Chapter 85
“Just this morning, the chef team flew out to China.” The lady at the counter apologised, “There is really no way to provide you with the chef’s menu.”
Zhong Manhua held back her anger and maintained her poise, “What about my reservation?”
“That’s right.” The lady at the counter explained, “As this incident happened suddenly, we were not expecting it, and it is indeed the restaurant’s responsibility.”
She was actually quite puzzled, and wondered what kind of big shot could have brought out the entire chef team.
A restaurant of the level of thegordonramsay, even if it had to go out of the country, the guests were willing to take a flight to taste it for that reason.
In keeping with the tenet that the customer is God, the lady at the counter added with a smile, “However, the chef’s menu was actually unbookable at the time of your booking, as the restaurant was also participating in a TV food show for a while and the chef could not divide his time.”
After a pause, she said politely, “If you look more carefully, what you have booked is actually the next level of sous chef menu.”
Hearing this, Zhong Manhua froze.
She then glanced at her phone and found that she had indeed booked the sous-chef menu.
Great embarra*sment flooded her heart and her face instantly turned red.
Although the difference between the chef’s menu and the sous chef’s menu was just one word, the difference was actually huge.
The main chef’s menu, which was cooked by the chef himself, also had the finest ingredients.
“I have read that you, guest, are still coming from Shanghai City, which is where the chef team happens to be going and will be staying for three days.” The lady at the counter added, “How about this, I’ll put you in touch?”
Zhong Manhua was slightly stunned, “Went to Shanghai City?”
She had travelled thousands of miles to O Chau, but the chef had gone to Shanghai?
“When you made your reservation, you said you needed a birthday cake, so you must be celebrating your birthday?” The lady at the counter nodded, “The chef team went to Shanghai City to celebrate a lady’s birthday too, what a coincidence.”
Zhong Manhua, however, was even more embarra*sed.
She had to go online and book two months in advance if she wanted to celebrate Xiao Xuan’s birthday.
Other people had birthdays, but they could have the chef’s team make a personal flight.
What kind of disparity was this?
If we were talking about those few big giants in the imperial capital, it would be okay, but Shanghai City?
Zhong Manhua thought for half a day, but couldn’t figure out who had such a big stature.
In fact, she didn’t have to go to thegordonramsay restaurant, there were quite a few 3-star Michelin restaurants in O Chau that were world famous.
But her not coming, and being rejected, were not the same at all.
The latter was a slap in her face.
“No need.”
Zhong Manhua had already poured out her appetite and was even more humiliated.
After hurriedly throwing down three words, she carried her bag and left.
The lady at the counter was a little puzzled, but didn’t say anything and continued to receive other customers.
**
The following day.
At noon, the students of Cla*s 19 were invited to a small courtyard.
False hills and green water, birds chirping and a fresh breeze brushing through the trees.
This was one of the Fu family’s properties.
The small courtyard was warm in winter and cool in summer, and although it was not large, it was considered a relic because of its age, and its location was excellent, so it was worth more than a billion dollars.
More than a dozen brothers and sisters in the Fu family had their eyes on this small courtyard and fought over it for a long time, but Old Master Fu did not move.
But in the end, no one expected that Master Fu would say anything, and even his son Fu Mingcheng crossed over and gave it directly to Fu Yunshen.
This made the young men of the Fu family and his generation red-eyed, but they had no choice but to secretly hate each other’s guts.
Fu Mingcheng also wanted to use his father’s position to ask Fu Yunshen to hand over the small courtyard, but he couldn’t bring himself to do so.
Especially as Master Fu was still alive, there were some things that could not be done so drastically, and face had to be pa*sed.
There are two long tables in the middle of the courtyard, enough for fifty students to sit down.
The tables are covered with red silk cloths, and wine gla*ses, plates, knives and forks are placed in front of each of them in turn.
Lobster tails, fried white asparagus with scallops in white sauce, braised lamb shanks in spicy red wine, chocolate truffles ……
There were even a couple of bottles of red wine from Chateau Romanee Conti, each costing over $30,000.
Not only that, there were waiters in tuxedos waiting by the side, a kind of o-continent royal court banquet.
Even Jiang Yan was stunned.
It wasn’t that he had never experienced it before, he had even had the pleasure of eating a state banquet in the imperial capital.
But the question was, who would invite such a high end and cla*sy guest in a courtyard?
“I want to take pictures, I want to post it on Weibo.” The little brother pulled out his phone sharply, just about crying, “This is the first time I’ve had a dish from a three-star Michelin restaurant.”
Jiang Yan stank.
He glanced at Fu Yunshen and gave a cold snort.
A shameless person who relied on his face to deceive people.
He wasn’t going to fall for it.
“Brother Burn, aren’t you eating? “Little brother was eating really well, and when he saw that Jiang Yan was not moving, he was greedy, “Don’t you want to give it to me.”
He reached out his hand to grab it and a handful was opened by Jiang Yan.
“Get lost!” Jiang Yan’s face was dark, “Who said I’m not eating? Mine is mine, give me yours too.”
The little brother was dumbfounded.
By the time he reacted, his plate had all been carried away by Jiang Yan.
Little Brother: “……”
He wanted to cry.
Ying Ziji propped her elbows up to watch a group of silly kids eat furiously, before looking sideways, at the man, her eyebrows slightly raised, “I’m quite curious, what are you?”
“Well -” Fu Yunshen pondered a little, “Brother is the kind with a good face, and money, who can afford to raise children.”
After a pause, he slowly added two more words, “A good person.”
“……”
**
Once March pa*sed, it was close to the Art Festival.
All cla*ses submitted their entries, which were collated by the student council and then handed in to the art team.
There were not many entries from the English cla*ses because for them, their studies had to be more important.
Unless they are interested, they will not waste their time on the Art Festival.
So this time when Zhong Zhiwei would enter the competition, it threw many students in the Yingcai cla*s off their feet.
Once Zhong Zhiwei entered the competition, was it possible for others to do so?
Zhong Zhiyan went to the Student Council office as if she had not heard these words.
There were many entries, divided into calligraphy, Chinese painting, oil painting, printmaking and many other categories, so it was not an easy task to sort them out.
“Zhiyan.” The Minister of Arts and Culture greeted and went back to work.
Zhong Zhiyan asked intentionally, “Which side is the calligraphy on?”
“Over there, it’s already sorted out.”
“Well, I’ll take a look.”
Zhong Zhiwei went forward, flipped through it, and shook his head.
What was all this writing?
A bunch of vulgar stuff.
She really shouldn’t have lowered herself to the festival just because Ying Zidian had come to compete.
However, although the writing is not good, it is better than Ying Zidian’s.
How could someone from a small county know anything about calligraphy?
Zhong Zhiyan turned over the pages faster and faster, and became more and more bored, until she saw an unfolded scroll.
It was a very simple poem.
But the words were majestic, the dragon flying and the phoenix danced in the wood.
Zhong Zhiyan froze, her eyes shifted down and saw the name in the bottom right corner.
Her hand suddenly shrank and she squeezed the scroll tightly in death.
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Chapter 86
It took a long time for her fingers to gradually unwind.
The quality of the scroll was good enough to leave no nail marks.
Zhong Zhiyan pursed her lips and glanced at the office.
She was relieved to find that the others were still busy sorting out the entries and had not noticed her side.
She had just lost her temper.
Putting the scroll back in place, Zhong Zhiyan looked cold.
She wouldn’t believe it if she said that Ying Ziji had written it.
She had already seen Ying Zidian’s file at Master Zhong’s place, and it was detailed down to each year.
Qing Shui County was economically backward, a poor village, not to mention learning calligraphy, and it was a problem whether they could eat.
And the characters on this scroll could never be written without decades of skill.
It was obviously from a calligrapher.
Even her calligraphy teacher might not be able to write such words.
Can Ying Ziji write?
Zhong Zhiyan frowned.
She didn’t expect that Ying Zidian would try to cheat her way to the festival prize.
She’s crazy about money.
She turned her head and asked in a light voice: “Have any students cheated in the past?”
Hearing this, the ministers all stopped moving and were a little surprised: “Cheating?”
“For example -” Zhong Zhiwei paused, “having someone else write and draw for them, and then writing their name on it and handing it in.”
“This ……” the Minister of Arts and Culture thought about it, “It seems to have happened, I heard from the seniors and sisters, I think it was a few years ago, a student did this and brought in the words of a famous calligrapher for the competition. ”
“But at his age, he obviously couldn’t write it, and what’s even funnier is that the famous calligrapher was there that day and exposed it straight away.”
“The student was expelled because the repercussions were too severe and the disgrace went online.”
Zhong Zhiwei nodded, “I see.”
“So from then on, no one dared to cheat at all.” The Minister of Arts and Culture asked, “Zhiyan, did you find out about the cheating?”
“Neither.” Zhong Zhiyan smiled, “We’re not sure yet, we can’t just slander.”
“Oh.” The Minister of Arts and Culture didn’t say much, looking down and taking notes on the roster, “Whoever dares to do that is definitely finished anyway.”
The speaker had no intention, but the listener had an intention.
Zhong Zhiwei thought about it, but still took the pair of scrolls out and left the office.
**
After leaving the activity centre, Zhong Zhiyan walked towards the Talent Cla*s.
On the way, she bumped into a cla*s of 19 students who had just finished their PE cla*s.
From a distance of a few dozen metres, Zhong Zhiyan saw those students all gathered around the girl, very excited.
Even when Jiang Yan and Xiu Yu were standing next to her, they automatically curbed the sharpness around them.
This was something that never happened before.
It wasn’t that Zhong Zhiyan hadn’t noticed that many things had changed since Ying Ziji had left the Talent Cla*s.
There was also Elder Zhong’s attitude towards her.
Zhong Zhiyan glanced at the girl, her hand tightened, used her schoolbag to block the scroll, buried her head and hurried away.
As if afraid of being seen.
“So what’s Zhong Zhiyan running catty-corner for?” Xiu Yu glanced at her and tsked, “She can’t be a thief, can she?”
Ying Zidian was eating a lollipop and didn’t look at it, just faintly: “Maybe.”
“By the way Ying Dad, I always feel that you-” Xiu Yu rubbed his chin, “You are like a godly man sometimes.”
Ying Zidian tilted his head, his phoenix eyes slightly raised: “A godly man?”
“I feel like you can predict things.” Xiu Yu couldn’t tell, he was vague, “Anyway, it gives people a mysterious feeling.”
“Hmm.” Ying Zidian nodded, “Then I can give you a free fortune telling.”
“Trigonometry?” Xiu Yu was stunned, “Ying Dad, don’t tell me that you’re still a diviner.”
Ying Ziji finished his lollipop before he said, “No.”
Diviners usually use external objects, or supernatural science, to find out what they want to know.
Unlike prophecy, the results of divination given by a diviner are ambiguous.
It is the same with playing tarot cards.
She is not divining, she is seeing directly.
Only whether she is observing the future or the past, it consumes her too much, because they involve karma.
So until she had fully recovered, she would not normally use her divine calculation abilities.
Except for those things that she can tell by looking at them.
Such as the name of an ordinary person, their age, what they were about to do.
“I’ll say.” Xiu Yu also just thought she was playing and didn’t care much, “But Ying Dad, if you are interested in divination, you can go around the imperial capital in the future.”
“There’s a family of diviners right in the imperial capital, they’re setting up stalls every day to tell fortunes, but in reality they’re just scamming for money.”
“What godly stick, what do you know?” Jiang Yan laughed coldly when he heard this, “They can really tell.”
“Calculate my a*s.” Xiu Yu was furious, “I’ve been cheated before, I was dragged by them on my walk to draw some kind of fortune sign, only to force me to pay for the interpretation of the sign, which pitched away my month’s pocket money.”
She was so angry that she smashed the fortune telling stall.
Ying Ziji’s hand gave a beat, pondering.
This style of acting ……
Hmm.
She yawned and went back to her cla*s to start another round of sleep.
**
The art festival was scheduled for April 6, three days in total.
All the other grades will be off except for the senior and junior grades.
Ever since that incident with Ying Fei Fei, Master Zhong has been very concerned about every move this Qingzhi makes, and this time was no exception.
Two days before the art festival, on Saturday, he called Ying Zidian.
“D**key, aren’t you taking part in the festival? How is it going? Do you need Grandpa’s help?”
He knew the boy hadn’t been able to learn this before, but now it was too late to hire a teacher.
He was a roughneck himself, though, and could only play chess.
“That’s fine then, Grandpa will come and see you then.” Master Zhong smiled and responded, “Don’t feel pressured, whatever you write Grandpa thinks is the best.”
Zhong Zhiyan was on the sidelines, the more she listened, the more her heart clogged up, she also had a plan in mind and got up, “Grandpa, I’m going out.”
If it were in the past, when Zhong Zhiyan wanted to go out, Elder Zhong would have to admonish her for half a day.
But this time, he didn’t say anything, he just waved his hand.
Zhong Zhiyan took a deep breath and left the Zhong family.
She took a taxi and went straight to the east of Shanghai and arrived at a villa.
In the courtyard, a man was weeding, and upon seeing her, he was a little surprised: “Zhiyan, what brings you here?”
“I came to see Senior Brother Lin.” Zhong Zhiyan walked forward, “There is still something I want to ask Senior Brother Lin for advice.”
This was her senior brother, Lin Xi, who studied with her under a great calligrapher.
Lin Xi wiped his hands and asked as he walked towards the room, “What is it?”
Zhong Zhiyan took out the scroll, opened it and spread it flat in front of the table.
“Senior Brother Lin, what do you think of this piece of writing?”
Lin Xi leaned over to take a look and was first silent for a moment, then shocked: “Zhiyan, did you write this?”