Chapter 1

"Overcast, in a room with no lights on..." The alarm on the mobile phone echoed in the room. From the cheapest to the best, the phones emitted shrill music. Perhaps the only highlight of this knockoff phone was its large screen and smart features...

A hand slowly emerged from the futon-like bed, swaying left and right a few times before finally landing on the phone. The thumb swiped, and the phone's ringing abruptly stopped.

A young man slowly sat up in the warm bed.

He glanced at the phone with his foggy eyes, then suddenly darted to the ground, his eyes instantly becoming bright and spirited. He muttered repeatedly, "It must have been a dream last night! It must have been a dream... Damn it! How can it already be this late?"

Half a minute later, the young man who was just in a deep sleep.

Only the sound of the door closing with a "thud" and the slightly trembling door remained. The person was already gone.

The sun was high in the sky, and in a secluded alley, a few young chefs who were taking out the trash looked in surprise at the young man running towards them. They called out in a chorus, "Good morning, Chef Li!"

"Chef Li, have you eaten?"

"Chef Li, you're late..."

The young man's steps paused slightly, his face turning a bit grim. He subconsciously turned to look at the kitchen intern who had reminded him of his lateness, but said nothing, just giving an awkward smile. Then he lowered his head and rushed into the kitchen's back door.

The intern who was pushing the trash can complained, "Are you crazy? Why say such things without thinking?"

"Um... I was just trying to kindly remind Chef Li..." Another intern, with his head down, muttered helplessly. As he spoke, the intern subconsciously turned to look at the kitchen's back door, his face full of envy, "If only I could, in two years, rise from a vegetable picker to the second chef at Dejuquan like Chef Li..."

"That's the result of hard work. You spend all your time flirting with waitresses or hanging out in internet cafes. What good does envy do?" A chef who was sorting the trash said with a smile.

Another chef said with disdain, "Pfft, even if the second chef is great, he's still just a chef. What's so impressive about that?"

Li Gengxin didn't hear the envy and jealousy behind him; he had already rushed into the kitchen with a worried look.

At this moment, the kitchen was already bustling.

Chefs were preparing for the meal. The head of the pastry section, holding condensed milk and butter, walked past Li Gengxin, giving him a glance but saying nothing. However, his eyes showed a hint of sympathy.

A chef carrying a duck carcass to be roasted muttered, "What a surprise today, how could Li Gengxin be late?"

Li Gengxin subconsciously glanced at the first pot on the stove. The black iron pot was shiny, and on the left side, various salt and spices were neatly arranged. But the chef's figure was nowhere to be seen.

"Li Gengxin, why are you so late?" A tall, thin chef in a white chef's uniform, black apron, and white tall hat looked at Li Gengxin with a strange expression.

Li Gengxin hurriedly lowered his head and walked to the side of the chef, subconsciously glancing at the first position on the stove again. He sighed with a strange expression, "Chef Zhao, I didn't sleep well last night. I had some strange dreams..."

Chef Zhao sighed and pointed to the cutting board beside him, saying, "I know you must be feeling uncomfortable these past two days. If you look back at yourself ten years ago, wouldn't you think you were pretty foolish?"

Li Gengxin looked at Chef Zhao in confusion, not understanding what he meant. Chef Zhao continued, "If you look back at yourself ten years from now, you'll think the same thing! Haha, life is just like that. Don't think too much. For a woman... it's not worth it. Get to work..."

Li Gengxin nodded and walked to his cutting board. He pulled out a specialized thin-bladed knife from his knife box and grabbed a large shrimp from Chef Zhao's side. With a flash of the knife, the large shrimp was filleted, and the tail was cut into a phoenix shape.

He sliced the shrimp open, and the black vein inside the shrimp meat was easily removed with a slight shake of the knife.

Chef Zhao, holding a delicate scale that could only be found in pharmacies, was measuring the spices for marinating the shrimp.

He muttered, "There are two types of people most worthy of respect: women who stay with men through hard times when they are young, and men who stay with women through good times when they are wealthy. Forget it... a woman like that, who was with you yesterday and with Old Guo today, and who knows who tomorrow, I've always said I didn't approve of you being with her."

Li Gengxin's face darkened as he filleted the shrimp, shaking his head helplessly.

"Don't say I didn't warn you, be careful of Old Guo..." Chef Zhao warned kindly.

Li Gengxin said sarcastically, "My girlfriend ran off with him, why should I be careful of him?"

Chef Zhao looked around and lowered his voice, "Why don't you understand, you silly boy! If Old Guo were just an ordinary chef, it would be fine. But he's the head chef of the first wok station! If I were him, I'd make sure you leave Dejuquan on your own."

Li Gengxin said stubbornly, "The worst that can happen is begging for food, but as long as I'm alive, I'll find a way. I'll cross my own narrow bridge, and he can walk his broad road. Why would he try to squeeze me out?"

Chef Zhao's face twisted strangely, and he said, "He's afraid you'll still have feelings for each other..."

At this, Chef Zhao's voice stopped.

Li Gengxin snorted and said disdainfully, "How could I still have feelings for a woman like that? Besides, even if Old Guo wants to get rid of me, as long as I don't make mistakes, what can he do as the head chef? What can he do..."

As Li Gengxin, who was quickly filleting the shrimp, was speaking, he suddenly felt Chef Zhao lightly step on his foot. Then he heard a voice chuckling, "Li Gengxin, it seems I, the head chef, am nothing to you, huh?"

At this moment, everyone in the kitchen paused their work, their eyes focusing on Li Gengxin and Old Guo.

A burly man by the sink, who always had a simple smile on his face, now stood out in the crowd, still looking at Li Gengxin with a simple smile.

Old Guo, seeing everyone looking at him and Li Gengxin, would normally have roared, "What are you looking at? Don't you have work to do?"

But today, it seemed Old Guo wanted everyone to watch. Ignoring the surrounding chefs, he asked Li Gengxin in a sarcastic tone, "What! Do you think you didn't make a mistake today?"

As he spoke, he pointed to the clock in the kitchen and asked Li Gengxin, "What time is it? What time is it now? As a chef, you don't deserve the salary your boss pays you, but don't you think about the hardships you've endured in the capital city?"

His words were grand and righteous, but then he changed his tone. Old Guo's face showed the superiority of a local, and he looked at Li Gengxin with disdain, "No car, no house, and not working hard? You deserve to suffer and be poor. Who would be so unlucky to be with you for life?"

Near the cutting board, a few chefs muttered to each other, "Is Old Guo on the wrong medication today? Is a few minutes of lateness worth such harsh words?"

"You don't know? Li Gengxin was dumped by his girlfriend, and she turned around and went with Old Guo. I don't know if it was Guo Kujun who seduced Li Gengxin's girlfriend or if Li Gengxin's girlfriend went after Guo Kujun..."

"Enough, enough... are you trying to confuse me?"

"Wow... is that true? It seems Old Guo is looking for a fight with Li Gengxin today."

"Li Gengxin works so hard, Old Guo can't just find a reason to squeeze him out..."

The whispers echoed in the kitchen. Guo Kujun's lips curled slightly, and his eyes glinted strangely.

After a moment of silence, Guo Kujun loudly said to everyone, "Li Gengxin is late today. According to the restaurant's rules, he will be fined 100 yuan and given a public reprimand."

Everyone looked at Guo Kujun with surprise. A fine for being late? The rules were there, but they had never been enforced. Usually, a few words from a supervisor would suffice...

Just as everyone thought Li Gengxin would resist, Guo Kujun suddenly picked up a few already filleted shrimps from Li Gengxin's hand, looked at them in surprise, and threw them in front of Li Gengxin, shouting, "Li Gengxin, you're a second chef, and this is what you produce?"

As he spoke, Guo Kujun turned to the cutting board supervisor and shouted, "Old Zhao! Look at what your second chef is producing!"

Chef Zhao quickly picked up the shrimps Guo Kujun had thrown on the table, looked at them for a moment, and didn't know what to say.

The shrimps Li Gengxin had filleted were all in perfect condition, with the antennae on the shrimp heads handled delicately, and the black veins removed flawlessly. How could Guo Kujun still find fault with such good shrimps?

Chef Zhao was taken aback. He knew Guo Kujun was narrow-minded, but he didn't expect him to have no tolerance at all. He subconsciously looked at Guo Kujun, not knowing how he would use this to his advantage. He thought to himself, "Everyone knows you slept with Li Gengxin's girlfriend. Now you're openly targeting him. I want to see how shameless you can be!"

Li Gengxin, who usually buried himself in work, understood the rules of life as a small person. When out in the world, as long as it didn't harm the big picture, it was best to endure and move on. In this thousand-year-old capital city, he had no support, so it was unnecessary to create trouble and cut off his own retreat. But now, Guo Kujun had gone too far.

Li Gengxin's usual tolerance did not mean he was a pushover.

Tolerance was a way of dealing with things, but if taken to the extreme, it became weakness. In the process, one might lose some rare opportunities in life.

Li Gengxin coldly snorted and looked up at Guo Kujun, asking, "You say I'm late, and I have no argument. But if you say my work is not up to standard, I want you to explain why."

Guo Kujun, with a look that said "guilty or not, you're guilty," said, "Ha, you're still trying to argue?"

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