While the two of them were at home, Si Jin was still at the event, waiting for his turn in the contest. Being focused on what the other contestants were doing, time seemed to fly by for him. Although to be honest, he was a little dissatisfied with the skill level.

When it came to cutting vegetables, he had spotted too many mistakes in the way they did it. The efficiency wasn’t up to par, and neither was the orientation for details like the width at which they were cutting. It was clear that these weren’t professionals in some didn’t even have much experience. It really was just an event for fun.

Thinking of that, Si Jin felt that he was probably doing something wrong. When it came to trying new things and being interesting, he probably shouldn’t try to evaluate this to the standard of a professional but should instead try to have fun as well. But what made something like this fun? To be honest, he wasn’t sure. Actually, he wasn’t even sure how having fun was. Had he ever experienced something like that in life?

To him, every day was just a challenge. Accomplish this goal or that, then go for something new. It hadn’t usually been something he specifically liked to do. It was just … well, something he had to. So he did them and then he was done.

He really didn’t get how other people had fun.

Realizing this, Si Jin didn’t look at the way they were processing the food any longer and instead started to look at the people themselves. There was a man who was doing especially badly in the next contest which was on frying ingredients. You would need to get the heat and the amount of oil right, but also take the time into consideration to create a good dish.

This guy … well, whatever he did, it wasn’t up to standard by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, no matter which part Si Jin analyzed, there were flaws to be seen. But still, the man was laughing while he did it, looking as if he was very much having fun.

Si Jin stared at him, trying to figure out just what about doing something this wrong might be interesting to the man. Surely, this had to be less about achieving a perfect score and more about just doing it, no matter how badly.

Even though Si Jin got the gist of it, he still had trouble trying to draw a conclusion from this. In any case, he could not imagine being in the same situation.

Doing something good or bad, he didn’t derive joy from either. He also wouldn’t get frustrated if something didn’t work out as intended though. No, he would just start over, doing it again and again until he figured it out. Then, he would slowly refine his abilities.

To him, it was just a matter that … was, not anything more. But he was realizing that this approach wouldn’t get him any further regarding his current endeavor. No, he needed to be more like this man. Which was odd because that man looked like an idiot.

Si Jin retracted his gaze and instead looked at the other contestants, trying to get a better feel for the situation and see if there was a way forward that wouldn’t require him to compromise to this degree.

The man who had also been in the cutting contest before and accused him of cheating was also among them but he didn’t look as if he was enjoying himself too much. Instead, his brows were tightly furrowed. He seemed to be intent on getting things just right. This was the kind of person who was in this only for the win and not for the fun of it. Definitely not the type of person he should pick as an example on how to become more interesting. Even to him, this man seemed boring.

The other contestants were somewhere in the middle of the two. There were some who were a little more eager to win but they still seemed to be having fun trying to do so.

The one who stuck out to him the most was a woman who had taken up a spot closer to where they were sitting. She was calm throughout the whole contest, her expression not indicating too much. But when looking very closely, one could see a hint of enjoyment in her features. She didn’t seem like she necessarily wanted to win, she just quietly worked, wanting to do the best, no matter how that compared to others.

Si Jin lowered his gaze, pondering what he had just observed. Between these people, that woman was the one who came the closest to how he was. When it came to ‘Golden Spoon’, he did want to win but it wasn’t for the sake of winning but for the sake of the price because he wanted the opportunity to have a date with Xiao Ming.

Because of that, he needed to take things seriously. But at the same time, he couldn’t control what others did. He could only control what he himself did. He needed to do his best. He couldn’t go into this with a lackadaisical attitude. Because doing his best was the only thing that could ensure him a shot at winning the show. And since that was his goal, he couldn’t slack off.

As for what this meant in regard to his pursuit of Xiao Ming outside of the show, he wasn’t yet enlightened. Having fun wasn’t something that you just did apparently. It was also something that he probably should’ve learned in his life.

Well, he had always been good at picking up skills, so surely, he would also manage to find something that was fun to him. He just needed to dig a little deeper.

Maybe he should read some studies on that. He should tell Si Yi to find something. If he had a deeper understanding of the topic, he might be able to gain greater insight and use it to come up with a plan.

With that goal in mind, Si Jin focused on watching the contestants again until finally, it was time for him to take part in the third part of the contest.

After having watched the previous round, he had a pretty good idea of what exactly the judges were going for: In this case, accuracy was important. You needed to fry the ingredients for the right amount of time at the right heat, making sure not to destroy the texture.

This was something that he had watched Si Shi Wu do quite a few times and that he had also done repeatedly with different types of ingredients. He was sure that whether it was vegetables, noodles, meat, or fish, he would be able to fry all of them!

The three judges couldn’t help but look at Si Jin, feeling a bit startled when they realized that this was the same person from the cutting contest before. They hadn’t actually noticed him come back because there had been too many people in the way.

It was quite unexpected to see him again but they were quite curious to see what he would be able to do. After all, when it came to his cutting technique, it had been pretty good. But if he had really only started a bit more than a month ago to learn how to cook, then he couldn’t be that good at everything, could he? After all, to master one skill to this degree, he had probably invested a lot of time just into cutting. Most likely, he sucked at pretty much everything else, right?

Seeing as they had already explained the rules twice in a row and that the contests had apparently all heard them already because they had at least watched the second contest just now, they decided not to make too many words around the matter.

One of the men got up, nodding at the contestants. “I guess I don’t need to say much: Your goal is to fry these ingredients in front of you and pass the taste test afterward. The one with the most points will win. You can decide on the technique you want to use on your own. Now, good luck to all of you! We will start on three. One, two, three!”

Si Jin’s hands immediately shot forward, arranging the ingredients in the most efficient way to process them later. When it came to cooking, what he had realized was that a lot of it was about efficiency. If all the ingredients were prepared beforehand, he wouldn’t lose time when it counted.

The other contestants couldn’t help but look over when there was movement from his side immediately and the ones who had seen him cut the ingredients before couldn’t help but twitch their brows. Somehow, it seemed obvious just who would win this round.

The ones who hadn’t seen what happened before because they had only come for this round didn’t worry though. They just felt that he was somebody who went through things with a clear order of all actions in mind. They got back to their own tasks, trying their best as well.

Si Jin completely focused on his task, as usual not bothering about anybody else. Inwardly, he couldn’t help but ponder some more though.

Maybe this was his problem. Maybe having fun was also reliant on circumstances. Maybe he should take these more into consideration. In any case, if he thought about what he truly enjoyed for himself, then there was only one thing: watching Xiao Ming stream.

But clearly, that wasn’t about cooking. If he had just liked to watch people cook, he would’ve been sitting in the kitchen every day, watching Si Shi Wu do so. Or maybe he would’ve made it a habit to go out to restaurants where you were able to see the kitchen staff work behind the scenes.

He had never done that though and he didn’t care to change that. No, he had no interest at all in watching people cook save for gaining the opportunity to get some more insight into the art of cooking so he would be able to win ‘Golden Spoon’.

So what was special about the streams of Bright Yellow Water? Most likely, it was the people involved. For the most part, that would have been Xiao Ming. He just liked to watch him, no matter what he was doing. That smile of his made him want to smile back. And he liked both the way Xiao Ming focused on his work and also how he looked at the camera, always imagining the people on the other side.

It was probably safe to say that he liked to see this because of his feelings for Xiao Ming. So why had he taken interest in him but never in anything else? This was something that he struggled to understand. But it might be a good idea to think more in that direction as well. Yes, he should keep that thought in mind. After all, taking an interest in a person and in something to do might be similar. It couldn’t hurt to try.

Just when he thought of that, he finished the frying process, turned off the heat, and plated the ingredients. Then, he straightened up and looked at the jury members who were already smiling wryly. Not that they had ever stopped since the moment he walked up to the table. Some of the other contestants once again couldn’t help but glance over but in this case, time wasn’t what they would get judged for so they didn’t mind.

The jury first wanted to pretend that they hadn’t seen but then again, why should they wait? The taste test would be influenced if his ingredients would’ve cooled down a lot. It might not change the texture but the experience would still be different.

Thus, the man that was sitting at the right side finally got up with a smile that looked a little better, and went over to Si Jin, motioning at the plate. “Since you finished early, we should start with tasting yours.”

Si Jin inclined his head but then just stood there, doing nothing. In any case, he was used to Si Yi taking over the task of interacting with others so he didn’t even think of handing over the plate or even carry it over to the table of the jury.

The man’s smile turned wry once again and he cleared his throat. “Well, I’ll take this then.” He picked up the plate and then carried it over, giving a silent sigh when he reached there. “That’s the oddest contestant I’ve ever seen.”

The woman on the left chuckled at that. “But whether it was his cutting technique or he fried those ingredients just now, it all looked rather professional. I guess the taste won’t be too bad.”

The man in the middle couldn’t help but frown. “I can’t believe that he started cooking just a few weeks ago. Do you think maybe this is some kind of marketing stint? That they are just telling people this but he has been cooking for much longer?”

All three of them had lowered their voices when they started to discuss and were looking at the plate, making it seem as if they were actually talking about the ingredients.

The other two could only sigh. This kind of thing, it was absolutely possible. Nowadays, if a show wanted to get enough viewers, they would do all kinds of odd things to make sure that they would generate enough interest before the start. Cooperating with some kind of businessman who had some knowledge on the topic and then having him lie about that would probably be one of the more harmless ones.

The woman on the left finally shook her head. “No matter what’s the case, it should be true that he isn’t a professional. Even if he has more experience, so what? Let’s just give it a taste and see how it compares to what the others do.”

The men nodded and everyone picked up their pair of chopsticks, taking a bite of the vegetables first.

None of the ingredients were seasoned so the taste wasn’t comparable to actually tasting a dish. But when it came to how well these had been fried, it was easy to tell.

The woman raised her brows, her expression pretty much showing already how she would rate these. “Well, experience or not, it’s pretty much on point.”

The two men couldn’t help but nod. The texture of the ingredients had been well preserved, showing that he hadn’t been frying them for too long. They were also fried evenly, something that had gone wrong with some of the contestants in the previous rounds. They had to say that there really wasn’t anything they could argue about.

They took a bite of a piece of meat that had also been fried and their reaction was once again the same. They didn’t have any critique at all. For a casual contest like this, that was quite odd.

By this time, the other contestants had finished as well. Seeing the expressions of the judges, most of them could already imagine how this would turn out. Thankfully, none of them were as much of a sore loser as the guy from the contest before and they just carried their plates over, letting the judges have a taste and finally proclaim the results.

Not quite unexpectedly, Si Jin managed to win as well this time around. And just as usual, he seemed pretty unenthusiastic about it. The other contestants couldn’t help but look at him strangely.

The person who had been working at the cooking station next to him even tilted his head and couldn’t help but ask. “Say, what’s the matter with you? Shouldn’t you be a bit happier about winning this? I mean, you even got a really nice wok.”

Si Jin stared at the thing in his hands, not sure if it was that good. Si Shi Wu had taught him quite a lot but when it came to the utensils used in cooking, he had only been educated in detail about knives and not so much about everything else. He knew the difference between a wok and different types of pans, what their advantages and disadvantages in several frying methods would be, and the required differences in handling them, but he wasn’t able to say which one was better than another yet. Also, they definitely had good woks at home.

Staring at the wok for a bit, he finally handed it over.

The other guy blinked at him, not quite understanding what was going on. “What are you doing?”

Si Jin thought for a moment longer and then explained his thought process. “I have one at home.” With that, he went back to where he had originally been sitting, waiting for the next round to start.

The guy now holding the wok could only stand there dumbfounded, not quite sure what to do with this sudden windfall. In any case, who didn’t have a wok at home? But if you got a nice one, was there a reason to just give it away? He really didn’t understand this guy. But then again, the jury also hadn’t looked as if they did so maybe that was just to be expected.