48 Hours a Day

Chapter 357 More Shacha Sauce In My Kway Teow

There were only less than 30 hours left until Evil Scientist opened the space portal.

Zhang Heng and his team had come up to the Shangxiajiu Commercial Pedestrian Streets. Located in Liwan District, a traditional business district in old Guangzhou, it stretched more than 300 meters. Featuring a whopping 300 shops offering a variety of food and merchandise, the place was always jam-packed with tourists from all corners of the world.

“How did you know he’s here? We’ve been suspecting that he must have plotted something after Vandal King disappeared. We even gathered a team to search for him, but unfortunately, we found nobody. His face is usually covered when he commits crimes, and no one has seen how he really looks. He’s even more difficult to identify now, considering such a long time has passed,” said the bald man.

“The reason why you can’t find him is that someone has been misleading you,” Zhang Heng chipped in.

When Zhang Heng entered the parallel dungeon, Vandal King had already disappeared for more than two years, and the master builders never stopped looking for him. He too participated in the search, and unlike the others, got some useful information, eventually discovering the whereabouts of Vandal King. However, since Vandal King had nothing to do with his main quest, Zhang Heng didn’t pursue the matter further.

Four years had passed since that time, and Zhang Heng was unsure if he was still there, so he searched for the location with his mobile phone in the KTV.

“Misleading us, what do you mean?” the waiter scratched his head as he walked over to Flame Girl. Then, he saw a figure not far away, and immediately, his eyes lit up, “Ha, isn’t that Flame Girl?! Wow! I haven’t seen her for a long time. Since Vandal King disappeared, she applied for retirement as well. I can’t tell you how happy I am to see these old faces again. Maybe we should ask her to come out of retirement and fight Evil Scientist with us. I still remember how her flames were so powerful, they disintegrated everything in this world.”

The five were outside the Chaoshan Kway Teow shop. The woman known as Flame Girl was busy wiping a table, not bothering to turn around even after hearing footsteps behind her.

“Come, sit, what would you like to eat?”

“Hi, Flame Girl, I didn’t know that you worked here. We are in trouble. Evil Scientist wants to destroy the city. We need your help. I’d also like a bowl of beef kway teow. Guess I’ll be hungry soon.”

The waiter grabbed a stool and sat down.

The somewhat familiar name shocked the woman who was wiping the table. This time, she finally turned around. “Demon Butcher?” she gasped.

“And me…” the bald man came over, “Long time no see, old friend.”

“Sorry, who are you?” Flame Girl frowned.

The bald man covered the hairless part of his head with his palm.

“Oh, it’s you, the guy who’s been stalking Candy Baby! You need to improve your ability to pick gifts! How could a man give a girl Sophie as a gift?” “No, you got the wrong person. I’m just an ordinary passer-by watching the show,” the bald man said solemnly. “I was just about to introduce these two people beside me. They are the chosen ones, and the one who doesn’t speak is Messenger.”

“Well, what brings you here?” Flame Girl asked as she put away the rags in her hand. “As I said, we need your help…” the waiter continued. “…and, can you put more Shacha sauce in my kway teow?”

“Sorry I can’t help you. As you can see, I am no longer a master builder. Now, I am an ordinary self-employed worker… and there is nothing wrong with the kway teow,” Flame Girl shrugged.

“Actually, we are not here for you,” said Zhang Heng.

“What do you mean? Who else should we look for if our target isn’t her?!” the bald man asked.

Zhang Heng looked toward Flame Girl. “Aren’t you going to ask the chef to come out and meet us?” he asked.

Flame Girl’s face changed slightly the moment she heard that.

“Who did you want to meet again? I think you got the wrong person.”

As soon as she said that, though, the chef emerged from the kitchen.

“Ah Kang isn’t back yet. Want me to pick him up? …hey, we have customers.”

“Vandal King, I have wanted to meet you for a long time,” Zhang Heng said.

“Who? Vandal King… is here too?!” The bald man looked around curiously, but he didn’t see anyone that would interest him in the kway teow shop. After a while, his eyes finally moved to the plump white man in front of him.

“No way, you are saying that this guy is the Vandal King?! Impossible, this is the man who gave all the master builders so much trouble and terrified everyone in the whole city? He looks too, err… ordinary!”

“Ha! It’s been a long time since someone called me by that name,” the fat chef scratched his head, automatically admitting to his true identity. “I was ignorant when I was young, and I wanted to be famous. To gain the attention of those around me, I didn’t hesitate to turn myself into a public enemy. I also know that I caused you guys a lot of trouble, but after I got married, I finally understood what a man’s responsibility is supposed to be, especially after Flame Girl gave birth to our first child. We rented this shop and started this kway teow restaurant. Don’t worry; these years have truly reformed me. I haven’t opened a roll of tape for a very long time. In fact, I almost forgot how to open it, haha!”

The waiter looked on in disbelief, shocked when he heard the Vandal King.

“This can’t be good. This time, we are here to ask your help in dismantling something! Evil Scientist has built an army of bionics, and he’ll destroy the world in 28 hours. We can’t stop him with the few of us here… We need your help to destroy Evil Scientist!”

“Well… back then, I was really good at dismantling things. No one could do it better than me, but now, I am just an ordinary cook in a kway teow shop. I can’t do what I used to anymore.”

In an attempt to prove his claims, Vandal King deliberately picked up a small bench beside him. Three minutes had passed, and he couldn’t even remove the stool’s leg. Everyone present clearly saw that he wasn’t putting up an act. Even after trying really hard, he failed the task in the end. It was a shocking outcome, a deterioration of skills that had never been seen before this.

“Look, it’s not that I don’t want to help you guys, but I’ve lost my ability! If it is possible, I wish to make up for my mistakes and contribute to saving the world, but I am sorry, I’m not the person you’re looking for anymore. When one loses something, he gains something back too. Although I have lost my amazing dismantling ability, I have acquired excellent cooking skills. You must try my kway teow. I’m not bragging, but this is probably the best kway teow within ten-miles. Since you are all old friends of Flame Girl, how does a 50% discount sound? I will only charge fifty RMB for all five of you. I’ll even throw in two beef meatballs each. I guarantee they are so springy that your mouth will tingle!”

Footnote:

Kway teow: Char Kuay Teow is a popular noodle dish from Maritime Southeast Asia, notably in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei. In Hokkien, Char means “stir-fried” and kway teow refers to flat rice noodles.