The Reviled God of Cooking Tries to Slack Off - Chapter 25

However, after eating a few bites, he hesitated for a moment, then put down his chopsticks and picked up another piece of beef. The beef was cooked with porridge, making it even more tender. Besides the aroma of rice, it was full of rich, pure meat fragrance. With simple seasoning, the meat’s aroma became more pronounced.

An Xiaoping ate seriously. When eating something delicious, a happy smile naturally appeared on his face. The food seemed even more fragrant, making anyone who saw it feel hungry.

Jiang Tingzhou liked cooking for such children; just watching them made him feel appetized.

“Aiya, I just gain weight so easily,” An Xiaoping said, showing some self-control. He ate only a bit of meat and vegetables, and when he set his chopsticks down at around seventy percent full, he still seemed reluctant. He sighed, “Brother, you never get fat no matter how much you eat. I’m so jealous.”

Jiang Tingzhou never abstained from food. He ate everything and ate a lot. Yet he was much thinner than the average person. Whether he could gain weight in the future remained uncertain.

But clearly, that goal wasn’t so easy.

Because once Jiang Tingzhou got to work, he didn’t stop. He was just that active—nothing like someone who quit his job to rest.

After finishing lunch, Jiang Tingzhou started turning over the other land in the yard in the afternoon. He wasn’t skilled with farm tools like hoes and was quite meticulous. Some large stones and weed roots that were cleaned out got turned up again, so it took longer than usual.

He stayed busy all the time, and the amount of exercise he got was even greater than those who stayed in the gym all day.

An Xiaoping was a little tired after running back and forth taking photos nearby, but Jiang Tingzhou barely sweated.

He was used to working like this since childhood. His fatigue threshold was extremely high. He even set alarms to remind himself to take breaks, because the doctor said balancing work and rest was healthier; otherwise, Jiang Tingzhou would keep working nonstop.

An Xiaoping couldn’t just sit still. While shouting, “Brother, you really did it,” he felt he had to do something.

Though the usual photographer hadn’t come, An Xiaoping brought equipment and started with fixed-point shots. He was skilled at finding angles and adjusting the light.

Jiang Tingzhou occasionally helped. After watching the finished footage, he sincerely praised, “It looks great. The fans will like it.”

An Xiaoping’s online image was always that of a fresh, even aloof, beautiful boy. After dyeing his hair orange, he developed a more unique temperament. That day, he aimed for a fresh, nostalgic style. The courtyard, walls, and alleys there were perfect for filming. He took off light makeup and changed into a beautiful silk shirt. His skin was fair and white, and you wouldn’t guess he was a bit of a goof.

But An Xiaoping looked around and felt it wasn’t quite enough.

“Brother, you don’t know, people are picky now. Just looking good isn’t enough. There are so many beautiful girls. My fans haven’t grown much recently,” An Xiaoping said as he started editing photos after shooting, sounding worried. “The last time I got a spike in followers was because of your incident, when it became a hot search. How do I keep that going?”

Clearly, he still wasn’t doing enough.

Before, he was a bit lazy. Recently, Jiang Tingzhou encouraged him, and he started learning how to improve. He studied new photo editing and makeup techniques. He wanted to attract more fans and get more advertisements.

Jiang Tingzhou was never good with the internet, so he couldn’t give professional advice. He just thought it looked good now and didn’t need improvement.

After thinking, he suggested, “The internet isn’t just Weibo. Why don’t you register on a few other platforms and try posting? Especially more videos on short-video platforms.”

An Xiaoping considered it and thought it made sense.

Besides Weibo, he could post on other platforms to see the effect. It was the same content, so no extra trouble.

He stayed busy shooting until evening, then exported the video material. There were inevitably many shots of Jiang Tingzhou in it.

That evening, Jiang Tingzhou made shrimp and vegetable salad with vinaigrette he prepared himself. The dishes tasted magically delicious, even though they were fat-reducing meals.

An Xiaoping adjusted the video filters while eating and showed the effect to Jiang Tingzhou.

In the video, Jiang Tingzhou was wearing a tank top and a straw hat. He looked even thinner than during the CCTV segment. The footage had no beauty filters. When he turned around and helped adjust the camera, the lens captured his face up close. Even An Xiaoping flinched when he saw it.

His gaze was intensely focused, his eyes so beautiful they seemed to look straight into your soul—even if it was just at a cold, unfeeling camera.

An Xiaoping showed it to Jiang Tingzhou, but he turned away after seeing it and said, “Remember to cut out my part.”

“I’ll edit it later,” An Xiaoping said, then asked, “Brother, don’t you want to show your face? You used to have social media.”

Jiang Tingzhou did have an account. He gained some fans after trending, and many urged him to update, but he never showed his face. His content was all cooking, and his style was completely different from Jiang You, the top food anchor with over ten million fans online.

“I don’t care about it,” Jiang Tingzhou said. “But if you show me, your fans won’t like it.”

He thought it would have a negative impact on An Xiaoping.

An Xiaoping said, “How could that be? You’re so pretty.”

Even without filters, he thought Jiang Tingzhou was more suited to be an internet celebrity than Jiang You. Jiang Tingzhou was talented and handsome. Jiang You just looked more obedient and pleasing. If it came to facial features, she was far better looking than Jiang Tingzhou.

But Jiang Tingzhou just smiled, obviously not taking it seriously.

An Xiaoping insisted, “I’m serious.”

If everyone knew how he looked, they might not have scolded him so much after the hot search online.

It was a pity Jiang Tingzhou wore a mask most of the time on the CCTV program. When criticized by fans of celebrity big Vs, those people even deliberately cut out the ugly pictures and sharpened them. People on the street wouldn’t bother watching the original program. Even with all that, those pictures weren’t really ugly.

But Jiang You was the most popular, both online and in real life.

When it came to appearance, An Xiaoping knew the truth. It was all because when Jiang Tingzhou returned to the Jiang family, he had a terrifying scar on his face.

Back then, he got seriously hurt by some gangsters—almost disfigured. After returning to the Jiang family, he saw doctors and had surgery. But Jiang Tingzhou suspected Jiang You tampered with the ointment he used afterward. The wound became red, swollen, even festering, and never healed.

It wasn’t until Lu Baiyu returned to China and personally took him for treatment that things improved. After dropping out of high school, he barely returned to the Jiang family and didn’t see Jiang You for a long time. That was when his face finally started to recover.

But that scar followed him through all of high school. No matter how good his features were, the scar made him seem frightening. That private school had many cruel classmates—some even said he looked like a ghost.

After such an environment, even Jiang Tingzhou didn’t think much of his face. Whether facing the extremely good-looking Lu Baiyu or working as a cook or manager later, his face brought him no advantage. This wasn’t a place to live by looks.

The most private evaluation Jiang Tingzhou received about himself was ‘very fierce.’

Especially after becoming General Manager Jiang, many employees said they were afraid of him—he was too strict, too serious, couldn’t tolerate any nonsense. Just seeing him made them tremble.

An Xiaoping couldn’t convince Jiang Tingzhou at that moment and felt a little uncomfortable. Muttering, he roughly cut out some useful clips of himself during makeup and filming.

There were silly shots of him struggling with makeup and resisting the beef, as well as many attractive portraits of Jiang Tingzhou. He couldn’t bear to delete them and planned to keep them.

There wasn’t enough time that day, so he would edit carefully tomorrow. He saved the current version and fell asleep in a daze.

The next morning, An Xiaoping and Jiang Tingzhou went to the morning market for breakfast together, bringing their selfie sticks professionally and continuing to shoot vlogs with a strong literary atmosphere.

Just as An Xiaoping thought this, a noisy voice came from the stairs, breaking the silence in front of him.

He subconsciously looked toward the stairs. Before he could see who it was, the voice was clearly heard.

“This place is so shabby. There’s not even a decent place to eat. The restaurant is relatively big, but it’s so old inside. Tsk, is it really worth developing?”

“Hey, Mr. Lu, is Brother Baiyu really going to build a project nearby? There are so many new plots waiting for the Lu family. Why choose this place? If you ask me, Mr. Lu’s vision is really…”

Four people came in. The one speaking loudly was a young man with a crew cut and a leather jacket. He was noisy, and his leather shoes clattered loudly on the stairs. As soon as he entered, he saw Jiang Tingzhou sitting there.

This store was a bit remote and business was average. Only An Xiaoping and Jiang Tingzhou sat on the first floor, so it was hard not to notice them.

The young man froze for a moment, stared at Jiang Tingzhou for a long time, then muttered, “…Strange.”

An Xiaoping was stunned too. Suddenly, he realized who they were.

The two in front were Jiang Tingzhou’s troublesome classmates from high school. Moreover, the person standing in front of the young man looked familiar—it was Lu Jiahe, whom the young man called “Master Lu.”

Lu Jiahe frowned when he saw Jiang Tingzhou. “Jiang Tingzhou? Why are you here?”

Following them was a boy about the same age with long chestnut hair, looking gentle and intellectual. He was holding hands with another boy at the end. They were quiet and kept talking softly.

The four’s clothes looked out of place in the small shop. They looked rich or noble.

“Why do you care if I’m here?” Jiang Tingzhou glanced at them, put down his chopsticks, and said, “are we close enough to say hello?”

“Hey, you think I want to talk to you? Since we’ve met, you better explain things clearly,” Lu Jiahe stepped forward angrily. “You’re irresponsible and left a mess behind. Xiao You tried to persuade you the day before yesterday, and you turned around and blamed him! He even got hurt and still got scolded by my mom. Don’t you feel any guilt?”

Every time Lu Jiahe saw him, it was like a quarrel waiting to happen. He was probably talking about the Jiang family coming to find him so aggressively the other day.

Jiang Tingzhou remembered the chaos, but he was sure Jiang You wasn’t injured—no one even touched him. He likely faked it to gain sympathy. Otherwise, how would he explain things when he got back?

Even if Lu Baiyu saw it with his own eyes, Jiang You always found a way to deceive others, especially Lu Jiahe, who wasn’t very smart and couldn’t tell right from wrong.

“That Jiang You really didn’t know what’s good for him. To be honest, he should be grateful to me,” Jiang Tingzhou sipped his tea slowly. “The day before yesterday, when he and his group pried open my door, I was ready to kill him with a hoe, but unfortunately, I missed my chance. He shouldn’t complain—he should be grateful he got out of there alive.”

Lu Jiahe was shocked. “You!”

He never realized Jiang Tingzhou could talk like this. He was caught off guard and didn’t know how to respond.

Tension rose instantly between the two.

Buzz-cut guy, hearing that Jiang You got hurt, jumped in angrily to defend Lu Jiahe. “So it was you? Jiang Tingzhou, you’re cruel! You went straight for his face? I don’t care—today I have to teach you a lesson!”

He was reckless, like in high school—rolling up his sleeves, moving quickly. Everyone present had no time to stop him.

An Xiaoping jumped up in fright and instinctively moved to block in front of Jiang Tingzhou. But the man was too aggressive, and Xiaoping looked even smaller by comparison—he could have been pushed aside with one hand.

Before the guy could do anything, he suddenly stumbled—his foot hurt. A greater force slammed into him.

He barely regained balance, but before he could curse, someone grabbed his collar and slammed him against the wall. His head banged hard. His neck was clamped in a tight grip.

When his vision cleared, he saw a knife—just a centimeter from his eye.

No, maybe even closer.

The knife was in Jiang Tingzhou’s hand.

Looking up, Jiang Tingzhou’s eyes looked like a butcher eyeing meat on a chopping board.

The knife was a fruit knife from the table, taken casually by Jiang Tingzhou. His grip was steady, and his reaction fast, leaving no time to respond.

“What?” Jiang Tingzhou even chuckled. “You think it’s still like before? You think you can just push my friends around like that?”

An Xiaoping was so startled he stammered, saying he was fine. But Jiang Tingzhou didn’t loosen his grip. In fact, the knife moved even closer.

He had an old grudge with Xu Feng.