As Feng Yifan helped Yue Qingsong resolve his brother's issues, the stall run by Lin Ruifeng began to face pressure.
The gimmick of Ma Xiaolong's stall, which featured rotisserie meat paired with boxed fried rice, quickly attracted a lot of attention. As various videos and photos were posted online, more and more people regarded Ma Xiaolong's combination as a new internet celebrity food.
Every day, from the evening when Ma Xiaolong sets up his stall until quite late, there will always be a long line in front of his stall.
Although Lin Ruifeng's stall still occupies a very important position in the small night market because of its wide variety of dishes, and many old diners come to support it, he is now at a disadvantage in the fried rice business.
Now Lin Ruifeng has become a vassal of Ma Xiaolong's stall. Most of the diners who line up to buy fried rice at Ma Xiaolong's stall every day will choose to buy a bowl of crepe wontons from Lin Ruifeng. This is also thanks to Feng Yifan's retention of this trick, which can be regarded as preserving the characteristics of the stall.
Apart from anything else, after having tasted Lin Ruifeng’s crepe wontons, I almost don’t want to eat wontons from other places anymore.
There is even a short video on the Internet that calls Lin Ruifeng's crepe wontons and Ma Xiaolong's boxed barbecue fried rice the two unique delicacies of the Ancient Street Night Market.
In the video on the Internet, the person filming seriously introduced fried rice and wontons.
Barbecue fried rice, first of all, the huge rotating barbecue, just looking at it can arouse people's appetite.
Then pair it with the fried iron plate fried rice, stir-fry evenly, and then put it into a kraft paper box.
When diners buy it back and open the box, the fried rice that looks like a rice ball appears. It really feels like unboxing a small black box. Many people can smell the fragrance just by watching the video, and everyone can drool while watching the video.
On the other hand, there are the crepe wontons at Lin Ruifeng’s stall.
A handful of emerald green onions is sprinkled into a bowl of very clear soup, creating a slight oily sheen that seems to instantly dispel the greasiness brought by the barbecue fried rice.
Use a spoon to gently push aside the chopped green onions and scoop up a small crepe wonton.
Inside the wonton skin, which is as thin as a cicada's wing, is tender pink meat filling, which is also irresistible at the sight of it.
In the most popular short video on the Internet, the person who filmed it paired barbecue fried rice with crepe wontons, which made people want to eat it just by looking at it.
As a result, the night market business became extremely popular, with a large number of people queuing up every night.
Young people would first queue up at Ma Xiaolong’s, buy a serving of barbecue fried rice, and then come back to queue up for the crepe wontons.
However, those old customers of Su Ji and some elderly people chose to queue up on Lin Ruifeng's side.
For Su Ji’s old customers and elderly people, they still prefer the fried rice from Su Ji’s stall.
However, judging from the overall daily sales of fried rice, Lin Ruifeng was still clearly at a disadvantage. One day, Ma Xiaolong even went to Lin Ruifeng to borrow the rice he couldn't use.
So even though the business was not bad, Lin Ruifeng still felt deeply frustrated.
When closing the stall that night, Shen Qingluo saw Lin Ruifeng's lost expression after he settled the accounts, walked up to him and hugged him from behind, and gently comforted him: "Don't be discouraged, you will definitely be able to beat him, your fried rice is already great now, you must believe in yourself."
Being hugged by Shen Qingluo from behind made Lin Ruifeng instantly nervous. After hesitating for a moment, he spoke calmly.
"Yes, I know. I won't be discouraged. I will continue to stick to my master's stall. Besides, we are not completely defeated now. Although we didn't beat his fried rice, some people like our fried rice, and our crepe wontons are unique."
When Shen Qingluo heard Lin Ruifeng say this, he felt that he was not discouraged and was still full of energy, so he felt relieved.
"Well, actually we can also come up with some gimmicks to attract those young people."
Lin Ruifeng turned around and said with a smile: "We don't need to. Our characteristic is to stick to tradition. We don't need to follow others. We must stick to our own things."
In fact, Lin Ruifeng has been working very hard these days.
He even prepared a small notebook in which he densely recorded the taste characteristics of many old diners.
Lin Ruifeng would specifically ask about all those familiar faces, and then record them in his little notebook. Even if the diners recorded may not have come for a long time, Lin Ruifeng would still carefully count them, and as long as they came next time, he would specially season them.
Doing so may indeed take more time and effort, but as long as the diners like it, Lin Ruifeng feels that his efforts are worth it when he sees the smiles on the diners' faces after eating.
While Lin Ruifeng and Shen Qingluo were chatting and packing up their stall, Ma Xiaolong passed by the stall before leaving.
After seeing Lin Ruifeng, Ma Xiaolong said, "Xiao Lin, my fried rice sales this week are almost three times more than your daily profit. Do you think we should continue the competition?"
Without waiting for Lin Ruifeng to speak, Shen Qingluo said, "Of course we have to compete. We will get it back."
Ma Xiaolong looked at Shen Qingluo, his mouth slightly raised with a slightly disdainful smile: "If you continue to compete, you are destined to lose. Only old diners come to eat your fried rice, but there are new diners coming to my place every day, so you have already lost this competition."
Lin Ruifeng suddenly said, "But there are still a few important guests who haven't arrived yet."
Ma Xiaolong was stunned for a moment, then asked in surprise: "You mean, Chef Feng will come to taste it personally?"
Lin Ruifeng nodded: "Yes, Master said he would come. In addition to Master, Mr. Zhuang will also come. I think you should be convinced by them to make the judgment, right?"
Ma Xiaolong didn't expect that Lin Ruifeng would actually invite Feng Yifan and Zhuang Daozhong to taste the food.
This made him hesitate a little.
After all, his fried rice mainly relies on gimmicks, which attract the public and are the key to his current dominance over Lin Ruifeng. But if professionals were to judge, his current advantage would be gone, and he might even lose the competition.
Seeing Ma Xiaolong lost in thought and hesitation, Lin Ruifeng suddenly asked, "Don't you dare let my master and others judge?"
Ma Xiaolong came to his senses instantly and looked at Lin Ruifeng with a serious face.
Lin Ruifeng also faced the other party calmly and said, "Haven't you always wanted to be my master's apprentice? Have you always wanted to be my master's assistant? Then you shouldn't be afraid of letting my master judge you, right? This is actually your chance to prove yourself."
After hearing these words, Ma Xiaolong's heart was moved slightly, and he felt that this was indeed an opportunity to prove himself.
Let Chef Feng be the judge and defeat his apprentice in front of Chef Feng.
But thinking of this, Ma Xiaolong, who was about to agree, was suddenly stunned again. The words were not uttered but swallowed back by him.
After thinking about it carefully, Ma Xiaolong said, "Let me think about this matter."
Lin Ruifeng smiled and said, "Don't think about it for too long. You'd better be prepared for the competition. Otherwise, when my master and the others come, you will lose miserably."
Ma Xiaolong realized immediately that he seemed to be at a disadvantage.
It was obvious that his barbecue fried rice had the upper hand, but at this moment when he was talking with Lin Ruifeng, he was completely dominated by the other party and did not gain any advantage at all.
But the next moment, Ma Xiaolong regained his confidence and said, "Hahaha, very good, Lin Ruifeng, you have such confidence, you are an opponent worthy of my serious attention. Let's decide the winner in the final competition. I hope you don't lose too badly and embarrass Chef Feng."
Lin Ruifeng said nothing and watched Ma Xiaolong turn around and leave.
Looking at his departing back, Lin Ruifeng suddenly breathed a sigh of relief.
Then he turned to look at Shen Qingluo and asked, "How was it? Was my performance just now okay?"
Shen Qingluo was also shocked by Lin Ruifeng's sudden aggressive attitude. Now, after hearing Lin Ruifeng's question, she finally came to her senses.
After a pause, Shen Qingluo said excitedly: "What you just said was great. Your performance was really amazing. It must have scared Ma Xiaolong. Looking at his face when he left, he must have started to worry that his gimmicks would not impress your master."
Shen Qingluo was very excited when she said this. She walked up to Lin Ruifeng, hugged him, and kissed him.
Lin Ruifeng looked at Shen Qingluo's excitement and couldn't help but say, "Don't be too happy too soon. I'm not sure I can beat him now."
Shen Qingluo pouted and said, "How could that be? Your master is here to be the judge."
Lin Ruifeng said seriously: "It is because Master and the others are here to judge that I am not sure of winning."
Without waiting for Shen Qingluo to speak, Lin Ruifeng said directly: "Do you think my master and his people are the kind of people who will favor me? The reason why they are masters is that they will never favor anyone. They will definitely judge the merits and demerits of Ma Xiaolong and me in the most fair way."
Shen Qingluo said seriously: "I believe you can definitely win."
Lin Ruifeng originally looked a little nervous, but when he heard Shen Qingluo say this, he immediately laughed.
"Well, with your belief and support, I will be very happy even if I lose. I will definitely try my best to satisfy Master and the others. Even if I lose, I will lose in a decent way."
Shen Qingluo pouted and said, "Don't always say that you lose. You should think about winning. If you don't even believe that you can win, how can you win?"
Zhao Daxia, who had been silent, also spoke up at this time: "That's right, Xiao Shen is right, you have to believe that you can win first. If you don't even believe that you can win, how can you defeat such a powerful opponent?"
Hearing Zhao Daxia speak, Shen Qingluo followed up and said, "Look, Aunt Zhao has seen it. You are just too unconfident recently."
Zhao Daxia also continued: "When my two children left, they also said that Uncle Xiaolin was not confident. My eldest child also said that he and his brother went to eat Ma John's fried rice. At first they thought it was delicious, but after eating too much, it became unpalatable. It was still Uncle Xiaolin's fried rice that they always wanted to eat."
Zhao Daxia's two sons were picked up by their father who came over a few days ago.
At the same time, Zhao Daxia's husband also stayed here for a day, reunited with his wife, and took their two sons out to play for half a day. At noon, Su Liancheng arranged for the family to have a meal at Fujinglou. In the evening, of course, they ate at the night market. The family was very happy.
Before leaving, Zhao Daxia’s husband once asked Zhao Daxia why she didn’t go to work at Fujing Building
Zhao Daxia's answer was, what is Fujinglou? Her boss is the instructor of all the chefs in Fujinglou, and all the dishes in Fujinglou must be approved by her boss.
At that moment, when her husband saw Zhao Daxia's confidence, he finally felt at ease to take his sons back home.
Before returning home, Zhao Daxia’s eldest son specifically told his mother that he wanted to learn cooking here.
However, Zhao Daxia did not agree to this matter. She just asked her eldest son to go home first. If the college entrance examination scores were indeed not ideal, she could ask the boss. As for whether the boss was willing to let her eldest son learn cooking, Zhao Daxia did not give her eldest son any guarantees.
In fact, according to Lin Ruifeng and Shen Qingluo, as long as Zhao Daxia is willing to speak up and her eldest son is willing to learn, Feng Yifan will definitely agree to accept him as a disciple.
However, Zhao Daxia didn't want that. She didn't want Feng Yifan to accept his son as his apprentice because of her.
So in the end, Zhao Daxia did not agree to her eldest son's request, but just asked him to go back first.
After listening to Zhao Daxia's comments about the two families' fried rice, especially her eldest son's comments, Lin Ruifeng gained some confidence: "Really? Aunt Zhao, your eldest son, is it because of the time you have been together that he deliberately said that I am better?"
Zhao Daxia immediately said, "No, I know my child. He is not the kind of kid who would flatter others."
Shen Qingluo patted Lin Ruifeng and said, "You just don't have confidence. Can't you believe in yourself for once?"
Lin Ruifeng smiled and said, "Okay, I believe in myself, I will definitely win."
After I shouted this, a night market owner said, "Xiao Lin, you haven't closed up yet? It's getting late, everyone has already packed up and gone home, you should also go back and have a rest."
Lin Ruifeng immediately responded: "Okay, okay, you go back first, we will collect it right away."
Afterwards, Lin Ruifeng and the others quickly began to pack up.
Before leaving, they cleaned up the stall, and then the three of them pushed the cart out of the market and returned to the ancient street as night fell.
After pushing the cart all the way back to Lin’s breakfast shop, Zhao Daxia said goodbye and went back.
Only Lin Ruifeng and Shen Qingluo were left, and the two young men sat down in the shop.
Shen Qingluo asked seriously, "Are you sure you can win?"
Lin Ruifeng smiled bitterly and said, "If you want me to tell the truth, I can only say that I am not sure now. I have tried Ma Xiaolong's barbecue fried rice. It is really not just a good gimmick. His barbecue and fried rice are also a perfect combination. I am afraid that I may not win if I just rely on my fried rice."
Shen Qingluo didn't say much, just said: "I will ask Aunt Ruoxi tomorrow to see when Uncle and the others will be back, you should prepare early."
Lin Ruifeng nodded: "Well, I will prepare well."
After the two young men said good night to each other, Shen Qingluo left the Lin family shop.