After finishing her tasks, Gan Lan opened the Foodie Group chat to notify her friends to keep an eye out for their deliveries.
**Come and have some barbecue!**: [I’ve sent you all some glutinous rice fruit tangyuan. Remember to check your packages~]
**Blooming Beauty**: [Ahhh, I’m so lucky! I love you, junior! I left the tasting room as soon as I saw your message. You were the last one to come out—I was sweating bullets for you. Turns out you were the grand finale!]
**Binbin**: [I love that steamed rice cake. The texture is impeccable! I can’t believe it was actually made from rice. My god, I thought rice was only meant to be boiled!]
**Sky Blue**: [I want to marry our junior!]
**Feiran**: [?]
**Come and have some barbecue!**: [I only had the glutinous rice fruit tangyuan left. I’ll make more steamed rice cakes for you all when I get back.]
**Come and have some barbecue!**: [Boss Yan, are you sure Gulu is just ’a little mischievous’? I...]
**Hot Pot Balls**: [Hahaha! Junior, did you finally witness Gulu’s true power? Not only is he a smooth talker, but his fashion sense is even more formidable. Hahaha, you have my sympathies, junior.]
**Feiran**: [If he annoys you, just activate his mute system. He’ll be very quiet. ^^]
**Sky Blue**: [Captain, doesn’t your conscience hurt?]
So Gulu actually had a mute system. It seemed that even Yan Yifei couldn’t stand Gulu’s chattering sometimes. However, Gan Lan didn’t want to use it. Although he was a bit noisy, he was also quite cute at times.
She glanced at Gulu, who was currently in the living room playing video games and trash-talking his teammates. Hmm... he was certainly full of life.
Gan Lan logged into the Star Network’s Arena 99 to check the voting status. She had been the last contestant to finish her dish, and she wondered if it would affect her ranking. It seemed that finishing last did have some impact. She was currently ranked fifth. First place belonged to Contestant 15, and second place to Contestant 7.
Her heart skipped a beat, a wave of nervousness washing over her. However, there were still over a dozen hours until the voting deadline. She should be able to catch up, right?
Entering Tasting Room 9, she ignored the dense swarm of bullet comments and headed straight for the comment section. Sometimes, reading through the comments could yield useful information.
**1st Floor**: [I thought Contestant 9 was just a flash in the pan, but she surprises me more and more every time! To think glutinous rice and regular rice could be made into such desserts. My god, I absolutely love Contestant 9!]
**2nd Floor**: [Your highly-praised Contestant 9 almost ran out of time! Is she out of ideas? Tsk, tsk. The dessert wasn’t even that good—way too sweet and cloying. Our Ge Feng is still the strongest!]
**3rd Floor**: [I just came out of Ge Feng’s tasting room. I can’t believe he used purple rice for the outer skin, and the filling completely blew me away! He even shaped them into various chibi animals. So cute!]
**4th Floor**: [Yes, yes! For his other dish, he used rainbow rice. I have no idea how he did it, but he made these colorful rice puffs. It was so beautiful that I couldn’t bear to eat it—I just wanted to collect it.]
**5th Floor**: [Excuse me, what are you people doing praising Ge Feng in Contestant 9’s room? Are you afraid that our No. 9 will make it to the finals and trample Ge Feng underfoot?]
Looking at the sudden shift in the comment section’s tone, Gan Lan wasn’t the least bit panicked. She had anticipated this sort of thing might happen, and besides, she had her own fans too!
Even as a heated argument broke out in the comments, it only took a moment for Gan Lan’s vote count to catch up to the fourth-place contestant, securing the spot and rapidly advancing toward third. The fierce debate in the comments didn’t dampen her good mood in the slightest. Her mental fortitude was growing stronger by the day.
After browsing for a while, her eyes grew tired, so she decided to rest. She didn’t bother checking the other contestants’ tasting livestreams, planning to wake up early the next day to watch them.
Later that day.
"Oh, Chef Huang graces us with his presence. Forgive me for not welcoming you at the door." The dean, Chu Yuanyi, had just placed the glutinous rice fruit tangyuan and steamed rice cakes Gan Lan sent him on his desk, right as Huang Xingyan walked in.
Huang Xingyan—who was Ge Feng’s teacher—sat directly opposite him, completely expressionless. He didn’t say a word, his lips pressed tightly together as his eyes locked onto the two desserts on the table.
"Care for some?" Chu Yuanyi asked casually, in an excellent mood as he looked at the man across from him. The last time Chu Yuanyi had deliberately initiated a video call to show off the dumplings made by their Culinary Department’s genius, Huang Xingyan had scorned him, leaving him quite displeased. Although it wasn’t good to gloat too early, he simply couldn’t help himself.
"Oh, I suppose I’ll have a little," Huang Xingyan replied, having waited for exactly those words.
During Chu Yuanyi’s previous video call to show off Gan Lan’s work, Huang Xingyan had mocked and ridiculed him. Now, he wanted to see for himself if this Gan Lan was truly as capable as claimed. He had actually started paying attention to her after the previous argument between her and Ge Feng. However, it was merely the basic appreciation one might have for a younger junior; compared to his own apprentice, Ge Feng, she still had a long way to go.
Because of that, he hadn’t paid her much mind. If Ma Wenzhou hadn’t praised Contestant 9 from Arena 99 to high heaven earlier today, he would have forgotten about her entirely. That was why he came to Chu Yuanyi’s office to dig into her background. He wanted to see exactly what skills this person possessed to make the arrogant and picky Ma Wenzhou rave about her!
Chu Yuanyi gave Huang Xingyan a strange look. "Weren’t you incredibly dismissive of Mingzong’s Culinary Department’s genius? Why are you suddenly interested in her today? Are you feeling threatened?"
Huang Xingyan scoffed. "Just give me a bowl and cut the nonsense."
Chu Yuanyi didn’t take offense. He was in a good mood today, so he grabbed a clean bowl and served Huang Xingyan three fruit tangyuan of different colors. There were eight fruit flavors in total. If he didn’t happen to have exactly one extra of the red, gold, and green ones, he wouldn’t have been willing to share them at all. He was equally reluctant to part with the two steamed rice cakes, opting instead to slice one directly in half.
He then pushed the two bowls toward Huang Xingyan with a look of immense reluctance. "That’s all you’re getting. If I hadn’t seen you staring at them so eagerly, I wouldn’t have shared a single one."
Huang Xingyan remained silent, thinking the man was a total cheapskate.
Picking up a spoon from the side, he scooped up a red glutinous rice tangyuan and placed it in his mouth to taste it slowly. As soon as it entered his mouth, he tasted the flavor of Flame Fruit. The soft, glutinous outer skin was indeed made from rice-based ingredients. When he bit through the tangyuan, the unique filling flowed into his mouth. Mixed with the chewy outer skin, the faint tartness of the Flame Fruit, and a milky undertone, the seemingly discordant ingredients created an unexpectedly wonderful taste.
Huang Xingyan felt a complicated pang in his heart, but he maintained his stoic expression.
Chu Yuanyi, on the other hand, was completely different. After eating a small tangyuan, his face was filled with satisfaction, and he nodded repeatedly. "This student from our Culinary Department has so many whimsical ideas. She can take ordinary rice and turn it into such a special, delicious treat."
Chu Yuanyi smacked his lips, shooting a show-off glance at the emotionless Huang Xingyan. Even facing someone with zero expression didn’t affect his excellent mood while enjoying good food. In fact, seeing Huang Xingyan’s reaction made him feel even more delighted!
Huang Xingyan pretended not to see Chu Yuanyi’s smug look. He reasoned that she was just a bit innovative—his apprentice could do that too! Thinking this, he reached straight for the other plate and picked up the half of the steamed rice cake, which was as pure white as jade.
He brought it to his nose and took a sniff. The unique, subtle fragrance of white rice, accompanied by a hint of sweetness, immediately greeted his senses.