In the second year of Qing Xuantong, a young man named Zhao Changen opened a restaurant on Chengbei Street in Cangzhou. Because of his honest management and good relationships, the business was very good, and the customers were full every day.

On this day, Zhao Changen received an invitation from Wu Pei, president of the Cangzhou City Chamber of Commerce, inviting him to attend a meeting. This Wu Pei used to work as a royal chef in the Shou Kitchen in the palace for more than ten years, specializing in cooking royal meals for Cixi Lafayette. After Lafayette died, he returned to Cangzhou City and became the president of the chamber of commerce through operations. He relied on his connections in the palace, and after becoming president, he did whatever he wanted, and no one dared to provoke him.

The meeting was held in a teahouse, and all the owners of 90 restaurants in the city came. After the meeting began, Wu Pei said with a serious face, "In order to improve everyone's culinary skills and offer the elders of the city a feast of gluttony with all colors and flavors, after the research of this president and the two vice presidents, it is decided to hold a monthly Chef King Tournament, select the champion and runner-up, and give special rewards. Do you have any opinions?"

"No problem!"   The audience answered in unison.

Seeing that everyone answered neatly, Wu Pei smiled. He coughed and said, "However, organizing this hegemony competition is not that simple, it requires a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources. Therefore, we will charge a little registration fee, tentatively 10 taels, more refunds and less supplements. Of course, if anyone thinks it is not cost-effective, they can not sign up, we will not force it!"

After Wu Pei finished speaking, everyone scolded their mother in their hearts. This Wu Pei, who received a thousand knives, was clearly looking for an excuse to take advantage of the opportunity to make money! But everyone dared not be angry, let alone not to sign up. In the end, only one owner of the restaurant did not sign up on the spot, Zhao Changen.

Several bosses who had a good relationship with Zhao Changen advised him that under the eaves, he had to bow his head, endure the calm for a while, and take a step back. But Zhao Changen didn't listen, he said that what he hated the most was Wu Pei's complacent face, and this time he must fight him to see what he can do with himself.

A few days later, there was a murder in Zhao Changen's restaurant. A beggar bought two biscuits in his restaurant, and just after eating a few bites at the gate, he bled to death. Someone sued the official, and the yamen sent someone to seal Zhao Changen's restaurant, and arrested him and put him in prison. Zhao Changen shouted in prison that he was wronged, saying that he had been tricked. But who listened to him? Finally, his wife took out all her savings and spent a lot of money to save him from prison.

After he was released from prison, the business of Zhao Changen's restaurant was not as good as before, and only a few people came to eat here every day. His restaurant could only maintain a balance of payments, and there was no profit at all.

Zhao Changen knew in his heart that the miserable situation he had reached today must be related to that Wu Pei. He regretted it a little. Had he not competed with Wu Pei, maybe he would not have suffered this disaster.

This morning, Zhao Changen was in the back kitchen to check the hygiene. Old Sun Tou from Chengxi Tofu Factory brought his apprentice to deliver tofu. The apprentice looked to be seventeen or eighteen years old, honest and honest. While moving tofu from the car, the apprentice accidentally bumped the trolley crooked, and all the tofu in the cart fell to the ground and fell into pieces. Old Sun Tou suddenly went into a rage, picked up a wooden stick and was about to hit him, but was stopped by Zhao Changen. Old Sun Tou said he would no longer accept him as an apprentice, told him to scram, and then put away the broken tofu and pushed the cart away.

The apprentice stomped his feet anxiously as he watched Old Sun Tou walk away. Zhao Changen comforted him and started talking with him. Through the conversation, Zhao Changen learned that his name was Lu Ming and that he lived in Lujiazhuang, eight miles east of the city. Because his family was poor, his father asked someone to send him to Old Sun Tou's tofu house as an apprentice, hoping that after he completed his studies, he would go home and make a living making tofu.

After thinking about it, he said to Lu Ming, "If you don't mind, you can be a handyman here. Do some work like washing dishes and cleaning." Lu Ming smiled and thanked him.

Lu Ming was grateful and never lazy when he did his work. He did what he should do by himself and what he should not do by himself.

More than 10 days have passed like this. On that day, Zhao Changen was worried about the future of the restaurant in the backyard. The only two chefs left in the restaurant came to him and asked for a raise in wages. Zhao Changen smiled wryly and said, "Now that the restaurant is not profitable, what can I do to increase wages for the two of you? You can't go to loan sharks, right?" The two chefs were very firm and left without a raise in wages.

No matter how Zhao Changen tried to keep them, the two chefs had to leave. At that time, Lu Ming walked over and said to Zhao Changen, "Let them go. Such heartless people only know how to take advantage of the fire to rob!"

Zhao Changen turned his head to look at him and said helplessly, "Little brother, how did you know that as soon as they leave, our restaurant will have to close!"

Lu Ming pouted and said disdainfully, "I know how to cook, too!"

After hearing this, Zhao Changen looked at Lu Ming in surprise. Lu Ming smiled and explained, "I learned from them when they were cooking. I may not be better than them, but I will definitely not be worse than them!"

Zhao Changen was a little unhappy in his heart, thinking Lu Ming was too arrogant and did not know how high the sky was. The two chefs had studied with famous teachers in the capital for many years before coming to his restaurant, and they had only reached their current level. How could he be comparable to him by stealing a few days of learning?

Lu Ming could see his thoughts in Zhao Changen's expression. He didn't speak any more and turned to the back kitchen. After about a cup of tea, he brought the fried dishes to Zhao Changen. Zhao Changen looked at him suspiciously, put a chopstick of vegetables in his mouth, took a closer look, and almost jumped up in surprise. Lu Ming's dishes were better than those of the two chefs.

Since then, Lu Ming has become the only chef in Zhao Changen's restaurant. Because he likes to study, he has launched several unique signature dishes in a row, which has slowly increased the number of guests in the restaurant. Once, a court official who had the honor of eating imperial food came to eat, and he applauded the first bite, saying that he had eaten the taste of imperial food from Lu Ming's dishes. As soon as the news came out, more people came to Zhao Changen's restaurant to eat every day.

The restaurant's profits were increasing day by day, and Zhao Changen was both happy and worried. The happy thing was that the restaurant finally got out of the haze and got on the right track, and the worried thing was that Wu Pei would secretly stumble him like last time. He asked Lu Ming for his opinion, and Lu Ming gave him an idea: "You go and give Wu Pei gifts and tell him to participate in every Chef King Tournament in the future, so he won't trouble you." Zhao Changen followed Lu Ming's suggestion and went to Wu Pei's house that night with a generous gift.

A few days later, the second Chef King Tournament was held as scheduled, and Zhao Changen sent Lu Ming to participate. After a tense and fierce competition, Lu Ming won third place with a "lure the snake out of the hole". This made Zhao Changen's restaurant famous.

After that, Zhao Changen still sent Lu Ming to participate in the third Chef King Tournament and won the runner-up. In the fourth Chef King Tournament, Lu Ming made persistent efforts and finally won the championship.

On the night of winning the championship, Zhao Changen closed his business and gathered a table of dishes to celebrate Lu Ming's success. Everyone drank and drank happily until late at night. Zhao Changen returned to the backyard alone, and suddenly felt that there was a person behind him. Looking back, it turned out to be Lu Ming. Lu Ming took his hand and shouted excitedly, "Big brother!"

Zhao Changen was stunned by his call. Just as he was wondering, he heard Lu Ming say again, "Big brother, your old man and my godfather's great revenge will be avenged tonight!"

Zhao Changen felt even more ridiculous when he heard that. My father died when I was less than 8 years old, why did such a godson suddenly appear? It seems that this guy is really drunk! So he arranged for two guys to send Lu Ming back to his residence to rest.

The next morning, Zhao Changen was still fast asleep when a man ran in to wake him up and whispered to him, "Shopkeeper, that Wu Pei is dead."

After hearing this, Zhao Changen sat up and asked in surprise, "When did it happen and how did you die?"

The man replied: "I don't know the specific situation, I only heard that I had some disease, and I didn't get up after lying down last night."

Zhao Changen suddenly remembered what Lu Ming said last night and quickly sent someone to find Lu Ming. After a while, Lu Ming came in a carriage. Lu Ming said, "Brother, if you want to understand the truth, get in the car and follow me!" Zhao Changen got on the car without hesitation.

The carriage ran east for 20 to 30 kilometres, and finally turned into a village and stopped in front of a secluded courtyard. Lu Ming jumped out of the carriage and said to Zhao Changen, "Brother, we're home!"

Zhao Changen jumped out of the car and followed Lu Ming into the yard, and an old man in his 50s came out of the house to greet him. Lu Ming pointed to Zhao Changen and said, "Father, this is Brother Zhao, my godfather's son!" The old man came over and grabbed Zhao Changen's hand, and tears flowed down his face: "My son, you make me want to be evil!"

Zhao Changen looked at Lu Ming and the old man in confusion, at a loss. The old man let him into the house and told him the ins and outs of the matter.

It turned out that the old man's name was Meng Chunlu, who worked as a royal chef in the palace's Shou Kitchen more than 10 years ago. At that time, he was accompanied by his sworn brother Zhao Shunchang, who was Zhao Changen's father, and Wu Pei. Because Meng Chunlu's cooking skills were superb, and Cixi was full of praise for her imperial meals, she was often rewarded.

Wu Pei saw it in his eyes and hated it in his heart. So Wu Pei found a very close manager eunuch to discuss getting rid of Meng Chunlu. The people plotted to put poison in the dinner made by Meng Chunlu, and then informed the empress dowager, who personally ordered him to be executed. But what they didn't expect was that Zhao Shunchang heard their conversation word for word, and he immediately told Meng Chunlu and tried to send him out of the palace.

Later, the eunuch in charge could not find Meng Chunlu anywhere. He knew that his plan with Wu Pei had leaked secrets, and he was afraid that it would be detrimental to him if it spread to Cixi's ears, so he investigated overnight and finally found Zhao Shunchang. The eunuch in charge was furious and ordered Wu Pei to kill Zhao Shunchang on his way back to his residence, claiming to the outside world that Zhao Shunchang accidentally fell into a ditch and died.

After escaping from the palace, Meng Chunlu did not dare to return to his hometown, but came to this place to become an incognito farmer, during which he passed on all his skills to his son Meng Ming. He vowed that one day he would find the family members of his sworn brothers to repay his life-saving grace.

He sent his son to inquire about the situation of the widows and orphans of the sworn brothers. Later, he finally found out that Zhao Changen, the son of the sworn brothers, was running a restaurant in Cangzhou City and was being suppressed and framed by his enemy Wu Pei. He was suddenly furious and asked his son Meng Ming to go to Cangzhou City under the alias Lu Ming. First, he planned to help Zhao Changen regroup, and second, he wanted to find a way to get rid of Wu Pei to avenge the sworn brothers.

After the old man finished speaking, Zhao Changen said sadly: "I didn't expect my father to die like this. When my mother was alive, she only told me that my father used to be the imperial chef in the palace, and nothing else was mentioned. I didn't know the truth until today. That Wu Pei really deserves to die. Now that the great revenge has been avenged, my father can rest in peace under Jiuquan!"

"When your father had an accident, we were sworn in less than three days." Before she finished speaking, Meng Chunlu's eyes were already red.