Pei Qian: “???”

Well done, Zhang Zuting! I treated you to good food and drink, and this is how you repay me!

Pei Qian hurriedly clicked on the comments under Zhang Zuting’s Weibo post to assess the severity of the situation.

If the response was extremely enthusiastic, that would be trouble!

Zhang Zuting had already narrowed down the keywords to “Jingzhou” and “private kitchen.” What if people became interested and managed to find out the address by any means necessary? What then?

Although Zhang Zuting’s popularity had declined, he still had a group of die-hard fans. What if several of them happened to be in Jingzhou and wanted to try the “same dinner as Zhang Zuting”? Wouldn’t that expose everything?

Even though Zhang Zuting’s influence was nowhere near what it used to be, from when this Weibo post was published two days ago until now, it had already garnered over five hundred comments.

Pei Qian quickly looked through all of them.

“Just in time for dinner? Good, good.”

“Ahhhh, why didn’t you say earlier? Had I known you were coming to Jingzhou, I would have gone to spot you in person!”

“What a pity, missed the chance to meet my idol.”

“Collaborating with a game company? Which game company has such good eyes to find such a treasure like Brother Zhang?”

“Brother Zhang, are you promoting this restaurant? No problem, just share the location, and I’ll definitely support it!”

“So, where can we find the address of this private kitchen?”

“This restaurant seems a bit unprofessional, right? If they got Brother Zhang to promote them, shouldn’t there be at least a few beautiful photos? Without a single picture, who would go?”

And so on.

Pei Qian felt slightly relieved.

Most fans focused on the “collaboration with a game company” part of the Weibo post, speculating about which game company it was and what kind of collaboration it involved.

Only a small number of people were paying attention to the latter part of the post.

The key issue was the lack of pictures.

For food, images are the most convincing. No matter how well you describe it in words, it’s difficult to evoke widespread resonance.

Of course, if you were a literary master who could describe food in a way that made people’s mouths water, that would be different.

But Zhang Zuting wasn’t.

So, while some people were asking for the address of this private kitchen, most didn’t pay much attention.

Zhang Zuting had replied to several of the most liked comments.

“The business collaboration is confidential for now; everyone will know soon.”

“I came to Jingzhou in a hurry. Next time, I’ll find an opportunity to meet with local friends in Jingzhou!”

“It’s not a promotion; it’s truly excellent and delicious.”

“I can’t tell you the exact location because my business partners provided transportation. I only remember it was in a relatively secluded villa area, very quiet with nice scenery.”

“No photos—this private kitchen doesn’t allow photography because only without taking pictures can you fully experience the details of the food. Anyway, I highly recommend local fans in Jingzhou to try it! Oh, and one more thing, the price might be very expensive.”

Zhang Zuting’s replies only made his fans more confused.

Location unknown.

No photos.

Price unclear!

The only clue was that it was in a very quiet and secluded villa area.

But there were too many villa areas in Jingzhou!

Jingzhou had seven or eight major scenic areas, each with at least six or seven villa complexes. Besides these scenic areas, there were other scattered villa developments.

Even with the limiting conditions like “relatively secluded, very quiet, nice scenery,” there would still be twenty or thirty villa areas that matched.

Moreover, among these villa areas with so many villas, which specific villa was hiding this private kitchen?

No clues, no photos—how could anyone find it?

They couldn’t possibly try to sneak into villa areas and knock on each door asking, “Excuse me, is this a private kitchen?”

That would be ridiculous.

Of course, if people knew it was a villa zoned for both residential and commercial use, they could eliminate most options, but the problem was that Zhang Zuting didn’t know this detail, so naturally, his fans didn’t either.

Zhang Zuting didn’t even know what the private kitchen was called.

No matter how many fans asked, how could they get answers to questions that Zhang Zuting himself didn’t know?

After reading the comments, Pei Qian heaved a sigh of relief.

Thank goodness, it was a false alarm!

Not giving Zhang Zuting the location or letting him take photos had indeed been the correct choice.

After all, Zhang Zuting was a celebrity who had seen the world. He wouldn’t behave like a country bumpkin, taking photos to show off after eating something delicious or specifically noting down the restaurant’s location.

Pei Qian was grateful in his heart, thanking the fried pork knuckle for sparing his life!

It seemed that Mingyun Private Kitchen was not at risk of exposure for now.

Just as he was about to put his phone back in his pocket, there was a “ding” sound as Zhang Zuting posted a new Weibo.

“Got the location! Just asked my assistant—fortunately, he wrote down the location before leaving! [Location: Jingzhou City – Mingyun Villa]”

“Pfft!!”

Pei Qian nearly spat blood.

It’s over—betrayed by that little assistant!

Zhang Zuting indeed hadn’t remembered the location, but his assistant had!

Thinking back now, when that little assistant saw the table full of delicious dishes, especially that emperor crab, his eyes had glazed over, clearly coveting the meal.

Pei Qian hadn’t thought much of it at the time; he had just told the assistant not to take photos.

But this assistant had secretly noted down the location, and how could Pei Qian possibly have noticed such a thing?

Soon, comments under this new post rapidly increased.

“Mingyun Villa? That is indeed quite remote. Thanks for the recommendation, Brother Zhang. I’ll drive over and check it out someday.”

“Damn, it’s so far. Even driving takes an hour.”

“Is it that delicious that Brother Zhang can’t stop praising it? Who’s going to try it? If it’s that good, I might consider buying a plane ticket to taste it and tour around Jingzhou. Does anyone know what interesting places there are in Jingzhou?”

Pei Qian scrolled through the Weibo feed, frozen in place.

The previous post was still okay because most people focused on Zhang Zuting’s business collaboration.

But this one was serious—it contained only information about Mingyun Private Kitchen’s location.

Too conspicuous!

People were going to show up!

Pei Qian scratched his head.

What should he do? Find a way to dissuade these people?

Malicious dissuasion was not an option.

“Calm down, it’s probably not that bad.”

“Even if a few people find their way here, it’s not a big problem. This place is so expensive that most people can’t afford it.”

“Zhang Zuting’s previous post only got a little over four thousand likes, and his fans are distributed all over the country. Even if a small number could find Mingyun Private Kitchen, at most there’d be a few dozen people, and they might not even be able to afford it.”

“Right, Mingyun Private Kitchen loses a lot of money every month. Even if a batch of customers comes, from a long-term perspective, it still won’t plug the hole of losses.”

Pei Qian was a bit panicked at first, but after calming down, he felt the situation wasn’t so dire.

After all, Mingyun Private Kitchen had several lines of defense, such as its extremely remote location, very expensive dishes, and most precious ingredients requiring reservations.

These were very discouraging factors for ordinary diners.

However, despite all this, he couldn’t just wait passively.

After some thought, Pei Qian decided to call Chef Lin.