Chapter 57 - Max (1/2)

Halia looked at the food sitting inside the lab and her mouth opened wide in surprise.

There was a pizza, some dumplings and even a Peking duck!

Jackson smiled. Max never failed to disappoint when it came to food.

Jackson knew the strengths of his men. After all, they had followed him all the way from France to Beijing.

Max's passion for food started from a young age. Back then, his parents ran a little restaurant in the city center of Xi'an where many tour groups visited for the terracotta warriors. Because of the booming tourism industry, his parents worked hard and made enough money to send him to culinary school in Paris. But, to make ends meet, he had to find a part time job while he studied, and the only thing he found was a position in a small Chinese restaurant. Jackson used to eat there at least once a week.

One day, Jackson was eating in the restaurant when a customer had a complaint. The head chef immediately threw the blame on Max, dragged him out of the kitchen and made him kneel and apologize in front of the customer.

”I didn't even touch that dish,” Max cried innocently in Chinese. He had only been in France for 6 months and only knew basic French at that stage.

But, the customer had no idea what he was saying and continued to scold him in French. All the while, the head chef hit Max in the back of the head and told him to shut up.

Jackson realized Max was obviously being treated as a scapegoat. Eventually, he couldn't watch anymore and decided to intervene.

”This man didn't cook your dish. If you have a complaint, you should take it out on the head chef,” he explained to the customer in perfect French.

The customer glared at the head chef and started swearing at him, ”You f*cken dishonest b*stard!”

Jackson took this opportunity to help Max up. ”Are you OK?” he asked. Max nodded his head. He then tore off his apron and threw it on the floor. ”I quit!”

After that day, Jackson and Max became good friends. Jackson taught Max French and Max cooked for Jackson. At that time, Max didn't know that Jackson was involved in the gangs.

It wasn't until another 6 months down the track, when he saw Jackson being chased by some gangsters, that he realized what his friend was involved with. On that particular day, he impulsively ran in to help Jackson and was subsequently stabbed in the stomach. Of course, he also got a few punches in before the police arrived. But after that, the gangsters remembered his face and started causing trouble wherever he went. They even went to his culinary school and trashed the place.

Eventually, Max was kicked out of culinary school.