Everyday Life Starting with Food Wars

Chen Yuxing hummed in agreement.

"Honestly, how did you know you had to do this?"

Chen Yuxing scratched his face: "When the red wine is stewing for a while, most of the alcohol will evaporate, but the moisture will accumulate on the lid and drip back into the soup, which will dilute the flavor. Opening a small gap to let the excess moisture escape will make the soup thicker."

The classroom was quiet for two or three seconds.

Then Chappelle smiled slightly.

"May I have your name?"

"Chen Yuxing".

Chappell wrote the name in her teaching notes, then closed the notebook and said to the class, "The groups that failed today are 3, 7, 11, 15, and 20. You can leave now."

The students in those groups turned pale. Someone tried to say something, but was silenced by a glare from Xia Peier.

The bell rang, and Tadokoro Megumi collapsed onto the control panel, her clothes soaked through.

"I...I thought we were going to be eliminated too..."

Chen Yuxing untied his apron and folded it neatly: "Your hands are very steady when you cut vegetables, don't scare yourself like that."

Upon hearing this, Tadokoro Megumi's eyes reddened.

She has always been considered a "loser" when it comes to cooking, especially after joining Totsuki Culinary Academy. She lives in constant fear and can't sleep well at night.

This was the first time someone had praised her for her steady hands.

She was just about to say thank you when Soma Yukihira jumped over and put his arm around Chen Yuxing's shoulder.

"Dude! That stewed beef you made smelled so good! I almost ran over and took a bite from three counters away."

Chen Yuxing was shaken so badly that he swayed to one side: "Didn't you pass too?"

“It’s over now.” Soma Yukihira sighed. “That Megumi, right? You’re really lucky to be in the same group as her.”

Tadokoro Megumi was still standing there in a daze when she heard this. She reacted immediately and bowed deeply, saying, "Thank you, Chen-kun!"

Chen Yuxing waved his hand and was about to walk towards the classroom door.

Then he caught a glimpse of a figure out of the corner of his eye.

At the back door of the classroom, Erina Nakiri leaned against the wall with her arms crossed over her chest, her amber eyes staring at him.

Her expression remained that haughty indifference, but Chen Yuxing noticed a certain undisguised surprise in her eyes as she looked at him.

Their eyes met.

Erina Nakiri was the first to look away, snorted, and turned to leave, her long golden hair whipping in an arc behind her.

Soma Yukihira noticed it too and muttered to himself, "What's that blonde young lady doing here?"

Chen Yuxing watched as Erina Nakiri disappeared around the corner of the corridor.

He didn't tell anyone that while he was stewing the beef, he vaguely sensed that someone had been standing outside the window for a long time.

From that spot, you could see every step of his cooking process.

The person standing in that position is most likely the eldest daughter of the Nakiri family.

Chapter 3: The Admission Qualification Test for Polaris Dormitory

After Xia Pei'er's class ended, Chen Yuxing packed up his knives and prepared to find his dormitory according to the map in the student handbook.

"Brother! Wait for me!"

Soma Yukihira caught up from behind, carrying a worn-out backpack on his shoulder and a bag of unknown contents in his hand, looking like he had just moved.

"Are you going to Polaris Dormitory too?" Chen Yuxing asked.

“Yeah, that’s where the dorms the school assigned us.” Soma Yukihira pulled out his crumpled dorm assignment sheet. “You too? Perfect, let’s go together.”

Just as the two were about to leave the teaching building, another person caught up from behind.

Tadokoro Megumi came running up, panting, carrying a cloth bag: "Chen, Chen Yuxing! Yukihira! Are you going to Polar Star Dormitory too?"

"You too?" Chen Yuxing was a little surprised.

"Yes, I've been living in Polaris Dormitory since junior high school."

Tadokoro Megumi slung the bag over her shoulder, still a little out of breath from walking. "I saw you guys heading in this direction, so I guessed you were also assigned to the Polar Star Dormitory. Um... let's go back together. I know this way well. There are shortcuts from the teaching area to the Polar Star Dormitory, so we don't have to go around in circles."

"That's great." Chen Yuxing took the cloth bag from her hand. "Lead the way."

Tadokoro Megumi blushed, but she didn't take the bag back. She just whispered "thank you."

The three of them left the teaching building, and Tadokoro Megumi led them through a ginkgo forest and along a gravel path deeper into the dormitory area.

Totsuki Academy is ridiculously large. If you follow the main road on the map from the teaching area to the dormitory area, it will take at least twenty minutes.

But the path that Tadokoro Megumi led them along was winding and took about ten minutes to reach their destination.

The roadside is lined with ginkgo trees, their golden leaves carpeting the ground, rustling as you walk on them. Occasionally, a gust of wind blows, and a few leaves twirl and drift onto your shoulder.

Soma Yukihira looked around as he walked: "This place is ridiculous, there are several dormitories alone. Where is Polaris Dormitory?"

“The one in the far corner,” Tadokoro Megumi pointed to the gray roof peeking out from behind the bushes. “It’s an old dormitory building, about fifty or sixty years old.”

"The old dormitory..." Soma Yukihira suddenly lowered his voice, "Could it be haunted?"

Megumi Tadokoro smiled, pursing her lips: "There are no ghosts, but sometimes I hear Yuuki chasing deer in the corridor in the middle of the night, and the noise is quite frightening."

"Chasing a deer?"

"Yoshino Yuuki, a first-year student, lives in room 116. She keeps some wild animals behind the dormitory, and occasionally the animals will escape."

Soma Yukihira scratched his head: "Sounds like a pretty interesting place."

After walking for about ten minutes, the three of them finally saw the Polar Star Dormitory.

To be precise, I saw a three-story wooden villa hidden behind several large camphor trees. The exterior walls were covered with ivy, and the ivy leaves were starting to turn red at this time of year, which looked quite nice against the gray wooden walls. The windows were filled with dim yellow light.

There is a gravel path in front of the building, with weeds growing up to waist height on both sides, but the middle section that is frequently walked on is worn smooth by footsteps, which shows that people come and go every day.

Tadokoro Megumi walked to the door, naturally pushed open the entrance door, and then took out two pairs of slippers from the shoe cabinet and handed them to Chen Yuxing and Yukihira Soma.

"New students must change their shoes upon arrival. Mrs. Wenxu hates it when people wear outdoor shoes and step on her floor," she said in a low voice, clearly well aware of this rule.

The entryway is quite large, with dark wood flooring that creaks underfoot.

There was a row of mailboxes on the wall, each with a guest's name on it. Some of the stickers were yellowed and curled at the edges. Next to them was a handwritten notice that read "Welcome new residents." The handwriting was neat, but the ink had faded.

"Is anyone there?" Soma Yukihira called out.

No one responded.

But various noises came from deep within the building—something was running around upstairs, there were animal cries, and faint music.

"What's that sound?" Chen Yuxing asked.

"It seems like Yuuki's pets have escaped again." Tadokoro Megumi sighed and casually called out towards the end of the corridor, "Yuuki! Has Kamosuke run away again?"

No sooner had he finished speaking than a thick plume of smoke suddenly billowed from the second-floor corridor.

Immediately afterward, a loudspeaker at the end of the corridor blared out, and a booming female voice exploded: "Room 208! You've turned your room into a smokehouse again! Be careful, or I'll hang you on the clothesline outside and smoke you into jerky!"

Tadokoro Megumi shrank back and whispered to Chen Yuxing, "That's Mrs. Fumio, the dormitory manager of Polar Star Dormitory. She has a loud voice but is a very nice person. As long as you don't smoke in your room, you won't get yelled at."

Just as the loudspeaker stopped, a large group of animals suddenly rushed out from the first-floor corridor.

Chickens were flying, ducks were running, and a half-grown deer brushed past Chen Yuxing's feet, followed by several pink piglets.

Immediately afterward, a girl with long orange hair and a bun hairstyle chased after them, shouting as she ran, "Usagi! Kamosuke! Kano Susumu! Don't run around!"

Several piglets grunted and nudged towards Chen Yuxing's legs, making the girl so anxious she was about to cry.

"Yuuki, block the chicken first, it's running into the kitchen!"

Tadokoro Megumi called out, then shoved her cloth bag into Chen Yuxing's hand and ran to the entrance of the corridor to block the chickens' path.

She was quite skilled at herding chickens, clearly having done it many times before.

Yoshino Yuuki then noticed the two people standing in the entryway. She paused for a second, then immediately realized, "Ah! The new first-year student! Megumi, did you bring her back?"

“Yes, we just finished the formalities today.” Tadokoro Megumi gathered the last chicken, picked it up and handed it back to Yoshino Yuuki. “This is Chen Yuxing, and this is Yukihira Soma. Chen Yuxing was in my group in class today and helped me a lot.”

"Oh, oh!" Yoshino Yuuki bowed while holding the chicken. "I'm sorry, I startled you. I'm Yoshino Yuuki, a first-year student. I raised these things. Please wait a moment, I'll send Kano Susumu back."

She called out upstairs, "Isshiki-senpai! The first-year student is here!"

After calling out, he said to Megumi Tadokoro, "Megumi, could you please entertain them for me? Mrs. Fumio should be in the kitchen."

"Mrs. Fumio is in the kitchen?" Tadokoro Megumi's expression changed slightly. "She wouldn't...?"

"I'm stewing radish and crucian carp, your favorite, right?" Yoshino Yuuki winked.

Tadokoro Megumi's eyes lit up, but she immediately remembered the important matter and turned to Chen Yuxing, saying, "You need to go see Mrs. Fumio first. Polar Star Dormitory has a rule that you have to pass the test before you can get the room key."

"Test your skills?" Soma Yukihira asked.

"It's just about making one of your best dishes and having Mrs. Fumio rate it." Tadokoro Megumi led them to the kitchen. "It's best to prepare the ingredients yourself, but since it was so sudden today, there should still be some leftover ingredients in the kitchen that we can use in case of emergency."

She pushed open the kitchen door: "Mrs. Fumio, the new student is here."

Mrs. Fumio's hairstyle is the same as that Tadokoro Megumi described before.

There was order within the chaos, like something blown by the wind yet maintaining a certain fixed shape. She was probably in her fifties, wearing a faded apron, and was adding some seasoning to a clay pot.

"I've been waiting for you for a long time." She turned around, put her hands on her hips, and looked at the two people standing at the door. "I am the dormitory manager of Polaris Dormitory. You can call me Mrs. Fumio, or 'Polaris Maria' if you like. Now that you're here, let's get down to business."

Mrs. Fumio gave a meaningful smile. "The rule of Polaris Dormitory is that newlyweds must cook a dish on the spot, and it only counts after I taste and approve it. Moreover, you have to prepare the ingredients yourself."

Soma Yukihira looked completely bewildered: "Wait, I've never heard of this rule before!"

“I’ve heard about it now.” Mrs. Wenxu walked a few steps into the kitchen and pointed to the ingredients section. “There are only some scallions and half an onion left in the vegetables. There’s no meat left in the freezer, just a bag of dried squid strips and a few cans. Everything else was swept up by those kids.”

Tadokoro Megumi whispered, "It's mainly Daigo and Shoji. They just had a round of fried food competition this afternoon and used up all the meat in the fridge."

With nowhere else to turn, Soma Yukihira began rummaging through the cupboard.

Chen Yuxing didn't rush to flip through them. He stood in front of the workbench and scanned through the "usable scraps" that Mrs. Wenxu had just mentioned.

There was a carton of eggs, plenty of rice, and all the seasonings were provided. Although there weren't many vegetables, the basics like scallions, ginger, and garlic were all there, and there were also some canned meats.

This is enough.

Just as he was about to start cooking, he suddenly remembered something and turned to ask Tadokoro Megumi, "What kind of meal are you planning to make for the guest stay tonight?"

Tadokoro Megumi paused for a moment, then shook her head: "I don't need to. I'm a long-time resident. I passed the application last year when I was in junior high school."

She paused, her voice softening slightly, "I was making stewed potatoes and meat, and it almost didn't pass muster. Mrs. Wenxu said my cooking skills were far from adequate."

"Now I remember," Chen Yuxing said, tying on his apron.

He walked to the counter and took the eggs and the bag of dried squid.

Then I stood there, closed my eyes, and thought for about thirty seconds.

A dish popped into my head—three-egg shumai.

Egg-filled dough, meat filling wrapped around crab roe, and topped with chopped preserved egg.

This dessert, unlocked in "The Book of Cookery," requires egg liquid in the flour, the filling needs to have the freshness of crab and the smoothness of eggs, and the topping is chopped preserved egg white.

But the problem is that he doesn't have crab roe or preserved eggs right now.

Chen Yuxing opened his eyes and looked at the bag of dried squid strips in front of him.

The umami flavor of dried squid is no less than that of crab roe, and the broth made from soaking dried squid should be able to compensate for the lack of flavor in the meat filling, which would otherwise be missing the flavor profile of preserved eggs and crab roe.

As for the dough, there are enough eggs, but kneading dough with pure egg liquid is more difficult than the recipe says.

Chen Yuxing rolled up his sleeves and began washing his hands.

Tadokoro Megumi watched his movements from the side.

For some reason, she always felt that Chen Yuxing's entire demeanor changed whenever he stood in front of the control panel.

I was a little hunched over when I was walking just now, but now my back is straight. The usual look that makes me look like I'm about to doze off is gone, replaced by a very focused and serious expression. I used soap to wash my fingers and even used a brush to carefully clean under my nails.

"Um...do you need my help?" Tadokoro asked softly.

Chen Yuxing turned to look at her: "Do you know how to cut dried squid?"

"I know a little..."