C63

Three days later, the new, eye-catching Northern Cuisine Competition officially began.

Xia Xiaomin and Lu Ni, on the other hand, looked anxious. Xu Shangwu still hadn't appeared.

When Zhong Luozhan heard the news and came over, he scanned the people in the resting room and did not see Xu Shangwu, so he asked Manager Su: "What happened?"

Manager Su had just finished his call and was frowning, "Director Zhong, Xu Shangwu is sick. He's in the process of taking a beating right now."

"What?" Xu Shangwu was the main force in this competition. Without him, it would have been impossible for them to win!

Xia Xiaomin lowered her head. "Master has put in so much effort just for this competition …" Sigh, I already said that he would get sick from all the work he did day and night. "

At this time, Manager Su didn't have the time to pay any attention to Xia Xiaomin and Lu Ni. He walked up to Zhong Luochen, "Boss Zhong, what should we do?"

Zhong Luozhan pondered for a moment before turning around to face Xia Xiaomin's nervous face. "You go, Lu Ni will be your assistant."

It wasn't just Xia Xiaomin who was stunned. Everyone present was.

Manager Su was even more embarrassed, "Director Zhong, although Xiao Min is Master Xu's disciple, she is still too inexperienced. Should we immediately call the head chef from another branch to come over and save her?"

Zhong Luozheng stared at Xia Xiaomin with a serious expression.

"Xia Xiaomin, do it yourself."

"I …" Xia Xiaomin was flustered. Although she did have the ability to "spend her days with a woman", how could she replace her master?

If he lost, not only would he lose his master's face, but he would also implicate the hotel and the whole hotel.

No, she didn't have the confidence to do it well. Xia Xiaomin shook her head.

Seeing her act this way, Zhong Luozhuang secretly sighed in his heart and gave Manager Su a look. The latter understood and waved for everyone to leave.

Lu Ni glanced at Xia Xiaomin before lowering her eyes in dissatisfaction. She hadn't expected her master to fall, but instead she ended up as Xia Xiaomin's assistant.

Only Zhong Luochen and Xia Xiaomin were left in the lounge.

Xia Xiaomin moved towards the door before he could show off his strength.

"Zhong Luozhan, I'm sorry, I can't do it."

Zhong Luozhan moved even faster. His body leaned against the door, completely cutting off all thoughts of escaping. He even firmly grabbed her wrist.

Xia Xiaomin struggled, but didn't succeed. On the contrary, she felt Zhong Luozheng was tightening his grip.

"Xia Xiaomin, do you only know how to run away when something happens?" "Where is the imposing manner that you used to give me by smashing my alarm clock and secretly kicking me in the eyes of a panda?"

Zhong Luozheng's unhappy voice floated into Xia Xiaomin's ears. She couldn't say anything, but she knew she had no hope of winning.

After a few seconds of hesitation, Xia Xiaomin shook her head. "I can't do it. If I lose, it'll be a huge burden to both Howell and you."

Affected? Zhong Luozhan froze for a moment, his frown deepened, "You don't need to care about that."

He never needed a woman to protect him!

"Xia Xiaomin, have you forgotten your dream?" Zhong Luozhan stared with wide eyes, pointing to the competition grounds outside, "That is the stage where your dream will come true! — — Or, are you that confident in your own strength?" "Is the energetic, courageous, fearless Xia Xiaomin dead?"

Xia Xiaomin bit her lips as she stood there, her head lowered in silence.

Sighing, Zhong Luozhan let go of her hand.

Zhong Luozhan opened the door to his room. A group of reinforcements were standing outside, eavesdropping.

Zhong Luozhuang calmly replied, "If you want to leave, no one will stop you. "Xia Xiaomin, what I'm going to tell you is that you don't believe in yourself. Don't you believe in me?"

Lifting her head up, Xia Xiaomin looked into Zhong Luozhuang's dark eyes, filled with hesitation and an inexplicable emotion.

She was truly afraid of losing. Hall couldn't afford to lose, and neither could she.

"I never told you before that the food you cooked was very delicious. That 'time to crush Qingcheng' was very successful."

This was the first time Zhong Luozhan praised her objectively and impartially, but he didn't expect it to be in such a situation.

Xia Xiaomin suddenly felt hot in her eyes. She had been waiting for so long, looking forward to it. She wanted to get a compliment from him.

The compliment came too late, but also in time.

Xia Xiaomin turned around and wiped her eyes with her fingers. Then she picked up the chef's hat and put it on as if it was the right thing to do.

From this moment on, she represented the entire hotel.

Not a single mistake.

All eyes outside the door were fixed on Xia Xiaomin. They didn't understand what Qingcheng was talking about, but Lu Ni heard everything clearly!

Xia Xiaomin carried her and cooked for Zhong Luozheng, but she still dared to say that she had nothing to do with Zhong Luozhuang!

"..."

Soon, it was the start of the competition, and the scene suddenly became quiet. All eyes were focused on the audience.

The moment Zhong Luozhan, who had refused to be a judge, appeared, the young girls' cries of surprise burst forth from the scene.

"Isn't this Zhong Luozhan!? I never thought that I would actually be able to see him in person! "

"Isn't it too cool!?" I can't breathe. "

A blue vein popped out on Zhong Luozheng's forehead. The reason why he wasn't willing to be a judge was because he couldn't stand these crazy girls!

Manager Su and Howl's backup team couldn't sit still any longer. They turned around and signaled for them to settle down. Such a high-pitched scream would scare Xia Xiaomin silly!

It took a while before the audience could return to silence. The host walked to the center of the stage and announced, "The 17th Northern Cuisine Competition has officially begun."

The host announced the competition rules and the evaluation rules.

Because the Northern Cuisine Competition was a five-star hotel competition, it was an invitation to the hotel industry, so the system was relatively simple.

The competition did not use the round-robin and promotion competitions. Only one round of competition was used to determine the result of the competition, depending on the judges' scores.

All of the contestants were already standing on the stage, with cooking utensils and ingredients arranged neatly in front of Xia Xiaomin and Lu Ni.

As the host began to introduce the contestants one by one, Xia Xiaomin's eyes shifted to Zhong Luochen.

Xia Xiaomin was disappointed as she thought that the bad-tempered man who had just encouraged her would give her a gentle and encouraging smile.

Zhong Luozheng was sitting there calmly, but he only glanced at her indifferently. His face didn't even move a single inch.

Could it be that he wasn't nervous at all and was sure that she would win?

Or, he simply knew that no matter how hard she tried, it wouldn't affect the outcome of this match. She couldn't win at all!

Before Xia Xiaomin could finish her thought, she heard the host shout, "Begin cooking!" She hurried to the stove and opened the lid.

She cut the vegetables quickly and stirred the vegetables. Their preparations continued in an orderly manner.

Xia Xiaomin tried her best to suppress the nervousness in her heart, as she busied herself in a routine.

Lu Ni suddenly thought of something and walked over to Xia Xiaomin's side. "Xiaomin, what should we do? This is Qingcheng's seasoning, I forgot how to match it."

Although Xu Shangwu's recipe had been sold to Chen Hao, she hadn't forgotten to make a copy of it in advance for herself. Therefore, it wasn't that Lu Ni had forgotten how to mix Qingcheng's seasoning, but rather, she didn't want to tell Xia Xiaomin about it.

Xia Xiaomin was the main force, and she was only an assistant. The benefits couldn't be taken away by her!

"No problem, let me do it."

Xia Xiaomin calmly grabbed a few ingredients and seasonings, and began to mix them with the most important seasonings of "Qingcheng Time".

Lu Ni suspected that Xia Xiaomin also couldn't remember, but she was just pretending to be calm and collected. Lu Ni waited for Xia Xiaomin to finish her work before frowning.

Unexpectedly, Lu Ni stole a glance at Xia Xiaomin and discovered that she had caught all of her seasonings right. Could it be that she really remembered them?!

Wait a minute, how come Xia Xiaomin poured so much vinegar?

Lu Ni snickered in her heart. So Xia Xiaomin was still not sure how she could be compatible with him!

As time passed, Xia Xiaomin was engrossed in her work.

Regardless of the final outcome, to be able to represent the entire Howell Hotel on the stage, she had to show her full strength.

Seeing Qingcheng's time had a rudimentary shape, Xia Xiaomin couldn't help but think back to that night when Zhong Luozhang had tried the dishes with her.

It wasn't because of the allure of time, but rather, it was because of the desire of a person.

Xia Xiaomin secretly raised her eyes and glanced at Zhong Luozheng. She bumped into him with an expression full of admiration and gentleness.

Chuckling lightly at him, Xia Xiaomin lowered her head and continued her work. Because Zhong Luozhuang was there, her heart was calm and beautiful, the smile on her lips growing wider and wider.

It wasn't just Xia Xiaomin who made the dishes. All the other restaurant's chefs finished preparing them one by one.

The etiquette lady divided each contestant's dishes into five portions and placed them on a delicate plate, which she then carried to the five judges.

The host went onstage once again, "Next, the judges will be invited to respectively taste and comment on each contestant's dishes. Each judge can give a perfect score of 10, and the five judges' total score is the player's score. "

Xia Xiaomin nervously looked at the judges. She believed that the dishes she cooked were perfect and would definitely win the judges' praise.

The five judges tasted the dishes of the first few contestants successively, with varying degrees of praise and praises. However, each of their comments benefited the contestants greatly. The highest score from the previous contestants before Xia Xiaomin was 42.

It was about to be a review of Xia Xiaomin's alluring time. She was the second to last person in the group, with the Chen Style Hotel at the very end.

The five judges looked at Xia Xiaomin, while Zhong Luozheng and the rest of the team secretly broke out in a cold sweat.

Judge No.1 looked serious, "Qingcheng Time is an innovative dish that combines Cantonese and Beijing's court cuisine. Cantonese cuisine consumption is fine, the ingredients are many and coincidental, the decoration is beautiful and beautiful. And Beijing palace cuisine taste rich in alcohol, diverse in texture, unique in cooking methods. The two dishes were not easy to fuse, but the dish had the advantages of two different cuisines. It was soft in taste and had a long, lingering taste, making one want to continue. For the sake of this dish's creativity, I will give nine points. "

Xia Xiaomin nodded excitedly. "Thank you, judges."

This dish was created by his Master with all her heart and effort. Even though he didn't make it to the scene, Xia Xiaomin believed that her Master would be very happy to hear this evaluation.