CHAPTER 686: CHAPTER 685: A UNIFIED VOICE (PART 2)

Ichise Hui’s cooking style was close to nature, advocating for vegetables. From his earliest recipe, "Sichuan Pepper Grilled Mackerel," he uniquely paired it with spring-season mashed cabbage, which instantly elevated the dish’s thematic depth, invoking spring.

And now, his "Taro Vegetable Beef Hot Pot" followed the same principle—

meticulous vegetable pairing!

"The original recipe was already of a Must-Kill Tier, with no significant flaws, but qualifying for special grade was possible if the details were richer."

Xia Yu held his chopsticks, staring at the sizzling pot where pieces of taro and tofu had turned a golden brown.

Immersing taro slices directly in water and cooking them for 30 minutes might seem more convenient, but for Xia Yu, who mastered the essence of cooking, this method was actually a time-waster. Thus, he altered his approach by splitting the original "cook till done" step into two, keeping the boiling but adding the sautéing process to reduce the time it took for the taro slices to cook thoroughly and absorb the flavors!

Time!

With no other choice, serving two hundred guests in 30 minutes necessitated modifications to some steps.

And in Xia Yu’s view, altering the taro cooking step was crucial—

for a simple reason.

Taro was the soul of these "cooked taro" dishes and also the hardest vegetable to cook thoroughly. Others, such as radish or vegetables like enoki and fresh mushrooms, could simply be blanched and stewed with the taro for about 10 minutes before being ready to serve.

"Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle..."

Suddenly, the aroma erupting from the ten cooking pots was overwhelmingly fragrant!

The intense smell of taro and tofu had a strange, magical power, making many guests go weak with just one whiff.

Simultaneously, the sound of cooking from the ten pots almost overlapped, creating a melody.

Tang Yuqiong was stunned for a moment, witnessing this mysterious student wearing a mask and knit hat expertly controlling ten pots of frying food, and whispered in awe, "Is there such a bizarre fellow among Far Moon students?"

"Sister Li, help me read the barrage." She turned her head to speak to a worker who had come along.

The female worker took out a second smartphone, astonished by the explosive flood of comments, "There are too many, they want you to stabilize the rod more, the frame is shaking, it’s making them dizzy..."

"Yes, yes, yes!"

Tang Yuqiong pursed her lips, "Such demanding requests."

She switched to supporting the camera rod with both hands, yet she was blocked by the crowd on the outside. If she had been inside, close up, she might have recognized this mysterious "student."

On another side.

"Chen..." Blonde Lin looked at her boss whose veins were bulging and face had suddenly turned fierce, surprised, "What happened?"

Chen Yang fiercely focused on a gap in the crowd.

"It’s that lunatic!"

"Lunatic?"

"The one who attacked me earlier... Is he a Far Moon student? If not, why would he be able to assist at a Far Moon Academy Festival stall and even personally cook for guests?!"

Woosh.

At that moment, the crowd stirred.

Ichise Hui’s expression shook as he intently watched Xia Yu busily at work and said, "Isn’t it too early to add salt, soy sauce, and mirin at this time?"

He was truly disheveled.

This step was drastically out of order!

It could be said that cooking taro and adding seasonings were the critical parts of his recipe, yet they had been drastically altered!

"Ah!"

Xia Yu brought over a large bucket filled with stored beef broth, pouring an equal amount into the ten pots. Following that, he added a dazzling array of vegetables like shiitake mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, and crown daisy along with slightly fried taro pieces and tofu, combining everything into a chaotic stew!

Although it was called "Taro Vegetable Beef Hot Pot," there was, in reality, no beef present—only flavorful beef broth was used.

This broth had been carefully prepared by the Polar Star Dormitory members well in advance, with several large buckets set aside. Xia Yu had tasted it earlier and deemed the quality passable. Otherwise, just making a suitable broth would have consumed over an hour, turning the idea of serving two hundred guests in 30 minutes into a joke.

But merely passable broth was intolerable!

Adjustments, they were essential!

So, people noticed that before Xia Yu started braising a dish in a pot, he grabbed a small bottle that had been casually placed on the kitchen counter and smeared it around the pot, faintly.

"Bang!"

As he put the lid on, Xia Yu, not bothering to wipe the sweat from his brow, turned to Yoshino Yuuki, Aoki Daigo, and Sato Shoko, the members of the Polar Star Dorm, and said, "Bring over some more backup pots!"

"Huh?"

Yoshino Yuuki covered her mouth, "Instructor, you, you’ve already cooked 10 pots in one go!"

She saw Xia Yu acting casually while cooking ten pots simultaneously and felt inexplicably nervous, fearing that Xia Yu was going to royally mess up his own reputation.

Luckily, seeing Xia Yu in a disguise, Yoshino Yuuki secretly sighed in relief.

It doesn’t matter if they don’t recognize him, right?

"Bring over 20 more pots!"

Xia Yu waved his hand.

"You two come with me—" Already self-assured, Yoshino Yuuki, smiling, waved to Aoki Daigo and Sato Shoko and took the two with her.

"Hmm, that should be enough!" Xia Yu pondered.

At the same time, he mentally gave a thumbs-up to the "Silver Chopsticks Shake Ten Pots" —

Indeed very handy!

This was a culinary skill that trained both the brain and coordination. Speaking of which, at the Sapporo competition, Xia Yu had learned this skill from Zhu Qing; back then, he struggled with the ’agility’ attribute. Almost a month had passed, and now using it in practical cooking could be described in one phrase:

Smooth as flowing water.

His skill proficiency was sufficient; looking back, the blue culinary skill that had unknowingly been trained was already at max blue points and ready to be upgraded to purple frame using a crystal or a Skill Book.

"Speaking of which, controlling ten pots to cook blue recipes with max-level Silver Chopsticks Shake Ten Pots isn’t a big problem, but purple recipes are quite a stretch!"

Xia Yu couldn’t help but feel nervous for the Chinese restaurant he would soon be opening at the Far Moon Academy Festival.

As the sole chef, could he handle all the advanced dishes ordered by the guests?

It seemed like the system had anticipated this and had thus set down an advance trial by pressure.

At that moment, someone poked him in the waist.

"Don’t move!"

Sen Tian Makoto said, grabbing his right hand without knowing where the girl had procured a Band-Aid from. She had already torn it open and skillfully covered a small cut on the back of his hand that was slightly seeping blood.

Huh, injured?

It might have been from pursuing that suspicious person too vigorously earlier.

Laughing to himself, Xia Yu clenched his fist, finding the Band-Aid didn’t hinder his hand movements, and immediately gave a thumbs up saying, "I’ll reward you later!"

Makoto gave him a stern look and whispered softly, "These guests, they’re all here for our Polar Star Dorm’s shop, you..."

The girl just gave him a reproachful look without saying more.

Xia Yu however, got the subtext.

Is she worried that I’ll mess up with these guests?

He found it amusing within and responded with an innocent, pure look, "I’m really serious!"

The girl shook her head slightly.

Any Yuan Yue student seeing their admired Instructor Xia change appearance to cook in a student shop would have one thought for sure—

Is he messing with us?

"Don’t believe me?"

Xia Yu huffed, his gaze sweeping over the ten cooking pots, "Time’s up!"

He scanned the surrounding crowd, his face wearing a mysterious smile.

"So, next, I welcome you to..."

"The Great Hall of Nature!"