The two of them didn’t dare to talk too much considering that the grace period was only five minutes and they would have to say something on camera again as soon as that part of the countdown was up. Not to mention that a discussion about the matter from before definitely wasn’t something they wanted to be caught on camera accidentally. You never knew what the production team would make out of that after all. Instead, the two of them turned to watch what the contestants were doing.

Five minutes weren’t long. With having to read the instructions, looking over the ingredients that they had been given, then maybe needing to run to get an ingredient exchanged, plus getting the spices and sauces they would need for the dishes they had chosen to make, they were soon up.

E Cheng Jun who had stepped to the side before made her way back to the judges’ table in time, giving the camera and the contestants another bright smile. “The five-minute grace period is over so now, you have two hours to make the dish or dishes that you have chosen. Good luck to everyone!”

The contestants naturally didn’t need to be told twice. They had already arranged everything as far as they could and now started to immerse themselves in the joy of cooking.

Si Jin was a beat slower than the others this time around. He hadn’t been cooking for long and even though he had gotten dedicated training, a lot of things were still new to him.

He went through all the recipes he knew in his mind, wondering what to do. When it came to the ingredients they had been given, they could be said to be pretty regular. Other than the meat, there were onions and garlic, bell pepper and carrots, and cabbage as the leafy green Xiao Ming had mentioned. It might not be much, but these were common ingredients in many dishes so the range he could pick from was huge.

He could casually choose one and be done with it. In fact, even a stir-fry combining a bit of all these ingredients plus noodles or rice should be enough to pass the task. But then, his goal for the show was to win first place and also win Xiao Ming’s heart in the process. Could he go about this with such a lackadaisical attitude? Surely not.

No, especially since this was a task that Xiao Ming had issued and his first one no less, Si Jin’s expectations of himself were high. He wanted to dazzle the judges with his result, especially Xiao Ming. Just one dish seemed to be the wrong choice if that was his goal. No, instead, stretching the ingredients to the point where he was able to present several dishes would be best.

This also meant that he had to choose very carefully what to do to make sure there was enough of everything. But then, nobody said that he needed to make a lot of every dish, right? He could probably make just one portion and it would be enough. That would leave enough room to use one ingredient for several dishes.

Si Jin had already arranged the ingredients on his cooking station. Now that he had made up his mind, he looked at them to judge the quantity he had and how much would be necessary for each of the dishes that were slowly taking shape in his mind. Throughout this process, his expression stayed the same as usual.

Over at the judges’ table, Chu Yu An leaned closer to Xiao Ming. “That Nin Sha of yours hasn’t started yet. What do you think is going on? I’d say he’s a bit lost but then, his expression is still the same as usual.”

Xiao Ming wasn’t sure if they should discuss Si Jin of all people after Fan Mei had just tried to make a scandal out of his relationship with him but it would be impolite to ignore what Chu Yu An was saying. Especially since she had helped him out more than once today. “To be honest, when it comes to Mister Si, I’ve never seen him have another expression. So I wouldn’t try to judge things based on that.”

Chu Yu An gave a hum and faintly raised her brows, having to admit that this was true as well. Yes, even just thinking back to the past few hours, she could also see that Si Jin wasn’t the most expressive person.

She didn’t say anything more about him, also feeling that it wouldn’t be good to focus too much on him after what had happened. Instead, she looked at the other contestants, watching for a moment. “When it comes to the rest, it seems they’ve all decided rather quickly. Well, I guess they have a lot of freedom to decide what to make so it won’t be too difficult to come up with something.”

Xiao Ming nodded at that, already wanting to answer, but at that time, E Cheng Jun came over to the three of them.

The camera naturally followed her, clearly wanting to do another one of those small interviews like they had done before with Mister Yu.

“Judge Xiao!” E Cheng Jun showed the same bright smile as usual while she got himself in position. “The contestants are already busy attempting your task. In the meantime, what would you say is the most difficult part about it?”

Xiao Ming didn’t need to think much. He had thought for a long time to come up with seven different tasks that were all interesting, while also challenging and progressing in that area as the show went on, so he was very clear on what the pros and cons of the tasks were.

“Well, for this one, I think that it might be difficult for some contestants to be limited in terms of ingredients. While they do have options like exchanging the meat for another ingredient, the others are still fixed. So they need to find one or several dishes that use these ingredients. Not just that, the tricky part is finding something that both uses each of the ingredients and only these.”

E Cheng Jun nodded in response. “That does sound a bit difficult. Then, do the contestants have the same ingredients?”

Xiao Ming gave a hum. “Yes, we decided to do it this way because we figured that it would only be fair to the contestants if everybody has the same chances. So they all start off with the same kinds of ingredients and the same amount. They also have the same options to exchange the meat. Thus, nobody has an advantage over others.”

While the contestants might be busy preparing their dishes, they were still able to hear what was going on at the judges’ table since the studio was silent otherwise. A couple of them couldn’t help but look up and then glance in the direction of Fan Mei.

Just listen to what Judge Xiao was currently saying! Even for a task like this, he had pondered how to make it fair to all of them. Was this the type of person you could accuse of accepting bribes and helping a contestant cheat? Please, how was anyone supposed to cheat on this task?

Anyway, there were cameras all around so nobody could sneakily give that Mister Si different ingredients than the rest of them. At the very latest when he went up to present his dish, everybody would realize that there was something wrong with his ingredients. Surely, Judge Xiao wouldn’t be that stupid.

A few of them couldn’t help but feel cold as well. Just think about it: without having done anything, there was suddenly such a rumor. If not for the fact that the task had been prepared in this way, if not for the fact that Ms. Chu and Mister Yu had spoken up for him and that the other contestant’s side had been prepared so well, wouldn’t Judge Xiao be without a way to defend himself?

Really, just thinking of the possible outcome, they felt their foreheads to be coated with cold sweat. This Fan Mei, it was better to stay further away from her! She really wasn’t good news. Who knew if the next time, they wouldn’t be the one to be embroiled in some kind of made-up scandal if they got too close?

The contestants weren’t the only ones who thought of this matter with Fan Mei. Chu Yu An and Mister Yu looked at Xiao Ming, the latter bit worried while the former couldn’t help but wonder if he had just done that deliberately. But then, thinking of how Xiao Ming seemed to be a bit of a soft persimmon, she dropped the thought again. No, he wasn’t the type to make a passive-aggressive statement just to get back at Fan Mei. This was probably what he had intended to say from the very beginning.

E Cheng Jun also had her thoughts about the matter but she didn’t miss a beat in continuing the conversation. “Oh, I see that a lot of thought is going into the preparation of these tasks. It was the same with Judge Yu’s task before as well and now, it is still the same for Judge Xiao’s task. On that note, this is making me curious: What was your inspiration for this task?”

Xiao Ming smiled, his gaze turning a bit softer. He had thought about the topics for his tasks a lot. “Well, I think in a sense, I went about coming up with the tasks in a similar manner as Judge Yu. I wanted the tasks to address points that I think are important when it comes to cooking or how we see food and eating.

“Now, when I think about food, I can’t help but think that every part of it depends on the people involved. Everyone has an individual taste even though there is a large overlap in regions, resulting in regional or even national foods. At the same time, cooking is the same: When it comes to what somebody cooks, their personal taste or that of their guests is usually taken into consideration.

“But when thinking further, I feel that we might choose dishes based on other ideas. For example, I was thinking of how people cook at home. There could be a situation where only a few ingredients would be leftover from the day before or maybe you were gifted some by a good friend and wanted to make the most use of it while they are still fresh.

“If you are in such a situation, you will plan carefully what to use these ingredients for. Maybe there isn’t time to get more before a guest arrives and you will have to make do with the staples at home and those fresh ingredients. That is the situation I imagined and wanted to put our contestants into.”

E Cheng Jun nodded. “That indeed sounds like a common situation that might occur. Then how about it? Shall we see how our contestants are faring with this task?” This time, she wasn’t asking Xiao Ming. Instead, she had already turned back to the camera with a smile.

Xiao Ming gave a faint smile and then just watched her walk toward the rows of contestants, picking out one to ask a couple of questions. To be honest, he didn’t necessarily want to have to say more. Although, he was afraid he wouldn’t get around it. Thinking back to Mister Yu’s task from before, she had asked him more after all. She probably just wanted to make things more interesting so she was interspersing her chat with the judges with short interviews of the contestants to show the progress. So yes, she would probably come back over when she had finished getting enough material from the contestants.