CHAPTER 603: CHAPTER 602: SUPER SIMPLIFIED GOLD AND JADE (PART 1)

"What’s he going to do?"

Lin Giant watched in his red robe as Xia Yu stepped away.

"A proof?"

Thinking of the words Xia Yu had just dropped, the man in red found it quite amusing, "What does he need to prove? I never denied his ’Big Blast Fried Pork.’ In fact, since I enjoyed it enough to have it in my stomach and even praised it, he should be walking tall and proud. In the Chinese Cuisine World, how many people are begging for my presence at their banquet!"

IGO’s Luther and Adelaide hadn’t figured out what was happening yet.

Yan Mo’s gaze flashed, saying, "From the first dish, straight to the ninth?"

"What’s the ninth dish?"

Beside him, Wu Yingying had her hands clasped over her mouth, her eyes widened as she said, "...From the first dish, straight to the ninth? I remember now, the ninth dish is ’Gold and Jade!’"

Gold and Jade!

The giants in the room all turned their burning, hungry gazes upon hearing this, even the ’Food Demon King’ Tiqie Xianzuowen’s eyes betrayed his desire to eat it.

"The ingredients? Gold and Jade requires three Forbidden Ingredients, does he have enough in his reserves to host everyone here?" Adelaide asked with a wry smile, bringing up a key issue.

"Yes!"

Wu Yingying was also curious, "Could it be that he’s actually planning to serve everyone the forbidden dish of egg fried rice?"

"Let’s go see—"

With that, the giants couldn’t sit still any longer.

They went out to see Xia Yu with his head down, ordering ingredients on his cellphone.

"Hey!"

The others heard the news too, forming a circle around him with puzzled expressions, "Instructor Xia, what other ingredients do you need to buy?"

"Forbidden Egg Fried Rice, aside from the three main ingredients, we’ve got all the other necessary additives in the restaurant’s storage, right?"

Faces filled with anticipation.

Not just the giants, but relatives, friends, and guests at the event were also eager to taste that egg fried rice that had been hailed as a classic by the global media; after all, following the ’Open Mouthed Golden Laugh,’ ’Gold and Jade’ had become the second hottest classic dish in the first stage of the Sapporo Food War!

To eat it would be to honor a grand event!

Hmm?

After ordering the ingredients and selecting express delivery, Xia Yu looked up, amused and somewhat frustrated by the surrounding noise.

"Who said I was going to use Forbidden Ingredients to make egg fried rice for our guests?"

As he said this, even Xia Yu’s own face twitched.

Using Forbidden Ingredients in bulk, cooking Forbidden Dishes in bulk?

Just the thought of all those Fame Points being used up made his heart ache.

After all, whether it was ’Gem Meat’ or ’Five-headed Bird Egg,’ they could only be obtained with Fame Points. Not to elaborate, but if Xia Yu was really so generous as to use them like a spendthrift, just this one hosting event could eat away his entire fortune.

A calculator appeared in Xia Yu’s mind.

With so many people around, the ’Gem Meat’ needed would be at least 10 pounds, and each pound would cost 50,000 Fame Points; that meant 500,000 points just for the meat...

Xia Yu was scared stiff by the rough calculation.

No!

Absolutely not!

Shaking his head, he completely dismissed the thought of entertaining the guests with Forbidden Ingredients and Dishes, meeting the collective disappointed and regretful gazes of everyone around him.

"Come on, do you all really need to give me that sort of aggrieved look?" he nearly laughed out loud.

Zhu Qing, Makki, Eriina, and the Yuchuan Sisters were much more composed; in fact, even Tanaka Hikari was calmer than Ichise Hui and Kobayakawa Ryodan, because they had had the privilege of tasting the so-called ’Super Simplified Gold and Jade.’

But didn’t even the ’Super Simplified Gold and Jade’ require the use of Gem Meat and Taboo Egg Liquid?

This question hovered in their minds, but they held back from asking.

"Ah!"

Wu Yingying removed the ninth menu card, exclaiming angrily, "Not the original Gold and Jade? Why is it a simplified version?!"

Finally, she realized the menu was not the same as the divine egg fried rice in her mind.

The addition of ’simplified’ had changed everything!

Feeling an inexplicable sense of loss, Wu Yingying was both a challenger and a guest at tonight’s banquet. She too had dishes she longed to taste, and Xia Yu’s stunning "Gold and Jade" fried rice from the Sapporo Food War was exactly what she had been craving these past days!

Simply put—she wanted to eat it, had to eat it!

"Simplified version?"

Xia Yu chuckled lightly, seemingly pulling out a brush and a blank wooden sign from nowhere. Then, right in front of everyone, he wrote a line on the sign:

Super Simplified Gold and Jade.

"...Eh?!"

Everyone was dumbfounded.

"What does this mean?" Wu Yingying asked.

"Exactly what it says!" Xia Yu snatched the old sign from her hand, casually tossed it, and it landed in a pile of charcoal where it was instantly consumed by flame. He then hung the new sign on the menu rack and dusted off his hands.

"Wu Yingying, nine rounds of competition are too cumbersome. Let’s just go straight to the grand finale of the ninth round—"

Without waiting for a response, Xia Yu said, "I’ll bring out my ninth dish, and you bring out your best kept secret."

Wu Yingying’s eyebrows shot up.

"Are you sure?!"

Her tone was slightly irritated, "You’re going to use that ’Super Simplified Gold and Jade’ to compete against my strongest dish?"

"And also..."

The corners of her mouth curled up slightly, "In the previous matches with the tea dumplings and the fried pork, I had the upper hand, right? Didn’t you hear Lin Chef’s comments on your dish? Those ostensibly perfect but fundamentally flawed dishes can’t suppress mine! You better stick to your own style!"

With that, Wu Yingying grew even more irritated.

"This is a culinary competition, and you’re experimenting with new dishes... are you looking down on me?" Her body trembled, anger barely contained.

"So, I need to prove that it’s not a failure!"

Xia Yu didn’t elaborate further.

Competition?

To him, Wu Yingying’s challenge had always seemed somewhat one-sided. He was focused on his system tasks, specifically integrating "Qi" into his cooking techniques to create dishes, and, incidentally, defeating one of the ’Five Chinese Talents’. Xia Yu wasn’t foolish enough to tell Wu Yingying such tactless thoughts; surely that would send her into a rage.

Before long, an IGO transport truck arrived with Xia Yu’s ordered ingredients.

But as soon as the crowd saw Xia Yu expertly lay a large, thick slab of pork on the cutting board and start meticulously slicing it, they were taken aback.

"Pork from the ’cow-pig-bird’ again?"

They whispered among themselves.

Yan Mo, Luther, Adelaide, and Tiqie Xianzuowen, these big shots, watched from the sidelines.

"This kid!"

Lin Giant in her red outfit furrowed her brows fiercely, feeling provoked and questioned, "I said before, this fantasy pork is the flaw in his dish... With his understanding of ’Qi’ and his level of culinary skill, it’s impossible to evolve the ingredients, the dish itself!"

"Red outfit!"

Zhu Qing approached with a smile, "Let’s make a bet, shall we? We’ll bet whether our Chef Xia can eliminate the so-called flaw in his evolved dish."

Red outfit studied Zhu Qing’s pretty face for a moment, then suddenly smiled,

"I’ll take that bet!"

"No matter how talented he is, such experimentation is well beyond his culinary reach, and it can’t be perfect!"

Zhu Qing winked.

"Then let’s discuss the wager..."