Chiyoda Five-star Hotel, soundproof room.
For a whole half an hour, the room was enveloped in a suffocating atmosphere, with no one speaking.
As the initiator of the culinary battle, Xia Yu was well aware that it wasn’t a good time for him to speak and influence the team’s decision.
He had already seemed rather capricious in rashly challenging Tiqie Ji to the culinary battle, and probably Roland Chapeau and the Tiqie couple still didn’t understand where his courage came from. If he continued to be capricious and affect the team decision, it would only be childish.
Besides, Xia Yu had also realized that at this point, the Far Moon Team was actually the proactive party.
The "research faction" team that proposed the strange conditions for the culinary battle had fallen into a passive position.
They should be the ones in a hurry.
In a head-on conflict, the Far Moon Team’s chances of winning were incredibly high.
The silence was broken by the pleasant ringtone of a phone.
Dojima Yin frowned, pulled his phone out of his suit pants pocket, glanced at the caller ID, his expression changing slightly, "Sorry, I need to step out to take a call."
The hulking, fit man had barely left when Xia Yu’s phone in his pocket also vibrated.
He silenced his phone, with the incoming call display showing an international call.
"This old guy really has ears that catch the wind, eyes that see for miles; my every move must be in his sight..." he muttered to himself with a small sneer, and shook his phone, "I need to take a call as well."
Zhu Qing shot him a meaningful glance, which puzzled Xia Yu for no reason.
The door closed behind him—he was at the top floor of the hotel where outsiders were prohibited. Dojima Yin’s voice was faintly audible from the other end of the corridor. After some thought, Xia Yu pushed open the safety door to the staircase. The balcony door was closed, so he could only sit against it, listening to the whooshing cold wind of deep autumn blowing over the rooftop, and with a beep, he answered the call.
"How confident are you in the culinary battle?"
An aged voice asked directly from the other end.
"What if I say I’m not confident?"
After a long silence, Xia Qing finally spoke up from beneath the Skywell at the Shu Restaurant, looking up at the stars in the sky, he calmly said, "You’ve become independent, so you must take responsibility for your actions. Since you initiated the culinary battle, no matter win or lose, whatever the outcome, you’ll have to bear it. That’s what a man should do!"
With a light response, Xia Yu said with a chuckle, "If I lose, I can’t even dodge the debt. IGO and the gourmet society have officials overseeing, and besides, the culinary battle kicked up a storm during an international event, with high visibility, so it’s even harder to escape the impact of a loss."
"Seems like you have a clear head."
Xia Qing’s voice carried a hint of surprise.
He had been ready to bail his grandson out, after all, it wasn’t strange for a young man in his prime to be impulsive about initiating a culinary battle, especially since it involved an angel-faced girl of the same age.
To Xia Qing, the descendant of the Tiqie family, naturally carrying the ’Divine Tongue’ inheritance, was barely a match for his grandson—after all, the concept of matching social statuses was true for a reason.
"A clear head? When have I ever been muddled..."
After mumbling that, Xia Yu hesitated slightly before recounting to the old man the reasons behind challenging Tiqie Ji to a culinary battle.
"You’re saying that Tiqie Ji would plunge Far Moon into long-term turmoil?" Xia Qing asked, astonished.
Xia Yu shrugged. He knew how the culinary battle plot would unfold, Tiqie Xianzuowen that old man, whether his brain was short-circuited or whatever, let his son-in-law cause chaos in Far Moon’s foundation, creating panic among the people. What could be certain, however, was that Xianzuowen’s laissez-faire attitude was most likely connected to Eriina.
So well, in order not to repeat the same mistakes, it was better to thoroughly sever the bond between Eriina and her father.
"What are you planning to do?"
"It’s simple. In this world, the rules of culinary battles reign supreme, even the law takes a back seat... Through the culinary battle, stripping Tiqie Ji of his legal ’father’ status..." Xia Yu answered casually.
Xia Qing understood, "You mean to strip Tiqie Ji of his guardianship over his daughter?"
He drew in a sharp breath.
This was almost like father-daughter ties between Tiqie Ji and Tiqie Helinai being severed through a cooking battle.
A masterstroke, pulling the rug from under one’s feet!
"How about that, old man? Without custody, he loses any right to educate Helinai."
"What do you mean ’and then what’?" Xia Yu was taken aback.
Xia Qing’s tone grew even weirder, "Helinai’s mother is missing. If her relationship with her father is also severed, she’s essentially orphaned. Haven’t you thought about how to deal with the aftermath?"
Rubbing his temples, Xia Yu also became troubled after being reminded.
If he won the culinary battle, stripping Tiqie Ji of his fatherhood might be easy, but then there would be the problem of what to do afterward.
Xia Qing didn’t disturb him and after a while suddenly said, "Log onto ’Penguin’."
Xia Yu logged into Penguin as told, and a video chat request immediately popped up. Surprised, he clicked accept, and when the screen appeared, he didn’t expect to see an ancient-looking, impeccably clean kitchen.
An old face peered into the camera, seemingly to scrutinize Xia Yu’s surroundings, "A hallway?"
Xia Qing positioned his phone at a higher angle, looking downwards, and Xia Yu could clearly see the old man standing in front of a stove with a boiling hot pot of oil in front of him.
And in a basin next to it, there were several round, already shaped buns.
Using chopsticks, Xia Qing picked up a bun, brushed it with egg wash, and after a few minutes, he lifted his chopsticks again, revealing the golden-fried buns to the camera, which let out a comical creaking laughter.
Jumping in surprise, Xia Yu pointed at the screen and said, "That’s my ’Golden Laugh’!"
"Golden Laugh? Since when did it become yours?"
Grinning and holding a freshly fried bun, Xia Qing’s old face was filled with smiles as he said, "However, thanks to you, I repeatedly watched your cooking footage from the competition and tried for a week before I finally mastered the ’Golden Laugh’."
"You old man, you’re stealing my techniques!"
"Haha, Jie Qi’s recipe of the past was never complicated. His recipes stood out for their creativity and accessibility. In contrast, the pastry king Logan, or the Bai Luo Family’s supreme recipes, are valued for their mystery and long-standing heritage!"
After frying the buns, Xia Qing chewed and chuckled to the camera, "But without the recipe, it still lacks the essence of the secret technique!"
"So, how about your cooking battle with Tiqie Ji? Got any plans to handle it?"
"I have a clue," Xia Yu sighed almost imperceptibly, "There are only two paths: one is to follow the royal road to the end, and the other is to harness Forbidden Ingredients and confront Tiqie Ji head-on!"
"Where do you think your chances of victory lie?"
Without hesitation, Xia Yu replied, "Of course, it’s ’Culinary Heart’ and ’Culinary Skills’, things Tiqie Ji can never possess! They are my greatest reliance!"
"Then why not firmly stick to your strengths?" Xia Qing smiled.
"Because the advantage isn’t big enough!"
"Then find a way to enlarge it!"
Xia Yu smiled wryly, as if it were that simple.
Improving his purple-framed Culinary Heart and near-gold ’Bursting Flame’ and other culinary skills was exceedingly difficult.
"Since you’ve got a clue, stick to it. Trust in your inspiration!"
With that, the old man in the camera waved his hand and turned off the video.
The conversation between grandfather and grandson ended there.
Exiting the Penguin video, Xia Yu glanced at the displayed time on the screen and couldn’t help but smack his forehead, "Now that’s bad, I accidentally spent half an hour on the phone..."
He hurriedly put away his phone and hastened back to the conference room, only to push the door open and find the room almost empty.