Luo Binghe was already waiting for the four of them downstairs, and they went to Purgatory together. They sat on the same table they were using the last time, and the food started to come out in abundance, with a lot of meat and some vegetarian dishes and homemade bread. They ordered drinks-draft beer for all of them and tea for Xie Lian- and then they started to make a light conversation, before Wei Wuxian noticed that there was something going on at the back of the kitchen, so he excused himself to the guys.

"Excuse me, but I need to check on Qiuqiu. I think something happened." Without waiting for their answers, he went to the private area at the back of the kitchen where Shen Qingqiu looked visibly distressed, with his brows furrowed together, and most of the senior kitchen hands were nowhere to be seen-leaving only the juniors.

Shen Qingqiu didn't even see him approach until he was near and touched his shoulder.

"What happened?"

Shen Qingqiu almost jumped from the surprise, but then he remembered that Wei Wuxian offered the three-times-daily-meal to their hot neighbors, and he rolled his eyes.

"Nothing that I can't handle. Go sit with your hot neighbors, I'll bring out the food soon." He waved his hand dismissively, but Wei Wuxian didn't buy it. He turned to the younger one who stood in front of Shen Qingqiu with some kind of frown on his handsome face.

"You, Xue Yang isn't it? Spill." Wei Wuxian took a stool and turned it around before he sat on it-waiting for the young chef to speak.

"I told you that everything is..." Shen Qingqiu tried to wave Wei Wuxian's concern, but the young chef-Xue Yang-suddenly spoke.

"The sous chef took the senior chefs out around an hour ago." He blurted the words out-as if afraid that somehow Shen Qingqiu would stop him if he was a tad slower.

"Sous chef... Xiao Xingchen?" Wei Wuxian frowned.

Xiao Xingchen was a good chef and he had worked for him for almost two years. He was a capable and steady person to balance Shen Qingqiu's temper. He wouldn't have thought that the man would do something like this.

"Yes. He received a call and then he became very pale, and he gathered the senior chefs while the Head Chef was still preparing the..."

"Be quiet, Xue Yang." Shen Qingqiu clenched his teeth in frustration. This was all his fault, if he was not so immersed in those hot neighbors which caused his head to get in the cloud, this was not supposed to happen.

"But, Chef Shen..." Xue Yang stopped his words when Shen Qingqiu raised his hand to stop him.

"I said, I will handle it. You don't have to worry about this." He directed the last part to Wei Wuxian, but the latter rolled up his sleeve and tied his hair back in a high ponytail.

"Nonsense." Wei Wuxian then looked at Xue Yang. "Tell me, what do we have to do for today."

"We have a private banquet this afternoon for one hundred people, and we need to prepare ten kinds of hors d'oeuvres, so a total of one thousand pieces." Xue Yang quickly answered before Shen Qingqiu kicked him out of the kitchen for defying his order.

Xue Yang liked Shen Qingqiu, and he didn't want him to get in trouble because his pride would not let him tell Wei Wuxian about the dire situation they were in. In his opinion, they should tell Wei Wuxian so he could help, not hiding the truth about the sous chef.

"Okay, I will help you with the hors d'oeuvres, and Xue Yang, close the bar now. Apologize that we couldn't operate today and tell them tomorrow we will give one free drink to everyone for lunch."

Xue Yang nodded and dashed out to inform the bartender and the other servers to close the place for the day.

"Now, give me the run down and the recipe. And don't pout, you do know I still own half of this place, right? It's my responsibility too if something like this happens."

"I just don't want you to see me as an incompetent, especially after the chef that I hired suddenly took off without warning, brought the senior chefs with him, and left us in a ditch. I wonder what's on that fucker's mind." Shen Qingqiu started to weigh the flour, butter, and put them all inside the industrial mixer to make the pastry base for the hors d'oeuvres.

"Well, I approved him too, so did that make me incompetent as well?" Wei Wuxian chuckled. "Don't worry, this will be like when we first start opening our restaurant, only the two of us and two helpers. And we survived it all! We should be lucky we still have, like," Wei Wuxian counted the junior chefs that were left, and got 4 others, aside from Xue Yang, "a total of five junior chefs. Easy peasy, bro."

Shen Qingqiu only nodded without saying a word, but Wei Wuxian swore he could see the man clean his nose and wipe his eyes. Even though Shen Qingqiu looked and sounded like a tyrant, he was such a softie, and that's why Wei Wuxian and Xie Lian loved him.

Wei Wuxian started to make the base for his secret sauce when he heard Xue Yang come back into the kitchen. But he didn't turn around to speak with him.

"Eh, Xue Yang, I almost forgot to tell you, would you mind telling my lunch companions that I had something urgent to do and couldn't be with them at the moment? And please ask Xie Lian to come here too."

"Xie Lian is already here." Wei Wuxian heard Xue Yang speak in a formal tone and he cleared his throat before continuing. "And also your lunch companions."

Lan Wangji couldn't help but wonder when he saw Wei Wuxian's face suddenly become very serious and he excused himself to go to the kitchen. After a while, he saw a young man come out and whisper something in the bartender's ears and then the latter started to close the tabs and signaled one of the waiters to pull up the close sign.

He noticed that Xie Lian also noticed the strange situation, so when he stood up to go check on the kitchen, Lan Wangji followed-and so did his two cousins.

They entered right when Wei Wuxian was talking to the young man that was just running around, and Lan Wangji noticed that the kitchen was actually very scarce, compared to the size. There were only a few young chefs there and he was wondering what happened.

The young chef was surprised to see the three men who followed Xie Lian, but he quickly gained his composure and cleared his throat before he announced their arrival to Wei Wuxian like some kind of Royal Announcer.

"Xie Lian is already here." He cleared his throat again before he continued. "And also your lunch companions."