Siheyuan: Buyers get rich from hunting

Xu Damao's face was gloomy, his brows were tightly knitted together, and his face was full of annoyance, as if covered by a thick layer of dark clouds. He raised his foot angrily and stepped into the door fiercely, with such force that it seemed as if he wanted to kick the threshold off. As soon as he entered the house, the anger in his heart was like a raging flame suddenly blown up by a strong wind, burning fiercely, and the fire was getting more and more fierce, with no sign of weakening.

He was seen walking back and forth in the narrow and somewhat cramped room with heavy steps. Every step he took seemed to step heavily on the dissatisfaction and unwillingness deep in his heart, making a dull sound. As he walked, he kept making small and resentful mutterings from his mouth. Although the sound was not loud, it was full of resentment and anger.

"This damn Sha Zhu is simply an incomprehensible and unfathomable freak! How can he always avoid our traps in such a weird and strange way? Could it be that he really has a pair of eyes that can see through everything? Damn it!" Xu Damao cursed with gritted teeth, wishing he could rush to Sha Zhu and have a good talk with him. However, the reality is cruel. No matter how angry he is, things have already happened and cannot be changed.

At this moment, footsteps were heard outside the door, and then the gloomy face in Liu Haizhong appeared at the door. It turned out that this "Second Uncle", who always boasted about his wisdom, was also full of depression and annoyance after learning that their carefully planned plan had failed again. At this moment, he had a solemn look on his face and staggered into Xu Damao's house.

He looked at Xu Damao's face twisted by anger, his eyes flickering with unwillingness, and shook his head helplessly. A long sigh echoed in the room: "Da Mao, our plan this time was indeed not thorough enough. Who would have thought that the silly Zhu kid who looks stupid on weekdays would be so smart at the critical moment and easily resolve our plan. However, don't take it too seriously. Victory and defeat are common in the military. Let's take a long-term view and think of a foolproof plan."

After hearing this, Xu Damao sat down heavily on the chair like a deflated ball, his face wrinkled into a bitter gourd shape. He placed his hands weakly on his knees, staring blankly ahead, his voice low and depressed: "Second Uncle, what do you think we should do next? I feel like a huge stone is pressing down on my heart, I just can't swallow this anger. If I don't think of a way to vent this anger, I'm afraid I won't be able to sleep well."

Liu Haizhong touched the sparse stubble on his chin, frowning, and fell into deep thought. After a moment, his eyes gradually became brighter, and he slowly spoke with a hint of subtle cunning in his voice: "I heard that our factory will organize a cooking competition in a while. This news is very important. At that time, each workshop will select experts to participate. The scene is exciting. Hey, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us! If we can quietly make that kid Sha Zhu fall flat on his face in this competition and make him look ridiculous, the effect will be hundreds and thousands of times better than our previous small fights!"

When Xu Damao heard this, his eyes immediately flashed with excitement, as if he saw the dawn of victory. He could not wait to get close to Liu Haizhong, and said anxiously: "Second uncle, please tell me, how should we do it? As long as I can make that kid Sha Zhu embarrassed in front of everyone, I am willing to do anything!"

Liu Haizhong gently waved his hand, signaling Xu Damao to calm down, then lowered his voice and said mysteriously: "Think about it, the judges of this cooking competition are all the top leaders of the factory and some respected masters. Their words carry a lot of weight! If we go and 'exchange' feelings with the judges in advance and let them be a little biased when scoring, then even if Sha Zhu has great skills and cooks a delicious dish, it will be useless and he will definitely be ranked at the back!"

When Xu Damao heard the plan, he was so happy, but then he changed his mind and became a little worried: "Second Uncle, can this work? If we are discovered, we will be finished. The consequences are scary to think about."

Seeing this, Liu Haizhong patted Xu Damao's shoulder gently, his eyes full of confidence: "Don't worry, we should be careful. As long as we take good care of it, the judges will definitely give us some face. Besides, we should do this secretly. As long as we don't reveal anything, who can find out? Even if there is something fishy, ​​we will deny it to death. Who can do anything to us? We are innocent workers!"

After listening to Liu Haizhong's words, Xu Damao's worries immediately disappeared. He gritted his teeth and made up his mind: "Okay, Uncle Er, I'll do as you say! I'll go and prepare and see how to talk to the judges. We will definitely succeed!" After saying that, Xu Damao turned and left, with a bit of determination and expectation in his back, as if he had seen Sha Zhu's miserable appearance in the competition.

So, like a tireless and busy bee, Xu Damao began to shuttle around the factory non-stop, trying to find out the unique personal preferences of the judges of this cooking competition. He sometimes appeared in the crowded store in a hurry, smiling and trying to get close to the clerks, seemingly chatting with them casually, but in fact he was listening carefully, trying to capture even a little bit of valuable information that might be very useful to him from this seemingly ordinary conversation; sometimes he quietly appeared in the tree-lined rest area of ​​the factory, chatting with those experienced old workers, just like reuniting with old friends who had not seen each other for many years. However, in the midst of chatting and laughing, he always seemed to inadvertently and cleverly ask about some details of the judges' daily habits.

In order to successfully please the judges, Xu Damao really put in a lot of effort, even spending a lot of money and losing everything to achieve his goal. He worked tirelessly to walk through the streets and alleys, carefully and meticulously selecting all kinds of gifts. Whether it was the high-end tea with a light and elegant fragrance and a high price, or the exquisitely made and uniquely shaped small ornaments, as long as he thought it might meet the interests and hobbies of a judge and could please him, he would buy them all without hesitation, without missing a single one.

Then, the cunning Xu Damao racked his brains to make up all kinds of excuses, either in the name of humbly asking the judges for exquisite cooking skills, or in the name of sincerely thanking them for their careful guidance before, and visited the judges again and again without getting tired of it. He used all his tricks and tried his best to quickly narrow the distance between him and these judges who held the key scoring power and establish a special and intimate relationship.

At the same time, He Yuzhu, who was also in the factory, accidentally heard the exciting news that the factory was about to hold a grand and unique cooking competition...

He was secretly delighted, as if he had discovered a hidden treasure. This opportunity was like a gift from God, which made him extremely excited. He knew that this was definitely a great opportunity to fully demonstrate his abilities and charm. Not only could he fully display his superb and amazing cooking talent, but more importantly, he could take this opportunity to let Xu Damao and others who always mocked him thoroughly understand his true strength!

With this in mind, He Yuzhu threw himself into the intensive and orderly preparation work without hesitation. After get off work every day, he no longer wandered around or took a lazy rest as usual, but plunged into the kitchen, immersed in various complicated and diverse recipes, eagerly absorbing the knowledge and skills contained in them. At the same time, in order to further improve his cooking skills, he even sacrificed his precious spare time to repeatedly hone his knife skills and master the heat. Every time he swung the knife, he tried to cut out ingredients with uniform thickness and regular shapes; every time he adjusted the size of the fire, he also carefully felt the subtle influence of the flame temperature on the degree of food cooking. In this way, after a long period of persistent and hard training, He Yuzhu finally had the confidence to be flawless and perfect in the upcoming competition.

Time flies, and in a blink of an eye, the long-awaited competition day has quietly arrived. When the first ray of warm and soft sunlight in the morning gently fell on the spacious competition venue, the participating representatives carefully selected from various workshops could no longer contain their inner eagerness, and arrived at the scene in advance and quickly gathered together. At this time, they were all energetic and high-spirited, and they were ready to fight and revealed a strong desire to win. Everyone was fully prepared to show their skills and win good results in this fierce competition.

He Yuzhu stood quietly among the group of high-spirited contestants. He was calm and composed, with a confident smile on his ordinary face. He stood straight, with his head held high and his chest puffed out. He exuded an incomparable calm temperament, looking like a veteran general who had always won the battle, as if he had expected all the results and was fully prepared.

At the same time, Xu Damao, who was not far away, was staring at He Yuzhu with a pair of sinister and narrow eyes. The corners of his mouth curled up slightly, outlining a cold sneer that was not easily noticed by others, and he thought to himself: "Humph, silly Zhu, silly Zhu, do you really think this competition is a great opportunity for you to become famous? Let me tell you, today is destined to be your 'Waterloo', but the final winner will never be you!"

With the referee's order, the competition officially began. The kitchen suddenly became lively and bustling, with the sounds of chopping vegetables, stir-frying, and steaming interweaving together to form a unique cooking symphony. He Yuzhu was like a fish in water, with skillful and elegant movements. He handled the ingredients like flowing water, and each step was done very carefully. It was obvious that he had been tempered a lot.

In comparison, the contestant that Xu Damao had found was a little inferior. Although his cooking skills were acceptable, he was obviously inferior to He Yuzhu in terms of the accuracy of his knife skills and the creativity of his dishes. However, he was not panicked because Xu Damao had already assured him that the judges would "take care" of him, which gave him some confidence.

Finally, after a busy and intense process, the dishes with good appearance, aroma and taste were presented to the judges one by one. The judges began to taste and score them carefully. Xu Damao watched nervously from the side, silently praying that the judges would follow the previous "agreement" and give high scores to his contestants. However, things are unpredictable, and the judges' scoring results will still have to wait for the moment to be revealed...

What Xu Damao never expected was that after the judges tasted the dishes carefully prepared by He Yuzhu one by one, they all showed surprise and admiration on their faces. The dishes with good color, aroma and taste were like beautiful paintings, which showed in front of the judges, making them intoxicated and completely throwing the so-called "agreement" to the wind. While tasting, the judges whispered to each other, praising He Yuzhu's cooking skills and giving high scores one after another without hesitation.

In comparison, the dish of the contestant invited by Xu Damao seemed to pale in comparison. Although his dish was acceptable in taste and appearance, the gap was too obvious compared to He Yuzhu's superb cooking skills, just like the most inconspicuous star in the night sky competing with the bright moon. The result is predictable.

The final result was revealed without any suspense. He Yuzhu won the first place in the competition without any controversy with his outstanding performance. Standing on the podium, he had a proud smile on his face. His bright eyes seemed to be able to see through everything. He deliberately glanced in the direction of Xu Damao. His eyes were full of the pride of a winner, as if to say, "How about it, Xu Damao? You lost again. Are you convinced this time?"

Xu Damao looked at He Yuzhu who was full of vigor on the stage, and was so angry that he trembled all over, and his face instantly turned purple like a pig's liver. He no longer cared about his demeanor, turned around and walked off the stage, muttering bitterly as he walked: "This silly Zhu, how can he be so lucky, he can always turn danger into safety, humph, I'm not done with you, let's wait and see!"

Liu Haizhong looked at the result with an embarrassed and helpless expression. He hurriedly chased after Xu Damao and grabbed him, trying to calm him down: "Damo, don't be angry, we miscalculated again this time, but it doesn't matter, victory and defeat are common in the military, let's think of other ways, I don't believe that with so many of us, we can't beat him, a fool!"

Xu Damao stopped and said through gritted teeth: "Second Uncle, it's easy for you to say that. Next time, I must make Sha Zhu fall into a big trap, otherwise I will never be able to swallow this anger in my heart! We must plan carefully and never let him get away with it like this again."

As for He Yuzhu, after several battles with Xu Damao and others, he became more alert. He knew that Xu Damao and others would not give up, and he would have to be more careful in the future. The "open and secret struggles" in the factory continued quietly, as if it would never stop. He just didn't know what new tricks Xu Damao and others would come up with to deal with him next time, but no matter what means they used, He Yuzhu was ready to deal with it. He firmly believed that as long as he acted upright, there was nothing to be afraid of.