Ryou was still trying to understand how the guest list had exploded when Keqing gave him the answer before he could ask.
"Eighteen mouths to feed if we count the two of us. So yes, we need a lot more food." Keqing said.
Ryou stared at her for a moment.
A quiet dinner had somehow turned into the kind of gathering that needed staff, planning, and possibly a written report afterward.
Keqing did not give him time to complain.
"Mona is watching the hall for now. Nothing should happen with her there. And you shouldn't have to handle everything alone, so I'll help."
Ryou looked at her, then at the ingredients still waiting on the side, and accepted reality with a sigh.
"All right. You and Xiangling prepare more vegetables and seafood. We need to hurry, or we'll be late for Yun Jin's performance."
Keqing nodded and went to Xiangling's side.
The two women worked quietly at first. Xiangling's mood was still low after what had just happened, but Keqing said something to her in a voice too soft for Ryou to catch. Xiangling lowered her head, answered just as quietly, and the silence between them eased by a little.
Ryou noticed, but he did not pry.
The stove was already waiting.
He opened his mouth and breathed out twice.
The two currents spread through the kitchen and settled around the cooking area, thin and invisible, but unmistakable to him. One strengthened anything he cooked within its range. The other shortened the cooking time while keeping the dish at the moment where its flavor, texture, and heat were at their best.
Together, they turned the kitchen into something absurd.
A normal chef needed heat, timing, and experience. Ryou still needed those too, but now the process bent around him. The only flaw was that the effect lasted only two hours.
For tonight, two hours was more than enough.
He swept the first batch of greens into the wok. Under the effect of his breath, the vegetables changed almost at once—raw sharpness fading, fragrance rising, color turning bright and glossy as the heat ran through them with impossible precision.
A few quick turns later, the dish was ready.
Ryou tasted one piece and knew the effect had held.
The greens were crisp, but the flavor had settled in completely. Quality +6, with the enhancement adding +3. For a dish finished in less than a minute, it was more than enough to serve.
He plated it, moved the next batch toward the stove, and called over his shoulder, "Dehya, take this out."
The plate did not move.
Ryou glanced back and found Dehya staring at it with open doubt, as if the dish had just broken the laws of mercenary common sense.
"That's it?" she asked. "You barely put it in the pan. Is it really cooked?"
Before Ryou could answer, Keqing and Xiangling came over to inspect it themselves.
Keqing picked up a bite first. Xiangling followed, her expression serious in the way only a chef's could be when a dish offended her understanding of technique.
The moment Xiangling tasted it, the gloom hanging over her vanished.
Her eyes sharpened.
It was not just surprise. It was hunger—the kind that came from seeing a skill she could not understand and wanting desperately to pull it apart, master it, and make it her own.
Ryou felt the back of his neck prickle.
He had seen that kind of intensity before from Shenhe, though Shenhe's version had usually been aimed at him instead of his cooking. Somehow, Xiangling's version was not much less dangerous.
"You've tasted it," he said quickly, before curiosity turned into another confession. "So help me send it out. We're short on time."
Dehya finally came back to herself, picked up the plate, and carried it away, though she still looked back at the wok as if she expected it to explain what had happened.
Once she left, Keqing placed another tray of seafood near Ryou.
"Ryou," she asked, "what exactly did you do?"
Xiangling stepped forward before he could answer.
"I watched you cook it," she said. "You only tossed it a few times. That shouldn't be enough. Even for me, I would need several minutes, and that's with proper fire control."
Her gaze stayed fixed on the stove.
"To make it that fast and still keep the quality so high… that's ridiculous."
Then she looked up at him, her earlier embarrassment pushed aside by a cook's pure obsession.
"Can you teach me?"
Keqing was watching him too.
Ryou felt both gazes on him and smiled.
"It's a secret. I'll tell you when we have time."
He turned back to the wok before either of them could press harder.
"Next dish is coming out."
After that, the kitchen stopped feeling like a kitchen and started moving like a battlefield.
Keqing and Xiangling kept ingredients flowing toward him. Vegetables, seafood, side dishes—everything arrived washed, cut, and ready the moment he needed it. Ryou moved between wok, pot, counter, and plate without wasting a step, while the two effects wrapped around each dish and forced time itself to behave.
Food that should have taken several minutes reached its best state in moments.
The air filled with layered fragrance. Heat rolled through the kitchen. Plates stacked up one after another, and Dehya came in and out so many times that even she stopped questioning the speed.
By the time twenty minutes had passed, the extra dishes were finished.
Ryou cleaned the counter, wiped his hands, and was about to head for the hall when Keqing returned after sending out the last tray. She set it down, stepped close, and kissed him.
"Ryou, you're amazing."
Ryou looked amused. "Only now?"
"You made enough food for that many people in less than half an hour." Keqing's smile faded slightly as she studied him. "But your face doesn't look good. Did you overdo it?"
"I'm fine."
He slipped an arm around her waist and kissed her back.
"Keqing, you can rest properly tonight."
Keqing immediately narrowed her eyes at him.
"Who said I wanted you bullying me?"
Then suspicion caught up with her.
"Wait. What are you planning tonight?"
"Building a house."
"A house?"
"For Taroumaru," Ryou said, pinching her cheek lightly. "His place still isn't settled."
Keqing had barely relaxed before his smile deepened.
"But you're getting bold, Keqing. I'll deal with you tonight."
Her face warmed, but before she could retort, he added far too casually, "Besides, I already prepared three outfits."
Keqing's fingers found his waist at once and pinched hard enough to make her point.
"Don't think I don't know what you're planning," she said. "You want to buy opera costumes from Yun Jin, don't you? I guessed it back in Qingce Village when you were talking to her."
Her ears were red, but her answer was firm.
"No. Absolutely not."
Ryou laughed and stroked her cheek.
"All right. I won't force you."
"You'd better not."
"Come on," he said. "Everyone is waiting."
Keqing let him take her hand, and the two of them returned to the hall.
The tables had been pushed together into one long spread, and nearly every seat was filled. As soon as Ryou entered, the guests started to rise.
He lifted a hand before the atmosphere turned formal.
"Don't stand on ceremony. Sit down and eat."
That one sentence broke the tension better than any speech.
Everyone settled back in, and Ryou glanced over the dishes.
The enhancement had worked even better than expected.
Xiangling's spicy crayfish had reached quality +10. The other dishes mostly sat around quality +7. Even the wine had been affected, its fragrance deeper and cleaner than before.
Ryou peeled a piece of spicy crayfish and placed it in Keqing's bowl.
"Try this."
Keqing nodded and took a bite.
Her eyes widened at once.
For a moment, she seemed to search for words, but the flavor left her nowhere to begin. She simply reached for two more pieces, and that reaction told Ryou more than any praise could have.
The rest of the table was no better.
Conversation died naturally, not from awkwardness, but because everyone had decided eating mattered more than talking. Chopsticks moved quickly. Plates emptied at a speed that would have made any restaurant owner deeply afraid and deeply proud.
The spicy crayfish vanished first. The seafood followed soon after.
Then the system prompts began ringing in Ryou's mind.
[Ding! Cloud Retainer's all attributes increased by 3%!]
[Ding! Tabibito's all attributes increased by 3%!]
[Ding! Amber's all attributes increased by 1%!]
[Ding! Tighnari's all attributes increased by 1%!]
[Ding! Hu Tao's all attributes increased by 1%!]
More prompts followed one after another.
Ryou had only just begun sorting through them when the air inside the hall blurred.
Adeptal mist rolled out across the room.
It did not stop at the table. It slipped through the hall, filled the estate, and drifted beyond the walls in thick, glowing layers.
Ryou immediately thought of Qingce Village.
Back then, after Moon Carver drank his tea, the same kind of mist had covered the entire village and turned it into something like an adeptal realm.
This time, the effect was clearly heavier.
Cloud Retainer, Mountain Shaper, and Ganyu had all gained something from the meal. With three powerful adeptal presences touched at once, the mist had become so dense that even the surrounding streets might be affected.
Whether that was good or bad for ordinary people, Ryou could not judge immediately.
And with the whole table still eating, there was not much he could do about it.
Before he could speak, the mist began to draw back layer by layer.
Someone had acted.
Ryou looked toward the adepti just as Cloud Retainer spoke, her tone carrying rare satisfaction.
"Truly a delicacy of the mortal world. This one's strength has advanced by no small amount. A single meal saving centuries of cultivation… even one finds it difficult to believe."
"Indeed," Mountain Shaper said.
Ryou turned to Ganyu.
She shook her head lightly. "I gained less than the two of them, but I did gain something."
Then she smiled at him.
"Also, Ryou, the food is incredible."
"Maybe I was just lucky," Ryou said.
Keqing did not let him hide behind that excuse.
"Ryou, did you forget what happened in Qingce Village?" she asked. "Moon Carver had the same reaction. Qingce is still covered in adeptal mist because of it."
She turned to Cloud Retainer and Mountain Shaper.
"If this mist won't harm the people nearby, could we let it stay?"
Ryou picked up his tea and drank instead of interrupting.
While the adepti discussed the mist, his eyes drifted toward the other end of the table.
Tabibito, Paimon, and Mona had not stopped for even a heartbeat.
The adepti could talk about cultivation. Keqing could talk about public safety. The estate could turn into a glowing adeptal landmark.
Those three were still buried in their bowls with terrifying focus.
Ryou almost laughed.
How many lifetimes had they gone without eating?
He tried to warn them. "Tabibito, you—"
Mountain Shaper's voice cut in before he could finish.
"So Moon Carver's cultivation advanced as well?" he said. "What a pity. I had planned to return and boast to him properly."
Then he considered Keqing's suggestion.
"As for the mist, leaving it should do no harm. How long it remains, however, this one cannot say."
"That's fine," Keqing said.
Ryou set down his cup and finally raised his voice.
"Everyone should keep eating. If you wait much longer, Tabibito, Paimon, and Mona will clear the table by themselves."
That warning worked better than any formal invitation.
The whole table returned to the meal at once.
Dinner lasted nearly half an hour, and by the end, every plate was empty.
Cloud Retainer leaned back, clearly pleased.
"One has truly eaten her fill today. Ryou, your cooking is remarkable."
Mountain Shaper nodded. "Indeed. Far better than Cloud Retainer's."
Cloud Retainer glanced at him, but for once she did not argue.
When it came to cooking, she truly had nothing to say.
"Ryou," Amber said, still bright-eyed from the meal, "this is the first time I've eaten your cooking, and I don't think I'll ever forget it."
Diluc nodded. "Nor will I."
Collei touched her stomach, almost embarrassed by how much she had eaten.
"I don't think I've ever been this full before. And after eating, my body feels so much better."
She had barely finished when Tighnari reached for her wrist.
"Huh? Tighnari, what is it?"
His fingers settled against her pulse. At first he only frowned in concentration, but the longer he checked, the more his expression changed.
Surprise gave way to disbelief.
"Collei…"
He looked up, still holding her wrist.
"This meal weakened the Eleazar in your body. By a lot."
[End of chapter]