All the heavens begin with the love in the courtyard.

The young man wasn't as arrogant as those in other restaurants. Seeing this, he smiled and said...

"Oh, okay? Then wait a moment, I'll call my sister down, and you can talk to her!"

Zhang Peng nodded and remained silent.

The young man sent a voice message on WeChat and then continued to the next round of the game, ignoring Zhang Peng.

A moment later, a woman wearing slippers appeared at the shop entrance. Zhang Peng looked up and knew that the person in charge had arrived, and he also roughly understood why this restaurant, which was so bad, could still stay open.

The woman who came in was around thirty years old. Judging from her appearance and attire, she looked like a local. Locals own many houses and make a living by collecting rent every day. Some locals also run small shops or convenience stores to pass the time. This fast food restaurant was obviously one of those businesses.

Although he didn't know why he opened a fast food restaurant, even though the job was tiring and dirty, Zhang Peng didn't think much of it and stood up with a smile.

"Hello, I'd like to apply for a stir-fry chef position. I wonder if you could demonstrate your cooking skills for me?"

The young woman glanced at Zhang Peng, her gaze lingering on him for a couple of seconds, then nodded, walked into the shop, took out her keys, and opened the back door.

Inside was indeed a backyard with a kitchen, which was quite large, but it was still dirty and messy. Several large freezers were placed haphazardly to the side, and there was a sink with several fish in it. The ingredients inside looked quite complete.

The young woman casually pointed to the kitchen and said, "Here, just make a couple of dishes. All the ingredients are over there."

Zhang Peng nodded, looked around, and although it was dirty and messy, he felt a sense of control after just one glance.

I opened the refrigerator, glanced at it, took out a bag of frozen chicken wings, and then scooped some out of the sink next to it. I found that it was full of tilapia weighing about a pound each. I frowned and scooped out a slightly larger tilapia.

The young woman stood at the door, arms crossed, watching the scene unfold with great interest.

Zhang Peng also began to focus on processing the chicken wings and preparing the seasonings. Although the kitchen was dirty and messy, it was well-equipped with kitchen equipment and seasonings. Zhang Peng calmly began to marinate the chicken wings.

He started cleaning fish again, his knife skills flowing smoothly, leaving the young woman next to him stunned. Even when chopping ginger, scallions, and garlic, he displayed the demeanor of a master chef.

With both stoves lit at the same time, Zhang Peng was very focused and enjoyed the moment. More than ten minutes later, a dish of chicken wings in sauce and a dish of braised tilapia were served.

Zhang Peng took out a pair of disposable chopsticks, placed them in front of the young woman, and asked her to taste them.

The young woman looked at the two plates of dishes with great interest, which looked and smelled delicious. Regardless of the taste, the presentation alone was comparable to that of the chef in the restaurant across the street. She felt like she had struck gold.

She picked up a piece of fish, put it in her mouth, paused for a moment, then picked up another piece, chewed it a few times, her brows gradually relaxed, and then picked up a chicken wing, chewing it with relish, while mumbling indistinctly.

"Master, you're quite the expert! With skills like yours, why are you even working for me? You're not trying to take advantage of me, are you?"

Zhang Peng was speechless for a moment, then shook his head helplessly.

"Please don't misunderstand, I really want to find a job. This is a family heirloom skill, but the restaurants just fired me because of my appearance. I had no choice."

The young woman smiled broadly upon seeing Zhang Peng's attire and nodded in agreement.

"Okay, okay, the salary is 10,000. Come to work tomorrow. Send me your WeChat ID and I'll transfer 5,000 to you as a deposit. You have to come to work tomorrow, okay? Don't leave. By the way, where do you live?"

Zhang Peng never expected that he would find a job that pays 10,000 yuan, and the pay would be even better than he had imagined.

He later learned that this young woman named Su Xia had already been thinking about how to keep him after tasting the first bite of his cooking.

The story of the cook and the young woman obviously did not happen. Zhang Peng did accept the job, and Su Xia respected and valued him, giving him sufficient authority.

Zhang Peng closed the fast food restaurant for a month and renovated it inside and out. He opened up the kitchen and the coal shed outside and renovated it again. In the end, the fast food was still fast food, but he felt that there were two more words in front of it.

Chef Zhang's Fast Food Restaurant!

Zhang Peng quickly quit his previous job. The boss was reluctant to let such cheap labor go and said that if Zhang Peng stayed, she would offer him something else, such as... an extra two hundred yuan in wages.

Zhang Peng left with a smile and a flourish, officially embarking on his new professional career.

With Zhang Peng joining the business and his family's traditional culinary skills, Chef Zhang's fast food restaurant business is sweeping through the street, changing the restaurant landscape.

The fast food, priced at just over twenty yuan, has almost 100% repeat customers. Many diners buy a meal here and take it to the seafood restaurant across the street to make seafood rice. They say that only by eating Chef Zhang's fast food can they feel truly satisfied; otherwise, they feel like they've wasted their time eating at the restaurant.

Zhang Peng hired four kitchen helpers, but he was still busy day and night. This high-intensity work made him feel bored at times, but when he thought of his pregnant wife, he could only grit his teeth and persevere.

Whether it's due to the high intensity of his work or because he now has life goals, Zhang Peng has been so exhausted every day when he gets home that he falls asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow. He hasn't been able to dream for several months now.

Seeing his wife's belly grow bigger every day, Zhang Peng didn't dare let Chen Ling, an older mother, work too hard. He suggested she quit her job and stay home to rest during her pregnancy. Although his current salary wasn't considered extremely wealthy, it was enough to support the family.

After his wife lost her job, Zhang Peng became even more reluctant to relax. He had no other skills, so he could only work hard to earn money, hoping to provide his wife and children with a comfortable home.

However, occasionally, he would suddenly miss the life in his dreams. Sometimes he would think that he really hoped that in the next dream, he could live a carefree life without the worries of family or the responsibility of raising children. He would not need to change for anyone and would just want to be himself.

Perhaps that's life; what you think about during the day, you dream about at night. That day, Zhang Peng returned home and saw his wife already asleep, and couldn't help but show a tired smile.

After a hurried wash, Zhang Peng went to bed, but soon he could hear Chen Ling snoring. He was exhausted, but he just couldn't fall asleep.

With his eyes open, staring at the creaking fan on the ceiling, Zhang Peng sighed deeply and prayed silently. He really hoped to have another dream, a dream in which he would no longer be this middle-aged man bent over by life, but only a boy!

Blood Romance

Chapter 134: Zhong Yuemin

"I'll say it again, I'm not your cousin Wang Xiaohong! We don't know you!"

A sweet, lively female voice rang in Zhang Peng's ears. His gaze slowly focused and finally landed on the two girls in front of him.

The two girls, both around sixteen or seventeen years old, were wearing a plaid shirt, yellow-green trousers, a bright red scarf, and carrying a small military green shoulder bag. They had their hair in two ponytails and were glaring at me with puffed-up cheeks.

The other girl was dressed similarly, except she wore a yellow-green top and a light red scarf. Both of them had a badge pinned to their chests, but this girl looked at herself with a curious expression.

Zhang Peng's thoughts drifted away, and the memories of this body slowly took over his mind.

Zhong Yuemin, 16 years old, is a young man who has just graduated from Yuying Middle School and is awaiting job assignment. He lives in the military compound in Yanjing. His father was once a vice ministerial-level official who spent half his life in the military. However, he is currently being detained and investigated because this year is 68!

Zhang Peng patted his head, and that familiar memory returned. Zhang Peng's memories were quickly squeezed into the depths of his mind, while Zhong Yuemin's memories quickly took over the body again.

Two seconds later, Zhong Yuemin shook his head with a wry smile. It was fine; this dream world was indeed a reflection of what he had been thinking about all day.

This is a blood-red romantic world. I watched this TV series many years ago, almost twenty years ago. Many scenes and characters in the series are now a bit blurry to me, but I can still remember the general plot development.

However, the male protagonist Zhong Yuemin left a deep impression on him because the character of Zhong Yuemin almost represents the archetype of the fantasies in the hearts of most men.

He comes from a powerful family, is tall and handsome, and exudes an artistic vibe that attracts women wherever he stands. He has an unruly personality, but is also full of sincerity.

He had a group of brothers and friends who would risk their lives for him, and several women who would go through fire and water for him, but Zhong Yuemin spent his whole life pursuing freedom and novelty.

If we say that everyone's life is like a road, the starting point of life is infancy, then going to school, working, getting married, and finally having children, and the end of this life road is lying quietly in a coffin.

But Zhong Yuemin's life path was not like that; he spent his whole life pursuing the life he wanted.

In his youth, he led a group of brothers and became a well-known troublemaker in Yanjing. As a young man, he thought being a soldier was cool. Unfortunately, due to his father's reasons, he ended up being sent to the countryside in northern Shaanxi as an educated youth. However, being an educated youth was too tough, and in the end, he joined the army through the connections of his father's old subordinates.

In the army, he felt that military exercises were too fake, so he didn't hesitate to teach the senior officers a lesson. In the end, he joined the special forces based on his excellent qualities and eventually became an elite soldier. After more than ten years of military service, he eventually became a battalion commander in the special forces.

Despite a bright future ahead, Zhong Yuemin felt that this was not the life he wanted. He chose to apply for discharge from the army and became an unemployed youth once again. He even found selling jianbing guozi (Chinese crepes) interesting, so he became a proud street vendor.

Among them, he met a female veteran who was ten years younger than him, and he persuaded her without hesitation to join him in selling jianbing guozi (Chinese crepes).

In the end, he even made this young girl fall in love with him, and she gave up her life plans for him.

Zhong Yuemin replied, "I may not be able to make you a promise, nor can I marry you, because this is not the life I want."

Yes, this is the kind of scumbag he is, yet several outstanding women are willing to wait for him.

Yes, now I am Zhong Yuemin, 16-year-old Zhong Yuemin, a young rascal.

For Zhong Yuemin, 68 was a pivotal year. In the past, thanks to his father's protection, he was a little tyrant, leading a group of brothers to roam the streets every day, and flirting with pretty girls. But with his father's imprisonment, his identity underwent a dramatic change this year.

But what we see before us is the beginning of this story.

For example, the girl in front of us, Wang Xiaohong, who said she wasn't his cousin, was because Zhong Yuemin stopped her and said he was her cousin, but the girl didn't know him as her cousin, so she was desperately explaining to him that she wasn't his cousin.

This girl is certainly not Zhong Yuemin's cousin, but rather the woman who had a lifelong entanglement with Zhong Yuemin in the original novel.

Her name is Zhou Xiaobai, a pretty girl with round eyes and a fair and flawless face. She was so angry at the rascal in front of her that she had to explain several times that she was not his cousin, but he still blocked her way.

Zhou Xiaobai gradually realized that the somewhat handsome but annoying guy in front of her was deliberately trying to get close to her. She hated this kind of young man the most. Zhou Xiaobai ignored Zhong Yuemin and took her good friend Luo Yun's hand to walk to the other side of the road.

Zhong Yuemin watched Zhou Xiaobai's retreating figure but did not chase after him. Just because he had merged with Zhong Yuemin's memories did not mean that he wanted to continue down the same path as Zhong Yuemin, the scumbag.

If you can't give the other person a promise, don't mess with them, especially when they're at that age where their heart is just starting to flutter. You might end up entangled for a lifetime if you're not careful.

Besides, Zhou Xiaobai wasn't a good match for him. Her family background was even more powerful than Zhong Yuemin's, and in 68, her parents were still in power. One can imagine how someone with such a girlish personality would behave.

Zhou Xiaobai is the kind of woman who dares to love and hate. Her life has been smooth sailing. She always looks down on others with an arrogant attitude. Because she fell in love with Zhong Yuemin, this woman lowered her head for him, but Zhong Yuemin fell in love with another woman who moved his heart at that time.

But when it comes to matters of the heart, it seems as if fate has already arranged everything, and everything seems to be unfolding according to a script laid out by heaven.

Zhong Yuemin was still reflecting on life when he suddenly saw several bicycles stop in front of Zhou Xiaobai. The group asked Zhou Xiaobai something and pointed at Zhong Yuemin.

Zhong Yuemin felt that this scene was somewhat familiar. Before he could figure out what was going on, someone hugged him from behind, and several laughing voices came from behind.

"Hey cousin, it's your cousin! Come give your cousin a hug, hahaha!"

Zhong Yuemin turned around helplessly and saw several somewhat familiar faces appear before him.

Yuan Jun, Zheng Tong, and two other children from the compound were laughing and joking about his failed attempt to strike up a conversation.

Zhong Yuemin looked at the group of guys with a bit of helplessness. In his life, Zhong Yuemin had many brothers and friends, and among them, he had three closest friends.

For example, there's Yuan Jun, who's covered in acne, and Zheng Tong, who wears glasses and loves to talk nonsense, and a kid named Zhang Haiyang.

As soon as you speak of Cao Cao, he appears. Zhong Yuemin turns around and sees Zhang Haiyang rushing towards him with a brick in his hand, shouting.

"Hey kid, you're the one who harassed the girls in our compound, aren't you?"

Just then, a brick came crashing down on Zhong Yuemin's forehead!

Zhong Yuemin's smile froze instantly, and he cursed inwardly, "Damn it, I don't even know this kid yet!"

Chapter 135: Days of Youthful Exuberance

Zhong Yuemin subconsciously tilted his head, and the brick hit him squarely above his cheek.

Zhong Yuemin could only curse inwardly.

"Holy crap, that hurts! Zhang Haiyang, I'll fuck your ass off!"

Just as he was about to explain something, he heard Yuan Jun behind him pull out the bicycle chain lock and shout at Zhang Haiyang and the others.

"Brothers, this guy's bullying us! Let's beat him up!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a chorus of agreement erupted. Some pulled out chains, some picked up bricks, and others fought bare-handed. The crowd began a massive melee.

Seeing this, Zhong Yuemin could only shout and rush into the crowd. He spotted Zhang Haiyang and raised his fist, giving him a good beating in the face.