CHAPTER 783: CHAPTER 782: SILENT AND COLORLESS (PART 1)

One step, two steps, Wei Qinglian entered the restaurant, stood a step away from the bar, and looked up at Xia Yu through the display window.

"Do you plan to serve me?" she asked, her eyes playful.

Xia Yu shrugged and answered, "Do you think I shouldn’t?"

"You, you’ve got some nerve, daring to ignore the Dragon Head’s Decree, so why should you care about me?" Wei Qinglian seemed to be half-complaining, half-angry.

However, Xia Yu heard a softening in her tone.

At least she didn’t start by calling him an orphan or a curse, and she knew she was a guest, so she gave the host some face.

"Here, add a stool!" Xia Yu called to the waiters outside. Little did he know, Morioka Makoto was already holding a stool in her hand. Upon hearing him, she immediately scurried to the bar, apologetically asking the big shots to make space. Adding one more chair meant one more guest, of course, and a little squeeze made room.

"Please,"

Xia Yu was pleased to see the bosses were very cooperative.

Wei Qinglian nodded to Wise Man Karl and Tiqie Xianzuowen before gracefully taking her seat.

Now, there was just a layer of bar glass and a kitchen counter between her and Xia Yu.

Hmm?

Just after sitting down, Wei Qinglian’s gaze was drawn to the aluminum foil bag on the table, which had been untied.

"Stop looking." Xia Yu said, "This is the third course of the banquet; it’s made to order for each person, so there’s no extra. But starting with the fourth course, I’ll include your portion. Wait a little longer."

He then turned to another kitchen counter and got busy.

Three meats, two vegetables, one soup—fish, seafood rice, and chive dumplings had already been served. The remaining menu was as follows:

A fresh sashimi platter.

Mock roast goose.

Soup eel.

If just looking at the dishes, tonight’s banquet seemed far less shocking and forceful than the ones Xia Yu had prepared during the school festival at Zhonghua Building. But Xia Yu himself said not to judge by the ordinary names of the dishes; each one contained hidden gems. As for whether the guests could taste these gems in the dishes, Xia Yu was not worried about the appraisal skills of this group at his restaurant.

First, make the sashimi platter.

"Shzz, shzz..."

The sound of the sharp blade scraping off scales as Xia Yu took Crucian Carp, cuttlefish, sea bream, carp, and already processed pufferfish meat, laying them in succession on the chopping board and slashing away, drew gasps from the bar.

"This assortment of seafood, isn’t it ’Peacock Dance’?" exclaimed Aoki Motota.

"Yes, it is!"

Dojima Yin said, glancing toward another assistant in the kitchen, and when he saw Yuchuan Ayaka calmly observing, he marveled inwardly: "Peacock Dance, the Killing Recipe that subdued the Golden Peacock. The eldest daughter of the Yuchuan Family seems to have completely let go of her past defeat and is willingly subdued."

Peacock Dance?

Wei Qinglian’s brows furrowed slightly.

To be honest, she’d only heard of Xia Yu during the Sapporo event, when the hype was at its peak, and even the lowliest workers at White Jade Tower were discussing it. But actually, Wei Qinglian had never seen any footage, not even a glimpse.

"A top-tier Killing Recipe?" she heard others say. A faint disappointment appeared in Wei Qinglian’s eyes, "Is this the strongest dish he can present at a banquet?"

But thinking of Xia Yu’s age, Wei Qinglian’s mouth quirked to the side.

"It’s remarkable for a minor to create a top-tier Killing Recipe. In two days at the annual Talent Hunt, he might struggle a bit against the talents of the Chinese Realm, splashing a few waves..."

Her speech was interrupted by a sudden blast of cold air.

Eh!

Wei Qinglian looked intently and saw Xia Yu shattering ice with his knife, crack crack crack!

The long, sharp kitchen blade in hand, a corner of the young chef’s face reflected off the steel. To Wei Qinglian’s perspective, Xia Yu’s knife technique was very down to earth—each swing and chop had the right angle and strength, with no surplus force, hence the boy melded with the knife, exuding a breathtaking beautiful essence.

"This knife skill is pretty good!" she couldn’t help blurting out.

After speaking, she realized the shop had gone unusually quiet.

Wei Qing Lian paused.

Setting aside Tiqie, even Sage Karl was looking at the young chef processing seafood with a knife, several times opening their mouths as if to say something and then stopping.

Strangely enough, their attention wasn’t on any knife skills, but on the ingredients!

"It’s not Peacock Dance!" Xingping Chuangzhen cried out unexpectedly.

"Why? What’s this peacock dance about, and are you saying you don’t appreciate his knife skills?!"

Wei Qinglian responded instinctively, and then, all eyes in the restaurant focused on her.

"Wei Qinglian, you really don’t know?" Zhu Qing raised an eyebrow.

"..."

"Alright then."

Zhu Qing was speechless, "What on earth have you been doing for the past half a year to a year?"

She made a slight jab, as Xia Yu’s "Golden Peacock" Killing Recipe was something anyone who paid attention to him should be aware of.

Not to mention the ingredients, the "Golden Peacock" recipe must include ice sculptures!

In other words, the knife technique "Arhat Crystal Slash," combined with ice sculpture skills, is what completes the "Golden Peacock" recipe.

"How out of the loop can you be, Yu? We’ve all grown tired of that knife work. That’s not the point here..."

Just as Zhu Qing was about to explain, crack!

The young head chef wielding the knife suddenly pulled open the display window and handed out a plate with thin slices of sashimi from five different types of seafood, naturally unfurling and resting on the crushed ice at the bottom of the plate.

"Who said this was the ’Golden Peacock’?"

As he continued to serve several plates of sashimi, first to the big shots at the bar, Xia Yu just smiled and cryptically said, "It’s only the same in terms of ingredients. The pearls of mystery inside are completely different!"

At this, Zhu Qing got stuck and couldn’t spit out the rest of her sentence.

It’s not the Golden Peacock?

Everyone, including Wei Qinglian, lowered their heads and stared at the small dish of sashimi before them.

Given there were not many ice cubes, and considering the winter environment, there was hardly a blast of cold air. As for the fish in the sashimi, there was only a small quantity, lending a faint taste of freshness.

Hmm, very faint indeed.

Wei Qinglian murmured with a frown, "Very ordinary!"

"Snap!"

With a snap of her fingers, Wei Qinglian looked into Xia Yu’s eyes, which held a hint of teasing as he said, "Ordinary is exactly right. Ah, having ordinary food at an ordinary restaurant, that’s what I’m after."

"Here—"

As he finished speaking, a small condiment dish appeared next to the sashimi platter.

In the dish lay a dark, soy-sauce-like liquid, and Wei Qinglian spotted a small clump of ground light green paste and couldn’t help humming, "Soy sauce with wasabi paste? Truly ordinary!"

Xia Yu ignored her comment and handed out dishes to the other people at the bar, then turned to slice more fish, not forgetting that more customers were eagerly awaiting their turn, their resentful gazes somewhat terrifying.

"Awoo!"

Zhu Qing, however, let out a wolf-like howl, "It definitely has the shadow of the ’Golden Peacock’!"

Xingping Chuangzhen chimed in, "Exactly, exactly, the ’Golden Peacock’ also featured a similar condiment dish. I remember when the instructor presented the sauce, it instantly brought the recipe to life, elevating the quality by leaps and bounds, and decisively defeating Miss Yuchuan’s Killing Dish!"

Snip-snap.

Without anyone interjecting, the sound of chopsticks hitting the bar’s surface crisply echoed throughout the restaurant.

It was the female lead who couldn’t hold onto her chopsticks, losing composure. She had only swallowed half a piece of the sashimi, the other half sticking out of her mouth, coated with the sauce, leading to a small drip of black ink falling on her pale chin and spreading.

Her eyes grew astonishingly wide, staring blankly at the ceiling, yet with the greedy spark of a treasure Hunter discovering a Dragon Nest.

Her appetite had been activated!

Seeing this, Wei Qinglian raised an eyebrow and privately wondered, "Isn’t it just ordinary sashimi with ordinary sauce?"

She looked again, visually and olfactorily scrutinizing the dish before her, and finally nodded to herself, thinking, "At least, that’s what my eyes and my nose believe. There’s nothing remarkable; any head chef in the Chinese Realm could—"

Her thoughts came to an abrupt halt.

While Wei Qinglian was pondering, she also picked up a piece of fish from the ice with her chopsticks, not caring if it was Crucian Carp, pufferfish, or squid, and dunked it in the sauce before stuffing it into her mouth.

Crunch!

The sensation in that instant made her mouth tremble.

"Lightning? No!"

"There’s something else..."