Era: You're asked to cook a home-style dish, but you cook Wellington.

"Chef Gao, another customer has just cancelled their reservation."

Gao Yang sat in his office, listening to the receptionist's report, his brows furrowing deeper and deeper.

This is the third person to cancel their reservation today. It's a regular customer who also said they wanted to try some high-end ingredients at Kawasaki Yuki.

His fists clenched tighter and tighter. If this continued, it wouldn't be long before Su Family Island completely lost its customers.

Even now, it's difficult to cover daily operating costs.

The young woman at the front desk stood to the side, watching Gao Yang's expression, not daring to breathe loudly.

Clutching the order book, she was at a loss.

Gao Yang closed his eyes briefly, and when he opened them again, the anxiety in his eyes had faded, leaving only a deep calm.

He loosened his clenched fist, revealing a faint white tinge at his knuckles, and tapped the table lightly with his fingertips, the rhythm slow yet steady.

Kawasaki Yuki accurately predicted the current trend and seized upon the wealthy's desire for novelty, using a two-pronged approach to precisely poach the core customer base of Su Family Island.

She has access to top-quality farmed ingredients from overseas and dares to secretly trade in prohibited wild ingredients. Her procedures are flawless. They have suspicions but no evidence, so a direct confrontation is simply not going to work.

This was the scene that Su Wanqing saw when she pushed open the door.

Gao Yang sat at the table with a solemn expression. The order report on the table was spread out, and the numbers sliding down on it were particularly glaring.

"Another customer cancelled their booking?"

She walked to the table, her voice soft.

These past few days she's been running around trying to retain her old customers, but they either make excuses to avoid her or openly say they want to try Kawasaki Yuki's shop. She's tried everything to persuade them, but she can't keep any of them.

"The third one is a long-time customer who has been with us for quite some time."

Gao Yang looked up at Su Wanqing, his eyes filled with determination.

"If we continue to passively take hits like this, we'll be dragged down by her sooner or later. We can't wait any longer."

Su Wanqing's heart skipped a beat: "You have a plan?"

"You're not going to use wild animals as food, are you? That's illegal."

Upon hearing this, Gao Yang immediately shook his head, his eyes filled with unwavering determination, without the slightest hesitation.

"Absolutely impossible."

His tone was resolute.

"I am a chef, not a shady merchant. I, Gao Yang, will never do anything illegal or cross the line in my life."

"So, how do you plan to deal with Kawasaki Yuki?"

Su Wanqing was filled with doubt.

Gao Yang's lips curled into a sneer, "I have a way, and I'll make her suffer the consequences of her own actions."

…………

a few days later.

Kawasaki Yuki held a glass of freshly poured sake between her fingers, her brows furrowed. Her gaze swept across the empty front hall, where only a few guests sat anxiously looking at the menu, showing no interest in even picking up their chopsticks.

This was completely different from what she had expected.

Just a few days ago, the place was packed with guests and bustling with activity.

Those wealthy and powerful people were scrambling to come and try it out, so why has it suddenly become so quiet these past few days?

Even the big clients who were attracted by her top-quality ingredients all found excuses to back out, or even canceled their reservations.

Her heart skipped a beat, and she had a bad feeling. She immediately beckoned to the man with the knife hidden at his waist.

"What's going on? There are fewer and fewer people these past two days?"

When the man heard Kawasaki Yuki call him over, cold sweat poured down his forehead.

"Miss Kawasaki, I only received the news today. The Su family's island has also released information saying that it has the finest ingredients, and all our customers have gone there."

"Baka yarou!"

Upon hearing the man's report, Kawasaki Yuki was instantly enraged and slammed the wine glass in her hand to the ground.

The bone-white ceramic wine cup slammed onto the tatami mat and shattered instantly.

Sake splashed all over the straw mat, just like the ferocious expression on Kawasaki Yuki's face at that moment.

Her usual carefully maintained charm and poise shattered completely. Her eyes turned red with rage, and she exuded a chilling aura that frightened her subordinates into lowering their heads and not daring to make a sound.

"Gao Yang! He's stealing my customers!"

"How dare he!"

Kawasaki Yuki gritted her teeth, her voice becoming shrill and distorted.

She went to great lengths, cultivating connections across various overseas channels, to secure an exclusive source of top-quality farmed ingredients. She thought she had a winning edge, but she never imagined that Gao Yang could obtain the same or even better resources in just a few days.

The man trembled with fear and quickly lowered his head.

"Ms. Kawasaki, they also invited their old customers who had previously cancelled their orders to try the food for free. After tasting it, those customers all said that Su's ingredients were fresh and authentic, and the cooking methods were more in line with our Chinese tastes. It was much better than the cold, hard Japanese barbecue we have here. Now they've all come back!"

Upon hearing this, Kawasaki Yuki swayed and almost collapsed to the ground.

She went to great lengths to skirt the law and use sensational gimmicks to attract customers, but in the end, Gao Yang didn't follow the same path as her at all.

The other party doesn't take shortcuts or cross any red lines. By using compliant, top-quality local ingredients and exquisite Chinese culinary skills, they accurately captured the taste buds of diners and ended up stealing all of her customers!

"Impossible! How could a poor chef like him get access to such good local ingredients?"

Kawasaki Yuki couldn't believe it and questioned her sharply.

The man shook his head, not daring to utter a sound.

Kawasaki Yuki glanced at him.

"Useless! All of you are useless! Spread the word that in two days we'll be using even more premium ingredients to prepare a unique feast, one of a kind in the entire Yun City, right here in our courtyard, to publicly entertain our long-time clients. I want to see what Gao Yang has to offer to compete with me!"

As soon as she finished speaking, the man beside her changed his expression and hurriedly stepped forward to dissuade her.

"Miss Kawasaki, you absolutely mustn't! The forestry police and industry and commerce officials have been patrolling the area every day lately. If we touch those things again, and we get caught, none of us will be able to leave!"

Those prohibited wild ingredients hidden in the secret warehouses are their last trump card, but once they are revealed, they will get burned!

"Can't leave?"

Kawasaki Yuki sneered, raised her hand and slapped the man hard across the face, so hard that half of his face instantly turned red and swollen.

"We've lost all our customers, the shop is on the verge of closing down. If we don't give it our all, are we just going to sit here and wait to die?"

"I'm going to use the finest ingredients in front of everyone to crush the Su family's island and let all the powerful figures in Yun City know that only I, Kawasaki Yuki, can produce truly rare and exquisite goods! Gao Yang's local ingredients are utterly worthless in my eyes!"

She was completely blinded by rage, obsessed with defeating Gao Yang and turning the tide, and had long since disregarded the law and the risks involved.

The man covered his burning cheeks, not daring to argue any further. He could only bow and accept the order, immediately sending people out to spread the news.

In an instant, the business circles of Yuncheng were in an uproar again. Everyone was talking about how Kawasaki Yuki would bring out some extremely rare and top-quality ingredients to cook a banquet for guests in two days.

Many guests who had originally returned to Sujia Island are now starting to feel restless again.

The news quickly reached Su Family Island.

Gao Yang was leading his kitchen team in refining the dishes when Su Wanqing strode into the kitchen and solemnly informed Gao Yang of the news.

"Kawasaki Yuki has gone mad. She knows perfectly well that things are tense right now, yet she still openly brings out top-grade prohibited ingredients."

Gao Yang paused, the flames in the stove flickering, making his eyes appear even more steady and sharp.

He wiped his hands, turned to look at Su Wanqing, and a faint smile appeared on his lips.

"She wasn't going all in; she was courting death."

"This is the step I've been waiting for."

Su Wanqing was slightly taken aback, her eyes filled with admiration.

"You knew she'd resort to desperate measures?"

"She is proud and ambitious, and driven by profit. Seeing her business plummeting, she will not give up easily and will inevitably take risks and play her last trump card."

Gao Yang spoke calmly, as if he were a general strategizing in the command room.

"We didn't have any evidence before, so we couldn't do anything to her. Now that she's bringing her illegal activities to the forefront, we don't need to be polite anymore."

He had already made arrangements with the forestry and industry and commerce departments through Old Chen's connections, and had been keeping a close eye on Kawasaki Yuki's every move, just waiting for her to make a mistake.

Now that Kawasaki Yuki has openly declared that she will bring out even more top-quality and rare ingredients, she is clearly going to cross the legal line. This time, it will be a good opportunity to catch her in one fell swoop.

"Don't worry, her banquet in two days will be the day she's arrested."

Gao Yang patted Su Wanqing on the shoulder, his tone firm, "This time, I'm going to make her lose completely and completely, so that she'll never be able to stand in Yuncheng again."