Everyday Romance After Becoming a Billionaire

Chapter 38: Chapter 29: Stephen Chow (Part 2)

His aunt was surprised. "You know?"

Zhou Bailin was skeptical. "Are you sure?"

Uncle Zhou rushed out holding a cleaver. "For real?"

Su Ran nodded. "Yeah, I figured out where it is."

Uncle Zhou said, "I’ve been looking at it for half my life and couldn’t figure it out, and you got it in a few minutes? Tell me, how did you do it?"

Su Ran scratched his head awkwardly. "Uh... there’s a trick to it. I’ll break it down for you."

The group of onlookers watched Su Ran, half-believing and half-doubting.

Su Ran picked up a pen and began his moment of brilliance.

"This photo shows us trees, a forest, a log cabin, and a blue sky with white clouds. At first glance, none of this seems particularly useful. Therefore, we must extract what is useful from these seemingly useless details."

The crowd stared blankly.

"First, we can confirm the photo was taken in a forest."

Uncle Zhou said, "Right. There are so many forests in the country. How are we supposed to know which one?"

"That’s why we move on to step two: the process of elimination."

The crowd remained baffled.

"Look at this shrub in the foreground. It’s a Chinese fan palm, which grows mainly in the south. Next to it is a large ginkgo tree, also found predominantly in the south. From this, we can deduce the photo was taken in southern China."

Zhou Bailin interjected, "The south is huge. You can find ginkgo trees everywhere."

"Look, there’s a white line in the sky here, probably a contrail left by a plane. Also, look at the light filtering through the gaps in the trees. It’s at an almost 90-degree angle, which suggests it was taken around noon."

The crowd nodded. "Go on."

"Now, let’s look closer at the leaves. Textbooks tell us you can determine direction by the density of the foliage. The denser side faces south, and the sparser side faces north. See how the leaves to the left of the cabin are denser? That indicates the south-facing side."

Zhou Bailin countered, "That’s not a given. What if those are all shade-loving plants?"

Su Ran was speechless.

His aunt said angrily, "Zhou Bailin, are you just trying to be a contrarian? Su Ran, ignore him. Keep going."

"Based on the light and the density of the leaves, we can deduce the photographer was standing to the west and took this picture between 11 AM and 1 PM in a forest somewhere in the south. Coincidentally, a plane was flying overhead. From this, we can clearly see the plane was flying from southeast to northwest."

Uncle Zhou asked, "And then?"

"The contrail. If the plane were at cruising altitude, the line would be thin and uniform. The one in the photo is thick and dense, which means the plane was descending. That implies there’s an airport nearby. Back in the ’90s, there weren’t many airports in China, and they were almost all located in provincial capitals."

"Then there’s the date in the bottom right corner: November 22, 1990."

Uncle Zhou asked, "What does that tell us?"

"A flight, the south, between 11 AM and 1 PM, an airport nearby—that’s all the useful information."

"I did a quick search for the weather forecasts in the south for midday on November 22, 1990. I focused on provincial capitals with airports and eliminated cities where it was rainy or overcast. That left three places: Guiyang, Kunming, and Changsha."

Zhou Bailin argued, "That can’t be accurate. There are more cities than that in the south, and weather forecasts aren’t reliable. What if it was Guangdong, Shenzhen, or Shanghai? Right, Grandpa?"

Uncle Zhou nodded. "He has a point."

His aunt cut in, "Hey, Su Ran isn’t finished yet! Su Ran, go on."

Su Ran continued, "Right. My process of elimination was based on historical weather reports, flight routes from southeast to northwest on that specific day, and flight schedules for that time frame. The analysis showed that Guiyang, Kunming, and Changsha had flights landing around noon, and the local weather in each was clear."

Zhou Bailin fell silent.

Uncle Zhou asked, "So the search has been narrowed down?"

Su Ran confirmed, "Yes, to these three locations."

Uncle Zhou gave a thumbs-up. "Damn impressive."

"Continuing the analysis for Guiyang, Kunming, and Changsha, we know the forest in the photo is southeast of the airport."

As he spoke, Su Ran found a map of 1990s China on his phone and circled Guiyang, Kunming, and Changsha.

"Since it was landing, the forest must be within a certain distance of the airport. I looked up standard landing procedures. Planes typically begin their descent within a 50-kilometer radius of the airport."

With that, he circled a 50-kilometer radius southeast of each of the three airports.

"Now it’s obvious. There are no major mountain ranges around Changsha or Kunming. But back then, there were many mountains within 50 kilometers of the Guiyang airport. Furthermore, Guizhou is known as the ’Kingdom of Plants.’ Look at all the wild plants in the photo, many of which we don’t recognize. And there are towering old trees, which suggests this place was a protected area even back then. That means it’s unlikely to have been altered much."

"If we compare a current map with a map from that time, the area where the mountain forests are unchanged should be the spot in the photo."

Su Ran zoomed in on the map on his phone and compared it to the tablet.

"Here. Dayue Mountain, near Guiyang."

This whole performance left the onlookers’ jaws on the floor.

"What a talent!" Uncle Zhou clapped Su Ran on the shoulder. "Guohua, your nephew has really done you proud. Solving a problem that’s bothered me for thirty years in just a few minutes... damn impressive."

Su Ran said modestly, "Uncle Zhou, you give me too much credit. I just got lucky."

"Excessive modesty is a form of pride, you know?"

"Uh... okay. Uncle Zhou, is there some special reason you’re looking for this place?"

"The photo is of my master’s hometown! HAHAHA! Thanks for your hard work. Come on, let’s go inside for some food and drinks."

Uncle Zhou was overjoyed. He took the photo and strode into the house.

Su Ran knew nothing about Uncle Zhou, so he asked, "Cousin, what did Uncle Zhou do in the past?"

Zhou Bailin explained, "When my grandpa was young, he didn’t have much education. He followed his girlfriend to the capital to try and make it big. But when he got to the Imperial Capital, his girlfriend left him for someone else, and his wallet got stolen. Wouldn’t that just piss you off?"

Su Ran replied, "That’s infuriating."

Zhou Bailin continued, "Having lost both his girl and his money, Grandpa was completely disheartened and decided to throw himself into a river. But when he got to the riverbank, he ran into another guy who was also about to jump. That guy was just as unlucky—his wife had run off with someone else, and his son wasn’t even his."

Su Ran said, "Even more infuriating."

Zhou Bailin said, "The two unlucky bastards stood on the bridge, trying to one-up each other with their sob stories. Eventually, they got so worked up they started fighting."

Su Ran was incredulous. "You’re kidding me."

Zhou Bailin said, "As they were fighting, they both realized that to hell with women, being alive was what really mattered. Neither of them wanted to die anymore. The other guy felt a connection with my grandpa, so he took him home to stay for a while. Seeing that my grandpa had no skills, he had him become his apprentice and taught him how to cook."

Su Ran asked, "What happened then?"

Zhou Bailin said, "Learning to cook is tough. His master told him, ’With no woman in your heart, your cooking will be divine.’ My grandpa truly understood that. After that, his cooking skills improved by leaps and bounds until he was on par with his master. Later, his master died of cancer. Right before he passed, he pulled out that photo and asked Grandpa to bury him there. Grandpa asked where it was, but his master died before he could finish his sentence."

"Sigh... Since he couldn’t find the location, Grandpa had no choice but to take his master’s ashes with him to Xiangjiang to make a name for himself. With his incredible cooking skills, it only took him a few years to get famous over there. A single bowl of his egg fried rice sold for 5,000 yuan, and even the Gambling King ate it."

Su Ran said in amazement, "He’s that incredible?"

Zhou Bailin said proudly, "Of course! In Xiangjiang, he was known as the Food God! He also had a nickname—Stephen Chow!"

’Stephen Chow?’

Su Ran was shocked, his head snapping toward the old man in flip-flops ahead of them.

’To have searched high and low to no avail, only to stumble upon him so easily.’

’He’s actually Stephen Chow?’

"Uncle Zhou, you’re Stephen Chow?"

Uncle Zhou stopped, turned around, and theatrically flicked back his sparse hair.

"Food God or Food Demon, it makes no difference. I stopped using the name Stephen Chow a long time ago. My name now is Zhou Wenxi. You can also call me by my English name... Da... Wen... Xi..."