Gan Lan opened the door and invited the dean and the others inside. "Hello, Dean. Hello, professors."
The dean waved his hand, walking into the dorm room with a sense of urgency. "Quick, take us to see the finished product."
Looking at the identical expressions on the leaders’ faces, Gan Lan had no choice but to lead them toward the wolf cake. The dean stood half a meter away from the Wolf King, carefully admiring it from head to toe.
The other professors whispered among themselves.
"The real thing looks even more exquisite. I feel like this wolf is looking right at me."
"It’s too beautiful! Truly stunning. This is the perfect combination of art and food. Who would have thought that this lazy yet fierce-looking wolf is merely a large 3D cake?"
"Barring any accidents, this student could do whatever she wants in the Culinary World with this skill alone. The new generation truly surpasses the old! Did I use that idiom correctly?"
Before the professors arrived, Gan Lan had already ended her livestream, so the viewers in the comments couldn’t see their exaggerated expressions of amazement.
Principal Yang adjusted his glasses. Although nearsightedness no longer existed in this high-tech era, he felt that wearing glasses gave him a more scholarly air, making him look more like a man of letters. Of course, he was a man of letters to begin with. He walked toward Gan Lan, who was standing quietly to the side. "Student Gan Lan, I am Yang Xuanze, the Mingzong Principal. You can just call me Principal Yang."
Gan Lan straightened her back and said solemnly, "Hello, Principal." So he was the principal! She wondered why she hadn’t recognized him. The original owner of her body hadn’t paid attention to who the Mingzong Principal was upon enrollment, and she hadn’t cared either since she arrived. This led to her current predicament of not recognizing him face-to-face, but she hid it well.
"How did you train your carving technique?" Principal Yang asked. "I saw in your livestream that the hand speed you displayed is already on par with top-tier Culinary Masters. The only people capable of replicating this work right now are top-tier Culinary Masters."
Gan Lan lied through her teeth with a straight face.
"I’ve loved carving since I was young, and my biggest dream was to become an outstanding sculptor. However, my family’s financial situation was truly limited, and learning to carve requires a lot of Credit Points, so I had to temporarily give it up. Still, whenever I had time, I would log onto the Star Network and use virtual data to practice. Recently, my living conditions have improved, and I can afford carving tools and ingredients again, so I slowly started practicing.
"Perhaps I’m just more gifted, so I don’t find carving difficult at all."
Principal Yang nodded in understanding. Without another word, he turned and walked toward the Wolf King cake.
Gan Lan felt a bit guilty, but she thought the story she made up was quite good and had no loopholes. She looked at the professors who were still staring at the wolf cake. The dean, in particular, had directly turned on his recording function and was filming the cake meticulously from head to tail, occasionally gasping and praising this stunning masterpiece.
One person, however, caught Gan Lan’s attention. Dressed in casual clothes, he looked to be only in his thirties. He was staring at her Wolf King and drooling, looking like he was just a second away from reaching out to swipe some frosting to eat. If the professors next to him hadn’t stopped him, he would have already defiled her wolf.
Gan Lan hesitated before walking over. "Sir, are you hungry? I still have some leftover cake scraps from the carving. If you don’t mind, I can bring them over for you to try?"
Hearing this, the man in casual clothes turned his head, wiped away non-existent drool, and adjusted his clothes. His eyes lit up. "I don’t mind, I don’t mind at all! Hurry up and bring it for me to taste."
The surrounding professors didn’t react when they heard this. They had simply seen this scene too many times and were completely numb to it. It was impossible to talk him out of it, anyway. This Mr. Gu couldn’t take another step whenever he saw sweets; he loved sugar as much as his own life.
Gan Lan wasn’t surprised by this answer. She directly took out the leftover scraps from the refrigerator, processed them slightly, and cut them into small pieces. She paired them with the remaining frosting to make them look a bit more presentable, poured a few cups of milk tea, and brought it all out to the professors.
Meanwhile, on the Star Network, Gan Lan’s Wolf King cake had also become famous. It received another wave of promotion from the reporter Mu Huanhuan. Viewers from other livestreams also began posting threads to express their amazement. They had never seen such a stunning cake before; it turned out that cooking could be this beautiful!
Various forums were taken over by these headlines:
[You’ve Definitely Never Seen a Cake Like This, Right? [Video]]
[What’s the First Thing You Think of When You See This? [Image] [Video]]
[So Cakes Can Be Made Like This, Too! I Wouldn’t Have the Heart to Eat It Even if It Was Just Data [Video]]
[Culinary Streamer Shows Off God-Tier Skills! My Mom Asked Me Why I Was Crying While Watching the Stream [Teleportation Gate]]
[AWOO AWOO! My Dear Wolf King is So Lazy, Fierce, and Beautiful. I Love It [GIF]]
Overnight, Gan Lan’s Wolf King became famous, and Gan Lan piggybacked on that wave of popularity. Previously, her follower count had plummeted by nearly a hundred million because she had gone back on her word. Now, thanks to a single wolf cake, those numbers were rebounding. In fact, her follower count was marching steadily toward the one billion mark.
After Gan Lan saw the professors out, she collapsed onto the sofa, her entire body aching. It had been too long since she had carved with such intense focus, and her body was struggling to handle the strain. While resting, she opened her Light Brain to browse the Star Network, first clicking on the messages from her friends.
Gao Haiyang: [Junior, my birthday is October 8th. You know what to do...]
Wen Ningyue: [I don’t want to trouble you too much, but I want you to personally make my birthday cake next year! I’m dying of jealousy! I want a Wolf King, too!]
Gan Lan looked bewildered. Did "Wolf King" refer to the wolf cake? That was a pretty good name!
Yan Yifei: [My birthday is November 11th ^^]
Gan Lan burst into laughter when she saw Princess Yan’s birthday. Wasn’t that Singles’ Day? It was a very meaningful date, and she would definitely make him a meaningful cake. Without exception, her friends all expressed their jealousy and flooded her with messages containing their birthdates.
Gan Lan chuckled, taking out a notebook to jot down the dates and setting special reminders in her Light Brain’s calendar. After doing all that, she replied to them one by one, promising that they would absolutely receive beautiful cakes when the time came.
Next, she went to browse the Mingzong forums. The moment she clicked in, she jumped in fright. Damn! Her Wolf King had dominated the entire Mingzong forum. Clicking on any random hot thread revealed her Wolf King from every conceivable angle. Some even included the multi-hour video of the entire production process.
After browsing for a while, she realized that the Wolf King had catapulted her to fame. She now had 1.1 billion followers! She previously had over 500 million fans and had lost over 100 million of them due to the incident where she went back on her word. It would be a lie to say she wasn’t heartbroken over it.
But if she had to do it again, she would make the same choice. Initially, she thought it would be enough to just donate money to the original owner’s home planet when the time came. She herself didn’t need the viewers in her livestream to send large gifts. However, a sudden burst of inspiration had driven her to make this new decision.
This decision had kept her buzzing with excitement for a long time. She had taken it upon herself to make spreading Huaxia cuisine her mission, and her dream was to buy Star 1888 and develop it into a Huaxia Cuisine Star. She wanted to save up enough Credit Points to buy Star 1888 before graduation. Six years—she only had six years. So what did it matter if she had to eat her own words?