23 A Feast Fit For A King

"Tai Shan or Mountain Tai is known as the sacred mountain under heaven, located in Shandong province north of the city Tai'an. It is reported to be 1,545 meters tall and is the tallest peak in Jade Emperor Peak. The Jade Emperor is known as the Emperor of heavens and legends said that immortals once live in Mountain Tai. They say that Mountain Tai was filled with pure and refreshing air, a fine source for cultivation and sacred resources. Lotus was also known as water lily which lives in the pond and was described as pure and was a flower that symbolizes the being of immortals and used commonly in temples. It was also said that the son of heaven, the Jade Emperor's son was born from a lotus pond, and that as he was born, 3,000 flocks of cranes fly by welcoming him and that the lotus radiates a divine light before opening petal by petal floating in the air and after receiving him did the petal resolves. Therefore the topic of this year's contest revolved around the theme 'a feast fit for an Emperor' and the theme 'pure'."

"Thank you."

"No need to thank me, your highness. It's this Caibao honor to serve you." Saying this a little imagery of a cute miniature kid appeared in front of Dilireba and bowed before disappearing back into the 'box'. The box shined again before turning back to the way it was found.

The others are still assessing the information they received as the two elderly ponder what they should make.

"It's a hard topic just like the previous years, I am starting to become more curious about what your identity is." Qi Weilan said to Dilireba as she scanned her from top to bottom as if she can somehow find a clue on her.

"Old friend, I'm not going to lose to you this time."

"Me neither."

The two elders shared a smile as they move into their own independent stations. From the ingredients, Dilireba's grandmother (Grandmother Wen) gathered the following ingredients: a lotus, dates, brown sugar, lobsters, crabs, shrimps, fish, lettuce, and her homemade special sauce that 'makes every dish unique' and etc. Grandmother Qi gathers the ingredients: purple rice, brown rice, white rice, sugar, flour, eggs, vanilla extract, butter, milk, yeast, and lychee and etc.

"Nainai, what are you making today?"

"There are twelve courses that contain plates of seafood such as the lobster fruit salad, steamed fish and tempura shrimps. For Hors d'Oeuvre, we have crab and avocado toast. For the desert, we have sweet lotus soup. Then fruit lobster salad, steamed fish, marshmallow puff cake and etc."

Just hearing the names of the dish is enough to make the two foodies salivate

"Then Qi Nainai what are you making?"

The two turn to Grandmother Qi, in expectation.

"Wow, Reba looks like we got almost all types of food out there in the world, right at our Kitchen. So many different cuisines altogether. See? I told you they will go all out this year!" Qi Weilan said proudly.

Dilireba smiled and nodded, but was actually not really hearing what Qi Weilan said because she was too busy staring at her grandmother working on preparing the food.

Grandmother Wen's hand was moving to rhythmic upbeat-like music, while Grandmother Qi moved elegantly almost floating on air with the food in hand. Each concentrating on their own dishes.

Trash talks? Peh! Don't need them. Our dishes do the talking!

First stop, Grandmother Wen.

Grandmother Wen had already finished preparing the ingredients just waiting for them to dry a bit.

But the process took so long, so Dilireba and Qi Weilan decide to put on some music to pass time while chatting with each other.

"Reba, is there a boy you are interested in?" Qi Weilan asked while wiggling her eyebrows.

Dilireba laughed, it looked so silly especially since Qi Weilan looked like the cold tempera type of beauty.

Dilireba decided to tease Qi Weilan back. She smirks.

"Lan jie, I think you are interested in someone right?~ I think that it is that muscular meathead I saw last time with you right?~"

"Reba!"

Qi Weilan blushes. But quickly return back to her normal state, and her smirk returns.

"Hey~ Reba, I think that who-ya-call-it? Oh yes, that Bai Jiayun wasn't it? He was pretty handsome."

"It's Bai Jiayu, and I would say he looked prettier than handsome."

"Really? In what way?"

"His eyelashes are longer than girls and even boys. As you know, boys naturally had longer natural eyelashes than girls, so that is one feature. His eyes are very big and made him look very cute just like a puppy. I think people usually call him a- a shota. Yes, a shota. However, he recently just started to have speed growth and much taller than me now! I wish he would just stay short, he is so adorable before!"

"...Reba, I think you are the only one that would think of him that way…"

"Huh? Why? Isn't he like a puppy?"

"People are afraid of him since he was a well-known delinquent, but recently when you come over he started to shimmer down and even got to the top of the class."

"Huh? Really? But even so, he is good-looking, yet people avoided him like a plague."

"Well, there was a rumor that if you look at Bai Jiayu for more than 15 seconds, you will be enchanted and bid to His biddings. But of course, because you are close to Bai Jiayu and very friendly to others, those rumors die down. But even so, people's first instinct was to keep their heads low in front of him with the exception of you and two other people."