Chapter 155: Recognition (1)
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Master? This seemingly inconspicuous old man was actually the owner of this house… Chef Bao?
Yan Ruyu was stunned.
How could this be? Wasn’t he a Master Chef? Why did he look like an old beggar? Also, how did he end up with this village girl? Looking at their wet bodies, could they have fallen into the water?
Countless doubts flashed through Yan Ruyu’s mind, making her mind buzz. She even forgot what she was here for. She watched helplessly as Yu Wan supported Chef Bao and was respectfully invited in by the pageboy.
“Miss!” Lychee reminded her softly.!!
Yan Ruyu suddenly came back to her senses and looked at Master Chef Bao, who had crossed the threshold. “Master Chef Bao, I’m Madam Du’s disciple! Madam Du has left the Capital. She hopes that I can come and see you.”
Of course, being a disciple was made up. Madam Du was like a mentor and a friend to her but their master-disciple relationship did not exist in name. However, Madam Du had already left, so she could not bring her back to confront her. Moreover, she had a handwritten letter and Madam Du’s culinary skills, so she was not afraid of Master Chef Bao suspecting her.
“Why did she ask you to see me?” Chef Bao asked.
“Madam Du, she…”
“Does she have something to say, or do you have something to ask of me?”
“I…”
Just as Yan Ruyu was hesitating whether she wanted to ask for a bowl of medicinal cuisine or beg him to take her in as his disciple so that she could inherit his mantle in the future, Yu Wan snorted and said, “I don’t like her! I’m leaving!”
Yan Ruyu instantly choked. Shouldn’t she keep such words to herself and not let anyone see through her for the rest of her life? How could she have the cheek to say it… without even pretending?!
“Hey! Don’t go!” The old man stopped Yu Wan, who had already gone down the steps.
Yu Wan happened to walk to Yan Ruyu’s side. She glanced at Yan Ruyu coldly and said in a huff, “Then let her go.”
Yan Ruyu gasped. “You!”
Yu Wan looked at the sky.
The old man hurriedly said, “Okay, okay, okay, I’ll let her go, let her go! Remember to finish telling me the story later. That CEO… whatever, did he get married to Little Xi? Did he acknowledge his son?”
On the way here, in order to kill time, Yu Wan gave Chef Bao a lecture on “The Overbearing President Loves Me”. Chef Bao listened with relish. He had even circled around two or three times.
Therefore, Yu Wan was not afraid of threatening to chase Yan Ruyu away.
Yan Ruyu was furious from embarrassment. She did not expect Yu Wan to be so arrogant. She dared to openly ask Chef Bao to chase her away. Who did she think she was? Chef Bao’s biological granddaughter?!
The hateful thing was that Chef Bao was really on her side. What exactly was this woman’s ability? Why was it that everyone she needed to do her best to please could easily be settled by her?
Was she a born vixen? Or was she against her? Why was she able to ruin all her good deeds?!
“Master Chef Bao…” Yan Ruyu put on a pitiful expression.” Madam Du…”
Bang!
Before she could finish speaking, Chef Bao pulled Yu Wan into the house and decisively closed the door!
Yan Ruyu was so angry that she was about to have a stroke.
After entering the courtyard, Yu Wan covered her chest and revealed a look of disbelief.
This old man who had annoyed her all the way was actually the legendary Chef Bao? Wasn’t this too shocking? How could the famous Master Chef be an old ruffian? And an old ruffian who fell in love with a melodramatic CEO story…
Yu Wan felt that her worldview had been shaken. She could not look at this old… old man who was chasing after her and asking her if the CEO had fallen in love with another woman.
Yu Wan and Chef Bao both fell into the water. A servant brought the two of them back to their room to change their clothes. There was a maidservant beside Chef Bao. She was the younger sister of the pageboy from earlier. She brought Yu Wan to her room and took out a set of clean clothes. “Miss, these clothes are all clean. Change into them first. Be careful not to catch a cold.”
“Thank you.” Yu Wan took the clothes from the maidservant.
The maidservant fetched another bucket of hot water. “There’s no big bathtub to take a bath in. Miss, just soak your feet.”
Yu Wan replied again. The maidservant went to cook the ginger soup. Yu Wan wiped her body and changed into her dry clothes. After soaking her feet for a while, her body immediately felt much warmer.
She noticed that this was not ordinary hot water. There were some strange medicinal herbs inside. She was quite proficient in medicinal herbs, but she had never seen these few things before. It was rumored that Master Chef Bao was the best at medicinal cuisine. It seemed that he was also very proficient in medical knowledge. No wonder he carried a top-grade Heavenly Mountain Snow Lotus with him.
Speaking of which, there was still a competition between Uncle and Chef Bao. Could she be considered a spy of the enemy camp?
Chef Bao did not ask who Yu Wan was, so Yu Wan did not introduce herself.
“Miss.” The maidservant gently knocked on the door. “Can I come in?”
“Yes,” Yu Wan said.
The maidservant pushed the door open and entered. Seeing that Yu Wan had already finished soaking and put on her shoes, she quickly walked over and carried the bucket out. When she crossed the threshold, the maidservant turned around and said, “Miss, please follow me.”
Yu Wan followed the maidservant.
The maidservant led Yu Wan to a room at the end of the corridor and said, “The wind is strong in the central room. Miss, please sit inside. I’ve built a heater.”
She was worried that Yu Wan would freeze in the water. Yu Wan looked at her gratefully and walked into the room. This was a study, neatly lined with several rows of bookshelves.
“Miss, do you want to read?” The maidservant asked.
“Can I?” Yu Wan asked.
“Yes, please help yourself.” With that, the maidservant left with the wooden bucket.
Yu Wan came to a bookshelf and casually picked up a book in front of her. It was actually a medical book. Yu Wan flipped through a few more books and realized that the books on this shelf were all related to medical science. It seemed that the reason why Chef Bao could make famous medicinal cuisine was inseparable from his usual research on medical science. He could clearly rely on his culinary skills to make a living, but he had to learn medicine.
Yu Wan flipped through the ancient medical books with interest. Only when she heard footsteps coming from the corridor did Yu Wan put the medical book back.
Chef Bao walked in in high spirits. He was almost seventy years old, but his body was still so well-nourished. Yu Wan did not doubt the effects of his medicinal cuisine at all.
“Master Chef Bao,” Yu Wan greeted calmly.
“Alright,” Chef Bao replied indifferently.
The maidservant brought the ginger soup in. Yu Wan took the ginger soup and drank it. When she returned the bowl to the maidservant, a book on the shelf fell and landed beside Yu Wan’s feet.
Yu Wan bowed and picked up the booklet. However, a piece of yellowed paper floated out.
“What is this?” Yu Wan caught the paper and asked.
The paper looked old, and the handwriting was blurry, but it was still recognizable. It was a series of names.
“The names for my son,” Chef Bao said.
Chef Bao came to find Yu Wan to listen to the story, but the moment he said “son”, the atmosphere in the study became strange. Of course, Yu Wan knew about his son’s disappearance. This was not a secret in the world. Yu Wan guessed that he also knew about this, so he said it so openly.
“It was drafted the year he was born,” Chef Bao said again.
Yu Wan did not know how to reply. She put the paper back into the booklet and placed it on the bookshelf.
Yu Wan was about to leave when Chef Bao spoke again. “I’ve drafted many, but unfortunately, I didn’t use any of them.”
The maidservant took the soup bowl and left. Yu Wan stood in the study room. She didn’t know whether to leave or stay. She wasn’t good at dealing with such situations. If she had known that it would bring up the sad matter of Chef Bao, she wouldn’t have flipped through the books on the shelf.
“Aren’t you going to comfort me?” Chef Bao looked at Yu Wan, who couldn’t say a word, and said unhappily.
Yu Wan: “Uh…”
So after saying so much, it turned out that he didn’t want to pour out his thoughts. He was just waiting for her to comfort him?
Yu Wan didn’t know what to say.
“Master Chef Bao.” Yu Wan racked her brains and slowly sighed. “Actually, you’re not the only one who has lost a family in this world. My father… is not my grandfather’s biological son. He was separated from his family when he was young. It was unknown whether his family did not want him or something else. In short, my father has already grown up and has two children. He still doesn’t know who his biological parents are.”
“Hmph! My son went missing two months after he was born.”
“My father was also picked up from the streets when he’s still in his swaddle!”
“My… My son is congenitally deficient. He has a weakness from his mother’s womb.”
“My father’s health isn’t good either! I heard from my uncle that my father often fell sick when he was young and almost couldn’t grow up!”
“Where is the Master and that girl?” The pageboy held a plate of freshly cooked snacks and asked his sister.
The maidservant pointed at the study. “They’re comparing who’s more tragic.”
The pageboy : “…”
“My, my, my… My son must be more pitiful than your father!”
“Who said so? My father went to war, and his fate is unknown! When he left, my mother was just pregnant. He didn’t even know he had a son!”
Master Chef Bao, who couldn’t be compared, withered.
The pageboy took the opportunity to send the snacks in. He did not dare to look at his master’s angry face as he came out.
Yu Wan sat on a chair, took a piece of Purple Jade Mountain medicinal cake, and slowly ate it.
Chef Bao was furious. He sat opposite her with a livid face. He also took a piece of Purple Jade Mountain medicinal cake and bit it as if he was venting.
The two of them, one quiet and one moving, one fast and one slow, seemed to have been struck by lightning halfway through their meal. They stopped eating the snacks in their hands and looked at each other in a daze.
“How old is your father?”
“How old is your son?”
The two of them spoke almost at the same time.
“Thirty-four?”
“Thirty-five!”
They answered at the same time.
Yu Wan was used to talking about the actual age, while Chef Bao liked to talk about the nominal age. No matter what, the years matched.
Yu Wan added, “My father was picked up in spring.”
Chef Bao said, “My son was born in the first month.”
He was born in the first month and disappeared when he was two months old. Wasn’t it spring?
Yu Wan blinked. “No… It can’t be such a coincidence, right?”
Chef Bao tried his best to remain calm, but his body was already trembling slightly. “Your father… When your father was picked up, was there anything in the swaddling?”
“A recipe book,” Yu Wan said.
Chef Bao’s body swayed, and his eyes suddenly shone brightly. His hand that was holding the snack trembled. “When my… my… my son disappeared, the recipe… the recipe also disappeared…”
Even this matched… Was Chef Bao’s missing son really her father?
Her father had not been abandoned by his family. His family had been looking for him all along. Even his hair was white, he did not stop.
“Quick… quick… take me to see your father…” Chef Bao couldn’t even speak properly.
Yu Wan forced herself to calm down. “Chef Bao, my father went to war.”
Chef Bao was stunned as if a basin of cold water had been poured on him.
Yu Wan slowly said, “But that recipe book is still there. As long as you take a look at that recipe book, you should be able to know if my father is your son.”
It was too early to make a conclusion. The most important thing was the recipe. Once that matched, it would really be set in stone.
Chef Bao had searched for so many years, but it was not that he had not met any conditions that matched. However, when he finally checked the tokens, he realized that they were not the book he had lost. Therefore, Yu Wan’s words were right. It was too early to be happy.
“Someone pretended to be your son, right?” Yu Wan probed.
Chef Bao was silent. Not only was there a lot of them, but he had also encountered one today. He knew that it was most likely a scammer, but he still left the Master God Competition behind.
“It’s not that simple to fool me,” Chef Bao said firmly.
Yu Wan nodded. “That’s for the best. I don’t want to mistake my father’s family either.”
… .
Yu Wan bade farewell to Chef Bao and returned to Qilin Street.
Bai Tang and Yu Feng shopped for a while, but when they turned around, they found out that Yu Wan was gone. They were so frightened that they searched the streets. Yu Wan met the two of them in front of a desert shop.
“Aiya, you…” Bai Tang was panting.
“Where did you go?” Yu Feng asked reproachfully.
Yu Wan said truthfully, “I bumped into Chef Bao just now.”
“What? Who?” Bai Tang was indeed in the restaurant business. She was much more sensitive to this name than Yu Feng.
“Master Chef Bao,” Yu Wan said.
Bai Tang said, “Master… Master Chef Bao from Tianxiang Restaurant?”
Yu Wan: “Yes.”
Bai Tang was dumbfounded.
Yu Wan did not treat Bai Tang as an outsider, so she told her everything that happened when she met Chef Bao. She did not say anything about Yan Ruyu. It was not that she could not mention it, but she was too lazy to.
“Ah… Your father… Your father is Chef Bao’s son?” This was the first time Bai Tang had heard that Yu Wan’s father was not Old Master Yu’s biological son. This news was already heavy enough. What was even more heavy was that Yu Wan’s father was actually Chef Bao, whom they could not curry favor with even if they wanted to. The eloquent Miss Bai was so shocked that she stuttered.
Yu Feng’s reaction was not much better than hers. So what if he knew that Third Uncle was not the biological son of the Yu family? He did not expect him to be a member of the Bao family.
Yu Wan said calmly, “We can’t come to a complete conclusion yet… We have to wait for Chef Bao to see the token first.”
Bai Tang said, “But if he’s really your grandfather, you can inherit his mantle.”
Many people were envious of Chef Bao’s legacy. This girl was too lucky!
Bai Tang was a little jealous.
Uncle slept until the latter half of the night. Yu Feng told Uncle about Chef Bao. Uncle was so shocked that he didn’t sleep at all. He even forgot to ask where he was and why this didn’t look like an inn.
At dawn, Uncle urged Yu Wan and Yu Feng to return to the village.
“What? Third Brother’s family is here?” In the old residence, Aunt’s eyes widened in disbelief after hearing her husband’s explanation.
“Is Third Uncle’s family still around?” Yu Song raised his eyebrows.
Aunt slapped the back of her son’s head!
Aunt said, “Should we talk to Sister-in-law about this?”
Uncle said to his wife and children, “Ah Wan will tell her mother. We can’t be sure yet, right? When the old man comes later, don’t scare him.”
That being said, when Chef Bao arrived at the Yu Family’s old residence in a carriage, Aunt had stopped all business in the workshop. She had made tea, fried fruits, and pancakes. She had cut two to three pounds of braised meat, filling the table in the central room like it was the New Year.
This was naturally because he knew that her third brother had not been abandoned and that the other party had spent most of his life wandering around in search of him.
However, in order not to cause unnecessary trouble, Uncle did not reveal that the other party was a famous Master Chef. Aunt and Yu Song thought that he was just an ordinary old man.
Aunt welcomed Chef Bao into the central room and said to her youngest daughter, “This is Grandpa Bao.”
Little Zhenzhen groaned and took the half-eaten fried fruit out of her mouth. “Grandpa, eat.”
Little Bruiser also came. As soon as he entered the room, he saw a white-haired old man sitting at the table. “Auntie, we have guests?” He walked up to Chef Bao and said politely, “Hello, Grandpa. I’m Little Bruiser!”
Chef Bao looked at Little Zhenzhen and then at Little Bruiser, stunned.
When Yu Wan held Madam Jiang’s hand and entered the old residence, her uncle happened to find the booklet. “Old Master Bao, take a look at this.”
The mother and daughter stopped in their tracks and looked at Chef Bao.
Chef Bao took a deep breath and slowly opened the booklet with trembling hands.