Food Wars!: Delicious Food of the Heavens

Chapter 118 Malice

Knowing she wasn't very strong, Tadokoro Megumi didn't try to squeeze through. Instead, she bent down and, with her petite frame, nimbly slipped through the gaps in the crowd like a fish. She stretched out her arm several times before finally managing to get a white asparagus.

"Great! It worked!"

"Keep up the good work!"

Megumi Tadokoro cheered herself up and then rushed to the next vegetable counter.

Unbeknownst to Tadokoro Megumi, her every move, including her initial fear and hesitation, her subsequent courage and resilience, and the difficulty of squeezing into the crowd...

Lin Yu witnessed all of this.

"Hmm, it seems Xiaohui has indeed become much braver!"

A relieved smile appeared on Lin Yu's face.

"Although my mind still easily goes blank when I'm nervous, at least I won't cower in place anymore; I can grit my teeth and charge forward."

"In that case, I'll begin."

"We can't let Xiaohui outdo us!"

"Holy crap! That's way too violent!"

Lin Yu wasn't in a hurry at first, but seeing the frantic scramble for the items, he couldn't help but feel nervous.

Don't let Lin Yu's usual lazy and carefree demeanor fool you; when he gets serious, his aura is actually quite imposing.

Using his height advantage, Lin Yu forced his way through the crowd and squeezed in.

"Hey! Don't push, you guys in the back!"

During this time, some people expressed their dissatisfaction and even tried to push Lin Yu away.

But when he met Lin Yu's gaze, the man stopped moving and even subconsciously glanced to the side, not daring to meet Lin Yu's eyes.

It was as if they had spotted some dangerous wild beast...

Lin Yu stretched out his arm, intending to grab an asparagus from the pile of vegetables at random.

But as soon as Lin Yu touched the asparagus, he immediately sensed something was wrong.

This feel...something's not right...

Lin Yu looked closely at the asparagus in his hand and realized that the asparagus he had was wilted.

I squeezed it; it was soft and mushy, clearly lacking moisture, and obviously not fresh asparagus.

This asparagus... is of very poor quality!

This is a joint training camp at Totsuki Academy, why would such a basic mistake happen regarding the ingredients?!

Lin Yu frowned deeply, his heart filled with a mixture of doubt and surprise.

He strained to raise his gaze, his eyes quickly sweeping across the large pile of asparagus, focusing on the ones of poor quality.

Lin Yu breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that most of the asparagus in the pile of vegetables was fresh and of excellent quality.

Even so, Lin Yu did not completely relax, and the doubts in his heart lingered.

Mixed among the vegetables, there were quite a few low-quality asparagus, not just the one Lin Yu had just picked up.

Even considering the normal rate of vegetable spoilage, this percentage is still significantly higher than normal.

Lin Yu's gaze sharpened.

Given Totsuki's style of doing things, there should be absolutely no way they would make such a basic mistake!

unless..

"Tsk!"

Lin Yu had come up with an answer, but the answer in his mind made him feel uneasy and somewhat agitated.

Lin Yu threw away the wilted asparagus in his hand, quickly picked out a fresh asparagus, then squeezed out of the crowd and rushed to the nearest vegetable counter next door.

The vegetable counter is piled with baby corn.

Lin Yu squeezed through the restless crowd, approached the pile of vegetables, and took a closer look.

really!

Under Lin Yu's quick observation, he discovered that this pile of baby corn was in the same situation as the asparagus next door, with an abnormally high proportion of inferior ingredients mixed in with most of the fresh ingredients.

Now, the answer is obvious!

These substandard vegetables were deliberately mixed in!

Lin Yu took out a few fresh baby corns and left the crowd.

Instead of rushing to the next vegetable counter, he turned his gaze to the front of the classroom, to the man sitting comfortably on the sofa.

My mentor for this project is Kojiro Ichishinomiya!

In his opening remarks on the first day of the joint training camp, this man displayed his undisguised arrogance.

At this moment, he leaned back on the sofa, one hand supporting his chin, his eyes fixed on the students who were scrambling for food.

Although Shinomiya Kojiro's face was expressionless, Lin Yu still keenly noticed the curve of the corners of his mouth and the cold malice hidden behind his glasses!

"That's absolutely outrageous!"

"It's even more excessive than Chef Seki Shouping's extreme workload and Senior Inui's perverse sense of humor!"

Lin Yu was displeased, though he didn't show it on his face, but the feeling of irritation he felt inside grew stronger.

"I heard that Shinomiya Kojiro graduated as the top student of the 79th Elite Ten of Totsuki Academy."

"I get the feeling he'll be a really difficult guy to get along with..."

Just as Lin Yu was talking to himself, a hand suddenly patted his arm.

"Lin Yujun?"

Lin Yu was startled awake and turned to see Tadokoro Megumi.

At that moment, Tadokoro Megumi was holding a tray of vegetables and looking at Lin Yu with a puzzled expression.

"Oh, it's Xiaohui!"

"Lin Yujun, you seem to be spacing out?"

Tadokoro Megumi looked at Lin Yu with concern in her eyes and a hint of worry in her voice.

"How can we do that? We need to hurry and get all the ingredients!"

Tadokoro Megumi grew increasingly worried as she spoke, "Is she feeling unwell?"

Lin Yu smiled and shook his head, indicating that he was fine. "Sorry, Xiao Hui, I was just thinking about something and got distracted."

Hearing Lin Yu's words and seeing that Lin Yu only had a slightly furrowed brow but looked quite well, Tadokoro Megumi breathed a sigh of relief.

"It's alright, Lin Yujun, you should get moving too. I need to go get the carrots now; I still have several other ingredients to collect..."

Tadokoro Megumi was about to leave when Lin Yu grabbed her arm.

Tadokoro Megumi looked at Lin Yu with confusion. "Lin Yu-kun, what's wrong?"

Looking at the concern and worry in the girl's eyes, the terrible thought from before uncontrollably resurfaced in Lin Yu's mind.

If you didn't notice it, that's fine.

But he had already noticed Kojiro Shinomiya's malice, so how could he just let everything happen and ignore Megumi Tadokoro?

Lin Yu suddenly took two steps closer, stared intently into Tadokoro Megumi's eyes, and asked earnestly, "Megumi, are you willing to believe me?"

Upon hearing Lin Yu's words, Tadokoro Megumi paused, her mind becoming even more confused.

"Why would you suddenly ask that... But of course I believe Lin Yu-jun!" Tadokoro Megumi said with a sincere smile.

"Since that's the case... I've thought of something. Come with me!"

Without saying a word, Lin Yu grabbed Tadokoro Megumi and ran towards a vegetable counter in the opposite direction.

Looking at the noisy, scrambling crowd in front of him, Lin Yu stretched out one arm and forcefully parted the frenzied crowd, while his other hand grabbed Tadokoro Megumi's arm to prevent her from being pushed out of the crowd.

Lin Yu's brows furrowed slightly as his gaze swept quickly across the large pile of cauliflower.

really!

In Lin Yu's view, besides the large number of broken cauliflower pieces that had been crushed in the scramble, there were also many heads of hair...

The cauliflower was black, dull, and even a little wilted.

Looking around, the number was surprisingly large.

This counter piled with cauliflower, in terms of the proportion of inferior vegetables alone, was much taller than the two vegetable counters Lin Yu had seen before.

Lin Yu cursed inwardly before making a decisive move.

With quick reflexes and agility, Lin Yu broke through several tangled arms and, amidst the chaotic scramble, managed to snatch the last high-quality cauliflower at the last moment.

"Xiao Hui!"

Lin Yu didn't retreat outside. Instead, he used his other hand to pull Tadokoro Megumi's arm and dragged her into the crowd.

"Lin Yujun, you got it..."

"

"Shh!"

Lin Yu put a finger to his lips and used a stern look to stop Tadokoro Megumi from continuing to speak.

Then, Lin Yu didn't look up or look directly at the front of the classroom. Instead, he quickly glanced in that direction out of the corner of his eye without lingering.

Noticing that Shinomiya Kojiro was looking elsewhere and not paying attention to him, Lin Yu breathed a sigh of relief, pulled Tadokoro Megumi around, and used the crowd to block the two of them.

"Take it."

Using the chaos of the crowd as cover, Lin Yu handed the cauliflower in his hand to Tadokoro Megumi.

Tadokoro Megumi was quite surprised. "Lin Yu-kun! What's going on?"

"Shh, keep your voice down, and don't look around. Whatever you do, don't let that guy notice you!"

"That guy?"

Although she was very puzzled, seeing Lin Yu's serious expression, Tadokoro Megumi obediently lowered her voice and did not look around.

"Lin Yujun, what happened? Why do you look so worried?" Tadokoro asked in a low voice.

Lin Yu shook his head and glanced at Shinomiya Kojiro again out of the corner of his eye.

Under Tadokoro Megumi's watchful gaze, Lin Yu stretched out his arm and picked out a barely acceptable cauliflower from a pile of shoddy-looking cauliflower.

"Xiao Hui, look."

Looking at the cauliflower that Lin Yu handed her, Tadokoro Megumi observed it intently for a moment, then her eyes widened in surprise.

Why did that happen?

Tadokoro Megumi's voice trembled slightly, as if she found it hard to believe.

"This is the Totsuki Resort! And today is Totsuki's joint training exercise for accommodations!"

"Why...why are there such poor-quality ingredients?"

"Could it be that the staff preparing the ingredients made a mistake?"

"Silly girl, the truth is probably not as simple as you think."

Lin Yu chuckled and gestured to Tadokoro Megumi to look at the pile of vegetables on the counter.

With Lin Yu's prompting, Tadokoro Megumi focused her observations and indeed noticed the dull appearance of the large pile of cauliflower.

"How could this happen?!"

Tadokoro Megumi was so shocked that she stood there stunned, and she still finds it astonishing.

"Do you remember what Chef Shinomiya just said?"

Lin Yu lowered his voice, his tone becoming very low.

"I suspect he deliberately slipped these substandard ingredients in!"

"Chef Shinomiya... he's my mentor... no way?" Tadokoro Megumi still couldn't believe it.

But seeing Lin Yu's determined gaze, her heart quickly wavered.

Although the truth was hard to believe, she was even less willing to doubt Lin Yu's words.

"Chef Shinomiya...isn't this going a bit too far?" Tadokoro Megumi complained, her tone filled with annoyance.

"Sigh~"

Lin Yu sighed.

"Although I don't know his intentions, I imagine this person is definitely not easy to get along with!"

"Today's topic is likely to face some setbacks!"

Tadokoro Megumi's mood also turned somber with Lin Yu's sigh.

But suddenly, something occurred to her.

"etc!"

"Lin Yujun, you gave me this cauliflower, so what are you going to use it for?"

Tadokoro Megumi was surprised and looked up at Lin Yu, her pupils trembling.

"You wouldn't... be planning to use the one you have, would you?"

Before Lin Yu could speak, Tadokoro Megumi grabbed his arm tightly.

Tadokoro Megumi, her voice low, growled at Lin Yu, "No! Lin Yu-kun, this is absolutely unacceptable!"

Lin Yu shook his head firmly. "Xiao Hui, listen to me, accept it!"

"No!"

The usually gentle and introverted girl, who always obeyed Lin Yu's every word, was unusually stubborn at this moment.

No matter how Lin Yu tried to persuade her, Tadokoro Megumi remained unmoved.

"Under any other circumstances, I would listen to whatever Lin Yujun says, but not now!"

"I can't drag Lin Yujun down, absolutely not!"

Lin Yu frowned slightly, still unwilling to give up, and continued to persuade her, "Xiao Hui, listen to me!"

"But..

'

Seeing that Tadokoro Megumi looked anxious and even spoke loudly due to her emotional state, Lin Yu quickly covered her mouth.

Lin Yu glanced at Shinomiya Kojiro again out of the corner of his eye.

Perhaps because the crowds scrambling for vegetables throughout the classroom were so chaotic, he hadn't yet noticed Lin Yu and Tadokoro Megumi, who were deliberately hiding.

Lin Yu stared intently at Tadokoro Megumi with a stern look, his expression solemn.

"Xiao Hui, listen to me, now is not the time to be polite. You can take this cauliflower."

Tadokoro Megumi knew she had almost caused trouble and felt a little guilty.

But Tadokoro Megumi remained stubbornly unyielding, asking, "Then what about Lin Yu-kun?"

"Don't worry about me, don't you know my strength?"

Lin Yu gently patted Tadokoro Megumi's head, his serious expression fading into a gentle smile.

"I'll think of a way, believe me!"

Tadokoro Megumi hesitated for a moment, but ultimately shook her head.

"No!"

Lin Yu was also getting anxious, "Xiao Hui!"

"Lin Yujun! Please listen to me!"

Suddenly, Tadokoro Megumi raised her hand and gently covered Lin Yu's mouth.

Tadokoro Megumi's blows weren't very strong, but seeing the stubbornness and determination in the girl's eyes, Lin Yu still chose to stop and listen to what she had to say.

"Someone like me is already very satisfied to have come this far."

"Lin Yujun is much more capable than me. You are clearly the one who can go much further!"

"If Lin Yujun's journey is halted here because of me, I absolutely cannot accept it!"

"I..

'

Hearing Tadokoro Megumi's heartfelt words, Lin Yu couldn't help but be moved. His heart was pounding as if something was hitting him.