Who gave this heretical practitioner permission to cook?

Chapter 156 Zheng Zeqian is Short of Money! Stir-fry? Let's see who's the fastest! (5K Second Update + Bonus Chapter)

[New Chef Competition, Round of 64 to 32 Matchup]

[Li Yushuo (1A)] VS [Han Tianyan (1B)]

Zheng Zeqian (2A) VS Han Siwei (2B)

【.】

Qian Youdao (5A) VS Zhou Jing (5B)

【He He (6A)】VS【Fang Xu (6B)】

【.】

Bai Heng (11A) VS Su Zhe (11B)

Qiao Ruoning (12A) VS Jiang Yuwen (12B)

Li Yuan (13A) VS Jiang Botao (13B)

【.】

Xia Ming (16A) VS Sun Xingyao (16B)

The viewers in the live stream went wild when they saw the last match.

[Finally, we've met Sun Xingyao! Brother Xia, let's beat him to a pulp!]

Sun Xingyao's face is so sour, this time he'll get a good spanking!

[Show no mercy! Sun Xingyao, that barking dog, deserves a few more kicks. I'm so happy I just opened a bottle of red wine.]

[You asked for it, and you got it. Come on, Sun Xingyao, show everyone your true "strength"!]

[I'm so happy! I thought the Sun Xingyao vs. Shuai Qixing match a few days ago would be the funniest part of the competition, but I didn't expect today's episode to be the main event!]

Beat him up and show him what happens when you're foul-mouthed!

All I can say is that Sun Xingyao is really too arrogant. Somehow, the conversation he had with Shuai Qixing at the corner was leaked out in video clips.

Now, his online public image is completely ruined, and many people are privately boycotting him, feeling that he is not worthy of being a chef.

At this moment, seeing Xia Ming face off against him, everyone was extremely happy and couldn't wait for the duel to begin today so that everyone could vent their anger.

On the other hand, Xia Ming, facing Sun Xingyao's provocative, mad dog-like gaze, simply yawned leisurely and turned his head to the side.

Seeing Xia Ming's dismissive attitude, Sun Xingyao's anger instantly surged.

He walked towards Xia Ming, clearly intending to have a physical fight with him first, but before he even reached Xia Ming's side, he felt his arm being grabbed.

Who the hell is it?

His mouth immediately went into battle mode, and Sun Xingyao turned his head to see which fool had grabbed him.

But when he turned his head back, he met Li Yuan's amused gaze.

"What, your hand healed so quickly?"

"grass"

"I think you don't want to compete anymore."

Sun Xingyao felt Li Yuan's iron-like hand and quickly shook his head.

He had suffered losses at Li Yuan's hands before, and he was about to confront Xia Ming. If something really happened to his hand at this moment, it would be terrible.

Seeing that his attitude had improved considerably, Li Yuan let go of his hand.

"Remember this next time!"

After saying that, Li Yuan glanced at Xia Ming and then noticed that Xia Ming was also looking in their direction. He reached out and greeted him with a smile.

Seeing Li Yuan's somewhat conciliatory gesture, Xia Ming pondered for a moment, then smiled and waved his right hand.

Upon seeing Xia Ming's response, Li Yuan's expression returned to a smile, and then he walked out of the competition venue.

Qian Youdao also came to Xia Ming's side at this moment and asked him if he wanted to go back to the hotel together.

Xia Ming was taken aback.

"Didn't you live outside at first? How come you moved back in?"

Qian Youdao stretched and yawned.

"I didn't stay here before because the VIP rooms were full. Today, someone happened to check out, so I naturally came in."

Hearing Qian Youdao's reasons, Xia Ming smiled faintly.

No wonder they're rich; they don't take advantage of the freebies offered by the competition organizers, and they even have to pay for their own hotel stay.
A VIP room—just hearing that price means it won't be less than 2000 per night. If it were Xia Ming, he definitely wouldn't be happy about it.

With this money, wouldn't it be better to find a way to buy more livestock and more blood?
Even the best VIP room is just for sleeping. He's slept on open-air rocks all over the Nine Provinces. A room costing a few hundred yuan has everything he needs, so it's more than enough for him.

However, since Qian Youdao had already checked in, and it was on their way, the two of them headed towards the hotel together.

As we were walking, Zheng Zeqian suddenly appeared out of nowhere!

"Yawn~ Autumn drowsiness is so hard to bear, seriously, don't any of you want to sleep?"

Xia Ming glanced at Zheng Zeqian and noticed that he had dark circles under his eyes without him realizing it. He wondered what Zheng Zeqian had been doing all night.

Qian Youdao seemed to know a thing or two about it.

"No, what time did you drink until yesterday?!"

Zheng Zeqian raised an eyebrow slightly.

"You can't do this either. You can't even tell I didn't go drinking?"

"Oh, they added a few extra hours yesterday."

"5."

After hearing Zheng Zeqian casually mention five, a hint of curiosity rose in Xia Ming's eyes.

Could it be that Zheng Zeqian has the energy to go out and party for hours on end after competing during the day?
What, you change it every day? Never the same thing twice?
But he was overthinking it. What Qian Youdao meant when he talked to Zheng Zeqian was that Zheng Zeqian was going to get a foot massage and drink tea that night.

In fact, Zheng Zeqian is not only a chef, but also a game companion.

His prices aren't low online, but business is good. His mature, older-looking style and skillful gaming make him popular with wealthy women.

Yesterday, a new customer came in and asked me to play the game. He specified that he wanted 5 hours of gameplay, and then I gave him 95 hours as a gift at the start.

Based on his pricing, 100 hours would cost nearly 5000 yuan, so naturally, one would have to put in more effort to keep the boss company company.

After understanding the situation, Xia Ming nodded.

Regardless of why he didn't choose to become a chef but instead pursued other side jobs, and regardless of why Zheng Zeqian always seemed to be short of money, at least he was dedicated to his work.

He had a match during the day and played all night, but it didn't affect his performance much.

Just after things were cleared up, Qiao Ruoning appeared from the side.

However, this time, he wasn't targeting Xia Ming.

"Zheng Zeqian, are you interested in answering a few questions for me? I can exchange information with you~"

Zheng Zeqian yawned.

"I'm not interested in intelligence. You can ask me questions, 200 per question!"

"make a deal!"

Qiao Ruoning seemed to know Zheng Zeqian well, and she wasn't surprised to hear that he offered cash directly. She transferred 1000 to him on the spot.

Then I asked him a few questions.

After receiving a satisfactory answer, Qiao Ruoning looked directly at Xia Ming.

"Interested in getting some information? Completely free~"

Xia Ming was slightly curious when he heard that it was free and he didn't have to ask him any questions.

"That sounds too good to be true, but it's probably not that simple."

Qiao Ruoning chuckled.

"There's really no catch. They'll just add you to a WeChat group. Once you're in, you can just say hello and then lurk."

After thinking for a moment, Xia Ming asked Qiao Ruoning for details.

It was only in the end that I realized, according to Qiao Ruoning, this was essentially a fan club for Xia Ming.

Most of the people in the group were Xia Ming's young fans, with half being fans of his looks and half fans of his cooking skills. The group leader was Qiao Ruoning's longtime friend. He saw Qiao Ruoning and Xia Ming getting close on the show and asked if he could be brought in.

"Anyway, you'll most likely become a celebrity chef or an online celebrity chef in the future, so it's reasonable to build up your base early on, right?"

Xia Ming pondered for a moment.

Actually, he didn't have a deep understanding of this "fan model" in his memory, but after a little thought, he figured it was probably similar to a famous actor in the mortal world who would have wealthy businessmen throwing money at him every time he performed.

A fan club is essentially a group of people who like you, bringing them together and giving them a clearer goal and greater motivation to support you.
Logically speaking, if he were to pursue a career in variety shows, both casual fans and die-hard fans would be unavoidable topics for him.

Qiao Ruoning was right. In addition, there were no restrictions on him in the group. Whether from the perspective of getting used to it in advance or from the perspective of having an intelligence base, he had no reason to refuse.

"Okay, then pull me up!"

Qiao Ruoning smiled when she heard Xia Ming agree.

Her friend is indeed the group admin and a fan who supports Xia Ming, but so is she!

However, unlike fans who admire her looks or her cooking skills, Qiao Ruoning is a fan of Xia Ming's romantic relationship with his character.
As for what kind of couple they are, who can say for sure?
With Qiao Ruoning's completely open intelligence database, Xia Ming had something to do after returning to the hotel.

Since the draw and specific rules will be conducted tomorrow, he can take a good look at all the information of the top 16 tonight.

Although they seem to have virtually no chance now, it's always good to be cautious.

While Xia Ming was browsing through the profiles of the top 32 chefs in his room, Zheng Zeqian took a shower but didn't rest. Instead, he turned on his computer and continued taking orders.

He was short of money due to family reasons, and he could earn more by competing in small tournaments all over the country than by working as a chef.

More importantly, a chef cannot guarantee that he can take orders every night, but a competition chef can.

In order to better participate in various competitions, he never raised his level, so that he could adapt to the vast majority of competitions.

As for those with higher entry barriers, they are not worthwhile compared to the final bonus and effort.

Not long after he logged into his platform account, someone contacted him. After he skillfully typed "What game does the boss want to play?", the other party claimed to want to discuss a deal with him.

"As long as you do that, you can get 20 yuan. Compared to staying up all night every day to take orders, this is much easier money."

Looking at the message sent in the chat, Zheng Zeqian casually yawned and then replied.

"A 'scavenger' or a 'cloud dweller'?"

"You don't need to know that. All you need to know is that you'll get the money."

Upon receiving the reply, Zheng Zeqian skillfully clicked "refund" and then immediately blocked the ID on the platform.

After he finished doing everything, he stretched his neck.

As a "competition chef" who is short of money, he is frequently approached by organizations such as "Scavenger," "Cloud Guest," "Outer Pigeon," and "Silver Dragonfish."

The prices they offer are often extremely tempting, and the conditions are not difficult; most of the time, all he needs to do is throw a match.

But he didn't want to associate with them at all. He knew in his heart that the idea that he could retire after doing just one job was pure nonsense.

Once you do it, others will have leverage over you. It's not that they won't be punished, it's just that their time hasn't come yet.
"I may be short of money, but I'm not incapable of making it. You guys will all be arrested by the higher-ups sooner or later, and they'll drag me down with them. I must be out of my mind to hang out with you guys."

After saying that, he took a glass of water and continued to offer his services and take orders.
However, while he has such a good mindset, other contestants may not be so unmoved.
After all, 20 is not a small amount for many people.
"The next day, in the familiar competition venue."

Xia Ming stretched slightly. Yesterday, he had carefully read through all the information on the top 32 teams, including his own.

Ultimately, it was discovered that the free information Qiao Ruoning had previously revealed was indeed rather superficial.

Take Sun Xingyao as an example. The free information does not mention his specific lineage, but the full information records it in detail.

To be honest, if we disregard him as a person and only consider his lineage, he certainly has the right to be arrogant, since many of his skills were specifically honed by his master.

"Of course, this cannot cover up the fact that he has flaws in his own abilities. It can only be said that compared to other geniuses, he has a good father with resources."

Upon hearing this, Xia Ming inexplicably thought of his father, a master craftsman of high-quality replicas, who hadn't been heard from for a long time.
"Don't ruin it. Forget it, I'll video chat with him after the competition today and ask him about it."

Leaving his father aside, Xia Ming looked up at the big screen.

The rules for the round of 32 to 16 were different from previous rounds.

The 64-to-32 round is a random draw, and then the order is used by the next group. This time, the competition rules are determined by the two teams, "A" and "B", using a roulette wheel to decide the order.

Take Han Tianyan, the first player to perform today, as an example.

His opponent, Li Yushuo, drew lots to get the first turn, and could choose one of the three options: "ingredients," "method," and "side dishes."

Li Yushuo chose to stew.
In other words, no matter what ingredients they use, they must use the "stewing" method to process them in this round.

As the second option, Han Tianyan pondered for a moment and ultimately chose "ingredients".

He decided on the crab.
After seeing the topic, Li Yushuo's expression turned a little grim. After thinking for a while, he limited the ingredients to "tofu".

In other words, their final topic was...

Crab, Stew, Tofu

The cooking process relies on a chosen technique, and then AI randomly selects the ingredients by spinning a wheel on-site.
This time, we gave them 6 hours.

In other words, the final competition question was: [Crab] [Stewed] [Tofu] [Time ≤ 6 hours]

Xia Ming's match is also today, the third match, which is two hours after Han Tianyan's match. He and Sun Xingyao will then take the stage.

As time passed, it was Xia Ming and Sun Xingyao's turn to take the stage.

During the draw, Sun Xingyao was very lucky to get the first move.

He decided on the method of stir-frying almost without hesitation.

After seeing this question in the live stream, some netizens were worried for Xia Ming.

[They beat me to it. It seems that while Sun is arrogant, he's definitely got a knack for hyping things up.]

[After all, his father is very capable. Putting aside his character, his fundamental skills are quite solid among the top 32.]

[No way, I really don't like this guy, Xia Ming has to beat him to a pulp!]

[With this theme, stir-frying is the obvious choice; surely Mad Dog doesn't want to have a showdown with Xia Ming over "Delicious Fried Double Crispy Dishes"!]

[Damn, if Xia Ming really takes the "Delicious Double Crispy Stir-fry," this round is going to be interesting!]

While viewers in the live stream were speculating, Xia Ming also had many "stir-fried dishes" flash through his mind.

Among them, the most well-known is "Deep-fried Double Crispy", but in fact, this dish is not the "ultimate gatekeeper" of Chinese fire-making skills.

On the contrary, another dish that looks unremarkable is more indicative of the skill in cooking.

Xia Ming knew that Sun Xingyao wanted to defeat him in his strengths.

Xia Ming was well aware that netizens wanted him to defeat Sun Xingyao in his strengths.

In this situation, Xia Ming would definitely choose the strategy with the most bullet comments.
So he smiled and looked at Sun Xingyao across from him.

"Are you really trying to get me to choose 'Deep-fried Double Crispy'? After all, Sichuan and Chongqing have their own versions of this dish."

"You seem very confident in your 'stir-fry' skills, probably thinking you can handle whatever ingredients I choose~"

At this point, Xia Ming raised an eyebrow slightly.

"It takes about 30 seconds for the winner to be decided between the two teams, how boring!"

"If we're going to compete, let's compete on speed!"

As he spoke, Xia Ming directly entered the "ingredients" option on the selector.

The next second, two large characters flashed on the big screen behind the judges.

【Pork Kidney】

Upon seeing these two words, Sun Xingyao's eyes narrowed. He truly hadn't expected Xia Ming to dare choose this ingredient under such circumstances.

As a chef whose specialty is stir-frying, he knows far more about stir-fried pork kidneys than anyone else.

At the same time, he also realized that the difficulty of making this pork kidney dish was much higher than that of stir-fried pork kidney and pork belly.
After all, the cooking time for stir-fried double crispy pork can fluctuate, but the key to victory in stir-fried pork kidney often lies in just half a second!

An ordinary chef could never find this perfect gap, and even he wasn't entirely confident when making this dish!
"This is ridiculous! You're out of your mind, aren't you? Come on, I'm not afraid of you!!!"

"So what if you're crazy? Come on, I'll pick the ingredients!"

Sun Xingyao's eyes flashed with malice as he mentally reviewed all the ingredients for stir-fried pork kidneys. Xia Ming's behavior was tantamount to slapping him in the face.

How could he possibly let Xia Ming get away with this?
Now that things have come to this point, he naturally has no reason to hold back!

After mentally reviewing various Sichuan and Chongqing cuisines, and even Shandong cuisine in an instant, Sun Xingyao gritted his teeth!
"I chose no side dish!"

These words shocked everyone present, including the judges!

Yin Shengjiang narrowed his eyes slightly as he looked at Sun Xingyao, who had uttered those words below the stage.

"They're going all out against Xia Ming! Without side dishes, they're essentially giving up on all external supplements and focusing all their attention on the kidneys themselves."

Sui Wubai nodded as well.

"The pork kidney slices with cornstarch slurry can be a little greasy, so they are usually paired with wood ear mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and water chestnuts to balance out that greasiness. If you don't add any of those, the chef basically needs to make the pork kidney slices with almost zero tolerance for error in order to bring out the ultimate flavor!"

Wei Yan and You Zhangwen also frowned; even they found this problem extremely difficult.

The margin for error is simply too low.
Just as the judges were surprised, the time was set on the big screen!
Looking at the bright 15 minutes on the screen
Everyone except Xia Ming, even Sun Xingyao herself, was dumbfounded.
"Wow... that was way too short!!!"

(End of this chapter)