Chapter 187: Malicious Competition

“Forget it.” Lu Yuxi said proudly, “Anyway, with me around, you’ll never get first place.”

“Impossible! I’ll surpass you sooner or later!”

Li Shengsheng retorted in a rough voice. The sadness that had just risen in his heart instantly dissipated.

The two of them stared at each other and quickly started bickering.

Xu Le looked at the two of them solemnly. He felt that their ages had been reversed. He was about to send breakfast back to his parents and continue recording the tutorial when Li Qing called.

Xu Le had just taken out his phone when he saw Zhang Tong’s voice recording at the same time. He frowned. Could something have happened?

“Hey! Xu Le! Come over quickly to the entrance of a shop… Damn, these people are so despicable!”

As Li Qing shouted, he could still hear people arguing beside him.

“Got it.”

Xu Le hung up and called Zhang Tong back. His intuition told him that what happened at both areas should be the same.

“What’s going on?”

“There’s a new shop right across the road. They are selling exactly the same as our dishes. Guess who the chef is?”

“That robot?”

“That’s right!” Zhang Tong snorted coldly and said disdainfully, “Not only are the dishes identical to ours, but even the price is lower by a few yuan. Now, there are customers who can’t stand it anymore and are arguing with them. Both sides are cursing.”

He explained the situation clearly and quickly. Xu Le said, “Deal with it first. Don’t fight. I’ll be there in half an hour.”

“MMhmm.”

Zhang Tong was used to many situations and was quite calm about this matter. He hung up and went out to mediate the quarrel.

On the other hand, Li Qing was helpless. He sent messages to Xu Le one after another for help.

Xu Le was about to tell the two of them about this when he turned around and saw Lu Yuxi squatting on the ground as if she had made a deal with the little kid in front of her. She took the other party’s skateboard and said with a smile, “I’ll show you one move.”

She was wearing a long dress that reached her ankles. As she spoke, she lifted her skirt and jumped onto the skateboard. In a perfect exchange, she jumped over the curb and raised her hand provocatively at Li Shengsheng.

When she saw Xu Le, her gaze softened.

She whistled.

The sunlight that had just peeked out from behind the clouds dyed every strand of her hair. It was gorgeous and stunning. Xu Le was stunned for a moment and said, “The punishment for riding the skateboard on the road is 50 yuan. Come over quickly. Beware of the traffic police.”

Lu Yuxi’s face froze, then she chuckled. She returned the skateboard to the child and took out a snack from her bag. “Thank you.”

“Sister is awesome!”

The child was wearing a helmet and looked at Lu Yuxi with admiration. She seemed to be anxious to find a topic to talk about and immediately opened the snack packaging and stuffed it into his mouth. She said, “This is also delicious!”

“This fried chop rice cake was made by that brother. It’s delicious, right?”

Lu Yuxi raised her eyebrows proudly. When Xu Le heard this, his gaze focused on the transparent bag. After the child left, he muttered, “How long ago was that? Was it last month or last month? Didn’t it already turn mouldy?”

“It’s stored in vacuum pack, how can it turn mouldy?”

As Lu Yuxi spoke, she took out two more from her pocket and gave them to them. “If you don’t believe me, try them. You made enough that time. If one ate much of the fried chop rice cake, one will be bloated, so I put the remaining in vacuum packaging in the fridge.”

Xu Le tasted one. Although the texture was not as soft and smooth as when it was just made, it was enough to make his teeth sticky. The soybean powder was rich and delicious.

He was surprised. “It tastes not bad.”

Li Shengsheng puffed out his cheeks and snorted. “You never call me when you’re cooking.”

With that, the few of them headed to a shop. In the car, Xu Le told them what had happened at the entrance of the shop. Lu Yuxi said as if she was going to confront a great enemy, “Then what should we do? Will they cause us to close down our store?”

“Not really.”

Xu Le said this confidently. After all, all his ingredients were exchanged from the system. They were high-quality and fresh. The ingredients bought outside were completely incomparable to the ones in the system. Moreover, there was a cost price.

“I get it.” Li Shengsheng snapped its fingers. “They’re using that thing to make fun of you. One is because they want to see you make a fool of yourself in your shop. The other important reason is because they want to ride on your popularity again and market that robot?”

The few of them looked at each other. Xu Le thought so too, but he had not seen the real situation yet, so it was not easy to make a conclusion.

Soon, they arrived at the entrance of the shop. As soon as they got out of the car, they saw two groups of people gathered on the sidewalk. There were also onlookers holding their breakfast.

“This is plagiarism! This is bullying!”

“Who says you can’t have a shop nearby? I rent the shop and hire waiters with all kinds of credentials. How is that unqualified?”

The other party put his hands on his hips and retorted righteously.

“Pfft, it’s exactly the same from the renovation to the menu! Why is the price low? Is it because you use high quality ingredients?”

Li Qing was still holding a steel ladle with traces of sauce on it. He said angrily, “You’re still so proud after plagiarising others. You’re really crazy!”

The more people joined in the crowd, the happier the storeowner opposite was. He called out to pull people into the shop and said, “Don’t listen to his nonsense. The Master Chef in our shop can cook more than 20 types of cuisine. It’s especially good at Chinese, Japanese, French and Mexican food. Don’t miss it when you walk past. You’ll know how awesome it is when you enter the shop and try it!”

“He hired the Master Chef?”

“The robot that’s been screwing people since the competition started?”

“The competition was clearly unfair.”

“Pfft! It’s a waste of my true feelings to follow the live broadcast for so long.”

Everyone discussed among themselves, but the kitchen was on the other side of the transparent glass window. A pair of skillful hands cut the vegetables and shook the pot in one go. The food was also exquisite and tempting. Most importantly, the dishes were served extremely quickly.

It could cook many different cuisines at the same time.

Hence, amidst the condemnation, curious customers still rushed into the shop. Li Qing gritted his teeth in anger and looked at the storeowner opposite with a livid expression.

“If a customer wants to go to someone else’s store, can you force them?”

“It’s not like you don’t know how famous the Master Chef on my side is.”

The storeowner opposite said happily. At this moment, a young voice interrupted.

“As I recall, only the winners have the title of Master Chef, right?”

After Xu Le finished speaking calmly, the smugness on the storeowner’s face turned to guilt. Then, he curled his lips and said disdainfully, “Who cares what it’s called? Anyway, it can earn money and can serve meals.”

With that, he jogged into the shop.

Lu Yuxi sighed and said worriedly, “I’m so annoyed. What kind of person is this?”

Xu Le stood in front of the glass window and watched the cooking. Suddenly, he smiled coldly. “Let’s go. There’s no need to worry about this. This shop won’t last long.”