"Over here?" Mo Bai sized up Chiba Eda and the tabby cat, whose feline face screamed 'I wish I were dead' as it was held in a chokehold by the girl's fair-skinned arm. "I suppose so."
"Then are you interested in joining the Chiba Shrine?" Chiba Eda's eyes lit up as she took an impulsive step forward, pinning the innocent young Mo Bai against the wall.
"Join the Chiba Shrine?" Mo Bai, who had nearly been run down by her, was a bit stunned. "My apologies, but I have no intention of doing so at the moment. Besides, I have some ties to the Yukikawa Shrine."
"Is that so," Chiba Eda frowned. "Then please accept this first."
She handed him a badge with a green leaf pattern. "This is a Chiba Shrine medal. The Yukikawa Shrine is far away in Shinjuku, after all. Within Chiba Prefecture, the name of the Chiba Shrine can still help you avoid some unnecessary trouble."
Looking at the bright green, grass-type badge, the corner of Mo Bai's mouth twitched.
Do all shrines like to hand out badges these days? Don't tell me I'll have to collect eight shrine badges and challenge the final boss with an electric mouse?
"Oh, right, Mr. Mo Bai. It would be best for you to bandage your hand. An ordinary person can't touch something frozen by liquid nitrogen without getting injured," Chiba Eda reminded him before she left.
"Oh, crap. Xiao Bai, what am I supposed to do about this?" Mo Bai, who had been completely absorbed in his cooking, had clearly forgotten that detail.
"What else can you do? Fake it," Xiao Bai said, refusing to admit it had also forgotten.
Ten minutes later, Mo Bai surreptitiously rose from an inconspicuous corner, his knife-wielding right hand now a deep crimson.
"Thankfully, the three judges were so stunned by my dish that they forgot about the part where I sliced the sashimi. Otherwise, this would be hard to explain." Mo Bai felt the sticky ketchup in his palm, his expression inevitably a little disgusted. "This feels awful. I'll wash it off and wrap it in gauze as soon as I get back."
Starting today, he would have to pretend to be an injured person with his right hand bandaged for a long time.
"Wait, you there... contestant Mo Bai." The sound of leather shoes approached from behind him.
"'Wait' again?" Mo Bai rolled his eyes and turned to see Harano Katsuya, the rich guy who had used a bluefin tuna during the competition.
"Damn rich bastard," Mo Bai cursed inwardly before forcing a disingenuous smile.
Right, bow down to the forces of capitalism.
To whip out a hundred-million-yen bluefin tuna in a qualifying round without batting an eye, Harano Katsuya was truly a cut above the rest—a real madman.
"To make all three judges give a perfect score, contestant Mo Bai, you are truly amazing." Harano Katsuya looked at Mo Bai's youthful appearance, feeling a surge of emotion. His gaze finally landed on Mo Bai's palm, which was wrapped in gauze yet still showed a deep, bloody color seeping through.
If a genius like this was working so hard, what reason did he have to slack off?
Harano Katsuya took a deep breath.
"I know this is somewhat unfair to you while you're injured, but I must say this—the fleet that went out to sea this time actually caught two bluefin tuna. The second one was of even higher quality than the first, so we originally planned to sell it whole."
"But I will be using it in the upcoming finals."
"You can call me shameless or despicable."
"I just want to win the finals and enter Tōtsuki Academy."
"For this goal, I will do everything in my power to defeat you."
"Even if I have to resort to any means necessary."
The inexplicably fired-up Harano Katsuya bowed and left without giving Mo Bai a chance to reply.
"Hey, any thoughts on getting flexed on like that right to your face?" Xiao Bai asked, gloating.
"Right now, I only have one thought... It's great to be rich."
Two bluefin tuna! The first was worth a hundred million, and the second was even higher quality!
From Harano Katsuya's tone, it sounded like he was ready to pull out all the stops.
Mo Bai truly didn't dare to underestimate Harano Katsuya. With his family's vast resources, it wasn't impossible for him to pull out a high-star recipe to pair with the high-quality bluefin tuna and knock him out of the running.
"I need to think carefully about how to prepare the yellowtail," Mo Bai muttered to himself, scratching his hair.
After Mo Bai left, not far from where the two had been talking, a man in an IGO uniform emerged with a gleeful look on his face.
"I didn't expect heaven to be looking out for me after all."
His staff ID read, in large characters, Maeda Masho.
Colson had flown into a rage after a brief press interview, stating bluntly that there had been a problem with a chef's ingredients while they were in custody. Since the freezers were managed by different people, he was quickly identified.
The result, of course, was obvious. Aside from the IGO uniform on his back, he now had no connection to the IGO whatsoever.
"Since you were merciless, don't blame me for being malicious," Maeda Masho said, his face twisting into a vicious expression.
The finals were different from the qualifying rounds. In the finals, the ingredients were kept by the chefs themselves and would only be revealed at the last moment before the finals began.
And now, he knew the trump cards of the two top contenders for the championship. "I'm sure the other chefs will be very interested."
In a daze, he saw piles of cash raining down on him.
===
Returning to his hotel room door, Mo Bai was met with the eye-searing sight of three beefy young men with thick eyebrows winking and leering at him, their expressions exceedingly suggestive.
"Daji, Zhongji, Xiaoji, are you three looking for a beating?" Mo Bai had to admit he was disgusted.
"Get lost. Show some respect and stop bothering your Brother Mo." Wang Xiang shooed away his three sons. Having successfully made it through the qualifying round had greatly lifted his spirits, and his previous gloominess was gone.
But what was with that identical lecherous wink he gave as he passed by?
Mo Bai shuddered and quickly erased the horrifying image of a middle-aged uncle trying to be seductive from his mind.
"Have they all gone crazy with happiness?"
With deep confusion, he opened the door. Standing frozen in the doorway, Mo Bai finally understood why the four Wangs had been making those faces.
Inside the room, four beautiful young women with distinctly different vibes were seated around a table.
The literary girl Sagisawa Fumika, the little loli princess Tachibana Alice, the radiant Russian girl Anastasia, and the older sister-type girl Nitta Minami.
This group of girls was not only gorgeous, but aside from the yet-to-develop little loli princess, all of them had the ideal girlfriend figure—curvy with long legs. No wonder the Wang father and sons had given him that look.
"Hello." After a round of somewhat stuffy self-introductions, the curious gazes from the other three made Mo Bai feel immense pressure.
"Alright. Alice, Anya, it's rare for us to get out. Let's go get something good to eat."
"Eh? But..."
"Let's go, let's go." Nitta Minami, sensing the awkwardness between Mo Bai and Sagisawa Fumika, pushed the Russian girl and the loli out of the room.
The sound of the door closing came, and the remaining two both let out a sigh of relief.
Mo Bai wasn't used to being in a room full of girls.
And Sagisawa Fumika, who had impulsively brought her friends along, how could she have known how to start the conversation with them present?
"Yesterday, the agency sent someone over for an urgent inquiry, so I wasn't able to thank you in person."
"I'm sorry, and thank you." With her friends gone, Sagisawa Fumika relaxed considerably.
"You could have just called for something like this. There was no need to be so formal." Having an idol come to his door to thank him made Mo Bai feel secretly pleased.
"A... phone call?" Her bangs covered Sagisawa Fumika's bright eyes, and her tone became somewhat hollow.
"What's going on?! She's going dark just like that?!" Mo Bai was terrified.
"I waited all night yesterday. Why didn't you call?"
"I even put the note inside the book..."
"I see..."
"You didn't read the book, did you?" A dark aura emanated from behind Sagisawa Fumika, her long hair floating without any wind, and her thin lips curved into a dangerous smile. "Why didn't you read the book? Did you perhaps... throw it away?"
"Wait, wait, wait! There's a reason for this!" For the first time, Mo Bai experienced a threat to his life for not reading a book.
________________________________________
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