God of Wealth grant you a marriage? If it really works, maybe you’ll be off the market tonight."

Zeng Xiaoqi very unladylike gulped down the yam juice in big gulps:

"Bull. If Dundun really worked, you as the godmother would’ve been off the market long ago—no way you’d still be so pitifully begging us to go to the movies with you."

Shu Yun: "..."

I comfort you out of the goodness of my heart and you stab me the second you raise your hand, huh?

Truly plastic sisterhood!

Shen Jiayue was already bored of watching the love-hate antics of the Fat-Loss Squad. She turned her head toward Lin Xu and asked:

"My parents aren’t home tonight. Want to make some new snacks to try?"

Lin Xu gave a wry smile:

"Didn’t we just have dinner?"

Shen Jiayue was already used to four meals a day:

"Yeah but who eats dinner at four-something in the afternoon? I don’t care, I want to eat tonight. If you make me go hungry, I’ll raise the bride price on the wedding day!"

They were about to hold a wedding, so Shen Baobao had been searching tons of wedding videos online.

But as she kept watching, she saw quite a few videos where the bride sat in the wedding car demanding an increase in the bride price, and she felt awful after watching them.

She sympathized with that embarrassed look on the groom’s face and also felt sad that the woman treated herself like a commodity.

If the two of them were of two minds from the very day of the wedding, how could the days afterward possibly go well?

Whenever she thought that her own Xu-bao might have gone back home and randomly married someone, and could even have run into a situation where the bride suddenly hiked up the bride price on the wedding day, Shen Jiayue’s heart ached.

Thankfully they were together now, so Xu-bao wouldn’t have to worry about that kind of thing.

If he hadn’t opened a restaurant, hadn’t stayed in Beijing, maybe he’d be just like the grooms in those videos.

Wearing an ill-fitting suit with an embarrassed face, his parents on the side wiping away tears while humbly begging relatives to chip in money...

Lin Xu looked at the girl fondly and said with a smile:

"Alright, I’ll make you something tonight. What do you want to eat?"

This question really stumped Shen Jiayue. She thought carefully, then tested the waters:

"I want fried skewers, like the ones we had at the elementary school gate back then—fried mushrooms, fried potatoes, fried gluten, fried dried tofu skin... Let’s have that tonight?"

"Sure... Siming is coming over later to shoot a video with me. Once we’re done, we’ll go home and make fried skewers."

Lin Xu agreed, then glanced at the clock on the wall.

They’d agreed to shoot the video at five thirty in the afternoon. Why wasn’t Qi Siming here yet?

He thought about calling, but figured there were still more than ten minutes, so he’d wait a bit. The traffic in Beijing was that bad, and now it was already dark a little after five, so getting delayed was totally normal.

After all, this was Yanjing—what would be strange is if there was no traffic jam.

When she heard her cousin wanted fried skewers, Chen Yan snorted:

"Are you trying to bulk up? You keep picking things that make you gain weight."

"None of your business! If you’ve got the guts, don’t eat any!"

Chen Yan opened her mouth, wanting to say "Fine, I won’t go," with some backbone. But then she thought about how many years it’d been since she had fried skewers, and that they hadn’t even celebrated properly after slapping the TV station in the face today, so she said:

"I’m not going for the food. Ren Jie’s working the night shift tonight; he needs to switch shifts for our engagement day... I’m just going to crash in your guest room for the night, that’s all. The heating at my place isn’t that warm."

"Yan Bao, the way you dodge the point is so cute—it’s nothing like someone about to turn forty."

Chen Yan: "!!!!!!"

Blocked!

I’ll block you right after the fried skewers, and from then on we communicate via drifting bottles.

Shen Jiayue laughed gleefully and said to Zeng Xiaoqi:

"Xiaoqi-jie, you should come too. Fried skewers are only fun with more people."

"I’ll come at night. I have to go back to the company first and get next week’s shooting schedule ready. I’m working for the capitalists now, so I have to prep everything in advance, otherwise the boss will make my life difficult."

She chatted for a bit more, then slung her bag over her shoulder, pulled on her knit hat, and clomped downstairs in her over-the-knee boots, planning to walk to the company to digest her food.

The sky was just getting dark. Walking along the street, watching people come and go and feeling the icy wind, she couldn’t help but feel a bit homesick.

She reached the intersection at Yingchun Street.

The wind blowing from the North Fourth Ring made Zeng Xiaoqi shrink her neck involuntarily.

That was when she realized she’d forgotten her scarf.

She had just turned her head to go back when a motorcycle came tearing by and, unable to dodge in time, scraped right against her.

Zeng Xiaoqi let out a startled cry and fell to the ground, and the motorcycle and rider toppled over to the side as well.

"I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m in a hurry... Are you hurt? Do you need to go to the hospital?"

The rider, wearing a helmet, got up from the ground. Ignoring the scrapes on his arms and legs, he limped over to Zeng Xiaoqi, asking as he went and taking off his newly bought Venom helmet.

Zeng Xiaoqi struggled to her feet and was about to snap "Are you blind?" when she realized it was Qi Siming.

And Qi Siming recognized her too:

"Director Zeng, what are you doing here? Let me take you to the hospital for a check-up."

Zeng Xiaoqi patted the dust off her clothes:

"No need, I’m fine, just took a spill... You’re on your way to shoot a video with Boss Lin, right? He was just wondering why you hadn’t shown up yet..."

While the two of them were chatting, Dundun, in the shop, lazily rolled over on the service counter, having hidden its功与名 deep away!

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This Chapter is 5,200 words. Brothers, I’m begging for a Monthly Ticket!