Chapter 9

Feeling the vibration of the counterfeit phone in his pocket, Li Xin updated shivered slightly. He hurriedly took the phone out of his pocket.

Every time the phone rang, Li Xin subconsciously felt that it was leaking electricity. He lowered his head to check the caller ID, and his eyes instantly narrowed...

"Hello?" Li Xin responded.

"Um... come to the meeting." It was Zhao Dahai's voice on the other end of the line.

Li Xin asked subconsciously, "Now?"

"Yes! Where are you?" Zhao Dahai asked.

Li Xin looked around and muttered, "I might have to wait a bit, I'm quite far from our Dejuquan..." Before he could finish, Li Xin suddenly froze. He saw Teng Tang Yue standing by the roadside about a hundred meters away, and a powerful BMW SUV was parked next to her.

"Why is she here?" Li Xin was somewhat surprised. He saw Teng Tang Yue take a few steps back from the BMW, and then somehow opened the door and got in.

Zhao Dahai called out a few times from the phone, asking, "Are you still there?"

Li Xin came back to his senses and replied, "I'm here, I'll head back right away!"

"It's fine, just get back as soon as you can. I'll wait for you!" Zhao Dahai instructed and then hung up the phone.

Zhao Dahai subconsciously looked up at Guo Kejun...

If Zhao Dahai's face was slightly pale, then Guo Kejun's face was a dark green. The two of them, face to face, looked like the black and white guardians in the city god temple to the department heads attending the meeting.

Guo Kejun, with a slightly distorted face, glanced at the phone on his desk. His mind was full of the scene when Yang Hongli called during the discussion of the competition dishes.

He greeted Yang Hongli like a third-rate person, but who knew that Miss Yang Hongli asked right away, "Didn't I tell you to have Li Xin participate in the competition? Why isn't he in the meeting with you?"

Hearing this, Guo Kejun subconsciously looked up at his office. The high-tech scenes from the movie "The Spy Next Door" flashed in his mind, and his body was instantly covered in goosebumps. He subconsciously felt that Yang Hongli was monitoring his every move.

"Um, this, that..." Guo Kejun stammered, not knowing how to respond to Yang Hongli. Just as he thought of what to say, Yang Hongli asked in a cold tone, "Is this how you handle things for me? Can I still trust you with tasks in the future?" After saying this, she hung up the phone without waiting for Guo Kejun to respond.

"Master Guo? Master Guo? Are you okay?" Feeling a slight push, Guo Kejun pulled himself together and subconsciously looked at the roast duck chef beside him. He smiled awkwardly and asked, "Oh! Where were we?"

The department heads looked at each other, all with grim faces, and no one spoke. They didn't know why Guo Kejun, after calling Li Xin to the meeting, seemed so down.

At this moment, a few knocks on the door came. The chef sitting by the door subconsciously opened it.

Li Xin stood at the door in casual clothes, looking at everyone in the office with a strange expression, somewhat bewildered.

Zhao Dahai hurriedly said to Li Xin, "You're pretty quick, come in and sit down!"

Li Xin nodded slightly and smiled at all the department heads in the room. When his gaze fell on Guo Kejun's face, a hint of strangeness appeared on his face.

Guo Kejun pretended not to see Li Xin's strange look, chuckled, and said, "Xin, Miss Yang specifically asked you to participate in the competition with us!"

Li Xin subconsciously looked at Zhao Dahai, only to see his boss giving him a look of "I don't know what's going on" and shrugged his shoulders without saying anything.

Seeing Li Xin enter the kitchen office, Guo Kejun's chaotic thoughts eased a bit. After all, Guo Kejun didn't really intend to use Li Xin for anything. In other words, even if Li Xin had some exceptional skills, he couldn't sincerely help him with his problems with Teng Tang Yue. It was just for show.

After Li Xin entered, the group continued to discuss the selection of dishes. Every time it was Guo Kejun's turn to speak, his eyes would glance at Li Xin sitting behind Zhao Dahai.

However, Li Xin was like Xu Shu entering Cao Cao's camp, which suited Guo Kejun's intentions.

After a while, Guo Kejun concluded, "Alright, in three days, it's our home game. We'll finalize the dishes. Everyone, consider this a warm-up before the Chef King Competition. If we can't stand out within Dejuquan, there's no point in participating in the Chef King Competition. It would just be a waste of time and a loss of face. So... let's do our best!"

Zhao Dahai led the way, shouting, "Let's do our best!" All the department heads followed, shouting, "Let's do our best!" Li Xin, caught between them, shouted reluctantly.

The department heads stood up to leave, and Guo Kejun suddenly called out to Li Xin, "Li Xin! Stay a moment."

Li Xin's eyebrows furrowed slightly. He turned to look at Guo Kejun and stopped.

Zhao Dahai subconsciously paused, standing beside Li Xin and whispered, "Don't be impulsive!" As he spoke, Zhao Dahai deliberately stayed by Li Xin's side.

Guo Kejun looked at Zhao Dahai standing beside Li Xin, frowned slightly, and waved his hand, saying, "Master Zhao, I want to talk to Li Xin alone."

Zhao Dahai, after all, was Guo Kejun's deputy. Guo Kejun's words left him no choice but to leave. Even if he wanted to protect Li Xin, Li Xin knew he valued his position as deputy chef more.

A man in his thirties, with a family and a career, naturally had more concerns and less impulsiveness. Li Xin understood this.

Zhao Dahai sighed slightly, looked at Li Xin, patted his shoulder, and walked out of the office.

Now, only Li Xin and Guo Kejun were left in the office.

"Would you like some tea?" Guo Kejun pointed to the teacup on the table. Li Xin shook his head slightly and said, "No, thank you!"

Li Xin thought Guo Kejun would leave him and start yelling or indirectly scolding him. But to his surprise, Guo Kejun smiled at him like a friend and asked, "Can we talk?"

Li Xin looked at Guo Kejun, remained silent for a moment, and finally nodded. He pulled a chair and sat down opposite Guo Kejun. Li Xin looked at Guo Kejun silently.

"Miss Yang said you should participate in the internal family competition. I noticed you didn't say a word just now. Is there something bothering you?" Guo Kejun asked calmly.

Li Xin subconsciously looked up at Guo Kejun, remained silent for a moment, and shook his head slightly.

"Is that so? That's good. Do you have anything to say about the competition?" Guo Kejun asked calmly.

Li Xin remained silent for a while and then said, "What can I, a mere vegetable cutter, say? If Master Guo needs anything from me, just tell me!"

Guo Kejun looked into Li Xin's eyes, nodded slightly, and said, "Alright! That's all!"

"That's all?" Li Xin asked, somewhat puzzled.

"Yes, that's all. Is there anything else you want to say?" Guo Kejun asked, a cold glint suddenly appearing in his eyes.

"No," Li Xin said, stood up, and asked, "If that's all, I'll go out."

Guo Kejun smiled and nodded at Li Xin.

When the door closed with a thud, Guo Kejun picked up the teacup, his eyes filled with complex emotions, and his hand gripping the cup showed prominent veins...

In the kitchen, Zhao Dahai was directing his chefs. Seeing a chef casually place a steel basin full of vegetable juice on the ground, he shouted sternly, "Is this your first day in the kitchen? How can you put things on the ground? If you were a customer, would you eat it? Put it on the rack!"

As Zhao Dahai was scolding the chef, he saw Li Xin return. He subconsciously pulled Li Xin aside and whispered, "Did Old Guo give you a hard time?"

Li Xin looked at Zhao Dahai and smiled, saying, "No, he just told me that Miss Yang asked him to have me participate in the internal family competition. He noticed I didn't say anything and asked if there was something bothering me."

Zhao Dahai looked at Li Xin in surprise. Before he could speak, the chef who had placed the vegetable juice on the ground put the basin on the rack and interjected, "Brother Xin, you should have asked Guo Kejun if he was a fool! He pushed your girlfriend away and then asked if you had any issues. If he weren't the head chef, I would have taken care of him for you!"

Li Xin's face darkened. Zhao Dahai, seeing this, was instantly furious and shouted, "Why are you always around?"

The chef seemed to realize he had said something wrong, stuck out his tongue, and muttered to Li Xin, "Brother Xin, I didn't mean anything by it!" He quickly moved aside to work.

Li Xin smiled bitterly, not knowing why, and subconsciously looked at the long shadow behind him. He said to Zhao Dahai, "I'm fine..."

At the same time, in the general manager's office on the top floor of Dejuquan, the general manager was slightly leaning forward, looking at Yang Hongli sitting in his seat with a subservient expression.

Yang Hongli was playing with a string of 108 purple-red garnet beads in her left hand and holding Li Xin's personnel file in her right hand. She looked at the few pages of the resume, her brows furrowed...

"Miss, when Li Xin first joined, he was just a kitchen helper intern, but every new employee at Dejuquan is personally vetted by me! I remember him clearly, not for any other reason. When I first met Li Xin, he was dressed even worse than a beggar, carrying a woven bag, and I almost didn't want to hire him. If it weren't for his white teeth and the words, 'As long as I have food and a place to stay, I'll work hard!' and the fact that kitchen helpers were hard to find, I would have definitely let him go... um, dismissed him."

The rhythm of the purple-red garnet beads stopped, and Yang Hongli placed the few pages of paper on the table, squinting her eyes and muttering, "Three days... who can be relied upon?"

"Ah? Miss, what did you say?" Old He didn't hear Yang Hongli's soft muttering and hurriedly asked.