Chapter 964: Somebody Is Planning Something.

"I don't know if Boss Yuan knows about paintings. As far as I can remember, however, Shameless Wu's paintings are not bought by Boss Yuan."

"Of course they are not bought by Boss Yuan. That Shameless Wu pestered him, again and again, and insisted on sending them to Boss Yuan for free."

"That's right. That's also what I remember. Boss Yuan was prepared to refuse them as there was no room in his restaurant. However, Wu Hai was way too troublesome, so Boss Yuan finally received them reluctantly and hang them on the ceiling."

"According to your statement, these two paintings seem to be fairly valuable?"

...

What the customers said was all true, but when it passed to Zhou Xi's ears, it felt like a sudden lighting striking the flat ground. It was a little exaggerated to say his worldview was completely ruined.

But it was no problem to ruin his worldview. Zhou Xi looked at Zhou Shijie in disbelief. Judging from his meaningful glance, he prepared to let Zhou Shijie give him an "honest" answer.

"I don't know about the second painting, but Wu Hai did buy back the first one by himself and then pestered Yuan Zhou, again and again, to hang it in the restaurant." Zhou Shijie answered honestly.

However, this honesty wasn't the one that Zhou Xi wanted. On hearing that, he straightforwardly became shocked.

Leaving This Is Life aside, the final price of People Passing by A Small Restaurant in the auction house was as high as an eight-digit number.

No kidding. It really was an eight-digit number and that was still the initial transaction price. If he were not too young and too junior, the chairman of China Oil Painting Alliance would have been him.

Zhou Xi could fully understand why Wu Hai bought back such a painting. Just like when the artist didn't want their own satisfactory paintings to end up in someone else's hands, he bought them back to keep them by himself.

But how was it possible that one would refuse to receive it when the other person insisted on giving it to him for free? Even if he gave it to an illiterate person, that person would receive it excitedly.

So how was it possible that nobody wanted it? The boss was even forced to receive it after Wu Hai had pestered him again and again to give it to him for free?

The only explanation was that Wu Hai had truly sent the paintings to the boss out of some unknown reasons. However, even the richest people in China wouldn't be so generous to hang a painting worth eight-digit numbers somewhere randomly and carelessly.

To sum up, what they said was definitely untrue! Zhou Xi decided to find out the truth.

"When will Eaves Wu come to the restaurant to eat again?" Zhou Xi asked.

Zhou Shijie said, "As long as Yuan Zhou's restaurant is open, he will eat every meal over here."

"Good. Dad, let's have lunch here, too. I must ask Eaves Wu about this painting personally," said Zhou Xi.

This matter had almost come to an end, but Zhou Xi still didn't want to leave. However, he found it inappropriate to continue staying here since the business time had ended.

Therefore, he went somewhere unknown and brought a telescope back. After that, he set it up on the street and aimed it at the ceiling. Seriously speaking, those who didn't know about this matter must have thought that Zhou Xi was a pervert who wanted to peep at Yuan Zhou.

Yuan Zhou first tidied up the kitchen and then took a rest for a little while. After that, he began to prepare the ingredients for lunch. The conversation between Zhou Shijie and Zhou Xi just now was also heard by Yuan Zhou.

Yuan Zhou looked at the two paintings on the ceiling and muttered to himself, "The paintings turn out to be so valuable. When can I change them into money?"

Yuan Zhou felt more confident after owning the full series of Sichuan Cuisine. Actually, someone ordered a full table of All-Fish Banquet again yesterday to celebrate his child's graduation from senior high school. It was an informal banquet called Teacher Appreciation Banquet.

Therefore, something must be prepared or arranged in advance.

Apart from the Palace Cuisine, there were also Baba Banquet, Abalone Feast, and Chouchuan Banquet, etc. among various banquets in Sichuan Cuisine. Of the several banquets, Chouchuan Banquet was nowhere to be found, not to mention cooking it. But Yuan Zhou, at least, was able to cook the Abalone Feast.

According to the information collected by Yuan Zhou, the chefs or restaurants that were able to cook Abalone Feast from the Sichuan Cuisine weren't even in Sichuan Province now. That was also considered a shame for Sichuan Cuisine.

Yuan Zhou was thinking if it was necessary to make the Abalone Feast reappear again. Then, everybody would know the Abalone Feast of Sichuan Cuisine still existed in Sichuan Province, more specifically, in Chengdu.

On the other side, someone else was also preparing to do something. Needless to say, it was Chef Li from Shrimp And Crab Gathering.

Right now, there were not only people from Shrimp And Crab Gathering, but also people from Seafood Gathering, Fragrant And Spicy Prawns and Chengdu Papa Shrimp, etc. in the room. More than a dozen head chefs from different restaurants all gathered here.

All these head chefs had one common characteristic. Their scores were all extremely low in Yuan Zhou Appraisal Website. Leaving others aside, the Seafood Gathering only got a score of 0.11 Yuan. How do you want Chef Li to endure this shame?

"How insulting it is to give us such a low score! Leaving this aside, let me tell another truth," said Chef Li from Shrimp And Crab Gathering, "In that so-called Gourmet Appraisal Website, there are more than 700 restaurants that have been scored less than 0.3 Yuan in all. And those who have been scored lower than 0.5 Yuan are even fewer than 1/10 of the total."

"In a word, Yuan Zhou has offended all of us," said Chef Li.

As the head chef of Seafood Gathering, Zhao Bai said, "Since this Appraisal Website has offended so many restaurants, why are there only dozens of people here?"

"Take it easy and calm down," said Chef Li, "We definitely want to win against him by gathering here this time. But if we act rashly and lose again, we'll be badly shamed."

"After some careful data collection, we have obtained more detailed information." Chef Li let his sous-chef give out a stack of materials to everyone there.

"Master Chef Restaurant. What an arrogant name! But I have to say its reputation has been soaring since it opened one year ago."

"Characterized by its expensive price, weird rules, top-grade ingredients, and delicious cuisines, the tiny restaurant has captured the heart of many many customers. And Yuan Zhou, the chef of the tiny restaurant, always works alone without even a kitchen helper. So although I don't want to admit it, but I have to say Yuan Zhou's culinary skills are pretty good," said Chef Li.

"If the ingredients are so excellent, who supplies him with those top-grade ingredients? Do you know that, Chef Li?" Another chief chef asked him to the point.

"I made an investigation and found that restaurant seems to have some contacts in Europe, but the actual supplier is still unknown," said Chef Li, "Of course, it's not important. What really matters is how we can defeat Yuan Zhou."

Indeed. The most important thing was how to defeat Yuan Zhou.

"Master Chef Restaurant is the Exemplary Restaurant of Sichuan Cuisine this year. So I don't think we can rival him in Sichuan Cuisine. On this point, do you have any questions?" Chef Li asked.

All head chefs there shook their heads. As the saying goes, "There isn't a best article in literature, but there will be a best warrior in battle." The chefs were just like literary artists, which could hardly be judged as totally good or bad. Likewise, it was difficult to judge one delicacy good or bad as people might have different taste preferences.

However, Yuan Zhou's level on Sichuan Cuisine had been clearly seen by these chefs from Sichuan Province when the competition of Exemplary Restaurant was going on.

Though only a few of them said no to Chef Li, none of them actually had doubts about Yuan Zhou's craftsmanship on Sichuan Cuisine.

"So let's continue. Judging from the menu of Master Chef Restaurant, Yuan Zhou has explored many fields such as Sichuan Cuisine, Jinling Cuisine, cooked wheaten food and some foreign cuisines, especially the different cooking methods of rice."

Chef Li wasn't like a chef. Judging from the survey of the data, he was more like a businessman, one that wanted to make money.

As a head chef that had abundant experience and absolute confidence in his own craftsmanship, Chef Li would never think of his own problems. In his eyes, all those negative comments were invented deliberately by others.

"No matter if it's cooked wheaten food or foreign cuisines, Yuan Zhou has dabbled in each of them. As long as he dabbles in it, he makes himself a great master."

"Chef Li, why don't we just admit defeat directly if you speak like that? If he's good at everything, what are we gathering here for?" Another chef interrupted Chef Li discontentedly.

...