The autumn sky in Jing City was blue, and the grass and trees were dyed by frost.

On this day, in the square outside the Golden Palace of the Palace, the jury board, the audience, and all personnel from the competition area of Da Yi and Ying State took their places.

The time for the start of the competition was approaching, and the dragon chair under the corridor was still empty. Besides the four imperial chefs in the Da Yi competition area, Gu Yunxi was not seen.

The drums rang three times, and one of the assistants in the team of Ying State got impatient, smiled, and whispered.

"Mr. Sakata, wouldn't the woman hide from the competition because she was afraid of losing to us?"

Sakata Aki looked directly at the opposite side, but at the moment, he was thinking of another interesting thing, and he couldn't help but smile even deeper.

"She can hide, but she still has to participate in the competition anyway."

...

The warm sunlight, like the splendid broken gold, poured into the hall through the window and shone on the handsome face of Huanan Xin.

The young Emperor's eyes drooped slightly, and dim light and shadow fell on his face.

"Yunxi, you have been busy with the cooking competition recently. I didn't want you to be too tired, so I brought Ruiji with me..."

His face was covered with a thin smile. He held Gu Yunxi's shoulder to explain what he could do, and his soft voice showed his attachment.

After hanging out with Ruiji for many days, seeing this beautiful face in front of him today, Huanan Xin suddenly remembered that this face had also caused him tossing and turning, and he had suffered unrequited pain.

She was different from the women who made him stop liking them after he had a good time with them. Only in the face of her, her face, and her beautiful eyes trembling with water, Huanan Xin would be unable to bear unspeakable guilt.

His heartfelt and repentant explanation only brought him a smile from her.

"Your Majesty, I'm two years older than Ruiji. We are both women who serve you. Naturally, I won't be angry with her."

"Your Majesty, with her serving you every day, I will have more time and energy to prepare for the cooking competition."

It was funny, and she really wanted to tell him that he was overthinking.

She didn't love him originally, and everything she did was for self-protection and conspiracy.

Ruiji was just a pawn, and it was better for her to be favored by him.

How could she be jealous?

But in this case, she really couldn’t pretend to be casual. She believed that at this time, if she put on a jealous look, Huanan Xin would definitely come to Jingyang Palace in the evening.

At that time, she was really dangerous.

She needed to be calm. Once the three rounds of competition were over, she could get away with excuses and leave the Palace earlier.

The calmness of the woman made the Emperor look stunned. The smile on his face faded away like faint ripples.

The Emperor looked at her intently, sighed softly, and carefully concealed his eyes that should not be lonely.

"I do hope that you can stand here at this time and get angry with me..."

When Gu Yunxi was stunned for a while, she felt her hand being held.

Huanan Xin smiled sadly, held her hand, and said, "Let's go. I will personally send you to the competition area."

...

After the golden gong was knocked, the second cooking competition officially started.

The reason why this event was arranged on the sixth day after the preliminary round was to wait for Ying State to deliver the newly caught ingredients from the sea to the capital safely.

The rule of the second round was that Gu Yunxi and Sakata Aki could choose one kind of the ingredients from the opponent's camp.

The ingredients selected by the opponent could no longer be used by the owner of the ingredients in this round.

Before the start of the competition, the ingredients used by both sides were not disclosed in advance.

That was to say this round of competition was a test of the culinary flexibility of both chefs.

Gu Yunxi saw from a distance that the sea crabs in the cooking shed of the team of Ying State were extremely fresh and plump, and the turtles bound with hemp ropes lay in the shallow water in the wooden basin, and their mouths were still spitting bubbles.

She immediately asked Chef Fang and Chef Liu to bring back the big wooden basin full of sea crabs.

Da Yi's Jing City was far from the sea, and people ate a lot of river crabs. But the real delicacy was undoubtedly the sea crab.

There were about twenty sea crabs in such a pot, and she would use at most four in the dishes she would make later.

Gu Yunxi planned to divide the remaining sea crabs with her assistants. Then she would take them back to Jingyang Palace's small kitchen, make some dishes with these sea crabs, heat a pot of good wine, and secretly invite her husband, Huanan He, to enjoy them together. Wouldn't it be pleasant?

Gu Yunxi lowered her head and thought about this matter until she was interrupted by a voice with a non-standard Shinese accent.

"Your Grace, wake up."

"Mr. Sakata…"

With a dry smile on the corner of her mouth, Gu Yunxi looked at Sakata Aki outside the cooking shed.

To be honest, she hated that he stared at her with this kind of eyes that couldn't be called "focused".

His eyes were cold, sharp, and weightless like a wisp of light smoke. He stared at her with a hint of exploration and provocation, making her skin feel tight and uncomfortable as if she had been sick.

"Your Grace, what were you thinking just now?"

Sakata Aki stared at Gu Yunxi closely as if taking root on her delicate face.

"How can you be so nosy, sir? The game has started. Please go back to your competition area!"

Gu Yunxi frowned.

"Your Grace, you took our sea crabs, and in exchange, I want your tofu."

Sakata Aki blinked and smiled maliciously.

"Tofu is on the table. You can carry it yourself."

After Gu Yunxi finished speaking impatiently, she turned her head and instructed Chef Han to clean the big green wax gourd on the ground. She didn't try to figure out the other meaning hidden in his words.

Sakata Aki and his assistant looked at each other, and the two laughed loudly and carried away the soft tofu on the large wooden plate.

The competition began, and both sides showed their cooking skills.

The three delicacies that Gu Yunxi's team would cook were "Phoenix Crab", "Shui Linglong", and "Fragmented Plum".

The Phoenix Crab was fried crab with chicken fat removed from the belly of the chicken.

Gu Yunxi and her assistants cooperated with each other. They first blanched the fresh shrimp, scallops, and sea cucumber in water.

Then they divided the sea crabs into two, removed the impurities in the lungs, and wrapped the incision with flour to prevent the crab roe from dispersing.

Later, they heated the chicken oil, stir-fried the ginger and garlic seasoning until fragrant, then added the processed sea crabs and sea cucumber to stir-fry them.

In addition, they added an appropriate amount of water, soy sauce, powdered sugar, salt powder, shrimp, and scallops in a simmering pot until all liquids were reduced and absorbed. Then they carved the wax gourd and hollowed out inner flesh. Finally, they put the food in the wax gourd and covered it. Such a dish was completed.

The ingredients used in Shui Linglong were snow clams, Nostoc Sphaeroides, autumn pears, coconut meat, wolfberry, and rock sugar.

Snow clams and Nostoc Sphaeroides were rare and scarce ingredients, and they were soaked in water by a special person last night.

After the water was boiled, they put in the soaked snow clams and ginger slices, blanched them to remove the fishy smell of the ingredients, and simmered them in boiling water for about 15 minutes.

Then they put in Nostoc Sphaeroides and simmered them again. Later, they added rock sugar, the flesh of longan, and snow pears. When the soup was thick, they poured it into a topaz bowl and garnished the soup with green and red silk and wolfberry.

The production process of Fragmented Plum was the most complicated. The key point was to prepare the broth. This process was repetitive and time-consuming and energy-consuming. It must be carried out from the beginning of the competition. Otherwise, the dish would not be completed on time.

As early as the moment the golden gong sounded, Chef Han used a large pot on a stove to simmer pork bones, whole pigeons, and whole ducks until the soup was white, and then he sieved it to remove bone residue and oil slick.

Then he minced the pork, added the pork to the white soup, and continued to boil. After the meat residue was dispersed, he sieved it a second time to remove impurities, leaving only the thick soup.

He sifted the thick soup repeatedly, removed the oil, and separated the residue until the white soup became as clear as water. Then he added salt powder and divided the clear soup into two.

He peeled the fresh Chinese cabbage, only took the heart of the cabbage, put it in half of the clear soup, and simmered until it was half cooked. Then he immersed it in ice water to cool for a while and took it out.

After carefully removing the innermost of the cabbage, he cut the outer cabbage leaves into plum petals and placed them on a green plate.

The pork stuffing was marinated with Shaoxing rice wine, soy sauce, ginger powder, and cinnamon powder. Then he put it into hot oil, cooked, poured sweet plum sauce on it, and stir-fried. When all liquids were reduced and absorbed, he stopped to cool it.

He put the pork stuffing with sweet plum sauce into the center of the cabbage on the green plate and wrapped it tightly with the outer plum-shaped cabbage leaves.

Finally, the leaves were repeatedly punctured with silver needles, and the dish was finished.

While Da Yi's team was in full swing, the team of Ying State headed by Sakata Aki was also busy cooking three delicacies.

Just as Sakata Aki quickly deboned and cut a fat eel with his superb knife skills, his assistant put the moonlight rice into a bamboo tube and cooked it in water.

Sakata Aki put a heavy slate on the stove, heated it with high heat, dripped it with oil, and then fried the pieces of eel on the slate.

Finally, he covered the boiled moonlight rice with the well-fried eel segments, drizzled seaweed, sesame seeds, and a sauce made from rice wine, sugar, soy sauce, salt, and honey. A large bowl of Stone-fried Eel Rice was done.

In the production of the second dish, Sakata Aki spent most of his energy on stretching the noodles on the spot. His tricks and techniques for making pasta simply stunned the audience.

After that, he peeled the fresh geoduck to remove the internal organs and impurities, cut it into thin slices, and boiled it with several pieces of sea urchin, snail meat, shell meat, and wakame, and put them into the thick soup made from pork bones and cod. The Seafood Ramen was ready.

In the last dish, Sakata Aki instructed his assistant to put the isinglass into coconut milk and boil it into mucus. Then he blanched the soft tofu in hot water to remove the beany taste, then crushed it into puree, added goat milk, icing sugar, and an appropriate amount of isinglass, sieved it to remove particulate impurities, fully stirred it into mud, filled it into a rectangular mold, immersed it in crushed ice, and cooled it for a while.

At this time, the mashed tofu had completely condensed into a goose-yellow solid, which was smooth and soft.

Sakata Aki cut it into small pieces with a thin cotton thread and then sieved a layer of matcha powder to make the last food, Coconut Milk Matcha Tofu.

When the time was up, the finished dishes would be presented to the judges in turn.

Among these six delicacies, "Shui Linglong" made by Gu Yunxi was extremely eye-catching.

The green Nostoc Sphaeroides, white snow clams, pear pieces, and flesh of longan lay in the thick and clear sweet soup. Emerald green and white echoed each other, and its taste was even sweeter and softer than cubilose.

The second dish, "Phoenix Crab", was based on the fat of native chicken, perfectly sublimating the fresh aroma of crab meat, live shrimp, sea cucumber, and other seafood accessories.

As for the appearance, the chicken oil was clear and oily; the shrimps and crabs were bright red; the meat was greasy and white. It was placed in the green tender wax gourd with the picture of phoenixes perching in peony clusters. It was really a luxurious feast for both the visual and the taste.

As for the three dishes made by Sakata Aki, the main ingredient of "Stone-fried Eel Rice" was fried on a stone plate, which effectively maintained the unique deliciousness of the eel. The skin of eel was crisp while the flesh was tender.

Once you took a bite, the dark brown sauce and the snow-white fish were perfectly matched, and its aromas lingered in your mouth.

Ying State's specialty moonlight rice grains were round and full, with clear color. The bamboo tube cooking method not only gave it a fresh bamboo fragrance but also made it chewier.

In terms of overall rating, this eel rice was indeed a rare delicacy.

The broth of the Seafood Ramen was thick and the noodles were silky smooth.

With the precious marine treasures geoduck and sea urchin, it was a mellow combination of wheat and seafood, and its nutritional value should not be underestimated.

As for the Coconut Milk Matcha Tofu, it had a fresh appearance and a sweet and delicate taste, which was unforgettable.

When the eunuch presented the last delicacy "Fragmented Plum" made by Da Yi's team to the jury board, General Yuancang saw it and took the lead in sneering.

The other foreign envoys also laughed.

In the center of the round jasper plate, there was only an oval bamboo shoot-white vegetable bag, which was only decorated with cucumbers, carrots, pineapple slices, and cherries.

An offbeat pale-colored dish like this was presented on such a competition occasion, which was indeed at the level of a loser.

Huanan Xin lost face in their laughter. He touched his sweaty forehead with a big hand and said solemnly.

"Yunxi, what’s this?"

Gu Yunxi smiled calmly. In the small golden pot, she was carrying the clear soup that the other half had been sieved repeatedly and then boiled with high fire.

"Your Majesty, the name of this dish I made is 'Fragmented Plum'. All miracles are in the golden pot in my hand. Please allow me to reveal the mystery on the spot."

"OK."

Gu Yunxi walked under the corridor of the Golden Palace, raised the golden pot, and slowly poured the soup into the vegetable bag.

The vegetable bag opened slowly. In front of everyone, it seemed like plum petals were blooming in the snow, revealing a flower heart full of the fragrance of plum sauce.

Looking at this dish again at this time, people would see a snow plum was like a reflection in the mirror of the clear spring and it matched the various side dishes, like a plain and unpretentious scenery among thousands of flowers.

Everyone was amazed by it, and the jury board suddenly burst into applause.

"Fragmented Plum" smelled sweet, and the cabbage was soft and free of scum in the mouth.

Finally, due to this ingenious food, Da Yi team won the second competition completely.

As soon as the results were announced, the hubbub from the auditorium could be heard.

Some of the four assistants from Ying State cried bitterly while some tore off their aprons angrily.

General Yuancang's face was stern, and he rushed down the steps and swept to Sakata Aki like a gust of wind. He raised his right hand and slapped him in public. Then, in shock and sigh of other people, he walked away alone.