"Damn, you're flashy." Mo Bai stretched his neck, glanced sideways, narrowed his eyes, and sighed internally.
"..."
"Where's your fish?" After the two stared blankly at each other for a long moment, Wang Yao was the first to break off the mind-numbing topic.
"It got heatstroke. It's a lost cause. We're eating it for lunch." Mo Bai directly announced the fate of the yellowtail, into which the Wang family had poured their heart and soul. "Want to add a pair of chopsticks?"
"Absolutely." Wang Yao gave a thumbs-up and gestured to the side. "Also, you should receive your little gift package."
The old man in the Zhongshan suit, whom they had seen at the police station entrance, entered the hotel, holding down a gangster boss decked out in a mink coat and gold chains.
"To your room?"
"Alright." Mo Bai's gaze sharpened.
The interrogation process was surprisingly swift, almost a simple question-and-answer session.
The dazed-looking gangster boss candidly revealed his background, the mastermind behind it all, Yoshino Takashi, and the detailed plan to hire a debt collection agency to break Mo Bai's left hand.
"Is the world of chefs really this cruel?" Mo Bai closed the door, feeling that the profession was quite different from the simple cooking he had imagined.
"The winner takes all; it's the law of nature." At the door, Wang Yao leaned against the wall and started organizing his little slips of paper again. "Now that you know the whole story, what do you plan to do?"
Mo Bai took out his phone.
"Let the IGO handle it?" Wang Yao raised an eyebrow.
"No, I'm just calling people for lunch." Mo Bai scrolled through his contacts. "As for Yoshino Takashi, I'll make him pay after the finals."
Mo Bai tapped on Colson's name and showed the phone to Wang Yao. "First, let's scare him a little."
"Hahaha, you've really got something, Old Mo." Wang Yao chuckled, imagining the terrified expression Yoshino Takashi would have after being threatened by him and then hearing that Colson was coming to the Haranoya Hotel.
"Hello, Mr. Colson, would it be possible to invite you to the Haranoya Hotel for lunch to try an experimental dish?"
"...Yes, that's right. If possible, please invite Miko Chiba and Ms. Takagaki Kaede as well."
Ignoring the mischievously grinning Wang Yao, Mo Bai continued making calls.
"Hello, Fumika? Are you free for lunch? You all should come over for a meal."
"...Alright, I'll cook for you myself."
"Yep, that's all three judges."
A truly cruel and unusual punishment. Mo Bai was confident that the presence of all three judges would be enough to send Yoshino Takashi on a soul-crushing journey that would chill him to the bone.
"I'm going to cook. Make yourself at home, Old Wang." Standing next to a handsome guy who was better looking than him gave Mo Bai a sense of crisis, especially since the number of little notes the other guy received every few steps was something he could never achieve in a lifetime.
"Old Wang? Me?" Wang Yao paused. Back in the Hua nation, no one would dare speak to him with such a dismissive tone.
"Who else?" Mo Bai said with his dead-fish eyes. "You call me Old Mo, so there's nothing wrong with me calling you Old Wang, right?"
"There's nothing wrong with it, but I sense a chilling malice." Wang Yao rubbed his chin, scrutinizing Mo Bai. "Are you sure you didn't add a certain prefix in your head when you said it?"
"I did not." Mo Bai lied with a straight face. "I'm not talking to you anymore. I really have to go cook."
"Need a hand?"
"You know how to cook?" Mo Bai's gaze fell on Wang Yao's hands, which were more delicate and fair than a girl's, as he shot back the question.
"Hey! I don't like the sound of that." Wang Yao suddenly grew excited as if he'd found his trigger. "How about a little competition? I'm not bragging, but back in the Hua nation, I'm considered one of the top dogs."
"Xiao Bai, I see an absurdly handsome bastard showing off in front of me." Mo Bai fell silent.
"Mmm, I see him too. So dazzling." Xiao Bai was also silent.
"Mess with him?" x2
Consensus reached!
===
Top floor of the Yoshino Hotel.
Already in a panic after being told that the Onmyoji he had hired had died violently near Akihabara after completing the job, Yoshino Takashi smashed everything he could in his office upon hearing that all three judges had gone to the Haranoya Hotel after the competition.
"Damn it! Why would they go to the Haranoya Hotel?" Yoshino Takashi, his eyes bloodshot, glared at his bodyguard, Tahei.
"Rest assured, Young Master. I investigated last night. The boss we lost contact with wasn't captured by them," Tahei said quickly. "As for the Onmyoji, no one can prove he was working for us, right?"
"Right." A hint of delight crossed Yoshino Takashi's grim face, apparently pleased that he'd had the Onmyoji use a hidden passage the previous night. "They have no proof."
"Tahei, have someone book a room at the Haranoya Hotel and report back on the situation at all times." Despite this, the outwardly calm Yoshino Takashi was still inwardly terrified.
"Yes, sir."
===
Leaving aside Yoshino Takashi, tormented by panic and anxiety, the stoves in the private kitchen on the top floor of the Haranoya Hotel were blazing.
A clear, milky broth, filtered to perfection, bubbled as it boiled, continuously releasing an alluring, savory aroma from the pot.
The crowd of onlookers all closed their eyes, breathing deeply as if competing for the savory fragrance in the air.
"Whoa Impressive" Wang Yao, who had rolled up his sleeves and put on an apron, appeared completely at ease, watching the seafood broth on Mo Bai's stove with great interest. "Shellfish broth, fresh fish broth, dried fish broth, seaweed dashi... you even used shrimp to make the soup?"
"I see, so you're using a seafood broth for a fish hot pot?"
"A little surprising." Wang Yao nodded repeatedly as he watched the fish broth.
"Hey! Lunch is almost ready. Where's your dish, Old Wang?" Mo Bai felt that Wang Yao's gaze on the pot was somewhat unsettling, as if he were slowly analyzing the seafood broth within.
"My dish isn't nearly as complicated as your fish hot pot."
"But you're already at the final stage of serving. It wouldn't be right for me to slack off any longer."
"Elder Han, the ice," Wang Yao said succinctly.
"Yes, sir." The old man in the Zhongshan suit, his short, silver-white hair neatly combed, single-handedly lifted a half-man-high wooden cabinet onto the stove and took out a block of ice the size of two fists.
The onlookers were instantly captivated.
"What beautiful ice!"
The crystalline block of ice, with its irregularly faceted surface, shimmered with a profound blue luster, captivating everyone's attention like a precious jewel.
"It's glacier ice. And only old glaciers, over a hundred years old, can produce this kind of blue, crystal-like refracted light." A sheen passed over Colson's large, bald head, making it the second-most reflective object in the kitchen.
"Glacier ice?" The crowd, imagining polar landscapes, was completely stunned.
"That's right. When glacier ice first forms, it's milky white. Over long periods, the ice becomes denser and harder, the air bubbles inside gradually decrease, and it slowly becomes crystal clear, eventually turning into this kind of old glacier ice that resembles blue crystal."
"The bluer it is, the purer the ice." Harano Katsuya's voice was filled with envy and respect.
There isn't a single sashimi chef who wouldn't want to show off by using such a luxury item, but the exorbitant transportation costs and the risk of secondary contamination make it prohibitive for most.
Someone who could casually produce glacier ice of this quality definitely had a status far higher than his own as the heir to Haranoya.
________________________________________
Get rewarded for helping with our community goals!
🎯 Reward for all: +1 bonus chapter at 50 Powerstones.
🚀 Tier Reward: Help us reach 10 members for +5 chapters on all stories!
👻 Join the crew by searching Ms. Medusa on (P). You know the spot! 😉