System Only Gives Me Useless Gifts

The first two episodes of the Great Chef aired quietly without much hype or advertisement. After six seasons, the general public had moved on from the Great Chef; there were other newer variety shows and cooking formats. But for the hardcore fans, the Great Chef was a show they would continue to watch no matter how many seasons had passed. As the credit rolled for the first two episodes, the fan’s comments could be seen across the screen.

(:Foodie:): It looks like the direction of this season will be focused on the food. There are so many well-thought-out cooking tips!

:3Fan: Love the first two episodes. No drama, just pure cooking. Mingya is my fave, she’s just a sweetheart.

Celery78: Anthonio is so fricken cool! And he’s half-French, no wonder his cooking looks so refined. 

MrPotatoHead: I like Xinda’s no nonsense attitude towards her competitors, but when she talks about food, it’s art!

IEATPIE: I don’t like Ang, ‘I don’t need to make friends’ attitude. Is he going for the villain role?

ChefHeaven: I spy Dr. Li!

TeaDrinker456: Dr. Li is a contestant!? I didn’t know he could cook.

:3Fan: Is Dr. Li some sort of celebrity?

Celery78: Don’t know, let me see… Apparently, he’s the boyfriend of some streamer.

ChefHeaven: Not just some streamer, it’s Meimei! She’s becoming one of the most influential influencers on ZZ-Live. I heard she’s being courted by TeeBee Live to move to their platform.

MrPotatoHead: His cooking seems average.

BRUH: Blob Neutral

The early favorites were quickly established by the end of the second episode. The editors kept the focus on the contestants who they knew would remain until the end with other contestants thrown in as red herrings.

Aside from the contestants, everyone was figuring out the judge with absolute taste. The contestants’ ballot for the judge was kept hidden, eliminating the audience’s ability to narrow down the suspects.

The first week ratings were lower than usual, but it was the natural decline of a long-running show. However, there were many people talking about the show over the net. Everyone was debating the existence of absolute taste.

(:Foodie:): I’m curious about the judges with absolute taste. While in music it is possible, someone with absolute taste is unheard. Even the most refined taster could not name all the ingredients.

Celery78: And if you want to get technical, many refined tasters use their sense of smell to distinguish between the flavors, so in essence, absolute taste is a flawed title.

IEATPIE: What are you guys yapping about? Do you think the judge can name all the ingredients or not?

ChefHeaven: It will be interesting to see when they reveal the judge.

The fourth and fifth episodes aired the following day, but no clues were given about the third judge. The guesses on the internet ranged considerably. Some astute viewers had noticed that Li Yun did very little cooking. He ordered a lot of commands to his sous chef.

IEATPIE: Do you think the judge is Li Yun? 

Celery78: Maybe, I have noticed he doesn’t really do that much cooking.

ChefHeaven: Li Yun is 100% a real chef. This is how most chefs operate in the kitchen. They oversee the other staff to make sure they prepare the food correctly.

Celery78: Really? Now that you have mentioned it, their station usually looks clean and organized.

ChefHeaven: I know, right? That’s the definition of Mise en Place. Everything is precisely measured, the ingredient selection is top notch, and the orders are perfectly executed. This ability cannot be underestimated!

IEATPIE: Take a look at this, someone did a composite of all of Li Yun’s clips.

The clips rotated around the inner Great Chef fans, and then various food show forums. Eventually, a meme of Li Yun commanding Hun Lun in the kitchen spread everywhere over the net. People with zero interest in the show saw the meme and immediately asked where it came from.

Li Yun’s abilities used to prepare medicinal formulas were maximized. There were certain things he couldn’t do because of his silly childhood trauma, but as long as he wasn’t actively cooking when he prepared the ingredients, it didn’t affect him as much. He could easily complete most of the mundane tasks like measuring and laying out the ingredients. He didn’t think it would make others qualify him as a chef.

Only the people who personally knew Li Yun was surprised he made it past the first episode. 

“How in the world!?” said Bufu in an impressed tone from the Shennong’s meeting room after they finished watching the episodes. “You got to give it to the editor, they made you look better.”

On the show, there were clips of Li Yun picking out the ingredients and using the blender. There was even a clip of him holding the chef knife, but it cut away to another contestant. If the clip had been continuous, it would show Hun Lun taking the knife away from Li Yun. In the end, no one noticed that he had barely cooked anything in the first two episodes. But from the montage of the other sixteen contestants, people naturally assumed Li Yun had cooked the meal.

“Yeah, we know you can’t cook s***,” said Fatty Fang. “You got to give Hun Lun a raise for not making you look bad.”

“What do you mean? I came up with that recipe myself,” Li Yun wasn’t a good cook, but the adjustment he had made to the recipe was based on a balanced nutritional meal for the body. Taste wasn’t important, but how easily absorbable the beneficial compounds were to the body.

Li Yun noticed his ZZ-live chat page was becoming more lively and he had been gaining a lot of subscribers after the episode aired. Everyone was jokingly asking Li Yun to reveal the secret judge. They also wondered how far he got in the competition. The fifth episode had aired with twice as many viewers as the previous week. 

“Did Lawyer Lang reach an agreement with the Chenchen hospital?” Li Yun asked as he put down the cellphone.

“Chenchen’s new law representative agreed, they are drafting up the settlement,” said Ju De. “Everyone at the hospital looked nervous after seeing what had happened to the Galba Group. I made it seem like we were behind the collapse.”

It wasn’t them, but Ju De thought it was a great opportunity to strike fear into the other competitors.