Chapter 903: Chapter 902: Fist the Size of a Sandbag (Part 2)
Everyone’s eyes followed the direction of Wei Zhong’s finger and were all taken aback.
The finger was pointing at number 7, Liu Ying’s creation!
Ye Feizhou opened his mouth to speak.
Wei Zhong squinted slightly and said, “Feizhou, is the reason you gave this dish an excellent rating because it incorporates Fantasy Ingredients?”
“Yes!” Ye Feizhou said, “Since you also watched the live cooking just now…”
His words were interrupted.
“No need to say more, my evaluation of dish number 7 is completely opposite to yours—”
A deep and stern voice.
“To me, this Lantern Festival dessert is unqualified!”
Boom.
As expected, the evaluation from the ‘Reserve Pastry King’ was like an air-dropped bomb that made the venue explode.
“Who told you that traditional Lantern Festival desserts can be innovated like this?” Wei Zhong mercilessly criticized as he met Liu Ying’s stunned and puzzled gaze, “A genuine Lantern Festival dessert is made with glutinous rice flour, and by mixing in other powdered ingredients like this, it turns it into a mochi or a dumpling-like snack—it’s no longer called a Lantern Festival dessert! This is a fundamental change in the nature of the recipe!”
Liu Ying’s eyes widened, and her pretty face turned pale.
“Hard to accept, right?”
Wei Zhong pointed to the other Lantern Festival creations on the same stage, “Look at these works from your seniors. They either innovate from the filling or the method of eating, like number 1, Chef Liu Lan’s plate of dry-eaten tangyuan. Doesn’t the shape look similar to mochi?”
Liu Lan, whose name was called, was flattered.
“Actually, my plate of dry-eaten tangyuan is made purely with glutinous rice flour, without adding any starch or cornmeal. From the main ingredients, it truly adheres to tradition!” Liu Lan said with his head down, being a dutiful student in front of Wei Zhong, even though they were contemporaries.
The other contestants looked at each other.
A middle-aged man from a side branch of the Liu family glanced coldly at Liu Ying, who had her head lowered in unusual silence, and spoke up, “I’m number 2, and my creation is ‘Fruit Lantern Festival’. As Chef Wei said, my innovation is based on a change in the method of eating. The traditional way to eat Lantern Festival desserts is to boil them in plain water, but my Fruit Lantern Festival adds diced mangoes, strawberries, fire dragons, and other fruits to the pot together with the Lantern Festival dessert…”
The middle-aged man scooped up a spoonful of the thick liquid in his small bowl, and immediately, the rich fragrance of fruits filled the stage, as if everyone was in a magical fruit paradise.
Several Elders of Liu Family gathered around, “Oh, it seems like the various fruit flavors have indeed blended well with the Lantern Festival dessert, but the timing of adding the fruit dice must be crucial, right?”
“Yes, add the fruit dice after the Lantern Festival dessert is almost cooked.”
“This soup is very thick. The consistency is off, so you definitely added starch during cooking, right?”
“Yes.”
Seeing this, the remaining contestants also hurriedly began promoting their creations, turning the stage into a place of self-promotion like a bustling market.
Amidst the chaos, the little girl who was originally the center of attention was neglected, much like a little kitten abandoned to the corner, silently licking her wounds.
It must be said.
The evaluation Wei Zhong gave Liu Ying as the ‘Reserve Pastry King’ was highly persuasive.
Even Liu Ying herself began to waver, “Did my ‘innovation’ really destroy the traditional Lantern Festival recipe completely?”
Her mind was filled with numerous little snacks.
There were dumplings, mochi, grass cakes, and crystal buns.
Too many.
In terms of appearance alone, little snacks are indeed hard to classify, but why is it that Lantern Festival desserts can hold a place in the snack domain and have been beloved by people since the distant Song Dynasty, never losing their place?
“Ah, did I really turn my Lantern Festival dessert beyond recognition?” Liu Ying lowered her head. If she were at Xia Mansion or at home, the little girl would be squatting in a corner drawing circles by now.
Her little face showed discontent.
Liu Ying didn’t care much about failing or ruining the Lantern Festival dessert. The key issue was that such a top-grade ingredient, “Golden Wheat,” was wasted, only to receive an ‘unqualified’ evaluation… Mr. Xia would surely scold her later, right? And does the unqualified evaluation mean she failed in the selection and ended at the bottom?
Thinking about it, Liu Ying was only 13 years old. Her big eyes quickly turned red and filled with tears.
At this moment, a familiar hand landed on Liu Ying’s head.
“I say!”
A refreshing voice said, “Little Ying, in this class, I want to tell you not to readily accept others’ evaluations!”
The teariness in Liu Ying’s eyes instantly dissipated.
She seemed to find a pillar of support. The hand that used to feel awkward and annoying on her head now gave her a sense of comfort in her bewilderment and helplessness.
“Mr. Xia…” Liu Ying looked up at the face above the hand, pouting as if she was about to complain to a parent, “I, I…”
“Come—”
“Repeat after me!”
Xia Yu looked down to meet Liu Ying’s fluttering eyes, “Confidence!”
Liu Ying clenched her fists and took a deep breath, saying: “Confidence!”
“Louder!”
“Confidence!!”
“Hmm, your mouth is not on someone else’s body, and others can say whatever they want, but in your heart, you must have a clear understanding of these voices, got it?” Xia Yu stroked the little girl’s smooth, jet-black hair. Liu Ying’s big watery eyes were fixed on him, her cheeks showing a hint of blush. Xia Yu winked at her again: “How can you let the hearsay of the outside world shake your heart!”
“And if you can’t out-talk them, then you’ll need this!”
He extended his palm and shook it in front of the little girl, then suddenly clenched it into an iron fist. Xia Yu was smiling, but the iron fist in midair smashed down heavily—
Boom.
“Ever seen a fist the size of a sandbag?”
The chaotic stage instantly fell silent.
In the still image, only Xia Yu and Wei Zhong remained, staring at each other from a distance.
One of the elders of Liu Family, seeing a young man stepping onto the stage and slamming the table, opened his mouth to scold him, but another recognized who it was. Realizing the danger, he quickly stepped forward, covering the elder’s mouth, sweating nervously: “Th-that’s Demon King Xia!”
“He’s here!”
Ye Feizhou felt the loud noise and his whole body trembled in response.
“He’s here!”
On stage, Old Grand Duke Liu felt his heart sink. After clashing with that old monster Lan Fengxian this morning, among the group on stage, probably only he and Ye Feizhou could foresee the upcoming earth-shattering showdown!
Inevitable!
“I say, Mr. Wei Zhong, could you take back your earlier evaluation?”
Seeing his punch had such an effect, Xia Yu contentedly withdrew his fist, rubbing the surface that showed not a trace of a mark, and spoke softly with his head lowered: “If it’s aimed at me, no matter how you evaluate, I’ll accept it all!”
“But!”
His gaze suddenly turned sharp, “If you’re trying to deal with me, disgusting me by giving such a terrible evaluation to this junior, then Mr. Wei Zhong, there is something very wrong with your character!”
Hearing this, Wei Zhong’s brows and eyes protruded, and he shouted: “Are you questioning the basis of my evaluation?”
“The Lantern Festival recipes have been handed down through generations till today. Over the years in the Chinese Realm, countless culinary talents have emerged. Do you think they haven’t thought about innovating the Lantern Festival recipes?” Wei Zhong snorted, “Why has it been passed down till now, with Lantern Festival still keeping the traditional method of using glutinous rice flour without any change? Do you think the chefs of old didn’t want to tweak the main ingredient?”
“Pastry, dim-sum, there are several kinds of flour available. Each type of flour can be made into many different pastries. Do you think simply mixing two types of flour is innovation?”
Wei Zhong’s lips curled into a mocking smile.
“Of course, mixing two types of flour is just a metaphor I use. But in my view, arrogantly mixing glutinous rice flour with some unknown fantasy flour to make Lantern Festival is more heinous!”
“What has the traditional pastry recipe of the Chinese Realm been ruined into!”
Wei Zhong’s eyes emitted a gloomy, cold light.
“The shadow of the Food Dominator, huh? Ha!”
He dismissed it with contempt.
Liu Ying, caught by his gaze, was suddenly startled, frantically grabbing Xia Yu’s sleeve and hiding fearfully behind her master.
Xia Yu could feel the soft, trembling body tightly pressing against his back.
“See, Little Ying…”
He instructed his apprentice in a rather troubled tone, ignoring and not responding to Wei Zhong’s words, “When you don’t want to argue using words, you still need this thing!”
The fist slowly lifted again.
“Sometimes, the truth is very simple: whoever has the bigger fist is right!”
“Simple, brutal!”
Bang.
This time, the iron fist landed on the table with the gentleness of a falling petal, making a very subtle sound.
However, this quiet sound, against the backdrop of Xia Yu’s spoken words, seemed to echo in everyone’s heart.
It was heart-shattering!
Wei Zhong suddenly sensed something, his pupils shrank.
“You…”
Just as he was about to shout something, Xia Yu looked at him and calmly uttered two words:
“Food!”
“Halberd!”