Chapter 155
Chapter 155
Including Ning Xi, Jiang Sheshe, Xie Lanchen, and Fu Zhi, a total of forty contestants signed up for the Sushi Eating Challenge.
The Program Team moved at lightning speed and split the forty contestants into two groups.
Once everything was ready, ten sushi chefs made a dazzling entrance under the guidance of the staff.
“These ten chefs placed in the top ten at the Sushi Speed Contest held by Yummy Sushi this year. Among them, the champion’s best record is making one piece of sushi in four seconds!
“For this Big Eater Challenge, these ten chefs will be making sushi for everyone by hand!”
The contestants and audience were all thrilled.
At Director Qin’s command, the ten sushi chefs immediately began shaping sushi, their hands moving so fast it was dizzying to watch.
In no time at all, two hundred plates of sushi were carried to the tables.
There was a huge variety, with all kinds of styles.
Eel sushi, salmon sushi, tuna sushi, sweet shrimp sushi, crab roe sushi, pan-seared foie gras sushi, wagyu sushi, pork floss sushi…
[I’m suddenly hungry]
[That sushi looks so good. I’m drooling]
[There’s a Yummy Sushi chain store just five hundred meters from my office. I’m going there after work tonight!!!]
The first group of contestants prepared to take the stage.
Jiang Sheshe and Fu Zhi had originally signed up only because Ning Xi was participating. Now, not only had they failed to end up in the same group as Ning Xi, they had even been made “tablemates” with someone they hated. It was truly a case of enemies seeing red the moment they met.
Jiang Sheshe launched the first attack with a cold laugh. “You’re competing too?”
Fu Zhi said, “So what?”
Jiang Sheshe commented, “Little So-What CEO.”
Fu Zhi: “?”
Having won the opening round, Jiang Sheshe shot Fu Zhi a contemptuous glance, then coolly lifted her BWB Thermos and drained the water in one go-
“Pfft-why is this water so hot? It burned me to death!”
Fu Zhi seized the chance to fire back. “I thought dead pigs weren’t afraid of boiling water?”
“…&￥…%￥*(#@#”
Ning Xi’s attention was entirely on the sushi. Hearing the commotion coming from the contestants’ area, she couldn’t help sighing with emotion.
“It’s so lively. Just like New Year’s.”
Xie Lanchen looked at the two people who were about to escalate from a verbal dispute into a fistfight. “…Not quite that harmonious.”
In the end, Director Qin appeared just in time to break up the argument, preventing a full-blown battle.
The first round of the Big Eater Challenge officially began.
The twenty contestants lowered their heads and started eating with all their might.
Jiang Sheshe hadn’t even finished half a plate before the sushi chef in front of her brought over another three plates.
Jiang Sheshe: “…”
She couldn’t finish it. There was absolutely no way she could finish it.
Ten minutes later, the match ended.
The first-place contestant demolished 32 plates of sushi in ten minutes. Fu Zhi finished 20 plates and came in third.
Jiang Sheshe only ate 10 plates and ranked twelfth.
“Twenty plates isn’t the limit of my speed, it’s the limit of my stomach. After all, I just had dinner earlier…” Fu Zhi bragged smugly to Ning Xi.
“Which flavor tasted best?” Ning Xi’s attention was focused solely on that. She didn’t care in the slightest how Fu Zhi had performed.
Fu Zhi choked for a moment, then finally said in annoyance, “Is there any sushi that doesn’t taste good to you?”
Ning Xi came to a sudden realization. “You’re right.”
Fu Zhi instantly felt like he’d punched cotton.
He glared at Ning Xi huffily, only to freeze for a second when he saw her fair and exquisite profile.
Ning Xi’s beauty was flawless, both in features and bone structure.
But the most beautiful thing about her was her eyes. In the sunlight, they always seemed to hold a bright, crystalline glow, brimming with a smile and giving off a radiant, dazzling feeling.
No matter how angry someone was, seeing those eyes seemed to make all that anger vanish like smoke.
After bickering and throwing tantrums with Ning Xi for so long, it seemed he had always forgotten to tell her:
You really are beautiful.
The most beautiful person I’ve ever seen.
“Ning Xi.”
Fu Zhi spoke softly.
“What?” Ning Xi didn’t even raise her head, her eyes fixed straight on the sushi chef not far away.
The way that chef made sushi was so fragrant. No, wait, these sushi pieces smelled so fast. No, that wasn’t right either…
“Do you… do you have any restaurant you want to go to? Let’s go together after this. My treat.”
There were only two more performances before the livestream ended. Fu Zhi had wanted to save these words for when it was just the two of them.
For some reason, he had a feeling that if he didn’t say it tonight, he might never be able to say it again.
The moment food was mentioned, Ning Xi perked up.
She looked at Fu Zhi with sparkling interest. “You’re treating me? Anywhere I want? Then I want to eat…”
Halfway through, Ning Xi suddenly turned to Xie Lanchen. “About how long will dinner take tonight?”
Late-night snacks could have a first half and a second half, couldn’t they?
By the time she finished eating with Xiao Xie, she’d probably have digested most of it on the way back. Then she could fleece Fu Zhi for another meal afterward…
Just thinking about it nearly made Ning Xi laugh.
“What? You’re going out to dinner with him tonight? Just the two of you?” Fu Zhi’s sensitive radar instantly went off, and his voice rose without him realizing it.
The attention of everyone else backstage was drawn over as well.
Shen Yibai’s hands, which had been organizing props the entire time, paused for a moment. Then, as if unintentionally, he swept a glance in Ning Xi’s direction.
His hands were still tidying things up, but his movements had slowed considerably.
Ning Xi nodded. After that, she ignored Fu Zhi, who was practically hopping around in agitation, and looked at Xie Lanchen, waiting for his answer.
Xie Lanchen lifted his brows slightly, the corners of his lips curving up as amusement threaded through his voice.
“How long do you want it to take? If you want to end early, then we’ll come back quickly. If you want to stay out a little longer, then we can go to plenty of places and eat everything you want.
“Teacher Ning, the length of the date has always depended on you. So-what’s your choice?”
Xie Lanchen’s voice was low, tinged with laughter.
It struck her eardrums with an inexplicable magnetism, making them tingle.
-What’s your choice?
Ning Xi unconsciously repeated Xie Lanchen’s words in her heart, her pulse thumping wildly.
[AHHHHH Xiao Xie really is a master of push and pull. Not only did he hand the question back to Ning Xi, he’s also trying to use her choice to confirm whether Ning Xi only wants to have dinner with him tonight, or whether either he or Fu Zhi would do!!!]
[I get it now. If Ning Xi chooses to come back early tonight and eat with Fu Zhi, that proves she doesn’t have any other feelings for Xie Lanchen. But if she chooses to only eat with Xiao Xie… Oh my god, how is that any different from dating?]
[Damn, damn, damn, I’m so nervous right now! Ning Xi, hurry up and say your choice!!!!]
“I…”
Ning Xi had only just begun when Fu Zhi cut in anxiously.
“Of course you should come back early! Ning Xi!!! I have something else to tell you tonight besides dinner! Oh, right, Lu Ming said he got a reservation number for that restaurant you’ve always really liked. As long as you want to go-”
“I don’t want to go.”
A clear, resolute voice cut off Fu Zhi’s rambling.
Ning Xi looked at Fu Zhi seriously.
The Little Tyrant, always so arrogant, now looked like an eggplant wilted by frost. He stood there in a daze, as if he had never expected to be rejected so thoroughly.
For all these years, although Ning Xi and Fu Zhi often argued over the most trivial things, as long as Fu Zhi came close again, all previous grudges would be wiped clean.
So in Fu Zhi’s eyes, whenever Ning Xi rejected him, there was always room for things to turn around.
For example, as long as he said it a few more times, Ning Xi would eventually get so annoyed she agreed.
Or he could tempt her with something she liked.
This was the first time Fu Zhi realized that pestering her didn’t work, and tempting her didn’t work either.
Ning Xi looked at Fu Zhi and repeated herself.
“I don’t want to go. I already have something I want to eat. Once I’m full, I won’t be able to eat anything else.”
In the past, she’d never cared much about a lot of things.
If two friends both asked her out to eat, and the two sides of the scale weighed the same, then she would go to both.
But this time was different. She was going to choose Xie Lanchen.
Because the scale had tipped toward him.