Volume 1, Chapter 47: Zhou Peng is Anxious

In Hongwu County, Peace Hotel!

Liu Yang personally took charge, carrying all the vegetables and grass carp he had brought back straight to the back kitchen.

"Today, I want you to pull out all the stops and use your absolute best skills.

These ingredients were bought at a very high price!

Whether this goes well or not depends entirely on today's meal!"

Liu Yang was a little excited.

Ever since Peace Hotel first opened its doors, he had never felt quite this level of anticipation.

"Director Liu, you can rest easy. The identity of today's guests is quite extraordinary.

We all understand. Even if you hadn't said anything, we would still pull out all our tricks!"

Hearing this, Liu Yang nodded. "Do your best. If the results are good, everyone in the kitchen gets double pay today!"

He was gambling everything on this.

He had every reason to be excited—he had personally tasted these ingredients himself.

Even an amateur like Guo Dong could make a mouth-watering grilled fish out of them.

He refused to believe that his team of professional master chefs could lose to Guo Dong!

Furthermore, when Guo Dong grilled that fish, he hadn't used a single seasoning except for salt.

"Director Liu, I've inspected today's ingredients, especially the fish!

They look no different from ordinary grass carp, and they're actually smaller than the ones we usually use.

However, when I was washing them just now, I could tell the texture of the meat is exceptionally good. It shouldn't disappoint."

"Director Liu, just leave it to us. The chefs we've hired here were brought in at great expense; they're easily on par with the ones at Tianpeng Hotel!"

Hearing this, Liu Yang nodded.

There were quite a few hotels in Hongwu County, but only two truly stood out in direct competition.

Tianpeng and Peace!

These two hotels were bitter rivals, especially Tianpeng Hotel, which would stop at nothing to steal business from Peace.

Whenever Peace managed to recruit a good chef, Tianpeng would find a way to poach them.

Whenever an opportunity arose, they would do everything in their power to crush Peace Hotel into the ground.

That was why he decided to focus on the ingredients instead.

This time, he had handled everything personally. Apart from his own daughter, no one else knew the source of the ingredients.

Even the truck drivers were his most trusted confidants.

He refused to believe that under these conditions, Zhou Peng could still manage to poach his staff.

Besides, he had heard that Zhou Peng had a personal grievance with Guo Dong.

That piece of news gave him an extra layer of reassurance.

At that moment, a security guard came running over.

"Director Liu, there are two people outside who keep pacing back and forth in front of our hotel.

They look like people from Tianpeng Hotel. Should we chase them away?"

Liu Yang froze for a moment. "They're here again?"

"It seems they are regular customers of theirs who came to dine here today, and they've come to scout out the situation!"

Liu Yang suddenly chuckled. "Leave them be. As long as they don't cause trouble, let them do as they please!"

Clearly, Zhou Peng was getting desperate and had no idea what was actually going on.

For a long time, Tianpeng Hotel had held the upper hand, constantly suppressing Peace Hotel at every turn.

Liu Yang was already used to it.

"What if they come inside to eat?"

"We don't have a rule against turning customers away. If they want to eat, let them in. As long as they're willing to spend money, pay them no mind!"

Outside the hotel, two young men were smoking cigarettes while holding their smartphones.

They took turns taking pictures of each other, occasionally glancing inside the hotel.

Little did they know that the hotel's security guards had spotted them long ago.

Hongwu County was only so big, and everyone operated in the same business circles—everyone knew everyone.

Buzz, buzz, buzz...

A phone suddenly rang.

The young man who had been taking pictures opened the message.

"What's the situation over there?"

"Manager, the target hasn't arrived yet, so we're not sure!"

"You mean you've been there this long and haven't found out a single thing?"

"No, that's not it! We saw Liu Yang come back!"

"If you can, go inside the hotel and check things out. I heard they've introduced a few new dishes that taste quite good.

Don't worry about the money; go in, order one of everything, and report back to me!"

Guo Dong had no interest in whatever was happening in Hongwu County.

He had already sold the goods, and whatever fuss the buyers wanted to make had nothing to do with him.

Right now, he and Meng Xiaohan were sitting by the small wooden cabin, grilling fish.

This time, Guo Dong had pulled out all the stops. Not only did he bring seasonings, but he even brought out some medicinal herbs that his grandfather usually dried in the sun.

Using traditional Chinese medicinal herbs to grill fish—he figured that outside of Guo Dong himself, no one else in Xiantao Village would ever do such a thing.

"Huh? Why does this fish taste different from the ones I usually eat?"

Meng Xiaohan sat on the ground, her long skirt covering her calves, holding a piece of fish meat and carefully putting it into her mouth.

After just a single bite, her eyes narrowed into crescent moons.

Could this be the power of love?

She had been eating fish from her own family's pond so often she was almost sick of it.

Yet today's fish caught her completely by surprise. One bite left her entire body feeling refreshed and her appetite greatly stimulated.

"It's the seasoning. These are my grandfather's treasures; he usually refuses to share them!"

Guo Dong was in an exceptionally good mood as well!

Thinking back to Meng Xiaohan's sudden actions from last night, his heart was still racing.

Putting everything else aside, at least one thing was certain: Meng Xiaohan had feelings for him.

Just knowing that much was more than enough!

The weather today was scorching, especially right at noon. Normally, nobody could endure eating a barbecue in this kind of weather.

However, the vegetable garden sat at a high elevation and caught a strong breeze, so instead of feeling hot, it felt pleasantly cool.

Specks of sunlight filtered through the leaves, casting a warm glow on Meng Xiaohan's face.

Inhaling the fresh fragrance rising from the vegetable patch, Meng Xiaohan couldn't help but murmur,

"If someone built a big house here, living here would be so comfortable!"

"Not here. This isn't residential land, so you can't build houses on it!" Guo Dong chuckled, quickly turning over another fish that was almost done.

Even though he said that, Guo Dong took her words deeply to heart.

"I was just talking casually. Did you actually take it seriously?"

Meng Xiaohan smiled softly, tossing the finished fish bones to Blackie, and said with a grin,

"There are too many wild animals around here. If it were allowed, the villagers would have built houses up in the mountains long ago—they wouldn't have waited for us!"

At the mention of this, she suddenly remembered something, wiped her hands, and took out her phone.

"The video you posted today is getting traction!"

"What do you mean?"

Guo Dong didn't understand what "getting traction" meant.

From his perspective, didn't you just post videos for your friends to see?

"It means the platform is promoting it for you. Look for yourself."

She handed the phone over to Guo Dong. The two of them were sitting so close together they looked like a sweet young couple.

As Meng Xiaohan's finger swiped across the screen, a series of comments caught Guo Dong's attention.

"This place is so pretty, but the uploader's camera skills are terrible—ruined a great view!"

"Oh damn, is that a village down there? Why does it look like a gourd?"

"I know this place! If you open a map, you can see right on the satellite view that it's shaped like a gourd."

"Gourdmouth, right? It was renamed Xiantao Village now—just a little village by the Honghu River. What's there to be surprised about?"

This was the internet, and it completely opened Guo Dong's eyes.

He had simply shot a random video without even deliberately trying to capture a panoramic view of the village.

Yet people had already recognized it.

Gourdmouth being renamed Xiantao Village—that had happened years ago. Even many of the locals in the village didn't know about it.

"Your filming technique needs work, or the visual effect would be even better!"

Meng Xiaohan put her phone away and smiled. "Next time you shoot a video, hand the phone to me. I'll edit it for you before you post it."

Guo Dong didn't understand. He was just playing around—did it really need to be that complicated?