Aiyo, Yang Ming held his forehead with both hands, as Brother Chu’s confidence brimmed over, but it turned out he couldn’t cook at all.
"Brother Chu, you haven’t added the green onions yet!"
Hearing this, Chu Lian’s face was full of embarrassment. He immediately threw in the green onions and continued stir-frying.
As he stirred, the food began to stick to the pan. He scraped hard with the spatula, but it just stuck more fiercely. He thought he’d better dish it out quickly.
Seeing Chu Lian about to dish it out, Yang Ming was speechless, "Brother Chu, you haven’t added salt yet."
Chu Lian quickly grabbed a handful of salt, tossed it in, stirred a couple of times, and then served the dish.
Lying Fugui had his eyes full of black lines by this point. This was even worse than his first time cooking; how could this be called cooking? It was a good thing he hadn’t let him cook for the female workers earlier, or they would have had nothing to eat.
Chu Lian was a bit embarrassed. He had thought it was a simple task, but it turned out to be so difficult once he got started. He had truly overestimated himself and underestimated the craft of cooking.
Li Fugui took the plate of food from his hands, and said, "I was just the first time I cooked."
These words made Chu Lian freeze for a moment. Li Fugui had really changed, offering comfort once again.
"Alright, let’s eat."
Li Fugui served the rice and brought it inside along with the dish Chu Lian had cooked.
Chu Lian comforted himself from behind: maybe it was just visually unappealing, it should be edible. He also followed Li Fugui back into the house to eat.
Yang Ming also followed along.
Li Fugui placed the food on the table, picked up his chopsticks, and was the first to start eating. He ate Chu Lian’s dish without changing his expression.
Seeing Li Fugui eating, Chu Lian thought to himself that it was a relief the dish was edible. Otherwise, it would have been extremely embarrassing. So he also picked up some with his chopsticks and tasted it.
That taste instantly contorted his facial expression. Without thinking, he spat it right out.
The dish he had cooked was unbelievably terrible.
He looked up at Li Fugui, who was still eating the distasteful dish without a change in expression.
He grabbed the dish, "Stop eating, it’s too awful."
Li Fugui smiled, "It’s edible, we can’t waste food."
"..." He really had changed; Chu Lian remembered how Li Fugui used to complain about the Academy’s food being terrible, but actually, that food wasn’t bad at all.
Now, he was eating this nearly inedible dish just to avoid waste.
Maybe the wilful girl was right, Li Fugui had indeed become someone to be respected.
Remembering the wilful girl’s words, he wondered if he had nothing, could he also swallow such food?
He placed the dish back on the table, then sat down and, like Li Fugui, began eating the hard-to-swallow dish.
"..." Yang Ming completely couldn’t understand what these two were up to; he had just had his meal at home and came over, so he wasn’t going to fight over that dish with them.
As Chu Lian ate, he thought it wasn’t right. He couldn’t let the wilful girl look down on him. He had to prove he was better than Li Fugui, at least by the next time she came, he wanted her to see that he could cook as well.
"I lost my skill just now. I’ll cook again tonight."
He didn’t believe he couldn’t do it well; it was just lack of practice. After all, Li Fugui had been cooking for such a long time; he didn’t believe he could be worse. He was only spurred by Wang Xiangxiang to want to compete with Li Fugui now.
These words left Yang Ming and Li Fugui both shocked and helpless.
Yang Ming: Brother Chu, are you inspired to become a chef now?
Li Fugui: What is he really here for? To learn a craft? There’s no craft to learn here.