Soon enough, taking the excuse of going to check on the private chef, Dan Feng went and washed his face before coming back.
Behind the Dragon Lord stood twelve attendants, neatly lined up.
The twelve attendants all lowered their eyes respectfully, each holding an oversized, dark wooden food box. They then lined up in perfect order.
The few people who had lost at cards quickly tore the paper slips off their faces.
Jing Yuan counted the attendants and was utterly shocked.
'Didn't Dan Feng used to have only eight attendants?'
Since Jing Yuan didn't understand, he asked directly, and received this answer from Dan Feng, "Because this time, everyone only has twelve dishes."
Aside from Zero, the other four's pupils all trembled violently.
Each person… only twelve dishes? But there were only six of them.
Zero accepted it quite calmly.
In his past life, he had eaten food prepared by a private chef.
Back then, he spent most of his time working. He'd even skip meals and sleep just to review documents. The only time he actually ate something was when his subordinates dragged him out to eat together.
Because of that, his subordinates were constantly worried about him, always thinking of excuses, birthdays, anniversaries of the Xianzhou, just to get him to have a proper meal.
One time, a subordinate, who clearly didn't know how much money he'd spent, hired the most prestigious private chef in the entire universe to cook for them.
It was the subordinate's first time hiring a private chef, so he went all out, a top-tier private business banquet, complete with several chefs and waiters.
When the food was finally served, Zero and his subordinates were completely stunned.
Each of them had a big plate placed in front of them, and on that huge plate sat a palm-sized appetizer that made everyone doubt reality.
Was that really supposed to fill them up?
A few bites later, the dish was gone.
The waiters moved quickly, constantly changing plates and serving new dishes.
But every portion was pitifully small. With every bite, Zero and his subordinates couldn't help but question life itself.
They had dominated the sea of stars, and yet somehow, they were the country bumpkins here.
None of them had ever seen something like this before.
They powered through over twenty of those tiny dishes, silently finished the fruit at the end, and then watched as the private chef's team cleaned up.
As expected of the most famous private chef in the universe, the kitchen and table were spotless afterward. They hadn't even left behind a single vegetable leaf.
Seeing even his most lively subordinates go limp with despair, Zero sighed helplessly. "Not full, right?"
Everyone nodded furiously. Then one of them suddenly blurted out, "I know the Chief Strategist hid half a crate of instant noodles somewhere, he's on vacation right now, let's just cook them!"
Zero hesitated for a moment.
…But in the end, they did it.
Everyone crowded around in the kitchen, watching Zero tear open the instant noodle packets, shouting excitedly, "Even if he only tears the packaging, that still counts as the Marshal personally cooking for us!"
Calling it "a chaotic circus" wouldn't even do justice to the madness that followed.
The subordinates chattered endlessly, mercilessly roasting the one who had arranged the previous dinner.
"Maybe business banquets are just like that? Not about eating, just for talking?"
The organizer looked a bit aggrieved, then quickly changed the subject to praise his boss.
"After all, which other superior is as thoughtful as the Marshal! When he says we're eating, he means eating, he even made instant noodles for us!"
All the subordinates nodded passionately.
Zero, "…"
All he did was tear open a packet of noodles.
He truly didn't understand, why did every meal somehow end up with people praising him?
In any case, they all ate happily.
Zero completely forgot about the incident, until a few days later, when he heard the Chief Strategist's furious yelling. Only then did he remember.
He gave the Chief Strategist half a month's bonus as compensation, and the matter was finally settled.
Since then, Zero had no trouble accepting the Dragon Lord's slightly extravagant way of doing things.
As long as nothing went to waste, it was fine.
And of course, the small portions prepared by the private chef wouldn't be too hard to finish anyway.
Dan Feng adjusted his sleeves and raised his hand slightly, signaling for the attendants to serve the food.
In the blink of an eye, the stone table was completely covered with plates for all six people.
The appetizer was a ham salad, two or three bites and it was gone.
Zero took one look and knew immediately, there was no way he'd be full from this meal.
Then the attendants replaced the dishes again, this time bringing in soup.
Except for Zero and Dan Feng, the others' expressions carried a faint trace of shock.
This was the private chef Dan Feng had spent five figures to hire?
This was the fifteen-course meal made from ingredients that cost six or seven figures?
Being around Dan Feng always seemed to refresh their understanding of what "rich" meant.
Once the initial shock faded, everyone relaxed and began chatting idly.
Yingxing animatedly described how he used Zero's "workaholic logic" to talk back to a few colleagues.
Baiheng nodded vigorously in agreement, joined in the conversation, and then started talking about his recent success as a middleman, how he'd helped the Interstellar Peace Company and Luofu establish a deal for a massive order of rare materials at a great price.
"Thanks to that, I'm finally debt-free!"
The fox-man's tail practically wagged with excitement.
"Maybe next time, my Starship can finally use some rare materials! It'll definitely handle crashes better!"
Jingliu calmly sipped her soup, then looked up and said dryly, "No matter how rare the material is, it still can't withstand your crashes..."
Everyone else was equally speechless at Baiheng's words and started lecturing the fox one after another.
While they talked, the attendants replaced the plates again, this time with hot dishes.
Zero picked up his chopsticks, deliberately slowing down as he listened to their conversation.
By chance, he glanced at Dan Feng, whose eyes were dull and unfocused.
Zero immediately sensed that something was off with the Dragon Lord's state.
That look in his eyes was too familiar.
In his previous life, when he'd worked without sleep, constantly on the verge of emotional collapse and ready to kill every Aeon in the galaxy, he'd had that same expression.
He hesitated for a moment, but before he could think further, Dan Feng's eyes suddenly refocused, his demeanor instantly returning to normal.
The Dragon Lord looked cheerful again, chatting with the others about the work at the Alchemy Commission, and about that psychological evaluation that had been delayed for who-knows-how-long.
"No wonder General Tengxiao told the Commission to take their time, even I was diagnosed with psychological problems."
Jing Yuan, who spent most of his time surfing the interstellar network, nodded knowingly. "There's no such thing as a working man who isn't crazy."
Zero couldn't agree more and nodded along.
He felt that his own state was much better now than in his previous life.
He tried to put himself in the Dragon Lord's shoes, having to face a bunch of ancient immortals day after day…
And considering the Vidyadhara clan's inheritance of countless generations of memories…
Who wouldn't go crazy?
Just to be safe, he decided to talk to Hua about it after dinner.
Then Yingxing suddenly brought up Jingliu's hometown.
"I wonder when we'll get the chance to visit?"
Baiheng quickly chimed in, "Yeah, yeah! When will the restrictions finally lift? I really wanna take a trip there!"
Jingliu set down her chopsticks and sighed. "Who knows when that'll be."
Dan Feng took a sip of his wine.
"The former Marshal originally planned to have someone take care of the Mara-struck remnants in there, but for some reason, it kept getting delayed… and even now, it still hasn't been resolved..."
Zero, "…"
'…Huh???'
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