Journey to the West: Life Simulation of Sun Wukong

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"Why?"

Li Fan was puzzled. Weren't these just some home-cooked dishes?

Although the dishes looked fresher than the average home-cooked meal, they were still home-cooked. How could they be so delicious?

The head chef, Hong Fugui, and Hututu all gave a perfect score.

Liu Angxing commented, "Although these delicacies don't glow, the flavors they contain indeed bring happiness. My mouth keeps salivating, and that alone proves it."

Hong Fugui said, "It has been a long time since I tasted home-cooked food. My homeland is in a war-torn era where many people flee and starve every year. Although my grandfather ran an inn, the only thing we could serve was radishes and potatoes. Greens were a luxury."

Hututu simply remarked, "The food Sun Wukong makes is exactly like the dishes my mother makes."

Li Fan still suspected there was a trick to it.

But the [simulation] and the judgment declared Sun Wukong the winner, and Li Fan was sent back to his original world.

It's quite normal for him to lose.

The three judges, one dressed in a mix of red and white with signs of travel, obviously spent much time on the road; another was in white but dressed in tattered and stained clothes, small in stature, hinting at a young chef born in a time of war.

And the other, a three-year-old child, whose clothes showed his family was not very rich.

Despite abalone being delicious, it's the plain home-cooked food that best suits their taste.

Sun Wukong had observed this, which is why he chose the most common home-cooked dishes. Only home-cooked food could truly satisfy their palates. Other exotic delicacies, though tastier, were not things the other two, apart from Liu Angxing, would regularly eat nor were they meant to be eaten regularly.

Even for Liu Angxing, he too considered the common folk's perspective, striving to create food that brought happiness, not just chasing the utmost flavor.

To him, deliciousness was essential but only one of the basics of good food. What mattered most was bringing happiness to people.

After the competition, the figures of the head chef, Hong Fugui, and Hututu slowly vanished as they weren't chosen by the simulator as hosts; they were just invited to serve as judges.

Once they returned, they would forget this experience and go back to their lives.

The head chef laughed, "Great Saint, I have heard stories about you. When I couldn't sleep as a child, my mother would tell me your tales to coax me into sleep, and then I'd be even more awake."

"Ha ha!" Sun Wukong laughed heartily, "It seems old Sun is quite famous."

"More than famous, extremely so," Hong Fugui chimed in.

"I think we come from the same world," Liu Angxing noted Hong Fugui's whip and his disheveled appearance, tentatively asking, "Is there turmoil where you come from?"

Hong Fugui nodded: "Grandfather said something about foreigners blasting open the national gates with big cannons or something like that. I'm not quite sure. I only know life is tough for everyone, isn't it?"

"Is that so?" Liu Angxing understood. Hong Fugui didn't belong to his world, but their backgrounds were likely similar, which meant, was the Qing Dynasty he was living in also destined to have its national gates shattered by foreigners?

Regrettably, no matter how much Liu Angxing pondered, it was futile.

Because this experience would be forgotten.

Hututu was much simpler, running over to Sun Wukong once again: "Sun Wukong, could you give me an autograph, please?"

"Of course."

Sun Wukong produced a brush and wrote the three large characters "Sun Wukong" on Hututu's red shirt, making him jump with joy, loudly proclaiming to the audience, "I got Sun Wukong's autograph!" This chapter was originally posted on M^VLEMPYR.

The three figures completely dissolved, returning to their worlds—

"Head chef, wake up."

Liu Angxing was woken up by Dudu, his close companion, rubbing his eyes.

"The sun's high in the sky, why did you wake up so late today?" Dudu asked curiously, as the head chef usually woke up very early.

"I had a dream."

The head chef could vividly recall everything, and in his mind, he acquired a copy of "Crimson Radiance·Qing Edition."

A dream within a dream?

A real experience?

But the head chef gained a new understanding—

"A dream? What dream?" Dudu didn't understand.

"Being a chef won't save our country," the head chef declared definitively.

"???"

······

"Wake up, Fugui, help grandpa peel a potato; breakfast will be a mixed stew."

Fugui's grandfather pulled him up as he rubbed his eyes, picking at his sleep crust, and chastised, "A plan for the day is best in the morning; how can you inherit my skills with such laziness? Also, throw away those peeling gadgets and mallet tricks of yours. Knife skills are the fundamentals."

Yet, Hong Fugui was contemplating the dream of the previous night and the appearance of two books in his mind: "Crimson Radiance·Late Qing Edition" and "The Method of One Qi Transforms the Universe·Colloquial Edition."

"Grandpa, are we going to be chefs for our whole lives?" Fugui inquired.

"Dragons beget dragons, phoenixes beget phoenixes, and mice are born to dig holes," the grandfather hummed, "In these times of war, as long as you inherit the Hong Family's skills, you're guaranteed not to starve."

"Not starving, is that enough?" Hong Fugui began to question, "Our fate is still in the hands of those officials. If they look down on us, no matter how good our skills, we could lose our heads. And grandpa, you said it's a time of war; are we really not going to starve?"

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