Few girls in the post-90s generation know how to cook.
Just like Xu Jiao herself, she could handle steaming rice in a rice cooker or making fried rice, but she definitely couldn't cook.
If girls are like this, let alone boys.
Take Zhou Xian, for example. He had never even used a rice cooker. He wasn't quite sure how much water and rice to use for a given number of diners.
Therefore, when they heard Xia Nuannuan say that Qin Tian was a good cook and that his dishes were even better than those at the restaurant, their first reaction was disbelief.
Qin Tian and Xia Nuannuan exchanged a smile and didn't offer any further explanation, continuing to eat their dishes.
Although the dishes weren't as delicious as Qin Tian's, they still tasted good. More importantly, the dishes were very appetizing, and the two of them were very hungry, so they ate heartily.
"Waiter, come here!"
Suddenly, a loud shout echoed, startling everyone.
Looking over with confused eyes, they saw a man at a nearby table frowning and looking displeased at the dishes on his table.
"Sir, what is the matter?"
The waitress hurried over and asked politely.
"I'm an old customer here. What's going on? The dishes didn't used to taste like this. They were much tastier."
The middle-aged man said in a deep voice.
The waitress looked distressed and then asked with a smile, "Then may I ask which dish you don't like? I'll help you get a replacement from the kitchen."
"No need. Do you have a manager here? Please call him over."
The man, seemingly not wanting to trouble the waitress, said calmly.
"This..."
The waitress was at a loss.
"What? I'm not making things difficult for you. I just want to know what's going on. The dishes are clearly not as good as they used to be. Do you think your business has improved so much that you're starting to cheat your customers?"
The man was getting impatient.
"No, no, sir. It's like this, our manager hasn't arrived yet."
"Then I'll wait here for him to come. I must get to the bottom of this today. More and more tourists are coming now, and many restaurants, like yours, get busy and their food gets worse."
"Sir..."
"Don't waste your breath. I told you I'm an old customer. I've eaten here many times, and my taste buds aren't fake. I can tell if the dishes have declined in taste."
The man raised his hand and interrupted her.
Since it wasn't lunchtime yet, the restaurant wasn't too crowded, with less than half of the tables occupied.
Hearing the man and the waitress talking, the other customers began to whisper amongst themselves.
Especially those tourists like Qin Tian and Xia Nuannuan, who were here to sample the local delicacies, felt a bit disheartened.
"Have you eaten here before? Has it really become less tasty?"
Xia Nuannuan asked Xu Jiao opposite her in a low voice.
"We don't live here, so we've only been here once, and that was a long time ago. So I can't really tell."
Xu Jiao smiled apologetically and said, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have recommended this restaurant to you."
"It's okay, it's okay. I think it's quite good, and it's very appetizing. I was just curious."
Xia Nuannuan waved her hand with a smile.
"Actually, that uncle is right. Over the past few years, Xingcheng has seen more and more tourists. It's not just the restaurants, but many small snack shops in the food street. Not only have the prices kept rising, but many of them, in pursuit of faster serving times, have made their food taste worse. They're all making money off of out-of-town tourists."
Zhou Xian explained in a low voice.
Qin Tian and Xia Nuannuan nodded in realization after hearing this.
Meanwhile, the waitress had been repeatedly apologizing in a low voice, even offering to waive the bill for the man's table.
This should have been approved by the manager, as it was not something a waitress could decide.
However, sensing the reactions of the surrounding customers and not wanting to cause a bigger scene and lose her job, she decided to take the loss herself and pay out of her own pocket, hoping the man would drop the matter.
However, the middle-aged man clearly wasn't concerned about the cost of the meal. He was stubborn and insisted on waiting for the manager to have a good talk, and kept urging the waitress to call the manager.
The young waitress was on the verge of tears. She didn't have much work experience; she was just a student working part-time during the summer holidays and didn't want to lose her hard-earned job.
The other waiters in the restaurant showed no intention of helping, standing in their respective places and watching indifferently. One older waiter even had a hint of schadenfreude on his face.
Unable to persuade the man and not daring to call the manager, the waitress turned to go to the kitchen to report the situation.
Unexpectedly, a short while later, several men in white chef uniforms walked out of the kitchen with cold expressions and headed towards the middle-aged man's table.
The waitress followed behind, trying to dissuade them in a panic, but it was useless.
The chefs walked up to the middle-aged man, and instead of an apology, their faces showed a hint of anger.
"What? What are you trying to do?"
The middle-aged man asked in a deep voice.
"You're saying our cooking is bad? Then tell us, what's wrong with it?"
The head chef, who was slightly older, questioned with displeasure.
"What do you mean?"
The man was also angered. Ignoring the pleading look from his wife, he glared and said,
"What? You can't even say when the food is bad? I've eaten at so many restaurants, and none of them have been as deceptive as yours. It used to be much tastier than this."
"You say it's bad, and it's bad? We have so many customers every day, and no one says what you're saying. Are you here to cause trouble?"
"Bang!"
The man slammed his hand heavily on the dining table and stood up angrily.
"What? Are you trying to make a scene?"
The head chef narrowed his eyes slightly.
The young chefs behind him immediately stepped forward, staring at the middle-aged man with imposing auras.
"Haha... This is hilarious. Your food is bad, and the customer says something, and you want to resort to violence? What era are we in, where restaurants bully customers like this?"
The middle-aged man laughed mockingly and said to the surrounding customers, "Everyone, you've seen it. Honestly, the food here is really much worse than before. If you haven't ordered yet, you can still leave. I suspect they've changed all the chefs here. Don't come here again."
"What nonsense are you talking about!"
The head chef, as if his sore spot had been hit, yelled at the man with an ugly expression.
Seeing this, the crowd around them exchanged glances.
"Get out, you're not welcome here."
"Our restaurant doesn't serve customers like you."
"You're deliberately looking for trouble, get lost!"
...
The young chefs each uttered a sentence, all of them ordering the man to leave.
Many customers nearby felt a sense of injustice for the middle-aged man.
In the catering industry, no one should be so overbearing.
The waitress was truly on the verge of tears now. She pleaded pitifully, trying to get them to stop arguing, but neither the chefs nor the middle-aged man paid attention to her.