Chapter 12: 1.11

Once everyone arrives, they all walk toward a field where the three judges stood. Behind them were three large tents filled with various cooking devices and kitchen benches for them to use. Jia Hyson silently redid the math. There were twenty-five people now, and since Harley won Monday's challenge she earns the special privilege to sit out today's cooking showdown, so that means eight per group.

"Good morning chefs!" Olivia happily greets, her pretty face lighting up, "Today we've got a busy schedule ahead!"

"At 3 o'clock one hundred and eighty farmers around this area will be coming over here to enjoy lunch with us." Chef George smiles.

"Using the freshest produce provided by said farmers, we expect each team in six hours to provide an entree, a main and a dessert for sixty-one people." Morgan Durand instructs, making everyone burst into anxious whispering.

Even though he knew this was coming Jia Hyson was seriously considering straight up quitting the show as he heard this. He didn't even like the simpler team challenges and now he's forced to work with seven people to make three different dishes for sixty-one people. Ah, life was hard.

Jia Hyson: 'Bebe, can we do something easier next time?'

Bebe: (┛ಠДಠ)┛彡┻━┻'This is one of the simplest worlds we can give and yet you're whining like such a b*tch.'

Jia Hyson sighs at his system. Really, shouldn't it be a little more polite? 'Bebe you make me sad. I'm going to save up for the system personality adjuster.' He says with a sincere inner voice that doesn't hide the sadistic streak of amusement in his thoughts, 'Don't worry, you'll be the sexiest system ever once I'm done with you.'

The words that Bebe said in response to this can not be put on most online novel sites. If pressed, an author trying recreate a component of the exact dialogue would end of producing something like, "F*** your ************ **** face in the d****** with dog s****! I hope you get ******* by a f****** **************!" (凸ಠ益ಠ)凸

Simply put, it was too unbearable to write much less hear in one's own head. Jia Hyson didn't reply to this, feeling deeply wronged.

The groups were decided by drawing straws, with three short straws indicating the owner of said straw would act as team leader. Obviously as one of the first large scale challenges and a notable event in the storyline, both Drake and Maddy drew the short straws. The last straw was drawn by Harley.

Jia Hyson was really glad he wasn't on her team.

He high-fives a grinning Maddy as he walks to her tent. "Don't work me too hard chef," he teases.

"Are you kidding? I'm so going to enjoy this," Maddy cackles. Jia Hyson sweats a little, ah, he really wants to go home.

Maddy, leading the Blue team, has Jia Hyson, Eddie, Shirley and four other contestants. Eric, leading the Green team had Ryan, Charlotte, Anne and two others. A sullen looking Drake, leading the Red team had the last of the white lotus girls, Milly and Susan, three other chefs... and Daniel and Lex.

Daniel and Lex: '...' F*CK why did they always end up with that vinegar eating psycho? Were they cursed?! ಥ_ಥ

Jia Hyson nods in silent approval at the casting. It was more or less the same as the story. Of course, since it's a team challenge, just changing one person on a team can shift the relationship dynamics and affect the outcome. However, the dishes may change but Jia Hyson is still hoping for the same final result.

That the Blue team get last place.

Maddy's been doing extremely well since the beginning but everyone knows, a protagonist with no hardships is not a protagonist at all. This challenge will be one of the first major obstacles in Maddy's journey to be a top chef, and Jia Hyson knows he can only stand back and encourage her to the best of his abilities.

Feeling a little sad, Jia Hyson sticks closer to her as she gathers their team around their tent to discuss ideas, completely unaware of his boyfriend's increasingly jealous gaze.

"Um, Drake? What do you think?" Daniel prompts, noticing Drake had gotten silent as their own discussion went on. Inwardly Daniel was crying in his heart. He couldn't believe he once thought this young man seemed pretty cool and aloof, like a young god above men, however the reality was Drake was more like a beast among men, hot-tempered, unruly and would only heel for his master. "Drake?"

"The prawn salad isn't a good idea," Drake finally says, proving that he was still listening intently to everyone even when absentminded. Despite his... love struck personality Drake was still an intelligent and competitive man with a dream. "All the guests are farmers from around this countryside and the criteria is to show off their produce, there's a chance the seafood options are red herrings. We need to go safe in ingredients but go wild with our cooking so let's go with-"

"Adrian? Hello? Earth to Adrian?" Jia Hyson comes back to reality as someone begins to repeatedly snap their fingers in front of his face, "Christ I didn't think people could actually drool over a person, your image is ruined bro."

Jia Hyson awkwardly wipes his mouth to check for drool much to his sister's disgust. He couldn't help it, watching Drake on the other side act like such a cool, alpha male leader was like live porn to this repressed young slag. Drake had that concentrated fierce determination on his face, and that voice as it starts to bark out orders...

"Adrian as your team leader I am allowed to slap you."

"No you're not," he immediately says but he stops oogling and quickly continues chopping up the vegetables to prepare for the entree he, Maddy and a middle-aged banker named Ben were in charge of. They had three people working on the entree- a seasonal vegetable, bacon and goats cheese tart stuffed with sweet caramelized onions, tangy tomatoes, mild eggplant, mushrooms and thyme- with Maddy and Adrian working on the vegetables, Ben was on puff pastry. Despite the large amount of work, it was relatively simple to make, allowing Maddy to have the freedom to go around and make sure the team is doing what they are meant to be doing once most of the preparation is done.

Eddie and two other contestants were in charge of their main dish- slow-cooked beef cheeks with beetroot, charred carrots, all on top of some buttery mashed potatoes. Shirley and the last mob chef was assigned to dessert- blackberry lime cream puffs with swirled chocolate berry ice cream.

If things went perfectly, Jia Hyson would have been confident in their win, or at least confident they wouldn't lose. Eddie, despite being an utter c*ck, lived up to his stereotype of all American manly man and specialized in cooking meat. Shirley's family is essential from high society (actually there were a lot of rich people this season thinking about it) though about two tiers below Drake's own lineage she was still fairly knowledgeable in terms of classy cuisine trends, especially desserts. Because... reasons.

Jia Hyson is just glad Maddy branched out and enjoyed all aspects of cooking, as long as the main character is diverse in her talent, who cares that almost all the women specialized in dessert making and almost all the men preferred grilling meat on a bbq?

Jia Hyson does. He really does. If you're going to be whitewashing the story, at the very least diversify a little in the culinary aspect then. There's going to be a sternly worded letter to the author in his notebook about walking gender stereotypes but it wasn't like he could change that right now could he? Even if he had the skill to change his expertise from sandwiches and, to a lesser extent, seafood, into something more 'feminine' he wouldn't now that he's established a sexuality in this world.

As an author, he needs to know his audience but as a beta in some ways he is the audience. However if the audience's cultural outlooks from the original author's world differs from his own, it could get messy. Just his presence as a gay male could drop ratings if the world as a whole is still adopting a more homophobic viewpoint. Even if Bebe has reassured him that the authors of these stories come from a similar reality to his own, they both know that even tiny changes in a world's history can completely alter a society's views.

Either way, it doesn't matter, as long as a story is good even an offensive remark can be merely taken as controversy. Jia Hyson knows this better than anyone else as he boasts to writing some extremely messed up shit that still somehow won literary awards and the love of the mainstream populace under the guise of 'dark fantasy'. He's confident that he can manipulate a good destiny for his main character, the only thing he dislikes is the idea that a less competent author is going to write it in his place.

Over half way through the prep time, Maddy had already gone to survey the others while the first batch of tarts had already gone into the oven. Jia Hyson was mixing together the goat cheese, vegetable and bacon filling and Ben was working on his third roll of puff pastry. Despite being the first to serve, they were fairly satisfied with the rate of their progress. However everyone else on the team was pretty tense since they had more components to their dishes. It was even more stressful considering this was the first time everyone had made food for so many people, and in a small outdoor kitchen too. Shirley already broke out into an argument with Maddy and Eddie about stove space twice, and once with Ben about the use of the oven.

In fact, the most stressed person in their group was Shirley. If there was one word constantly used to describe Shirley it would have to be 'arrogant' so it wasn't a shock to Jia Hyson that she insisted on making such a complex dish, even if he hadn't read the story he wouldn't have been surprised.

Not only is the cream puff choux pastry hard to make, especially considering they were cooking outside, she had various other elements to focus on as well such as the blackberry and lime filling, and the chocolate berry ice cream. All three main components required a careful eye for measurements and a steady hand, if she and her partner makes a mistake it would be easy to see in the final results. They were all time consuming too, if they had to start again or they underestimated the amounts needed, it really would be disastrous.

Even though Shirley took on this burden herself, refusing to listen to Maddy's suggestion of a simpler dish, over time she became more resentful at the lack of help she was given. Jia Hyson watches her carefully while he begins to scoop the last of the filling into the small tart tins. Shirley's face was dark with barely restrained frustration and anger as she glared into her cream that needed to be slowly whipped. She had already split it once which made her even more pressed for time.

Jia Hyson could easily write paragraphs about her current mood right now. Shirley is scared about being the one to bring the team to failure and furious that no one is helping her out since it was obvious she is the one struggling the most. She's angry at Ben for using so much oven space. Angry at her partner for being so slow. Angry at Maddy for being so clearly incompetent. Ah, if only he wasn't so busy right now, he was itching to write in detail about this self-absorbed girl's quick descent into blind rage. It would be even better is she went straight to utter madness but unfortunately that really would be too extreme of a reaction..

Bebe: ...You are enjoying this too much you perverted Host.

Jia Hyson: 'Hehe.'

Once all the tarts were filled, the first batch had already come out of the oven, ready to be plated. After a short discussion Ben and Jia Hyson decided how the tart was going to be placed on the plate, since they still had a good twenty minutes till the guests came in, Maddy assigned Jia Hyson to help with the mains until then while Ben continues plating. This of course made the frazzled Shirley furious, resulting in another argument with Maddy.

"It isn't fair!" She screams.

Maddy, who had been restraining her own temper, finally snapped. She didn't like Shirley, and the only reason she was even willing to try mediate with this hysterical selfish bully was because Adrian was there and Maddy didn't want to disappoint him after being given such an opportunity to show off her responsibility as a team leader. She had wanted to do her best, win, beating Drake's smug face in the process and bask in her big brother's warm praise and admiration. And Shirley was ruining it.

"It's not fair? The only unfair thing in this tent is clearly you, you dumb f*cking b*tch!" Maddy finally yells back, shocking everyone with her unexpected vulgarity. Even the people in the other tents had stopped what they were doing.

"Wha- you-" Shirley splutters, evidently caught off guard by the explosion, quickly though her shock turns back to anger, "how dare you! You-"

"NO!" Maddy screams, "Shirley I have had it up to here with you! You wanted to do dessert so we let you, you wanted to create such a complex dish and you got mad when we told you it was a bad idea, and now you're complaining about having no support?! Do you have a hole in your brain?! All you've done is cause trouble while poor Marie-Ann over there does most of the work!"

"That's, that's not true! Who gives you the right to speak to me like this!" Shirley, not to be outdone, screams back. However even though both women were screaming like banshees, everyone was more inclined toward Maddy. Even without her likable personality and protagonist halo, Shirley was just too irritating to bear. Even Eddie Walker disliked her, though mainly because she had rejected his advances and essentially told him that she would rather be with a dog than him.

Jia Hyson: 'Eddie, Shirley, Harley... ah there are so many unlikable people in this story.'

Bebe: 'Bebe agrees- Charlotte, James, Adrian... they are all just the worst. Simply scum really.' ╮(╯∀╰)╭

Jia Hyson: (┛ಠДಠ)┛彡┻━┻ 'Scram!'

In the end, everyone in the group speaks out on behalf of Maddy, or at least, against Shirley. Even Jia Hyson stepped out to do his part and look disappointedly at her. This was a big blow to Shirley since Adrian turned out to be her favorite man on the show, finding his gentle family-friendly personality pleasing, even though he ended up with Drake, she couldn't help but like him still especially since he had confirmed that he wasn't strictly homosexual.

Humiliated beyond belief, Shirley gives out an incoherent shrill scream before stomping off out of the tent. Maddy gives out a tired sigh before requesting Ben, who had a meticulous personality and therefore was fairly skilled in making pastry despite his inexperience. Of course this still doesn't prevent the fact that the Blue team was in trouble.

Jia Hyson, as an all-rounder with strong foundational cooking skills that is best exploited through following simple orders that don't rely too much on his memory, was the most frantic one once Shirley left. Chopping, dicing, mixing, plating, his hands were practically a blur when the guests started to arrive. He didn't even bother to raise his head to great them like some of the others did, too busy helping finish off the any task that still hadn't been done.

"Oi fag," Eddie calls, "You done with the carrots yet?"

"You bastard, why the hell didn't you prepare them before?!" Jia Hyson complains as he passes a large tray of freshly washed and well seasoned carrots to the other man. "What have you been doing all this time?"

"We had some troubles with the meat," Eddie grudgingly defends, glaring at his partners that had been working with him on mains. While Eddie greatly dislikes Adrian, he isn't a complete food like Shirley and acknowledges that grudges can be temporarily dropped in favor of winning. If even Eddie could see this, of course Jia Hyson could too, so he merely sighs irritatedly, using his arm to wipe away his sweat.

"Get one of your guys to help plate the entrees with Maddy and Ben, I'll help with the mashed potatoes... that haven't been mashed, Christ you had two other people helping you! Have they been playing charades?!"

"Michael!" Eddie shouts to a rat-faced bearded man, "Help with the plating! Adrian's going to replace your useless ass!"

Michael nods giving Eddie a pandering look that made both Eddie and Jia Hyson's feel vaguely disgusted. "Of course, of course, whatever you say,"

As Michael shuffled over to the plating area, Eddie shakes his head and mutters a few insulting names to his back disdainfully. He then looks at Adrian and sighs, "I suppose there are worse things than a fag," he mutters under his breath. Jia Hyson's eye twitches but maintains his gentle expression, acting like he never heard him in the first place.

Jia Hyson: 'This man is simply asking to be stabbed,'

Bebe: 'If it improves ratings...'

After some serious contemplation, Jia Hyson decides murder does not belong in the family friendly cooking story he was trying to make and vents all his frustrations by mashing potatoes. He truly is a little grateful that he had gotten stronger from his previous manual labor part-time jobs because it turns out mashing a gigantic pot full of potatoes was harder than it looks. By the time he finished the first pot, entrees were being served.

Taking a quick glance, Jia Hyson felt his mouth water as he saw the other dishes. Drake's group went for stuffed mushrooms on a bed of thin slices of sweet potato crisps which gave the image of mushrooms growing from autumn leaves. It was elegant and beautiful yet simple and down to earth.

Eric evidently didn't pick up on the seafood trap like the other two groups and his entree was a prawn cocktail which will definitely give his team a disadvantage in the final tally up. However that didn't stop the dish from looking delicious, Jia Hyson doesn't really enjoy prawn cocktails but the juiciness of the fat little prawns made him reconsider for a moment.

He pulls his gaze from the guests beginning to eat and stares intently at his pot. Staring as the garlic butter he put in there melts into the fluffy potatoes. Staring as it began to exude the delicious scent of savory garlic.

Jia Hyson: 'Ah, f*ck, I'm so hungry. Is there a beauty filter on all the food? This is torture.' ಥ_ಥ

Bebe: 'Bebe doesn't even have a mouth but Bebe also wants to eat ah.'(º﹃º )

Mid-way through plating the main course, Shirley shows up again, eyes red-rimmed making it clear she had been crying. Probably in the monologue room. Chef George was by her side, mouth twisted into something that forbade bad things in their future.

"Why," he says in scarily neutral tone that made Jia Hyson want to drown in the mashed potatoes. Maddy had gone deathly pale. Even macho trash Eddie was sweating heavily. "did I find one of your fellow chefs crying outside the tent while I was showing our guests around?"

Everyone on the blue team were all ready to cry but they all sure as hell weren't going to let Shirley stay untouched by all this either.

Jia Hyson noticed that many people were glancing at Maddy expectantly and frowned. Even if she was team leader, she was still only eighteen, wasn't it a little embarrassing for full grown adults to cower behind her? Fueled by brotherly love, Jia Hyson steps up in her stead.

"Chef, it wasn't that we wanted her to leave," He says quietly but clearly, "Shirley is a very important part of the team and was supposed to be in charge of desserts. We had an argument with her and she left on her own," Jia Hyson pulls a slightly tired and aggrieved expression that wasn't all fake. He really was ready to drop dead on his bed anytime now. With this he has subtly thrown the blame into Shirley's court.

Seeing Adrian, the usually friendly and gentle character speak up first, made a few other people want to also step in to help. Maddy of course was one of them.

"Chef, it was my temper that caused Shirley to leave in the middle of cooking, and for that I apologise to her," She says seriously, "However I feel that I am not the only one to blame in this situation. Shirley has constantly undermined my position as the leader, and has made no effort to curb her own temper." Maddy looks at the woman in question, her eyes coolly looking into the other's. Even though she was shorter by a good head, any outsider could tell who was the one in power between the two.

Jia Hyson: 'My sister is so cool! So domineering! So suave!' ٩(♡ε♡)۶

Bebe: 'Forget Drake, your sister is both the protagonist and the male lead in one, this Bebe gives her 233 likes!'  ♡(˃͈ દ ˂͈ ༶ )

Jia Hyson: 'Yeah! Yeah! Who needs the male lead? Maddy is the best!'

☆*:. o(≧▽≦)o .:*☆

Drake, the unwanted and unnecessary male lead: ...

George Rackford watches the whole exchange in silence, like an emperor listening to two concubines fighting in his rear court. Even though Jia Hyson and the others knew they had the moral high ground they still felt the urge to kneel and beg for forgiveness. Ah, this sort of silent domineering aura should be solely for the male lead. Male lead what are you even doing?

Drake, the incompetent male lead: …

Finally the emperor of the kitchen makes his verdict. "It doesn't matter who's in the wrong right now, what matters is there is one hundred and eighty hungry people here waiting to see what you can do." He turns to Shirley beside him, blue eyes like ice piercing deeply into her and making her shiver, "Shirley, if you can't even handle a little hardship then you might as well have not come back at all. Maddy is the head chef and while it's fine to protest her decisions, running off and leaving the rest of the team to drown without an extra hand to help them is straight up selfish, not to mention pathetic!"

Bebe: 'I'm surprised you aren't attracted to Chef George. Damn.'

Jia Hyson: 'Are you kidding?! Those insults cut way too deep, I want to cry for pleasure not emotional trauma.'

"And Maddy?"

Maddy jumped, "Y-yes chef?"

Chef George purses his lips before visibly reigning in his temper, "You're young but you won't be forever. Get your team together and take charge."

Maddy's back was ramrod straight as she flusteredly salutes, "Y-yes chef!" She squeaks.

George snorts at the rather humorous sight before shouting that everyone had fifteen minutes till the main course service ends and thirty minutes until the dessert must be ready for service and leaving. Quickly everyone gets back into gear. Maddy, emboldened by Chef George's words, had become even more spirited.

Shirley however was disappointed at how easily her previous attempts at currying pity was destroyed. Once Chef George left, the air in the tent immediately turned cold and stagnant around her as everyone eyed Shirley with disdain. Shirley felt incredibly uncomfortable under the hostility, feeling wronged. Sure she essentially tattled to the teacher but who asked everyone to be so mean to her? Didn't Chef George already admonish her? She was so hurt she cried!

"Shirley, can you help us with the desserts?" Maddy finally says, though it felt like dirty ash in her mouth, she knew as team leader she should be the one to hand out the olive branch, "You're the only one who has the... vision to plate it."

Of course with Maddy's honest face betraying her, how could Shirley not see the reluctance and irritation in the younger girl's face. After such an emotionally stimulating day, Maddy's fake attempt to win her over finally sent the women straight to the edge. Silently Jia Hyson face palms. His sister's inability to lie was.. truly great!

Despite despairing for Maddy's future with her face full of emotions, Jia Hyson was satisfied at the result. Shirley, in a fit of vicious resentment, began to sabotage the desserts. When he saw her purposely messing up the plating and using the less appealing, even burnt cream puffs to send out, he shook his head but did nothing except light a candle for this woman's IQ. What she was doing was so short-sighted it was essentially burning the house to get rid of the rat.

As expected in the end the Blue team lost. Jia Hyson was too tired and hungry at this point to feign disbelief so he just let the exhaustion of the day show on his face. The only thing he ate was a slightly overcooked tart and a few spoonfuls of mashed potato when no one was looking. Well, the cameras probably caught it but who cares? At this point he's already been labeled as the gluttonous model so it's not like he can look even worse.

"Who was in charge of dessert?" Morgan's cold voice asks. Jia Hyson couldn't help but sneak a peek at his idol, flushing a little at how cool the older man was. Ah, he really wouldn't mind being scolded by Morgan...

Drake who was watching his boyfriend narrowed his eyes. Bebe who accidentally caught sight of that, silently snickered. It seemed it's host's wish of a peaceful night may not go as planned.

Marie-Ann steps forward then after a moment glares at Shirley who reluctantly joins her. If Shirley was the most upset at Maddy, then Marie-Ann who ended up practically single-handedly doing all the work absolutely loathed Shirley. "We were chef," Marie-Ann confesses before striking while the iron is hot, "but Shirley should be the one to blame!"

Jia Hyson tunes out the subsequent 'I didn't do it's and 'It was all her fault's that would come out once the fuse has been lit. Instead he writes a short story in his head about a magical bed filled with pillows that can make people unwilling to leave it for a lifetime. Bebe listens to the story interestedly. The one perk of having such an imaginative Host was that Bebe was never short of good stories to listen to. Even if some of them were, well, they were all high quality no matter the type of story.

Finally the whole argument had settled down and everybody was finally free to leave. Drake wasted no time in grabbing Jia Hyson and shoving him in the car with himself. Jia Hyson who hadn't been paying attention could only applaud at his man's singleminded drive to be the stickiest boyfriend ever. Deciding that such dedication might as well be rewarded, Jia Hyson decides to use Drake's lap as a pillow.

It was totally not because there were no other pillows in the car. This was a reward! A reward!

However as it turned out, it really was a reward for Drake. Jia Hyson, happy with his own cleverness, nuzzled into Drake's lap and hugged his waist. Drake who had been surprised at first, was then overjoyed and then... well, when a horny male lead was overjoyed other parts must also be very overjoyed too.

Jia Hyson frowns as something hard pokes his cheek. Sitting up, he glares at Drake, this shameless person! This man, just a bit of pressure and he's already fully aroused! How was Jia Hyson going to nap!

Drake coughs, "Shouldn't you, shouldn't you take some responsibility Adrian?"

Black lines fill Jia Hyson's face as his boyfriend looks pitifully at him, like a dog waiting for his bone. If it wasn't for the hidden cameras in the car, he would've definitely done something. However since there were cameras, Jia Hyson could only refuse.

"Scram!"

"Baby," Drake coaxes and Jia Hyson, jerks stop the endearment with surprise.

"Wha- what did you just call me?" As much as he secretly liked it, Adrian was older than Drake by a few years! Don't disrespect the seniority dammit! It's like calling Drake, daddy, it's still hot but it's definitely awkward.

Bebe: 'Disgusting.'

"Baby?" Drake watches as the pink dusting Adrian's features deepen attractively on his skin and smiles devilishly as he leans closer and breathes into his ear, "Baby~ please~"

Unable to control his rising lust any longer Jia Hyson promises Bebe he won't go too far before throwing himself into Drake's arms, kissing him furiously. "All we're going to do is kiss," he sternly tells Drake, though the effect was somewhat ruined by his wet, bruised lips and his own hardening length rubbing against his lover's much larger length, "whether you can get off before the car ride back is up to you, understand?"

Drake's eyes dilated and his breathing gets even heavier as he nods frantically like a chick pecking on grain. Jia Hyson grins widely at such a cute reaction, inwardly he resolves to make sure his darling doesn't get any release during the ride back. Ah, he's so excited just imagining his man's frustration by the end of it he could probably resolve his own frustrations.

Soon the back seats of Miracle Car #3 had become the setting of a very steamy, stimulating scene filled with soft sighs and groans and the faint slippery sounds of lips against lips. Occasionally a new sound would be heard in the car, the seductive, hoarse sound of an alpha male begging for mercy while his lover breathily laughs with an undercurrent of sadistic glee before it breaks back into stifled moans of incoherent pleasure.

Bebe: Hey, hey! Driver, aren't you going to do something about this??

Driver: (¬‿¬) This driver doesn't mind.

Bebe: QAQ ...Bebe is the only pure soul in this dirty world