Who gave this heretical practitioner permission to cook?

Chapter 118 Sun the Mad Dog's Provocation, Fishing Alone in the Cold River Snow? (4K Bonus Chapter)

As Xia Ming entered the waiting room, he immediately felt the "eager" gazes directed at him.

As I became a little curious, I noticed the scoring screen on the side.

At this moment, his name is prominently displayed in first place, and his significant lead is particularly eye-catching.

"So that's why they keep statistics here!"

Xia Ming smiled and looked up at the first few names. He recognized some of them, but also some he had never heard of before.

Just as he was preparing to familiarize himself with all the names on the first screen, he suddenly felt an extremely sharp gaze from the side.

Looking to the side, I saw a brown-haired boy wearing a hoodie with a cyberpunk pattern. He sat with his back open, exuding a sharp and assertive aura.

A large red knife box sat at his feet, standing out conspicuously in the crowd.

At this moment, the boy was staring intently at Xia Ming with predatory eyes, as if he would pounce on Xia Ming and fight him to the death if the staff didn't intervene.

Xia Ming frowned. This boy's demeanor was very similar to that of "Big Scarface" from the Blood Blade Sect.

Overall, he had a very unpleasant feeling.
Raising an eyebrow, Xia Ming wasn't going to let it slide. He met the man's gaze head-on and retaliated, his eyes clearly conveying the message, "Where did you come from, you 'just a nobody'?"

Sun Xingyao was slightly stunned for a moment when she saw Xia Ming's gaze.

You have to understand, he earned his nickname "Mad Dog Sun" through countless matches, and yet a rookie chef dares to look him in the eye like that!?

"Interesting, you're a greenhorn, aren't you!"

A wisp of stale air escaped from Sun Xingyao's nostrils as he extended his right hand, preparing for the next step.

Unexpectedly, Xia Ming on the other side was even faster. He withdrew his gaze, shook his head slightly with regret, and then walked towards the platform to the side.

Sun Xingyao felt his brain instantly rush with blood. If he wasn't mistaken, he had just been mocked by Xia Ming.
Although he didn't say a word, the meaning in his eyes was clearly...
"You're no good, it's no fun~"

"!!!"

Sun Xingyao put his hands in his pockets, revealing a somewhat fierce expression.

It looks like if there weren't security guards and staff around, he would have gotten up and demanded an explanation from Xia Ming in the next second!

"Alright, alright, you've gotten so arrogant just because you got a temporary first place, Xia Ming, right? I'll remember that!"

"You don't actually think everyone showed their true strength in the semi-finals, do you? How naive! You're just being arrogant!"

"If I meet you in the next match, I'll consider myself a coward if I don't leave you with a psychological scar for the rest of your life!"

Aside from Sun Xingyao, who showed a strong fighting spirit from the beginning, the other contestants were mostly curious.

I'm curious about what this boy did to get such a high score while being judged by eight judges.

Most of the athletes were still clear-headed. Some didn't use their full strength, but they still had a mental assessment of what they would have done.

If it were 94 or 95 points, there might still be a chance, but once the score reaches the 98 level, it's definitely not something that can be dismissed with just "you have some ability".

Seeing Xia Ming walking towards him, Qian Youdao raised his hand and waved.

"Brother Xia, over here~"

Xia Ming looked around and found that, compared to the other contestants, he was actually a little more familiar with Qian Youdao among this group.

Thinking that he might be able to hear some information about other contestants from Qian Youdao later, Xia Ming didn't hesitate and went straight over.

Everyone present was taken aback by Qian Youdao's enthusiasm and began to wonder if the two were friends.

Only Qiao Ruoning, having had contact with him, could sense that in Xia Ming and Qian Youdao's interactions, Qian Youdao actually held the more dominant position.

Otherwise, Qian Youdao wouldn't have offered to treat Xia Ming to a meal when he was leaving.

"Most importantly, Xia Ming refused! Wow, a powerful and handsome demon king character~"

"This would be really cool if it were drawn as a fan art card!"

That's right. Although Bai Heng and Qiao Ruoning didn't seem to be having a very pleasant conversation, they actually share similar interests.

However, Bai Heng prefers anime games, while Qiao Ruoning is more interested in character illustrations, comics, and fan art.

It's hard to imagine that Qiao Ruoning, the daughter of a vinegar business owner and a so-called "young lady," not only worked as a chef as her main job, but also as a fan fiction writer and project planner as a side job.
It can only be said that the relaxed lifestyle of university, where you don't have to work or take a job, and the lack of pressure, is just too good, which allows her to have so much free time to do what she wants.

In comparison, Bai Heng was not so lucky.
As Xia Ming walked step by step to the row where Qian Youdao was sitting, he discovered that there was someone lying there.

At first glance, I thought he was some drunk man on the street.
It's no wonder he misjudged him; after all, Zheng Zeqian has a square face, well-defined features, sharp eyebrows, and bright eyes, coupled with a beard that doesn't suit his age.
If it weren't for the New Chef Competition, he would have thought Zheng Zeqian was a judge.
He is handsome, but he is also very casual.

Lying flat next to Qian Youdao, her lower abdomen and a tiny bit of her underwear were visible through her T-shirt, showing that she really wasn't very particular about her appearance.

Of course, Xia Ming didn't mind too much and walked along the edge to the other side of Qian Youdao.

When Zheng Zeqian saw Xia Mingzhen coming over, he rubbed his neck and then got up.

After straightening his clothes a little, he greeted Xia Ming with a smile.

Hello, my name is Zheng Zeqian.

Xia Ming nodded with a smile.

"I am Xia Ming."

"I know, I saw 'The Cucumber in a Raincoat' from a few days ago. You're pretty good, bro, you've already overshadowed He He right from the start!"

Hearing Zheng Zeqian's words, Qian Youdao, who was standing to the side, could only smile helplessly.

What do you mean by "below the leader"? Why don't you just say you took first place? It's like you're driving bumper cars.
However, when it comes to He He, Qian Youdao has to admit that she is really beautiful.

Back when he was in Taiwan, he had seen many model competition champions, but none of them were as good-looking as He He.

Xia Ming didn't seem to think much of Zheng Zeqian's words. After exchanging a few polite words, the two began to inquire about the basic situation of the venue from Qian Youdao.

Although Qian Youdao wasn't as enthusiastic about collecting character cards as Qiao Ruoning, he had someone send him a pre-summarized list. At this moment, he also felt that explaining them one by one was too troublesome, so after adding Xia Ming on WeChat, he sent the pictures directly.

Xia Ming carefully read the brief content above, trying to memorize it as much as possible.

At this moment, Qiao Ruoning and Bai Heng suggested that they take He He along to visit Qian Youdao's place.

Bai Heng and He He thought for a moment and both declined. "It's only the top 500. It's too early to talk about getting to know them. We can only see who has real talent and who is just lucky after the first round."

Of course, Bai Heng wasn't implying that Xia Ming relied on luck, since a score of 98 couldn't be explained by luck alone.

She had simply participated in too many New Chef Competitions, witnessed too many contestants who were amazing in the early stages but were defeated later, and had long understood that temporary success does not mean anything.
Only those who can withstand the trials and tribulations and advance to the later stages of the competition can be considered truly successful.

While these contestants were all putting on their best performances, in a corner, the seasoned veteran Zhou Jing was using AI to collect information about Xia Ming from various websites.

This is his last year, and he's aiming for the championship, so he has to be extra careful against any potential dark horse.

As time passed, more and more contestants gathered in the waiting room, but no one had yet surpassed Xia Ming's record.

He He has dropped one place, and the current second place is "Li Yuan", the boy who was in the same lounge as Xia Ming and Qian Youdao during the audition and was a "wandering chef".

His final score was 92.8, just a tiny bit higher than He He's.
As the competition drew to a close, viewers in the live stream began to speculate whether Xia Ming's score was absolutely secure.

[98.3 points, this score is a sure thing for first place, the rest are just a step ahead.]

[He's really amazing. I watched his previous variety show competitions; this guy is incredibly versatile and doesn't seem like a newcomer at all.]

[What variety show is this? I didn't see anyone explaining it in the comments!]

[The censors have really stepped in! If you want, take a look—they've made names for meaningless words; just remove the obviously redundant parts.]

[Got it, it's all thanks to the netizens' help. I don't think the score will ever be broken. I'm going to go watch some variety shows now!]

The other players present shared the same thought, after all, Xia Ming had almost reached the maximum score!
To break through to the next level now, what kind of monster would that be!
However, these are basically the opinions of the new participants. In the eyes of Bai Heng, Zhou Jing, and Qiao Ruoning, the situation is still uncertain.

Qiao Ruoning glanced at the scoreboard, then turned to look at Bai Heng.

"Are all the 11th to 20th place finishers from last year present?"

Bai Heng looked at the list again carefully, then bit his thumb.

"The results for 11th place 'Han Tianyan' and 20th place 'Fang Xu' are still pending."

Qiao Ruoning nodded
As for why he didn't ask about the top 1-10, it's because the "New Chef Competition" has a rule that the top 10 contestants in each competition will be awarded the status of "Chinese Level 3" chef.

It's like passing the New Chef Competition means you can skip all the previous exams.

After all, in terms of the difficulty of the exam questions, those who can reach the top of the New Chef Competition are all Gu Kings carefully selected from a bunch of Gu worms.

They can only be stronger than "Hua 3rd level", not weaker.

In addition, some people deliberately lower their ranking in order to participate in the "New Chef Competition".

From the perspective of the Chinese Culinary Association, if you are a top ten finisher in the "New Chef Competition" but still only a "Level 1 Chinese Chef" when you go out into the world, then that's a bit of an abstract concept.
It's important to know that the "Hua 1 Level" exam is held twice a year, and the "Hua 2 Level" exam is held twice a year, which happens to fall in the four seasons.

The "Hua Level 3" exam is held once a year in the summer, while the New Chef Competition is held once a year, usually from autumn to early winter.

In other words, without this direct promotion to "Hua 3 level", let's assume a contestant who is "unranked" participated in the New Chef Competition and won the championship.

He would have to wait until the new year to take the "Hua Level 1" exam, and then take the "Hua Level 2" and "Hua Level 3" exams in the summer. Only after passing all of them could he become a "Hua Level 3" chef.

It's clearly unreasonable to make a national champion stay for another six months as a nobody.

In addition, the "New Chef Competition" does not limit the number of times a contestant can participate. If there is no top-ranking promotion system, wouldn't it be extremely unfair to the later contestants if some contestants compete from the age of 18 until they are over the age limit?
Of course, if you insist on farming rewards, you can show off your skills every time you're close to the top ten and then get yourself eliminated.

But generally, people who don't have particularly unique thought processes won't do something so thankless and exhausting.

In other words, Han Tianyan, who ranked 11th in the previous competition, can be considered the strongest known "demon" in the current "New Chef Competition".

Just as Bai Heng and Qiao Ruoning were chatting, the list was updated again, and Fang Xu ranked 11th on the current list with a score of "90 points".

Seeing this, Bai Heng narrowed his eyes slightly, and the image of that man appeared in his mind.

"District 40"

An extremely exquisite dish was placed in front of the judges.

In the bottom of what appears to be a clear pool of water, there are several small fishing boats. Around the boats is the shore, and there are distant mountains made of rice crust.

But at this moment, all of this is tinged with white snow.

The judges nodded in approval as they looked at the dish "Fishing Alone in the Snowy River".

"Beat the egg whites into meringue to mimic a snow scene, and then use rice to make fishing boats. In terms of artistic conception, it is particularly fitting."

After saying that, each of the judges ate a boatload of it.

The moment it entered my mouth, I was surprised to feel the molten filling bursting out!
"That's only 5 eggs in total, how could there be 8 ships with burst linings?"

"We can't just say we were so lucky to have three double-yolk eggs!"

Upon realizing this, two of the judges fell silent.
It is indeed possible to separate raw egg yolks completely, but the problem is that, under normal circumstances, you either need to use an egg separator or rely on plastic wrap or other tools.

If you simply use a knife to cut it, the success rate is incredibly low.
Thinking of this, the two judges looked at Han Tianyan, who was wearing glasses, and their pupils gradually contracted.
In the waiting room, looking at the remaining 3 minutes of the match and Xia Ming's high score, everyone felt that there shouldn't be any surprises in this match.

But Bai Heng didn't believe that Han Tianyan wouldn't even make it into the top 500, so he kept staring at the screen.

At that moment, the screen refreshed again, and Han Tianyan's name appeared in second place.

[Han Tianyan: 96.1 points]

Upon seeing this score, the other contestants below gasped in surprise, but for the older contestants, the score was perfectly reasonable.

"Even this guy couldn't beat Xia Ming? It seems the scoring criteria this time are stricter than I expected!"

Just as she was pondering this, the large screen in front of her suddenly refreshed again!
Looking up, Han Tianyan, who was in second place, was kicked off the stage before he even had a chance to sit down properly!
The second place winner was a name that no one recognized.

[Zhu Wuneng: 97 points]

"???"

Just as everyone was completely bewildered, a person dressed in a monk's robe, with a shaved head, walked out from inside.

Seeing everyone looking at him, he shyly scratched his bald head a few times, and then spoke in a somewhat awkward manner.

Are all the benefactors this hospitable?

Just as he finished speaking, the sharp-eyed Qiao Ruoning noticed that the name tag hanging on his cultivation robe clearly stated his identity.
"Zhu Wuneng".
(End of this chapter)