"Master!" Xiangling greeted Granny Ping.
"Oh! You girl, how do you have time to come here today?" Madam Ping said with a smile.
"I am preparing for the Cooking Championship, and I am currently asking my friends for their thoughts and suggestions, striving to win the championship in this competition!"
Madam Ping nodded: "Good, good, good. Then this old woman wishes you immediate success. Since you need to prepare for the competition, I won't disturb you. I will go back to cheer you on when the time comes."
"Hee hee, thank you, Master. Then I'll be going now!"
Xiangling waved his hand and then returned to the group.
However...
"Ah? What are you eating?" Xiangling looked at the small cups in Shiki and Ayaka's hands with a shocked expression.
"Oh, you mean this? Strawberry ice cream," Shiki said.
This was something she and Ayaka had whipped up in their free time. Since making ice cream requires low temperatures, it naturally required Ayaka.
The difficulty of ice cream mainly lies in the low temperature; everything else is trivial. Even in Fontaine and Snezhnaya, where technology is most advanced, electricity has just started and is in its infancy, let alone Inazuma, a country whose technological development is no different from the Edo period.
Refrigerators or anything like that simply don't exist. If you want to freeze certain things, you have to let someone with an Ice element Vision do it.
Of course, if you don't mind the trouble, you can also look for an Ice Whopperflower or an Ice Slime.
As for Mist Flowers, they aren't very good; that thing can only be used as an ice cube.
With Ayaka here, various flavors of ice cream from Earth could be easily recreated, but for now, she only recreated the strawberry flavor.
Why she chose to recreate the strawberry flavor, she didn't know why either; perhaps it was because she used to eat this flavor often?
In any case, it was made, and then kept in Ayaka's Vision space.
Food won't rot, so naturally, the ice cream won't Melt; it's even better than a refrigerator.
"Ice cream? It looks so delicious!"
Looking at the alluring pink color in the cup, a drop of saliva couldn't help but flow from the corner of Xiangling's mouth. Who could refuse a scoop of cool ice cream in the hot summer?
Especially the faint strawberry fragrance it emitted; it was simply tempting him to eat it!
"If you don't mind, you can have a taste."
Shiki said this while gently touching Ayaka's soft hand. The latter immediately understood and took out a new cup of ice cream from her Vision.
"Thank you, thank you! How could I refuse something that looks so delicious!"
Xiangling opened the lid somewhat anxiously, took the small spoon handed over by the girl, scooped out a large mouthful, and then put it directly into his mouth.
"Mmm~ So refreshing!"
Xiangling widened his eyes, and it seemed as if starlight flashed across his brown-yellow eyes. This was much tastier than that guy Chongyun's popsicles!
This is what you call a dessert. Chongyun's popsicles are basically pure ice, with no flavor at all, and they are especially hard—you can't even bite into them when you put them in your mouth.
"Eh? Paimon wants to eat too!"
Paimon couldn't sit still when he saw this. He had thought this ice cream was no different from Chongyun's popsicles, but looking at Xiangling's expression, it seemed a bit different from what he had imagined!
"Ah, it's gone."
Shiki said expressionlessly, and then took another mouthful of ice cream into her mouth.
She wouldn't tell Paimon that Ayaka still had several boxes of ice cream; she just liked watching Paimon's expression of wanting to eat but not being able to.
"Woo~ How could this be!"
At this moment, a Paimon has lost his dreams; we can boil him and eat him.
"Then... then I'll give you mine."
Xiangling hesitated for a moment and finally decided to give the remaining ice cream to Paimon; anyway, he had already eaten some just now.
"Thank you, Xiangling!"
Paimon's mournful little face immediately beamed with joy—a real-life Sichuan opera face-change.
However, just as he was about to get the ice cream, a hard cup hit him on the head.
"Ouch!"
"Hey! Shiki! Why did you hit me?"
"Ah, I just found another cup of ice cream. If you don't want it, I'll take it back."
Shiki remained expressionless, her words full of perfunctoriness.
As long as someone is a person, they can basically tell she is teasing people, except for a certain emergency food.
"Eh eh eh? Of course I want it!"
Paimon took the cold cup off his head, but after struggling for a long time, the lid was still sealed tight.
This time it wasn't a prank; it was purely because Paimon's hands were too small, and combined with his small strength, he naturally couldn't open the lid that had stuck to the cup due to the low temperature.
"Woo~ Traveler, I can't open it..."
Traveler: "Paimon, stupid!"
One person and one emergency food bickered as usual, while Xiangling, standing on the side, issued an invitation to the two girls beside him.
"Um... would you two like to join my team? With your help, I believe my chances of winning the championship will be even greater."
Ayaka heard this and looked at the girl; the meaning expressed in those eyes was already very clear.
'Do as you please. No matter what, I'm fine with it.'
Seeing this, Shiki smiled slightly, then asked softly: "Since this so-called Cooking Championship is hosted by the Liyue Qixing, then as the champion, I will definitely be able to meet the Liyue Qixing, right?"
"That's natural. Not only can you meet them, but you can also get the champion's inscription from the Qixing!"
"Good, then I'll join. As a condition, I hope to have a private chat with the Tianquan after the competition ends."
"It's a bit difficult, but as long as we win the championship, there will definitely be no problem. The best chef in Liyue, even the Qixing has to give some face."
"Anyway, welcome to the team. Now you are my culinary consultants!"
As for assistant chefs? That's useless. Although you can participate in the competition as a team, in the end, there can only be one person on the competition field.
However, pets are allowed. They can't help you cook, so it won't count as cheating.
Anyway, since assistant chefs can't go on stage, it's better to be a consultant; that way it looks a bit more high-class.
Xiangling turned and walked towards the depths of Yujing Terrace, while Shiki and Ayaka followed behind him with nearly identical elegant steps.
And because Ayaka was a bit shorter than him, the stride length was also shorter than his. To allow the girl to keep up, he deliberately shortened the distance between his own steps.
The two shared a paper umbrella, and the girl gently held his lover's arm.
He quite liked the other's appearance as a high-class lady, even though it was put on.
But this was very similar to the Shiki he met at the summer festival—gentle and elegant.
TianquanNingguang
From afar, Shiki saw the three of them—Ningguang, Keqing, and Beidou—on Yujing Terrace, as well as a huge stone.
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