Chapter 623: A Flower on the Cliff (11)
Chapter 623: A Flower on the Cliff (11)
At most, the job interview for Lotus Bridge would require presenting their dishes at least once and undergoing a brief interview. In that respect, Gwen was indeed a candidate whose qualifications had been thoroughly vetted through the Grand Chef competition.
Gwen grinned and asked, “Am I a good candidate?”
“If you weren’t, I wouldn’t be here to see you.”
“Would Peter have been a better candidate?”
Even Kaya didn’t answer immediately. She glanced at Gwen with a displeased expression. Flinching under the sharp look, Gwen lowered her head.
Minjoon rested his hands on Kaya’s shoulders and said quietly, softly, “Gwen.”
“Yes?”
“I don’t care whether you’re better or worse than Peter. I’m not trying to pick the best person right now. I’m looking for the person who’s the best fit for us, and the one we can help grow the most,” he said, catching his breath. “I don’t think you’re perfect. Actually, as far as I know, there is no perfect chef. Everyone is striving to be perfect. And I think you have the will to do so. That’s why I want to help you. I want to walk this path with you.”
Gwen didn’t reply. Minjoon didn’t expect one.
After a brief silence, he said, “There is a flower on the cliff. It blooms between the crevices of the rocks, standing alone, with no other flowers around it. When I see it sway in the wind, I worry that it might wither in an instant. But when it is in full bloom, it disperses its pollen farther than any other flower.”
He then held out his hand. “I’ll help you, so you won’t wither.”
Gwen looked at his hand.
He added, “Blow your pollen far!”
What Minjoon said was, as always, a useless poetic metaphor.
She looked at him with a bewildered expression but couldn’t respond easily. It wasn’t because she hadn’t made up her mind, but because she was troubled by the way Kaya looked at him.
“Why do you keep trying to flirt with her?”
“Well, what I mean is—”
“Shut up. I’m not going to accept your excuses.”
“Got it…”
When Kaya glared fiercely, he lowered his head with a sullen look.
Gwen was dumbfounded—not by their informal conversation but because it struck her as strange that, to Kaya, he was nothing more than an ordinary or even immature boyfriend, while to her he was almost like a god of cooking.
When will I be able to be bossy like Kaya?
She wondered if someone would ever treat her that way, just as she looked at the couple with fresh energy. She thought it was possible. After all, she had advanced to the semi-finals. Even though she had only valued her victory up to this point, she felt fortunate just to reach the quarter-finals; she had never truly believed her cooking was worthy.
But she had won second place in the Grand Chef competition. She was more capable than she thought—even if it didn’t meet her initial expectations. She had great potential.
“Gwen?”
“…Pardon?”
“So, what will you do? Do you want to join us or not?”
“I already submitted the application. Since you gave me the go-ahead, I’ll join, of course.”
“You aren’t going to change your mind, right?”
Gwen made an awkward face at Kaya’s suspicious glance. Her answer far exceeded what Kaya expected. She wasn’t tactful; in other words, she didn’t know how to bluff like others. Her foolishness had pushed her to the brink, but looking back, it hadn’t been all bad because it forced her to stand up again.
“Thanks for accepting our offer, Gwen.”
Kaya extended her hand. Gwen carefully placed her hand in hers, only for Kaya to immediately clench it tightly.
“You are now part of the Lotus Bridge family.”
“Why did you accept me?”
“I already told you—we think you’re the best fit for us.”
“Even though I’m a drug addict?”
“You were a drug addict. But the Gwen I know isn’t one anymore. You’re an aspiring chef, Gwen. I don’t even want to care about what I don’t know about you.”
Gwen bit her lip. She wondered if Kaya and Minjoon thought of her too ideally, but she didn’t have the courage to argue. After all, they had created an ideal life by turning ideal ideas into action.
Suddenly, she thought of Jean Valjean. After spending nineteen years in prison for stealing bread, he returned to society only to steal silverware again—from the bishop’s cathedral, no less, even though the bishop had kindly offered him shelter.
What was he thinking when he stole the silverware? Maybe he was still angry about his harsh prison sentence for stealing bread to feed his nephews. He was a good man unfit for prison—the crime was not his but society’s and a cruel judge’s. Believing this, he must have tried to escape repeatedly, but each attempt prolonged his sentence until his confinement lasted nineteen years. Perhaps he cried alone many times, but no one would have understood that his anger and frustration were justified. People would have written him off as a madman refusing to admit his guilt.
When he emerged from his ordeal, the first thing he did was steal from the person who had shown him kindness. Why? Was it to shout to those who called him a thief: “I will be the thief you expect me to be”?
Having wasted nineteen years in prison for stealing a loaf, perhaps he thought he could at least steal a little more to pay the price for those years. Or maybe, branded a thief already, it was his duty to steal silverware to fit that image, fully resigned to his fate.
But Jean Valjean realised that only a thief like himself, not others, could justify stealing bread, for he was a born thief. If the bishop hadn’t told the inspector that the silverware was a gift, Valjean—dragged away and kneeling before the bishop—would have ended up imprisoned again and forced to live as a thief forever.
Many say it was the bishop who changed Jean Valjean’s life, but that’s only part of the story. Once freed by the bishop’s mercy and back on the streets, Valjean robbed a boy named Javert when no one was watching.
It was then Valjean came to his senses. Only then did he realise he was not good, but evil—he had turned the bishop’s kindness into malice and directed it at Petit Gervais. In the end, it was the fear of the evil inside him that awakened Jean Valjean, not gratitude for the bishop’s benevolence.
Kaya and Minjoon were like the bishop. They constantly encouraged Gwen, offering her silverware and silver candlesticks, and she tacitly accepted their kindness.
But where was her Javert? Without Petit Gervais, could the silverware Minjoon and Kaya offered transform her?
She didn’t know. All she could do was nod.
One thing intrigued her—not where her Petit Gervais was, but whether she needed one. Jean Valjean stole bread; she did drugs.
Maybe Jean Valjean was evil, but perhaps she was just weak.
Did a weak woman like her need a Javert?
The winner of the Grand Chef competition had been decided.
All the chefs invited to the competition said kind words to Peter, the winner.
They knew how meaningful his course meal had been—something no other chef could make easily. He had talent and passion. Though he was not yet the perfect chef they hoped for, he would surely become one they could admire.
Perhaps they didn’t know that his happiness was rooted more in their praise than in winning the Grand Chef. He thought he would be happy even if they hated him, but their accolades and encouragement made him feel as though he were living in heaven.
Of course, Peter never showed what he felt about their praise. He was used to hiding his joy—or more accurately, hiding all his emotions. Whether happy or sad, his emotions had always been met with anger in the past.