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Irrationally glared at by Yan Ruchun, Lin Yuan burst into laughter. Was Yan Ruchun glaring at her? It hardly held any intimidation and was even a bit flirtatious. She wasn’t a man, so she certainly wouldn’t be seduced!

Seeing Lin Yuan suddenly break into laughter, Yan Ruchun also found herself amused. This Lin Yuan was truly unique!

Maybe it was this uniqueness that made her look at her differently, not treating her as a competitor in today’s contest, but rather like long-lost sisters.

Serious again, Lin Yuan focused on cooking.

After cleaning the potatoes and carrots, Lin Yuan chose a suitable knife and sliced these vegetables into fine strips.

The carrot strips and potato strips were cut into long, thin pieces, almost the size of the wings since they were to be stuffed into them.

While cutting the potato strips, Lin Yuan suddenly remembered Cheng Haoxuan playfully measuring the potatoes with a ruler, which brought a smile to her lips.

After the potato strips and carrot strips were ready, Gao Xuan had already boiled a pot of water.

Lin Yuan used two strainers to separately blanch the potato strips and carrot strips in the boiling water. Although blanching wasn’t necessary, it helped preserve their vibrant colors and, because it was quick, did not compromise their taste.

After blanching, the vegetables were chilled with ice water, getting them ready for the next step of assembly.

Speaking of assembling, it really meant just neatly arranging the potato and carrot strips before stuffing them into the wings.

If one wanted to enjoy the crunch of the vegetables along with the tenderness of the wings in a single bite, the amount of vegetables was crucial; neither too much nor too little, as too much meat would make it greasy, and too many veggies would make it taste bland.

Thus, while performing this step, Lin Yuan was almost counting each strip as she assembled them.

The onlookers saw her bending over the table, carefully working on something, yet they couldn’t see exactly what she was doing, which made them both curious and anxious.

From the River View Tower, the plain girl eyed the green vegetables below her, drooling. Dayong was much richer than Xiliang, but even here, vegetables weren’t readily available in winter, let alone in Xiliang.

This time, secretly joining the Marriage Alliance Team to Dayong, she was keen on experiencing the local customs. Of course, she was even more eager to taste the legendary delights of Drunken Immortal Tower and Dong Tian!

"Tsk tsk, the dish Princess Pingxi is making must be delicious! It’s really tempting! Hey hey, Ah Sheng, can we go have a good meal at Dong Tian sometime? I wonder if Princess Pingxi can cook a meal for me personally? Tsk tsk, I really want to taste her cooking!"

The indifferent man with a poker face quietly sipped his tea, delivering an expressionless remark: "No matter how she does it, as long as it tastes better than yours."

Cough cough, cough cough!

Leaning on the window sill full of anticipation, the plain girl couldn’t help but cough violently. This jerk, couldn’t he say something nice? Why did he have to expose her faults like that!

Seeing the plain girl so furious that even her mole trembled, He Liansheng slightly curled his lips and silently added in his heart: "Even if it tastes bad, I’d want to eat it for a lifetime."

Having finally stuffed the wings with the proper amount of vegetables, Lin Yuan finally straightened up and stretched her back.

She had been bending over to arrange the chicken wings, which made her back stiff, it was both sore and tiring.

Looking at the neatly arranged wings on the plate, the red and white contrast was beautiful.

"Start cooking!"

Upon the command, Sun Qiangao shouted, "Okay!" and swiftly placed the pre-prepared frying pan onto a small stove.

The moment the frying pan appeared, a particular ugly girl suddenly let out a shout, almost falling off the window sill.

Lin Yuan, sensing something, glanced up but didn’t see anyone from the River View Tower about to fall, and proceeded to pour some oil into the frying pan to prepare for frying chicken wings.

While waiting for the oil to heat up, Lin Yuan took the opportunity to mix a sauce—sugar, salt, soy sauce, a dash of wine, and some water, along with a bit of potato starch.

After the sauce was ready and the oil hot, Lin Yuan used long chopsticks to place each chicken wing in the pan for frying.

To maintain the shape of the chicken wings, she didn’t flip them soon after putting them in, or else the vegetables stuffed inside might break or fall out.

Once both sides turned golden-brown, she would take each chicken wing out.

Just like previously frying beef, she had to be patient and fry one batch at a time, avoiding the urge to pile all the chicken wings together which would result in uneven frying.

As she fried the chicken wings, the aroma wafting from the frying pan quickly overpowered the scent of the cabbage rolls from Drunken Immortal Tower—after all, fried meat always smells more appetizing than boiled.

Both Lao Fan and Zhuang Kangping, engrossed in a conversation, were drawn by the fragrance, their eyes fixated on Lin Yuan’s chopsticks, following every motion and unable to look away.

Above in the River View Tower, the ugly girl who almost fell now pushed away He Liansheng, who had just saved her, rushed to the window, and leaned on the window sill again, her eyes sparkling as if wanting to devour those chicken wings.

He Liansheng, familiar with her for so long, had never seen her like this; his eyes flickering with an inexplicable dark gleam, focusing his gaze on someone outside the window.

After frying all the chicken wings, Lin Yuan checked the time. With some time left before the end, she decided to leave the final step for later.

The first dish was already stewing in the pot, and only the final step of pouring the sauce over the second dish remained. Now, Lin Yuan started working on the third dish.

As time ticked by, the end of the competition drew near, and the atmosphere grew more intense.

Unconsciously, the competitors on both sides began to subtly compete more fiercely—if one finished the first dish quickly, then the other would hasten the second. If one completed the second dish first, the other aimed to be first in the third.

However, overall, it seemed that Master Niu’s side was a bit quicker. But since Lin Yuan had already put the chicken in the pot to cook, it was hard to say definitively who was faster.

For her third dish, Lin Yuan was making chicken, while Master Niu had also started preparing his dish early.

While his cabbage rolls were steaming in the pot, Master Niu suddenly smiled smugly and took a basin out of a large food container.

He handled the basin carefully, presumably containing something very important.

Curious, Lin Yuan paused her work and leaned over to take a look.

That casual glance truly shocked her!