Reborn in Japan as a Chef God

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The Japanese youth from Shibuya Style was chatting on Twitter with his friends, venting his frustrations to a few songsters on the niconico website.

He was Shuigu Jun, a top student at Tokyo University. His girlfriend was Ren Xue, from China, and she was also a top student at Tokyo University. In fact, they had been dating even before entering university. By now, it was their fourth year together.

Shuigu Jun's diligent video posts on niconico couldn't have happened without his girlfriend's support. He was a singer, and she was a dancer. They motivated each other and improved together, finding common ground on many topics.

To outsiders, they seemed like the perfect couple.

But Shuigu Jun knew that maintaining a long-distance relationship required more than just emotional bonds.

For instance, they always disagreed when it came to cooking.

Ren Xue had studied in Japan since high school and was obsessed with her hometown's cuisine. In contrast, Shuigu Jun had a terrible experience with Chinese cuisine in middle school, which left him with a poor impression. Being Japanese himself, he often disapproved of his girlfriend's enthusiasm for Chinese cuisine in their daily life and staunchly supported Japanese cuisine instead.

Neither could convince the other, turning it into a cultural standoff.

Huff, huff.

Unable to resist, Mu Xiaoyue, who was playing on her phone, suddenly looked up, sniffing delicately the smell of vegetables seeping from the closed kitchen. Her stomach growled with hunger.

"So hungry…"

Mu Xiaoyue couldn't continue playing on her phone, her delicate face scrunched up in frustration.

The clay pot dish was vegetarian, its aroma trapped in the casserole dish and further enclosed by the kitchen. The other patrons didn't seem to notice the smell.

However, when Xia Yu started cooking two meat dishes, the pungent aroma of beef mixed with chili, along with the rich scent of pork and fish, wafted into the shop like a gas bomb.

"What's with this smell!"

In a chat group, as a bunch of singers were consoling Shuigu Jun, he began to feel calmer. Just then, the rich aroma of the cooking drifted into his nostrils.

Growl.

His stomach protested, and his gastric juices secreted.

Just the smell alone made Shuigu Jun feel uneasy!

He wanted to eat! Really wanted to eat! Very much wanted to eat!

Shuigu Jun put away his phone and glanced at his girlfriend Ren Xue, seeing her immersed with closed eyes and a blissful expression. He couldn't help but think, "…how does just the smell alone ignite such an appetite?"

On the other side, An Ya handed a tissue to her friend, shaking her shoulders as if holding back laughter.

"You pig, wipe your drool!" she chuckled in a low voice.

But Mu Xiaoyue seemed lost in the aromatic fantasy, oblivious to her friend's voice.

An Ya had to take the tissue herself and wipe the corner of Mu Xiaoyue's mouth. It was no exaggeration. The strong aroma was a potent stimulus for the salivary glands. Mu Xiaoyue was a foodie, and An Ya had to clean her drool more than once or twice before.

Bang!

At this moment, the sealed kitchen door opened, and Xia Yu, wearing a white chef's hat and apron, carried a freshly stir-fried dish of Chinese cuisine in each hand and placed them on the counter.

"You carry it yourselves."

Leaving that line behind, Xia Yu returned to the kitchen, wrapped a cloth around the sizzling casserole, and brought out the red fermented tofu stew.

Two young Chinese ladies nearly leaned over the counter, like puppies sniffing bones, fixating on the two freshly cooked dishes.

"Mind your manners!"

Xia Yu put down the casserole, patted their shoulders, secured two clean porcelain bowls, and went back to fill them with steaming rice, "Take the rice—"

In the brief moment, An Ya and Mu Xiaoyue already transferred the three dishes to their table, each holding chopsticks, sitting dazedly in their seats, clearly on a taste test.

The couple, for some reason, also gathered around the table, holding chopsticks stained with a bit of oil.

The young man from Shibuya Style stood stone-faced, slowly chewing the beef in his mouth.

What he was tasting was the Shacha beef.

This was a Cantonese dish, more accurately a Chaoshan dish.

The secret lay in the Shacha sauce and peanut sauce.

But knowing how to make it and making it taste good were two different things. In the Chef God Space, Xia Yu spent three days mastering this dish, and even while multitasking and preparing fish-flavored pork simultaneously, the finished product still scored 80 points in the system.

The golden brown beef slices spread across the white porcelain plate, drizzled with a thick Shacha sauce, mixed with a hint of chili. Its aroma was truly enough to stir one's appetite to the fullest.

Under Xia Yu's watchful gaze, after swallowing a slice of Shacha beef, Shuigu Jun's eyes glowed like a beast spotting prey. His eyes brimmed with blood vessels, and he couldn't stop his chopsticks.

His girlfriend also turned into a ravenous ghost.

The small shop fell silent, except for the crisp sound of chopsticks touching the plate.

In just a few minutes, a big plate of golden beef slices was devoured down to the last bite.

But Shuigu Jun was evidently more stimulated—he stared hungrily at the remaining Shacha sauce in the plate, his Adam's apple bobbing, seemingly tempted to lick it.

"Tasty, huh?" A sudden voice pulled Shuigu Jun back to reality.

Following the sound, Shuigu Jun saw the young chef he once looked down on, his gaze calm.

"Delicious…" Shuigu Jun's face froze, wanting to smile but failing to.

An inexplicable silence.

"What's this sauce? Why have I never had it before?" Shuigu Jun pointed at the thick sauce in the white plate, quietly swallowing his saliva.

"Shacha sauce."

"Originated in the Chaoshan region of China, prevalent in several provinces and cities, considered a hybrid condiment with ingredients like peanuts, white sesame seeds, fish, shrimp, coconut, garlic, mustard…" Xia Yu explained casually, naming a host of ingredients.

"Shacha sauce?" Shuigu Jun thought it sounded a bit familiar. His girlfriend Ren Xue seemed to have bought a bottle of it from China Town before.

"Don't compare bottled Shacha sauce from grocery stores with our Xia's shop's homemade Shacha sauce." Xia Yu said, "With the homemade Shacha sauce, we can make many dishes. Shacha beef is just one of them, and there are also dishes like Shacha noodles, Shacha dumplings, and Shacha ribs. You can come by to taste them sometime."

Having said that, Xia Yu turned back into the kitchen to wash pans and clean up the countertop.

Shuigu Jun stood dazed for a while, savoring the flavor lingering in his mouth. The previous impression of Chinese cuisine in his mind seemed to collapse after tasting the Shacha beef.

"Delicious!"

Mu Xiaoyue's exclamation reminded Shuigu Jun that he hadn't yet tasted the other two dishes!

He could no longer afford his complex emotions, hurriedly reaching with chopsticks for a dish on the table, engaging in a food battle with Ren Xue, An Ya, and Mu Xiaoyue.

The fish-flavored pork had a richer aroma and deeper flavor. Shuigu Jun almost bit his tongue.

The second plate was soon empty.

The two bowls of rice were completely forgotten. Four pairs of eager eyes now fixated on the sealed casserole yet to be unveiled.

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