Chapter 369: Drawing lots

“Wait a minute!” Tian Jian realized something was wrong, his gaze turned to Qin Lang who was sitting quite a distance away from them. His face slightly hardened, he lowered his voice, “Is he one of those who initiated the Transparent Mode? How many points did he get?”

“98.9 points.” Ying Chao slowly revealed Qin Lang’s final score.

“How is that possible?!” Tian Jian was taken aback, his eyes widened in disbelief.

Tian Jian, who left later, did not see Qin Lang’s cooking process, nor did he know what dish Qin Lang cooked, but this score was absurdly high.

“Hehehe.” Seeing Tian Jian react as predicted, Ying Chao felt a refreshing coolness as if he had been drinking water during a heatwave.

“No… What… What did he do?” Tian Jian was baffled, a clueless expression on his face.

With such a massive score difference, was there even a point in comparing?

“You just need to watch the replay tonight to see what he did.” Ying Chao patted Tian Jian’s shoulder, “Instead of this, wouldn’t you like to experience the joy?”

“You mean…” Realizing Ying Chao’s earlier weirdness, Tian Jian suddenly understood.

A moment later, another familiar contestant Yan Hu came out of the kitchen with a score of 89.0.

“You two are really fast.” Yan Hu, who came down to the contestant waiting area, laughed as he sat next to Ying Chao and Tian Jian, “Go on, how much did you two score?”

“87.3 points.”

“88.1 points.”

Although the two revealed scores lower than Yan Hu’s, their smiles were even brighter than his. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Yan Hu’s smile slowly faded, “What are you laughing at?”

Ying Chao and Tian Jian pointed at Qin Lang sitting on the other side in unison, and chorused, “He scored 98.9 points.”

“How is that possible?!”

A moment later, the number of players on stage wearing wide grins increased by one.

While startled exclamations kept ringing out from nearby seats, Qin Lang didn’t pay too much attention.

He watched Shen Qian in the kitchen, patiently awaiting her cooking process’ final steps.

In the end, Shen Qian was the eleventh contestant to appear.

Although her cooking process wasn’t as dazzling as Qin Lang’s, but her excellent foundational skills were indisputable. Choosing the Transparent Mode in the City-level Cooking Competition, a rare occurrence, equally delighted the audience.

When she came on stage, the cheering and applause in the arena were significantly louder than for other contestants.

The other contestants, while full of envy, had nothing to say about it.

Who would begrudge her for generously revealing her cooking process by choosing the Transparent Mode?

“Contestant Shen Qian has also completed her cooking.” The host smiled, “We have all just witnessed your cooking steps, could you please tell everyone what dish you cooked.”

“The dish I brought today is called Three-freshness Dumplings.” Shen Qian cheerfully responded, then walked in front of the judges and from her kitchen cart, fetched steam bun-sized steamers and served each judge one.

Through the close-up camera on the big screen, the audience could see a fist-sized, round and plump dumpling in each steamer. It was a sight that made people want to take a bite.

“Great, the dish Shen Qian cooked is called Three-freshness Dumplings. Now, we’d like to ask our thirty judges to taste and score the dish!” The host gestured the judges to begin tasting.

In the contestant waiting area, Qin Lang, who was watching the screen, smiled.

Shen Qian had cooked this Three-freshness Dumpling dish once for him and Zhou Tianhao, so Qin Lang was familiar with it.

Even though it is called Three-freshness, the ‘three freshness’ in the dish referred to pork, beef, and mutton, unlike the common combination of shrimp, pork, and egg.

The Three-freshness Dumplings are somewhat similar to meat buns, using the fully fermented dough containing yeast to wrap the mixed ground meat of the three kinds, and then steaming them in the steamer.

Yet, there were some minute culinary details that differentiate it from normal meat buns.

For instance, during the fermenting process, Shen Qian needed to repeatedly deflate the fermented dough to expel the air within, turning the dough extremely soft and elastic.

Additionally, when preparing the meat filling, Shen Qian didn’t immediately grind the meat into mince; instead, she cut the various meats into thin strands, twirled them together, then tightly formed them into a ball. This method retained more original texture of the meat.

In summary, this was a tasty pasta dish that had previously received unanimous praise from Qin Lang and Zhou Tianhao.

As a Spirit Chef who had collected five Second-Level Food Recommender Badges, Shen Qian’s performance was extremely stable. Once again, her Three- freshness Dumplings received overwhelming praise.

Her final score was 97.8 points. If it weren’t for Qin Lang’s stunning performance, this score would have undoubtedly seized the first place.

“I still fell a bit short compared to you.” After she walked off the stage and sat next to Qin Lang, Shen Qian sighed, “It seems that dishes with unique cooking processes do indeed have an advantage in the Transparent Mode.”

Like Qin Lang, Shen Qian didn’t turn on the Transparent Mode out of mere impulsiveness.

She had already registered for the Provincial-level Cooking Competition in Mingjing Province where everyone would be in Transparent Mode. Trying it out in advance could also accumulate experience for her.

“Can’t it just be that Dragon Beard Noodles taste better?” Qin Lang chuckled.

“You didn’t even use chicken broth!” Shen Qian retorted, rolling her eyes, “If you had used a more flavorful broth, wouldn’t the Dragon Beard Noodles taste even better?”

Having known Qin Lang for so long, Shen Qian was aware that he usually used chicken broth or even more complex bone broths in most of his soup-based dishes.

When she saw that the Dragon Beard Noodles didn’t even have chicken broth, she knew this guy hadn’t gone all out!

“All right.” Qin Lang shrugged, not denying it, “The ranking in the scoring competition isn’t important. Advancement is what matters.”

“I hope we don’t have to face each other in the elimination competition.” Shen Qian said earnestly.

If one of them was going to be eliminated in the elimination competition, it would be a pity.

“That won’t happen.” Qin Lang glanced at the other contestants in the waiting area, “There’s only a one in seven chance for that, it can’t be that easy.”

While the two were chatting, the remaining contestants on stage were also gradually completing their cooking.

Once the final contestant’s score was announced, all contestants in the waiting area returned to the stage.

“Now, I have in my hand a ranking list!” The host waved the teleprompter in his hand, “It lists everyone’s final rankings.”

“The top eight contestants will proceed to the next round. They will then draw lots to determine their opponents in the next round of the elimination competition, the type of competition, and the theme. Afterwards, they will enter a five-day preparation period.”

“The scores of all contestants from bottom to top are…”

As the host successively announced the scores from the thirty-ninth to the ninth place, only eight contestants remained on the stage.

“Now, congratulations to Qin Lang, Shen Qian, Tantai Yue, Yan Hu, Shu Juan, Tian Jian, Qu Xun, and Ying Chao for making it to the next round!”

Amid the uproarious applause and cheers of the entire audience, the host’s expression hardened slightly.

“Please welcome, Mr. Zhang Tianze, the chairman of the Spirit Chef Association in Xianyu City, to present the Starstone rewards to the contestants who have advanced!”