Chapter Thirty-Nine: The Rise of a New Power

A new order has emerged on the old street!

The traditional faction, once led by Zhao Gang, has been swiftly replaced by a new power under Li Can’s command. The shift between these two was accomplished in little more than two days—a development as astonishing as it is lamentable.

When the restaurant owners publicly declared their allegiance and the onlookers stepped into the eatery, Zhao Gang knew the tide had turned against him. Crestfallen, he left with his staff in tow.

Yet, the words he left behind were not easily forgotten: “Enjoy your laughter while you can, before you’re left with no chance even to cry.”

Of course, Li Can paid no heed to this; he saw it merely as the last act of a defeated man clinging to dignity.

It was, after all, unrealistic to drive Zhao Gang from the old street immediately—he still held sway with certain people, and Old Shen the chef at Fiery Kitchen relied heavily on him.

But even if Zhao Gang was untouchable for now, Li Can was untroubled. He had promised to see Zhao Gang gone, and every element needed for that outcome had just been set in motion.

He would dismantle Zhao Gang’s support and isolate him; bolster the confidence of the restaurant owners; and provide the locals with a replacement for the Fiery Kitchen, soothing their worries for the future.

Thus, as the reputation of Li Can’s Little Neighbor Kitchen soared, Fiery Kitchen’s business would only decline. In time, even if Li Can refrained from forcing Zhao Gang out, Old Shen would take matters into his own hands for the sake of the restaurant’s survival.

As for sharing his culinary expertise, Li Can wasn’t joking. As his restaurant’s fame spread, customers would overflow, and a single establishment would no longer suffice. He needed the other restaurants on the street to absorb some of the crowd, offering alternatives for those left in the queue—so no one would wait in vain and resources wouldn’t be wasted.

So when he spoke of preventing the loss of customers, he did not mean the local residents but rather the influx of outsiders.

Besides Li Can, no one else would have dared imagine such possibilities—not in the slightest.

“Li Can, my friend, could I have a word with you?”

Among the group of owners who lingered, one surnamed Ma gestured subtly to the dense line at the restaurant door, as if wanting to speak in private.

The shift in their address made it clear: they now regarded Li Can as a peer, perhaps even with a touch of deference.

This newfound respect stemmed, of course, from awe at Li Can’s culinary skills.

He did not refuse, stepping aside with Ma toward the roadside.

After Zhao Gang’s departure, the owners quickly introduced themselves, though what surprised Li Can was their names: besides Ma, there were Zhu, Liu, Yang, and Ji. Collectively, their surnames spelled out Pig, Horse, Ox, Sheep, and Chicken.

“Is it about cooking?” Li Can asked.

“Oh, no, we know how busy you are today—you wouldn’t have time to guide us,” Ma replied hastily, fearing a sign of impatience.

Now that they’d broken with Zhao Gang, they needed to cling tightly to this new pillar.

“Then what is it?” Li Can looked at the others, sensing their hesitance.

Ma glanced around, then lowered his voice. “Li Can, we just wanted to warn you—Zhao Gang’s parting words weren’t a joke. You need to be careful these days.”

“Oh?” Li Can’s brow furrowed. “Do you know something?”

The five owners nodded solemnly. Liu leaned in. “You remember the man in the baseball cap last night?”

At this, an awkward silence fell. Of course he remembered—they’d nearly come to blows!

“Naturally,” Li Can replied, suppressing a smile.

Ma cleared his throat. “Zhao Gang claims that man is a fugitive.”

“A fugitive?”

“That’s right. From how he and Zhao Gang spoke, they seemed close,” Ma said worriedly. “You had a conflict with him last night. Knowing Zhao Gang’s petty nature, he might fan the flames. So…”

“If he’s a fugitive, why not call the police?” Li Can asked.

“We…” Ma stammered, “the guy’s a drifter, even Zhao Gang can’t track him down. If the police come up empty, won’t we be in danger?”

Li Can understood their concerns—fear of retaliation was only natural.

“All right, I get it,” he said, then turned to help in the restaurant.

“Did he really grasp what we were trying to tell him?”

“I’m not sure…”

“He didn’t seem the least bit concerned.”

“Does he think that Eagle held back last night out of fear?”

“But Eagle’s a lawless fugitive! He didn’t fight back because there were too many witnesses—it wasn’t safe to cause a scene.”

“No, we need to make things clearer—Li Can must understand just how serious this is.”

With that, the owners hurried after him.

…

While the owners were consumed by worry, at Lakeside Park three hundred meters from the street’s end, Tanya sat alone on a bench, staring at an empty water bottle, lost in thought after finishing her livestream.

This was the very bench where Li Can and Azure once sat.

“That special, atypical secret sauce was so spicy—I ate three bowls of rice and drank two bottles of water before I could recover. But it was so delicious! If only I had more money in my account, I’d have ordered another helping.”

She dabbed her forehead with a tissue. Though slick with sweat, her skin felt cool and her pores seemed to breathe—utterly refreshing.

Even her perennial sinusitis hadn’t acted up.

“A hot soup that tastes like autumn’s coolness, and a chilled secret sauce that burns like summer’s heat—what a magical culinary journey.”

She opened her livestream app and checked the backend. The numbers were staggering, even surpassing her previous broadcasts at Royal Court Cuisine.

“What made it so popular? Was the live content’s unexpected twists what drew the viewers?”

“Or was my messy way of eating just so funny it went viral?”

Tanya suspected the first reason, but could not be sure.

She opened her chat app; her fan group had over nine hundred ninety-nine new messages, with more flooding in.

“Tanya, a ton of people just applied to join the group—everyone’s asking for the exact address of Little Neighbor Kitchen. Please post it in the announcements, the admins are overwhelmed.”

This message made Tanya realize that neither of her earlier guesses were correct. The real reason for the surge was simple: viewers, watching the livestream, felt irresistibly drawn by the food.

Nothing more.

After updating the announcement, Tanya took a deep breath. She’d be coming here often from now on.

After all, the beautiful lady owner had said the menu would change every day!

Her instincts told her—this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

It had arrived.

(To be continued...)