Chapter 416 - 162: Su Chen’s Setback

Chapter 416: Chapter 162: Su Chen’s Setback

Four hours of the competition had already passed, and the creations of some countries’ contestants were beginning to take shape.

The contestant from Riben Country used eggs to create a dessert resembling nori sushi, using a fruit sauce garnish to form the inventive shape of a small fish.

The contestant from India was rather unconventional; after extracting the liquid egg with a syringe, they filled the empty eggshells with a curry-flavored batter. Once steamed, they also began working on a creative design.

In those four hours, some audience members had already gone home for a meal and returned.

The judges also left their seats from time to time to stretch their legs in an empty area. Some judges even went up onto the stage to observe the contestants’ progress up close.

All the contestants were incredibly busy. Only the contestants from Huaxia were a stark contrast to everyone else.

Liu Ahbao, Zhang Jiayi, and Zhang Heping stood behind their chairs, their bodies growing stiff.

Zhang Jiayi, in particular, was as red as a baboon’s bottom. She had just taken out her phone for a peek and saw she had 99+ unread messages.

She had no idea who had posted the link to the international live stream of the competition in their "We Are a Loving Family" group chat, but now all of her various aunts, uncles, and in-laws were watching her compete.

This was just great.

They had been watching for four hours. In that long time, her family members had probably recharged their phones several times, yet they hadn’t seen Zhang Jiayi make a single move.

It made the poor girl so embarrassed she could hardly look up.

And in the chair in front of the trio, Su Chen was still fast asleep. He had told them not to disturb him, so... no one dared to wake him.

’This isn’t working...’

In the practice room, Su Chen had already lost count of how many times he had tried to make the Magnolia. Just as he had expected, this pastry, which wasn’t supposed to be difficult, presented an insurmountable problem when it came to its shape.

If the pistil was to be cylindrical, he couldn’t roll the dough.

Without rolling the dough, he couldn’t create the flaky layers, which meant he couldn’t make the petals bloom.

It was like being stuck in a paradoxical loop, which was truly frustrating.

’If this really doesn’t work, I’ll have no choice but to assemble it in pieces.’

Another of Su Chen’s two-hour breaks ended, and he immediately dove into the practice room. He set aside the unsolvable problem for now; he had to start on the overall construction of the pastry.

Since the theme this time involved ’creativity,’ a single Magnolia blossom blooming in a pot of oil wasn’t enough to meet the requirements for a creative dessert.

’Magnolia blossoms grow on branches. I can use cocoa powder for the color of the branches.’

He mixed cocoa powder with flour to make a dough, then rolled it into strips half a centimeter in diameter. He then poked a hole with a toothpick where the flower was to be inserted before using a hairdryer to dry the moisture from the strip’s surface.

After that, he would bake it in the oven. The dehydrated surface would then crack, giving it an appearance quite similar to tree bark.

’Next up, the flower buds...’

The sixteen hours in the practice room flew by as Su Chen practiced over and over. When Su Chen returned to reality and slowly opened his eyes, he saw that of the six-hour countdown, only one hour remained.

’I really should have rested a little longer...’

The side effect of continuous, high-intensity use of the practice room was that it left one a bit dazed, similar to the feeling of pulling an all-nighter playing video games.

Su Chen pulled something out of his pants pocket and handed it to Zhang Jiayi.

"My nose is a little sore. Help me put this on." He pointed to the bridge of his nose.

"Huh?"

Zhang Jiayi looked carefully, but she couldn’t find any wound on Su Chen’s high-bridged nose. Nevertheless, she carefully unwrapped the adhesive bandage and helped him apply it.

Sss...

The moment the Magic Sticker was attached to the bridge of his nose, Su Chen felt as if he’d just snorted a mouthful of wasabi. A cool rush shot straight to his head.

This was the effect of the Magic Sticker!

It enhanced the effects of the enchanted organ.

Right now, Su Chen’s brain was in a state of fatigue. With the Magic Sticker, he could force himself to reach his optimal state for the duration of its effect!

"Ah Bao, mix the cocoa powder and flour in a 1:1 ratio to make the dough."

Liu Ahbao’s eyes lit up. "I knew it! On it!"

At the competition venue, most of the provided common ingredients were for Western cooking. Something like cocoa powder was extremely common.

"Old Er, low-gluten flour and lard..." Su Chen stopped mid-sentence. He realized they hadn’t prepared any lard themselves, and there was no ready-made lard provided at the competition!

Damn!

Su Chen had to change his plan. "Old Er, first, render some lard for me from that pork."

There was no lard, but there was pork!

A lack of ingredients couldn’t stump the clever Huaxia People.

Zhang the Second stretched his somewhat stiff torso. "Okay."

Then, Su Chen grabbed some flour himself and began separating egg whites from yolks, getting ready to make the dough.

"What about me, what about me!" Zhang Jiayi asked excitedly.

’I can’t just do nothing, right?’

Su Chen stopped what he was doing. "You can be our assistant. Just listen to directions from the three of us!"

Even so, Zhang Jiayi nodded excitedly.

Seeing the contestants from Huaxia Country finally make a move, the eyes of the audience and the judges were immediately drawn to them.

"There’s only one hour left in the competition. Can they really make a dessert in such a short amount of time?"

"Almost all the other contestants are nearly finished. Only the teams from Australia and Huaxia Country are left. But the Australian contestant has been working nonstop for over four hours!"