Everyday Life Starting with Food Wars

"Huh? I didn't dodge." Soma Yukihira scratched his messy red hair, looking completely innocent. "I've been researching new dishes in the Polaris Dormitory kitchen these past few days. By the way, Little Meatball, I heard that you almost cried when you got back to the research club after eating my onion and beef rice bowl last time? Is that true?"

"Who's crying! Stop talking nonsense!"

Mito Ikumi's face flushed bright red instantly, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. She stomped her foot angrily: "And one more time! I'm warning you for the last time, don't you dare call me that awful nickname again!"

After she finished speaking, she glanced at the people next to Yukihira Soma, her gaze lingering on Chen Yuxing for a moment.

This transfer student, who had won five consecutive matches on his own shortly after the start of the semester, is now known to everyone at Totsuki Academy.

Mito Ikumi and Chen Yuxing had never spoken and didn't usually interact much; they simply nodded to each other as a greeting.

Then, turning back to Soma Yukihira, she glared at him and said fiercely, "Anyway! You better fight tooth and nail to stay on this residential training program. If you dare to drop out halfway through, and the Rice Bowl Research Club gets into another food war because of something else, I won't care! Got it, you idiot?!" With that, she turned and strode away.

The members of Polaris Dormitory looked at each other, bewildered, as she walked away.

"Is this some kind of...tsundere concern?" Yoshino Yuuki rubbed her chin and remarked.

Before they could finish complaining, Takmi Aldini jumped off another bus, followed by his brother Isami, who was panting heavily and carrying two large bags on his back, walking like a hamster moving house.

Takumi spotted Chen Yuxing in the crowd at a glance and walked over without hesitation.

"Chen Yuxing!"

Takumi stopped less than a meter away from Chen Yuxing. His golden hair shone brightly in the morning light. He frowned slightly, but his sea-blue eyes burned with an uncontrollable fighting spirit due to excitement, and even the corners of his mouth were curved with anticipation.

"As is customary, the group assignments for the residential training program are completely randomized, but... if we're assigned to the same topic, this time, I'll definitely show you the power of the Aldini family."

Chen Yuxing looked at the blond boy in front of him and couldn't help but smile.

"Then I can only wish you good luck in drawing a lot this time." Chen Yuxing extended his right hand.

Takumi's eyes narrowed, and he also reached out his hand. The two hands clasped together, and they shook them vigorously twice.

"Just you wait!" Takmi said arrogantly, then pulled Isami and strode towards the hotel. Isami stumbled as his brother dragged him, and as they passed by, he turned his head and gave Chen Yuxing an embarrassed smile.

Once these "minor incidents" had all subsided, Tadokoro Megumi quietly stepped forward from behind Chen Yuxing.

She had stood quietly to his side and behind him the whole time, clutching her backpack, which she had stuffed to the brim.

Chen Yuxing glanced at her slightly; her breathing was steady, and her fingers were not clenched.

It seems that the "high-pressure devil training" these past few days has not been in vain. The blue-haired girl who used to be very nervous is now slowly becoming braver.

"You're in good shape," Chen Yuxing said softly. "Let's go."

"Yes!" Tadokoro Megumi nodded heavily, a bright smile spreading across her face, and walked side by side with Chen Yuxing toward the hotel entrance that resembled a lurking behemoth.

……

All the first-year students, following the announcement over the loudspeaker, gathered in the most central banquet hall of the Far Moon Palace.

Nearly a thousand students in uniforms filled the spacious hall to capacity.

However, the silence at the scene was almost suffocating.

There wasn't a trace of the usual noise and whispers that come with a gathering of peers. Everyone was holding their breath, their faces were tense, and their eyes held a sense of uncertainty about the future.

Chen Yuxing stood in the line at Polaris Dormitory. To his left and in front of him was Yukihira Soma, who was frowning and looking around like a radar, while to his right and behind him was Tadokoro Megumi, who was standing quietly.

"Phew... This atmosphere is terrifying. It feels like all the oxygen in the air has been sucked out..." Yoshino Yuuki swallowed and muttered softly.

As soon as she finished speaking, the large, previously dark podium in front of the hall suddenly lit up with a blinding white spotlight.

Then, the two heavy mahogany doors of the banquet hall were slammed shut by the staff amidst a teeth-grinding scraping sound.

With a muffled "bang!", like a judge striking his gavel, the students were completely cut off from the outside world and imprisoned in a gladiatorial arena called "Hell".

Not long after the crisp sound of leather shoes rang out, Roland Chappell, with his perpetually "keep away" face, walked onto the podium like a stern drill instructor surveying his territory.

His gloomy gaze swept over the dense crowd below the stage, and with just one look, several students in the front row trembled in fear.

"Please look over here at the podium. I'm going to give you an overview of the training camp."

"This residential workshop will last for six days and five nights. Every day, we will be given a cooking-related question. The content of the question will be different every year. On the first day, the 980 students will be divided into 20 groups. After the explanation, please move to the designated meeting point."

"If a student receives a score below the standard line in a question, they will be disqualified and will have to be forcibly sent back to school by a waiting campus bus. They will then be expelled after the training is completed."

He announced the basic rules of the residential training program in his usual deep but uncompromising voice.

Listening to this ruthless elimination rule, Chen Yuxing could clearly hear gasps and chattering from the surrounding queues.

He turned his head slightly and glanced at Tadokoro out of the corner of his eye.

Xiao Hui's face paled for a moment, but she remained standing firmly on her feet, and her back even straightened a bit.

"Very good," Chen Yuxing nodded to himself.

But this was just an appetizer; even greater pressure was on its way.

“To ensure the rigor and absolute authority of the review process,” Chappelle continued, “we have specially invited several guest lecturers from top kitchens around the world. Without exception, they are all outstanding graduates who survived and succeeded in the hellish college entrance examination system of Totsuki Academy!”

As Chappelle introduced herself, the large screen behind the podium suddenly lit up, and a stirring and imposing background music began to play.

The heavy curtain was drawn back, and a group of powerful figures, each as dazzling as a star, slowly emerged from behind the curtain.

"Look! That's... Chef Kojiro Shinomiya, the first seat of the 79th class of the Elite Ten, who now runs a restaurant in Paris and has received the French Order of the Proseple!"

"Oh my god, there's also the head chef of the Ginza Nichirin Sushi restaurant!"

"The beautiful manager and head chef of the Kiriya restaurant!"

"Chef Fuyumi Mizuhara of the Italian restaurant 'Ristorante F'! She's my idol!"

"The Spanish restaurant's senior chef, Kakuzaki Taki, and Chef Kikuchi Enka of Shunka-tei, and that... the flamboyant Italian culinary genius, Chef Donato Gotoda!"

With each figure stepping out, the audience erupted in gasps and exclamations that were impossible to contain.

Every face on these students' faces represents a top figure they can only admire and look up to on the covers of high-end culinary magazines or in international food programs.

It's like you're still in junior high school, and suddenly the school locks you up and makes you take an exam, then tells you that the proctors for this midterm exam are all kinds of well-known academic professors from home and abroad. That feeling of suffocation is undoubtedly terrifying.

While everyone was still immersed in the excitement of seeing top chefs.

Kojiro Shinomiya, with his pink, tousled hair, stood at the edge of the stage. His brows were slightly furrowed, and a cold glint of light shone from his glasses on his high, straight nose. He suddenly pointed in the direction of the Polar Star Dormitory.

“You, the ninth column over there, the red-haired kid with the scar on his eyebrow.”

"Huh? Is it me?" Soma Yukihira pointed to himself.

“No, it’s the guy next to you.” Shinomiya paused. “You can go back now. Your hairspray has citrus-scented spices, which will overpower the aroma of the food. Go back and process your withdrawal from school.”

"Wh...what?!"

The boy who was singled out was initially dumbfounded, but then a surge of anger rushed to his head, and he instinctively shouted, "Why, why?! Just because I sprayed some scented hairspray on my head, such a trivial matter, you're going to expel me from school so hastily?! That's so unreasonable!"

"Unreasonable? A trivial matter?"

Kojiro Shinomiya's eyes suddenly turned fierce, and a terrifying aura erupted from him.

"Sometimes, it's because of your arrogant attitude that I lose customers. Are you trying to ruin my shop?"

After Shinomiya finished speaking, she looked away from him, her eyes as cold as a knife pulled from a freezer.

The boy, who had originally wanted to argue, felt all his strength drain away the moment he met those eyes filled with murderous intent.

His mouth opened and closed, his face turned deathly pale, but he couldn't utter a single word. His legs gave way, and he collapsed to his knees with a thud. Then, like a walking corpse, he walked listlessly toward the locker room.

The scene fell into a deathly silence that lasted for half a minute.

All the students, including the usually fearless troublemakers like Daigo Aoki and Shoji Sato, couldn't help but swallow hard, cold sweat streaming down their faces.

Making an example of someone to scare others is a cruel way of showing one's power.

In the Polaris dormitory group, Chen Yuxing crossed his arms in front of his chest, watching the scene unfolding on stage without any surprise.

The law of the jungle, where the strong prey on the weak, was fully embodied at this moment.

However, in this deathly silence that made people afraid to even breathe.

Donato Wutongtian, a handsome Italian chef with blond hair, blue eyes, and a chin shaped like a butt, had somehow slipped down from the imposing podium.

He ignored the frozen atmosphere in the hall and walked straight through the crowd, finally stopping in front of Tadokoro Megumi.

Chapter 19 Project Grouping

The Italian chef bent down and, with an exaggerated, aria-like tone, extended a hand affectionately to Megumi Tadokoro.

"As pure as a white clover, my heartbeat tells me that perhaps I was born into this world just to meet you at this moment."

Donato Wutongtian's eyes sparkled with a peach blossom-like light, his voice deep and magnetic: "My beautiful classmate, after your intense training tonight, would you like to come to my presidential suite? We can sip some red wine and discuss the profound mysteries of 'food and love' all night long—"

Faced with this sudden, even sexually harassing, approach, Tadokoro Megumi's pupils dilated abruptly, and she felt like a little rabbit encountering a weasel, her brain going blank for a second.

Her body instinctively wanted to back away, but because there were people all around, there was nowhere to retreat.

"I'm sorry, lecturer, my family's head chef has a very busy schedule and she doesn't have time to participate in your exchange."

Chen Yuxing took a big step from the front row and stood between Tadokoro Megumi and Donato. His movement was not fast, but his entire arm separated the two of them. He did not touch Donato's outstretched hand, but simply used his position to separate it from Tadokoro Megumi.

Donato paused for a moment, then looked up at the black-haired boy in front of him who was a head taller than him.

"Oh dear~"

With a lazy, soft Kyoto accent, Hinako Inui appeared silently beside Chen Yuxing like a ghost.

Today she was wearing a very down-to-earth Japanese-style apron, and her smile was as gentle as a kind older sister. But Chen Yuxing saw that the woman had already started moving from the stage the moment Donato opened her mouth. It was just that he was closer and his positioning was half a beat faster than hers.

"Chef Wutongtian, could you please be a little more mindful of the occasion? This is the sacred Totsuki Resort training ground, not that fancy brothel you booked in Roppongi for picking up women."

Hinako Inui half-opened her smiling eyes, but her tone carried an undeniable warning, "During such a tense and exciting period of residential training, coming down here to harass cute female students, if this gets out, it'll be a headline scandal, you know?"

Donato pursed his lips helplessly, withdrew his hand, and straightened the fancy silk scarf at his collar. Having been called out by his peers in front of so many juniors, he was too embarrassed to stay any longer, so he could only turn around dejectedly and slink back to the stage.

Seeing that the "pervert" was gone, Tadokoro Megumi breathed a sigh of relief.

Unexpectedly, Hinako Inui suddenly turned to look at Megumi Tadokoro and gently lifted her chin with her hand.

“But you’re really cute. Your skin is so nice, and your eyes are so big, like a freshly steamed tofu…you look so delicious.” Her fingers slid down Tadokoro Megumi’s cheek, stopping at her shoulder, her thumb gently pressing on her collarbone. “Please come to my shop next time, okay? Hmm…”

"Chef Hyugako Inui!"

On stage, Ms. Chappell's veins throbbed wildly on her forehead, her barely suppressed anger rising. With a roar that seemed capable of shattering glass, the entire hall trembled three times.

"Here she comes, here she comes, you're so impatient." Hinako Inui stuck out her tongue, playfully patted Megumi Tadokoro's stiff shoulder, and then turned and slowly walked towards the stage.

As she passed Chen Yuxing, she paused slightly.

He tilted his head slightly towards Chen Yuxing and murmured something in a low voice, only audible to the two of them:

"Oh my~ That step you just took, the timing of your entry and the angle of your block were perfect! You reacted pretty quickly, handsome young man~"

After saying that, she smiled and walked away with light steps.

Megumi Tadokoro, who remained where she was, was completely transformed into a boiling kettle. Her face went from deathly pale to a bright red, with steam rising from her ears, in less than 1.5 seconds.

"Um..." Xiao Hui lowered her head, clutching the hem of her blue apron that had been kneaded countless times, turning it over and over, her voice barely audible, "Just now... thank you so much, Xing-tong."

"There's no need to thank me." Chen Yuxing turned his head slightly, looking at her head that was almost buried in her collar. He made sure that although the girl was shy, her posture was much more steady than before she came. Then he said half-jokingly, "Remember, if someone like Donato comes again next time, just take three steps back and don't let him get within an arm's length, understand?"

Tadokoro Megumi nodded frantically, like a chick pecking at rice.

At that moment, accompanied by a series of steady, almost tangible, footsteps, Dojima Gin—the absolute overlord of Totsuki Resort and the legendary man who was the first seat of the 69th class of the Elite Ten—stood in the very center of the stage.

He placed his hands on his powerful waist, his explosive muscles exuding strength even through his expensive suit, and his resolute face radiated a calm and domineering aura of complete control.

"Welcome to the entrance to hell!" Dojima Gin didn't use a microphone, but his booming voice resonated throughout the entire venue.

“You all saw what happened just now. Every graduate here is the master of their own restaurant! For the next six days, they will hold you to the same rigorous standards they use for their own employees. Do you know what that means? Anyone who doesn't meet our standards—will be expelled!”

Dojima Gin suddenly raised his thick arm and pointed to the huge electronic display screen that slowly descended from the top of the hall: "Now, according to the student number assigned to you on the screen, immediately put aside all distractions and rush to the gate of destiny that has been drawn for you! Residential training—officially starting, get moving!"

"Yes!!!"

The students, who had been frozen in fear, suddenly sprang to life, and the hall erupted in a thunderous thud as nearly a thousand people scattered like a tidal wave, searching for their assigned exam rooms.

Amidst the chaotic crowd, Chen Yuxing quickly spotted his name on the huge scrolling screen.

"Chen Yuxing, student ID: 935. Group: Group F. Exam instructor: Inui Hinako."

He then glanced down at the adjacent lists.

"Tadokoro Megumi, student ID: 936. Group: Group F."

"Oh, what a coincidence." Chen Yuxing patted Tadokoro Megumi, who was frantically scrolling through her phone's memo app next to her. "Megumi, put your phone away, stop looking. We're in the same group now, exam room F. The instructor is Chef Inui Hinako, the one who just complimented your looks."

Upon hearing this, Tadokoro Megumi was taken aback at first, then let out a long sigh of relief, her tense shoulders visibly relaxing: "That's great... Following what A-Xing said, I... I don't feel so scared anymore!"