In the grand square, citizens of Xiongdu welcomed the industry skills competition.
At the same time, the nobles and noble representatives who were captured and imprisoned in Dawn Castle before they had time to escape when the city was broken were in a miserable state, and everyone was worried.
In fact, even though they have been detained here for several days, they still feel an unspeakable sense of separation every time they think of Laxana.
Because in the eyes of many people, he and Laxana have some friendship, and other nobles have lost their dignity, but he should still be somewhat thin-faced.
However, Laxana showed an astonishing cruelty. No matter what kind of friendship she had, she treated them all equally and took them all into custody. Even if they were just in custody, the living conditions were guaranteed, but in the eyes of the nobles,
This is a bit too ruthless.
The Northern Walkers are responsible for guarding the Castle of Dawn. They can be said to have run out of food and salt. No matter what the nobles say, they have no feedback. They just silently provide food and water twice a day and count the number of people.
Some guys with flexible minds hope to use the things they secretly hide in private places and were not taken away when they were detained in exchange for the Northern Walker soldiers guarding here to be accommodating or to find out some information, but even if they come up with quite a lot
Precious gems, gold and silver, these guards remain silent.
This unbearable silence made the nobles' originally hopeful hearts gradually sink to the bottom.
Fear often comes from the unknown.
For the nobles detained in Dawn Castle, everything about them is unknown.
Facing the silent guards, the once aristocratic nobles could only rely on "Mrs. Bouvier is also here" to comfort themselves and convince themselves that they are not in danger of their lives at the moment.
Then, Lestara was picked up.
On the day Lestara left Dawn Castle, the whole castle was in silence. Although the guards remained silent and said nothing, when they protected Lestara and left, all the nobles along the way fell into deep despair.
Deeply desperate.
In despair, some people couldn't help but look forward to it, hoping that they could be the next person to leave, but unfortunately, no one left for seven days.
The guards remained silent, and there were no problems with the material supply of Dawn Castle. However, the nobles finally lost their composure and could no longer maintain their reserve.
Some people began to try to escape, but Dawn Castle was not only a palace, but was also designed as a backup headquarters. How could it be so easy to escape?
The noble ladies began to act out. They no longer had the restraint and elegance at the banquet. When their calls were not answered, these noble people would curse like ordinary shrews.
Their words were so dirty that the specially selected Northern Walkers couldn't hold back their anger, forcing the squadron leader in charge of the guard to speed up his rotation.
In the gaps between silence and chaos, some people simply tried to commit suicide. The guards were very nervous about this, but unfortunately, most of the people who wanted to die were just pretending.
After all...the truly staunch people had already committed suicide when the Northern Walkers breached the docks in the port area - a deputy commander of the garrison and two bishops of the Illuminati had already killed themselves when they were found.
He has been dead for a long time.
Those who can be brought to Dawn Castle are those who still have some vague expectations in their hearts.
If they were really asked to give up their lives when the outcome was uncertain, they really couldn't do it.
There was deathly silence in Dawn Castle.
But the reason why these nobles were treated like this was not because Lux wanted to torture them intentionally.
Those nobles who tormented themselves to death, were essentially tormenting themselves - if you must say it, Lux had given them preferential treatment.
After all, in other places, after the Northern Walkers broke through the city, the first thing they did was to liquidate the nobles and put them on trial in front of all the civilians.
And Lux chose to adopt a relatively mild approach in Xiongdu, naturally not because she was thinking about incense and love, but because she cared more about the opinions of the citizens of Xiongdu. As mentioned earlier, the structure of Xiongdu is different from other places.
The citizens here also have relatively close ties with the nobility.
Lux detained all these nobles in Dawn Castle. The purpose was to completely isolate the influence of the nobles and take this opportunity to bring a new order to the capital.
Wait until the new order takes shape and then deal with these nobles, then there won't be any more turmoil.
Therefore, when the nobles were standing in the Castle of Dawn, not knowing what the future was like, Lux put all her energy into the industry skills competition.
……………………
Different from the lifelessness of Dawn Castle, various competitions are in full swing in the grand square.
Among all competitions, the most popular is the cooking competition.
In the art competition, whether it is sculpture or painting, everyone can see what it looks like; in the music competition, although there are open-air sessions, many competitions are held indoors, and you have to queue up and draw lots to enter.
There are also enthusiasts who are willing to go there, but more citizens still prefer the "grand square stage" of the open-air competition.
The main events held here are architectural design competitions, tailoring competitions, clothing design competitions, and cooking competitions.
Food, clothing, housing and transportation are basic human needs!
The preliminary round of the architectural design competition involves making models, and the results will not be visible for a while; although the clothes on the tailoring side are very beautiful, they cannot be worn on your own body after all - only in the cooking competition, lucky spectators will be selected to taste the cooking works, and there are also
There are dedicated legal guardians to carry out the amplification and broadcasting.
Moreover, even if you can’t taste it...it’s good to smell it and take the opportunity to learn how to do it!
Therefore, people were coming and going at the cooking competition, and everyone was jostling with each other, which even led to the Northern Walkers detaching a company specifically to maintain order.
However, what makes the citizens somewhat dissatisfied is that these chefs are obviously well-known people in Xiongdu. They all chose their own specialties in the preliminary competition, but in the semi-finals, the dishes they cooked had a strong flavor.
Northern style - cooking methods based on grilling, large fish and meat, and bold use of spices. It is completely different from the usual styles of chefs.
Of course, this is not something that is incomprehensible.
After all, it's a common human problem to like to take shortcuts.
In this unprecedented competition, although Lux has planned the scope of the competition as clearly as possible, there are still people trying to take advantage of the situation.
In tailoring competitions and costume design competitions, the frequency of northern elements appearing is quite alarming. The contestants seem to want to express their attitudes to Lux and New Demacia in this way.
The cooking competition has an obvious northern style, which is very normal!
Although the referee repeatedly emphasized that "there are no extra points for cooking style" and that the competition must be realistic and the focus of the examination is skills, almost all capable people chose themes and methods that catered to the North.
Among these chefs, Kui Shen seems a bit out of place - both in appearance and cooking techniques.
At the other chefs' positions, either a fruit wood charcoal fire was set up, or a stew stove or a hanging stove was set up. All kinds of meats were pickled or freshly cut, or filled with spices, or wrapped and stuffed. The rich flavor of spices was mixed with the aroma of meat.
Together, with the apprentices working behind the chefs, it looked like they were in full swing.
However, Kui Shen did not light up the charcoal fire here. He calmly put the officially provided tube stove in place, greeted his wife and started cooking.
Different from the preliminaries where the ingredients were stipulated and the contestants chose their own specialty dishes, the semi-finals not only stipulated the ingredients, but also provided a cooking theme: fullness.
To be honest, this subject is not very friendly to Kui Shen - after all, the Ionian-style cooking he is good at has never paid much attention to satisfaction.
"Don't we really need to set up a grill?" Kui Shen's wife helped her husband lift the chopping board and asked in a low voice, "Isn't your fruity barbecue quite delicious?"
"The materials are limited, and fruity barbecue has nothing to do with satiety." Kui Shen shook his head slightly, stretched his hands behind his back, and tightened his apron, "Since we want to feel full, we have to cook!
"
"But look at them, they are all roasting!" My wife whispered, "Do they know something..."
"No." Kui Shen shook his head and took a piece of beef tenderloin from his wife, "Didn't I tell you before that there are no extra points for themes in the competition."
"You mean, what the noble said is true." The wife couldn't help but shake her head, "You don't even think of finding Miss Sona. It's a good thing that you are still fellow villagers!"
"...This is not the same thing." Kui Shen twitched the corner of his mouth twice, "Okay, dear, prepare to wash the rice and cook it first. They all make barbecue, with pancakes or bread, we will definitely be a blockbuster!
"
"Yes, we have already entered the semi-finals." The wife's movements did not lag at all. "We are just a small shop. Even if we cannot enter the finals, it is still worth it."
Kui Shen didn't say anything, but pursed his lips and picked up the kitchen knife.
Unlike the slender kitchen knives used by Demacians, Kui Shen's knife is square and thick, a typical Ionian style - he is an Ionian originally, and he and Sona, because of Ionia,
War orphans who were sent to Demacia due to the Asian War.
After Kui Shen was sent to Xiongdu, because he was relatively old, no noble family was willing to adopt him. In the end, he was adopted by an orphaned couple who ran a restaurant.
Coincidentally, Kui Shen was a chef apprentice when he was in Ionia, so after coming to Xiongdu, he naturally embarked on the path of cuisine fusion.
After his adoptive parents got older, Kui Shen inherited the family's small restaurant. Because of his solid basic skills, down-to-earth person, good craftsmanship, and the courage to innovate and integrate, his small restaurant business has been doing well, so an Ionian
In this way, he settled in the capital of Demacia, got married and had children.
Like a drop of water flowing into the ocean.
Although the taste of the small shop is good, it is always regarded as unfashionable because it is not elegant enough.
It's interesting to say that they are both war orphans who left their homes, but because of their different adoptive families, they all embarked on completely different paths, as if they were reincarnated again.
After learning about the cooking skills competition, Kui Shen thought about it for a long time and finally decided to sign up with the attitude of giving it a try.
When he signed up, the clerk asked him the address of his shop in detail. That afternoon, some young students came to the shop and asked about the neighbors. After discussing with each other for a while, he passed the application smoothly.
Kui Shen’s registration request.
In this way, Kui Shen stood on the stage of the cooking competition and started to cook his own style of dishes according to the questions.
In the preliminary round, Kui Shen performed well.
His red-roasted pork knuckle received quite good reviews, and his braised pork knuckle was also recognized by most judges.
What surprised Kui Shen a little was that his favorite oat milk porridge seemed not to be popular - although the score was okay, judging from the looks of the referees, they didn't seem to like it...
However, even with a slight setback, Kui Shen successfully passed the preliminary round.
After the semi-finals list was announced, Kui Shen's shop quickly received a large number of new customers.
But it is a pity that Kuishan has to prepare for the rematch and is not open for business for the time being.
After hearing the news, these people seemed quite disappointed, but despite their disappointment, some people still said that they would come to see it after the rematch is over.
This made Kui Shen, who originally just wanted to "measure his level", couldn't help but have greater ambitions.
Maybe... I can try to go further?
With this thought in mind, Kui Shen almost lost sleep the night before the rematch.
But when he came to the field today, he was surprisingly calm.
After steadily cutting the beef tenderloin into small slices, he glanced at the row of small rice pots that were starting to suffocate, and finally picked up the oil drum.
You don’t have to eat barbecue to be full!
No matter how many spices are used, eating too much meat will definitely make you tired. Only by combining meat and vegetables, staple food and non-staple food can you truly feel full!
After lubricating the pot, Kui Shen poured the vegetable oil back into the pot. While observing the changes in the oil in the pot, he grabbed the beef tenderloin covered in the bowl of juice with his hands - as soon as the oil became hotter, the beef would slide into the pot.
After stir-frying for a while, the scallion leaves are put into the pot into segments, followed by thinly sliced pods.
When the aroma that came with the rice dumplings turned into a burnt aroma, the fragrant red sage cut into thin strips was also put into the pot.
Then there are salted fish flowers.
The iron pot is churning, and the fragrant red sage is slightly darker in color.
"Prepare!"
"Coming!"
Beside Kui Shen, his wife had already opened the lids of the two rice pots for cooking.
The next moment, Kui Shen picked up the iron spoon, poured two full spoonfuls of meat, along with the oil and water in the pot, onto the half-full small rice pot, and then closed the lid.
Then the third pot, the fourth pot...
A quarter of an hour later, when most of the other chefs were just starting to officially bake, Kui Shen and his wife had already arrived at the referee's seat carrying a large dinner plate.
"So soon?" Seeing Kui Shen, the referee sitting in the middle raised his eyebrows in surprise, "Are you in a hurry?"
"When you are full, the sooner you are full, the better."