"Grandpa Qing! Erina!"
Seeing the two of them approaching one behind the other, Alice Nakiri's face lit up with delight, and she immediately ran over. Fang Ye followed after her.
"Slow down. The soil is soft—be careful not to fall."
Watching Alice and Fang Ye trot toward him, Liu Anqing gave them a warning, stepping into the vegetable patch himself as he spoke, ready to catch them if needed.
"Fang Ye. Alice.
"These are souvenirs I brought back for you from Hokkaido—Shiroi Koibito chocolate sandwich cookies. The taste is quite good, so I brought some back. Accept them with gratitude."
Looking at Fang Ye and Alice standing before her, Erina Nakiri pulled two elegantly wrapped cookies from her shoulder bag, her voice carrying a faintly tsundere edge.
"Thank you."
Fang Ye accepted the cookie and gave a small nod.
"So you still remembered us? You were gone for so long and never contacted us—I thought you'd forgotten all about us. Don't think you can buy us off with one cookie!"
Staring at the cookie Erina handed her, Alice couldn't help grumbling.
For children, even a single day felt long—let alone half a month. Erina had been away for a full fifteen days this time. Alice had called several times in the middle of it, and Erina had ignored every single one. The assistant traveling with her would only say, "Lady Erina has already gone to bed."
"It really does taste good. Munch munch munch. But don't expect me to forgive you that easily. Munch munch munch. The white chocolate filling is amazing. Munch munch munch."
Even while complaining, Alice happily munched away on the cookie, savoring the sweet taste of the white chocolate filling, her eyes narrowing into blissful little crescents.
"It'll take ten boxes—no, twenty!"
Looking at the now-empty wrapper in her hand, Alice first raised one finger, then after thinking for a moment raised a second.
"The texture is fantastic. So light."
A trace of amazement appeared in Fang Ye's eyes. Maybe it was because he hadn't eaten any truly good cookies in his previous life, but this was easily the best cookie he had tasted across both lives.
"Grandpa Qing has one too."
Erina ignored Alice's complaints. When Liu Anqing looked over, she reached into her bag again and handed him a cookie as well.
Liu Anqing didn't normally care much for cookies, but seeing the expectant look in the little girl's eyes, he accepted it anyway, unwrapped it, and popped it into his mouth.
"A langue de chat biscuit with white chocolate, hm?
"The biscuit is airy, the chocolate is sweet, and together they produce a gentle buttery toastiness when you bite down, along with a rich milky aroma. Not bad."
Savoring the cookie on his tongue, Liu Anqing nodded faintly. For a souvenir confection, it was already quite excellent.
Before long, all three of them finished their cookies and casually stuffed the wrappers into their pockets.
"You've all come to this vegetable patch many times before. Most of the previous visits were more like field trips—I taught you to recognize these fruits and vegetables, gave you a simple sense of their flavor profiles, and explained what kinds of dishes they suited.
"But today, I'm going to teach you how to judge their quality. Even if you use the exact same cooking method, ingredients of different quality can produce wildly different results in the final dish."
Compared to taking children to the marketplace, Liu Anqing preferred bringing them directly to the fields. It let them see fruits and vegetables more intuitively and made a deeper impression on them.
Of course, he couldn't teach them too much at once, or in the end they wouldn't remember anything.
Over these past two years, every week or two, he had brought Fang Ye and the other two to this garden—letting them look, observe, and even try cultivating crops themselves.
To personally experience a vegetable's growth, watching it go from a tiny seed to a mature plant, was excellent enlightenment for young children.
And that was not all.
During these two years, they had also gone deep into ranchland, strolled along riversides, camped in forests, and encountered all sorts of different ingredients, building up all kinds of firsthand impressions.
That part happened less often, though. It focused more on exposure and experience, so across a whole year there were only a handful of such trips.
After all, Liu Anqing's true specialty lay in seasoning and vegetable cuisine. He wasn't going to neglect his strengths in order to teach areas he himself didn't excel in.
That was also the fundamental reason Senzaemon Nakiri had invited him here in the first place.
He possessed Super Taste.
And Erina Nakiri possessed the God Tongue.
Senzaemon Nakiri did not want Erina to walk the same tragic road Mana had walked.
If he wanted to prevent that, then he had to raise Erina's culinary level high enough for her to satisfy herself. Only then would she not be devoured by the God Tongue too early.
To that end, he had already made many arrangements in secret.
He had been quietly collecting information on gifted young chefs throughout Japan, sending people to persuade their parents to send them to Totsuki for training.
He meant to use these exceptionally talented children as whetstones for Erina Nakiri, ushering in a brand-new Era of Uncut Gems.
That plan, however, was still only in its early shape.
After all, when children were still that young, it was nearly impossible to tell who truly had talent. Dragging them all in to train would be exhausting and inefficient. He would have to wait until they were eleven or twelve before the plan could properly be carried out.
Even so, he already had a number of children he was watching closely.
From his seat as Commander of Totsuki Saryo Culinary Institute, Senzaemon Nakiri held a personal dossier in his hand, his gaze deep and thoughtful.
·
·
"So this is Totsuki Academy? Japan's greatest culinary school... it's incredible!
"So the young lady with the God Tongue studies cooking in a place like this? No wonder so many people admire her."
A young girl with short pinkish-purple hair and brown eyes stood there clutching an adult's hand, while the other hand held the latest gourmet magazine. She wore a blue-violet top and a pleated plaid skirt, and her voice trembled with barely contained excitement.
On the cover of the magazine was a blonde girl. If Fang Ye had been there, he would have recognized at once that it was Erina Nakiri.
"Hisako, once you get inside, you must do your very best. The future of the Arato family is resting entirely on your shoulders."
The man beside her looked down at the young girl, and a flicker of reluctance crossed his eyes. But he quickly collected himself and smoothed every trace of emotion from his face.
And the girl now standing at the foot of Totsuki Mountain was none other than Hisako Arato, one of the most classic beauties in Food Wars!.
Only now, she still looked rather young.
"I understand, Father."
Looking up at the towering expanse of Totsuki before her, Hisako Arato's little face was full of wonder. Then, under her father's guidance, she stepped through the gates of the school.
There were all kinds of buildings she had never seen before, beautiful landscaped grounds, and road decorations luxurious enough to border on extravagance.
And beyond that—
the miserable howls of students, muttering in grievance over yet another unfair D-grade evaluation, tragic laments about how one more rating below E would mean expulsion, and even the scraping sounds of people being forcibly dragged away while desperately refusing to leave—
Wasn't there something seriously wrong with this Totsuki?!
"Arato—you've finally arrived."
As she passed through this sea of misery, Hisako Arato's excitement gradually transformed into unease. Tightening her grip on her father's hand, she followed him into the academic building—
and came face-to-face with the man who stood at the very pinnacle of the academy.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 135)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 110)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter100)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter67)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter85)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 60
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 65
From Junkman to Wasteland 50
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 35
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 40
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 37
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