The Cheat Emperor of the Culinary World

A tall boy placed his hand on the shoulder of the short boy beside him and laughed arrogantly, "Since you’re treating us today, we might as well eat as much as we want!"

The short boy’s face was full of distress, his lips pressed tightly together, and his eyes were filled with anger. He sat silently, saying nothing in response to the words he heard.

The tall boy squeezed his shoulder forcefully as a warning.

Only then did the short boy reluctantly respond, "Yeah, I’m treating."

After speaking, he thought about the dishes he ordered earlier and instinctively reached into his pocket to touch his wallet, pleading in a mosquito-like voice, "Can we not order anymore? I’m afraid I won’t have enough money..."

Almost as soon as he spoke, the tall boy turned and announced loudly to the others, "Everyone, feel free to eat today! Wang Jinrui said don’t hold back, eat to your heart’s content, he’s treating!"

Upon hearing this, Wang Jinrui’s eyes widened, and he hurriedly tried to intervene, but his voice was drowned out by a wave of enthusiastic cheers.

Just then, the waiter started bringing in drinks, causing another burst of noise in the private room.

Wang Jinrui watched the bottles of alcohol being placed on the table, his face filled with anxiety and unease.

"Maybe we shouldn’t drink, okay? We have classes this afternoon, we need to get back to school, I’m afraid..."

The tall boy glanced at him sideways, "What are you talking about? Good food needs good drinks, don’t you know? We’re already here, don’t kill the mood!"

As he spoke, he kicked Wang Jinrui under the table.

The kick was quite hard, and Wang Jinrui immediately frowned, hunched his back, and didn’t dare say anything more.

"Hey hey!"

At that moment, a boy sitting by the door slapped the table, and as the others looked over, he smiled and said, "I didn’t think of it when we were ordering earlier, but I’ve heard that their seafood barbecue is quite good, and we didn’t order any. Wang Jinrui, can we get a couple to try?"

Before Wang Jinrui could respond, the tall boy said, "Really? What’s good? Let’s order some to try!"

As soon as ordering was brought up, the others started buzzing again, calling the waiter to add dishes while discussing what else to order.

The server looked at the rowdy room of young men, who couldn’t name a single dish, so she kindly introduced some of the restaurant’s specialty barbecues.

One of the boys suddenly remembered something and said, "Oh right, I recall there was a barbecue takeout review show that was trending before, and it featured this place!"

After saying that, he turned to ask the waiter, "Right, wasn’t that the case?"

The waiter nodded at the words, "Yes, at the time, our restaurant’s barbecue takeout was rated the best seafood barbecue in Bei’an."

Hearing this, the group of students became excited, "Really? Then we must try it!"

Someone asked, "What kinds of barbecues were in the review?"

The server knew this topic well.

When it was first reviewed, many customers came because of its reputation, ordering these few dishes.

The server introduced each of the barbecues one by one.

The others were still debating which one to order when the tall boy glanced at the timid Wang Jinrui sitting next to him and signaled to a companion.

The companion understood immediately and said, "Alright, there are only a few, let’s have them all!"

Hearing this, the others were overjoyed and cheered!

After they finished ordering, the waiter carefully confirmed the order and then left the room.

Soon, a server jogged to the kitchen with the order slip, "Chef Fu, add more dishes!"

Fu Yu took the slip and looked at it, wow!

They’d added a few more seafood barbecues.

These young guys really can eat!

Unable to leave his station, Fu Yu handed the order slip to Zhang Jinyu to deliver to the grilling area, where Sun Qingning would take over.

The kitchen was busy and bustling, with Fu Yu needing to handle both the regular customers’ orders and the ongoing ones.

The server who managed large table orders was Zhan Xin.

Zhan Xin was a new server, having worked at another restaurant before. Because of her efficient work and pleasant character, she was quickly made a permanent staff member after her probation period ended.

Though she was new, she wasn’t quite a newbie.

Room 208 was a large private dining room, able to accommodate twelve guests.

But today, a group of high school students came, squeezing in extra chairs, and the one table was packed with seventeen people.

More people meant more dishes ordered.

Zhan Xin made several trips back and forth by herself, and the food wasn’t all served yet.

Apart from the Red Case District, there was also the grilling area. Even though she was used to the restaurant’s busy pace, the non-stop stream of dishes being served was a bit overwhelming.

After delivering another round of food, Zhan Xin couldn’t help but complain to Fu Yu, "These kids sure can eat, I’ve gone back and forth adding dishes several times already! Just now, I heard they’ve added more barbecue!"

Fu Yu was a bit surprised, "More? From my side alone, they’ve ordered twenty-four dishes."

Zhan Xin sighed, "The barbecue side added three times already!"

Fu Yu casually said, "How much is this going to cost? They’ve ordered all our specialty items."

Zhan Xin agreed, "Exactly! Just the lobster and abalone dishes alone, I estimate it’s at least over four thousand now."

"Wow, they’re really not short on money!" Fu Yu mused, "But they’re in a large group, spreading the cost might not be too bad."

Zhan Xin shook her head, "Doesn’t seem like it. Looks like someone is treating, and they’re eating as if it’s a free-for-all. You should’ve seen, the menu is just sitting on the table, and once they’re out of food, they order more, and they’ve had quite a bit to drink too."

"Kids these days really have money!" Fu Yu was amazed.

Just casually treating a meal costs several thousand!

As they spoke, another server came by.

"Chef Fu, more dishes for room 208!"

Zhan Xin heard and couldn’t help but laugh, "Look at that, it starts again! My legs are truly undervalued with all this running back and forth!"

The server laughed, "You’re not running in vain. This table alone is like four small table orders, and these guests are quite generous! Look at what they’ve ordered: shark fin soup, luxury intestines package, white sauce mashed crab."

"Besides Lunar New Year dinners, we rarely see big spenders like them!"

Zhan Xin blinked, "They sure dare to eat!"

The server laughed, "No kidding, the students today aren’t simple. This table of dishes is worth two to three months of my salary!"

Fu Yu took the slip and looked over the dishes.

Indeed, these expensive specialty dishes are usually only ordered during New Year celebrations.

Fu Yu casually stuck the order slip to the kitchen wall, feeling quite happy, since he rarely got a chance to practice making these dishes otherwise.

The previous year, during the New Year rush, he had watched Zhao Meng prepare these, although at the time, he wasn’t as skilled in cooking techniques and was just watching for fun.

Now that he could take the lead himself, he was quite excited.

With the food in the pot finished cooking, Fu Yu began to plate.

Beside him, Zhan Xin and the server were chatting idly during their brief spare moments.

Zhan Xin joked, "With all this ordering, won’t they cry when it’s time to pay?"

The server waved it off, "It shouldn’t be that bad. If they’re hosting, they must have the money for it! But they’ve ordered quite a bit of alcohol, hopefully, they won’t drink themselves into trouble. They don’t look very old."

Zhan Xin nodded, "Exactly, I should tell Sister Gao to make sure they don’t drink too much and pass out, or it’ll be a problem if no one can pay."

The server was taken aback, "No way, right?"

Zhan Xin seriously said, "You never know! At the previous place I worked, we often ran into this kind of thing. These youngsters don’t care about such things. It’s not just that they might not pay if they’re too drunk, sometimes they even dine and dash on purpose! Because of this, our old boss had to call the police before..."

The two of them chatted away as Fu Yu listened while instructing the helper to prepare the ingredients.