Chapter 141 - 139: Culinary Exchange

Chapter 141: Chapter 139: Culinary Exchange

When the head of the foreign pharmaceutical company received the investigation report, his mood soured completely.

He truly hadn’t expected someone to actually sell them fake water. Well, that wasn’t quite right. The water itself was real—it just wasn’t from Lin Xian Village. It was authentic mountain spring water.

"What are you waiting for? Send someone to report them! Get all those bastards arrested!"

"Understood, boss. I’ll have someone report it right away."

"Yes, and find someone from our country to do it. It’ll be faster that way."

The director clearly knew how things worked, understanding who to send to make the report most efficiently.

When the Bureau of Industry and Commerce received the report, they were initially confused. ’Water can be fake?’

Later, when they realized it was related to Lin Xian Village and involved its water resources, they understood that the "Lin Xian Village water" being sold in the county was fake.

The county leaders had also been a bit puzzled, but after getting the feedback from the bureau, they finally grasped the situation.

Xia Baorui was arrested quickly. The guy was clever; after ratting out Wang Siming and his partner, he pretended to be a victim who had been deceived himself.

When Wang Siming and his partner were arrested, they were still in the mountains, bottling water.

"Why are you arresting me? What law did I break?"

"Xia Baorui gave you up. Behave and come with us."

The two were taken to the police station, where Wang Siming argued cunningly, "My water is just *called* ’Lin Xian Village Water.’ How is that illegal?"

"Captain, this kid knows a little bit about the law, but not enough."

"If he had actually registered the trademark and applied for a water resource permit, he might have actually gotten away with it."

A lot of big companies do this nowadays—using words like "smart" or "special," or using fine print. No matter how the state tries to ban it, these companies can still find loopholes to exploit.

"Next time, study the law a bit more. Water resources are classified as minerals. It’s illegal for private individuals to extract and sell water without a license."

"Also, what you’re doing is operating without a business license, which is also illegal."

Wang Siming was completely dumbfounded. "How are water resources minerals? We dig wells in the countryside all the time and nobody gets arrested!"

"That’s because they filed the proper paperwork. Of course they don’t get arrested."

Once the entire case was investigated, the leaders were left speechless. This had been going on for three days, and somehow, no one had noticed there was a problem with the water.

Lin Feng also heard the news soon after. He never imagined someone would actually do something like this.

From what he heard, the leadership hoped he would apply for the necessary permits and sell the water from Lin Xian Village officially.

Currently, Lin Xian Village had ten interconnected Wells, with a daily storage capacity of 4,000 cubic meters. It was far more than the village could use.

As he leveled up in the future, the amount of water would only increase, so selling it externally wouldn’t be a problem.

However, he decided to wait until after the culinary exchange was dealt with to hold a meeting and discuss the matter.

News of the fake water incident spread quickly throughout Wuyuan County. Some people who had bought the water were cursing up a storm after finding out.

They had paid a high price only to get fake water. It made them want to beat someone up.

Fortunately, the county issued a notice: anyone who had purchased the water and had proof of transaction could register to receive a refund after the case was closed.

The story soon made its way online. A few days prior, someone had posted information about the water from Lin Xian Village, but it hadn’t attracted much attention.

This time was different. A large number of people had been scammed, and the whole affair had a sense of illogical, dramatic coincidence.

Furthermore, the price of the Lin Xian Village water shocked the online onlookers. 500 milliliters of water could actually sell for 20 yuan.

Some netizens who had visited Lin Xian Village saw this news and regretted it so much they wanted to slap themselves. They had been thirsty but had specifically gone to a store to buy bottled mineral water to drink.

They couldn’t believe they had passed up the chance to drink such expensive spring water.

The netizens were curious: why was the water so expensive?

Soon, someone dug up a comment posted a few days ago that explained the details about the water in Lin Xian Village.

That comment then went viral online, and everyone finally understood that Lin Xian Village not only had magical architecture but also exceptional water.

Some netizens also dug up news about the Jade Grapes, especially the stories about Lin Feng selling them from a stall and how they supposedly helped students with their studies.

Netizens all started to wonder: did the Jade Grapes really have the effects Lin Feng had advertised?

Unfortunately, the Jade Grapes were no longer sold to the public. This led people to think about the special ingredients supplied to the Lin Xian Village Restaurant. If they tasted so good, were they also special in some way?

At that moment, few of the staff in Lin Xian Village cared about the water issue; they were all busy with the culinary exchange.

"Brother Yu, I heard some chefs who’ve cooked for state banquets are here today. Do you think we’ll get a chance to taste their food?"

Yu Hua looked at them, speechless. "Stop daydreaming. Don’t just stand here—get back to your patrols."

Zhao Shiyun and Hu Xia arrived at the Restaurant early. They watched the chefs who were arriving today, searching for them on their phones.

"Those two elderly gentlemen are the chefs who have been head chefs for state banquets. I can’t believe they actually came. I wonder if they’ll cook personally?" Hu Xia said with anticipation.

Zhao Shiyun replied, "Don’t even think about it. They almost certainly won’t cook themselves. I couldn’t even get a taste when I went to the Imperial Capital."

At that moment, the arriving chefs had just finished touring the Restaurant, accompanied by Wan Qianqian.

They had to admit that the layout of the Lin Xian Village Restaurant was excellent; just looking at it made one feel comfortable.

They also toured the back kitchen and even looked over the ingredients. The ingredients provided by Lin Xian Village, in particular, made them green with envy.

Unfortunately, Lin Xian Village was not currently selling them to the public, so they couldn’t buy any even if they wanted to.

After these people sat down, they drank tea made with water from Lin Xian Village. Thinking about the news online and how even the water was so good, they grew even more envious.

In the back kitchen, Huang Yi, Geng Changxin, and Chen Yuyuan were already busy. To avoid delaying lunch service for the tourists, they had started their preparations in the morning.

Wan Tiejun stood in the back kitchen, watching the three chefs and their assistants at work.

’That kid Huang Yi has actually improved so much,’ he thought. ’It seems what he said might very well be true.’

This prompted him to scrutinize the entire Restaurant, but unfortunately, he couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary.

At that moment, Huang Yi noticed something different about his own cooking. He felt an effortless flow, a sense of complete mastery.

At first, he thought it was just his imagination, but after preparing two dishes, he suddenly realized he had broken through his previous barrier.

Chen Yuyuan, having just finished a dish, glanced at him with a hint of confusion, which then blossomed into a smile.

It was a rare expression for him. He was genuinely happy to see Huang Yi’s breakthrough.

"Congratulations!"

Geng Changxin, standing nearby, looked at Chen Yuyuan in surprise, then turned his gaze to Huang Yi. He quickly noticed the change in him as well.

"Congratulations!"

Wan Tiejun also walked over. "Good kid. Not bad, not bad at all."

Huang Yi only spoke after finishing the dish. "Thank you, Master, for recommending me for this place, and thank you, Boss, for building this special Restaurant."

"Yuyuan, I don’t even need to say it—you’re way better than me. And Brother Geng, I believe it won’t be long before you break through too."

Geng Changxin said, "Back to cooking, back to cooking! This feeling of improving every day is just great!"

The kitchen assistants nearby didn’t understand what was going on, but they knew that since starting work here, their own culinary skills had indeed improved significantly.

Dish after dish was brought out. After tasting them, the visiting chefs from the exchange were all in disbelief.

The deliciousness of these dishes truly exceeded their expectations. Even the two state banquet head chefs were getting restless in their seats.

They discovered that while many of the dishes had minor technical flaws, their flavor surpassed their own cooking.

Even with superior ingredients, this shouldn’t have been possible. Yet, here was this contradictory situation, plain as day.

This was especially true for the dishes Huang Yi made after his breakthrough. By comparing the dishes he made before and after, some of the master chefs could clearly see the technical leap he had made.