Who gave this heretical practitioner permission to cook?

Chapter 183 The Elementary Units Have Already Gained Fame, So What's Wrong with Me Playing a Supporting Role? (First Update of 3K)
Before Xia Ming and Zheng Zeqian's match, Qian Youdao and Bai Heng were the first to face off.

Two players whose skill levels hover around "Hua 5" are now vying for the last "Hua 4" spot.

Ultimately, the themes they drew were "meatballs," "pork," and "fried."

After much deliberation, the two who received the theme decided on their respective dishes.

Bai Heng made "Braised Lion's Head Meatballs," a traditional recipe with a touch of personal innovation, which she improved upon after watching Sui Wubai's tutorial.

Qian Youdao makes "Red Fermented Rice Meatballs", which is a classic Taiwanese snack. He improved it by adding dried bamboo shoots, making the flavor of the meatballs different from the traditional version.

Unlike Xia Ming and Zheng Zeqian, Qian Youdao and Bai Heng are close in strength on paper, and the difference between third and fourth place is just a matter of a single thought.

Therefore, they took the entire competition very seriously, truly giving the viewers in the live stream a real taste of what a truly authentic Chinese chef showdown is all about.

At least, it's much more authentic than Han Tianyan's previous French meal.

After a competition, the final scores for the two were extremely close.

Perhaps considering the difficulty of the two types of meatballs landing, the judges, after taking into account various factors, still gave "Braised Lion's Head" a higher score.

So, after so many days of competition, the title of third place in the "Newcomer Championship" has finally been secured.

As for Qian Youdao, unfortunately, he could only take the regular exam if he wanted to advance to "Level 4 of Hua".

However, Qian Youdao was optimistic about this.

“I think there are still many skills I don’t know about in the inland areas, many schools of thought that I haven’t been exposed to before, and a large group of excellent chefs.”

"The New Chef Competition is just the starting point for me to officially enter the field of culinary rating, far from the end of my life."

"So I decided to travel around China for two years, sharing my restaurant reviews while also taking certification exams."

"By the way, Brother Xia, Zeqian, what are your plans after the competition? If you're free, why don't you come sightseeing together? I'll show you around!"

Xia Ming didn't mind taking advantage of Qian Youdao, because he had already seen Qian Youdao's strengths and weaknesses, and he could also help him to make up for them.

But this depends on his mood.
Moreover, Xia Ming felt that with his current fame, after winning the championship and obtaining the Eight Treasures Pig, he should soon be approached by variety shows.

This time, it wasn't the variety show choosing him, but rather him choosing the variety show.

His schedule would likely be very busy at that time, and it was uncertain whether he would even be in the country, so he declined.

Zheng Zeqian wasn't too keen on Qian Youdao's invitation. As long as he didn't accept the cash from Qian Youdao, he was psychologically willing to eat and drink with Qian Youdao for free.

However, traveling around would affect his ability to make money, so instead of wasting his time, he should consider maximizing his profits through this competition and then think about where would be a suitable location to open a training course.

Qian Youdao felt a little disappointed when he heard the two men refuse.

"Alright, let's put the cultivation journey aside for now. I'll wait for you in this rest room a while. After the competition, I'll treat you to a meal."

"Coincidentally, my sister is here too. She's quite interested in Brother Xia!"

Xia Ming blinked, pondered for a moment, and finally remembered how stunning Qian Youdao's older sister, Qian Yourong, was.

As for Qian Youdao's statement of interest, Xia Ming didn't take it to heart.

After all, there are plenty of people interested in him now; it's only when he shows interest that we'll know if he's truly interested.

Just as Qian Youdao chose to stay and wait, Xia Ming and Zheng Zeqian also made their appearance.

As the final battle of the "New Chef Competition", various live streaming platforms have also put a lot of effort into promotion, and the number of netizens online at the same time has reached a record high.

As he walked onto the stage, Zheng Zeqian wore a rather helpless expression.

"That's what we said before, but Xia Ming, this..."

"Sigh, why don't you just tell me where your weaknesses are, and I'll try to work on them?"

Hearing Zheng Zeqian's words, Xia Ming silently turned his head and glanced at him.

The biggest difference between Zheng Zeqian and Qian Youdao lies in their temperament and sense of distance.

Qian Youdao's upbringing may have influenced him, as he always maintained a set of traditional etiquette in his dealings with others, regardless of his attitude.

As someone who can casually expose his underwear to others, Zheng Zeqian is hardly a figure of reason.

Therefore, he has a more easygoing personality and is only interested in his own goals.

In some ways, Zheng Zeqian and Xia Ming have more in common.

If Qian Youdao had asked that question earlier, Xia Ming would most likely have thought that he genuinely wanted to know his weaknesses so he could defeat him in one fell swoop.

After all, in Qian Youdao's eyes, surpassing oneself to challenge one's opponent is the greatest respect he can give to them!

But if Zheng Zeqian said those words, then it's a different story.

Given his personality, it's very likely that he just couldn't find any other topics to talk about, so he made up a random remark to ease the atmosphere.

So Xia Ming casually made a joke.

"Yes, I'm not very familiar with the cuisine of 'Sunrise Island.' Have you tried it?"

Zheng Zeqian smiled when he heard Xia Ming's words.

"No way, whether I've dabbled in it or not isn't the core issue. I'm going to write about 'Kaiseki cuisine' in the finals later, wouldn't I be the next Han Tianyan?"

"Xia Ming, you look so honest and simple, how come you even betray your friends?"

As Zheng Zeqian spoke, he stretched and loosened his muscles.

"You have no idea, Han Tianyan is more famous than me now. His memes are all over the internet."

"Being infamous is still being famous. Apart from not many people coming to watch him cook, it's not bad at all. If he can seize the opportunity to transform himself, he could become a top internet celebrity!"

"Alright, let's stop talking about broad knowledge. Is your knowledge still blank this round?"

Xia Ming nodded. He had nothing to hide. Since the rules didn't prohibit writing blanks, he naturally wouldn't change it.

Zheng Zeqian nodded. "That's true. When you have overwhelming strength, the fewer restrictions you face, the higher your potential will be."

"Sigh, things have come to this, I can't play anymore!"

"Since it's 'difficult' anyway, I might as well give it a shot and leave this round blank! At least this way, I'll at least grab some attention!"

Xia Ming was not surprised by Zheng Zeqian's choice. To be honest, in his judgment, if it weren't for the "level" and the "huge amount of traffic", he would have chosen Zheng Zeqian.

Zheng Zeqian will most likely choose to give up when he finds a way to make money.

It's foreseeable that Zheng Zeqian and others will try their best to showcase themselves within the rules during the competition.

The so-called "try" is just a pretext.

He probably already knew he couldn't win, so he was preparing advertisements in advance for his future student recruitment.

After chatting for a while, the two finally arrived at the judges' table.

This time, because the rules are different, their notes will be made public in advance.

Seeing that Zheng Zeqian hadn't actually written anything, viewers in the live stream started discussing it.

[That's ruthless! Giving Xia Ming an increased chance of winning is quite generous.]

[I'm starting to ship them both. One's easygoing and composed, the other's fresh and handsome. We really need to make some arrangements!]

[Oh my god, yaoi fans, get out of here! This is a cooking competition, not a romance variety show!]

Trying to consume everything will only give you indigestion. Try something else.

So, in this way, it's like the judges are setting the questions; let's see what they end up drawing!

As viewers discussed the topic in the live stream, the final challenge was drawn by the three players.

In a very dramatic turn of events, Zheng Zeqian and Xia Ming each drew a blank card.

But what Yin Shengjiang pulled out of the box was a "fish head"!
Zheng Zeqian was stunned when he saw the dish.

His first thought was steamed fish head with chopped chili peppers, after all, it's a very famous Hunan dish.

Of course, he abandoned the idea the next second.

After all, the flavor of chopped chili fish head doesn't rely on the fish head itself, either in terms of seasoning or technique.

The former relies on chopped chili peppers, while the latter, as long as it is properly cleaned and the ingredients are of good quality, doesn't require much skill in its preparation.

In this final stage, Zheng Zeqian's primary goal is definitely to defeat Xia Ming, with his secondary goal being to prove himself.

After a few seconds of thought, he made up his mind.

From Xia Ming's perspective, if he draws any part of the "fish" body, the match can be declared over.

Now, his main concern is choosing the right fish for his work lunch.

"Wait, something's not right. It seems Qian Youdao is still waiting."

Xia Ming suddenly realized that someone had already treated him to dinner tonight, so a work meal didn't seem really necessary.

"Whatever. Just do it normally."

He knew in his heart that Zheng Zeqian's goal was not the championship, so he would never do anything to cheat in front of the viewers in the live broadcast room.

So he searched his mind and decided on the final dish.

Then, the two entered the food storage area one on the left and one on the right, and after circling around for half a minute, they met in the seafood section.

After exchanging smiles, they glanced at each other a few times and then walked off in one direction.

The viewers in the live stream had already sensed something was wrong. Just as they were thinking about it, Xia Ming and Zheng Zeqian stopped together in the "silver carp" area.

Hearing the footsteps on both sides stop at the same time, Xia Ming and Zheng Zeqian looked up and then glanced at each other.

Then, Zheng Zeqian spoke first.

"What a coincidence, Xia Ming, you're also planning to use silver carp heads?"

"Yeah, you too?"

Hearing Xia Ming's casual tone, Zheng Zeqian was taken aback.

"You're not going to make 'Braised Silver Carp Head', are you?"

Hearing his tone, Xia Ming naturally understood.

"Yeah, looks like you are too."

"Oh dear, we were already outmatched, and now we have to clash with each other on the same subject matter. I should have sent Qian Youdao over!"

Zheng Zeqian looked helpless and sighed, but his feet did not move.

He knew that having the same subject matter was both a misfortune and an opportunity. The same dish not only allowed him to directly feel the gap between himself and Xia Ming, but also increased the topic's popularity.

More importantly, as long as the score difference between him and Xia Ming isn't too outrageous, his strength can be temporarily measured against Xia Ming when this "braised carp head" competition is mentioned in the future.

For example: 0.7ming = 5dong = 1qian.

He didn't have Qian Youdao's unwavering belief in victory, nor did he have as many ideas about exploiting bugs as Han Tianyan.

All he wanted was to make himself more memorable in this competition.

Even if this kind of remembering is based on being tied to Xia Ming, he doesn't care.

After all, if his wealth came from legitimate sources, he wouldn't turn down money and fame.
"Chen Xiaodong has almost become the benchmark for Xia Ming's initial combat strength. A lot of people are looking for him, which has led to the rise in his reputation and the reputation of his store."

"In that case, what's wrong with me setting this high-level standard for measuring combat strength?"

(End of this chapter)