Universe Infinite Canteen-Chapter 598: The Final Round

The four judges discussed for about five minutes, during which there seemed to have been some disputes, but fortunately, a consensus was reached in the end.

Group leader Gaggan Anand announced the final result.

"Congratulations, Chef Sun Mei, you may stay and continue to participate in the upcoming contests."

After saying this, he looked at Luo Junkang, "Chef Luo Junkang, we have discussed and feel that your loofah tea crackers are impeccable in terms of flavor, and the idea of incorporating coconut into the tea spread is quite interesting.

"You've achieved the effect of smelling the coconut fragrance without seeing the coconut flesh, but similar ideas have been executed by other contestants before, so the surprise it brought us was not as strong.

"Furthermore, in terms of visual impact and originality, 'Night in a Strange Land' is superior to the loofah tea crackers, so after our discussion, we've decided to let Chef Sun Mei advance."

"Alright," Luo Junkang remained impassive and nodded, "I'm out of time anyway, honestly, even if I went to the next round, I'd only be there to be eliminated."

"Oh, and please do not leave the banquet hall for now. There will be an award ceremony for the first, second, and third place after the contest is over," the female host reminded.

As Luo Junkang stepped down from the cooking station, the competition finally moved on to the last segment.

Only Sun Mei and Ma Lu were left as contestants, and the time remaining on their timers was 28 minutes and 12 seconds, and... 4 minutes and 43 seconds, respectively.

The disparity was huge.

Normally speaking, Sun Mei should have this in the bag.

However, her opponent was the monster-like Ma Lu, who had scored full marks for five consecutive rounds.

Not to mention 4 minutes and 43 seconds, even if there were only 60 seconds left, Sun Mei would not feel secure.

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However, as it stood, her strategy did indeed seem to have been effective, managing to pass the fourth and fifth rounds without much of a hitch, leaving her nearly half an hour's time for cooking in the final battle.

And she had already prepared for the decisive battle long ago.

Yet upon the start of the contest, Sun Mei suddenly stood still, motionless.

"Eh, what's wrong with Xiao Mei?" Qiu Lele wondered.

"Why hasn't she started? I saw she had three pots on the stove during the second round, simmering something. Now she's only used one, and the other two haven't been touched. Shouldn't she be confident about her last dish?"

"She's hesitating," Sun He said indifferently.

Seeing Qiu Lele looking puzzled, Sun He explained, "I've watched her grow up. She's been hailed as a prodigy since she was young, with astonishing culinary talent. She's had smooth sailing all along, rarely encountering any adversaries who could match her.

"So she's become increasingly arrogant and confident in her culinary skills and the path she's chosen. This is both good and bad.

"After all, if a person cannot trust their own choices, it's hard for them to persist and continue to excel, and they end up in a never-ending internal struggle."

"But this confidence also hinders her from exploring more possibilities. The more competitions she wins and the more praise she receives, the more narrow-minded her vision becomes."

"As a result, this time she's met a truly formidable opponent, whose overwhelming skills and understanding of ingredients are clearly superior to hers, causing her an unprecedented intense shock.

"This shock is so intense that it has made her doubt the path she has been following all along."

"In the current situation, it means she no longer believes that the dish she is about to make can defeat her opponent," Sun He said, "That's why she's now standing there, caught in a dilemma."

And as the two of them were talking, Ma Lu had already stopped the timer, finishing his cooking.

He had prepared this dish well in advance, and now he was just wrapping things up, which was why it was so quick.

After stopping the timer, Boss Ma was already pondering how he should spend the prize money. Three million wasn't a lot for him at the moment, especially considering the taxes, but money is something no one would ever turn down.

Hmm, maybe some people would say they don't care about money, but if you stopped them from earning it, they'd certainly get agitated.

Ma Lu was planning to buy himself a new TV with the championship prize money. He had his eye on a TV from TCL, the flagship model with a 115-inch miniled screen.

Not expensive, just under 800,000, so he'd still have 1.6 million left.

At that moment, he noticed Sun Mei standing motionless on the opposite side.

Five full minutes into the contest, and Sun Mei still hadn't started cooking.

She just furrowed her brows, standing in place, her expression changing unpredictably.

Ma Lu couldn't help but get curious. He turned his head and asked the staff member next to him, "Competitors can talk during the contest, right?"

"Ah?" The staff member was totally taken aback by such an odd request.

His thought was, brother, it's a serious competition, and now we're at the final round—could you please be a little more serious?

But before he could respond, Ma Lu was already muttering to himself, "It should be allowed, right? The first day I talked to other contestants, and even teamed up with your female host."

"Chef Ma Lu, please wait a moment, let me check with the higher-ups," the staff member said while wiping the sweat from his forehead.

"Hurry up, then; time is ticking," Ma Lu urged.

"Okay."

The staff member pulled out his phone, and half a minute later, he replied, "I've checked, and indeed there's no such restriction, but... hey, hey."

He hadn't finished speaking when Ma Lu had already started walking toward Sun Mei.

At this time, Sun Mei looked somewhat strange, lacking her prior arrogance and confidence, her eyes unfocused, cheeks slightly flushed, with sweat beading on her forehead.

She was murmuring to herself, "No, it's not enough, it's not enough! There must be some way!"

Not until her shoulder was tapped did Sun Mei somewhat snap out of her dazed state.

Then she saw a face close enough to touch her own.

"Hey, it's a competition; come on, pull yourself together!"

"Huh," Sun Mei exhaled a breath of relief, "Why is it you?"

"I don't know what you think of me, but after these days together, I've come to consider you a friend. When a friend is in trouble, of course, I have to come and check," Ma Lu said.

"I'm not talking about that. I mean, how can you come over to my side?"

"I asked the staff, and they said it's not against the rules," Ma Lu said, "You know me, I just like to wander around."

"Is your dish finished?"

"It's done," Ma Lu said, then asked, "What about yours?"

"I've run into some trouble," Sun Mei didn't conceal, "I don't know what to do."

"Do you want to hear my advice?"

"Go ahead."

"Make your favorite dish."

"Are you kidding? If I like fried chicken, am I supposed to serve up fried chicken?"

"Why not? You can't beat me anyway, just make something that makes you happy. Look at Master Luo making tea crackers, he seemed pretty pleased. He tried a bunch of things, but in the end, he found that this was what suited him best."