Chapter 58 - 58: Qin Lang Makes his Appearance
Looking at the ranking of contestants’ scores displayed on another electronic screen next to the big screen, a touch of pride appeared on Zhu Ming’s face as she saw the score difference she had created with all the contestants behind her.
As a new generation of the famous Spirit Chef Family, she should be the best among her peers.
“Thank you, judges!”
After politely bowing to the thirty senior judges on the Judges’ Seats, Zhu Ming left the arena with a smile on her face and sat in the Players’ Spectator Seats specially prepared for contestants.
The contestants who had already completed the judging and were sitting in the Spectator Seats all cast jealous glances at her, but Zhu Ming ignored them all and held her head high like a proud swan.
Following Zhu Ming, new players took the stage one after another, but none of their scores threatened Zhu Ming, which made her even more composed.
“Ding—- ”
Another bell rang, signalling the opening of Tang Xie’s kitchen door.
With a tense face, Tang Xie walked out and cast his first glance at the electronic screen showing the current player rankings.
Disappointment flickered in Tang Xie’s eyes when he didn’t see the name he was looking for.
Has Qin Lang not finished yet?
If that’s the case, let him take the lead this time!
Then, his eyes landed on Zhu Ming’s name.
Not too familiar, surname Zhu…
Could it be from the Zhu Family?
Never mind, it’s not important.
Although 91.2 points was high, Tang Xie was confident he could score higher with the dish he prepared today.
Taking a deep breath, he hurriedly pushed his Kitchen Cabinet Car to the front of the Judges’ Seats.
“Hello, respected Judges.”
Tang Xie adjusted his facial expressions and voice to his best, then began speaking slowly in a steady rhythm, “Today, I prepared a dish called ‘Lovesickness’. Please allow me to present it to you.”
Upon finishing speaking, he slowly opened the door of the Kitchen Cabinet Car, and delivered exquisitely prepared dishes that were still steaming to the judges present.
Under the close-up camera, the audience in the arena saw all the details of this dish for the first time.
For a moment, exclamations echoed all around.
Lovesickness is an exceptionally exquisite-looking dish.
It consists of very finely cut, various colored vegetables woven into a beautiful bird’s nest. Inside the nest, a couple of lifelike mandarin ducks are carved out of vegetables.
Vegetable threads, Sounds like “Thinking.”
This dish not only has a refined appearance, but also a beautiful implication.
If the taste does not let down, then this dish getting high scores is nearly certain.
Zhu Ming, sitting in the Players’ Audience Seats with a slightly concentrated gaze, couldn’t help but sit upright.
This dish made her feel threatened.
With the start of the judges’ tasting, Tang Xie’s introduction echoed all over Dongxia Arena.
His tone was soft and steady, yet his eyes sparkled with confidence.
This Lovesickness was not like the Dragon and Phoenix Carving of the last time.
It not only had a stunning appearance but also an unimpeachable taste.
“Let’s give a warm applause for contestant Tang Xie!”
After the tasting section ended, the host’s voice echoed enthusiastically across the Dongxia Arena, taking over the recently finished introduction of Tang Xie’s dish.
“Subtracting the highest and the lowest scores, the final score of contestant Tang Xie is…”
The host’s voice dragged on for a little longer than usual.
Tang Xie couldn’t help but clench his fists.
He wanted to know very much how he had scored.
Many in the audience were also tense just like him.
This tense atmosphere continued until the host no longer kept them in suspense and bluntly announced Tang Xie’s score.
“92.4 points!”
That’s solid!
A look of joy quickly spread across Tang Xie’s face.
He didn’t believe that Qin Lang could make a dish with a higher score!
Meanwhile, Zhu Ming in the spectator seats stared at the new name appearing on the electronic screen above her, her eyes widening as she watched Tang Xie walk confidently towards her, a competitive spirit rising in her eyes.
How annoying!
Tang Xie did not notice the resentment from a certain girl in the player’s spectator seats. He found an empty seat and sat down, his eyes burning as he watched Qin Lang’s kitchen.
He was looking forward to Qjn Lang’s performance.
The competition time ticked away.
One contestant after another left the kitchen, but unfortunately, no score above 90 appeared again.
In the end, only the kitchen doors of Qin Lang and Lei Ke remained tightly shut.
“Ah, all vegetables, that’s just…”
After submitting the score of the twenty-fourth contestant, a chubby judge in the Judges’ Seats couldn’t help but sigh softly.
The microphone was not on, so only the other judges in the vicinity could hear him.
This judge was named Zhang Hua, and from his structure, one could tell that he has a great propensity for meat.
And that was indeed the case.
Judge Zhang Hua needs to eat quite a bit of meat every meal and does not like vegetables.
However, due to his professional duties, he had to eat now.
After twenty-four courses of vegetables in a row, even if each serving was not large, and two of them was exceptional, overall it still wasn’t a friendly experience.
If he wasn’t afraid of being caught on camera, his frustration would have been written all over his face.
“Who could argue with that?”
Another judge sitting not far from Zhang Hua still looked gentle, but the voice coming from his lips was as melancholic as Zhang Hua’s.
“Can’t we remove the vegetable theme from the scoring competition next time?”
“Food Fight, lvi matches would be okay with just two tastings.”
“A theme like this in a scoring competition is really giving us a hard time.”
And this judge’s complaints were echoed by many others.
“In the last scoring competition, the theme was ‘sweet’, I felt like I was in jail the whole time.” A judge who disliked sweet food couldn’t help but complain. “What can that compare to? The year before, the scoring competition theme was ‘spicy’, it was absolutely torturous!” Another judge’s face involuntarily showed a hint of fear.
This judge couldn’t take spicy food, and almost all contestants interpreted ‘spicy’ as high spiciness.
Well…there was one female contestant who didn’t interpret ‘spicy’ as a high level of spiciness.
She came to the competition in a spicy chef’s outfit, resulting in a chorus of boos.
“Other cities’ cooking competitions seem to have already removed such themes from their scoring competitions. We Dongxia City should follow suit sooner rather than later.” Another judge chimed in.
“Ding—- ”
Another bell sounded.
“Alright, there is a new contestant coming out, focus on your own work.” The most prestigious senior judge in the arena spoke up.
So the other judges stopped discussing this issue and turned their attention to the 25th Spiritual chef, pushing a cart into the arena.
In the player’s spectator seats, Zhu Ming, who had been keeping an eye on her strong opponent, Tang Xie, noticed that he suddenly sat up straight, his eyes sparkling with fighting spirit as he watched the arena.
“Coming out of the kitchen now is our contestant, Qin Lang!”
“Let’s look forward to the dish he is bringing!”