The Reviled God of Cooking Tries to Slack Off - Chapter 27

Why is Li Shuyan’s filter so thick?

And after all the ugly history between them—how could she and Jiang Tingzhou still be friends?

The knife that was nailed into the wooden railing was pulled out by Jiang Tingzhou. At that moment, he turned his head to look at Lu Jiahe without saying a word.

Lu Jiahe still felt his heart tremble.

“Fine, I’m leaving,” Lu Jiahe said. “Is it okay for me to leave now?”

Li Shuyan wanted to continue speaking, at least to ask Lu Jiahe to apologize to Jiang Tingzhou, but they had made too much noise, and the shopkeeper came up at that time. Jang Li didn’t want to cause trouble and gave them money to settle the matter.

She seemed to want to say something more, but Jang Li stopped her with the words, “Shuyan, we have other things to do today.”

With his status, even Jang Li only got to speak to him because of a family connection. Forcing an apology out of him was impossible.

In truth, even if both Jang Li and Li Shuyan’s families were combined, they still didn’t amount to a third of the Lu Group.

As Lu Jiahe left, he stared at Jiang Tingzhou like a thorn in his flesh.

After the noise died down, the place returned to peace.

Jiang Tingzhou sat back in his seat and ate the last shrimp dumpling on the plate, though it was already cold.

An Xiaoping felt a little uneasy, fiddling with the camera on the table.

Jiang Tingzhou noticed and said, “Don’t be afraid. Just do your thing.”

An Xiaoping said, “I’m afraid they will bully you again.”

They confronted each other in front of everyone, but no one noticed that his camera had been recording the whole time. All the scenes just now were captured.

The recording wasn’t very clear. Li Shuyan was standing farther away, near the entrance of the stairs. Her voice was quiet, and the wind coming through the window was audible, but Xu Feng coming to beat someone and being counterattacked by Jiang Tingzhou was clearly recorded.

He showed it to Jiang Tingzhou, who said, “Keep it. This is evidence. It will be useful in a few days.”

Although An Xiaoping didn’t understand why, he nodded and said, “Okay.”

He was a little distracted and thought about Li Shuyan.

It was clear she was very different now from when she was ostracized in high school and sympathized with Jiang Tingzhou.

Just as he was about to say something, Jiang Tingzhou took over.

“This is a good thing. Li Shuyan is rich now,” Jiang Tingzhou said calmly, as if he had seen through his thoughts. “To be honest, it was a mistake for her to be friends with me from the start. Because of my affairs, she ended up suffering. And I dragged you down too.”

An Xiaoping said, “That’s not true,” but he felt even more upset.

Li Shuyan’s affairs were one of the triggers that led to Jiang Tingzhou’s expulsion. Because she had friends, her anxiety improved. She was even encouraged to enter a national competition she never dared try before.

She had always had good grades and won many awards in junior high. If she wasn’t sick, she would’ve participated in the competition long ago. This time, she made a big splash, even beat Jang Li and won a highly prestigious national first prize.

That success was what caused everything to spiral.

Li Shuyan, full of gratitude and joy, decided to confess her feelings. She was just beginning to fall in love and naturally thought she liked Jiang Tingzhou. Even though people said his scarred face was scary, she believed that when looking at a person, you should look at their heart, not their face.

In fact, if adults evaluated it at the time, Li Shuyan’s feelings weren’t romantic love but, at most, a kind of dependence between friends. Jiang Tingzhou already had someone in his heart—he was thinking about Lu Baiyu, who was studying abroad and about to return.

But he didn’t have the courage to express his feelings like Li Shuyan did. Lu Baiyu felt far beyond his reach.

So when he received her confession letter, he naturally rejected it.

Still, out of consideration for their friendship and her condition, he tried to word things gently, afraid of hurting her. But the meaning was clear. The rejection left them both awkward, and they parted on bad terms after a few poorly chosen words. She forced the letter into his bag and ran off.

They didn’t speak for several days.

This kind of small conflict was nothing. Friends for so long could calm down and think clearly—it would pass.

But in those days, the school held a big award ceremony for Li Shuyan’s achievement. Many reporters attended. When Li Shuyan prepared to give her opening speech, the big screen didn’t show the prepared PPT but instead displayed the love letter she gave Jiang Tingzhou, enlarged and shown in front of everyone.

Next to the love letter was a photo of Jiang Tingzhou, highlighting his scarred face, making him look like a bad boy. Further down was a photo of the two of them squatting in a corner of the school whispering. Then a recorded voice, sounding like Jiang Tingzhou’s, played:

— “It’s just for fun. Does she deserve to like me?”

This could be explained clearly. There were no outrageous words in the letter—just the girl’s gentle, reserved feelings. There was no intimate behavior in the photo taken with Jiang Tingzhou. Many students secretly dated in private high schools; the two of them were completely open and honest. The voice couldn’t be proven to be Jiang Tingzhou’s and was later proven to be synthesized by technology.

Under normal circumstances, Li Shuyan wouldn’t have been so easily provoked. She would have trusted her friends.

But it happened on this occasion.

She worked hard to win awards and live a normal life. She stood on the bright future she should have had—an excellent student in the spotlight.

Instead, she became the laughingstock of the whole school. The laughter in the auditorium became a terrible nightmare.

Li Shuyan was still a minor at the time. The ridicule and pressure she endured were unimaginable. Her anxiety disorder worsened, leading to a mental breakdown.

This incident was very serious. She went to the hospital for psychological treatment. Her busy parents finally noticed her worsening condition and rushed back to deal with the matter.

After that, she chose to go abroad and never came back.

As for Jiang Tingzhou, as another person involved, he had no way to defend himself and couldn’t go abroad, so he stayed and bore the consequences.

At that time, Lu Baiyu hadn’t returned to China yet. Jiang Tingzhou was angry and impulsive. He wanted to prove his innocence and knew exactly who did this.

Only Jiang You was so reckless and had the opportunity to get the letter he put in his schoolbag.

He ran to confront Jiang You in extreme anger. As expected, the talks broke down, and conflict erupted. He couldn’t hold back and broke Jiang You’s nose on the spot.

An Xiaoping went with them and tried to stop the fight because he was afraid Jiang Tingzhou would suffer. However, Jiang You’s friend, Xu Feng, who was tall and strong, pushed An Xiaoping to the ground. When Xiaoping fought back, both sides were taken to the police station.

Although both sides fought, Xu Feng’s family quickly pulled strings and got him out. The camera recorded it clearly, and Jiang You didn’t hit anyone, so he was recorded as a pure victim.

In the end, only Jiang Tingzhou and An Xiaoping stayed in the police station for a few days.

Jiang Yisheng scolded him for being useless and causing trouble. Fortunately, Jiang Moli cried while asking the Lu family for help. When Lu Baiyu returned to the country and stepped in, they were finally released.

But the two days spent in detention for fighting changed a lot.

The so-called “puppy love” incident alone wasn’t that serious. But after that fight, Jiang Tingzhou received an official expulsion notice.

“You can throw that paper away,” Lu Baiyu told him. “As long as I’m here, you can study wherever you want.”

Things did improve after Lu Baiyu came back.

No one dared mess with him. Although they never found hard evidence of who replaced the background at that time, it was proven that Jiang Tingzhou’s words were synthesized by a machine, and there was a high chance Jiang Tingzhou was wronged.

—Even though Jiang Tingzhou had already said that many times. He begged for a thorough investigation. He had no reason, no way, to do something like that.

But just like the earlier incident about the basketball team’s stolen money—if someone else told the story, the situation looked completely different.

Lu Baiyu had the ability to help him change schools, but Jiang Tingzhou knew his problems couldn’t be solved this way.

He didn’t have power—his words carried no weight.

Even when Lu Baiyu arranged for Xu Feng to apologize in person, and Xu Feng gave a half-hearted apology, Xu’s family immediately sent him abroad. That was the end of it. More importantly, Jiang Tingzhou now knew there would never be peace between him and Jiang You.

—As long as he stayed here, things like this would keep happening, and he’d have no way to resist.

From the age of fifteen to seventeen, Jiang Tingzhou attended the aristocratic school. Even with Li Shuyan’s tutoring, his grades only ensured he wasn’t at the bottom; he barely ranked in the middle. His foundation was too weak, and he wasn’t a good student.

People like him couldn’t follow the path of the wealthy generation who went abroad to study and earn diplomas. That path had no practical effect. Compared to Jiang You, who always got good grades, he would always be inferior.

His talent lay elsewhere.

Jiang Tingzhou took a risk. Ignoring the advice of those around him, he chose an unconventional path to try to overtake on the curve.

In hindsight, going to Chef Wang to study culinary arts at seventeen wasn’t something he regretted. The only thing he did regret was fighting with An Xiaoping over it. But in the end, he got what he wanted, though the process was inevitably painful.

An Xiaoping got caught in the mess, went to the police station with him, missed the final exam, and was punished. Li Shuyan’s condition, which had improved, suddenly worsened, and she chose to go abroad. In the end, Jiang Tingzhou and his friends paid the highest price.

Jiang Tingzhou used to feel resentful. Everything was Jiang You’s fault. Others targeted him. He felt wronged and uncomfortable. He thought that if he ever got the chance, he would expose the truth to everyone and make those people pay.

When he was learning how to cook with Chef Wang, he was so exhausted that he had extreme thoughts—even fantasized about just stabbing Jiang You and ending it all.

But half a year later, he received a letter from Li Shuyan.

She went abroad for a year, her condition improved, and her brain, previously controlled by emotions, also recovered. She wrote to Jiang Tingzhou, saying she didn’t think he was to blame, it wasn’t his fault, and apologized for not supporting him during her unstable period. She hoped they could still be friends after she returned from studying abroad.

Bad things happened, but people still had to move forward.

He had to work hard. Extremely hard.

Deep down, there was something he still couldn’t let go of—though he never said it out loud.

He always believed that part of the blame was on him. The letter being stolen was his fault.

He knew Jiang You was targeting him, so he should’ve kept the letter safe and watched closely. If he had been careful enough at seventeen, perhaps none of that would’ve happened.

An Xiaoping could tell what Jiang Tingzhou was thinking just by looking at his expression. Jiang Tingzhou was always like that—he pushed himself hard, always trying to be perfect, but there were always things that couldn’t be perfect.

After all this, he no longer had the mood to continue filming. He packed up and went home, thinking about editing the previously filmed material into a finished product.

At least before Lu Jiahe and the others showed up, the photos and videos were very nice. The garden of the Yongqing Old Sugar Factory outside the window was beautiful, and the Jiang Tingzhou he secretly filmed also looked very good.

Then there was the clip of Lu Jiahe and his group causing trouble.

An Xiaoping didn’t delete it. He followed Jiang Tingzhou’s suggestion to keep it as evidence to prevent others from blaming him. Back in high school, when they went to the police station, the Xu family used their connections to delete all surveillance videos before Lu Baiyu returned to China.

He had no experience then, but he wasn’t going to make the same mistake now.

After going home and eating lunch, An Xiaoping watched Jiang Tingzhou work in the field and sighed. He was distracted while doing tasks.

He was also busy that day registering accounts on other platforms, which made things hectic. In his rush, he ended up uploading a bunch of content—including some clips he didn’t mean to share.

When he finished, he didn’t bother to check the view count. His account had been stagnant lately anyway.

It was already evening when he finished, so he headed back to school. When he left, he looked back every few steps and reminded Jiang Tingzhou, “Brother, please be careful. If anything happens, call me. Really. I also messaged Tian Hui and asked her to bring a camera over sometime. If something does happen, she can write a report.”

After Jiang Tingzhou came back, nothing seemed to happen. He continued farming, wielding his hoe with smooth, practiced motions, and said, “Alright, you go to school. Don’t worry, nothing will happen. You and Tian Hui just come over to eat when you’re free. Don’t keep thinking about work.”

Jiang Tingzhou was indeed fine.

But the next day, something happened—to Xu Feng.

After getting beaten up by Jiang Tingzhou the day before, Xu Feng was taken to the hospital. He wanted to report what happened, but Li Shuyan, who followed him, knew his sister and immediately told them what Jiang Tingzhou said about Xu Feng being expelled from school.

“He brought it on himself. He wanted to make the injury worse so they’d feel sorry for him, and he wouldn’t get punished.” Her explanation was actually quite logical. “But everything he’s done is already spreading through the overseas circles. Jiahe, you’ve seen it too, haven’t you?”

Xu Feng shouted that it wasn’t true. He was beaten and wanted to retaliate. He looked at Lu Jiahe hopefully, but Lu Jiahe frowned and said, “It’s true… he brought it on himself.”

He went online to look at Xu Feng’s record.

Back then, it was so bad. Xu Feng and Ye Zi bullied Tianxue and others, and others didn’t dare provoke him and swallowed their anger.

But this time—it was appalling. Drugs, bullying, assault—he got drunk and stabbed someone with a knife. The other party bled profusely and nearly died. Xu Feng tried to settle it with money and bribed the school.

Lu Jiahe hadn’t realized Xu Feng was so bad. Back in high school, he was just a hanger-on with connections to Jiang You. Lu Jiahe barely interacted with him.

Now he realized—he couldn’t be around people like that.

Xu Feng couldn’t believe it and shouted more, but the facts were clear. When his parents arrived at the hospital and heard what happened, they exploded in anger.

His impulsive and violent personality was inherited completely from his father. Mr. Xu scolded his son and pushed Xu’s mother aside. Then he grabbed a broom and broke Xu Feng’s leg with one strike.

The scene was chaotic. Although it was a private ward, other patients on the floor could hear the noise. Soon someone posted it online.

The incident involving Xu Feng happened abroad and hadn’t spread to China. Even in the previous life, because the Xu family intervened early, handled it privately, and the news never spread widely. The domestic network coverage was limited. Jiang Tingzhou knew about it because he was still in that circle, but the public didn’t know much.

But this time, it was different.

After the incident spread, the Xu family tried to delete posts immediately—but the public reacted with even more backlash. The more Xu Feng was exposed, the worse it got. It was a garbage dump. Netizens shouted that he wasn’t beaten enough, and the hospital footage was messy and hard to see.

At that time, a video surfaced showing Xu Feng being beaten, but it wasn’t in the hospital—it looked like a restaurant.

An Xiaoping, in his haste, had accidentally uploaded the very clip he meant to keep private for evidence. And not just that one—he had uploaded a bunch of unrelated behind-the-scenes clips too.