Food: My food truck can be upgraded indefinitely.

"Soaring Clouds!"

Zhou Meimei grabbed Wen Chong and rushed over, dragging and running.

She glanced at the remaining ten judges who hadn't spoken yet, then abruptly turned around to face Ling Yun, her mouth stretching almost to her ears, her laughter incredibly arrogant:

"What else do you have to say?!"

A barrage of gazes shot towards Ling Yun like flying swords.

Ling Yun, however, calmly glanced at the plates in front of the judges, a slight smile playing on his lips.

"Self-deception."

"Soaring Clouds!"

Zhou Meimei strode over, raised her hand, and slammed it against the counter in front of the food cart, making the condiment jars on it jump.

"You're still trying to renege!"

She pointed behind her with her hand:

"The facts are clear: you've only managed a draw at best. You..."

"Your calculation assumes that the female TV host will unconditionally support your method, right?"

Ling Yun chuckled softly, like a needle, effortlessly shutting down the conversation.

"you……"

Zhou Meimei was so choked that she opened her mouth, her face turning a deep purplish-red, and she couldn't utter a single word for a long time.

That's what she really thought, but she couldn't admit it.

"Why!"

The female host jumped up from her chair as if her pants were on fire, pointed a finger at Ling Yun, and tapped the air with her bright red nail polished fingertip, hurriedly clarifying:

"Don't make false accusations. I will definitely judge fairly. Of course..."

She changed the subject.

With a slight movement of his bright red lips, he looked like a man-eating demon opening its gaping maw, a hint of smugness hidden in his voice:

"Nearly half of the reviewers have already made their judgments, which is an undeniable fact. Of course, we will definitely complete the review process."

"yes!"

Some people in the crowd believed her and echoed her words:

"You were like this before, how could you expect a big change later?"

That makes sense.

Many people nodded spontaneously.

"Don't try to convince everyone to side with you. You were dragged here by Zhou Meimei. I know you're Xiao Wu, the mediator, right? You call yourself a mediator, but you never ask right from wrong, just spout nonsense and help the bad guys pressure the good guys."

Tiger spoke coldly.

The match had given him enough time to find out the other party's identity.

As soon as Xiao Wu's name was mentioned, someone in the crowd immediately scoffed:

"Oh, this is the show!"

Those who didn't know the details quickly turned around and inquired, only to find out that the program was notorious in the local area.

Their stance has never been right.

They'll take on any mediation they can get for the sake of traffic, the more outrageous the situation, the more enthusiastic they become, and they always interrogate the real victims. They've long been cursed by the locals.

This also gave rise to a proverb:

If you have a valid reason but no evidence, go to the "public security" department; if you have a valid reason and evidence, go to the "government office"; if you have neither a valid reason nor evidence, seek mediation.

but.

These words only caused a slight ripple.

Even if people from other places hear it, they won't really care.

After all, none of the people who gave the scores were from the TV station.

"Keep serving! I'll make you admit defeat!"

Zhou Meimei shoved Wen Chong hard, so hard that Wen Chong staggered two steps.

Wen Chong understood.

He scrambled over to his cousin Zhou's side, yelling at him to hurry up and serve the food.

"Chef Ling..."

Zhang Moli turned around and called out unwillingly, her eyes reddening, but she hesitated to speak.

"Serve the food first, I have my own plans!"

Ling Yun remained unconcerned and continued cooking with her head down.

Li He and Zhang Moli exchanged a helpless glance as they watched Zhou's cousin's steak continue to be served, and Ling Yun continued to serve food.

The two could only grit their teeth, clench their fists, and continue watching.

Fortunately.

Judges number sixteen through eighteen all voted for Ling Yun.

Current vote count:

Lingyun 9 votes VS Wenji Xiaodian 9 votes.

The key lies in the nineteenth vote.

Judge number nineteen spoke slowly, his voice sounding as if squeezed from the depths of his throat:

"I think... cough, um... the taste of Wenji Restaurant and Lingyun Restaurant... are from the same source."

Wow!

Lingyun has officially fallen behind.

The female host, Xiao Wu, spread her hands, stood up, braced her arms on the edge of the table, and gazed at Ling Yun with a victorious air, her chin slightly raised.

"Looks like I don't even need to try it. Even if I support you, half the people will say it tastes the same, so you've already lost! Do you have anything to say?"

Xiao Wu was so excited that his face turned bright red, his cheeks looked like they were on fire.

Xiao Wu, please help me!

Today is your chance to turn things around!

With so many people around me livestreaming, this level of popularity is enough for me to turn my career around at the station.

They might even be able to move the broadcast time forward by an hour or two.

"wrong!"

The number one judge couldn't sit still any longer.

Seeing that the steak he had been praising so highly was about to lose to dog poop, he suddenly stood up, almost tipping his chair over.

He originally just wanted to watch the excitement, but he ended up confusing himself!

I want to see you eat it and then throw it up!

The expressions of the people behind him amused him, and they all maintained a strong sense of restraint, like they were playing pranks. But starting from the ninth, things went off track.

At first, he thought the other person's cooking skills had changed, so out of curiosity he took another bite of the sauce, but it still tasted the same.

If I can tolerate this, then what kind of gourmand am I!

The first judge realized something was wrong, immediately slammed his hand on the table with a dull thud.

"Were your tongues licked by ghosts? What kind of hellish taste is this? This shit-like stuff can win? You son of a bitch!"

He scanned the tabletop with a fierce look and quickly discovered something amiss.

"Come on, come on!"

He pointed at the judges' votes for Wenji Restaurant on the table, his index finger stabbing like a sharp sword, and roared:

"Stop talking the talk! Come on! Finish this steak from Wen's Kitchen, then you can chat with me!"

Everyone looked in the direction he was pointing and immediately noticed something amiss.

Whether it was the judges who voted for Lingyun or the judges who voted for Wenji Restaurant, each of them left a piece of steak in front of them that they had only taken one bite of and had not touched the rest.

I didn't notice it at first, but after the first judge pointed it out, I immediately realized something was wrong:

The leftover steaks were all placed in a slightly old iron plate and a wooden plate that wasn't very clean.

The food that was eaten was all placed in clean and tidy tableware.

Obviously.

The rest all came from one store.

Instead of the two stores you might have imagined.

Doesn't this seem wrong?

"Serve the food!" Ling Yun pressed the bell, and the crisp sound broke the brief silence.

The mistresses came over.

At this moment, Zhou's cousin's dishes had not yet been served, but since Lingyun had called for the dishes to be served, the two of them still picked up the plates as Lingyun indicated and sent one dish to the host, Xiao Wu, first.

As soon as the steak was placed down, everyone immediately understood.

"Clean, new, it's Lingyun's!" someone screamed.

"We finished all of Lingyun's steak, and the rest, the ones we only took a bite of, were all from Wenji Restaurant!"

Once this truth comes out...

The diners immediately realized there was something fishy going on.

If it's delicious, how could you not be able to eat it?

You can eat one bite and then leave the rest?

Someone pointed at the judges and asked:

"You're so capable of voting for Wen's Kitchen, but you're not capable of finishing your meal!"

Faced with a barrage of questions, the judges visibly panicked, their eyes darting around, and some even began to secretly shrink back into the crowd.

"I know why!"

A group pushed through the crowd and squeezed in.

The one leading the group was Uncle Chen's son, Chen Chong.

Behind the two were four or five burly young men.

Uncle Chen glanced at the judges, then let out a cold laugh, his voice like shards of ice in winter:

"Zhou Meimei, these judges are all your friends, right?"

The crowd erupted in uproar, like a pot of boiling porridge.

"You...you're talking nonsense!"

Zhou Meimei was so anxious that she jumped up and down and denied it outright.

"What nonsense are you talking about? I see them eating late-night snacks with you every day. Do you think I'm stupid?!"

Chen Chong stepped forward.

His tall figure loomed over us like a wall.

Zhou Meimei stumbled back four or five steps, her back hitting the corner of the food cart, her face turning deathly pale.

Chen Chong didn't chase after her. Instead, he started calling out the names of those people one by one, as if reading a wanted list:

"Monkeys, black bears, big cripples..."

After giving the nicknames, he winked at the burly men behind him.

Four burly men stepped forward.

They were all owners of nearby billiard halls and late-night snack shops.

Several people simultaneously raised their phones.

The screenshots show Zhou Meimei and Wen Chong hanging out with this group of people, eating and drinking, putting their arms around each other, and acting like brothers.

Wow.

Everyone gasped in unison, and the murmurs rose like a surging tide.

"This Wenji shop is shameless."

"They even brought in a biased referee for the match? That's even more shameless than the referees from South Korea."

Chen Chong waved his hand, as if shooing away flies:

"That's enough, what's the point of this competition? Go do whatever you're supposed to be doing!"

"We can't let this go!"

Zhou Meimei screamed, her voice as sharp as fingernails scratching glass.

"It's a tie, so Lingyun still lost! So what if I know someone on the judging panel? You didn't say it wasn't allowed!"

She turned to look at Ling Yun, appearing almost delirious, her eyes bloodshot and her hair disheveled.

"Ling Yun, are you trying to renege on the match result? Everyone's watching!"

"Nonsense!"

Uncle Chen stepped forward, standing before Zhou Meimei, his expression icy cold:

"I'm giving you this one last chance!"

Zhou Meimei was so frightened that she stumbled and fell to the ground: "You, you hit me! I, I won't accept this!"