My Fantastic Chef Wife

…Ye Xiaoxian then decided to go along with them to gain a further benefit so she said flatteringly, “It turns out that you sirs are young masters from wealthy families. I’m sorry about the slight, may I take your order please?”

Young Master Zhang put his elbow on the chair and sighed. “Urgh, I have too much yang energy in my body and have lost my appetite so I’m not sure what to eat. Have you got anything to recommend to us, miss?”

Ye then answered, “Every dish in our restaurant is appetizing, like fish fillet in chili oil, cold Pig’s ear, chicken feet with pickle peppers and I can also cook a whole boiled chicken…”

She had recommended all the dishes in her restaurant.

Young Master Zhang asked confused, “Is it alright to still eat spicy food when there’s too much yang in me?”

“Just like using poison as an antidote to cure the other poison. It’ll be fine!” said Ye Xiaoxian.

However, she was thinking, ‘I’ll make it so hot that you jerks will die in it.’

Young Master Zhang continued, “What if my poison can’t be neutralized by the other poison? So will you be our antidote then?”

Fatty and Skinny burst into laughter.

Ye Xiaoxian acted as if she was wronged and said, “Sirs, you’re all wealthy young masters, even if you taste all our dishes here it won’t cost you much. How do you bear to get even with me, a humble ordinary woman, over such trifling matters? Just the day before yesterday, a sir came over and ordered every dish, and though he finally found them not to his taste he didn’t ask me to return his money, but gave the rest away to the tramps at the bridgehead.”

Young Master Zhang heard this and found it made sense. The reason he came here today was to act as a rich guy and show off, yet what he just said sounded a bit too stingy.

“Then serve us one course each of all the dishes you just mentioned,” said Young Master Zhang.

Ye Xiaoxian continued. “There’s a rule in our restaurant. When the food ordered by our customers comes to more than two taels of silver, they need to pay a deposit before I cook for them.”

Young Master Zhang immediately gave two of the silver ingots to Ye Xiaoxian. “Fine, here you are!”

“Thank you, sir,” Ye Xiaoxian was going to take them but Young Master Zhang groped her hands. Ye Xiaoxian felt disgusted but pretended not to feel anything. “Sirs, please sit here for a while. I am on my way to cook your dishes.”

…Once she entered the kitchen, Ye Xiaoxian immediately took out the silver ingots and washed them carefully as well as her hands. It was so disgusting, like being touched by a toad.

Ye Xiaoxian began to cook after she had washed her hands thoroughly.

Li Hongmei heard that Ye Xiaoxian had ripped off the Young Master Zhang which really cracked her up. “Little Ye, I didn’t know you could do such a thing. I thought you were too honest for that.”

Ye Xiaoxian said, “It depends on what kind of people I’m dealing with. Someone like Young Master Zhang who looks self-confident is actually self-abasing inside and afraid of being looked down upon by others, so he’ll become so snubby once others flatter him a bit. If he’d like to spend away his money, I wouldn’t mind having him here everyday.”

“Good job!” Li Hongmei praised Ye Xiaoxian and then went to work in the hall. Meanwhile, she was listening carefully to what the three men were talking about.

She heard Fatty complimenting him. “Young Master Zhang, when that missy saw the silver her eyes went all googly.”

Skinny said, “As expected, there are no girls who can resist Young Master Zhang’s charm. As long as Young Master Zhang places the sliver on the table, the chicks will take the bait.”

Young Master Zhang was eating the free stir fried peanuts and looked rather proud. “This move never fails me. Hehe, wait and see and it won’t take long before the missy throws herself into my arms.”

“…”

Li Hongmei was disgusted by him. This Young Master Zhang was thinking too highly of himself. He thought that she loved him for being himself? What she loved was your money, okay? You really should wait and see who will win and who will lose.

…Ye Xiaoxian cooked a whole table’s worth of dishes for Young Master Zhang and the other two, and they surely would be unable to finish them.

Li Hongmei asked him if he wanted to take them away and said that they had boxes which were twenty coins each, but Young Master Zhang was not interested in taking them away. For him, taking away food meant being stingy.

He said to Li Hongmei in a snobbish tone, “It’s up to you to deal with the leftovers. You can eat them yourselves or give them out to beggars or feed the dogs, whatever, but anyway we can’t be bothered.”

Li Hongmei said right away, “Young Master Zhang, you’re such a generous gentleman, throughout the town I can’t find another man who can compete with you, I mean, not only this town but the whole world. You’re the most outstanding figure.”

Young Master Zhang was pleased by Li Hongmei’s flattering and actually gave her ten coins as a tip.

Li Hongmei also took it happily. It was not much but better than nothing at all.

…Young Master Zhang came again the following day. He did not take out three sliver ingots this time but put a gold ingot onto the table instead. Once again he asked Li Hongmei to tell Ye Xiaoxian to come over.

Ye Xiaoxian came out and glanced at the gold ingot on the table, sneering in her heart but smiling to him. “Young Master Zhang, you’ve impressed me even more with your generosity. Your gold ingot even makes our humble inn look fancier. What would you like today, Young Master Zhang? Same as yesterday, one of each dish?”

“The food can wait but I’d like to ask you what kind of customer you prefer?” asked Young Master Zhang with a smiling face.

Ye Xiaoxian thought, ‘You just want me to flatter you, right?”

Still, Ye Xiaoxian acted dumb on purpose. “There was an out-of-town merchant who came here the other day. That gentleman was what I call extravagant, and not only ordered a whole table of food for himself but paid the bill for all of the diners here. He said that he’d just heard from home that his wife had given birth to a baby boy, so he was extremely happy.”

“…” Young Master Zhang’s smiling face was frozen all of a sudden.

Skinny and Fatty also looked at each other in speechless despair.

Although “The Xiao’s Cuisine” was not very expensive and affordable for regular folk, he could not afford ordering a whole table of food every time he came, let alone paying the bills of every diner here, or his gold ingot would then be gone. If Young Master Zhang’s pa knew of that his ass would be kicked hard.

Young Master Zhang glanced around and it happened to be lunch time, so the restaurant was almost packed.

He thought to himself, ‘I should leave and come back a bit later when there are only two or three tables occupied.’

Ye Xiaoxian could tell what was in his mind so she added. “When the merchant came that day, our restaurant was full without a single empty table. It was so rare to serve such a customer and it impressed me so much.”

Young Master Zhang gritted his teeth and made up his mind, asking, “So you will be extremely impressed by me as long as I treat everyone here to their meal?”

“It’s rare to have such customers here so of course I would be extremely impressed. Young Master Zhang, are you sure that you’ll treat everyone to their meal?” asked Ye Xiaoxian.

Young Master Zhang thumped the table. “Of course, it’s all on me!”

Ye Xiaoxian tipped Li Hongmei a wink and Li Hongmei began to clap her hands and shouted loudly, “Everyone, everyone, there’s a good news for everyone! Young Master Zhang is in a good mood today and he says he’s going to treat everyone to their meal. Everything you’ve ordered today is all on Young Master Zhang!”

The restaurant was suddenly stirred.

“Thank you, Young Master Zhang!”

“Young Master Zhang, you’re so generous. You must be really rich, are you?”

“Young Master Zhang just looks extraordinary and so good-looking.”