Xiao Ming smiled when Qian Huang read out the comment. He honestly wasn’t surprised that people would mostly talk about Tao Jin. After all, this was based on her performance just yesterday and the difference between her and Li Shui was just so stark that it was obvious to everyone no matter their own skill level. They didn’t need to point out.

He didn’t know what exactly Qian Huang had planned so he just let him continue reading a few more comments before he finally pulled over the ingredients he had prepared before and started to make the hot and sour soup and the Sepen sauce at the side.

Neither of the two was difficult to make or took much time so he finished soon. When he did, he couldn’t help but glance at Li Shui. By now, it should be time to take the quenelles out of the oven. Other than that, there was also the question of how to plate this. Since they had talked about that in the mini-episode, it was something that he should demonstrate, right?

While Qian Huang continued further with reading the comments, Xiao Ming got up to get out a couple of plates and bowls in different shapes and colors. When he had given Tao Jin’s stand-in feedback on stage, he had wished that there was a way to demonstrate what he meant.

Even though the people that came to the casting and were led up on stage to be judged by him and Mister Yu were usually seasoned cooks, he felt like it just wasn’t quite the same to just talk about it instead of showing what you meant. Now, even though this wasn’t on the show anymore, he finally had the opportunity to demonstrate. He was happy that Qian Huang had had this idea of having Li Shui make quenelles as well and for him to add a side dish.

Xiao Ming put the plates down in a row and then gave Li Shui another glance. The quenelles were the main part of this dish so he needed to wait for them to be finished before he could arrange everything.

Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like Li Shui intended to take them out anytime soon. He was still listening to Qian Huang as if he was more interested in what people had to say about the cooking skills of goddess Tao.

Xiao Ming glanced at the counter and pressed his lips together when he realized that half an hour had already passed. While he had expected as much, he still wasn’t sure if he should say something.

Anyway, he wasn’t sure if the quenelles would taste well after how much Li Shui had struggled but getting them out looking like charcoal would be worse. Then again, he wasn’t supposed to help out. Li Shui was supposed to do all of this on his own. So if he didn’t remember that they needed to be taken out, then he also shouldn’t be reminded. After all, he couldn’t do that with the contestants on the show either, could he?

Xiao Ming felt himself to be in a dilemma, the struggle clearly showing on his face. And of course, the viewers who watched everything from the vantage point of their own homes naturally picked up on that.

Little Butterfly: [Uh-oh, looks like our Li Shui forgot about something quite important.”]

Cuddly Lion: [Yes, just look at Xiao Ming’s face! He clearly wants to tell him but he doesn’t dare to. Do you think Qian Huang would get angry if he tells him?]

Little Butterfly: [If we write it in a comment, he has to read it out loud, right?]

By now, Qian Huang had finished with the list of comments he had prepared beforehand and was already looking through the newer comments to keep talking, throwing in one or two whenever they were direct reactions to what either of them was doing. Seeing this, he also glanced at Li Shui but pretended that he hadn’t noticed. Anyway, with this kind of stream, if something went wrong, that wouldn’t be too bad. In fact, since it would make Tao Jin look even better in comparison, it was a good thing.

There were some other viewers that picked up on the fact as well and couldn’t help but try some variations to get Qian Huang to finally give a reminder for Li Shui.

Trees with Arms: [If you compare Li Shui and goddess Tao, even if you don’t look at the actual cooking skills, at least our goddess is able to remember the time.]

Night Owl: [Yes, she would never forget the timer she set herself!]

Rhyming Flowers: [Goddess Tao probably has the better nose as well. I bet there’s already some smell coming out of the oven. That has to be why Xiao Ming is looking like that.]

Little Furry Creature: [Oh my god, Qian Huang, just tell Li Shui that the time is up! Do you want him to start a fire?!]

At that, Qian Huang couldn’t help but chuckle.

Li Shui looked over, raising his brows. “What did they write now?”

Qian Huang leaned back and pondered if maybe we should take this a step further and just really pretend he hadn’t seen anything. But then, he couldn’t help but glance at the plates that Xiao Ming had already taken out, as well as the little bowls he had prepared, and couldn’t help but feel bad. Not for Li Shui, of course, but for the effort that Xiao Ming had put in. He still needed presentable quenelles to be able to make the rest of the live stream work. So, he shouldn’t overdo it.

He sighed, feeling that it was a pity that Xiao Ming was relying on Li Shui’s work in this case. It was really running all the fun. Putting the phone down, he gave Li Shui a long look. “They’re saying you should take a look at the countdown.”

Li Shui looked at him blankly for a moment before he turned to the clock, and then his eyes widened and he leaped off the chair, almost throwing it down in the process.

Xiao Ming thankfully caught it just in time, while Li Shui rushed to the oven, opened it, and then waved his hand in the air, trying to dissipate the heat.

Even without having taken them out completely, it was obvious that the edges of the quenelles had gotten charred.

Cat Dancing on a Wire: [Qian Huang is so petty. You can clearly see that he didn’t tell him for Li Shui’s sake but just for Xiao Ming. Did you notice how he was looking at the plates before?]

There were some agreements from other viewers, making Qian Huang who had already picked up his phone again purse his lips.

“I’m not petty. Right now, our Ah Shui is pretending to be a contestant. Do you really think one of the other contestants on the show would warn others if their dish was burning to a crisp? That’s one more chance for them to advance by getting rid of a competitor! So, I’m just trying to make this realistic.”

Cat Dancing on a Wire: [Realistic, my ass! You were clearly just having fun.]

Qian Huang pursed his lips, not bothering to answer that, and instead turned to look at Xiao Ming. “Well, can you still do something with those?”

Xiao Ming looked at the burned quenelles with some horror but still nodded. “Yes … Anyway, it’s just for the looks.”

Back in the comment section, the viewers couldn’t help but laugh. Yes, when it came to Li Shui’s cooking, of course, it was just for the looks! Neither of those three guys from Bright Yellow Water had probably expected this to be anything edible. Well, they couldn’t fault them after just watching for over an hour how much trouble Li Shui had.

Seeing this, and then remembering the mess that Qian Huang had made the other day, they couldn’t help but feel that it was really no wonder that Xiao Ming was cooking all the time. Clearly, if he left things to the two of them, it would just turn out to be a disaster.

Li Shui finally brought the tray with the quenelles over to the counter while Xiao Ming hastily turned off the oven that he had left on.

Then, all three of them went to inspect the dish.

Qian Huang raised his brows and then looked up at Xiao Ming. “You know, in this case, even I could do your job: This is shit. It’s not going to taste good and it even looks like you messed up. It’s obvious at a glance. I’m afraid we won’t be able to let you into the next episode.”

Li Shui looked up, furrowing his brows, but he really didn’t know what to say. Anyway, if he objectively looked at the results of his cooking, then he also had to admit that this would not work out.

Realizing that he had toiled around in the kitchen for so long just to get something that they couldn’t even eat, he turned to Xiao Ming. “Are you really just going to make that one soup and sauce?”

Xiao Ming looked up and couldn’t help but smile when he saw Li Shui’s expression. He reached up, and rubbed his neck, giving him a smile. “I only made the soup and the sauce for now to show what I meant with the feedback I gave. I’ll make something tasty for you when the camera is off.”

Li Shui’s expression immediately got better and he nodded, motioning at the tray with both hands. “Well, I made them, they’re clearly not as good as goddess Tao’s, but who expected anything else? Anyway, they’re all yours now. I don’t think you want me to plate these, do you?”

Xiao Ming shook his head and pointed over to the chairs. “You can sit back down. I’ll use these.”

Li Shui nodded happily and then went to sit down, not bothering about the quenelles any longer and instead eyeing the pot with hot and sour soup. Ah, he was really looking forward to good food. In fact, he didn’t even necessarily want to take a bite of his own quenelles. No, but a spoonful of Xiao Ming soup sounded like a good idea right about now. He had been working so hard for so long, it had really made him hungry.

Meanwhile, Xiao Ming motioned at the plate that he had prepared. “I mentioned on the show that there are a few different ways to arrange the quenelles that I could think of. Depending on what other side dishes and sauces you make, there will be different possibilities that open up. For now, I just want to make three plates since we are three people anyway, and demonstrate three variations that I thought of.

“The first one would be the one that I mentioned to goddess Tao where you would use a small bowl for the side dish and then arrange the quenelles in regard to that.” Saying so, he picked up a small black bowl, filling some of the hot and sour soup inside, and putting it on one side of the plate.

Then, he picked up one of Li Shui’s quenelles, giving it a scrutinizing look before he held it up. “Now, you could lean these against the bowl for example.” He demonstrated what he meant before he picked up another one and put it next to it. “There is also the option to form a shape if you use a few more.”

Once again, he put a few of the quenelles down, demonstrating what he meant.

“If you only have one side dish and the quenelles, then this would already be finished now. You can also add a bit of the sauce if you feel like you would like it a bit spicier.

“If you’ve seen our episode on how to plate dishes, then you will know that there are several different ways to go about this. In this case, I would choose the way I distribute the sauce depending on the shape I just made with the quenelles.” With that, he added a few lines of sauce around the shape he had just made and then added a little more around the one quenelles that was leaned against the bowl.

“Alright, this would already be the first plate. Of course, you can choose any other kind of shape for the quenelles as well, and could also choose another way of distributing the sauce. This is merely one way to go about this. Others will work just as well or might even be better depending on what you want to achieve.”

He grabbed the plate and pushed it over to Li Shui, giving him a smile. “Well, this one’s finished. You’ve been working hard on this, so you should go first.”

“You’re the best!” Li Shui took the plate from him but couldn’t help but give the bowl with the hot and sour soup a long look before he turned to look at the other bowls that Xiao Ming had standing to the side. Realizing that all of them were as small as this one, he finally nodded and picked up his spoon, digging right in.

Qian Huang raised his brows and motioned to the quenelles next to the bowl. “Don’t forget about your own dish!”

Li Shui didn’t even glance at him and just continued to eat as if he really had been starving.

Xiao Ming looked from one person to the other and smiled before he motioned at plate number two. “Well, let’s try another variation. This time, let’s take a square plate with some sharp edges, and start off with the sauce instead of the quenelles.”

He slathered some of it onto the middle of the plate, making an accurate circle that was completely filled out with sauce. “Now, I will still use both the quenelles and the bowl with the hot and sour soup for this one.

“As for the bowls, there are also different shapes that we could use. If you want to use another round one, then I think that having the shapes overlap would be quite interesting. Thus, we could take this one and put it right on top of a part of the circle.” He filled one of the small bowls while he explained, and then placed it on top of the circle of soup, making an endless sign shape.

“With that, the quenelles would be arranged either as shape outside of this or you could also try to connect them. In this case, I think that if we angle the bowl to one of the edges, then it would make for a nice overall presentation to use the quenelles to work in the other direction. I think that it wouldn’t do so good to put them right into the sauce so I will arrange them right at the edge so that they will barely touch but still look as if they do.”

With that, he picked up three of the quenelles, arranging them together so they formed a little triangle with the edges overlapping. He gave the viewers a moment to take a look at the finished plate before he handed it over to Qian Huang.

“Now, with that, we have yet another finished plate. This one also could’ve been done with a round plate like the first but I do like the contrast between the round bowl and the circle of soup and the edges in the quenelles and the plate. But of course, you could also arrange it in a different way to make sense.”

He picked up the last plate, put it down in front of himself, and took a moment to look at it. “Well, so far, we have started off with plating the side dish or the sauce but never with our main attraction. So for this one, I would like to do that.

“This plate is round so I think that it would nicely center the viewer’s attention if we place the quenelles in the literal center of the plate.” He picked up another three of the quenelles, this time arranging them with one lying at the bottom and the other two angled on top. “I think that how you arrange the quenelles depends on not only how many you have and how they are shaped, but also on what kind of position they are supposed to take on the plate. In this case, since they are the center, I want them to look a little more compact. That way, they will draw the eye more.

“Now, the sauce goes with the quenelles and not the soup so I think that for this, we can add it right on top. They look a bit plain anyway, and with the slightly charred edges, they really aren’t that pleasing to look at.” He glanced at Li Shui while he said so, giving an apologetic smile. If this was on the show, maybe he would’ve said this a little nicer but he figured that with Li Shui, he could be honest and direct. Still, he didn’t hurt him.

Li Shui looked up but didn’t seem bothered at all. “They are ugly. You can say it.”

Xiao Ming chuckled and nodded, turning back to the plate. “They are ugly. In this case, there isn’t much that can be done about it either. If it was just some small spots that weren’t as obvious, you could actually use the sauce to hide some imperfections.

“For these … I’m afraid it’s a little too late. But adding some on top can still look quite nice. Just make sure that you don’t use too much. In this case, the sauce is more for garnish than anything else when you put it on the plate. If the person the plate is for still wants more, then they can add some later on themselves after you’ve presented the plate.

“Anyway, let’s give this a try!” He picked up his spoon and added some fine lines that crisscrossed over the small pile of quenelles. Then, he filled another bowl with the hot and sour soup and placed it further to the side of the plate.

“Now, with the quenelles being the main part and the soup being a side dish, I think that it can work nicely to put it to the literal side. For this, I would imagine that the person sitting in front of the plate will first look at what is the most eye-catching — which, in this case, should be the quenelles with the bright red sauce — and then the rest would be the little something extra that they can pay attention to afterward. To aid with that movement of the eye, I am using a white bowl instead of the black ones from before. Thanks to this, it will fade a bit more into the overall composition and doesn’t draw the eye as much at first glance.”

Qian Huang looked over and then glanced at the camera before looking back. “So it’s going into hiding. You should probably turn it around for the viewers once though.”

Xiao Ming hastily nodded and then turned the plate around, hoping that it would show alright in the stream. The problem right now was really that nobody was behind the camera but he didn’t have the heart to tell Li Shui to go and make sure it displayed nicely.

The viewers who knew the three of them were able to pick up on what was going on. The way that Xiao Ming looked at Li Shui all apologetic had shown what he was thinking about this. Thus, there was a row of comments telling him that it was alright.

Anyway, most of them wouldn’t be able to re-create this either way and were just there to look at some tasty food in three handsome men, while the others could imagine well enough from what he was explaining and what they could see in the video. Even though they would have liked a close-up, this was good enough for today.

Finally, Xiao Ming turned the plate back and sat down again, giving a sigh of relief. “Well, with that, we’ve finished our three variations of plating the quenelles with the sauce and side dish and could start eating. I haven’t tried the quenelles yet and I’m not sure if it would be a good idea to do so to give our Ah Shui a rating.”

Li Shui reached past him and pulled the pot with the hot and sour soup closer, shaking his head. “You can give me two ratings if you want to as long as I get some more of this.”

Xiao Ming laughed and pushed the pot a little closer to Li Shui so he could more easily ladle it out. Then, he gingerly picked up one of the quenelles and took a small bite as if he was afraid of what he might taste. Well, seeing how Li Shui had done so far, maybe some caution was indeed better.