Chapter 896: Chapter 895: The Incoming Typhoon (Part 1)
Another two days passed.
The day before the Lantern Festival arrived quietly, and the first season of "Kitchen Three Kingdoms" of the year was aired across the entire internet.
"Ha!"
Zhu Qing watched the show on her iPad, and during the first segment where mentors and students picked each other, she saw the mischievous young boy in the chair opening his arms to two female students, offering them an olive branch, and shouting something like "I’ll lead the charge" and couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
"That should be clipped by many fans and used as a GIF."
Clicking her tongue, Zhu Qing glanced at the boy sleeping at the table, but the joyful smile gradually disappeared from her face.
Oh.
A sigh that seemed to come from nowhere.
After hesitating for a moment, Zhu Qing got up from the chair and walked over to cover the boy, who stayed up all night last night and just fell asleep at the table, with a blanket to keep him warm. Although spring has just begun, the weather is still cold, and with the Lantern Festival, Liu’s selection, and the upcoming culinary showdown approaching, if he accidentally caught a cold and went on stage in bad shape, it would definitely affect his performance in the kitchen.
If he loses without being in peak form, he would certainly be very unwilling, wouldn’t he?
Thinking this, Zhu Qing stopped and looked at the boy’s sleeping face from the side.
Buzz buzz!
Suddenly, the vibrating phone on the table attracted Zhu Qing’s attention.
The boy, unaffected, was deeply asleep.
Zhu Qing picked up the phone, expertly inputted a password to unlock it, and the phone screen immediately lit up. It turned out that someone was sending private messages on the LINE app, and they were buzzing non-stop.
The latest message displayed:
"...I watched that ’Kitchen Three Kingdoms’ episode oh!"
The profile picture was of a female friend with a cat, followed by a playful tongue-out emoji.
The username was "Makki-chan."
"It’s Makki." Zhu Qing guiltily glanced at the boy’s sleeping face before her lips curled into an odd smile, and she held the phone in both hands, opening the keyboard to reply in imitation of the recent Chinese chat records:
"Isn’t it cool?"
After the message was sent, she immediately followed up with a smug emoji, brushing her bangs.
Meanwhile.
In the Polar Star Dormitory, Morioka Makoto just put down her phone and planned to start flipping through the Chinese dictionary on her desk. Watching "Kitchen Three Kingdoms" for her felt like watching foreign fresh meat variety shows, but with her recent progress in learning Chinese, she was not completely confused and could understand most of it. However, some vocabulary and idioms required a dictionary to understand.
Oh!
Unlike the usual situation where it took a long time to get a reply after sending a message, this time, the phone reacted immediately after the message was sent.
Sen Tian Makoto was overjoyed upon seeing the reply on the chat interface.
Did she catch Yu when he was free?
She decided to seize the opportunity properly.
So, the girl slightly pursed her lips and immediately replied, "Very cool!"
"Speaking of which, this is your first time appearing on a reality show, isn’t it Yu? I researched the data on ’Kitchen Three Kingdoms,’ it’s amazing that you appeared on such a popular show, and it was your debut without any stage fright!"
"Also, Wei Zhong and Ye Feizhou are quite famous in the Neon Food World too."
"I often hear the name Wei Zhong from those skilled pastry chefs on some Neon food channels. They say he’s one of the few Reserve Pastry Kings from the Chinese Realm in recent years. Chefs say that as long as he takes that crucial step and creates a classic pastry recipe, he’d be the indisputable Pastry King of our time... truly an amazing chef!"
"And then there’s the Heavenly King Disciple Ye Feizhou..."
The chat interface was almost flooded!
The girl’s enthusiasm surprised Zhu Qing.
She couldn’t help but glance sideways at the sleeping boy, Zhu Qing thought to herself, "This long-distance longing could really drive someone sick!"
"Yu?"
"Are you still there?"
Buzz buzz, the phone rang again.
Zhu Qing quickly replied, "Yes, yes!"
"Ah, Chinese is really difficult, self-study is even harder, I always feel like I’m missing a tutor, I really want to learn Chinese quickly so I can chat with you, Yu, I haven’t been this troubled in a long time..." The girl sent another message.
Ha!
Zhu Qing couldn’t help but laugh again.
Being a woman herself, she could see clearly the coquettish tone in Sen Tian Makoto’s words, as she was venting and complaining to the boy.
Hmm, there’s also a hint that she’s clearly asking the boy to be her Chinese tutor.
Regarding Sen Tian Makoto’s learning Chinese, Zhu Qing had heard Yu mention it before, it’s been two months, right? The girl probably complained like this more than once to the boy, but looking at Yu’s chat history from before, he showed no interest in tutoring and always changed the topic when she brought it up.
If it were someone else, Zhu Qing might just issue a venomous curse of "eternal loneliness."
However.
Faced with the boy’s indifference to the childhood friend’s enthusiasm and sentiment, Zhu Qing felt a strong sense of indignation and immediately thought of a brilliant "punishment" strategy.
"Hmph hmph!" Her lips curled into an amused smile as Zhu Qing typed a reply.
In the Polar Star Dormitory, Morioka Makoto, resting her cheek, heard the alert and her eyes immediately focused on the phone screen. A line of text appeared in her view:
"Tutoring? That’s not possible either. If you want to master a foreign language quickly, you still have to live in the country that speaks it for a while."
"What do you think, Makki, do you want to come?"
For an instant, the girl widened her eyes.
She clearly heard the sound of her heartbeat in her chest.
The chat detour ended there.
Delete the chat history, lock the screen, and put the phone back on the table, Zhu Qing who seemed like she hadn’t done anything wrong, clapped her hands and looked at the boy’s sleeping face again, "Thank me, I just helped you do a lifelong great deed!"
In the mysterious space.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The sound of the wind never stopped.
If there were any audience members, they would definitely think it was a typhoon day.
The space was filled with crazy wind, with air currents moving violently, and suddenly, there was a clang as a metal rod fell to the ground.
The wind stopped, and the air flow calmed down too.
On the table, was a sharp mound of flour.
But this mound of flour wasn’t the plain white of original flour; upon close inspection, it seemed as if golden fluorescent powder had mixed with the white, creating a blend of white and gold that shimmered, producing quite a visual effect.
"Ordinary flour, golden wheat flour, with a mixing ratio of around 1 to 30!"
The stick was used to cut through the flour mound.
Then the water was poured.
Holding the pastry stick, Xia Yu gradually swirled his right hand while muttering to himself, "This ratio can’t be reduced by even a unit or increased by a fraction; otherwise, the formula won’t exist when kneading!"
The water, ordinary flour, and shimmering golden flour existed in Xia Yu’s mind as three formula symbols.
Simple?
Not really, as the formula also needed computational symbols to connect, otherwise, how could it be called the spice formula? And within this mound of flour, the roles of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division were taken up by two culinary skills that had already been raised to a golden frame—
Spice Inequality!
White Luo Snake Refining!
After a moment, looking at the lump of dough on the table, Xia Yu reached out to touch it, "Done!"
The texture was smooth like silk.
After covering it with a damp cloth to let it rest, after half an hour, Xia Yu saw a large ball of jade-like material.
Then, following the ancient recipe and adhering to the secrets of desserts he had long mastered, it was no surprise that Xia Yu created a new dish in the unknown space, achieving over 60% in material mastery and dish completion.
Ding.
A system notification confirming task completion.
At the same time, rewards appeared in the backpack, Xia Yu glanced over, "Thus the experience card and Evolution Crystal Stone are complete!"
"Purple frame, purple frame, purple frame!"
"Divine Hand (Purple), upgrade progress: 15/20."
Admittedly, dumping all the accumulated Talent Points into the culinary skill upgraded to the purple frame, the only regret for Xia Yu was that "Divine Hand" couldn’t be maxed out the moment it reached the purple frame.
There’s a slight deviation from the plan, but as one of the "Three Golden Arrows," it should barely meet the standard.
Next, is the effort to improve the completion of the modified dish!
And so.
The day before the Lantern Festival also passed in ordinary daily practice.