Chapter 10: Morning rush

Dai shan has seen the young man cook with intense focus on his dish. Careful on doing any mistakes, surprising him as he cooked like an experienced chef despite his young age

Seeing him preparing the meal on a plate, the old man prepared himself to taste the meal

"Here you go, i hope this dish is to your liking" xie shen said, handing dai shan his freshly-made food, alongside it is a knife and a fork.

The former accepted them, and placed the plate on the counter.

Dai shan sliced the fish and took a part of it with his fork and brought it to his mouth, expecting a wonderful bite from this certain dish

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As he took a bite of the fish, the seasoning and the taste of the fish balanced on his tastebuds. Continuing to chew more, it became a delicious sensation. Causing him to swallow it and craving more of the delightful taste

If dai shan were to rate this, he'll place at one of, if not the best fish dish he had ever eaten in his life

And this was a shocker to him, as he only expected it to be decent or slightly delicious coming from what looks like a young teenager. Yet he got surprised once more

…

What else is there to say? Its just perfect

"Amazing… I underestimated you a lot kid, but it turned out you have crazy potential, ive never tasted fish this good before." Dai shan stated with slight awe in his face despite trying to hide it

It seems Ryuma succeeded in surprising the latter with his cooking, which was the latters plan all this time

When he was gathering ingredients for his dish, he saw something hidden in the back. curious, he grabbed it and it turned out to be specific type of fish. which made xie shen connect the dots and use it in his dish

'This phrase might be overused, but Its all according to plan' he thought, he always enjoyed saying that phrase as it made him feel more intelligent. Mcs normally have their braincells lowered by half by the authors

"I told you that if I were to cook, it would be one of the tastiest things you'll put in your mouth. so this shouldn't be any surprise to you afterall" xie shen said with a smile, referring to his certain introduction he was inspired by

He also prepared something else as he pulled out a small container of an unknown liquid-like substance

While the experienced chef was eating his dish, he noticed xie shen walk towards him with something in a plastic(?) container. Making the former spark in curiosity

The latter opened the sauce container and placed it near the glass plate. "This is parsley sauce, i don't know if you already made this before but this is something i like to make while eating seafood. It consists of butter, flour, milk and a plant i bought from a merchant saying this was from snezhnaya. Seasoned with salt and pepper with a bit of lemon juice, I highly recommend trying it with your fish."

This particular sauce wasn't made by him, yet it's actually from the system, he bought it for like 10 chef points. Which mean it wasn't a total loss like the chef uniform he bought before this situation occured

…and he slipped a small lie about a plant from a merchant. He wasn't sure if there is something remotely similar to parsley in this world so he chose the safe route out of this. Better safe than sorry, they say.

As mentioned before, he wont try to bring ingredients from his world too much as they would be discovered as something not existing in teyvat, which may lead him into getting investigated… how many times was this mentioned?

Dai shan looked at him in wonder and thought 'i see… since this fish is already good on its own, it may do wonders adding this "parsley" sauce on it' he mused to himself, then did what he was informed of. Cutting a part of the fish and stabbing the sliced part with the fork and dipped it in the sauce

He took another bite with the sauce, and not only was the taste of the fish was enhanced, but new flavors were exploding on his tongue. He simply craved more of this 'sauce' xie shen made

So he began devouring it, it had so much flavor for him to satisfy his desired needs.

-•-•-•-

Dai shan grabbed a napkin and wiped the crumbs and leftover sauce on his mouth, it seem that he finally finished xie Shen's unbelievably scrumptious meal

Dai shan had a complicated look on his face, yet still chose to blurt out:

"Kid, this is the best fish I've had in my entire life. Insane that it came from someone as young as you. With this type of cooking, you could easily be one of the best chefs in teyvat" he praised the young man. who had a slight smile on his face, yet evidently seen that he appreciates being recognized at his work

….

Meanwhile with xie shen

….

[ ~ customer 'dai shan' absolutely love your cooking! ]

[ ~ 20 chef points has been added into your collection ]

'Ah yes, him eating my food and absolutely loving it was all according to my calculations, its better to see you loving my dishes more and more to increase my chef points i lost because of your strict code of dressing in a chef uniform' he mischievously thought

Most of the reason of why he is currently excited is

Because he basically completed the 'impress the head chef' quest, rewarding him a bit more mora, mora and chef points.

Some of the reasons however, is because he wanted people to enjoy eating his food and remembering happy thoughts to encourage them throughout the day

One time while he was working at a restaurant, he cooked a simple dish as expected of his job. But unexpectedly, the customer who ordered the same dish he made was having a bad day. Eating the food, ryuma was told that he was constantly reminded of good times with his family. Making ryuma's chef ego ( if it even exists ) to increase further

But in all honestly, the former reason is why he's excited, he needs to earn the same amount he lost. Quickly

But fate had a different plan.

***BANG*** ( i think this is the sound it makes )

The kitchen doors busted open, gaining the attention of everyone in

Turns out, it was the maid xin yi— ryuma met less than 3 hours ago. She had a stressed look on her face, indicating something has happened.

Ryuma has not noticed her going out of the kitchen, surprising him with the loud banging of the door making contact with the wall, causing the 'bang' sound

Xin yi looked on to dai shans and ryuma's direction. Relieving some of her stress

"Are you guys finally done..? Theres a lot of people outside waiting for their meals. Hurry up and start cooking so i can serve them!" She ordered them with a raised voice, she was clearly agitated in them as dai shan taking too long to fancy ryuma's food

Each time they were 4-10 minutes late, the guests usually fill up the dining room, making other guests wait longer until a spot opens.

How they avoid that, is because they started preparing the food 8 minutes earlier then the original time when guests start to come, resulting in less crowded and cramped spots

This time, with the new person named 'xie shen' entering the kitchen and cooking for the headchef probably 20 minutes ago and dai shan eating and praising the food. causing them to be late in serving guests

Xue zemin came out of nowhere and announced "ah, morning rush?"

It was clear that it happened more than once, there would be days the guests wake up earlier than anticipated, Which is why it was a good idea to cook 8-10 minutes early

Dai shan heard xue zemin's statement. And looked in ryuma's direction "it seems so. alright new chef, this is probably your first time dealing with this. But when a morning rush happens, you gotta cook as fast as you can so we don't receive complaints. Take this as experience" the veteran informed the newbie

"Sure, i can probably enhance my preparation time and skill if i do it, so lets get it on"

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Han Rong was currently stationed in the dining room of the baiju guesthouse. He managed to fetch a seat before they all got taken, he was quite lucky as he says so.

He pitied the ones who had to sit on the floor or stand up for about 6 minutes while they were waiting to order some food, it seems that they were extra hungry today

Speaking of which, the door that led to the kitchen opened up, revealing a girl in a maid costume with a smile on her face… he speculates that its forced, but hes not sure so its better to not dwell on those thoughts

The maid went to every table, asking each person on which dish they want, This was of course common as she always did this in his months of taking a break here

After a bit of time of asking and noting every customer's desired meal, she finally arrived to his table. Asking the usual question consisting of "what would you like order?"

"Ill have the matsumake meat rolls, please." He informed her

She nodded, wrote down his order on a small notebook and left

Another round of waiting a couple more minutes…

...…

"Here's your meal sir" she said yet again with that smile of hers, now he truly thought that she wasn't faking it this time

Taking the plate full of his meal, he ( obviously ) put it on his table, and grabbed the utensils to eat

Stabbing a meat roll with a fork, he expected the usual, comforting taste of the matsumake meat rolls he always orders almost everyday

Instead, it was something entirely different, the taste was 2-5x better than usual. An awesome taste dancing on his tongue, leading him eating more. Allowing the taste to explode on his tastebuds

"This… is outstanding, when did it become this good?" he questioned himself, seemingly flabbergasted by the flavour

He continued to stuff more in his mouth, not wanting the experience end

…

'It seems the food put out with his help has surprised the guests, they are in a positive mood… jackpot!' Xin yi distinguished, she noted that they were enjoying the food more then the other morning they tried it

And she was proud of that, she was really glad that she stopped by the new guy's apartment when she smelled food coming from his apartment

Ignoring that, She should probably focus on her work. Theres a few customers she had yet to serve, then it'll be the end for breakfast

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( A/N: hey guys! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, sorry for not releasing a chapter past week again… I couldn't bother, but anyways, i should finish this arc soon as im getting major ideas from other fanfics and overall great additions i made up, i wish you a good day! )

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FYI: theres a chapter asking what i should do in the next 2 days, and i hope you get to vote as it would benefit me and the story a ton!