Chapter 412 - 161: Reluctantly Stepping In to Help

Chapter 412: Chapter 161: Reluctantly Stepping In to Help

That’s what he said, anyway.

In reality, Su Chen had already started silently flipping through the Fragment of the Chinese Cuisine Collection in his mind.

To be honest, he had practically worn the book out from reading it so many times, and he had nearly memorized all the regional dishes recorded within.

But there really wasn’t a single dish that connected the three keywords: dessert, creativity, and egg.

"Boss! Boss! If you don’t help me, I’m dead for sure this time!" Liu Ahbao pulled out three entry tickets. "Boss, how about you take this and help me?"

Su Chen took one, looked it over front and back, then gave Ah Bao a light punch. "Get lost!"

No matter how much Ah Bao pleaded, Su Chen wouldn’t agree.

After everyone had put away their luggage and freshened up, Su Chen clapped Ah Bao on the shoulder. "My friend, you should go back and use your time to prepare for the competition! We’re heading out to find some good food."

He watched the group leave the hotel, talking and laughing happily.

Liu Ahbao was completely dumbfounded.

’So heartless!’

For dinner, Su Chen and his group decided to try some of the more famous local delicacies like bak kut teh, satay, and laksa.

Some of the dishes suited their palates, while others tasted a bit strange.

Everyone enjoyed the dinner and planned to get some rest early, intending to go shopping the next day after watching Ah Bao’s competition.

Only Su Chen was distracted during the meal.

He kept thinking about the theme the organizing committee had given.

Those three keywords lingered in his mind, refusing to fade.

Back in his hotel room, Su Chen was still mulling it over.

’Right! Didn’t I just complete a main quest? In that case, maybe I can...’

Lying on the bed, Su Chen immersed his consciousness in the system interface. Currently, all three quest slots were completely empty.

He tried inputting the three keywords into the main quest log, but it didn’t activate any new quests.

’Let’s try a different approach... World Cooking Competition!’

[Searching for keywords...]

[Main Quest 1: A Work of Fusion. Your employee, Liu Ahbao, has run into some difficulties in the competition. To achieve a good result, you will need to fuse Chinese and Western culinary arts to win the judges’ favor. Please devise a plan for Liu Ahbao and secure a top-three finish.]

[Quest Reward: 108 French Recipes]

[Main Quest 2: A Class of Its Own. The World Cooking Competition has always been biased against Chinese cuisine. In a manner of your own choosing, present to the world a masterpiece of Chinese culinary art with a traditional Chinese theme and earn the judges’ approval.]

[Quest Reward: One copy of the Universal History of Cuisine]

Huh?

Su Chen skimmed past the quest descriptions to look at the rewards. The reward for the first quest was self-explanatory.

The second one, however, was a bit more interesting.

’Universal History of Cuisine?’

Judging by the name, it sounded more like a history book. Su Chen had heard of a book called Universal World History, and this seemed similar, just with the word "Cuisine" added.

But neither of these things particularly interested Su Chen.

The quest descriptions themselves, however, did strike him as interesting.

One was to create a Chinese-Western fusion dish for the competition, while the other was to compete with a purely traditional Chinese creation. They were complete opposites.

In terms of difficulty, the second quest was definitely harder.

’What’s more, the quests don’t specify *how* they need to be completed. That means I can just devise a plan, or I could take Ah Bao’s ticket and join the finals team myself!’

’Damn it, am I really not going to be able to get out of this after all?’

He had been unwilling to participate before because of business at the restaurant, but now that he was here in person, it would be a shame not to get involved.

Besides, the competition’s format was different from what he’d imagined.

Previously, Su Chen had thought the competition was just everyone making their own dish and handing it over to the judges to see whose tasted best.

That was why he felt a competition that was so heavily biased toward personal preference was completely meaningless.

But this was a little different.

’This is actually getting a little interesting... Whatever, I’ll think about it tomorrow!’

Su Chen slept reasonably well that night, but Liu Ahbao was miserable. By dawn, he still hadn’t figured out what dish he would make for the competition.

"Damn it!"

The next morning, Ah Bao fiercely shoved a piece of bread into his mouth at breakfast. "Why don’t we just go straight back home? It’s better than going up there and embarrassing ourselves!"

His senior shook his head and sighed. "What is with this year? Logically, Hubei Cuisine should never have made it to the finals. I’m still in a daze."

Another of his fellow apprentices put down his chopsticks. "Master Cui’s disciples didn’t even participate, and the heirs of the other cuisines couldn’t match Ah Bao’s skill. Who the hell knew Ah Bao would improve so fast after just a few months at Delicious?"

"Damn! I carry you guys to the finals and you’re blaming me?" Liu Bao was beyond frustrated.

He’d originally just planned on a trip to the Capital City to participate in the preliminaries and be done with it. Instead, he’d unexpectedly blazed a path from the first round all the way to the finals.

Take the second preliminary round, for example. Ah Bao made a steamer full of pork knuckle buns on the spot, and the judges practically swallowed their own tongues!

In the third round, a noodle competition, Ah Bao pulled a clever move with a bowl of *qiangguo* noodles and was sent straight to the next stage!

And so, he’d stumbled his way into the grand finals, which led to his current predicament.

"So what do we do now? Even if we don’t place, we can’t just get on stage and do nothing, right? We have to at least make something decent so we don’t lose face in our circle!"