I've been possessed by a culinary genius, and I've turned Shaxian snacks into a rip-off!

"Alright, Fatty's challenge failed, next one," Li Zhibai called out.

Pang Yisheng retreated to the side, utterly dejected, muttering to himself, "Five kinds of scallions, they actually used five kinds of scallions... and now even the scallions are curled up like this?"

Yu Shen was the second to step forward and, in full view of everyone, pulled out a piece of paper.

[Classical Chinese Recitation Exercise: Recite the entire text of "The Two Capitals Rhapsody" within eight minutes.]

Yu Shen: "..."

He slowly turned his head to look at Li Zhibai, his expression as if he had eaten shit but hadn't swallowed it.

"What on earth is this 'Rhapsody on the Two Capitals'? How many characters are there in the whole text?"

"About four thousand words."

"password....."

Yu Shen felt his blood pressure soaring.

A poem of over four thousand characters, memorized in eight minutes? Why don't you let me memorize the entire Siku Quanshu (Complete Library of the Four Treasuries) in eight minutes too!

"Next!"

The question Wang Yun drew was quite interesting.

[Cooking Challenge: Recreate the scallion oil from our fragrant mixed noodles within ten minutes. Achieving 80% similarity is considered a success.]

Wang Yun's eyes lit up immediately.

That's great!

When he's at home, he occasionally cooks for his girlfriend. While his cooking skills aren't exactly top-notch, he can still manage to make something like scallion oil.

Isn't this just throwing scallions into oil and frying them?

Anyone with hands can do it.

"I'll do it!"

"Keep going, darling!"

Wang Yun rushed into the kitchen, tied on an apron, and started making scallion oil. He chopped scallions, poured in oil, turned on the heat, and stirred... He actually looked quite professional.

Ten minutes later.

Wang Yun came out carrying a bowl of dark, burnt scallion oil.

Li Zhibai scooped up a little with a spoon, smelled it, and then poured it down the drain without expression.

"Similarity is 5%".

Wang Yun: "???"

"No way! I did such a good job, and you only gave me a 5% similarity score? That's not right!"

"Your oil is hot, that's true, but that's about it."

Wang Yun: "..."

Everyone: "Hahahaha!!!"

"Old Wang, you've clearly burned the scallions."

"If the fact that oil is hot counts as a similarity, then boiling water should also work."

"Hilarious! Five percent is too high, hahaha..."

"Next!"

Yao Qianqian immediately stepped forward: "Darling, watch me win back your free meal!"

She reached in and pulled out a piece of paper.

[Fun Fact Quiz: In which dynasty did Shaxian snacks originate? Where did they originate? What were the main representatives of the earliest Shaxian snacks? Please answer within 30 seconds.]

After a moment's thought, Yao Qianqian confidently began, "Shaxian snacks originated in the Ming and Qing dynasties, with Shaxian County in Fujian Province as their birthplace. The original snacks mainly included... wontons, mixed noodles, stewed dishes, and steamed dumplings."

Upon hearing this, Li Zhibai shook his head and said, "Wrong answer! Shaxian snacks are generally believed to have originated in the Han and Jin Dynasties, and gradually flourished after the Tang and Song Dynasties. You only got the place of origin right."

Yao Qianqian: "Han and Jin Dynasties?"

"Yes! The food culture of Shaxian snacks can be traced back to the Han and Jin dynasties. It has evolved over thousands of years to form the huge system we have today. The Ming and Qing dynasties were just one stage in its development."

Upon hearing this, Yao Qianqian felt deeply remorseful.

She still couldn't answer such a simple, easy question. I should have spent less time memorizing "Ode to the Goddess of the Luo River" last night and more time browsing through the Shaxian Encyclopedia.

Next, the others also started drawing challenges.

Without exception, they all failed, and the group was utterly humiliated and howled in agony.

But none of them gave up.

Exploiting Li Heizi's influence has become an obsession, a belief, and a spiritual pursuit.

Money isn't important; what's important is that we definitely have to fleece Li Heizi!

"Boss, another egg, please!"

"Me too!"

"And me too! I'm not leaving until I get something out of you!"

"I'll fight you to the death!"

"Okay, just a moment."

Li Zhibai immediately went into the kitchen to get the eggs.

The payment notification sound on his phone kept ringing in his pocket.

"3999 yuan received via Alipay".

"3999 yuan received via Alipay".

"......."

Each notification tone is like a small knife cutting into the wallets of these people, sounding particularly stress-relieving and comfortable.

So far, this group of guys has consumed an average of two eggs each, and with the dishes they ordered earlier, the average cost per person is around ten thousand.

"Hehehe..."

Li Zhibai couldn't help but chuckle softly again.

[Host, your laughter is starting to sound more and more like a villain's.]

"Thank you for the compliment."

.........

While this group of people were frantically drawing challenges and getting repeatedly thrashed, there was one person in the store who remained silent.

Lu Qianshan.

He only ordered one egg and ate it slowly, while casually jotting something down in the notes app on his phone.

After failing his third challenge, Yu Shen was feeling frustrated when he turned around and saw Lu Qianshan calmly scrolling through his phone and eating an egg. Curious, he asked, "Old Lu, what are you doing?"

"Eat eggs."

"I know you're eating eggs, I'm asking why you're not taking the challenge?"

"You guys go ahead and try, I'll watch for a bit longer."

Seeing his calm and collected demeanor, Yu Shen asked suspiciously, "You're not secretly plotting something, are you?"

Lu Qianshan simply gave him a meaningful smile and continued fiddling with his phone.

Seeing this, Yu Shen didn't ask any more questions, turned around and rushed back to the challenge area to start a new round of drawing lots.

If he were to see the contents of Lu Qianshan's phone, he would find that the memo was recording the types and probabilities of the questions they had drawn that day.

After statistical analysis and calculation, Lu Qianshan could roughly conclude that the probability of him drawing a food traceability question, which was originally his forte, was rapidly increasing.

The reason is simple: most of the questions Pang Yi and his team drew earlier were classical Chinese recitation questions. The more non-target questions these people draw, the greater the chance that he will draw the food traceability question later.

Therefore, we cannot rush.

After Lu Qianshan finished making notes, he closed the memo app and casually opened a game on his phone. Since he was free anyway, he decided to play a few rounds of the peak competition to climb the ranks. He could make his move after they finished drawing all those ridiculous questions.

His actions once again drew the attention of others.

This guy actually has the mind to spray pesticides?

"Old Lu, why are you playing games again?"

Lu Qianshan: "Anyway, it's not my turn to play yet, so I'll play a couple of rounds first to warm up my brain."

Yu Shen peeked over and complained, "Old Lu, are you even capable? You're so old, why are you still playing in the peak tournament? Don't make things difficult for your teammates."

Lu Qianshan ignored him and directly locked in a jungler.

Yu Shen got even more excited when he saw this: "You're picking jungle? Can you even keep up with the mechanics? You haven't even finished clearing the jungle yet, and the enemy is already pushing onto the high ground."

Lu Qianshan calmly said, "Jungling relies on awareness, not hand speed. I rely on my brain when I play Han Xin."

Yu Shen: "Do you think you can make the enemy's crystal explode just by using your brain when playing Han Xin? Your skills are just not good enough."

Lu Qianshan: "I'll reveal my famous sword ahead of time."