Chapter 12

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation

Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

Time always ran fast, especially during holidays.

Three days passed by.

Xia Yu didn’t spend his Spring holiday sleeping. On the contrary, his life became very disciplined. He got up at 8 am every day and cleaned the restaurant. Sometimes he cooked breakfast for himself, then he would focus on working with recipes.

He was working on ‘Magic Mapo Tofu’.

In fact, Xia Yu was able to make a delicious dish of Magic Mapo Tofu on the first day, but the system only rated 30 points for the food.

Therefore, Xia Yu, who was unwilling to give in, madly studied on the recipe from morning to night. He used up all the tofu materials every day. Around lunch time today, he could already make a systematic review of the Magic Mapo Tofu with 60 points.

He also served a plate for the old man to try, and the old man’s surprised eyes made Xia Yu secretly happy.

But the question is, where were the glowing dishes?

“Only half of the material left…”

Xia Yu wiped sweat on his forehead. His mind was tangled. He thought that he must conclude the experience when he failed these couple of days. He took off apron and kitchen hat and embraced the cold wind outside the shop door in the evening. He stared up at Tokyo’s sky.

“There was no issue with the tofu. They were in best quality.”

“There might be problem with ‘soybean-made meat’…”

He frowned and recalled the plot in ‘Little Chinese Master Chef’.

Soybeans were always called as the meat in the field. So, soybean-made meat was not real meat.

According to the plot, soybean-made meat was in fact, soaked soybeans cooked by soup, which was then squashed, adding a new flavour of sauce. This process was quite important, the nice flavour of meat was replaced by the sauce.

Finally, using the pan to fry the sauced soybeans, the taste of meat soup can be concentrated inside the bean soup.

It was easy to describe but every step was full of details and it was hard to control.

At least, Xia Yu could not make the crispy soybean-made meat like the cartoon showed.

“Traditional mapo tofu. Spice, fragrance, color, heat, numbness. Five in one. But the Magic Mapo Tofu is a six-in-one, and the soybean-made meat is the extra one.” 

Xia Yu’s thoughts turned over and over. 

Having a recipe and knowing how to make it doesn’t mean that what you made was delicious. 

Proficiency and various defects in details made his scores low in the system. With a maximum score of 60, how could glowing dishes appear? It needed be at least 90 points… Just thinking about it, Xia Yu was confused about how much time he needed to work on it. 

“Host, there are four days left before the deadline of making the first glowing dish mission…” the system reminded.

“Got it!” Xia Yu responded irritably.

Two days ago, the system suddenly gave him the second task. The time limit was seven days. It was the reason why Xia Yu was uncharacteristically and painstakingly improving his cooking skills.

Completing the task would reward him with special kitchenware.

A blue quality cooking pan with a +10% probability of glowing cuisines.

The reward of a cooking pan made Xia Yu excited. And he got irritable with the current situation when he thought about rewards.

“Try again, with half of the material.”

After enjoying breeze at the door, he heard the hustling and bustling sound not far away from the shop. He gradually stopped being irritable. Xia Yu stood up and he was about to walk inside. But he glanced at an unknown branded luxury long-type black car driving through the narrow street and finally parking at the front door of the Chinese restaurant.

Huh?

Xia Yu’s eyes lit up, and the car driver’s seat’s door was opened. A blonde girl wearing a school uniform came out. She glanced at Xia Yu from far with undisguised contempt and disdain in her sight, and she looked proud, just like a peacock.

“Grandpa.”

The blonde girl opened the rear door and respectfully invited an old man to get off.

An old man wearing a Japanese samurai suit with double clogs on his feet attracted Xia Yu’s eyes.

The old man with the white hair and white beard looked like a male lion. He had a cut scar on his right eye. He stood in front of the car, with an inexplicably dignified and horrific temperament.

The combination shocked Xia Yu. The shock in his eyes could not be concealed.

This was such a weird place!

In this plane of Japan, how deep was the water?

That’s right.

The old man was Nagi Hidari, the leader of the Japanese cuisine world, and the head coach of Togetsu Academy. He had the title ‘The King of Chefs’! 

And a blonde girl who was proud like a peacock was also one of the ten masters of Togetsu. She was a genius chef with the ‘Tongue of God’. Her name was Rina. 

Xia Yu forced himself to calm down by taking a long breath. 

“Is Mr. Xia Qing here?” 

The clogs stepped on the ground, and Nagi Hidari walked towards the shop. He glanced at the crooked plaque of the Chinese cuisine restaurant at the door. His brows wrinkled slightly. 

Xia Qing was the full name of Xia Yu’s grandpa. Few guests knew that. People generally called him Boss Xia. For example, Shinhara Masato called him Boss Xia. 

Xia Yu instantly felt that it was absurd. 

Hey, what was going on in this world? Could the principal of Togetsu be the old man’s best friend?

“He is taking a rest in the backyard. Follow me.” Xia Yu was very mature in front of outsiders. He had the kind of maturity and calmness that young people of the same age could not have. He turned around after he spoke

Nagi Hidari gave a little appreciation and nodded to the girl beside him, “Rina, let’s go in. Pay attention to your etiquette later, as we are visiting a Chinese cuisine master whose cooking skills are internationally recognized. ”

“Master chef of Chinese cuisine?”

Rina looked at this shabby and small restaurant and couldn’t help thinking, why was a culinary master in such a place?

They walked into the restaurant.

The table and chairs were surprisingly clean, and the furnishings gave people a feeling of antiques. They were not messy or broken.

“It turns out that there is no other way.” Rina nodded secretly, as she put away a small bit of contempt in her heart and followed behind her grandfather.

They crossed the storefront and came to the backyard. The old man was sitting cross-legged and waited for them.

The scent came out from a pot of hot tea on the short table. Rina quietly breathed in and looked at the teapot with surprise.

Good aroma from the tea!

“Old friend, please sit down.” The old man greeted him in fluent Japanese.

Nagi Hidari’s majestic face showed a smile as he sat opposite the old man.

Xia Yu poured tea for the two, then backed away and raised his ears.

Nagi Hidari took a sip of tea and asked slowly, “I heard Shinhara Masato say that you are about to leave?”

“A wanderer returns home.”

“I wandered away for more than ten years, and eventually, I will go back to resolve some things that mattered to me.” The old man put down the teacup and smiled faintly.

“This small shop…” Nagi Hidari said. He took a deep look at Xia Yu. “This is your grandson?” 

“Useless little thing.” The old man looked down like an old monk. “It’s okay to leave him with such a small shop. You don’t need to worry, old friend.” 

After being silent for a while, Nagi Hidari took out a document from his arms, and put it on the short table. “This is the invitation letter to Togetsu. If you don’t mind, you can temporarily send your grandson to Togetsu Academy. I will take care of him until you come back. ” 

Rina opened her eyes wide at the side. 

“Grandpa!” She couldn’t help whispering, her eyes filled with anger and unwillingness. ‘Togetsu’s entrance examination is strict. Ordinary people can’t come in!’

She only dared to speak the second half of the sentence in her heart.