Chen Mo drove over and had just stopped, ready to remove the hook, because this spot by the roadside was actually quite spacious and there weren't any other commercial activities around. He didn't intend to put the front of the truck back into the parking lot.

Just as he removed the hook and turned back to the food truck, he spotted a dozen tattooed hulks heading his way, exuding an air of arrogance. Even the head honchos of Tongluowan didn't seem as full of themselves.

"Activate anti-invasion electric shock and neurotoxin features."

[Sure thing, Master! / Demon]

Chen Mo: "... Do you even have expressions now?"

[Yes, Master! / Demon]

Every time these protection functions were activated, the food truck seemed slightly excited. He didn't know if it was just his imagination.

With these two features on, Chen Mo felt fearless. As long as he stayed on the food truck, no one could harm him or the truck.

"Boss."

Chen Mo looked up to see one of the big men lifting his chin and looking at him with a provocative gaze, "Hmm."

"One, two, three, four, five... there's twelve of us. Could you please get us twelve cups of free hot water?"

As expected, they were here to cause trouble.

Coming up to order without even asking what's available, demanding hot water right away, and in such numbers; they could only be here to stir things up.

Although Chen Mo didn't know what the issue was, since he was here to do business, he needed to be courteous before taking action. He smiled politely and said, "Sorry, the food truck doesn't provide hot water."

The leader, Ma Juntao, paused for a moment.

He figured it was just as Boss Cao had said; this food truck was indeed here to make trouble and wouldn't provide hot water. But it wasn't a big issue, as the boss had instructed that if they didn't provide hot water, they should just order the cheapest item and sit down.

Ma Juntao asked, "What do you have here then?"

Chen Mo pointed at the menu, signaling him to take a look himself.

Ma Juntao wasn't highly educated and slowly read aloud as he glanced through.

"Chen Mo's Beef Noodles, 58 Yuan per serving. Chen Mo's T-Bone Beef Noodles, 88 Yuan per serving? Holy crap, Chen Mo's Tomahawk Beef Noodles, 128 Yuan per serving? Boss, why don't you just rob people? Over at the night market, Lanzhou Beef Noodles are only 8 Yuan a bowl!"

Reading through the menu, Ma Juntao even forgot why he was there in the first place.

Because suddenly he wasn't worried anymore.

Those Sister Fu and the gym members might have money, sure, but they weren't fools.

Who comes out at night to spend dozens on a beef noodle bowl? Isn't that ridiculous?

"That's the price. Take it or leave it?" Since they were there to cause trouble, Chen Mo wasn't in the mood for niceties.

"Eat, of course, we'll eat!" Ma Juntao retorted with a smug tilt of his chin, "Then give us twelve bowls of the 58-yuan beef noodles!"

Cao Tianrui had been watching from the gym behind, and couldn't help but twitch at the corner of his mouth, the earphones transmitting the happenings clearly back to him.

"Ma Juntao, you bastard, you have no qualms when it's not your money, huh!"

At 58 Yuan each, twelve servings were quite a bit!

But luckily, Cao Tianrui thought, it was just this once. Solve it today in one go, and it would be a relief afterward. He continued to watch by the door, listening to the commotion through his earphones.

Here, Chen Mo genuinely found it amusing.

The stall hadn't even opened yet, and there were already people trying to make trouble.

If you're going to make trouble, fine, but to even spend money doing it, whatever their deal was, Chen Mo thought whoever came up with this plan was truly a genius!

"Please wait."

Seeing that they didn't mean to get physical, Chen Mo set up his three tables and stools outside the truck.

Not too few, not too many, four stools for each table, perfectly seating the twelve hulking men.

Ma Juntao chuckled foolishly, "This feels like it was specially prepared for us, fits us perfectly!"

Pan Siyu, a fellow coach, also laughed foolishly, "That's our boss, predicting their every move!"

It was a small flatter, but it pleased Cao Tianrui immensely back in the gym.

Since it was just regular beef steaks, it made things much simpler.

Chen Mo set up a barbecue grill he bought from the supermarket in place of the stove on the food truck; the two-meter-long grill sat perfectly in place.

Then he placed a pre-burned charcoal brazier from the cabinet, using tongs to arrange the charcoal pieces in the grill.

The operation left Ma Juntao stunned, "Weren't we talking about beef noodles, why are you grilling now?"

Pan Siyu also felt puzzled, but since the boss was still listening, he forced out, "He's probably selling some barbecue besides the beef noodles. If you ask me, those beef noodles are likely a charity meal for sanitation workers, and the barbecue is just a side income or something."

The explanation wasn't unreasonable, and the twelve continued to watch Chen Mo busying around in boredom.

After prepping the charcoal, Chen Mo took out 12 pieces of steak from the cabinet.

The pre-cut steaks were neatly arranged, almost the same size. He laid each one on a grid wire rack.

Then!

He fanned away the ash on the surface of the charcoal, exposing the bright flames before placing the wire rack with the steaks onto the grill!

[The key to grilling steak is using high heat to slightly scorch the surface for the Maillard reaction to occur.]

The steaks began to sizzle as soon as they hit the grill. Chen Mo paid it no mind, belonging to lazy-man steak, only requiring two minutes of grilling on each side before the next step.

While the steaks were grilling, Chen Mo placed a black pot with water on the stove and boiled it.

He took out a large plate of round noodle dough from the cabinet and loaded it into a handheld pasta press.

Buzz...

The pasta press started, extruding round noodles that naturally fell into the boiling water; once the pressing was done, a deft black blade in his hand sliced through the strands, dropping all noodles into the water.

"Grilled steak, boiled noodles, so steak plus noodles equals beef noodles?" After watching for a while, Ma Juntao suddenly realized, "Damn, if that's the case, 58 Yuan isn't that overpriced!"

Pan Siyu threw him a fierce look and pointed at his phone that was still on a call, signaling him not to say such things, then immediately cut in, "Whether it's overpriced or not doesn't matter to us. We just ordered a bowl of noodles to sit here, not eat, just sit and it's done."

Ma Juntao smirked, one corner of his mouth slightly uplifted, "True enough."

But for some reason.

As Chen Mo flipped the wire rack over, and the aroma of grilled beef spread in the air along with the sizzling sound of the meat on the grill, it truly did stir a bit of hunger.

Ma Juntao swallowed hard and couldn't help but turn his head to watch.

Only to see the small boss scraping the red-hot charcoal to one side of the grill and adding in some almost burnt-out charcoal, placing the steaks over this heat.

Then he fished out the boiled noodles, running them through cold water, and poured the water from the black pot into a large basin nearby.

"What's that black stuff?" Ma Juntao asked.

Pan Siyu squinted to take a closer look, "Looks like some sauce? Probably a condiment."

Chen Mo scooped three big spoonfuls of beef sauce from a large jar without any hesitation, adding it all into the black pot.

The simmering beef sauce went into the pot; as the temperature was still low, the minced beef clustered together, while the oil quickly spread out to the edges.

Ignite the fire, mix in the noodles!

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