FWF Chapter 166 Zhang Maqiang
Chapter 166 Zhang Maqiang
"Pah!! A bunch of ignorant frogs in a well!!"
Zhou Benchang plunged headfirst into the damp air of the old street, clutching his bulging stomach, and shouted angrily into the empty alleyway:
"I, Zhou, have eaten more salt than you have eaten rice!! What do you peasants know about the noble and elegant principles of the imperial court?!"
But his feet were treading on mud, and the cold wind blowing from the east end of the long street still stubbornly carried that unreasonable aroma of meat.
Zhou Benchang shouted a few times as if to vent his frustration, but his legs became heavy and he stopped.
He wiped the sweat from his face, his spine shivering violently in the cool breeze. His head, which had been clouded by anger, suddenly cleared up.
Despite his dissatisfaction and arrogance, Zhou Benchang was not an idiot who knew nothing about taste.
Just now at Old Liu's noodle shop, although he verbally belittled the braised pork noodles, his thoroughly pampered tongue and now warm stomach conveyed to him a terrifying reality—
Zhou Benchang, having exhausted all his efforts in his official duties on this remote old street, will most likely... find himself unable to continue.
"I can't control this game..."
Zhou Benchang sighed dejectedly, his two clean right hands clenched into fists.
Faced with pure taste and the choices of ordinary people's palates, his so-called lofty ideals are as fragile as a piece of white paper covered in mud.
"But... but how am I supposed to explain this to the eldest young master of the Su family?"
Zhou Benchang's eyebrows furrowed tightly together, and his expression became somewhat awkward and embarrassed.
Su Ang spent a fortune on travel expenses and mobilized countless top-tier resources to invite him from the city's clubhouse to deliver a devastating blow.
Although Zhou Benchang has a huge reputation in the catering industry, even if he takes the money and leaves, the Su Group will most likely not do anything to him to save face.
But as a top-notch expert in state banquets, he messed up the job, so he still had to give the client a more honest explanation.
If he were to run up to Young Master Su in the Mercedes-Benz now, empty-handed and relying solely on his words, and say, "Mr. Su, I can't compare to Chen Feng, not even to that old man on the street who only has a few shreds of Chen Feng's reputation, I have to leave."
This is just empty talk... Su Ang would definitely think he's conspiring to slap himself in the face; it's completely unconvincing!
"No... words alone are not enough; Su Ang, that elite brain, will never believe them."
Zhou Benchang paced back and forth in the rain, his leather shoes trampling the colorful ribbons on the ground to shreds.
He nervously tugged at the collar of his white shirt, his cunning mind racing.
Finally, a pair of cloudy eyes looked once again at the corner at the east end of the long street.
"He needs to taste it for himself. Only by reporting the truth and letting him try it himself can I, Zhou, have a legitimate reason for today's 'defeat'!! That would be the truly irrefutable evidence!"
With this thought in mind, Zhou Benchang gritted his teeth, a hint of awkwardness and resolute determination flashing across his plump old face.
He turned around abruptly, stepping through the dirty water on the ground, his old face darkening once again. He awkwardly and carefully, in a hurried manner, scurried back to the front of Old Liu's noodle shop.
"Slap slap—!!"
He stepped in.
Inside the restaurant, the dozens of casual diners, who were enjoying their meals with greasy mouths and chatting loudly, suddenly saw the head chef of the state banquet, who had just shouted "far from good" and run away, standing awkwardly at the door like a ghost.
The entire room fell into an eerie and extremely subtle silence for three seconds.
"Oh?! Master Zhou is back again?!"
"Haha, is this guy thinking he didn't lick the bowl clean enough, so he's planning to come back and lick the bottom of Old Liu's iron pot clean too?!"
"Judging from his posture, is he planning to cause trouble for Old Liu?!"
Dozens of diners looked at him with shifty eyes, each with a half-smile, the air thick with teasing and mischievous chatter.
Standing under the dim fluorescent lights, Zhou Benchang, under the undisguised mocking gazes of the room full of people, turned his old face a deep purplish-red from holding it in.
He awkwardly patted the mud off his trousers, his hands twisting together awkwardly in front of him. Finally, he stiffened his neck, mustered all his strength, and spoke in a rough, distorted voice:
"Boss... give me... give me a takeaway of braised pork noodles!!"
"Pfft... Hahahaha!!"
"My God!! A bowl of low-class, unpalatable noodles to go?!"
Master Zhou, you truly are the most remarkable person in the south of our city!
At that very moment, the entire Lao Liu Noodle Shop erupted in a deafening roar of laughter!
The bespectacled male office worker was laughing so hard he almost cried, pointing at Zhou Benchang and shaking his head.
Several young men smashed the large leather bowls with a loud clanging sound, and the joyful atmosphere almost lifted the roof tiles of the small shop.
"What are you laughing at?! I... I'm taking this back for others to use in comparative studies!!"
Zhou Benchang was so angry that he trembled all over, his old face as red as a roasted shrimp.
To avoid gossip and to shut up the murmurs filling the room, he deftly pulled two bright red bills from his pocket with one hand, slammed them roughly on the table, and roared:
"I'll pay double!! Boss!! Pack it up quickly in the thickest insulated box!!"
Although Old Liu was also exhausted and sweating profusely, the more people came and the more money they made, the happier he felt, as his wife was lying in the hospital.
He didn't know who the person in front of him was.
Upon seeing the two hundred yuan, Old Liu's eyes reddened. He quickly grabbed a brand-new plastic takeout box, scooped it up with a large iron ladle from the center of the black iron pot, and piled up more than half a box of top-quality braised pork soaked in Shaoxing wine and garlic, along with the scalding hot alkaline noodles, and tied it into a tight knot.
"Sir/Madam!! Hold on tight!! It's still warm!!"
Old Liu's rough shouts were exceptionally sincere.
"snort!!"
Zhou Benchang felt as if he had been granted a pardon. His right hand frantically and precisely snatched the still-hot plastic takeout box.
He didn't even want the change, and he was too embarrassed to look into the lobby again. With his backside sticking out and his hoodie collar tightly covering his face, he slunk away in a disheveled and extremely embarrassed manner, threw off the bamboo curtain, turned around, and like a gust of cold wind, clutching the takeout box full of the authentic aroma of garlic, he ran back to the deep alleys of the old street like a madman.