Chapter 868: Chapter 868: A Restaurant of My Own
On the day Ye Fei and Zhao Gushen announced their relationship via video, Tian Pengpo and several others from Changping Academy were the first to repost it with their blessings.
The top ten contestants, including Mi Ruoyun who was regretfully in eleventh place and stopped there, publicly reposted and commented on the Weibo post Ye Fei made.
They didn’t repost Zhao Gushen’s post.
After all, they weren’t really familiar with Zhao Gushen.
Reposting it might have been seen as deliberately trying to curry favor.
Anyway, given their competence, Changping wouldn’t penalize them for such trivial matters.
Because of their reposts and comments offering blessings,
There was a supportive attitude towards Ye Fei and Zhao Gushen’s relationship, with no ill feelings.
Therefore, many doubts were dispelled.
People genuinely believed the contestants weren’t bothered by Ye Fei’s relationship with Zhao Gushen, not worried that her performance was any less genuine.
Tian Pengpo and others were demonstrating through their actions,
They believed in Ye Fei.
The concerns and suspicions of outsiders.
They didn’t pay any mind to them.
If the contestants themselves aren’t concerned, then why should outsiders be?
Thus, even if someone wanted to stir trouble, they couldn’t.
"Xiao Fei, keep it up!" The elders finished cheering Ye Fei on and left her to prepare, not wanting to disturb the contestants backstage.
The elders left first, with Zhao Gushen staying behind.
Ye Fei escorted Zhao Gushen to the backstage door.
Zhao Gushen said, "Don’t pressure yourself."
The competition gets tougher in later stages.
Especially at such a level now.
The Changping Academy contestants have to show their true skills now.
Zhao Gushen was confident in Ye Fei.
But he didn’t want her to be affected by too much pressure and perform poorly.
Losing that way would be more regrettable than simply being outperformed.
"I know," Ye Fei said, "Actually, when I first entered the competition, I didn’t expect to win first place."
"Being able to make it this far has already exceeded my expectations," Ye Fei said, "I haven’t forgotten that when I first decided to enter, it was just to silence Shi Jiumei."
"To prove to passersby and fans who support me that it was Shi Jiumei defaming me, my cooking is authentic, I didn’t hire others for staged work, it’s all done by me, with no falsification."
"Actually, just by outcompeting Shi Jiumei in the early stages and progressing onward, my culinary skills proved what I intended from the start," Ye Fei smiled.
"Any further achievements now are simply extra rewards for me," Ye Fei said.
"When I was in Ye City, I used to help out in the family’s small restaurant, occasionally cooking a few dishes. At that time, my hope was merely to become a real chef someday, to have my own restaurant."
As for the family’s small restaurant, she had never hoped for anything from it.
Despite it being a tiny establishment that Ye Ning disregarded, she never counted on it being handed to her.
Ye Ning didn’t want it, nor would she give it away.
So Ye Fei just planned to leave after graduating from college.
Even without the incident involving Zhao Gushen, she had intended to leave Ye City.
Just because of the plot against her, she had to leave Ye City ahead of schedule.
Because Ye Fei knew that if she stayed, she couldn’t achieve anything she aimed for.
Xu Huizhen and Ye Ning would never allow her to pursue her dreams; they would only belittle and suppress her.
They wanted her to continue working hard for the family.
Trapping her in the small restaurant, whether doing odd jobs or working in the kitchen.
To eventually hand over the restaurant to Ye Ning.
Ye Ning would just ignore the small restaurant, letting Ye Fei manage it, yet all the credit would belong to Ye Ning.
Even though Ye Fei loved cooking, she never thought about passionately investing everything while only benefiting Ye Ning.
Making herself subject to Ye Ning’s control for a lifetime.
She also wanted a life of her own, with her own passions.
Thus, long ago, Ye Fei decided that she would quietly leave Ye City after graduation.
She planned to use the four years in college to save money diligently.
At least, to be able to live elsewhere.
Only that plans can’t keep up with changes.
Due to Ye Ning and Xu Huizhen’s scheming, she had to run away ahead of time.
The money wasn’t enough.
She endured extremely tough times in B City.
"Now that I’ve participated and made it this far, I feel very close to my dream," Ye Fei said.
"Before I met you, when I registered for the competition, I thought that after proving myself, I could start preparing for the restaurant," Ye Fei said.
"Over the years, I’ve earned quite a good income as a food blogger, and I’ve been mindful of financial planning and saving, looking forward to a stable life to open a restaurant using my savings."
"I had calculated before, and based on my plans, the budget was sufficient. I didn’t intend to start with a large-scale restaurant; everything is about taking one step at a time and accumulating gradually."
Just like when she first came to B City, she never anticipated becoming a renowned food blogger later.
Even when she initially transitioned to being a food blogger, she didn’t foresee reaching this level.
Actually, Ye Fei’s culinary skills were rooted from her time working at the small restaurant in Ye City, thanks to Ye Dezhang’s foundational teachings.
It was also due to her experience later, working in a restaurant’s kitchen when she first arrived in B City.
Ye Fei learned a lot there.
No matter how much Ye Dezhang taught, it was only the kind of dishes found in a small family restaurant.
Suitable for the small town of Ye City.
The focus wasn’t on high-end restaurants.
The target was more like snack stores and street eateries.
Such experience didn’t really contribute much to culinary advancement.
Ye Dezhang’s skill only surpassed average home cooking.
Against professional chefs, it wasn’t the same.
Ye Fei’s real progress came when she worked in the kitchen in B City, learning things she hadn’t encountered before.
Both in cooking techniques and knife skills, vast improvements were made.
At the time, the restaurant’s head chef saw her as a young girl who could endure hardships, more than even his own apprentices.
And genuinely loved culinary arts immensely.
The restaurant’s head chef broke conventions and accepted her as an apprentice.
Unfortunately, later Ye Fei became pregnant and couldn’t continue.
Even that head chef felt regret.
However, later when that head chef learned Ye Fei became a food blogger, he got in touch with her again.
Knowing Xiao Mo had grown older.
Ye Fei’s situation was much improved, allowing her to hire a maternity nurse to care for Xiao Mo.
The head chef noticed she still loved the culinary arts as before.
She hadn’t lost interest post-success and wealth but continued her pursuit of culinary mastery.
Thus he introduced her to a renowned chef.
Of course, the head chef couldn’t directly arrange for Ye Fei to be taken as an apprentice by that master chef.
It still relied on Ye Fei’s own efforts.
