Chapter 384: Overdoing It
Ingredients, like these fish balls and meatballs, don’t need any cleaning. Xia Yu started picking them out and tossing them into an empty cardboard box nearby. Then she spotted the more troublesome stuff below: green onions, pork, beef, mutton, and guess what? They were all unprocessed! Considering this was enough for an entire class, the barbecue was clearly going to stretch from the afternoon into the evening. There was no way Xia Yu could handle it all by herself.
Glancing over at the boys, they had already finished their tasks and were happily sitting on the lawn, glued to their phones. Only a handful of class officers were still on the job, assembling the barbecue grill.
Having slacked off for so long, Xia Yu felt embarrassed to ask for their help now. But with so much food, there was no way she could carry it all by herself. Should she take the initiative and move some items herself?
Just as she hesitated, the girls who went off to get water and have some fun finally returned, bringing hope along with them. “Class leader, how should we handle this?”
Xia Yu, known for her reluctance to think too hard, spotted Huang Qiao back and decided to ask for her opinion. She just needed to be a helper. The class leader was quick on the uptake, directing the girls to divide the green onions and raw meat, then sending them off to wash everything.
With so many hands on deck, distributing the ingredients seemed to lighten the load somewhat.
But with no tasks assigned to her, Xia Yu felt increasingly uneasy. She had already been lazy before; if she slacked off again now, wouldn’t her classmates look down on her?
So, Xia Yu turned to Huang Qiao again, “Class leader, what should I do?”
Huang Qiao seemed to have been prepared for this question, just waiting for Xia Yu to ask. She quickly assigned a task to her: “Little Yu, since there are so many girls washing veggies, you might not want to feel awkward joining them. I heard from Xia Ling and Jiang Hanhang that you learned some cooking before, so why don’t you find a kn*fe and help with cutting the meat?”
Xia Yu replied, “…… They talk too much.”
Xia Yu felt helpless. Cutting meat was fine, but with this much, it was going to be a hassle, and it would probably take over an hour!
“Well,” Huang Qiao said, smiling as she patted Xia Yu’s sulking shoulder, “With great power comes great responsibility! There’s only one kn*fe shared among five classes. Go see which class is using it now, and once they’re done, just grab it.”
“Shared among five classes? How long is that going to take?”
Xia Yu thought cutting meat would be tedious. Little did she know it was going to be even more of a hassle. Waiting in line for a kn*fe? How annoying! But with Huang Qiao organizing this chaotic mess, Xia Yu had no choice but to start her quest… to find the kn*fe!
After a good hunt, Xia Yu finally located a kn*fe in Class 12, but the efficiency there was downright tragic. When she arrived, a girl from that class who was cutting meat whispered, “I was first in line for this kn*fe; Class 13 gets it after me.”
Xia Yu muttered, “…Sure.”
This was agonizingly slow, and now she had to wait for yet another class. If she didn’t jump in, lunch would probably be served around dinner time!
After a moment’s hesitation, Xia Yu summoned her courage and asked Class 12’s leader, “Um… you’re cutting way too slowly, can I help you out?”
The Class 12 leader, taken aback, stopped and shot a skeptical glare at Xia Yu. “You think I’m slow? You really think you can cut better and faster than me?”
“Well… I should be able to,” Xia Yu replied, not sure why he looked so offended. It’s not like she was insulting his cooking skills!
“Fine, then show me!”
With that, the Class 12 leader became further irritated, jamming the kn*fe into the cutting board and stepping back for Xia Yu to take over. “Alright, I’ll let you embarrass yourself. Just don’t laugh if I cut it poorly, okay?”
Even though she sounded modest, Xia Yu was brimming with confidence. After all, she didn’t spend hours learning from Master Chen for nothing!
After washing her hands, Xia Yu picked up the kn*fe, pressed down on the meat, and got to work. Fortunately, the kn*fe was sharp enough that she didn’t need to go back over her cuts and waste time.
Despite only having practiced a bit, Xia Yu was leaps and bounds ahead in skills compared to the Class 12 leader. She didn’t even need to line up her cuts, effortlessly letting the kn*fe glide through the meat as if it were butter. The chunks she produced were just as good as anything the Class 12 leader could manage, maybe even better!
With such kn*fe skills, though not top-tier, Xia Yu was definitely killing it. Most average folks would need years to reach her level.
No wonder Master Chen praised her talent and dubbed her a rare kitchen prodigy!
Seeing Xia Yu in action, the Class 12 leader sat in respectful silence, no longer bothered. “Bowl!”
With the cutting board now overflowing with meat chunks, Xia Yu had to stop and get a stainless steel bowl to hold them, or they’d end up all over the floor.
She placed the cut meat into the bowl for the girls in Class 12 to skewer with bamboo sticks, speeding things up even more.
Boys who work hard are the best, of course, and the girls were no slouches either. Before long, Xia Yu caught the attention of most of Class 12 as she was helping out. What a shame she wasn’t in their class!
She was so focused on her task that she completely missed the stares and photos being taken. She just wanted to wrap things up and get back to resting.
A whole class’s worth of meat, dozens of pounds, was being sliced up by Xia Yu, and it was exhausting.
Thank goodness she’d been grinding at Master Chen’s place for two hours every day; otherwise, she wouldn’t have lasted. Cutting meat isn’t a piece of cake, especially not this much.
Finally finishing the last piece, Xia Yu wearily placed the kn*fe on the board, washed her hands, and turned to the Class 13 officer who’d been waiting, “Your turn, and after you, it’s Class 15.”
“Sure! But now that I see how amazing you are, why don’t you cut for my class too? We could work faster!”
Xia Yu internally groaned. “Um… I was only trying to speed things up a bit, not sign up for extra labor…”
She wasn’t good at saying no, and letting them do it themselves would take way too long. After thinking it over, she sighed and nodded, “Alright, let’s treat this as extra practice.”
With Xia Yu grabbing the kn*fe and the Class 13 officer handling the cutting board, they made their way to Class 13’s area.
Class 13 had been waiting impatiently, and when they saw their kitchen officer and Xia Yu return, they finally breathed a sigh of relief. The meat was finally getting cut!
Once they found a good spot for the cutting board, Xia Yu dived back into her work. She didn’t know anyone in Class 13, so she kept the small talk to a minimum—get this done quick and go back to relax.
Just then, Jiang Hanhang and Xia Ling, those two adorable airheads, wandered over.
Seeing Xia Yu cutting meat for Class 13, Jiang Hanhang chimed in with curiosity, “Wow, cutting meat? When did our Little Yu become so hardworking?”
Xia Yu responded, “… Didn’t you guys eat what I cooked at home? Spit it out already.”
If Xia Yu had to guess, those two goofballs were here to rush her.
Sure enough, Jiang Hanhang quickly admitted, “They sent us to see how you were doing! If it’s going to take too long, they want to start cooking some meatballs and hot dogs.”
“Let them eat first. We just started here; once Class 13 is done, it’s onto the next class,” Xia Yu replied dismissively.
“Alright, I’ll let them know.”
After Jiang Hanhang sent a quick text to their group chat, she and Xia Ling had no intention of hurrying back. Instead, they grabbed two meat skewers and dashed off like ninja thieves…
Nobody from Class 13 complained, though. After all, Xia Yu was helping them with the meat; plus, those two adorable girls could be endearing in their mischievousness.
What could Xia Yu do? She couldn’t scold them, nor could she take them on, so all she could do was go back to her work. “Little Yu, your kn*fe skills are impressive! Did you take lessons?”
Xia Yu jumped at the sudden adult voice and turned to find the Class 13 homeroom teacher had returned. “Uh, I learned a bit before.”
“Nice! Do your parents run a restaurant?”
I run a chain of restaurants.
Xia Yu wanted to boast about that so badly but decided against it. She doubted the teacher would believe her, and besides, she opened that restaurant just to do good, not to show off.
Instead, Xia Yu changed the topic. “So with this much meat, how late is this barbecue going to go on?”
“The notice said the barbecue can last until eleven o’clock, but after that, everything has to be cleaned up before we can head to bed. So no need to rush off for showers too early.”
So they were really going to be cooking until midnight! No wonder there were so many ingredients! Xia Yu decided not to waste more time and went back to diligently cutting meat…
