The Cheat Emperor of the Culinary World

Fu Yu turned his head and followed their gaze, and saw three or four teenagers in high school uniforms walking out with two adults.

As they reached the front desk, Fu Yu curiously asked, "What’s going on?"

Jiang Mo quickly replied, "A group of high school students came to the restaurant to eat, spent over six thousand yuan, and just as they were settling the bill, their parents showed up."

Fu Yu couldn’t help but take another look.

Oh, so the guests from private room 208 were them!

Fu Yu casually handed the chocolate to Liu Yuqing: "Chef Zhao gave it, keep it for yourselves to eat."

This was addressed to the three people at the front desk.

Liu Yuqing accepted it with a smile, glanced at the brand on the chocolate, and was slightly surprised.

"Wow! Where did the chocolate come from?"

Fu Yu chuckled, "Chef Zhao has a friend who just returned from abroad and brought it for him; he gave me a box."

Liu Yuqing felt warm at heart. There was only one box, yet Fu Yu hadn’t eaten any himself and had given it to her instead.

She couldn’t help but curl her lips upward and swiftly unwrapped the box, giving two pieces to each person at the front desk and taking out a few extra pieces to stuff into Fu Yu’s hand, her fair cheeks tinged with a slight blush as she looked fondly at Fu Yu: "You try some too."

Fu Yu grinned, wrapping Liu Yuqing’s hand and giving it a gentle squeeze as he took the chocolate, then released her hand and said with a smile, "I’m off now."

Having already come to the lobby, Fu Yu headed straight for the door and left.

As soon as he stepped out the door, he saw the group from room 208 standing on the steps, talking.

Fu Yu couldn’t help but take another look and saw three high school students in uniforms, along with two adults—one appearing to be around twenty-seven or twenty-eight, and the other clearly older.

When Fu Yu noticed the outfits of the two adults, he paused in his steps.

The middle-aged man and the young man stood in front of the three high school students, both wearing security guard uniforms.

In the cold weather, the young man’s jacket was open, revealing the dark grey sweater inside.

The middle-aged man had one hand on his waist, looking at the three high school students in front of him.

The tallest boy stood on the left, the one on the right looked ordinary but had a square face, and the boy in the middle had his head down, not daring to look at the two adults in front of him.

The two boys on the left and right were looking at the middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man calmly sized up the three boys twice, then asked his son in the middle, "Xiaorui, before you came to Bei’an to study, what did your mother and I teach you?"

Wang Jinrui kept his head down and replied, "To study hard at school, listen to the teachers, unite with classmates, don’t cause trouble, stay out of trouble, improve your grades, and strive to get into a good university."

"If anything happens, just tell the family; we don’t cause trouble, but we’re not afraid of it either."

The middle-aged man suddenly lowered his face and scolded sharply, "Who taught you to speak so timidly as if you’ve committed a crime? Even if you’ve really committed a crime, you should still own up to your mistakes bravely. Look up at me!"

With a swoosh, Wang Jinrui stood at attention.

The two boys on either side also shook and almost instinctively stood up straight.

The tall boy exchanged a slightly annoyed glance with the boy on the right.

The middle-aged man continued to speak to Wang Jinrui: "Since you remember what I said, now, in front of your classmates, tell me why you dared to skip class, come here to drink, and why a meal cost over six thousand yuan? Where did you get the money from?"

Wang Jinrui stood upright, but in reality, his legs were a bit shaky; he had never drunk like this since he was young.

Earlier at the table, in a fit of anger and excitement, he ate and drank, unknowingly downing two bottles of beer, and now the alcohol was kicking in.

But no matter how muddled his brain was, he knew that the people standing in front of him were his dad and his big brother.

Just this thought alone made him push past his limits, forcibly clearing a space in his foggy mind to seriously think over what his dad had asked.

Yet because his mind wasn’t entirely clear, his initial shameful and docile expression was replaced by anger.

He glared at the tall boy momentarily, then looked into his father’s eyes as he recounted how he was studying hard at school but was coerced by classmates into hosting a meal, during which they ordered a whole table of dishes, demanded alcohol, and kept adding dishes. In the middle, he tried to stop them but was threatened by the tall boy who held his shoulder, cursed at him with filthy words he could never learn to repeat and said, "He forced me to treat them, threatened me, and if I resisted, I’d be bullied."

The young man called softly, "Xiaorui!" to comfort his angry brother.

Wang Jinrui, with reddened eyes, looked at his dad and brother with guilt and remorse, and said no more.

The middle-aged man turned to the tall boy and said in a deep voice, "What’s your name?"

The tall boy stiffened his neck and didn’t speak.

It was Wang Jinrui who said, "His name is Dai Zijing."

The middle-aged man nodded and looked at Dai Zijing, "I’m Wang Zhanjie. I’m Wang Jinrui’s father, and this is his brother, Wang Zhiyuan."

Dai Zijing immediately looked warily at Wang Zhanjie.

Even though he was putting on a fearless act, as if nothing mattered to him, his posture still showed some fear when confronted with a classmate’s parent.

Wang Zhanjie said to Dai Zijing, "Xiaodai, you’re Xiaorui’s classmate. Since you could invite him to treat you to a meal, you must think of him as a friend, right? After all, only friends would treat each other to a meal, don’t you think?"

"Since you’re friends, can you tell me in front of me if anything Xiaorui just said was made up or nonsense? Is the truth not as he said? Also, tell us what kind of insults you threw at Xiaorui, how you threatened him, so I can know. Afterward, I’ll know how to teach him how to fight back in the face of insults and threats—whether to curse back or to hit back."

No one spoke.

Fu Yu never expected to overhear such a conversation and couldn’t help but study Wang Zhanjie.

Wang Zhanjie was wearing a security guard’s uniform from a certain community, his stature tall and upright. When he spoke, his pace wasn’t quick, but every word was steady and powerful.

Without realizing it, Fu Yu stopped and watched them from a distance, listening to what they were saying.

He had initially thought that the group of high school students were from rich families and were flaunting their wealth by bringing classmates to the restaurant.

Unexpectedly, they were being coerced into spending money like this by their classmates.

Isn’t this school bullying?

It’s really outrageous!

When Wang Zhanjie spoke, not a single swear word was used, but the pressure in his tone was enough to make even Fu Yu shiver involuntarily in his heart...

It was obvious this matter couldn’t be settled peacefully.

No wonder a bunch of students ordered so many dishes and kept adding more, it was clearly a deliberate way to prey on someone’s generosity!

Fu Yu felt even more curious and couldn’t help watching a while longer.

Dai Zijing felt a bit nervous after hearing Wang Zhanjie’s words.

He also knew he might have gone too far with this situation.

Originally, they just wanted to extort Wang Jinrui for a meal, everyone eating together; but having drunk a bit of alcohol, everyone got excited and kept ordering more dishes.

Since it wasn’t their own money, there was no sense of restraint when ordering.

After settling the bill, even Dai Zijing felt it was a bit too much, let alone Wang Jinrui.

Usually, whatever bullying or pranks occurred, they stayed within the school without alerting teachers or parents.

Now that they were caught at the restaurant entrance by Wang Jinrui’s dad and brother, Dai Zijing was starting to panic.

He didn’t know how to resolve this situation and hadn’t anticipated it getting this serious.

Normally at school, he would just pick on Wang Jinrui a little to amuse himself, feeling it wasn’t really bullying since no severe harm was done.

But today, he had approached it with an attitude of superiority, prepared to milk Wang Jinrui for a meal, just to enjoy and indulge himself.