In the midst of his chaotic thoughts, the 'rustling' sound occurred again. Ye Chui quickly stood in front of Lin Wei and sternly shouted, "Who's there!?"
There was no response, and the grassy area returned to silence. However, a few weeds were swaying, indicating that there was something inside.
Ye Chui couldn't help but feel a bit anxious now. Could there really be some wild animals on this hill? He tightened his grip on the kitchen knife.
Just at this moment, the 'rustling' sound echoed again. Ye Chui waved his hand, and the heavy kitchen knife flew out of his hand, spinning towards the bushes.
"Oh, damn!"
A cry came from the bushes. Ye Chui's heart sank —there really were people in there. He might have unintentionally injured someone with his flying kitchen knife. Ye Chui, being a chef, not only had excellent culinary skills but also demanded physical strength, especially wrist strength
He had been consciously or unconsciously training his wrist strength since his rebirth. The power behind that thrown knife was considerable.
Before Ye Chui could react, the kitchen knife soared through the air, slashing through the grass, and finally lodged into a locust tree. It precisely hit a wrist-thick branch, and with a snap, the branch fell to the ground. This demonstrated the incredible power of the knife.
If it had hit a person, the consequences would have been severe.
Feeling nervous, Ye Chui hurried over to check. Just as he reached the edge of the bushes, he saw Yu Yan, the tall guy, emerging from the bushes, his head full of fury. His originally neatly trimmed flat-top hairstyle was now missing a layer, making him look like someone who had just been smacked on the forehead with a frying pan.
"Uh...It's you?" Ye Chui couldn't help but laugh. He never expected the person hiding in the bushes to be Yu Yan. The situation just now had been quite thrilling, and looking at Yu Yan's haircut, it seemed like he narrowly escaped having his scalp shaved off.
Lin Wei was also shocked, but when she realized Yu Yan was unharmed, her worry turned into anger. She scolded him with her hands on her hips, "Yu Ge, why are you here? Were you secretly following us?"
Yu Yan touched the missing part of his flat-top and glared at Ye Chui before responding to Lin Wei, "It's the boss's order. I have no choice but to follow his instructions."
"You scared me just now!" Lin Wei complained.
"I was even more scared..." Yu Yan turned his head to look at the layer of hair that had been shaved off and continued, "If I had been a bit slower, I might have lost my life!"
Ye Chui felt a bit guilty, thinking that if someone had been injured by his flying knife, it would have been his fault.
Ye Chui smiled awkwardly and walked over to retrieve his kitchen knife from the tree. He carefully wiped it clean. For a chef, knives were indispensable, and any truly successful chef would cherish their tools. Confirming that the knife's edge was undamaged, Ye Chui breathed a sigh of relief —much to Yu Yan's discontent.
Pointing at the missing layer of hair on his forehead, Yu Yan said, "Can't you show a little concern for me?"
"Your hairstyle is actually quite handsome," Ye Chui joked, walking over to Yu Yan. Curious, he asked, "Have you been following us all day? What happened in the bushes just now?"
"What else could happen? A bug crawled into my clothes, and it was so itchy that I couldn't help but scratch. That's how I got exposed. Otherwise, with my special forces background in stealth and tracking, you guys would never have found me!" Yu Yan said proudly. He then casually glanced at the roast chicken Ye Chui had just prepared, saying, "By the way, the chicken smells really good."
"..."
Ye Chui seriously doubted that Yu Yan had only revealed himself because he couldn't resist the itchiness of the bug.
With the addition of Yu Yan, the three of them found a place to sit down. Lin Wei was very unhappy —she had to share such delicious chicken with one more person, and Yu Yan was definitely the type with a huge appetite. This was definitely the most frustrating thing for a foodie.
As expected, Ye Chui had to open his mouth to comfort her. "Whenever you want to eat it, just come find me. We'll come back here to catch chickens and make roast chicken for you, okay? Besides this roast chicken, I know a lot of other types of roasted chicken recipes."
"Okay, okay!" Lin Wei immediately smiled when she heard what Ye Chui said.
Yu Yan couldn't help but roll his eyes. Ye Chui was definitely trying to find ways to date Lin Wei, but you have to admit that this method was the most effective for this little glutton.
Yu Yan ate half of the whole-fat chicken himself, and more than half of the rest was for Lin Wei. Lin Wei looked very slim, but her appetite was not small. However, the best thing about this little foodie girl was that she could eat a lot without gaining weight.
After eating the roast chicken, Ye Chui took the three chickens he caught down the mountain. Yu Yan was curious and asked Ye Chui, "I heard that you're preparing ingredients for Han Lao's cooking, but it's not for another five or six days. Why did you bring the chickens back now?"
"The selection of ingredients is of utmost importance. I plan to raise these chickens at home for a few days and properly condition them, in order to achieve the highest realm of meat." Ye Chui smiled as he explained.
One of the dishes he was going to make for Han Lao required a special method to condition the chicken first. The live chicken also needed to be fed special feed for a few days before slaughter in order to bring out the full flavour.
Yu Yan smiled and said, "There are so many tricks involved in making your dish. That old man Han will definitely be satisfied with your dishes."
"Of course he will," Lin Wei said with a smile. "Ye Chui's cooking skills are the best!"
The three of them chatted and laughed as they walked down the mountain. When they met the owner of the chicken farm, Chen Sitang, they paid for the three chickens, plus the one that had already been eaten.
As they were about to leave, Ye Chui suddenly said to Chen Sitang, "Mr. Chen, I want to talk to you about a business deal."
"A business deal?" Chen Sitang's eyes lit up. He looked at Ye Chui and said, "Mr. Ye, what kind of business deal do you want to talk about?"
Yu Yan and Lin Wei were also curious. They wondered if Ye Chui was planning to work with Chen Sitang in the long term.
Ye Chui looked at Maple Mountain and then continued, "I want to invest in your chicken farm and build a chicken coop. What do you think?"
"Build a chicken coop?" Chen Sitang was surprised. He frowned and said, "Mr. Ye, I told you before that chicken coop farming is not easy. I have no experience, and not many people do. It's okay to keep a dozen or so chickens, but it's impossible to manage a large number."
"It doesn't matter. I can pay for the construction of the chicken coop. You just need to do it according to my instructions. I think you have plenty of space and manpower here. The chicken coop can be built at the foot of the mountain. You can try it out and see how it goes. If it's successful, we can expand the scale later." Ye Chui said with a smile.
Chen Sitang was still skeptical, but when he heard that Ye Chui would pay for the construction of the chicken coop, he thought it was a good deal for him. He nodded and agreed. He followed Ye Chui to get some paper and pen to draw a detailed plan of the chicken coop.
The first chicken coop was only a small-scale experiment. It could hold 500 chickens at a time. Ye Chui had already decided on the type of chicken to raise. He chose the meat chickens with a mild temperament.
All the materials, plus the cost of labour and feed in the future, would only cost 20,000 yuan in the initial stage. It would take less than two months for the chicks to grow up and be ready for slaughter.
This would be much easier to control and capture than free-range chickens on the mountain.
Of course, Ye Chui had no experience in raising chickens. He had only come into contact with it a few times because of his search for ingredients. He had a basic understanding of it, but he couldn't be sure if this would work. He would need to practice it to find out.
At first, Chen Sitang didn't take Ye Chui seriously. But when he saw Ye Chui talking about the structure of the chicken coop and even the key points of raising chickens, he was surprised.
In the end, he could only nod his head in admiration. He thought to himself, 'I thought he was just a bored rich kid at first. Now it seems that he's not like that at all. He's a man of real talent.'