Chapter 10[1.9]

The competition results caused Zheng Junming to suffer a huge psychological shock, he left the competition site with a pale complexion, which was wantonly reported by the media. Zheng Junming had no way to accept the fact that he had lost to Lu Jingyu, Zheng Jianlin also similarly had no way to believe that the son he had diligently guided to grow up actually would lose to the son that he had constantly ignored and disregarded.

The theme of the overall championship round was spring, everything else was left up to the chef to decide. Jing Yang stunned the entire crowd with his 春暖花开 dish, and became the overall champion.

During the course of the competition, Jing Yang created several records, including being the first to receive an unanimous vote from the public vote, being the first youth group chef to become the overall champion, and also being the first chef whose evaluations were all positive.

Jing Yang made a name for himself with this competition, and Lu De Ji's business became even more flourishing. Even the other two branches that had not even officially opened yet had already been completely booked.

But just because Lu De Ji's business was flourishing, didn't mean that Zheng De Ji's business wasn't good. Even though their (ZDJ) business was somewhat influenced, they still remained in a normal business state.

Jing Yang's goal wasn't to snatch back Zheng De Ji and to change them back to the original Lu De Ji. Zheng De Ji had already been controlled by Zheng Jianlin for many years, he had already cultivated large numbers of his own people. Even if he grabbed them back there wouldn't be much of a meaning. Jing Yang's purpose was actually to completely collapse Zheng De Ji and the Zheng family father and son.

Many news media wanted to interview Jing Yang, and Jing Yang agreed, simply holding a press conference the day before the grand opening of his restaurant branches.

In order to be able to hear some more explosive topics to seize more publishing space, many reporters only wanted to ask about some possibly controversial topics. Naturally, the relationship between Lu Jingyu and the Zheng family father and son was unavoidably asked about.

The reporters asked some relevant questions, one of them asked, "We heard that before you were a young master who only knew how to drink and play, then may I ask when you started learning how to cook?"

Jing Yang responded, "I don't deny that I used to have the habit of drinking excessively, because the depression in my heart couldn't be relieved, I could only rely on drinking to numb myself. I had self-studied how to cook since I was small, because no one taught me, I could only rely on the notes and Lu family recipes that my grandfather had left behind, and ponder over them bit by bit. Because I traveled a highly winding road, I wasn't very confident in myself, and I didn't dare to rashly show the food that I had cooked in front of others, fearing that I would lose face for my grandfather. So until I felt that my cooking was presentable, I finally thought of opening Lu De Ji and reviving the Lu family dishes."

The reporter: "You said that your drinking was because the depression in your heart couldn't be relieved, then may I ask what was the reason that had led to your depression?"

Jing Yang wiped his face and was silent for a while, then opened his mouth with some difficulty. "When I was still small, that day I went to school early, and because when I was still on the road I remembered that I had forgotten something, I had returned to the house to get it. And when I got back home…, I saw with my own eyes…, my mother, was falling right at that time, she fell on the marble floor, and so much blood flowed…"

The scene was silent for a while, even the camera sounds also disappeared for a moment. A ten or so year old child saw his mother committing suicide with his own eyes, that would definitely leave a psychological shadow, the gazes that the reporters looked at him with, were filled with sympathy.

The reporter: "May I ask, was the reason that your mother committed suicide, really because she didn't want to divorce your father?"

That year the matter of Lu Xuexian's suicide had also caused a sensation, the way Zheng Jianlin had explained to the public was that he had requested to divorce with Lu Xuexian, but Lu Xuexian didn't agree, and actually protested by dying. At that time Zheng Jianlin wept bitter tears, saying how he regretted, if he had known earlier that Lu Xuexian would really commit suicide, even if he would have been trapped in the Lu family for a lifetime, he would still not mention wanting to divorce.

In reality at that time Zheng Jianlin had not yet controlled all of the Lu family assets, there was still a large portion still controlled in Lu Xuexian's hands. The Lu family not only opened restaurants, but also had many other investments and stocks, so at that time he had not at all mentioned divorcing Lu Xuexian.

After Jing Yang was silent for a while, he said, "There are some words that I have concealed in my heart for many years already, to the point that now I can barely breathe. I would like to invite all reporters, to take my place to ask that father of mine, when he was marrying my mother that year, he was only an impoverished beggar both economically and culturally. He had no assets, no skills, no relatives, he said that my grandfather forced him to marry my mother, I would like to ask for a second, in the end why would my grandfather want to marry him to his own daughter? Within my grandfather's apprentices, he was not the best, my mother was also not ugly to the point of not being able to show herself. If he really did not want to marry my mother, why didn't he simply just leave the Lu family?"

The reporters looked at each other in dismay, this was actually a pretty big doubtful point. The other person's family and business were both large, for what reason would they have fallen for some sort of beggar, and even insisted on marrying his delicate and refined daughter to you? Over so many years, no one actually mentioned this matter. If you said that Zheng Jianlin didn't do some tricks, even if other people would believe it, these people who understood the rules of the industry would definitely not believe it.

Jing Yang said, "My mother committed suicide because she suffered from very severe mental depression. She was a very frail woman, yet every day she saw the child that her husband had had with his lover appear in front of her eyes, and constantly reminded her that the love that she had thought was true was actually all fake. Her heart from early on was already collapsing, she committed suicide because she wanted to seek freedom from her suffering, not because she didn't want to divorce."

When the press conference was about to conclude, Jing Yang stood up and made some finishing remarks. "On behalf of my mother, I will give that father of mine an opportunity, I hope that he can personally say the truth about what happened that year. In the end, that year, was it my grandfather who forced him to marry my mother, or was it him taking the initiative to kneel down in front of my grandfather to beg to marry my mother? If he still has a bit of conscience, then don't keep concealing the truth. And finally, I would like to invite all of the reporters to help me ask him, since he had said that the Lu family had trapped him, then after my grandfather and mother had died, why is their three person family still overtly living in the Lu home, and instead made me have a home that I can't return to?"

The events that occurred during the press conference that Jing Yang convened was reported by the media, and instantly caused a huge sensation. All the reporters ran to interview Zheng Jianlin and Zheng Junming, wanting to hear how they would respond.

The netizens also all wanted to know about those questions that Jing Yang had raised. At that time why did Lu Deyuan want to marry Zheng Jianlin to his daughter, what did you have that was worthy of his threats, why are you three people surnamed Zheng still living in the Lu home now, yet the person really surnamed Lu was actually living outside instead.

"Disgraceful thing!" Zheng Jianlin smashed the remote control at the TV, furiously trembling from head to toe. He totally did not think that smelly kid who didn't even dare to raise his head in front of him actually dared to question him on TV.

"Jianlin, this is Lu Jingyu wanting to chase our family out of here!" Sun Qiurong was furious to the point that her face distorted. "You quickly think of a way, we definitely cannot let him have his way."

Zheng Jianlin clenched his teeth. "Hmph! He wants to confront me, he's still much too young!"

The Zheng Junming who was sitting on the sofa with his head lowered said, "Dad, we can't always just hide in the house not making any response like this, this way those reporters would only speak increasingly unpleasantly. We should still quickly think of some response to make, only that way would most of the people believe us."

Outside the Lu home was completely surrounded by reporters waiting to interview the Zheng family father and son. They really couldn't always stay hiding in their home, after Zheng Jianlin finished thinking of how to respond, he went out to accept interviews from the reporters.

A crowd of reporters fought to ask, "Mr. Zheng Jianlin, may we ask, what response do you have to the questions that your son Lu Jingyu asked you?"

"I really did not expect that my own son would actually come interrogate his father, I truly am very grieved." Zheng Jianlin put on a grieved and lamenting expression. "Even if he hadn't made something out of himself, I had never considered abandoning him, but his behavior right now is wanting to fall out with me. My matters with his mother were matters between us elders, and he as the younger generation, what qualifications does he have to ask me? I and his mother were married for many years before finally having him, what truth could he really know?"

The reporters asked, "Then that year, in the end, what did Mr. Lu Deyuan use to force you to marry his daughter?"

Zheng Jianlin put on a reminiscing appearance. "That year it was Lu Xuexian who took fancy to me, and she insisted on my marrying her, but she was the only daughter of the Lu family, if I was to marry her I would only be able to go live with her family. At that time, even though I was poor, I still had big ambitions, I was not willing to have my children not carry my surname in the future, and the most important thing was, I simply did not like Lu Xuexian! Originally the person had already died, so I also didn't want to say anything, but now it was Lu Jingyu this shameful kid who stubbornly wants to expose his grandfather and mother's disgrace ah!"

"So you're saying, you had never liked Lu Xuexian in the past, that it was Lu Xuexian who took fancy to you and then let her father force you to marry her?"

Zheng Jianlin said, "No mistake, Lu Xuexian desperately insisted to her father that she wanted to marry to me, so her father forced me to marry to her, otherwise he would let me not have a place to seek shelter. At that time I had no authority, no power, and no one to rely on, so I had no way, I could only agree. But the person I loved was always only my current wife this one person."

A reporter: "Then why do you all still want to keep living in the Lu home? According to our understanding, this building is handed down from generation to generation by the Lu family, and now it is under the name of Lu Jingyu, yet Lu Jingyu is actually living outside, and you and your current wife as well as the son that you two had, are actually still living in here instead."

Zheng Jianlin said, "Lu Jingyu is living outside because he insisted on moving out, even if I let him come back he still wouldn't come back. He thought that I restricted him too much, interfering with his freedom to go play. I strenuously supported the business for so many years for the Lu family, could it be that I don't even have the qualification to live in here?"

"Rubbish!" Guo Long, who was currently watching TV, was angered to the point of slapping the table because of Zheng Jianlin's words. "He is simply speaking nonsense! That year how he begged master to marry Lu Xuexian to him, all of us fellow apprentices saw, and yet now he deliberately distorts the truth, he actually said that it was master who forced him to marry Xuexian! He is simply kicking his benefactor in the teeth, worse than a beast!"

"Senior brother." Wang Yang said. "What kind of person this Zheng Jianlin is, we have long already known. This is also not his first time inverting right and wrong, it's not worthwhile for you to keep getting angry at him. You might as well help Jingyu think of some way to prove that what he said was false."

Jing Yang sipped tea leisurely on the side. "Just let him talk, I naturally have methods to handle him. There will be a day when he will regret every word that he is saying right now."

When the reporters came to interview Jing Yang again, he only replied with one sentence: I still hope that he can personally say the entire truth, and if he really waits for me to come out to speak, then between us there will no longer exist any emotions of father and son.

And when the reporters still wanted to investigate in more detail, Jing Yang no longer appeared to make any response.

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Translator Notes:

[1] 春暖花开 – ok so I really don't know what this is. From context this seems like it should be some dish. But the phrase itself actually means "flowers blooming during a warm spring". Take what you will.

[2] cause a sensation – 轰动一时, idiom

[3] looked at each other in dismay – 面面相觑, idiom, though dismay might be too strong for this case

[4] delicate and refined – 如花似玉, idiom, literally delicate as a flower and refined as a jade

[5] fought to ask – 争先恐后, idiom, literally striving to be the first and fearing to be the last

[6] grieved and lamenting – 痛心疾首, idiom, literally bitter and hateful

[7] fall out with – 反目成仇, idiom, means becoming enemies

[8] no one to rely on – 无依无靠, idiom

[9] deliberately distorts the truth – 颠倒黑白, idiom, literally invert black and white

[10] kicking his benefactor in the teeth – 忘恩负义, idiom, literally to forget favors and violate justice

[11] worse than a beast – 禽兽不如, idiom, means to behave immorally

Random Notes:

I guess what I said last time wasn't entirely true, the competition did continue for like two more "paragraphs" here. Ofc, our OP MC wins. But that's what I want, so all is well.

Yeah, so this chapter was basically that and an exchange of acting appearances from both our MC and that father of his, tho some more truthful than others. If I'm not wrong, the actual romance starts next chapter, so look forward to that. 😛

Finished this in our standard 1.5 hours, 3 pm – 4:30 pm, for 3.2k characters to 2.6k words. It felt longer though, especially with so many frickin translator notes (idioms). I also wasted a few minutes on that first spring dish, which really confused me. So I just left it as is. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Also I was on my phone looking over the few scheduled chapters I had finished before this one, and I found this one typo. And now when I'm on my computer, I wanted to go back to fix that typo, but I don't know where it is now. Argh! It's frustrating me! Hopefully I'll find it later when I go look back over the chapters in the future.

Edit: In case you missed it, I've usually been trying to keep at least 2 weeks ahead of schedule, so all of my already translated chapters are currently scheduled for publication. So all of these random notes are written on the day of translation, which is usually 2 weeks earlier than the day of publication, lol. It can get a bit confusing. But anyway, I'm back with an additional note a couple days before this chapter is going to be up. The entire arc 1 has been translated! With the finish line in sight, I translated the last 3 chapters yesterday and today. I'll probably be taking a few days off before translating the next arc, since it's almost entirely different. But have no fear, there will be no delays in the chapter releases for Arc 1.

And I guess I'll mention that I didn't find that typo I was talking about above. Lmk if you do. Edit: actually I just reread this chapter and found and fixed a typo. Maybe it was the one I was worrying about before??

Edit edit: The post is up. I just wanted to give a short update: I have decided to go on a hiatus from reading LNs for the sake of my sanity and responsibility. That means that I will likely be translating even more frequently and building up my backlog. Chapter 1 of Arc 2 has already been translated! It was a doozy 🙂