Chapter 201: Chapter 201: A Genius

Countless netizens voiced their agreement!

This was especially true for the diners who had eaten at Nan Family’s Small Restaurant before. Compared to Qi Pei’er, their reactions were even more intense.

They now understood what it meant for food to taste like sawdust, what it meant to lose all interest in other delicacies, what it meant for nothing else to ever compare...

Who would have thought they’d be so utterly captivated by a tiny, homestyle diner?

Not even restaurants listed in the Gourmet Record, which cost over a thousand yuan per person, could make up for the regret of not being able to eat at Nan Family’s Small Restaurant!

So, if Nan Zhi really opened a small restaurant in the mountains of Guisheng Province, backed by vast mountain ranges, using fresh, pollution-free local ingredients, surrounded by picturesque scenery like a natural oxygen bar...

Hey! You know what?

That’s actually a great business opportunity!

Wealthy foodies with time on their hands would definitely flock there in droves, flying thousands of miles just for a meal!

Then, she could use the opportunity to build a national reputation, gradually expand her fame, attract tourists from all over the country, boost local tourism, launch a chain, and grow the brand into a powerhouse...

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the script Nan Zhi was given.

Her role was that of a volunteer teacher in the mountains, destined to shine in the field of education.

Not in the culinary world.

[So in the end, it’s still the production team’s fault for being so cruel!]

[Nan Zhi dabbles in every profession except the one we want her in: a chef!]

[What? You guys just made all that up? I already bought my ticket to fly to Guisheng Province for a meal!]

[Caught a live one! A filthy rich person!]

[No! If I can’t have it, nobody can! We’ll all suffer from these cravings together!]

[That’s so vicious of you! But I’m with you, hehe!]

...

The serving buckets had been scraped clean, without a single drop of grease left.

Seeing the entire cafeteria immersed in the joy brought by the food, with almost no one speaking, Nan Zhi felt a deep sense of satisfaction.

No chef would dislike seeing such a scene.

However, someone next to her was clearly even happier than she was!

Teacher Zhang’s face, weathered by years of hardship and toil, was covered in wrinkles despite her being only in her fifties, giving her a somewhat sorrowful first impression.

But now, subtle joy and contentment filled those wrinkles, making her glow from the inside out!

Her affectionate gaze swept across the cafeteria inch by inch. She wanted to express her feelings but was too emotional to know where to begin.

After a long moment, Teacher Zhang couldn’t help but say:

"Teacher Nan, could I trouble you with something?"

"Please, go ahead."

"Please teach me a few more dishes! I want to see the children smile like this every day!"

Not the kind of happiness they forced just to comfort her, but real joy and real smiles!

Nan Zhi paused for a moment, then nodded.

"Okay."

-

The village school let out at 4:30 PM, generally earlier than schools in the city.

The reason was that many students lived far away and had to walk home, a journey that could take half an hour on its own.

After getting home, they not only had to do their homework but also had to share chores—laundry, cleaning, cooking...

As the saying goes, the children of the poor learn to manage the household early. Carefree playtime after school was a luxury they didn’t have.

At that moment, Nan Zhi and Qi Pei’er were standing at the gate with Teacher Zhang and the others, watching the children leave.

Watching them skip and jump, they showed no signs of the gloominess or frustration that might come from shouldering heavy burdens so early. Instead, they still possessed the innocence and vibrant energy unique to children.

Perhaps, in a way, pitying them was its own form of arrogance.

It was because Nan Zhi and Qi Pei’er realized this that they refrained from making any careless comments from beginning to end.

With the proper demeanor of new teachers, they smilingly saw off the last student.

Oh, wait.

They still had two new "transfer students" with them.

When Qi Pei’er turned and went back to the teachers’ office, she wasn’t surprised at all to see her darling nephew sprawled on a desk, fast asleep.

As she got closer, she saw Qi Zhang’s mouth hanging wide open, drool trickling from the corner. It was blocked, however, by a workbook someone had placed under his cheek.

"Hmm?"

Qi Pei’er was puzzled.

Sitting next to Qi Zhang, Nan Yi, who had been engrossed in his homework, lifted his head and explained matter-of-factly:

"I put it there, so he wouldn’t get the desk dirty."

"Ah? Ah! Oh, oh! Good, good, good!"

Qi Pei’er blinked hard a couple of times, her gaze finally landing on the workbook in front of Nan Yi.

’A preschooler doing elementary school homework... Did Nan Yi actually manage to do it?’

She was incredibly curious!

"Um..."

Qi Pei’er’s question was cut short by Nan Yi, who spoke first:

"Where’s my mom?"

"Oh! She’s at the door talking with Teacher Zhang! Hey, she’s coming in right now... Yiyi?"

Qi Pei’er looked left and right, only to realize that the moment Nan Zhi had stepped through the door, Nan Yi had dropped his pencil and scurried over with a TAP-TAP-TAP of his feet.

Just standard procedure for a mama’s boy. Qi Pei’er was already used to it.

She was more curious about what Nan Yi had written in his workbook, so she leaned in for a closer look.

She hadn’t expected much, but one look gave her a shock—

Because his wrist strength wasn’t developed yet, his handwriting was a bit immature and crooked.

But it was clear that the writer was very serious, trying to make every single stroke as neat as possible.

This made the whole page look clear and clean, with almost no signs of corrections.

Hmm, how to put it...

In Qi Pei’er’s eyes, it just screamed "straight-A student"!

"Jeez. Yiyi, did you just write all this?"

Qi Pei’er couldn’t help but blurt it out.

As it turned out, her question attracted the attention of Teacher Xiao Lin, who was standing behind Nan Zhi.

"What? Did Nan Yi do his homework?"

As Nan Yi and Qi Zhang’s temporary homeroom teacher, Teacher Xiao Lin had assigned them homework, but she hadn’t actually expected either of them to do it.

At most, she saw the two kids as part of the "ambiance crew" and never called on them during class.

’But Nan Yi didn’t just toss the workbook aside—he actually did it diligently?’

Teacher Xiao Lin cheerfully leaned in for a look.

She had already prepared herself, thinking that no matter if Nan Yi had just scribbled all over the workbook, she would still praise him generously.

’Attitude is more important than results, after all!’

...And then she was dumbfounded.

"Th-this was written by Nan Yi?"

Because it was for the lower grades, the homework wasn’t very difficult.

But that didn’t mean a preschooler could complete it so easily!

Moreover, when Teacher Xiao Lin scanned the page, the accuracy rate was as high as 80%!

The remaining 20% wasn’t wrong—it just needed to be checked against an answer key!

Qi Pei’er had been just as surprised at first.

But seeing Teacher Xiao Lin’s stunned expression, she quickly hid her own surprise and changed her tune:

"That’s right, our Yiyi wrote it. He’s a genius! We all know that!"

Her bragging was a little loud, and it woke up her own darling nephew.

Qi Zhang groggily sat up.

"Is it time to eat, Auntie...?"

Qi Pei’er’s pride instantly turned into exasperation.

Nan Zhi walked over, holding Nan Yi’s hand, and said modestly:

"He’s not a genius. Yiyi is just very diligent. He loves to read at home, so he naturally started to recognize more and more characters..."

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