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  "Knife! Knife! How did you end up here?" A shrill voice rang out from a short distance away.

  Xiao Yu and several others looked up to see a big fat man, weighing over 200 pounds, walking towards them. This fat man was shorter than a large cow by about one head, but his waist circumference was several times larger than that of the cow. As he walked, the flesh on his body swayed back and forth, and his round face had two small eyes that narrowed into thin slits when he smiled.

  This chubby guy is actually quite jolly-looking and doesn't annoy people at all.

  "Huh? Big Mountain, what's going on?" Little Knife also stood up in surprise and walked towards the fatty.

  Xiao Dao and Da Shan chatted for a few sentences before pulling Da Shan over to sit with Xiao Yu and the others.

  When the fat boy sat down, the sturdy wooden chair made a "creak" sound, startling Little Yu greatly.

  "Come, Big Mountain, let me introduce you. This is my boss Zhang Xiaoyu! Boss, this is my former classmate from culinary school Wang Dashan, just call him Big Mountain." Little Knife made the introductions for both parties.

  "Boss?" Da Shan's small eyes widened in surprise. How could a young student like him become the boss?

  "Haha, is it Da Shan? I'm Zhang Xiaoyu, the boss of 'Little Universe Spicy Noodle Shop'." Since he was a friend of Xiao Dao, Xiaoyu extended his hand in friendship.

  "Ah, it's the owner of that new spicy noodle shop! Nice to meet you! Nice to meet you!" Da Shan apparently had heard of 'Little Yu's Spicy Noodle Shop' and shook hands with Little Yu in surprise.

  The little knife introduced the big cow to the big mountain, and after they all knew each other, they started chatting.

  Dà Shān is a Shanghai native, with a thick Nanhui accent, but Xiǎo Yǔ and the others can barely understand him. This guy is now the head chef at 'Chūn Xiǎo Lóu', and he will be leading this competition for 'Chūn Xiǎo Lóu'.

  Xiao Yu was surprised in his heart, this really is a coincidence, it turned out that the small steamed buns he had eaten at 'Chun Xiao Lou' last time were made by Da Shan.

  Dashi has been at 'Chun Xiao Lou' for five or six years, and can be considered an old-timer on Tianlin Road, with almost every shop owner knowing his name.

  With him around, Xiao Yu gradually matched up those bosses and the store names in his mind.

  "Huh, Dashan, where is Mr. Yang from Tianlin Hot Pot City?" Xiaoyu listened to Dashan's introduction, but didn't see the organizer of this competition, Mr. Yang from Tianlin Hot Pot City, and couldn't help but wonder.

  "Boss Yang? Oh, maybe he's gone to accompany the judges!" Da Shan said casually.

  "Judges? Where did the judges come from?" Xiao Yu was surprised in his heart, it's just a small competition at the street level, do you need to invite judges? And this Yang boss even went to accompany the guests personally, it seems that the origin of these judges is absolutely not trivial.

  According to what Dashan said earlier, the boss Yang of this hot pot city can be considered a character. His wife works in the Xu Hui district government and is said to be a not-so-big-or-small official.

  These days, running a business without any backing is impossible. With Tianlin Hot Pot City's large scale, if there isn't anyone in charge internally, just dealing with the frequent inspections from the Administration for Industry and Commerce, Taxation Bureau, and Health Department would be overwhelming.

  Dashi scratched his head, and it seemed he couldn't figure out where this judge had come from either.

  "Master Da Shan! Master Da Shan! How did you end up sitting here? I've been searching all over for you, the boss wants to ask you, which snack should we make for the first round of the competition?" A young chef with a sweaty forehead ran over.

  Dashi glared at the young chef and silently cursed his foolishness. Could such a confidential matter be discussed in public?

  Although this little knife is his good friend, after all, they are competitors today, how can he casually reveal his own arrangements to the other party?

  Dashi looked at Xiaoyu and the others again, feeling embarrassed, stood up, "Boss Zhang, Xiao Dao, our boss has something to do with me, I'll take my leave first."

  After finishing speaking, he followed the young chef and hurriedly walked towards the other side of the field.

  "What's with this kid? How mysterious!" Xiao Dao looked at Da Shan's back thoughtfully.

  Xiao Yu's eyebrows furrowed, listening to the young chef's words, it seemed that this competition was still divided into several rounds. Could it be that each store needed to prepare several snacks?

  Xiao Yu and his friends had only prepared one dish, "extreme fried chicken noodles". If things were really as he suspected, then they would be in trouble!

  "Xiao Dao, quickly go and gather some information, ask about the arrangement of the competition schedule." Xiao Yu instructed in a low voice.

  The little knife also understood the severity of the situation and immediately walked towards the group of chefs chatting enthusiastically on the side.

  Before long, the little knife came back.

  This kid is usually calm and collected in his dealings with others. Even so, at this moment, there were also dense beads of sweat on his forehead.

  "Xiao Yu, it's not good, we've been fooled! This competition is divided into three rounds. First, the participating teams are divided into three groups, and the top three in each group will be selected in the first round. Then, the nine winning teams will be re-divided into three groups through a draw, and the second round of competition will determine the top team in each group. The final round of competition will then select the champion among these three teams. The most critical thing is that the snacks for each round must be different, which means that if we want to enter the final round, we need to prepare three types of snacks!" Xiao Dao finished speaking in one breath, his face full of anger and frustration.

  "Three snacks? Xiao Yu, we've only prepared one snack! Isn't this a sure loss!" Da Niu also said discontentedly beside him.

  Xiao Yu immediately realized the seriousness of the situation, seeing the other bosses' calm and collected demeanor, they must have known about the competition process beforehand, while only he was left out. It seemed that these people wanted to give this newcomer a warning, intentionally not informing him of the competition process.

  A faint smile hung on Xiao Yu's lips, he lowered his head and whispered a few words to the big cow beside him. The big cow looked startled, nodded, got up from his seat, and walked outwards.

  Little Knife saw Big Cow leave and asked Little Yu in confusion, "Little Yu, where did Big Cow go? We still need him to pull noodles later!"

  Although this big cow is not as good at cooking as Xiao Dao, this kid has a strong arm and can pull noodles with one hand. This time, when Xiao Yu and the others were studying new varieties, Big Cow didn't idle around either. After his countless experiments, he finally pulled out an ultra-high-quality noodle that surpassed Xiao Yu's level.

  Now he's gone, Xiao Dao felt even more uneasy in his heart. Could it be that Little Yu thought there was no hope of winning the match and let Big Niu go back to work?

  Xiao Yu saw Xiao Dao's concern and smiled slightly, "Xiao Dao, don't worry, I just asked Da Niu to go back to the store to fetch some things."

  "Take something?" The little knife was even more confused.

  At this time, a middle-aged man in a suit and tie with gold-rimmed glasses walked down from the second-floor office. Behind him was a fat man whose body shape could be compared to a mountain, but his face was somewhat pale, with dark eye circles, looking like he had overindulged in wine.

  "Boss Yang is here! Boss Yang has arrived!"

  "Boss Ma, look at Boss Yang, wherever he goes, his suit is always neat and tidy, we can't compare to that!"

  "What's with his pretentious attitude? Isn't it all because of his wife's connections? Otherwise, could this kid be so arrogant?"

  "Who is the fat guy behind Mr. Yang? Looks like I've never seen him before."

  "Hmm, I haven't seen it either, maybe it's a bodyguard?"

  ……

  There are people who flatter, there are people who mock, and more people are guessing what the fat man who is closely following Mr. Yang's back is to Mr. Yang, it doesn't seem like he is just an ordinary employee.

  "Huh? It's actually him?!?!?"

  Xiao Yu suddenly felt that the little knife beside him was a bit off, turned his head to look, and saw that the little knife's forehead was bulging with veins, his teeth were chattering loudly, his fists were clenched tightly, and his eyes were staring fixedly at the fat man, as if he was about to rush up and fight him to the death.

  "Xiao Dao! What's wrong?" Xiao Yu pushed Xiao Dao a little.

  Xiao Dao suddenly woke up, gave the fat man a hateful glance, and said to Xiao Yu, "Xiao Yu, do you still remember my sister Xiao Mei's experience that I told you about last time?"

  "Remember! What's wrong?" Xiaoyu suddenly reacted, could it be that this fat guy has some connection with Xiaomei?

  "Xiao Dao said coldly, 'This fat guy is the master chef of that restaurant where I used to work - Liu Bao Cai. He's the one who tried to bully my sister that day!'"

  "It was him!" Little Yu had already guessed roughly, but he was still surprised.

  This proverb says it well: enemies are bound to meet again. In this big Shanghai, it just so happens that Xiao Dao ran into Liu Baochai once more.

  "Xiao Dao, I'm warning you, don't be impulsive. You've already been to prison once. If you intentionally hurt someone this time, it won't just be a matter of a few months. What will happen to Xiao Mei if you go in?" Xiao Yu said while pulling on Xiao Dao's arm, reminding him not to lash out and hurt anyone, as he was well aware of how much Xiao Mei meant to Xiao Dao.

  "Xiao Mei..." Xiao Dao's mind suddenly calmed down. Ah, if he were to go to jail, what would happen to Xiao Mei? It was just when they had finally stabilized their lives together, and Xiao Mei was about to start attending Hong Guang Middle School thanks to Xiao Yu's help with the introduction... Would everything be ruined because of that scoundrel Liu Bao Cai?

  "No... absolutely not!" Xiao Dao made up his mind immediately and said to Xiao Yu, "Xiao Yu, don't worry, I'm not that stupid. It's not worth going back to jail for this rotten person!"

  At this time, Boss Yang had already brought Liu Bao Cai to the front of those bosses and laughed, "Everyone, I'd like to introduce you to our new head chef at Tian Lin Hot Pot City, Mr. Liu Bao Cai! Mr. Liu used to be the head chef at a five-star hotel, and it's really my good luck that we were able to invite him here!"

  "What?! The head chef of a five-star hotel?!!!"

  Mr. Yang's words shocked all the bosses, what is the purpose of inviting a five-star hotel chef to this hot pot city? Are they also thinking of doing stir-fry and dim sum business? Isn't this just trying to get rich by any means?!

  In the past, this hot pot city only did hot pot business, and at most it was just selling mutton skewers. Now it's going to come up with a new trick, eighteen martial arts?

  Mr. Yang looked at the expressions of all the bosses with satisfaction and spoke again, "From today on, our Tianlin Hot Pot City will be renamed 'Tianlin Food City', and in the future, we will also ask for your care!"

  "What?!?!!!"

  The bosses were stunned, the Food City and Hot Pot City had only two words of difference, but the meaning was vastly different. Being neighbors with a Food City that had a five-star hotel chef in residence was like sleeping on a tiger's bed, they probably wouldn't be able to sleep at night.

  No wonder Mr. Yang was so enthusiastic about organizing this food competition, it turned out that he wanted to take the first place and give all the bosses a warning, with so many guests on site, the reputation of this food city is likely to spread far before its opening.

  Some small business owners are still okay, but the bosses of those larger stores have some unnatural expressions on their faces. Once this food city opens, their own businesses will definitely be affected.

  Leaving the bosses aside, Mr. Yang walked to the center of the venue and stepped onto a small temporary stage, adjusted the microphone, and began to speak, "Ladies and gentlemen! Honorable bosses! Since everyone is here, I won't keep you waiting any longer. Let's start this food festival! Please welcome our three judges!"

  "Oh~~~~~ Alright~~~~~ Let's get started! We've all been waiting for half a day!" The guests cheered, and the lively scene finally began.

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  Next chapter update announcement: Tomorrow morning at 7 o'clock

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