Chapter 337 - 145: This Is a Pastry? I Don’t Believe It, It’s a Walnut

Chapter 337: Chapter 145: This Is a Pastry? I Don’t Believe It, It’s a Walnut

The assistant director in charge of the monitors noticed with surprise that the data for one of the live streams was fluctuating erratically.

Within just a few minutes, the number of viewers in the live stream began to skyrocket.

And just a moment ago, the bullet comments in the live stream had, in an instant, reached a terrifying rate of over a hundred thousand per second!

In response, he immediately had the staff project this live stream directly onto the main screen.

Everyone else get out of the way!

As the image appeared, the audio from the live stream was also connected to the venue’s sound system!

"Born of mud, yet unstained. Washed by pure ripples, yet not seductive. It can be admired from a distance, but not treated with disrespect. Your Lotus Crisp, please enjoy."

The voice this time... was a man’s!

On screen, the man very carefully lifted four lotus blossoms with his chopsticks, placing them onto a round, green tray.

The tray resembled a lotus leaf, and in its center sat the lotus blossoms. That was all; there was nothing else.

"That sounds an awful lot like Boss Xiaosu, doesn’t it?" Lu Yongliang murmured to the person next to him, stroking his chin.

Cui Yufen snorted. "It doesn’t just sound like him! It *is* him!"

’I’m so frustrated. I ran all the way from Jingzhou back to the Capital City, and he still manages to show off right in front of me? Boss Xiaosu, are you addicted to showing off or something?’

But when their gazes focused on the four pastries on the screen, they both couldn’t help but suck in a sharp breath.

"Lotus Crisps? Since when did Boss Xiaosu start messing around with Chinese pastries?"

"That color... a pink gradient? How is that possible!"

Elsewhere, another person was equally stunned.

The National Restaurant’s head pastry chef, a Great Craftsman of the Capital City: Zhao Huilian.

"A double-layered lotus with 22 outer and 22 inner petals? And with a color gradient!"

Zhao Huilian shot to his feet. "Impossible! How could anyone in this world possibly make a Lotus Crisp like that?"

As the head pastry chef of the National Restaurant, Lotus Crisps were his signature dish. A few years ago, at the invitation of Old Rice Bone, he had even filmed a special feature about them.

That video received countless likes, introduced many people to Chinese pastries, and made the public aware of him, the Great Craftsman of the Capital City.

When it came to Lotus Crisps, Zhao Huilian’s limit was a single-layered blossom with 24 petals.

In other words, it only had an outer layer of petals, and inside that was the flower’s center.

But this lotus on the screen...

He counted them carefully: twenty-two outer petals, twenty-two inner petals, and only then the flower’s center!

The pink gradient on the petals, in particular, was something Zhao Huilian couldn’t comprehend for a moment. ’How the hell is this a technique a human can accomplish?’

The judges’ gasps of shock drew the attention of many in the audience, and everyone turned to look at the main screen.

"Holy cow! Duoduo! The gifts are pouring in! Hehe, I’m already at one hundred thousand points!"

In a TikTok PK battle, the simplest conversion rate is ten thousand points to one thousand yuan.

After this ill-timed exclamation, many people in the audience covered their mouths and snickered.

Likewise, another voice was also quite ill-timed.

"A masterpiece! This is a damn masterpiece! No wonder they say the lotus is to be admired from afar and not treated disrespectfully. Who could bear to eat a pastry that’s practically a work of art!" Chen the Eighth was a complete sycophant.

Su Chen asked softly, "Will our four guests continue to stay here, or would you prefer to return to your private room to dine?"

Zhang Jiayi was stunned.

Duoduo was stunned too.

They had imagined countless ways this PK battle could go, but they had never, ever imagined this one.

Zhang Jiayi swallowed hard. "Um... there’s still the scoring portion."

Su Chen just smiled and shook his head.

’Fine, fine, fine. Go ahead and score it. It’s all about entertainment, after all. As long as it doesn’t stop me from making money.’

Meanwhile, Sweet was also completely dumbfounded.

’I asked you to have a friendly match, and you brought a monster like this to fight me?’ 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Sweet was suddenly filled with regret. She could have challenged anyone, so why on earth did she choose Zhang Jiayi?

But since things had already come to this, Sweet could only bite the bullet, phone in hand, and return to the judges’ table.

’I just got a 9.8,’ she thought. ’No matter how they score this, the absolute highest they can give is a 10, right?’

’Yeah, losing won’t be too embarrassing. It’s fine, it’s fine!’

The camera focused on the first judge, Lu Yongliang.

Before the old man could speak, a voice came through from the stream first.

"Brother... Lu? You’re participating in this event, too?"

Lu Yongliang’s eyes darted away in embarrassment. "Well, uh, you know... they invited me, and since I was free, I thought I’d come take a look. Scoring, right. Oh, you want me to give you a score?"

The old man thought for a moment. After all, with so many people watching, he couldn’t be too obvious with his favoritism. The required commentary portion still had to be done.

"I’m not a pastry chef myself, so I hope everyone will forgive my less-than-professional critique! Since I’m unable to taste this pastry, I can only comment on it from a sensory perspective and based on the crafting technique."

"Without a doubt, the appearance of this pastry is an absolute perfect score! Looking across the whole country, I don’t believe there is a second person who could create a pastry of this level! As for the technique, although I didn’t see the initial preparation, judging from the deep-frying step, as long as it isn’t oil-logged, this pastry should actually have a very low oil content. I believe this is a healthy pastry!"

This comment was clearly throwing a bit of shade at the Western dessert.

"So the final score I’m giving is...!"

Su Chen, watching from afar, was puzzled. ’When did the old man learn how to build suspense?’

"A perfect score, 100 points!"

The venue erupted in thunderous applause. The audience was on their feet, clapping and cheering wildly. The only one not celebrating was Sweet, who stood on the stage, utterly dumbfounded.

"Wait... this is a ten-point scale! When did it become a hundred-point scale? Hey, organizers! Organizers?"