Mo Bai stretched his neck as he crawled out of the car; night had already fallen outside.
"Time flies so fast."
The Little White Dragon chimed in with a milky, childish voice before burrowing into Mo Bai's clothes and vanishing.
The brightly lit Tōtsuki Detached Palace looked magnificent. At the main entrance of the lobby, Zhang Yu, dressed in a festive red Tang suit, had been waiting for a long time.
"This must be the miko from Yukikawa Shrine, right? It must have been a hard journey; please rest your feet first." A bruise was faintly visible on Zhang Yu's forehead where gauze had been removed, as he signaled a server to lead Yukikawa Yukie away.
"Senior?" Yukie turned her head blankly to look at Mo Bai. The eyes of this girl, who had grown up in a shrine and was not very well-versed in worldly affairs, were filled with confusion.
Wasn't she here to exorcise spirits? Why didn't they discuss the specific situation upon meeting, but instead asked her to rest?
"Resting to adjust your state is necessary. Besides, you can't fight on an empty stomach, right?" While Mo Bai explained, he felt a bit strange about Zhang Yu's attitude.
He was enthusiastic, sure, but it looked like he was in a hurry to send the person away.
Could it be professional jealousy?
"I understand this. Saber said hunger is the great enemy." Yukie, easily hoodwinked by a few words, revealed an expression of 'so that's it' and obediently followed the server into the elevator.
Once Yukie was gone, the physically tense Zhang Yu immediately showed a look of relief.
"Chef Zhang Yu, you...?" Mo Bai looked at Zhang Yu strangely. He completely failed to see what about a ditsy young girl could make Zhang Yu nervous.
Considering Zhang Yu's brutal combat power—one palm, one handprint—the roles should be reversed; the nervous one should be Yukikawa Yukie.
"It's nothing, I'm just not used to dealing with Daoist types." Zhang Yu thought of something, wiping fine beads of sweat from his forehead with lingering fear. "Let's talk about what happened to you guys at the shrine instead. Why did Head Chef Dōjima Gin go to the hospital after coming back to hand over his work? I heard it seems to be a severe cold."
"Huh? He went to the hospital?" Thinking about the environment at Yukikawa Shrine, Mo Bai was momentarily speechless.
Fortunately, it was the burly Dōjima Gin. An average person left out in the ice and snow for a day and night might have actually frozen to death.
"He was shut outside the shrine entrance for a day and a night."
"Is the status of shrines in the Far East so high?" Zhang Yu's expression wasn't good; Dōjima Gin counted as his colleague, after all. Martial artists value loyalty, and Zhang Yu was naturally no exception.
Moreover, this degree of treatment could clearly be called making things difficult.
"Hahaha..." Mo Bai laughed dryly, not knowing how to explain to Zhang Yu. To a large extent, the main culprit for Dōjima Gin being left in the ice and snow for a day and night, resulting in a severe cold and hospitalization, was him.
"Eh? Wait." Zhang Yu discovered a flaw in Mo Bai's words. "Head Chef Dōjima Gin was shut outside the shrine entrance for a day and a night, so what about you?"
"I..." Mo Bai sighed, deciding leniency comes to those who confess. "I ate two Imperial Feasts, soaked in the hot springs twice, and the other party even gave me a Guest Elder wooden plaque."
"..."
"..."
"This is truly a sad story." Zhang Yu's gaze tilted to the left.
"Who says it isn't." Mo Bai's gaze tilted to the right.
"Don't tell Sena Hiromi," Zhang Yu admonished, patting Mo Bai's shoulder after ending the somewhat awkward eye contact.
"Mm, I understand." Mo Bai understood that for this kind of matter that embarrassed a superior, it was better to let it rot in one's stomach.
"Alright, I'm going to cook. I'll leave the matter of entertaining the miko to you." The topic returned to entertaining the miko, and Zhang Yu's retreating figure seemed inexplicably ragged.
Mo Bai's eyes sharpened; there was definitely a story behind this, damn it.
===
"Cough, cough!"
"I'm really stupid, really."
"Knowing clearly that Mo Bai had contact with the shrine, I still followed Mo Bai to storm the Torii. Cough, cough!" In the VIP ward, Dōjima Gin's head was groggy as he was on a drip, coughing incessantly.
"Mr. Dōjima Gin, your condition may not be optimistic." A doctor in a white coat walked in holding a test form.
"How long to recover?"
"It will take at least a month."
"A month!? Cough, cough, cough!" Hearing the expected physical recovery time stated by the doctor, Dōjima Gin coughed even more violently.
===
The Whole Fish Feast prepared by Zhang Yu left Mo Bai and Yukie glowing with satisfaction.
Mo Bai understood why Dōjima Gin would let Zhang Yu host Yukie. Zhang Yu's combat power wasn't just off the charts; this Whole Fish Feast completely demonstrated his off-the-charts culinary skills.
Fish dishes of various flavors—salty-fresh, sour-spicy, sweet-sour, numbing-spicy—came easily to his hand.
Not only did Mo Bai eat with shouts of enjoyment, but even Yukie hugged her plate refusing to let go, and the Little White Dragon ate until it looked like a little meat worm lying on its back.
"Is this the fish cuisine of the Hua nation? It's completely different from the light tastes of the Far East, it's too delicious!" Yukie lifted the glass soup plate and drank down the last mouthful of Sister Song's Fish Chowder with her head thrown back.
Her small pink tongue licked the soup from the corner of her mouth, and after letting out a long burp, Yukie stared blankly at the tabletop.
The Hua nation's pursuit of fish cuisine can generally be distinguished by one word: Craving Freshness.
Removing the fishy smell while using various auxiliary ingredients or seasonings, using various different flavors, and using various different cooking methods to maximize the freshness of the fish flavor is a subject that Hua nation chefs have been studying for generations.
The Far East can hardly see their taillights when it comes to fish processing.
"How was the taste?" Zhang Yu, having finished cooking, had changed back into his Tang suit.
"I give this Whole Fish Feast 82 points; the remaining 18 points I'll send to you in the form of '666'." Mo Bai gave a thumbs up; he had really found the right mentor.
"Especially that Sister Song's Fish Chowder—bright color, thick broth, rich flavor, fine ingredients."
"It truly melts in the mouth, leaving a fragrance that fills the mouth."
"It makes one feel as if they are in the misty scenery of the West Lake riverside."
"The little miko has eaten herself silly."
"That's right. Aside from anything else, this Sister Song's Fish Chowder was the killer move I brought out when I passed the Nine-Star Chef assessment back in the day. It instantly defeated a whole bunch of judges." Zhang Yu puffed out his chest proudly.
"Nine-Star back then? What about now?" Mo Bai immediately became interested.
"Still Nine-Star." Zhang Yu's proud expression turned to awkwardness.
"...Stuck?" Mo Bai, understanding that the Special-Grade assessment might involve Dream Ingredients, asked cautiously.
"To be accurate, my recipes, techniques, and Culinary Heart are a bit lopsided."
"If it were a fish-type Dream Ingredient, I dare guarantee I'd have a one hundred percent certainty of passing the Special-Grade assessment."
"I actually came to the Far East holding onto a lucky hope that the IGO might bring out a fish-type Dream Ingredient in the Far East Special-Grade assessment."
"But Dream Ingredients are so rare, and the range brought out for each Special-Grade assessment is simply too large."
"After going back and forth a few times, I lost the desire to take the assessment." Zhang Yu shook his head, his tone somewhat melancholic.
"Culinary Heart lopsided?" Mo Bai didn't quite understand what Zhang Yu said.
"It means the Culinary Heart has defects; it's incomplete." Little Bai jumped out.
________________________________________
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