The story begins in Food Wars, when Alice took him home.

Bai Yuan nodded and voiced his thoughts.

"really."

Hearing Bai Yuan's words, Liya's expression turned bitter; the bitter fruit of the past was finally coming back to haunt her.

She had completely forgotten about it, but who would have thought that Bai Yuan could find a video from seven or eight years ago!

"But I think it's quite cute. It's such a small thing, but it's dressed so smartly. Yet it says things that are completely inconsistent with its appearance. Don't you think it's a great contrast?"

A sense of contrast is the best gift for a man, especially since I like both the Leah in the video and the Leah we know now.

Pointing at the girl on the screen, a hint of affection flashed in Bai Yuan's eyes.

It is said that if you love someone, you will love all of them. It's just that I was a bit immature when I was young. I didn't do anything heinous, so Bai Yuan naturally couldn't dislike me.

"To be honest, I thought I was very handsome back then, the most special person in the world."

Until one day, after waking up, I suddenly realized that I seemed to have no friends at all because of this. With the influence of other people's opinions, I gradually returned to normal.

I belatedly realized how shameful those things I did were!

Hearing Bai Yuan's explanation, Liya breathed a sigh of relief and rested her head on his shoulder before pouring out her heart to him.

"Special people can never coexist with ordinary people, so they disguise themselves as ordinary people and then look at the special things they did from the perspective of ordinary people, and naturally they will find it strange."

But in a sense, isn't this a special kind of memory?

Feeling the weight on his shoulder, Bai Yuan slowly spoke.

He was actually quite surprised to discover a different side of Leah today.

Because it means he knows her better now.

"So I'm not an abnormal person?"

Although she already had the answer in her heart, Lia still wanted Bai Yuan's confirmation.

"No, look at these comments. Everyone is smiling when they look at you. Not a single person looks disgusted, right?"

What you did was simply to make yourself happy at the time; there's no need to care about what others think.

The opinions of others are shackles. The day you can truly ignore them and do what you want without hesitation, that's when you've grown up.

Thinking of the strange looks he had received in the world of culinary disasters since childhood, Bai Yuan gently put his arm around Liya's shoulder, letting her lean against him, and patiently said...

To outsiders, the two appeared to be incredibly loving at that moment.

Chapter 267 Theme: Temperature Control, A Song of Ice and Fire

"Alright, while we still have some time, let's gather some intelligence on our opponents."

After their tender moment, Bai Yuan steered the conversation back to Wang Qing.

Although the conversation veered off-topic, as long as the competition continued, Wang Qing would always be an obstacle in the end.

As one of the preliminary champions of this competition, Liu Xiaotian has been defeated by Chuanlinghua. The remaining one is Wang Qing, whose strength is comparable to Liu Xiaotian's. He is a recognized top-level three-star chef.

"Ah."

Hearing Bai Yuan's solemn words, this time Lia stopped fooling around and nodded very seriously before starting to search on her phone.

As a star young chef in Fujian Province, Wang Qing has participated in many competitions and even appeared on local variety shows. A simple search will yield a large number of information entries.

"Wang Qing, the strongest inheritor of fried food in history, has a unique style of fried cuisine!"

"A clash of dragons and tigers: Liu Xiaotian versus Wang Qing, who will emerge victorious?!"

"Wang Qing's classes will teach you how to quickly fry up perfect tempura."

Wang Qing: I'm not only good at frying vegetables, but I'm also good at other things. Now let me demonstrate how to make a cake!

The videos have exaggerated titles that make people want to watch them. The earliest of them can be traced back twelve years, and there are also many videos of competitions from that period.

"Look at his last match."

Bai Yuan's voice was calm. Under his influence, Liya clicked on the video out of curiosity. It was a video of Wang Qing's first match.

Because the full video was too long, the creators only selected the essential parts.

The selection and exchange of ingredients, the exciting moments of preparing the dishes, the instant appearance of the dishes after completion, and the evaluations from the judges.

This video garnered millions of views, tens of thousands of likes, and overwhelmingly positive comments.

"It was just a simple dish of salt and pepper mushrooms, yet it shocked the judges. Just how amazing is this guy's skill?!"

Lia's expression changed from indifference at the beginning to seriousness now.

Wang Qing's theme in the last competition was mushroom dishes, and the ingredients he chose were very simple: mushrooms and seasonings. He made a simple salt and pepper mushroom dish in five minutes, which directly defeated his opponent's chicken stew with mushrooms, which took two hours to complete.

"The gap in skill level."

Although Wang Qing only served salt and pepper mushrooms, he strictly controlled the heat, cooking time, and seasoning. According to his method, this salt and pepper mushroom dish would be no less than a top-grade two-star dish.

On another level, his opponent's expression changed upon seeing that he was facing Wang Qing; in short, he lost his will to fight.

When the judges announced the final winner, his expression showed not a trace of surprise or resentment. This guy had already lost psychologically; there was no way he could win.

Hearing Liya's sentiments, Bai Yuan watched the video again.

Wang Qing's skillful technique in the video, with his quick five-minute cooking, reveals decades of hard work.

This allowed him to defeat his opponent with an absolute advantage and achieve final victory, even though the last dish he served was just salt and pepper mushrooms.

"Is this one of the top young chefs in Fujian Province? Chuan Linghua is really strong to beat Liu Xiaotian, who is his peer!"

Lia's voice was filled with admiration, but deeper beneath that, there was a hint of excitement.

"Is it getting exciting? That's good, the stronger the opponent, the more valuable it is to defeat, isn't it?"

Looking at Liya, who was holding her phone with both hands and looking at her with burning eyes, Bai Yuan smiled.

That's the right expression—that look of wanting to devour your opponent alive is the key to victory!

"Ah, it's getting exciting! Although my chef level is a notch lower, if we really put our all into cooking, it's hard to say who will win!"

"As long as my opponent isn't Boss Bai, even if anyone else defeats me in the end, I'll definitely take a big chunk out of them!"

"Turn off your phone and put it in your pocket," Leah said half-jokingly.

Despite being around the same age, she had absolute confidence in her cooking. Even if the other chef was of a higher level, she felt confident she could fight and win. This confidence was the most important thing for her to reach the pinnacle in the future.

"Then let's go for it, defeat the seeded players, and become the dark horse."

"Yes, sir!"

Reaching out, Bai Yuan patted Lia's shoulder, his voice impassioned, his eyes burning with excitement, clearly having immersed himself in the situation.

Unfortunately, his opponent was too weak; otherwise, he would have loved to win the match and become the champion under the spotlight!

"The theme of this competition is temperature games."

Looking at the screen, a hint of doubt flashed across the host's face, but he still tried to read out the theme of the day in a calm manner.

After all, as a host, she must always maintain elegance and poise.

"Temperature games? What kind of theme is that?"

"Speaking of which, the themes of this year's competition are very novel. In the past, the quarterfinals were mostly about idioms and dishes, but this time, apart from the first round being about idioms and dishes, the rest are all in forms that have never appeared in previous competitions."

"Indeed, that's why they've brought us so many innovative dishes that we never even imagined before. It's quite interesting, isn't it?"

"That's right, but the judges still need to explain what this theme actually means."

A lively discussion erupted as everyone chimed in, the newly emerging topic bringing the atmosphere to a fever pitch. Everyone's face was filled with excitement and joy.

"The core concept of temperature games is to use extreme temperature contrasts to create a taste and texture experience of 'ice and fire'."

Each contestant will receive 200 yuan as funding for the competition, which they can use to purchase ingredients they deem most suitable for the theme at the market and prepare their dish.

On the other side, seeing that the atmosphere was about right, Zhang Zhong stood up as usual and spoke to the audience and contestants about the key points of the theme.

"Temperature, a world of extremes, must we find a balance between them...?"

Looking at Lia standing on the stage, deep in thought, and hearing Zhang Zhong's interpretation of the theme, Bai Yuan's mind was filled with images of many dishes.

This topic isn't difficult; in fact, it's quite common in the culinary world.

A typical example is fried ice cream. Take the frozen ice cream out of the freezer, press a slice of bread on it, brush yogurt on the surface, scoop out the ice cream and place it on top, cover it with another layer of bread, press it into shape with a mold, and then fry it in oil until crispy. This is the simplest way to make fried ice cream.

Fried ice cream made in this way has a crispy and delicious exterior and a smooth and cold interior, giving people a dual experience of ice and fire.

Many people at the scene also thought of fried ice cream and excitedly shared it with their companions, trying to show off their extensive knowledge.

Meanwhile, the two on stage fell into deep thought. As dishes that had advanced to the semi-finals, they certainly couldn't simply serve up a fried ice cream.

In particular, when Wang Qing saw Liya's eyes, which seemed to be burning with fire, he immediately extinguished any thoughts of slacking off.

The opponent is not the same one who gave up before the last round even started.

It's easy to tell from her eyes that this creature is a predatory bird that preys on humans; if one isn't careful, even he could be devoured.

"As expected, none of those who have reached this point are mediocre."

The image of the ruthless torture during the making of fried ice cream flashed through Wang Qing's mind. He lowered his head, a smile appearing on his face.

Then he suddenly looked up, his gaze towards Lia turning completely cold, like a tiger chasing its prey in the jungle, determined not to give up until it achieved its goal.

"Ice and fire? How interesting."

It's a pity there wasn't time for pre-treatment, and the budget was extremely limited. Otherwise, using low-temperature aging technology to make the fat translucent and frosty, and then instantly searing the Wagyu beef in a binchotan kiln until the surface was caramelized would have been quite good..."

Unable to hear Wang Qing's mutterings, and unaware that she was being stared at with murderous intent, Leah was lost in a mental storm.

With a clear theme, she already had a basic framework for the dish in her mind, but due to the difficulty in obtaining the ingredients and the need for pre-processing, she ruthlessly eliminated it.

"No, thinking about it carefully, it seems that preprocessing is not always necessary."

Wait...maybe!

Just as Leah was about to give up and try a different approach to her research, a thought flashed through her mind, and her thoughts converged once again, leading her to move in the direction she had envisioned.

No need for a complete replacement; just replace the pre-processing part with something else!

Such a thought popped into Leah's mind, and then she came up with several solutions. Although the effect was not as good as low-temperature aging, it was indeed the best result that could be achieved in two hours.

"Look, Wang Qing has started to take action!"

Just then, the sound of the audience caught Lia's attention, and she looked at Wang Qing, who was leaving through the contestant's passage.