When Yang Qiniang returned with a lost Zhang Chi,
they also happened to run into some other people at the entrance.
The moment they walked in, they heard the four words, "A pleasure working with you."
Zhang Chi and the others had no idea that Chen Lei had actually brought his older brother along.
They looked up and saw Chen Lei, ready to greet him cheerfully, but then they turned their heads and saw Brother Chen.
Just like Yang Qiniang before them, they all became a little reserved.
At the same time, when Yang Qiniang heard "a pleasure working with you,"
he subconsciously asked, "What partnership? Aren’t we just here for dinner today?"
Seeing Yang Qiniang’s bewildered expression,
Chen Lei, who had been keeping a low profile, finally found an opportunity to speak up.
"See? I told you Lin Feng and my brother are pretty similar, right?"
"The two of them had just sat down and hadn’t even had a few sips of tea before they started talking business."
"And they were incredibly fast about it."
"They hadn’t even finished half this pot of tea, and their deal was already done."
Hearing this, Yang Qiniang and the others all looked at Lin Feng with admiration.
After all,
Lin Feng was arguably the first in their group to have a business connection with Brother Chen.
Although everyone was well aware that the connection between Brother Chen and Lin Feng was probably just a matter of financial transactions, just like when they had all pooled some of their spare cash for Lin Feng to invest on their behalf,
an investment was still business.
Unlike the others’ simple envy,
Yang Qiniang sidled up to Lin Feng and asked, "Brother Feng, just how big of a deal did you close?"
Seeing the curiosity on Yang Qiniang’s face, Lin Feng smiled and said, "Just an investment of five hundred million, that’s all."
When they heard the amount, almost everyone present, except for Chen Lei, gasped.
Compared to the small-time dabbling of the others,
Chen Jun had put up five hundred million right off the bat.
And everyone knew full well that any money one could pull out like that was just spare cash.
They thought about how, for them, a few million was an amount they wouldn’t miss.
For the Chen brothers, one of them casually tossed around tens of millions, while the other jumped straight to five hundred million.
However, compared to the shock of Brother Chen pulling out five hundred million yuan,
everyone was even more astounded that Lin Feng had secured this investment from Brother Chen in the short time it took to drink a few cups of tea.
It was one thing for Brother Chen to produce five hundred million in spare cash.
But for Lin Feng to convince Chen Jun to invest that five hundred million into his company—that was true skill.
The others, having fully grasped the situation, looked at Lin Feng with complicated expressions.
And within those complicated gazes, the most dominant emotion was, naturally, envy.
While their group still only knew how to party and have fun,
Lin Feng had already managed to build a relationship with Chen Jun.
This made the others keenly feel the vast gap between people.
Yang Qiniang was particularly stunned.
He was speechless for a long time.
For some reason, Yang Qiniang suddenly remembered something.
His father, Yang Tianming, had once told him meaningfully, "There’s a lot about Lin Feng that you’re still far from understanding. You should learn from him."
Back when Yang Qiniang first heard this, he had dismissed it.
But now, for some reason, those words came back to him.
’I really am far behind!’
At this moment, filled with admiration, Yang Qiniang secretly gave Lin Feng a thumbs-up.
"You’re just a beast!"
Yang Qiniang muttered under his breath.
Lin Feng glanced around at everyone.
It looked like basically everyone had arrived.
Plus, he had just closed a huge deal.
Grinning, Lin Feng stood up and nodded to the chef inside.
The chef’s side was also just about ready.
"Everyone, please be seated."
The private chef, dressed in a white uniform, invited the group in with a faint smile.
The courtyard’s style was predominantly Chinese.
Upon entering the main hall, they were immediately greeted by the classical atmosphere of the Celestial Dynasty.
At the very least, the environment felt comfortable.
After everyone sat down, Lin Feng noticed something interesting.
Or rather, something quite common.
Everyone had subconsciously left the main seats, aside from the host’s,
for Brother Chen and Chen Lei.
It seemed to be an unspoken rule that everyone understood.
And Lin Feng knew very well that the reason for such a rule
was because of the Chen Family’s power,
and even more so because of the others’ heartfelt reverence for Chen Jun.
It was a natural sense of deference to the powerful.
Lin Feng smiled faintly.
’It seems that even in the circles of the rich and powerful, the capable are the most respected.’
Lin Feng had personally selected this private restaurant.
It was also a way to use his Gourmet Card.
Although this private chef was rather particular
and did things his own way,
when it came to the culinary arts, he was exquisitely refined.
The pre-meal Chinese pastries were no less exquisite in their presentation than Western desserts.
They even featured superb carving techniques, with pastries shaped into lifelike figures.
"This ’Celestial Maiden Descending’ theme is quite nice."
Zhang Chi was already starving.
After all, he had taken many wrong turns while he was lost, burning a lot of energy.
Zhang Chi picked up a pastry and popped it into his mouth.
After taking two small bites,
his eyes widened.
"This pastry... it truly melts in your mouth. It’s flaky but not soft."
"I can also taste fruit and vegetables. He must not have used artificial coloring, but natural fruit and vegetable juices for the color, right?"
That kid Zhang Chi had a very discerning palate.
Although he wasn’t usually picky about his food,
it didn’t mean he hadn’t eaten good things before.
Zhang Chi felt that ever since he’d learned to appreciate fine food, this was the most delicious thing he had ever eaten that also best preserved the original flavor of its ingredients.
The chef had already taken off his apron.
Dressed in his white uniform, he stood to the side and nodded with a smile. "That’s my signature pastry."
Seeing Zhang Chi’s expression, the others
couldn’t resist and each took a bite.
The natural flavors of the ingredients blended together perfectly.
The sugar was just an accent, not overpowering the main flavors.
It was precisely this natural taste that was a refreshing surprise for everyone.
Even Chen Jun, who was used to all sorts of delicacies, paused for a moment.
He smiled and said, "These pastries are excellent. Master, could I trouble you to pack a portion for me to take home later?"
The chef had been in this industry for many years and had naturally developed a keen eye for wealth and status.
He could tell that Chen Jun held a significant and effortless position of authority within this group.
He could be lazy about business on a normal day, but he couldn’t afford to offend key people.
So the private chef nodded, accepting the order.
Chen Jun turned to Lin Feng. "I didn’t expect you to find such an elegant place in the middle of this bustling city, Xiaofeng."
Now that he was out of his "work mode,"
Chen Jun’s attitude was much more approachable.
He had also followed his younger brother, Chen Lei’s, lead in calling Lin Feng "Xiaofeng."
Lin Feng knew this was a sign of goodwill.
So Lin Feng smiled and nodded. "This is Master Yang. He was a private chef for many years and only switched to creative private dining in the last few."
"He’s always had a great reputation in the industry, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to bring everyone to try his food."
The rest of the dishes were served one by one.
Individual portions, with a personal stew for each.
This meal, whether it was the creative dishes or the more conventional home-style ones,
was a refreshing experience for everyone.
It was a thrill for the taste buds.
The chef Lin Feng had chosen this time was truly skilled.
There were light and refreshing dishes that highlighted the ingredients’ original flavors,
as well as rich, savory dishes with bold flavors.
The portion control for the courses was also just right.
When the meal was over, Lin Feng used his system’s rating function to check everyone’s satisfaction level.
People like Zhang Chi had satisfaction ratings of basically ninety-eight points or higher.
Yang Qiniang had been around Lin Feng for a long time and had also tasted Chu Ling’er’s cooking,
so his satisfaction rating for this meal was only ninety-five points.
What surprised Lin Feng, however, was that Chen Jun’s satisfaction rating was as high as ninety-nine.
Clearly, the dinner Lin Feng had arranged was perfectly suited to Chen Jun’s tastes.
Moreover, Lin Feng could also see that because of this meal and their business talk,
Chen Jun’s favorability toward him was holding at around fifty percent.
Lin Feng was already very satisfied with this result.
After everyone had eaten and drunk their fill,
Lin Feng stood up very naturally, took out a bank card, and prepared to pay the bill.
The standard price for this banquet was twenty thousand per person.
Including Lin Feng, there were a total of nine people at the gathering this time.
One hundred and eighty thousand was directly charged to the card.
As he took the card back, Lin Feng paused his steps.
Just as expected, he heard the system’s notification in his mind.
[DING...]
[Congratulations, Host. You have received a 5x cashback multiplier!]
[Cashback amount: 900,000. It has been deposited into your card via banking channels. Please check your account.]
Lin Feng’s eyebrows twitched slightly.
He hadn’t expected the cashback multiplier to be five this time.
But on second thought,
he recalled how he had just used the system to check everyone’s satisfaction with the food.
’Perhaps everyone’s high satisfaction with the meal also influenced the Gourmet Card’s cashback multiplier.’
Not only did Lin Feng not spend any money on the meal, he actually ended up earning over seven hundred thousand.
This brought a satisfied smile to Lin Feng’s face.

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