Zhang Shutong fell silent.
In fact, no one knew what to say.
Everyone stared at the pizza in the head chef’s hands. The chef, too, was silent.
"Please, enjoy."
A deep melancholy swam in his blue eyes. After speaking, he turned and left without a backward glance.
"Wh-what..." Du Kang’s face was a mask of horror. "Is this an authentic Italian flavor?"
"It should be," Qingyi judged cautiously.
"Did that foreigner just say ’Lao Gan Ma’? As in, the chili sauce we eat all the time?" Du Kang’s face grew even paler.
"I believe so," Qingyi judged, even more cautiously. "I saw fermented black beans."
"But that can’t be right..."
"Hey, quiet down. Didn’t he say it was improvisation? Why get hung up on whether it’s authentic or not..."
Ruoping quickly tried to smooth things over. ’You two are being so loud,’ she thought. ’You’re making Gu Qiuyan lose face. What did she say earlier? ’I come here all the time, everything is delicious...’ ’
She then thought, ’Just as Shutong said, a self-taught, maverick chef. But this is a little too maverick.’ Ruoping snuck a glance at Gu Qiuyan’s expression, only to find her staring down at her phone. She would look at her phone, then size up the pizza in front of her, her expression growing more and more baffled, her brow furrowing tighter and tighter.
"Have you ever had KFC’s Spicy Beef Wrap?" Gu Qiuyan suddenly asked in a low voice.
"I have..."
"Is this like the Spicy Beef Wrap?"
"Not at all," Ruoping answered without hesitation. ’If this tasted like the Spicy Beef Wrap, it wouldn’t be the wrap that got discontinued, it would be all of KFC.’
"What’s wrong?"
"Nothing," Gu Qiuyan said coolly. "I heard them going on about the Spicy Beef Wrap, so I just looked it up. It seems the ingredients include beef, Sichuan chili sauce..."
"But not coconut bits," Ruoping pointed out, getting to the heart of the matter.
"That’s what I’d like to know," Gu Qiuyan said, enunciating each word. "Why. Are. There. Coconut. Bits."
Gu Qiuyan stabbed a slice of pizza, her aura murderous. She had just been drinking, and her cheeks were flushed, but the chill emanating from her now was enough to freeze the blood in everyone’s veins. Time itself seemed to stand still. All eyes were fixed on the slice of pizza at the end of her fork, watching as a single coconut bit on the cheese slowly slid—
And then plopped onto the plate with a wet SPLAT.
The imposing momentum around Gu Qiuyan instantly deflated. She flicked her hair back and woodenly began cutting the pizza into small pieces. Her rosy lips parted, but in the end, she said nothing, just kept cutting, and cutting, and cutting.
A shiver went down Zhang Shutong’s spine as he watched.
He absolutely did not dare to admit that he was the one who had asked for the coconut bits—and that it had taken considerable effort to get them added.
He studied the pizza before him and had his own existential crisis.
’Is this a fruit pizza?’
’Yes.’
’Is it sweet and savory?’
’Of course.’
It wasn’t just sweet and savory; it was a holy trinity of sweet, savory, and spicy.
’But where exactly did things go wrong? How did it end up as this... chimera?’
’Was this what the chef called ’free improvisation’?’
Looking at Gu Qiuyan’s expression, he saw no pleasant surprise, only pure shock. Zhang Shutong thought he finally understood why her face was like a winter frost. She had confidently brought everyone to her favorite restaurant, only for the head chef to suddenly drop the ball. It was like serving stinky tofu at a state banquet. She was already thin-skinned—who wouldn’t be furious in her shoes?
But who could have guessed that the one who poisoned the well wasn’t the chef, but her own lackey right beside her?
’If she finds out...’ Zhang Shutong pondered. ’If I were a real lackey, I’d probably be kicked out immediately. If I were a Pokémon, I’d be released into the wild.’
Zhang Shutong decided it was probably best not to say anything.
"You know," Du Kang said, spearing a piece of pizza, "I just realized something. If you ignore the coconut bits, doesn’t this actually taste a bit like the Spicy Beef Wrap?"
"It doesn’t." To everyone’s surprise, Gu Qiuyan’s knife and fork paused. She cut him off in a tone that permitted no argument. "We’re not coming here again."
Du Kang shrank back at her words, wondering which of his had set the young miss off. ’Could it be?’ he wondered. ’Is Gu Qiuyan also a secret member of the Spicy Beef Wrap fan club, one who won’t allow anyone to defile its purity?’
Qingyi also offered a serious analysis:
"I doubt it. While they both have chili sauce, who would use Lao Gan Ma in one?"
"So what in the world is going on here?" The words were barely out of Du Kang’s mouth when he felt a kick from Ruoping. Just then, his phone vibrated. A message from Ruoping appeared in the group chat:
"Stop nitpicking! Can’t you see Qiumian is dying of embarrassment?!"
The two guys silently shut their mouths.
’Might as well just eat the pizza,’ they thought.
The pizza had been cut into six slices. After Gu Qiuyan had bravely taken the first piece, everyone else had politely followed suit. But there were five of them, and now the last slice sat there, abandoned. For a moment, no one made a move.
Who could blame them? The flavor was just too bizarre.
Ruoping forced a smile as she ate. Without the coconut bits, it might have been barely passable. But why on earth did they add coconut bits? She could only conclude that the chef had a momentary lapse in judgment.
Soon, the second pizza was served. The group eyed the Margherita pizza cautiously, half-expecting to find a layer of yellow peaches lying in ambush beneath the cheese. Thankfully, this one was a proper classic, and the taste was far from mediocre. In fact, it was leagues better than anything from Pizza Hut. As the rich, cheesy aroma bloomed on her tongue and she tasted the wheat-like flavor of the soft yet resilient hand-tossed crust, Ruoping’s rock-bottom impression of the restaurant began to recover slightly.
Next came their main courses for the day: baked salmon rolls and roasted lamb chops.
Next to the salmon rolls were several bright red raspberries.
The group, who had just begun to relax, felt their hearts leap into their throats again. Finally, Zhang Shutong cleared his throat:
"It’s garnish. Just garnish. Don’t be afraid..."
Perhaps as long as he stuck to the script, the head chef at this place was actually quite skilled.
As the tender salmon rolls were cut open, the originally tense atmosphere began to soften, bit by bit.