Chapter 49
Mu Yulu achieved her goal.
She was just struggling with how to bring up this topic with Qi Zhizhi without making it seem like her actions tonight had ulterior motives.
After all, her status is what it is; she is the eldest daughter of the Mu family. She can't very well tell them that she only decided to become a chef at the World's Number One Restaurant because she was short of money.
Unexpectedly, just as she was feeling troubled, Qi Zhi Qiu brought up the matter herself, so she simply continued to guide her to take the initiative to say what she wanted to do.
Qi Zhizhi frowned upon hearing this. "Miss Mu is the daughter of the Mu family. How could she possibly come to our restaurant to cook for others?"
Mu Yulu quickly replied, "Yes, yes."
She released Qi Zhi Qiu's hand, then grabbed Qi Zhi Zhi's sleeve, blinked her eyes and said, "I think Miss Qi makes a lot of sense. This is a win-win solution."
She winked at Qi Zhizhi again, "I just love cooking and hope that more people can taste my cooking. You can even not pay me."
She started using a strategy of retreating to advance again.
Qi Zhi Qiu quickly interrupted her: "How can this be? How can we not pay you? You cooked so deliciously, I think we should pay you according to Chef Yang's wages."
The naive girl has taken the bait again.
Qi Zhizhi was certainly not as easily fooled as Qi Zhiqi. He stared intently at Mu Yulu until she felt a little guilty before finally speaking, "Miss Mu, are you serious?"
Mu Yulu swallowed and nodded.
Qi Zhizhi nodded, "I can make the decision to let you enter the Number One Restaurant Under Heaven, but..."
Hearing the word "but," Mu Yulu's heart skipped a beat. She thought Qi Zhizhi was going to say something like halving her wages. After all, she stayed in the Mu family mansion and had limited time to cook at the restaurant each day, maybe only two or three hours.
She had already decided that even if the wages were halved, it would still be a considerable income, and she would still gladly go.
She desperately needed the money.
Unexpectedly, Qi Zhizhi only said, "But you need to disguise yourself well, dress up every day, and not appear in the restaurant kitchen as a woman."
Mu Yulu was taken aback. "Does the Number One Restaurant Under Heaven not hire female chefs?"
Qi Zhizhi smiled and said, "No, it's because Miss Mu's identity is somewhat special. If you don't disguise yourself, you'll attract too much attention."
Mu Yulu suddenly realized and said "Oh," and quickly assured Qi Zhizhi, "Don't worry about that, I will absolutely not let anyone discover my true identity, and I will absolutely not cause you any trouble."
“In that case, Miss Mu will be inconvenienced. I will settle your wages according to Chef Yang’s rate.” Qi Zhizhi looked at her with a smile in his eyes. “In addition, I will give you some extra silver as compensation for your hard work in disguising yourself every day.”
Mu Yulu's eyes lit up when she heard this.
At this moment, Qi Zhizhi's image in her mind could be described as quite tall and mighty, completely different from the impression he left on her a few days ago.
She said gratefully, "Then thank you very much, Young Master Qi. I have nothing to thank you for, but I would like to invite you to come and sit here for a while when you have time. I will cook my best dishes for you."
As she spoke, she eagerly placed a piece of tofu on Qi Zhizhi's plate, saying, "Try this tofu. It's a dish I created myself, and you can't find it anywhere else."
Upon hearing this, Qi Zhi Qiu took a bite before Qi Zhi Zhi could even pick up her chopsticks. She was immediately impressed by the tofu in front of her. "This tofu is so tender! What's amazing is that it has absolutely no fishy smell. It's fresher than any tofu I've ever eaten."
Qi Zhizhi took a small sip and then revealed the key: "This tender tofu has been boiled in water to remove the beany smell, but what really masks the fishy smell is the chicken soup and fish slices."
Mu Yulu started flattering Qi Zhizhi again: "No wonder you're the young master of the No. 1 Restaurant in the world, you really know how to eat!"
She then served Qi Zhizhi a piece of tofu. "This tender tofu is indeed cooked in chicken broth with thinly sliced fish for a while before being served with fermented bean curd oil and shiitake mushrooms."
Appreciation appeared in Qi Zhizhi's eyes, while Qi Zhiqi praised repeatedly, "How did you come up with this method? It's absolutely delicious."
Mu Yulu casually said, "I just tried it casually before, I didn't expect the tofu to taste so delicious."
She made up lies while inwardly smiling bitterly.
How else could they have come up with this idea?
It's all because of Mu Qinhan.
In his previous life, Mu Qinhan's favorite food was tender tofu, but he disliked the fishy smell of tofu. Even the tender tofu cooked by Chef Yang of the No. 1 Restaurant in the world still tasted fishy tofu to him.
In order to please Mu Qinhan, Mu Yulu began to painstakingly study how to make tender tofu, striving to remove all the beany smell while ensuring that the tofu was tender and delicious.
However, in her previous life, the chicken soup stewed with tofu that she had painstakingly researched was immediately poured out by Mu Qinhan and fed to his dog before it was delivered to him.
Thinking of this, Mu Yulu sneered inwardly. Fine, it's just that this dog of a man is unlucky. Even if such delicious food were served to him, he wouldn't be able to taste it.
In her past life, she was too stubborn. She never thought that she could rely on her cooking skills to support herself and cook for this jerk every day.
Now she has come to her senses. She doesn't know if her culinary skills can win a man's heart, but she is certain that they can win over a customer's stomach.
What is a man's heart anyway? It can't be eaten.
Only the stomachs of her guests can bring her real money.
The group finalized the matter over a meal.
With Mu Yulu's addition, the already bustling Tianxia Diyi Lou restaurant became even more popular, especially her original dish, chicken soup stewed tofu, which attracted many diners from afar.
At her most extreme, she could make sixty or seventy kinds of tofu a day.
Such days are naturally tiring, but Mu Yulu enjoys them.
After all, back when she was in the Prince's mansion, she used to spend all day in the kitchen researching new dishes, but all her efforts yielded no results. Now, however, she can earn a lot of money by working hard for just a few hours each day, and even receive extra tips from diners.
Now, working as a chef at the No.1 Restaurant in the world, she finally feels her own value and truly experiences the joy of cooking.
Because her signature dish, chicken broth stewed tofu, is so popular, it's now commonplace for her to make dozens of tofu dishes every day in the kitchen.
That day, she was busy in the kitchen as usual. She took the order form from the waiter and got to work without even looking up. The order form happened to contain all her signature dishes, which she cooked with great ease.
One dish after another was served, and the waiter was overjoyed. As Mu Yulu was slicing bamboo shoots with incredible speed, he approached her with a silver ingot in his hand and said ingratiatingly, "It's all thanks to Chef Mu's excellent skills that we were able to attract such a distinguished guest. He's so generous; he just casually gave her a silver ingot as a tip."
Mu Yulu continued to chop vegetables quickly. "Don't worry, leave it to me. You instructed me beforehand that this is a distinguished guest. Look, I even chopped the vegetables myself; I didn't have anyone else prepare them."
The waiter beamed with delight: "The person upstairs raved about Chef Mu's skills, especially the tender tofu. Prince Mu himself endorsed it, saying he had never tasted such delicious tender tofu before..."
Before the waiter could finish speaking, Mu Yulu suddenly flicked her wrist, and the cleaver in her hand slammed down on the edge of the cutting board with a clang, making her hands go numb.
She turned and glared at him. "Who did you just call me? Prince Mu? Mu Qinhan?"
The waiter, terrified, lunged forward to cover her mouth, shouting, "How dare you call Prince Mu by his name? Don't you want to die?"
The thought of her painstakingly prepared dishes ending up in Mu Qinhan's mouth ignited a nameless anger within Mu Yulu.
Didn't he complain that her cooking was dirty? Didn't he prefer to throw the food out to feed the dog rather than eat it himself?
In her past life, her only motivation for cooking was to hope that Mu Qinhan would taste the new dishes she had specially researched for him. But in this life, she would never want to cook for Mu Qinhan again.
Mu Yulu brushed away the waiter's hand that reached out to her: "Where is Mu Qinhan?"
Even the dumbest waiter would realize at this moment that Chef Mu and Prince Mu were at odds, so he didn't dare let her go upstairs to find him. He quickly shut his mouth, waved his hand, and ran out of the kitchen.
"Fine, you're not going to tell me, huh? No problem." Mu Yulu threw down the cleaver in her hand, turned her head and glanced at the small print on the menu, where it clearly read "Number One in the World".
The waiter's face was almost red with embarrassment. "Where are you going? You absolutely mustn't offend Prince Mu!"
He quickly summoned the waiters who were still busy in the front hall, and together they spread their arms to try to stop Mu Yulu.
However, Mu Yulu seemed to possess divine power when faced with such a critical moment. Her strength was extraordinary, and even the combined efforts of these men could not stop her. They could only watch helplessly as she charged towards the number one spot like a firecracker.
Mu Yulu climbed several floors in one go without even breaking a sweat.
She pushed open the carved wooden door at the end of the corridor, and the door slammed against the wall with a loud thud.
Inside the room, Mu Qinhan was holding a pair of chopsticks, slowly reaching for some food. Two attendants stood beside him, who had been standing there like wooden stakes. When they saw Mu Yulu enter, they exchanged glances and raised their hands to draw their swords, but Mu Qinhan stopped them.
He recognized Mu Yulu at a glance, and when he saw her dressed like this at the restaurant, he immediately realized who she was.
Mu Qinhan said in a very good mood, "I was wondering why the dishes here were different from before. It turns out they invited you, the head chef, to join them?"
However, Mu Qinhan was obviously too happy too soon. The smile had just appeared in his eyes when Mu Yulu swung her arm and flipped the table, overturning the entire table of dishes along with the tablecloth.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
