Chapter 240: Fortunately, My Assistant Wrote Down the Location
"???"
Pei Qian stared at the screen in disbelief.
Good job, Zhang Zutting. I treat you to fine food and drink, and this is how you repay me?
He quickly scrolled down to the comments under Zhang Zutting's Weibo post, desperate to gauge the damage.
If the post had gone viral, things could get very bad.
Zhang Zutting had specifically mentioned "Jingzhou" and "private kitchen." If anyone got curious enough to dig into it and somehow managed to track down the location… what then?
Even though Zhang Zutting's popularity had faded, he still had a small but loyal fanbase. If just a few of them happened to live in Jingzhou and decided to try the "same dinner Teacher Zhang Zutting had," that would spell disaster.
And sure enough, even though he wasn't as famous as before, the post—which had only been up for a couple of days—already had over 500 comments.
Pei Qian started reading through them one by one.
"Ate well, did you? Good for you, good for you."
"Ahhhh, why didn't you say earlier? I would've gone to Jingzhou to catch you in person!"
"What a shame, missed my chance to meet my idol."
"You're collaborating with a game company? Which one's got such great taste to find a treasure like Uncle Zhang?"
"Uncle Zhang, is this a restaurant promo deal? No problem—just drop the location and I'll go show my support!"
"So… where can we find this private kitchen?"
"This restaurant seems kind of unprofessional. They hired you to promote them, but didn't even include a photo? Who's going to go based on just that?"
Reading through the replies, Pei Qian finally relaxed a little.
It seemed most of the fans were more interested in the first part of the post—the game company collaboration—and were busy speculating about which company it might be and what the project involved.
Only a handful were curious about the restaurant part.
The real saving grace, though, was the lack of pictures.
When it came to food, nothing sold better than visuals. No matter how you described it in words, it was hard to make people's mouths water without a photo—unless, of course, you were a literary genius who could describe flavors so vividly they practically leapt off the page.
Zhang Zutting, obviously, was not.
So yes, a few people were asking about the restaurant's address, but most didn't seem all that interested.
Zhang Zutting had even replied to a few of the top comments:
"Business collaboration details are confidential for now. You'll all know soon enough."
"Didn't have time to meet local fans this trip, but I'll make it up next time!"
"Not an ad, I swear. It's really good."
"I don't actually know the address—the partner company picked me up and dropped me off. I only remember it was in a quiet, secluded villa district with nice scenery."
"And no photos—the restaurant doesn't allow them. They say it's the only way to truly experience the food. Anyway, I highly recommend it to anyone in Jingzhou! Oh, but fair warning—it might be pricey."
Honestly, it might've been better if he hadn't replied at all.
Because now the fans were even more confused.
No address. No photos. No idea about the price.
The only clue was that it was "a quiet villa district, very peaceful, with good scenery."
But Jingzhou had plenty of villa districts!
There were seven or eight major scenic areas, each with half a dozen villa communities. And outside of those, there were scattered villa developments all over the city.
Even with those vague qualifiers—"quiet," "secluded," "nice scenery"—that still left at least twenty or thirty possible locations.
And even then, how were they supposed to find which specific villa the restaurant was hiding in?
No address, no photos—how could anyone possibly track it down?
What were they going to do, sneak into villa districts and knock on doors one by one? "Excuse me, is this a private kitchen?"
Yeah, no. That'd be ridiculous.
Of course, if people knew it was a mixed-use villa—both residential and commercial—they might be able to narrow it down quite a bit.
But the problem was… Zhang Zutting didn't know that.
So naturally, his fans didn't either.
He didn't even know what the private kitchen was called.
No matter how many times his fans asked, how could they possibly get answers when even Zhang Zutting himself didn't know?
After scrolling through the comments, Pei Qian finally let out a long sigh of relief.
Good, good. It's just a false alarm!
Not giving Zhang Zutting the GPS location, not letting him take photos—what a brilliant decision that was!
After all, Zhang Zutting was a celebrity, someone who'd seen the world. He wasn't some country bumpkin who'd start snapping pictures just because he'd eaten something tasty, or who'd go out of his way to memorize the restaurant's address.
Pei Qian silently thanked him from the bottom of his heart—for sparing his life, metaphorically speaking.
It seemed that Mingyun Private Kitchen's secret was still safe… for now.
Just as he was about to put his phone away—ding!
A new Weibo notification popped up.
"Found the location! Just asked my assistant—luckily, he noted it down before we left! [Location: Jingzhou City – Mingyun Villa Estate]"
Pffft!
Pei Qian almost coughed up blood.
It was over. Completely over!
Zhang Zutting hadn't remembered the location—but his assistant had!
Looking back on it, Pei Qian suddenly recalled how that little assistant's eyes had practically popped out of his head when he saw the feast laid out on the table—especially that giant king crab.
Pei Qian hadn't thought much of it at the time; he'd just told the guy not to take photos.
But of course, the assistant must have secretly saved the address!
Within moments, the comments under the new Weibo post exploded.
"Mingyun Villa Estate? Yeah, that's pretty remote. Thanks for the recommendation, Uncle Zhang—might drive over and check it out sometime."
"Damn, that's far. Gotta drive at least an hour to get there."
"Is it really that good? Uncle Zhang's never this generous with praise! Someone go try it out! If it's worth it, I'll book a flight to Jingzhou just to eat there. Also—what's fun to do in Jingzhou anyway?"
Pei Qian stared blankly at the screen.
The first post hadn't been so bad—most people had focused on the "business collaboration" part.
But this one?
This one was purely about the location of Mingyun Private Kitchen!
Way too obvious!
Someone was definitely going to show up now!
Pei Qian scratched his head anxiously.
What should he do? Try to scare them off somehow?
No, that wouldn't work—being overtly hostile would just make people more curious.
"Calm down," he muttered to himself. "It's probably not that bad."
"Even if a few people come looking, it's fine. The place is so expensive that most folks can't afford to eat there anyway."
"Zhang Zutting's last Weibo post only got around four thousand likes, and his fans are spread all over the country. Even if a handful actually find Mingyun Private Kitchen, there can't be more than a few dozen—and not all of them will be willing to pay that much."
"Yeah… Mingyun Private Kitchen loses so much money every month, a few customers won't make a difference."
After the initial panic, Pei Qian calmed down again.
It really wasn't the end of the world.
Mingyun Private Kitchen had several layers of defense: it was far away, incredibly pricey, and all the rare ingredients had to be reserved in advance.
For most people, those factors alone would be enough to keep them away.
Still, he couldn't just sit around and do nothing.
After thinking it over, Pei Qian decided to give Chef Lin a call.
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