Chapter 16 - Yes, Chef.

With the sword in her hand, Holly calmly walked towards one of the muscular men who was harassing the teenage girl with his face away from Holly. As Holly calmly approached the muscular man and the teenage girl, the other muscular men charged towards Holly, trying to block her path. Without even stopping her steps, Holly casually swung her sword sheath with her left hand and beat up the muscular men until their knees to the ground.

Then, Holly continued approaching her 'target' as she casually waved off her 'obstacles', and strange enough, her 'target' didn't seem to be noticing her despite all the commotion she made, as if his five senses were completely blocked by some sort of sorceries.

Holly stopped her steps when she was three steps away from her target, glancing at her target with murderous eyes, Holly raised the sword in her hand...

"Aaaaaahhhhhh!!!"

Before Holly could react, a chef's knife flew past Holly, and when Holly finally realised what happened, the muscular man was already kneeling on the ground, his whole body uncontrollably quivering as his right palm was pinned on the wooden wall by the chef's knife, blood gushed out from the wound on his hand forming a maniacally aesthetic sight of a bloody waterfall.

"As if I am going to let my customer get herself involved in a murder case on her first-time visit." said the chef as he took off his apron and walked towards Holly.

"Ah..."

That sudden move from the chef slightly shocked Holly that she was kind of blanked out a bit.

"Miss, I am terribly sorry for this unpleasant dining experience, as compensation, the meal today is on me. Now, if you don't mind, you may get yourself seated at the table over there, I shall make you two new bowls of noodles after I briefly clean up this 'mess'." said the chef with a polite smile.

"Ah... Oh... Okay." said Holly with an obvious redness on her face, and due to the awkwardness, she forgot to change her tone and reverted to her usual sweet feminine tone.

"Xiao Ming, get the ladies to their new table and serve them two new bowls of soy milk." said the chef.

"Yes, chef."

With the order from his boss, the young waitress led Holly to an open area where Rei was waiting for them, then, he pulled a table and a chair over before pouring another two bowls of soy milk for the ladies.

"Ha... I thought I have made this clear enough before but I guess it's not wrong for me to refresh your memories a bit." said the chef with a polite smile.

As the muscular men who were beaten up by Holly earlier slowly stood back up, the chef cracked his knuckles as his smile slowly retracted...

***

A short while later, the chef walked back with a bloody chef knife in his hand, all of the muscular men fled after that brief 'refreshing of memories' from the chef.

"I am terribly sorry for making you ladies wait so long, the noodles will be ready in a while." said the chef who returned to his polite tone.

The two ladies sheepishly nodded as they briefly glanced at the bloody knife in the chef's hand.

"Oh! And don't worry, this knife is not for cooking use." said the chef with a subtle smile before walking into a small building behind the stall.

The chef came back out after a short while with a clean outfit and proceeded to cook two new bowls of noodles for Rei and Holly.

Despite all the unpleasant incidents earlier, Rei and Holly enjoyed their new bowls of free noodles very much. That shiitake mushroom and chicken soup noodle made by the chef is like some sort of drug that will get you into a euphoric state and make you forget all the negativities you get from life.

After the ladies were done eating, they thanked the chef and proceeded to find their next target of the day, the dragon beard candy.

However...

"Oh! If you were talking about that immoral middle-aged lady's stall, her stall got forcibly closed and removed yesterday due to some hygienic issues. If I was not mistaken, a young boy got chronic diarrhoea after eating her candy, and it was later revealed that she used mouldy maltose to make her dragon beard candy." said Xiao Ming as Holly inquired him about the dragon beard candy stall.

"Ah... That's too bad..." said Holly as she carefully looked at Rei who looked slightly upset.

"But... If you really want to have some dragon beard candy... Uhm... Chef..."

Xiao Ming glanced at the chef as he talked about the dragon beard candy with the ladies.

"Hah... Well, I guess that's in our after-sales services as well." said the chef with a short sigh.

"Chef!" Xiao Ming exclaimed in excitement.

"Don't just 'chef' me, get into the house and get everything ready for me." said the chef, in a slightly commanding tone.

"Yes chef!" said Xiao Ming as he joyously ran into the small building and came back out after a few minutes with all the items needed in his hands, including a mini stove, a metal tray, and ingredients needed to make dragon beard candy.

Then, Xiao Ming proceeded to arrange all the tools neatly on a clean table and lit up the mini stove. After Xiao Ming lit up the stove, the chef took over.

Before the chef started with anything, he skimmed through all the tools and ingredients displayed in front of him, making sure that there was nothing left out. Then, he took a wooden spatula and opened a jar, his movements stopped as soon as he saw the golden brown maltose in the jar, something seemed to have struck him in his mind.

"Chef? Is everything alright?" Xiao Ming asked.

"Switch this corn starch with soybean powder." said the chef after a short thought.

"Ah?... Ah! Yes! Chef!"

With his 'Yes! Chef!', Xiao Ming once again rushed back into the building.

"Please don't mind about that, it's just that I don't like using plain corn starch in making dragon beard candy." said the chef with his polite tone.

The two ladies nodded without saying anything.

Despite the chef looking perfectly normal, the ladies somewhat caught a glimpse of uneasiness from him...