The Game of Life

Chapter 753: Chapter 752: China-America Cooking King Contest

At the moment when Chef Arno exclaimed, everyone’s first reaction was: here it comes, it’s finally happening.

Chef Arno was finally about to take action.

Completely unconcerned by everyone’s gaze, Chef Arno turned his head to look at Peng Changping with an incredulous expression and asked in English, “Is he your disciple?”

“Of course,” Peng Changping nodded. “Is there a problem?”

“The disciple you spoke of on the telephone yesterday is him?”

Peng Changping nodded affirmatively.

“Who is he?” Chef Arno looked as if his beliefs had crumbled, like a naive girl cheated by a worthless man, and pointed straight at Zhou Shi.

Zhou Shi: …

Although his education wasn’t high and his English poor, having never passed level four, the ups and downs of the very articulate “Who is he?” were still understandable to him.

“I’m Zhou Shi,” Zhou Shi said.

Chef Arno glared at Zhou Shi. He couldn’t care less who Zhou Shi actually was; he was like an irate girl, deceived emotionally by a worthless man for years, simply wanting an explanation from her deceiver.

“What about Jiang Feng? Isn’t Jiang Feng your disciple?” Chef Arno asked loudly.

This question confused Peng Changping, who replied, “Of course not, when have I ever said Jiang Feng was my disciple?”

“I had clearly heard before that he…”

Just as they were about to start arguing, Lu Sheng hurriedly stepped in to smooth things over: “Oh my, it’s already almost nine o’clock. Clearly, Master Arno and Master Peng have official business to discuss. How about this, Master Arno and Master Peng can talk in my office, while everyone else has some tea and chats here. If anyone has something else to do, feel free to leave.”

Everyone: …

Although Arno and Peng Changping had just spoken in English, the entire conversation was so simple that any elementary school student could understand. Except for Ji Xia, everyone present, including Han Youxin, understood.

Being all shrewd people, they caught the subtle hint in Lu Sheng’s words, and as soon as he finished speaking, Han Guishan’s family immediately announced it was too late, as Han Youxin hadn’t finished his homework and needed to go home to do it. Lu Sheng’s parents and wife, though also confused by the situation, took the children’s unfinished homework as an excuse to leave as well.

Wu Minqi looked at Jiang Feng, then at Ji Xia, and finally at Chef Arno, making up her mind.

“Xiaxia, you haven’t finished your homework for today, have you?” Wu Minqi asked with a smile.

Ji Xia: ???

Homework, what homework?

Seeing Ji Xia’s bewildered expression, Sun Maochai knew it was time to showcase his acting skills.

“That’s right, it’s getting late. Xiaxia has to go to school tomorrow, right? I’ll drive you back. Jiang Feng, are you leaving now or staying a bit longer?”

Ji Xia: ???

“Ah?” Jiang Feng actually wanted to slip away at that moment, but the way Chef Arno was looking at him told him he probably couldn’t make a clean getaway.

The most important thing was that he too wanted to know what today’s events had to do with him!

He had come simply to eat a meal, a meal that cost all his private savings, and somehow he had become the main character while eating it.

Before Jiang Feng could make a decision, Chef Arno made it for him: “He cannot go; I need to speak with him.”

Sun Maochai smiled at Jiang Feng without any compassion and led Wu Minqi and Ji Xia away.

Soon, the people in the private room had mostly gone.

When Xu Cheng saw that everyone else had left, he felt it wasn’t quite right for him to stick around for the drama. He was about to stand up and make his escape when he was stopped by Chef Arno.

“Mr. Xu, please wait a moment before leaving, I have a favor to ask you,” said Chef Arno.

Well, that made things easy, there was no need to go to Lu Sheng’s office anymore. The people left in the room were Jiang Feng, Arno, Zhou Shi, Peng Changping, Xu Cheng, and a completely bewildered Tao Shu…

Wait, why was Tao Shu still here?

Zhou Shi also realized Tao Shu wasn’t quite fitting to stay, and whispered, “Don’t you still need to go shopping? It’s getting late, maybe you should go ahead and do that?”

As if suddenly awoken, Tao Shu hastily agreed, “Right, right, I still need to go shopping, I’ll go buy the stuff, no, I mean I’ll go first, I’ll go first. You all take your time, take your time.”

Tao Shu got up, hunching over as if to sneak away, clutching his phone, but Chef Arno stopped him.

“Wait a minute, I remember you’re called Shu… what Shu?” Chef Arno looked at Tao Shu.

Tao Shu inwardly cursed his luck, he hadn’t expected Chef Arno to remember him, let alone part of his name, and felt his job was on the line, that he might be fired today.

“You should go back to the restaurant for now.”

Tao Shu already had his head bowed in despair.

“Tell them I’ll be back to work tomorrow, and to add my menu back on, with the chef’s special available as usual.”

“Ah?” Tao Shu thought Chef Arno was telling him to pack up his stuff and get out of the restaurant right now.

“Is there a problem?” Chef Arno enunciated very clearly.

“No, no problem, I’ll go back now, right now.” Tao Shu fled as if running for his life, and he didn’t just close the door behind him.

Peng Changping picked up his teacup and took a big gulp of the tea Zhou Shi had brought for the apprenticeship ceremony. He covered the cup with the lid and looked at Chef Arno.

“Out with it, I felt you had something to say when we talked on the phone yesterday.”

Chef Arno took a deep breath. He measured up Peng Changping, Zhou Shi, and Jiang Feng, clearly still not over the shadow of being deceived, his expression somewhat complex, but he began to speak anyway.

In Chinese, no less.

“I’m here to invite you to participate in a competition,” Chef Arno said with a look of displeasure.

Jiang Feng was stunned, so it was an invitation for us to participate in…

?

In a competition?

Jiang Feng thought he had heard wrong. Chef Arno had just behaved as if he had been conned emotionally and tricked out of fifty million, only to end up inviting him to a competition.

“What competition?” Lu Sheng, instinctively looking over at Jiang Feng, was the first to ask.

Chef Arno still looked displeased, so much so that he seemed reluctant to speak, everyone could tell that he was in a complicated mood, but in fact, everyone was feeling quite complex. Even Peng Changping, who had seen much and weathered great storms, was a bit at a loss about what exactly Chef Arno wanted to do.

The feeling was like facing a formidable opponent, brimming with hostility, who had deliberately isolated everyone else to talk to you alone. You brace yourself for a fight, only for them to say they just want to invite you for afternoon tea.

Although internally irked, Chef Arno still explained, his English interspersed with Chinese, making it a bit hard for Jiang Feng to follow, but he ultimately understood.

The matter went back to when Chef Arno abruptly left after the Exuberant Summer Feast.

Chef Arno’s departure was sudden, catching even the top-tier restaurant staff off-guard, let alone outsiders. Without knowing the reasons, and with the timing being too coincidental, it led to jokes that Chef Arno had taken off.

But, Arno did have a serious matter to deal with.

It’s well-known that Chef Arno became famous throughout America thanks to a cooking reality show several years ago. In that show, Chef Arno shone brightly with his high culinary skills, tempestuous temper, a collection of curse-worthy quotes suitable for a book, and an absolutely unlikable true personality, quickly becoming America’s favorite chef with no equal. Even after many years, there were still viewers who said that seeing Chef Arno cursing in that show was one of their greatest pleasures.

But what people didn’t know was that the reality show had been on a steady decline over the years.

After a spectacular first season, the producers tried many ways to attract viewers’ attention: intense competition, dramatic conflicts, and even recruiting handsome men and pretty women as apprentice chefs. Despite their efforts to innovate and create buzz, the viewership ratings for this pioneer of dramatic reality cooking shows continued to fall each year, to the point where cancellation loomed.

Left with no other choice, the production team decided to go for broke and invited Chef Arno to make a return to save the precariously positioned reality show.

Of course, Chef Arno was not keen on participating. Granted, when he first recorded the show, he enjoyed himself immensely, making money and stirring controversy—it was the life of his dreams. But now, he had more important things to focus on than making money and getting into arguments, so he promptly refused when the production team first called to invite him.

However, the production team was not the type to give up after a single rejection. Their viewership ratings from the previous season had plummeted to an alarmingly low number. If it wasn’t for their announcement that they were inviting Chef Arno to rejoin the show, they wouldn’t even be able to secure the most basic funding.

It could be said that Chef Arno = Funding.

How could the production team easily give up on funding so accessible?

Therefore, they spent half a month researching and exploring, devising an entirely new variety show format.

If they were going to play, they were going to play big.

They planned to create a Sino-American King of Chefs competition.

The name was cliché, a direct translation, but the general concept of the competition was just that.

The show initially was a competitive one, inviting fairly well-known young chefs to participate, offering an enticing grand prize, along with a formidable Toxic Snake Instructor. After several months of devilish training and successive contests, the show determined the ultimate winner—with a slight flavor of apprenticeship incorporated into it.

According to the original script, the focus of the reality show should have been on these young contestants, but by inviting Chef Arno, an instructor who didn’t follow the usual path or the script, the first season spotlight shifted to him instead. The young chefs who were supposed to be the main characters all become supporting roles, even just part of the backdrop.

With continuous adjustments, the style of the reality show changed as well: young chefs became attractive amateurs; the number of instructors increased from one to several; the competition shifted from a professional setting to a nurturing one, with a more diversified approach. As audiences’ tastes changed, the show switched back from the nurturing type to a competitive type, but perhaps failing to capture what the audience really wanted, viewership remained low. Even though the production team tried many tactics, such as inviting celebrities to dine, seeking well-known food critics for guest appearances, or trying to create a second Chef Arno, nothing worked and they even triggered a barrage of criticism.

As a result, the production team was so determined to bring Chef Arno back, they were even willing to go big with an international competition.

Win and they return to the top; lose and they might as well have been cut—there was no real difference to the show’s threatened state. In any case, the outcome could only get better and not worse. As long as they could bring Chef Arno back, they’d have the funds to play this big game. Even if it was a loss, it wouldn’t fall on their heads, so why not?

Chef Arno’s sudden return to the country was to discuss the details of the Sino-American King of Chefs competition with the production team.

To accommodate Chef Arno, not only was the location of the finals set in China, but the registration process was also structured for restaurants to sign up as units. Each restaurant could only enlist four chefs to compete, and the specific competition format was still under discussion, though the basic direction was set.

Chef Arno agreed to attend Peng Changping’s discipleship banquet immediately upon returning to the country, not only because of a misunderstanding where he thought Peng was taking Jiang Feng as his final disciple but also because he mainly wanted to invite Peng to participate in the competition.

Yes, the person he wanted to invite was not Jiang Feng or anyone else, but Peng Changping.

He wanted to have a showdown with Peng Changping once and for all.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated on N𝘰vgo.co