The Cheat Emperor of the Culinary World

Fu Yu felt so embarrassed he could almost dig a hole to Disneyland with his toes.

At that moment, his phone rang.

It was Zhao Meng calling.

Fu Yu quickly turned his head to look around, but he didn’t see Zhao Meng. Working overtime this late, he was most likely off giving Dai Li a ride home again.

”You go ahead, I’ll take this call.”

Whenever Fu Yu saw Zhang Jinyu now, it gave him a headache.

Zhang Jinyu didn’t notice a thing and walked off with a smile.

With no one else around, Fu Yu finally answered the call, ”Hello...”

”Fu Xiaoqiu, can’t you be generous for once?” Zhao Meng’s tone carried a hint of exasperation.

Fu Yu explained reluctantly, trying to salvage the situation, ”How about I send another one?”

Zhao Meng replied speechlessly, ”Forget it, the face is lost anyway, might as well save the money.”

Fu Yu thought about it and agreed. Losing face and spending money didn’t make sense.

If losing face costs nothing, then so be it.

With that thought, he unexpectedly felt relieved...

Zhao Meng said, ”Take a day off tomorrow. Chef Yao wants you to go to the music restaurant.”

Fu Yu didn’t think much of it and replied, ”Alright!”

After a long day, the evening was the only time he could truly relax.

Soaking his feet, Fu Yu called his home.

His mom asked over the phone, ”Son, did you eat mooncakes today?”

The shop did give them each a box of mooncakes, but he hadn’t gotten around to eating it amidst the busy day.

Fu Yu laughed and said, ”I did. How about you and Dad?”

His mom went on in detail about things at home, and Fu Yu listened patiently.

Living away from home, he missed his parents the most.

Not being able to see them, hearing their voices was still comforting.

After a year of working outside, Fu Yu felt like he suddenly became mature and understanding.

He slowly began to understand his parents’ longing and love for him.

...

Early the next morning, Fu Yu tidied up a bit and took the car to the music restaurant.

In the morning, he worked in the kitchen with others, busy at work when Yao Shi came over calling him to go to the office.

”My partner is here. His surname is Liu, and his name is Liu Yu. Just call him President Liu.”

Fu Yu was a bit surprised. The second boss wanted to see him indeed.

Walking into the office, he saw a tall, slim, fair-skinned middle-aged man sitting in a chair making a call.

”Alright, since the young lady mentioned it, let her go too!”

”At the head office’s autumn order meeting this time, I heard they’re planning a live fashion show. She’s new in the industry and doesn’t know much. She can go and get some exposure.”

Hearing the commotion, Liu Yu looked up at Fu Yu and smiled, nodding, ”Ok, get the plane tickets booked first, then let me know once everything is arranged.”

Hanging up the phone, Liu Yu greeted with a smile, ”Is this Chef Fu? So young indeed!”

Fu Yu quickly greeted, ”Hello, President Liu.”

Liu Yu stood up, came around, and the three of them sat down on the guest sofa.

Looking at Fu Yu, Liu Yu spoke cheerfully, ”Chef Fu, Old Yao’s already told me about you, praising your excellent cooking skills. Upon meeting you, I see you’re indeed outstanding.”

”You’ve been working part-time here for a while. As for your arrangements, Old Yao mentioned wanting to formalize things with you. But I’ve been pondering over this because your case is a bit unusual — you can only come once a week, making it hard to arrange things properly.”

”Therefore, I thought about it and figured we don’t necessarily have to sign a contract or adhere strictly to formalities. Here at the music restaurant, we generally only have formal contracts with chefs, each lasting five years, while head chefs are directly involved in profit sharing. It’s called a commission, but we treat it as an annual bonus based on profit sharing.”

”Considering you already have a contract with Qianlima, you can officially join our restaurant in this profit-sharing manner.”

Yao Shi’s eyes widened at this.

Liu Yu hadn’t discussed this with him at all!

The music restaurant had considerable profits!

The chefs in the back, regular chefs earn six to seven thousand a month, while those like Chef Liu and Chef Lin easily make twenty to thirty thousand.

But this profit sharing had always been exclusively for him and Liu Yu.

Now Liu Yu was clearly making big promises to Fu Yu!

Liu Yu continued, ”Of course, you don’t need to worry. Until your contract with Qianlima expires, you can continue as it is, coming once a week to help out... Even though you can’t receive full-time employee benefits here like insurance or a formal contract, you can still enjoy the profit-sharing rights of a head chef here. How does that sound?”

Yao Shi was at a loss for words.

No need for a contract, coming only once a week, and still getting a share of the profits?

How does this even compute?

Fu Yu was also dumbfounded.

The music restaurant’s profits were undeniably good, making hundreds of thousands to millions a year wasn’t an issue, sharing profits with him?

How much could that be?

The key is he could only come four days a month.

This was basically like stuffing money directly into his pocket!

If this offer were made to Yao Shi, it might be feasible.

But for him, just turned regular chef with less than a year of experience, to have such treatment?

Yao Shi stared incredulously at Liu Yu too.

What was this big brother up to?

With such an offer, anyone with a sound mind would instinctively refuse!

There’s no free lunch in the world!

Sure enough, after hearing this, Fu Yu politely said, ”President Liu, you’re too kind to me. But I’m already a full-time employee with Qianlima, especially since I can only get four days off a month, coming over is just to do regular assistant chef work. The current benefits are already very satisfying, how could I take additional profit shares from you?”

Liu Yu chuckled and said, ”I figured you might refuse. But actually, Xiaofu, I just want to express my sincere welcome to you joining our restaurant in the future. You’re a highly potential and outstanding talent. Not only does Chef Yao speak highly of you, recommending you to me, but since I personally tasted the three-course meal you prepared yesterday, I knew you indeed have great skills.”

Fu Yu was surprised, not expecting that Liu Yu had gone to Qianlima for the Mid-Autumn Festival meal yesterday.

Or that the three-course meal was ordered by Liu Yu.

Well.

Everyone loves to hear good things.

Fu Yu, at an age where he hadn’t fully experienced society’s trials, was almost floating from Liu Yu’s praise and flattery.

Especially since he always knew Zhao Meng would sooner or later come over to the music restaurant. If he also had the chance, he would definitely follow Zhao Meng without hesitation!

It’s just that his contract with Qianlima was two years.

Discussing matters two years ahead was, after all, premature for now.