Reborn in Japan as a Chef God

The next day, the day before Christmas.

Xia's Online Mall was bustling, with numerous local specialties and snacks in their hot selling phase.

On the streets, the Christmas Food Festival had kicked off today, December 24th. Colorful flags and balloons could be spotted everywhere, and restaurants were booming with business.

Amid this bustling festive atmosphere, Xia Yu sneaked off to the farm, to a piece of newly reclaimed wasteland that had yet to be planted, and while pointing at the ground, said to Ichise Hui standing beside her, "Enclose this area."

"Enclose it?"

Ichise Hui gaped in surprise.

"Yes, don't use wire mesh. Just build a high wall around it and turn it into an experimental area within the farm, second only to the greenhouse in terms of secrecy," Xia Yu directed.

Blinking, Xia Yu didn't elaborate further, only saying to Ichise Hui, "The seed bank has received a batch of new seeds, right? You can try experimenting with them on these plots of land, and then you'll understand everything."

Having said that, she turned and walked away.

At that moment, a system message that she had received that morning appeared in Xia Yu's field of vision.

Farm Management Task—"Money Pit" (Part 1), completed!

This meant that in just one day, Xia's Farm's ranking in the agricultural and pastoral sector of Japan had rocketed from beyond ten thousandth place to within the top thousand.

Breaking into the top thousand was precisely the objective of the mission.

The "Seven-Colored Snow Woman" was selling hotly, and the mission target was close at hand. From yesterday to today, a heap of dried fruits and snacks had been selling hot. Although the profit wasn't as terrifying as selling liquor, small profits added up, and the data compiled just so happened to provide the strong push needed to open the doors to the top thousand.

So Xia Yu went straight to the farm and used her mission reward of "Super Soil Block Area" (Upgrade Item), transforming a piece of wasteland into an experimental field with unbelievably fertile power.

After leaving the field, she headed for the farm's ingredient store.

Recently, the farm had just completed a few functional buildings.

"Upgrade!"

"Upgrade successful!" the system responded.

Ding.

In her field of view, the doors of two new sealed warehouses emanated a layer of upgrade glow visible only to Xia Yu. Ichise Hui held a folder nearby, intently questioning a guard responsible for overseeing the farm, completely unaware of the earth-shattering changes taking place within the two warehouses not far away.

After entering and spending roughly a quarter hour inside, Xia Yu emerged extremely pleased with the upgraded new-style ingredient storehouses.

"It's a pity there are only two upgrade items. I'll treat these two storehouses as my private little treasure troves, used to store precious ingredients produced by the farm like Rainbow Fruit and Indira Moonflowers..."

Resolved, Xia Yu continued to demarcate and designate no-go zones on the farm.

After all the bustling, it was nearly noon, and she finally had time to go find Jintan Shun, only to run into the Gourmet Hunter packing up his luggage.

"Uncle Jintian, are you leaving?"

Jintan Shun's luggage was meager, his canvas duffel bag not even full, looking limp. Hearing Xia Yu, he turned his head to glance back and said, "Staying here longer would just be a waste of time, meaningless."

He might have caught wind of Xia Yu defeating Lei Zhe through some channels, hence the meaningful look he gave her.

"I'm heading back to North America."

"North America?" Xia Yu's pupils narrowed slightly, thoughts of the vendetta has been Jintan Shun's burden for so long.

He slung the canvas bag over his shoulder and with his free hand, patted Xia Yu's shoulder, saying with a low chuckle, "You understand. I too think it's time to settle things, to take back what I once had!"

Xia Yu's expression shook.

"I won't hide it from you, in fact, I was once one of the Lin Giants of the Culinary Association, but I was defeated in the internal triennial election. The guy who took my place and won? That was Lei Zhe."

Jintan Shun spoke with ease: "Wondering why the defeated would harbor hate? In truth, I lost not due to inferior cooking, but to underhanded tricks."

"Underhanded tricks?"

"Exactly, a little sabotage of my ingredients; you can't guard against everything. This kind of culinary showdown where everything is at stake, you might adhere to the sanctity of the cooking duel and its rules, but this doesn't mean your opponent will be an honorable gentleman."

Patting Xia Yu's shoulder again, Jintan Shun warned, "You'll be heading back to your country soon, right? Remember my lesson; don't be careless or negligent when it comes to culinary duels. Especially since the Chinese Cuisine World has an ancient heritage, there are too many tactics for deceit, you must always be vigilant."

Xia Yu remained silent.

"I'm off—"

Jintan Shun waved his hand. "Leave Lei Zhe to me; you don't need to worry about his so-called 'revenge'—because he won't have the chance!"

When he said this, the Gourmet Hunter, who had been wandering for ten years, finally showed a fearsome aura.

Jintan Shun's departure meant that the farm had lost a trustworthy defense leader.

After repeated discussions with Ichise Hui, Xia Yu decided to hire an entire Food Mercenary Corps to fill the gap, because once the ranch construction was completed, both places would need plenty of experienced guards for patrolling and watching.

In the afternoon, Ichise Hui drove Xia Yu back to the shopping district.

"It's a bit early, isn't it?" When they reached the door of her house, Xia Yu shifted in her seat and hesitated for several seconds before muttering and pushing the door open.

The face of Ichise Hui reflected in the rearview mirror was full of teasing smiles.

Tsk!

Today was the 24th, the eve of Christmas, also known as Christmas Eve. In other words, boyfriends and girlfriends were supposed to meet up on this day. On the drive over, the street was almost filled with hand-in-hand couples, the amount of 'dog food' skyrocketing through the roof.

Ichise Hui understood the instructor's "refugee"-like behavior all too well. Choosing to bury herself in work at the farm today, of all days? With the food festival in full swing at the shopping district, was it really necessary to go to some quiet, out-of-the-way place? It was nothing more than anticipating too many date invitations which she couldn't coldly refuse, so she simply chose to escape.

Ichise Hui silently praised the young instructor's cleverness.

"They couldn't find her all day; they should have given up by now, right?" In Ichise Hui's mind, images surfaced of Eriina, Alice, and others fuming with anger.

Bang!

Suddenly, just as Xia Yu was about to get half out of the car, she recoiled like she'd seen a ghost, ducking back into the backseat and slamming the car door hard.

"Uh?"

Ichise Hui turned around.

Xia Yu pointed a few steps ahead at their store. Ichise Hui saw it and was immediately struck with an urge to laugh.

A beautiful woman stood at the store entrance, wearing a mask and a knitted hat, covering her angelic face and blonde hair. However, Ichise Hui still recognized that this was none other than the Queen of Far Moon, Tiqie Eriina.

Seeing the suitcase beside Eriina, Ichise Hui wondered, "What is she doing...?"

"The winter special training class has started," Xia Yu said calmly, leaning back in the seat. "This is the last training class before the winter special grade examination."

Ichise Hui understood—'Divine Tongue' was rushing for an out-of-town training session.

But with an increasingly strange expression, Ichise Hui suppressed a laugh and said, "Aren't you going to get out, Instructor, and give Tiqie some pointers on what to watch out for in the training?"

"Any pointers, we can talk about after Christmas."

Xia Yu glared at him, and Ichise Hui strained to hold back the urge to burst into laughter.

But the car was too close; Eriina looked up and noticed, recognizing that it was Ichise Hui's car, and hurried over, knocking on the window.

"Damn!" Xia Yu lost her composure and flopped down on the spot.

Ichise Hui didn't dare to betray his teammate, cracking the car window just a slit. The girl outside bombarded with angry questions: "Ichise, have you seen the instructor?"

"Well..."

Glancing subtly at the back seat and not catching sight of the well-hidden Xia Yu, Ichise Hui vaguely responded, "The instructor left the farm at noon; she should be at home by now, right? I have things to discuss with the instructor too. Isn't she there?"

At these words, the masked girl's eyes became even fiercer with anger.

"Hmph!"

With fury boiling over and no mood to check the car, Eriina turned around and went to drag her suitcase.

Watching the girl disappear into the crowd, Ichise Hui turned back as Xia Yu sat up and coughed. "That was a close call!"

Seeing this, Ichise Hui couldn't help but smile wryly to himself.

He knew the temperament of that young lady well; now that she had gone, she definitely wouldn't turn back.

But it was her pride that made Ichise Hui feel pity for her.

If only she had waited a little longer, the person she was avoiding would naturally have appeared.