Shocking! The entire court was drooling with envy because of me.

"There are two scoring criteria: relevance to the topic and taste. Both are scored by seven judges, with the winner advancing and the loser being eliminated."

As soon as he finished speaking, the lottery box was brought out, containing ten wax balls, each sealed with a single character.

"There are ten questions here, namely: Fresh, Strong, Clear, Harmonious, Raw, Bitter, Home, Spicy, Hidden, Warm."

"Now, contestants, please come up to the stage and draw your corresponding question."

The audience was completely silent, everyone carefully pondering the questions.

Some words sound simple, such as "fresh" and "spicy," and you can easily figure them out by making dishes with the corresponding flavors.

However, some characters are not easy to understand, such as 藏 (cang), 家 (jia), and 和 (he), and it is not easy to get the meaning right from the topic.

"Madam Shen, who should draw the question?" Gao Hongyuan walked up to Shen Qing and asked humbly.

Shen Qing didn't care who drew the ticket, it was all the same: "It's fine either way, you can go if you want."

"That won't do. We're rivals. If I draw a question that's not favorable to you, you'll accuse me of cheating."

"Then I'll go."

Shen Qing took a step and walked away.

Gao Hongyuan quickly stopped Shen Qing, saying, "What if you go directly and draw a question that's unfavorable to me?"

???

Shen Qing was speechless. Why did this person have so many problems?

"Then you go."

"I can't just go there directly; I want to win fair and square."

Shen Qing took a deep breath: "So, what do you plan to do?"

"Let's roll the dice, whoever gets the highest number goes." With that, Gao Hongyuan took a die from his sleeve.

Shen Qing was so angry he laughed. He took the dice and tossed them aside casually.

"Second, it's your turn."

"I am number five!" Gao Hongyuan shouted.

"Then you should go quickly."

Gao Hongyuan put the dice away, and after a while, he said, "I've thought about it, so you should go. I've always had bad luck."

It's so tedious.

Shen Qing was always efficient and couldn't stand people who were slow and indecisive.

She didn't answer Gao Hongyuan again, and walked directly towards the divination box.

Gao Hongyuan stared at Shen Qing's retreating figure, his face filled with determination.

He came prepared today; everything has been arranged.

The reason Shen Qing was asked to come forward and draw the sample was to prove that he hadn't tampered with it, and that what happened just now was merely a delaying tactic.

Shen Qing went up to the stage and saw that there was only one wax ball left in the divination tube.

Clearly, all the other contestants had already drawn their lots, leaving only their group.

Okay, there's no need to draw any more lots, let's leave it to fate.

Shen Qing crushed the wax pill and took out a piece of paper from it.

The note had the word "spicy" written on it.

"How did it go? What question did you get?" Gao Hongyuan walked over eagerly, feigning confusion.

Shen Qing handed over the note: "It's spicy."

"It's spicy..." Gao Hongyuan's eyes widened, and he exclaimed, "Thank goodness! Thank goodness I brought a lot of chili peppers! Thank goodness!!"

"Madam Shen, did you bring any chili peppers?"

Shen Qing shook her head: "I didn't prepare any ingredients."

"Alas... Madam Shen, you'd better be careful..."

Gao Hongyuan appeared regretful, but inside he was overjoyed.

Yesterday, he obtained the exam questions by paying money; these were questions he had specifically reserved for himself.

As everyone knows, Madam Shen never prepares extra ingredients for the competition; she only uses the basic ingredients provided by the competition.

To make a truly exceptional dish, you must use a variety of different types of chili peppers.

He prepared more than ten kinds of chili peppers, but the competition only provided two green peppers.

Furthermore, he bribed a servant to tamper with Madam Shen's ingredients.

Therefore, he will definitely win this time!

"Okay, be careful too." Shen Qing remained calm and walked straight to her stove.

She felt that Gao Hongyuan's appearance was somewhat strange and that he was also very indecisive.

I don't want to talk to him too much.

He turned and began to inspect his stove.

On the surface, it looks the same as everyone else's, with some basic kitchen utensils and ingredients.

But upon closer inspection, all the vegetables were wilted, especially the two green peppers, which were completely rotten and even smelled bad.

Hmm... the meat's gone bad...

The topic is spicy, but the only two green peppers on the stove that can produce spiciness have gone bad.

Shen Qing frowned slightly, raised his hand, and threw the two stinky peppers and the stinky meat directly into the trash can.

"Madam Shen drew the spicy one, but why did she throw away the green peppers?" Guo Tiancheng was extremely anxious, wishing he could go up and pick those two green peppers out of the slag bin.

"What are we going to do? There's not a single spicy dish on the entire stove!"

"What should we do? Is it too late for us to go buy it now?"

Madam Yan and Situ Liang were also anxious.

Just then, a loud gong sound reached everyone's ears.

"The cooking time is one hour. Contestants, please be ready."

"three!"

"two!"

"one!"

"start!!"

As the shouts rang out, all the contestants sprang into action.

Gao Hongyuan was overjoyed and took out a lot of chili peppers from his basket, red, green, yellow, long, short, and round.

Although no one knew what he was going to do with the chili peppers, everyone immediately felt that Gao Hongyuan was confident of victory.

After all, Shen Qing didn't even have a basket, and she didn't have any chili peppers on her stove.

"This time, Madam Shen is definitely going to lose!!"

"The theme is spicy, but there are no chili peppers, hahaha, women who climb the ladder through connections and relationships are finally going to be eliminated!"

"I refuse to believe that anything unexpected can happen today."

"..."

The audience erupted in cheers; the atmosphere was electric, and they no longer cared whether Shen Qing could hear them or not.

Anyway, everyone's talking about it.

All these words reached the ears of Situ Liang and the others at once, and the three of them turned extremely pale. If Shen Qing hadn't remained calm, they would have been unable to stay still.

Li Zhesheng couldn't help but take a few steps closer to Shen Qing's stove, and at this moment he couldn't help but worry.

He had personally tasted Shen Qing's shredded tofu and knew that Shen Qing was truly skilled. It would be a real pity if Shen Qing were eliminated because there was no chili.

Just as he was getting anxious for Shen Qing, he saw Shen Qing take a large basin, add some flour to it, and then add water while stirring.

"...She's kneading dough..." Lee Cheol-sung's eyes widened.

He could clearly see that the technique was kneading dough.

To win this time, we must focus on the word "spicy".

"Is Madam Shen kneading dough??"

"Haha, that's hilarious! Is she just giving up on herself?"

"Is it hungry and trying to steam itself a bun?"

"..."

The audience laughed, and after hearing those rumors, they all subconsciously looked down on Shen Qing.

Seeing Shen Qing's actions, Gao Hongyuan chuckled, "Madam Shen, would you like me to share some chili peppers with you?"