Ye Wangchuan’s culinary skills were better than she had expected. There was a rich buttery fragrance in the hotpot broth, and the chili was nicely fried with peppercorns. There was a layer of chili oil on the broth, and it was evident that this was well-prepared.

She took a spoonful of it to taste it. As she’d guessed based on the looks of it, it tasted authentic. The buttery broth had the right level of spice.

Qiao Nian put in some fatty beef strips and tripe. The hotpot was extremely flavorful, and she was sweating while she ate.

The man placed a can of herbal tea by her side.

“Have something to drink.”

Qiao Nian could barely take the spice anymore. She picked up the herbal tea and took a big gulp. With the cool tea on her burning tongue, she felt much better.

She leaned back in her chair in satisfaction and did not feel like moving. Jiang Li was in roughly the same state. His face was reddened from all the chili consumed, and he had practically collapsed in his seat. He gave the man beside Qiao Nian a thumbs-up. “Master Wang, given your culinary skills, you can consider having a side business in hotpot!”

Qiao Nian was excited to hear this. She turned around and blinked at him. “I think so too.”

It really was delicious.

At the very least, she’d never tasted better hotpot than his in Rao City so far.

Ye Wangchuan was all ready to rebuke Jiang Li initially. But upon hearing her hoarse but tender voice, his lips curled up and he swallowed those words. “We’ll see when the time comes.”

Gu San’s eyeballs almost fell out of their sockets. He couldn’t figure out why Ye Wangchuan would agree to it.

Was Master Wang not busy enough with his work? And of all businesses, why consider opening a hotpot store just because of Miss Qiao’s casual remark?

He couldn’t imagine the expressions of those people in Beijing if they found out that Master Wang opened a hotpot store. Perhaps their jaws would drop as well.

…

Qiao Nian’s hand was injured, so she had a good reason not to go to school. Having given Qiao Nian two weeks off school, Shen Hui was hurrying her to get back for lessons.

Qiao Nian slowly strode into school after the second lecture of the morning was over.

Before she reached her classroom, she bumped into Qiao Chen and a few other Class B girls.

Qiao Chen was in a flowy cream-colored dress, and it looked like it was a female clothing brand under the umbrella company Seven. Aunt Yuan had sent her a few images of their clothes before and asked her to pick out some, but she didn’t like the designs at all and so gave them a pass.

But she had a very vivid impression of the dress Qiao Chen was wearing. As a designer herself, albeit of a different style, she found this dress to be absolutely disastrous.

Huge patches of lace were put together with a puffy layered skirt. When she first saw the image of the dress, she actually doubted anyone would wear something this flamboyant out.

Now that she saw it with her own eyes… tsk, as she expected, it was too much to be worn on an ordinary day.

Especially because the person wearing it was Qiao Chen. Qiao Chen’s facial features were rather “simple”. To put it nicely, she was perhaps charismatic. But to be awfully frank, she just looked ordinary, maybe even a little petty.

But she chose to wear a pompous dress that did not match her aura at all. Her bland looks were not compatible with such a design, and this branded dress wasn’t better on her than her usual outfits.

But Qiao Chen did not think that way. Seven’s items were hard to get hold of, and even the subsidiary firms under Seven were extremely popular. It was impossible to purchase their items without preordering, so it was really a hassle to even get anything of that brand.

Not many people in Rao City managed to get Seven’s goods.

Fu Ge even had to look for his connections in order to get her this dress. She practically wore this the moment she received it.