Seeing Lin Xu had chosen sea bass, a sigh of relief washed over Shen Jiayue and the others in the audience. They had all tasted Lin Xu's Steamed Sea Bass before and knew how good it was. As long as he performed normally, this round should be in the bag.

"Senior Brother, can Lin Xu's Steamed Sea Bass win?" Shen Jiayue asked Xie Baomin, who stood next to her.

"It's hard to say. Guo Xinghai's cooking skills are also good. Once he gets a whole chicken, he can make his best dish, Plain Chicken. That's how our Building 2 has been losing to Building 10 these past two years," Xie Baomin said.

Upon hearing this, everyone prayed that the second-ranked chubby chef, Wei Qian, would choose the whole chicken. This would prevent Guo Xinghai from making his signature Plain Chicken, and Lin Xu's ranking for this round would be secure.

However, when it was Wei Qian's turn to pick ingredients, he didn't hesitate for a moment and chose the Pork Ribs from the rack, laughing that it was his favorite dish.

Shen Jiayue, Chen Yan, and Geng Lele were fuming in the audience. This isn't a buffet! Why pick what you like to eat?! That huge chicken, can't he see it?

Seeing Wei Qian choose Pork Ribs over the whole chicken, Guo Weidong, whose mood had been fluctuating, felt a new surge of hope. My nephew's Plain Chicken is exceptional. Just give him a chance to select a whole chicken, and he'll be unbeatable. He won the championship the past two years with this dish. Let's make it again this year. We have to beat that kid from Building 2 in one round!

Just when everyone thought Guo Xinghai would choose the whole chicken, he instead approached the rack, picked up the basket of still-living Large Shrimp, and carried it away.

This… Not only was the audience somewhat stunned, but even the elderly members of the consultant team were taken aback.

"This kid makes such good Plain Chicken; why isn't he making it this year?" one commented.

"What a pity! Such a great opportunity to score points," said another.

"Old Guo, isn't your grandson planning to take down Old Gao's apprentice this year?"

"Exactly! Your son has been defeated by him for five years straight. Can't your grandson pull off a three-peat at least?"

Old Master Gao glared. "If you bunch of old coots keep stoking the fire here, I'll throw all your walking sticks into the Goldfish Pond outside!"

The other elders immediately shut their mouths. If it were anyone else who said this, they would ignore it and might even argue back, citing their seniority. But Gao Peisheng, when furious, dared to do anything. No one dared to provoke him, or else this vindictive old man would definitely make them suffer a great embarrassment. He had a long history of such acts, and almost everyone had fallen victim to them at some point.

Old Master Gao ignored the old men, turning instead to a portly old man he had nearly tripped over earlier. "Old Cricket," he asked, "your grandson still has some tricks up his sleeve, right?"

The portly old man was Guo Xinghai's grandfather, Guo Jichang. He didn't hide anything. "After winning last year, our boy lived in Yangcheng with me all year. He hasn't made much Plain Chicken; instead, he's practiced Boiled Shrimp a lot. Today, he's probably going to make Boiled Large Shrimp."

HISS… Boiled Large Shrimp? That was also one of the signature dishes of Cantonese cuisine! Everyone had just thought he was throwing in the towel. It turned out that seeing Lin Xu choosing seafood ingredients, he had followed suit and picked the same type. This was a clear challenge!

After asking Guo Jichang, Old Master Gao looked at another old man with a slicked-back hairdo. "Old He," he asked, "is that chubby kid from your Building 1? I see he's been ranking quite high in these few rounds. Didn't you mentor him?"

The old man with the slicked-back hair shook his head. "I was going to, but that kid just loves to cook pork. He doesn't enjoy making other types of dishes and is quite stubborn. I mentored him for a while, then stopped."

Old Master Gao's interest was piqued. "Does he have an official position in your Building 1?"

"No, he's a contract worker. He's been at Building 1 for several years now. He was even chubbier when he first arrived; he only got a bit slimmer from all the work in the kitchen."

So that's how it is… Old Master Gao didn't ask further, continuing to watch the competition.

「In Wu Kexin's live broadcast room,」 the fans became excited when they saw Lin Xu had picked the sea bass.

"Aha! Boss Lin finally remembered this is a cooking competition!"

"He just released a cooking tutorial on Steamed Sea Bass, so he should be solid this round."

"Boss Lin making it to the top five is definitely no problem. Now it's just to see if he can win the championship."

"Exactly! Starting the top ten with such high-end dishes means the difficulty will surely increase for the top five and top three. Hopefully, Boss Lin can push harder and beat those high-and-mighty chefs from Fishing Platform!"

「At the competition venue,」 once all ten contestants had picked their ingredients, Geng Lishan announced, "Please prepare a dish using the ingredients at hand within thirty minutes. Any flavor profile is allowed. The timer starts now!"

The rack that had held the ingredients was moved aside and replaced by a larger one, filled with various condiments and side dishes that could be used in cooking. Lin Xu glanced at it. The rack was stocked not only with common items such as Scallion and Ginger, garlic, and spices, but even niche ingredients like caul fat were available.

He carried the sea bass to the sink next to the stove and began to gut and scale it. After cleaning it thoroughly, he marinated it briefly with Scallion and Ginger.

As he was doing this, he went to the ingredients rack to grab some caul fat, just as he encountered Wei Qian who was coming to get Crystal Sugar.

"Let me try your Steamed Sea Bass later," Wei Qian offered. "I'll save some of my sweet and sour Pork Ribs for you too."

Lin Xu acknowledged him and continued with his work. At a nearby stove, Guo Xinghai was also busily preparing.

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