Si Shi Er was surprised that his boyfriend had really managed to find the right person. Well, at least he hoped that it was the right person and not somebody who vaguely looked like Si San.

But then again, if it was the wrong person, he would at least have a reason to team up with him again so they could look together. Si Yi wouldn’t be able to say anything about that!

For now, he hastily changed directions and rushed to the hall where his boyfriend and Si San were waiting. When he stepped in, he immediately spotted the other ninja and also saw how his expression completely blanked.

Si Shi Er raised his brows and then leisurely walked over, trying not to draw too much attention to himself. Not that it would help a lot. There was a group of women standing not too far away from Fu Jia and Si San and they were looking over the whole time, whispering.

It seemed that whatever these two had done, it had already drawn as much attention as possible close by. Si Shi Er’s lips twitched but he still went over, nodding at Si San. “Hey! It seems that I found you.”

Si San looked from Si Shi Er to the youth next to him and then back again. Somehow, this wasn’t what he had imagined. Where was the big, hunky guy he was supposed to teach a lesson? At the very least, that would’ve been impressive! Now he just looked like a weirdo.

“What are you doing here?” He really would’ve liked to ask more but even though he was able to figure out that this was the boyfriend that Si Shi Er loved to talk about, he also knew that this was something that shouldn’t be discussed in detail in front of outsiders.

Si Shi Er glanced at the group of women again who were clearly in earshot and then scratched his temple. He clearly couldn’t tell it as it was.

Unfortunately, his boyfriend had other ideas. “Oh, somebody’s looking for you!” Saying so, he turned back to his boyfriend and tugged at his sleeve. “You should call your boss now!”

Si Shi Er glanced at him and then nodded. No matter what, it was still best to inform their master and Si Yi of this first. Since he had made sure that it really was Si San, that was the right course of action.

Thus, he pulled out his phone and tapped on the number that was right at the top. The phone rang but nobody answered the call. Si Shi Er furrowed his brows and let it ring another few times before finally ending the call, and lowered his phone. “Alright, I’m not sure what happened. Let me call … his assistant.”

Meanwhile, Si San was just staring at him. Even though ‘boss’ was something that sounded a little odd, it was still pretty clear that this had to be about their master and Si Yi.

So it seemed that they wanted him for something and had sent out Si Shi Er and his boyfriend to find him. This was odd but not completely unexpected. Things like that could happen in the Si clan. Although he still figured that it would’ve been better to use Si Er to just locate him. That usually worked a lot better.

Si Shi Er managed to reach Si Yi after just one ring. He told him the number of the hall and then also that he hadn’t managed to reach their master.

There was a short silence on the other end before SI Yi spoke up. “I understand. I will inform him.” When he ended the call, he wasn’t quite sure what to make of this. Their master didn’t really have a reason to ignore Si Shi Er, especially when he was waiting for news from him. This didn’t seem quite like him.

But in any case, he wasn’t too worried. They were in a building, and there hadn’t been an audible commotion so it shouldn’t be anything too serious. Also, their master could handle himself well enough. If somebody had tried to make trouble for him, he would fear for that person’s life instead of his master’s. That kind of thing was difficult to explain away but doable. Thus, he just casually called him while he made his way over to the hall.

Surprisingly enough, the phone rang and rang again and then continued to ring several more times before Si Yi also gave up. This … wasn’t quite like his master. Maybe he should get worried after all.

When he thought of that, he sped up his steps, going to reconvene with Si Shi Er and Si San, feeling that if this really was an issue that even their master couldn’t deal with, it would be best if the four of them joined forces.

When he reached the hall, Si San, Si Shi Er, as well as the latter’s boyfriend, had already made their way over to the door, all of them rather clear on the fact that it probably wouldn’t be good to speak inside.

Si San raised his brows as soon as he saw Si Yi. “What is this whole matter about?”

“Later. I did not manage to reach him either. We should probably go and take a look.”

The other two exchanged a glance and then nodded. There was just the problem of what to do with Si Shi Er’s boyfriend. Clearly, Fu Jia would want to tag along. But if this was something dangerous, then they really didn’t want to have him in there.

Also, if they had to take somebody down who was threatening their master, then they really didn’t want to have to explain that to Fu Jia afterward. After all, other than ‘we’re a secret ninja clan’ would be a good explanation for that? And so far, neither their master nor Si Yi had really given the okay to tell him everything so this might not be viable.

Si Shi Er turned to his boyfriend, hurriedly taking his hand. “Xiao Jia, how about you stay here and listen in on the talk or whatever they have here? I’m afraid we’ll have to go and see my boss first but the event is about to start and he’ll miss out on everything.” He motioned at Si San at that, trying to look awkward about it. “Maybe you could just take a few notes or something for him?”

Fu Jia looked at him with his doe eyes, clearly not on board with that. “I’m sure there’ll be other people taking notes. Wasn’t your friend close with those women just now? I’m sure they’ll lend him their notes!”

Si Shi Er smiled wryly, looking at Si Yi for help.

Si Yi couldn’t be bothered though. “What are you waiting for? Let’s go!” In his mind, the most important person was their master. After him, came young master Xiao as his future partner and only then the other ninjas of the Si clan since they were necessary for safekeeping both of them. The families of the ninjas were even after that and only then came everyone else.

To him, Fu Jia wasn’t even officially Si Shi Er’s partner yet, so he didn’t care too much what would happen to him. If he got in harm’s way, that wasn’t his problem. His first priority was making sure that their master was safe and sound. Thus, without another word, he turned around and went in the direction their master had left in before.

Si Shi Er couldn’t help but feel worried, knowing exactly how Si Yi thought about other people. To him, this was just a numbers game: the probability of something happening, the likelihood of it causing trouble for the Si clan, the importance of whom to save and how, the severity of any injuries sustained while doing so on either side, all that came together to form the answer of how to deal with matters for Si Yi.

In this case, it would likely tell him to let Fu Jia come along to not lose time and then ignore him afterward and focus on their master. But to him, this was his boyfriend, ah! He didn’t want to lose him.

Si Shi Er leaned closer, tugging at Fu Jia’s hand while they followed after Si Yi and Si San, to warn him. “You better stay back a little. My boss … he can get into strange situations sometimes. So if you feel that it looks dangerous, don’t get too close.”

Fu Jia blinked his eyes, a little surprised but he figured that right now it likely wasn’t a good moment to ask so he just nodded. In any case, spectating from the sidelines would also be exciting!

Si Shi Er had no idea what he was thinking so just heaved a sigh of relief and then followed the others, keeping his eyes peeled ahead, so he would spot their master immediately.

They didn’t need to search for long. Finding their master was actually really easy because as soon as they made their way over to the corridor he had originally disappeared into, they heard a commotion from somewhere ahead.

Si Yi furrowed his brows and then quickened his pace, rushing over to the hall at the end. No doubt, this was where their master was! He pushed through the throng of people that had gathered at the door, making his way through and giving the room a quick once-over to figure out if there were was a big fight going on.

Nothing of the like was the case. Instead, he found about a dozen tables set up like the letter U in the middle of the room with one person standing behind each of them, locked in something that looked a bit like a cook-off.

Needless to say, his master was one of those people and was currently dazzling the audience with his knife skills.

Si Yi stopped in his tracks, the other three right behind him, and stared at the sight in front of him. He had no idea how his master had gotten into this situation but right now, he was cutting onions.

He probably shouldn’t be surprised that he was able to do this well enough to draw an audience considering that this was the first thing he had learned and he had done so really well. For somebody who hadn’t watched him do this ten thousand times in a row, it was probably interesting enough to watch. Especially considering that there were quite a few other ingredients lying around that had already been cut up.

Fu Jia poked his head around his boyfriend’s shoulder, looking around the room and finally at the contestants. He blinked his eyes and then looked up at his boyfriend. “Your boss one of the contestants?”

Si Shi Er wasn’t sure what to say either so instead, he nodded his head. He didn’t have any words for this. Hadn’t they all been searching for Si San? How come their master was suddenly making food?

At the same time, Si Jin had noticed them as well. He looked over, staring right at them while he continued to cut the onions. Finally, the last one had been prepared and was put to the side, the knife accurately jammed back into the knife block and his hands folded on top of the desk, clearly showing that he had finished.

With what … the ninjas couldn’t quite tell until they took a closer look at what the other contestants were doing and realized that rather than a cook-off, this seemed to be some kind of contest over who was able to prepare ingredients faster.

As it seemed, their master had won by a long shot. In fact, some of the other contestants seemed to have almost given up and were mostly just staring at him wide-eyed.

The people around them that had come to spectate were also whispering among themselves, clearly amazed at what they had just seen.

“Did you see how he cut the last one? He didn’t even look!”

“And he did all of that without a change in expression. Even all those onions. Do you think he forgot to read the rules for the competition? That has to be a professional chef!”

Si Yi glanced to the two who had just spoken and then looked around for the rules himself. There was a board with them standing in the corner and a banner hung up on the wall on the other side of the room.

He narrowed his eyes to get a better look. As it seemed, this really was a contest that had people try their hand at different things related to cooking. The caveat was that this was a fun exercise for the visitors of the event that weren’t professionals in the sense of cooking.

If you owned a restaurant but weren’t a cook, you could take part. If you were just a food enthusiast who didn’t work at a restaurant, you could as well. If you were a journalist or a food blogger and wanted to try your hand to get some experience yourself before you interviewed some of the professionals, you could too.

If you were a chef though or had learned at a culinary school, then you were out. Clearly, if somebody tried to take part despite being a professional chef, they would earn themselves quite a bit of derision for trying to show up the casual participants. This was a fun event for a change of pace between the more serious ones after all. Nobody wanted a person to come in and ruin that.

Realizing this, Si Yi relaxed. In any case, their master clearly wasn’t a chef. He just had practiced his cutting skills more than anything else. Being proficient with weapons had clearly helped as well so it wasn’t a wonder that this was his specialty.

This was also something that could be proven quite fast so it wasn’t a problem. Instead, he figured that it was actually a good thing. After all, there was likely going to be some media coverage on some culinary blogs at least. And those articles might draw the eyes of young master Xiao. Since that was what they wanted to do in the long run, he was very much in favor of his master trying this.

Also, soon enough, everybody would be able to see his master’s skills on TV anyway so this wasn’t something that they had to worry about. At that time, it wouldn’t stay a secret any longer. If it was talked about before, the impact might actually be less which would be good in terms of blending in better with the other contestants.

He had to give it to his master, no matter how he had stumbled upon this opportunity, he had made the right decision at the right time. Well, as expected of his master!