Chapter 118 Remuneration
"Remuneration?" Zhao Chen was stunned, then he patted his chest and said proudly, "Director Yu, you tell me! As long as I can do it! I will climb mountains of swords and plunge into pots of oil without frowning!" He looked like he wanted to take out his heart and show it to her.
Yu Ling put down the thermos, leaned forward slightly, and approached Zhao Chen's handsome face, which was instantly tense and full of tension and expectation, across the shiny coffee table.
She lowered her voice, her voice soft and nasal, a bit coquettish. "As for the reward... it's simple." Her fingertips gently touched the tip of Zhao Chen's nose. "I want Chef Zhao's truffle chicken tonight... plus a fondant cake."
Zhao Chen was just about to nod, truffle chicken stew is his specialty!
"I want..." Yu Ling paused deliberately, admiring the hope that had just risen in his eyes, "I want a chef of the Michelin three-star standard."
She clearly stated her request, watching Zhao Chen's pupils suddenly dilate and the color drain from his face. "And..." She smiled like a cat that had successfully stolen some meat. "It must be done by you. No 'friends' for help. No trickery. I want to inspect it myself."
Boom!
Zhao Chen felt a bolt of lightning strike his head! Everything in front of him went black!
Fondant cake?!
Michelin three-star level?!
Do it yourself?!
The horrific image of the mass burial of kitchen pots and pans instantly filled his mind! This mission was even more difficult than when he single-handedly challenged the entire hacker alliance on the dark web!
"Ling... Mr. Yu!" Zhao Chen's voice trembled as he tried to struggle desperately:
"Fondant... this thing... isn't the technical content a bit too high? How about... try another one? Tiramisu? I... I swear I will study the recipe carefully this time! I promise not to buy the one downstairs!" He tried to make his eyes look "sincere" and "pitiful".
Yu Ling had already sat up straight and gracefully, holding the USB drive between two fingers and twirling it nimbly around her fingertips, a queen-like smile on her face.
"It's just a fondant cake. No negotiation." She waved the USB drive in front of Zhao Chen and asked slowly, "Or... can Mr. Zhao's friend's friend handle that pile of 'tangled yarn' himself?"
Zhao Chen: “…………”
He looked at the USB flash drive held between Yu Ling's fingers like a "hostage", and then looked at the sweet yet "evil" smile on her face that seemed to have him in her grasp.
On one side is a "small project" of potentially immeasurable value (or his wife's sense of accomplishment), and on the other side is the Fondant Hell Challenge that is destined to make his reputation as a "kitchen killer" resound throughout the universe!
Under the gaze of his wife, which seemed to know everything and carry a threatening tone of "Just try and see if you dare to refuse," Zhao Chen closed his eyes tragically and fearlessly, and squeezed out a trembling, extremely heavy word from between his teeth:
"……Do!"
Yu Ling smiled contentedly, like a cat that had just eaten ten fish. She put the USB drive away, picked up the thermos, and happily took another swig of the brown sugar water. Tsk, today's brown sugar water is so sweet!
In the evening, in the kitchen of Room 1601.
This place has completely become a fondant battlefield.
The concentration of sweet molecules in the air is high enough to directly cause diabetes.
On the countertop, various colored fondant pastes, bottles of food coloring, piping bags, and oddly shaped molds were piled up precariously, like a candy mountain about to collapse.
The floor, cabinet doors, and even the surface of the range hood are all dotted with colorful icing powder, as if they had just experienced a snowstorm.
Zhao Chen, the invisible tycoon whose code name is feared on the dark web and who can be wiped out in the blink of an eye in the business world, is now in the biggest crisis of his life.
The silly, adorable Shiba Inu cartoon apron he was wearing had long lost its original color, transformed into an abstract canvas. His handsome face was streaked with pink on the left, sky blue on the right, and a suspicious smudge of chocolate brown on his forehead.
The gold-rimmed glasses hung crookedly on the bridge of his nose, and the lenses were covered with a layer of powdered sugar mist, giving everything he saw a hazy filter.
He held a piping bag tightly in his left hand, as if holding a peerless divine weapon, and carefully held a... let's call it a "round" cake base in his right hand.
The embryo had pitted edges and a rugged surface, resembling the surface of the moon. His expression was unprecedentedly solemn, filled with despair, and a hint of the ferocity of impending heroic death!
"Hold steady... Zhao Chen! You can do it! Concentrate!" He lowered his voice to encourage himself, as if he was performing a high-risk bomb disposal mission. His eyes were fixed on the tiny outlet of the piping bag, and his arm muscles were trembling slightly due to excessive tension.
"The lines must be smooth... the curves must be graceful... it's like... it's like writing the most sophisticated algorithm! Yes! Precise! Zero error!"
He held his breath, and the tip of the piping bag trembled as it approached the rugged edge of the cake base.
Squeeze hard!
Phew——!
A large mass of thick pink fondant cream spurted out with astonishing momentum like a bursting dam of magma!
Not only did it perfectly cover the expected edges, but it also instantly submerged nearly one-third of the cake surface with tremendous force!
The wild and unrestrained form, full of primitive vitality, is definitely a masterpiece that would make the masters of Fauvism feel ashamed!
"Oh my god!" A curse word completely out of character for an "ordinary husband" burst out! Zhao Chen frantically tried to grab the scraper next to him to save the situation, but his movement was too violent, and his elbow knocked over the small bowl filled with sky-blue fondant next to him!
Clang! Crash!
The small bowl drew a graceful blue arc in the air, and the sticky blue paste in the bowl was sprinkled accurately like flowers scattered by a fairy!
Half of it was clasped on his left hand, which was covered with pink cream, while the other half was generously poured onto the knees of his limited edition casual pants! In an instant, a deep, sticky "ocean" spread out.
Zhao Chen: “…………”
He froze in place, as if under a spell.
In his left hand, he held the piping bag that was still dripping with pink cream, in his right hand he held the pink and blue "disaster scene", and on his knees was a vast ocean.
He stared blankly at the indescribable "crystallization of art" on the countertop, his eyes empty, as if his soul had left his body and was happily running naked on a planet without fondant at the end of the universe.
It's over.
It's completely screwed.
Michelin three stars?
This thing isn't even as good as the "Shocking" tiramisu at the coffee shop downstairs! If Lingling sees this... will she just throw him off the roof?
At this moment of despair, when the kitchen was filled with the sweet aroma of despair—
“Pfft—hahahahahaha!”
A laughter that was suppressed but finally erupted like a volcano suddenly exploded from the kitchen door!
Zhao Chen turned his head suddenly like a frightened bird!
Yu Ling had returned without me noticing, and was leaning against the doorframe. She had changed into soft off-white home clothes and was clutching the silver thermos cup she always carried with her.
At this moment, she was laughing so hard that she fell backwards, holding her stomach with one hand and holding the door frame tightly with the other hand. Her shoulders were shaking violently and tears were streaming down her face!
Her pretty face turned red from trying to hold back her laughter, and her eyes curved into crescents, filled with undisguised, huge gloating and pure, explosive joy!
"Zhao...hahaha...Chef Zhao!" Yu Ling laughed so hard that she could hardly breathe. Her fingers trembled as she pointed at the colorful "abstract masterpiece" on the countertop, and then at Zhao Chen's "battle-damaged" makeup.
"You...you're planning on sending this fondant cake...to the Avant-garde Art Biennale? Is the theme called...'The Sweet Remains of a Kitchen Nuclear Explosion'? Hahahaha!"
Zhao Chen's face instantly turned red like a boiled shrimp! He was so ashamed and angry that he wanted to die!
He frantically tried to hide the "weapon" in his hand, the piping bag, behind his back, but he moved too violently and the remaining pink cream in the piping bag was squeezed out. With a "puff", it shot out accurately and hit the few strands of hair hanging down in front of his forehead!
"Haha ...!" Yu Ling was completely beside herself with laughter! She burst into a roaring laughter! She doubled over with laughter, and the thermos cup almost fell to the ground. She squatted down, her forehead resting on her knees, her shoulders shaking wildly, and she was out of breath.
"Head...hair...pink...hahahaha! Zhao Chen...you...you are so amazing!"
The huge, imageless laughter, like a beam of the hottest sunlight, suddenly dispelled the last remaining haze in Yu Ling's heart about Gu Qianqian and the so-called "gap".
Looking at the clumsy man in front of her who was willing to turn himself into a "fondant disaster mascot" just to make her happy, all those thoughts of "family background" and "help" seemed so pale and ridiculous, and were shattered in an instant!
What she needs is never the halo of a socialite or the background of a noble family.
All she needed was this clumsy fool who would do anything to make her laugh (even if it meant blowing up the kitchen).
Yu Ling finally caught her breath from laughing to exhaustion, wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes, and stood up with the help of the door frame, her breathing still unstable.
She walked up to Zhao Chen, who was stiff as if he had been cast a petrification spell, and ignored the colorful and sticky "icing armor" on his body, and stood on tiptoe.
She stretched out her fingers, with a lingering smile and an almost gentle strength, and gently brushed away the glaring pink cream on his forehead.
Her movements were light, but her eyes were like melted honey, soft as a nut.
"Okay, Mr. Zhao," her voice still tinged with laughter and a barely perceptible hoarseness, "let go of your postmodern art, and let go of the kitchen, too."
She put down the thermos, grabbed a clean, wet towel from the side, and carefully wiped off the messy frosting and pigment on his face and hands, bit by bit.
"The reward for the fondant cake..." She spoke slowly while wiping it. Seeing Zhao Chen's sudden nervousness and eager gaze at her with an expression of "it's over", she paused deliberately, then smiled so brightly that it seemed to light up the entire kitchen.
“…You passed.”
Zhao Chen's eyes instantly widened! His pupils trembled! He passed?! Just with this pile of rubble?! Was he hallucinating?!
"But..." Yu Ling changed the subject and, under Zhao Chen's horrified gaze, reached out and picked up the corner of the cake base that was most severely contaminated by blue fondant and had the most outrageous pits on the edges.
She opened her mouth and took a big bite without hesitation!
A complex blend of cloying frosting, cloying cream, and a rough, textured cake base instantly filled my mouth. The appearance was gruesome, and the taste... was indescribably rich.
"Hmm..." Yu Ling chewed hard, her brows slightly furrowed, as if she was tasting some rare delicacy, or as if she was taking on some kind of extreme endurance challenge.
Finally, she swallowed it with difficulty and gave a thumbs-up to Zhao Chen, who was completely petrified and looked like he would shatter at any second. Her eyes were astonishingly bright, filled with complete sincerity and a strange sense of satisfaction:
"...Perfect sweetness! Chef Zhao, keep it up! This 'poison' is potent!"
Zhao Chen looked at the sky blue cream on the corner of her lips, looked at her sparkling eyes that only reflected his disheveled figure, and felt the gentle touch of her fingertips through the wet towel... The heart in his chest that was ravaged by the fondant and almost stopped beating was like being suddenly injected with hot lava!
boom!
A huge warm current and an almost suffocating sense of happiness instantly overwhelmed and filled him up!
What a bullshit inferiority complex! What a bullshit gap! What a bullshit Gu Qianqian is talking about!
At this moment, he was completely blasted into cosmic dust by this extremely sweet and horrifically shaped fondant cake, and his wife's smiling and shining words "Perfect sweetness" and "I'd eat poison too"!
He could no longer control himself, and regardless of the sticky frosting all over his hands and body, he suddenly stretched out his arms and hugged Yu Ling fiercely and tightly! The force was so strong that it seemed as if he wanted to embed her whole body into his bones!
"Lingling..." His voice was hoarse, filled with the immense joy of surviving a catastrophe and a barely perceptible sob. His hot breath sprayed against Ling's ear.
"Next time...next time I promise! I'll make something edible! Something good to look at! A fondant cake! I swear! I'll sign up for a class! I'll learn! I..."
Yu Ling was almost strangled by him, but a sweet and helpless smile spread across her face, like melted syrup.
She stretched out her arms, wrapped them around his sticky waist, which was also covered in icing, and buried her face deeply in the crook of his neck, which smelled of strong sweetness. Her muffled laughter was nasal and full of dependence:
"Alright, alright, Chef Zhao, stop raising your flag. I'm afraid the kitchen really can't handle it next time." She nuzzled into his arms, like a cat finding its nest, her voice soft and sticky, "...I believe you. I really do."
She paused, hugged him tighter, and spoke in a voice as light as a feather brushing against her heart, yet it carried a tremendous weight:
"...As long as it's you who did it, I'll take the blame for the poison."
In the kitchen, the overbearing and chaotic sweet aroma of fondant is still too strong to dissipate.
On the kitchen counter, the colorful and wildly shaped "sweet ruins" shimmered with a strange yet... warm luster under the light.
Yu Ling felt that this was the sweetest and most complete taste she had ever tasted in her life.
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