APTnovel Chapter 173 Complex
Chapter 173 Complex
A cool breeze brushed my face, carrying with it the lingering damp, earthy scent of the air.
What filled him with the deepest despair and terror was...
In this "battle to close off the old street" that he had meticulously constructed overnight with tens of millions of yuan in funds, his opponent Chen Feng remained calm and methodical in the kitchen from beginning to end.
From beginning to end, they didn't even use the slightest targeted or deliberate counterattack.
The man didn't even glance at him.
He only made a phone call to his junior brother Song Ming early yesterday morning to reopen the supply of raw materials that had been a bottleneck, thus bringing the situation back to the fairest level of competition.
then.
The man just stood there "rigidly" in front of his pot, calmly tossing the large iron ladle all morning, making his limited batch of one hundred dishes.
Yet this pure culinary skill, within a mere half-hour, transformed into a most domineering tidal wave...
They took away all of Su Ang's high-end assets, all his digital private domains, all his closed capital networks, and even the last vestiges of his arrogance as the young master Su, with extreme ease and extreme cruelty...
Inch by inch, it was all blasted to pieces.
...
Inside the "Human Fireworks" restaurant, the last dish of "Long Street Red Pepper Braised Loach" was placed on the large camphor wood of table number ten.
The long queue of people that had been building up since early morning has finally come to an end.
"call……"
Su Chen untied the cloth apron around her waist, casually draped the rag in her hand over the counter, and her body, which had been tense since morning, finally relaxed at this moment, leaning gently against the wooden pillar behind the counter.
His forehead was covered in sweat, and even his hands were trembling with exhaustion.
But when his gaze swept across the wooden table that was neatly arranged in the hall, he couldn't hide the look of satisfaction and joy in his eyes.
Inside the restaurant, dozens of diners were all sweating profusely as they ate, some even unbuttoning three buttons of their shirts without any regard for their image.
"It tastes divine!! It truly tastes divine!!"
"I've lived most of my life, and only this morning did I finally learn what real braised loach is all about!!"
Those people who went across the street to drink the dishwater really don't know what's good for them!
Hearing these sincere praises and compliments, Su Chen tapped the edge of the counter twice with one hand, a smile playing on his lips, a feeling of indescribable pride in him.
This is Brother Chen.
No matter how many tens of millions are poured in from outside, or what kind of blockade is set up, as long as this flame is lit, Brother Chen will always be the unshakable living god of the stove on this old street.
Su Chen looked around the store for a while, and the burning youthful energy that had been building up in his chest for so long finally began to subside.
He slowly turned around, his dark eyes peering through the wooden door into the dead corner at the west end of the old street.
Following his gaze, at the end of the wet cobblestone street, the Mercedes-Benz was still glaringly parked against the wall, its radar lights flashing incessantly.
Su Chen's gaze lingered fixed on the gap in the car window for a moment.
In his mind, the image of the middle-aged fat man who had just come over to peek into the restaurant, not even wearing a chef's uniform but only a thin white shirt, and who had been extremely awkward and blushing, reappeared very clearly.
Zhou Benchang.
Just now, during the busiest moment in the store, Su Chen glanced up and saw this master calligrapher outside the door.
At that time, he was busy maintaining the team and serving food, and didn't have time to think about why this guy had appeared.
But now, after everything in the store had settled down, Su Chen felt something was off, and his brows furrowed involuntarily.
"Zhou Benchang... Master Zhou."
Su Chen murmured something under his breath, his strange look growing stronger.
Based on his understanding of his older brother Su Ang, who was always aloof and calculating to the core, this was completely inconsistent with Su Ang's "perfect methods"!
Su Ang has always relied on various overt and covert means of capital to manipulate others. Zhou Benchang, a "patriarch" who is as heavy as a mountain in the catering industry in the south of the city, is usually his last resort.
But now they've just brought it to the old street to take charge?!
Something's not right!
unless……
Su Ang had already used all his "high-end" methods, but they were all useless against Brother Chen's flames.
Otherwise, Su Ang would never have done this!
"Even this last dead card... was played just like that."
Su Chen shook his head slightly, sighed inwardly, and dug his knuckles into the very edge of the wooden cabinet.
"Su Ang...where has your former arrogance gone?"
Where did your ruthlessness go, when you used to dominate the board of directors and treat everyone like numbers to be calculated?
Are you truly at your wit's end, with no other options left?
The cool breeze was still blowing, making the bright chain store signs along the old street look particularly lonely and chilly.
Although the high-end car window film obscured his view, Su Chen couldn't see the actual situation inside the car at all.
But it was precisely because that black Mercedes-Benz had remained in a state of near-desperate silence and stillness since Ah Hao was exposed online that Su Chen felt a strange unease.
This is completely unlike Su Ang's style.
Given that young master's fiercely competitive nature, if he had any trump card left to turn the tide, the extras on the old street would have already trampled the wooden threshold of Old Liu's noodle shop to pieces.
The silence now suggests... they've truly been blacklisted by Brother Chen and are completely helpless, suffering a severe blow.
In that instant, Su Chen's gaze passed through the space between the two of them. It was as if he had pierced through the tempered glass and could clearly see Su Ang's usually arrogant face, which was now deathly pale, as he slumped weakly in the CEO's chair.
His feelings became extremely complicated at this moment.
Logically speaking, Su Ang's overnight crackdown on "Human Fireworks" with thirteen chain stores, resulting in the entire internet being overwhelmed and even the most skilled legal experts being forced to shut it down, is purely retribution for his own actions.
Su Chen bit his lip, looking at the black Mercedes-Benz in the cold wind, but he couldn't even muster the slightest bit of a gleeful or sarcastic thought.
That was, after all, his own brother.
Watching that elite young master who valued dignity and fame above all else and who swaggered around in the business world, have all his bones and pride shattered so early in the morning, before he even met Brother Chen, a heavy feeling, whether it was sorrow or fate, turned into a huge boulder that pressed firmly against the deepest part of Su Chen's chest.
The white steam was still rising from the long street, but the black Mercedes-Benz at the west end looked particularly withered in the dark corner.
Time... just like that, carrying the ever-present aroma of spicy loach bubbling from the kitchen, flowed quietly and somewhat heavily through the quiet air.