The employees were instantly speechless—indeed, the reputation of Mingde’s restaurant was not just good; it was much better than their own.

Liu’s representative, feeling caught off guard, quickly tried to fix his statement, “What I mean is, they should focus on improving their own skills more. In this industry, it’s not just about money; you need awards to back you up.”

The employees then continued to praise him.

“Yes, yes, Mr. Liu, you’re the bronze medalist in the national competition for two years running.”

“Without your solid skills, how could you make the chefs in your company respect you?”

“Many people came to your company because of your reputation. We are unique in Xinghe!”

They were all chefs who had come with Liu to Shenzhen for the program’s promotional photoshoot.

Since Xinghe couldn’t contribute much to the publicity, Liu made a lot of effort to steal the limelight and brought nearly every chef from his company.

As a result, the number of chefs was considerable, even surpassing many of their competitors in the restaurant chain business.

In the food industry, chefs are wealth. Being able to mobilize so many chefs at once was undoubtedly an impressive achievement.

Liu was in a good mood when he heard a commotion outside the makeup room. He turned around to see a crowd of people.

This caused him to be momentarily stunned, but then he forced a smile, “President Jin.”

Jin Yaotiao glanced at him, noticing that he was the one who had been badmouthing her behind her back while smiling to her face. Immediately, she lost interest.

Many other representatives who were there to take photos with the program also noticed her, and some of the people she brought were shocked: “Why did President Jin bring so many people? Doesn’t Mingde’s restaurant need to operate today?”

Jin Yaojiao realized she had brought too many people and explained, “These are all chefs who haven’t yet worked at the restaurant. The program team said we could bring chefs from each representative’s company for the photoshoot, and since they had nothing to do, I brought them along.”

Upon hearing this, everyone showed expressions of envy—Mingde was truly an industry dark horse. Just look at how many talented people they had on hand.

Inside the makeup room, Liu’s face froze.

Then, he heard an old chef outside exclaim in surprise, “Master Ma, you’re here too?”

Liu’s ears pricked up.

The name sounded familiar, and then he heard the familiar voice. Laughing, he replied, “We are working at Mingde now. Since everyone is here, we have nothing to do, so we just came with President Jin to join the fun.”

It was really them!

The old chef outside laughed, “Wow, you guys, gold medalists in the national competition, silver medalists in the national competition, and we’ve all competed together. It feels so grand to see you all standing here. Looks like things are going well at Mingde?”

The other chefs sighed, “Better than anywhere else. Mingde is the best.”

The old chef continued, “That’s good. After we’re done here, how about we have a gathering?”

It seemed that Mingde treated these famous chefs like gods, letting them take the time to do a photoshoot for the restaurant’s opening.

Some of the chefs who had been in the competition spotted their old acquaintances and waved goodbye with a smile, saying, “It’s a workday, we have to get back to the company canteen after the photoshoot, we’ll talk more on our day off.”

The company’s training department had been running smoothly, and now they mainly taught future employees at Mingde’s branch stores.

The pay was high, with future bonuses, and they didn’t have to work themselves to death like before, but they still had to guide the daily tasks.

As the second chef and others left, the chefs who had stayed behind were stunned.

After a while, discussions broke out:

“Master Ma and the others, they’ve won quite a few awards, but now they’re working at Mingde’s canteen?”

Everyone exchanged looks.

And judging by what Master Ma had said, they seemed quite happy working there.

Inside the makeup room, Liu’s face drooped, looking completely dejected.

The makeup artist felt awkward and didn’t dare to look at him.

The chefs he had brought along shrank back like quails—Mingde was truly terrifying. Even a boss of such a level could only work in the company canteen there.

What about them?

In the days that followed, Jin Yaotiao noticed that the Liu representative, who used to smile at her insincerely, now avoided her and fled whenever he saw her.

She didn’t care to investigate what had happened, nor did she need to.

After the group was officially established, her workload increased.

The first priority was the severe shortage of personnel across the group’s sub-brands.

It was almost the end of the year, and recruiting a large number of job seekers in a short time was no easy task, especially when having to filter out many unsuitable resumes.

Jiang Bai had been busy with this recently, and she had been concerned as well.

Meanwhile, a set of promotional photos from the Shenzhen program unexpectedly went viral.

Domestic netizens quickly saw the pictures and shared them along with Jin Yaojiao’s fan club:

[Ahhhhh my President Jin is open for business!!!! What’s beauty? When you see the photos, you’ll understand!]

[No! The focus isn’t beauty! It’s aura! Get to know this domineering CEO!]

[Among all the green, the red stands out, and that red is the most powerful… as expected of the famous alpha…]

[Today’s another day I want to marry President Jin.]

Netizens saw that the pictures had been published by an official account of a food program, and the photos were just promotional shots of representatives from various cities.

They felt the fan club was being exaggerated.

Although Mingde was popular now, only a few people had joined the fan club since it started in the “Huaxia Delicacies” program.

Most people knew about Mingde but were unfamiliar with its managers.

All they knew was that there was a rare female vice president who was quite low-key.

So, for a vice president to have a fan club was… something worth commenting on.

However, when netizens clicked on the wildly shared photo, all their comments were swallowed by their surprise.

Among all the photos, one stood out—without a doubt, it was the most eye-catching one.

In the picture, Jin Yaotiao sat confidently in a large deep-red soft chair, with pale skin and black hair, her features delicate and sharp eyes staring directly at the camera.

The chefs she had brought stood behind her in neat, uniform attire, surrounding her.

The lighting on her made her sharpness and beauty stand out a hundredfold.

This image was the kind of focal point that would make anyone stop scrolling through their photos.

There was no heavy makeup or extravagant clothes, but she was still striking, so easily distinguishable from the usual female celebrities known for their beauty.

Because she was as composed as a general.

The tall subordinates surrounding her, along with the experienced colleagues, couldn’t overshadow her brilliance.

Netizens: “???????”

Has the standard for businesspeople gotten so high?

But it seemed quite natural for such a person to have a fan club…

And looking at this female CEO… it seemed like Mingde’s frozen food tasted even better now.

---

With the heat of the photos, more people became curious about Mingde’s background.

The young chefs behind her all exuded a sharp aura, and the second chefs in front had medals hanging on their chests. They all looked like tough characters.

The domestic netizens, known for their detective skills, were able to extract endless information from just the tassels and medals on the chefs’ robes.

They couldn’t help but marvel—Mingde indeed had a lot of talented people.

Some of the chefs in the photos even had a higher standing than some of the other big names in the same group, such as the representative from Xinghe City whose medal seemed to be much duller than theirs.

So, they couldn’t help but guess which branch of Mingde these chefs were from.

After some time, they were stunned to find that Mingde employees were celebrating online, posting their excitement about their boss leading the canteen chefs to the hot search.

[Ahhhhh our boss brought the canteen chefs to the hot search!!!!!!]

[Our boss is truly a king! Wherever she goes, that place is her kingdom!!!!]

[Boss, I love you! And a secret confession to Chef Tu on the left and Chef Ma on the right, your Eight-Treasure Roasted Goose and Smoked Horse Sausage are already making me excited for next week!]

[My favorite is Chef Liu on the right of Chef Ma! His Braised Abalone Rice is the best in the universe, besides our boss!]

Netizens: “?????”

Jin Yaotiao’s fan club fans: “?????”

Wait a minute, what’s with the ‘king’ title? The Tu Chef on the left of our boss… do you mean that chef who looks like expired black garlic?

He has a bronze medal!

The row on the right, silver and gold, even more numerous.

Why are they working in your canteen?

And Eight-Treasure Roasted Goose, Smoked Horse Sausage, Braised Abalone Rice… these should be in a canteen?

What kind of food do your employees even eat?!

Countless netizens, following the posts of Mingde employees, discovered a hidden treasure—Mingde’s canteen super-talk.

The canteen had its own super-talk…

Everyone joked and clicked to see.

They were immediately overwhelmed by photos of the most exquisite food.

---

The Mingde canteen super-talk became famous overnight.

The joy of the group’s official establishment was still fresh, and netizens watched in amazement as various dishes that were rare even in restaurants were shared—Eight-Treasure Crab, Beggar’s Chicken, Squirrel Fish, Stewed Donkey Meat, Fish Maw Chicken, Foie Gras Paste…

As they scrolled down…

Sometimes, there was a bowl-sized abalone!

Wouldn’t eating sea cucumbers in the middle of the day be a little excessive?

And roasted lamb, a huge one, steaming hot.

Fat, crispy-skinned, shining roasted suckling pig.

And so on.

It was enough to make anyone’s eyes pop. Full of shock, they couldn’t help but angrily shout:

Need employees?

Doesn’t matter if the pay is high or low.

In this cold winter.

Jin Yaotiao watched as endless resumes flooded in, leaning back in her office chair, a slow smile spreading across her face.