Chapter 4- Waiting for the Ingredients
Gu Zheng no longer felt like he had the strength to joke around, only anger remained.
However, that spirit device faded away like before. It no longer bothered to acknowledge him. Even though he was enraged, there was no point. Gu Zheng contained the rage he felt and helplessly opened his eyes.
"Gu Zheng, we'll let Wang Tao send you home, we won't be coming with you!"
(The author made a strange change here. A friend of his, named Huang Tao existed, yet the author suddenly changed it to Wang Tao. From the context, they seem to be the same person, and the next chapter has Wang Tao still as well. However, as this may just be a mistake, I won't change the other chapters yet)
The bus stopped at its station, right in front of a subway station. Zhao Yongkui and Du Yang's houses were not in the same direction as Gu Zheng's. Only Wang Tao would not be bothered too much going with Gu Zheng, thus the three had designated Wang Tao as the one to send Gu Zheng back home.
"You all might as well come with me. Didn't you say that you wanted me to repay you with good food? Right now I don't have anything going on, no need to wait for another day, today is fine!"
Gu Zheng calmly spoke, he did not dare to regard this test as a small matter. Internally, one might be considering this matter strange, however, if he didn't complete the test, there was no guarantee that he would die or not. Even though his life was small, it didn't mean that he didn't consider it important.
In addition, he only had 3 days. He couldn't wait until the third day before completing the task. According to himself, the earlier he finished the test, the better.
Wang Tao and the others just happened to come to a total of 3 people, on top of that, they were quite close. He knew their tastes and what they like to eat. Since he needed to convince three people, there was no point in seeking out others, they were alright to satisfy the test.
Internally, Gu Zheng felt had some hope. In order to maintain a good image of his cooking, he rarely promised to cook for them. Only on days such as their birthday, or important celebrations would he himself offer to cook. They were used to eating normal food, which meant they should be somewhat easier to convince.
"Really, today you'll do it? I guess we should come over to your house?"
Du Yang exclaimed with a face full of surprise. The last time he had eaten Gu Zheng's cooking was 3 months ago on his birthday. He had begged earlier, however, Gu Zheng strongly insisted that unless it was a special occasion, he would absolutely not cook.
As for seeing Gu Zheng's house, that was even harder. Only when it was Gu Zheng's birthday would they be able to go there. Gu Zheng's house's kitchen utensils were all carefully selected and left by his father. Furthermore, all the spices left in his home were left by his father who was a three star Michelin chef. Considering the spices and kitchen utensils, even hotels weren't comparable. The most important point was that the last time Gu zheng had let them come over was 3 years ago, which meant that they had not eaten at Gu Zheng's cooking at his house for 3 years.
Gu Zheng's birthday was February 29th, every year he only had one birthday. Due to this, it already had them constantly complaining about why Gu Zheng's birthday was so rare. Only after 4 years would he have one day of celebration. Not only was it just this one day, they couldn't eat there once every year.
"Right, today we'll go to my house!" Gu Zheng strongly nodded. For this times test, he would prepare to use more than 20 percent of his abilities.
"Okay, that’s great!"
Wang Tao and Zhao Yongkui happily replied. Du Yang quickly ran to buy tickets to prepare to go to Gu Zheng's house.
Gu Zheng's house was in the city, and the Pearl was quite close. It was the 3rd room on the 180th floor, however, the view was quite nice. It was his father who had bought it several years ago. This apartment had already risen in value several times. Whenever he talked about his house, Wang Tao and the others would all feel jealous of Gu Zheng, since he didn't have to worry about his house.
Gu Zheng's house had some differences from others. His kitchen and dining room were larger than normal, and the living room was just a bit smaller. Since it was like this, the moment Gu Zheng's father had seen it, he bought it.
"You guys go rest, I'll go prepare the food!"
Several people had come to Gu Zheng's house. When they arrived, Gu Zheng didn't even welcome them. He just let them sit down then he would change his clothes before entering the kitchen
"Filthy water! Cannot be used for food, otherwise, the test will automatically be failed!
Gu Zheng had just turned on the faucet to wash vegetables when the voice inside his head rang out. It scared Gu Zheng, yet he managed not to drop the vegetables in his hands.
"What's the problem this time?" Gu Zheng angrily shouted.
Master God of Gluttony's requirements toward ingredients are very high. For this test, you may not use anything toxic, of poor quality, or inferior ingredients. Some water is extremely filthy, it cannot be used as an ingredient. Even using it to wash vegetables is not allowed, otherwise, it will be automatically a failure!"
"Whether it's poisonous or not I know, however, what’s the matter with inferior and poor quality?"
He forced down his anger and quickly asked. If the ingredient had toxins in it, like the medicine from earlier that contained poison, he couldn't eat it. If he ate it, he would be turned into a single puddle of blood.
However, right now yet another 'poor quality' and 'inferior' restrictions had appeared. Gu Zheng felt as if he was going to go crazy.
“Master God of Gluttony divided ingredients into eight categories. Which are respectively, poor, inferior, second-class, average, middle-class, first-class, and high-class. In the early years, Master God of Gluttony was not too picky. Excluding those that were poisonous, he used all kinds of ingredients. After that, Master God of Gluttony ate too much high-quality food, and his requirements rose higher and higher. He ended up not using ingredients that weren't high-class or above. After examining your environment and your abilities, your ingredients are limited to second-class and above."
"Then you need to tell me what are second-class and poor quality ingredients, right?"
"When you take out the ingredients, naturally I will tell you their ranking!"
Gu Zheng went silent. Internally he cursed, and the spirit device no longer responded.
Looking at the sink, Gu Zheng helplessly shook his head. This was tap water, however since it was poor quality water, he could no longer use it. Even if the vegetables weren't good enough, he could only ignore it for now. Luckily in his house, he had a water cooler that was filled to the brim with pure water.
"Inferior water source, cannot be used!"
He had just gotten a bit of the water cooler's water before the voice once again rang out. The water purity level was a bit higher than the tap water, yet it only went up a single level. He still couldn't use inferior level ingredients, furthermore, he couldn't even wash the vegetables.
Property of © Fantasy-Books.live; outside of it, it is stolen."Even the water cooler's water isn't good enough. What do I use to wash the vegetables, how do I make food?"
Gu Zheng felt that he was going crazy as he roared internally. However, that voice once again disappeared. No matter how he cursed, he no longer emerged.
"Fine, you're vicious!"
After yelling for a while, he still didn't get any kind of response. Gu Zheng could only leave the kitchen. He took a white bottle of water out of the refrigerator. It was the high-grade mineral water that he usually drank that his father had personally recommended to him. Every month he would buy some and store it in his house to drink it every day.
"Second-class water source, may be used!" the voice rang out, this time it had barely passed.
If he could see the spirit device, Gu Zheng would have definitely taken the water bottle and strongly hit it. This water was imported from France. It was mineral water taken from the alps glaciers. After going through 15 layers of filtration, not only did it not have any harmful bacteria, it also contained minerals necessary for the human body. His father was worried about the local water not being of a good enough quality, so he only let him drink this imported water. Yet this water was only rated at second-class. Then what would be average quality water, and what kind of water would be labeled as high-class?
As he took out several bottles in a row, even Gu Zheng felt some pain. Using water that cost 10 dollars to wash vegetables… Even his three star Michelin chef father wouldn't do such a thing. If he were to let others know, they would definitely call him spoiled.
However, since he had water to use, at least he would be able to cook without any disturbances. He didn't think that the spirit device's next response would nearly trigger him to become violent.
Dried Five-headed-Abalone, poor quality ingredient. (Five-headed is a method of classification for abalone, it doesn't literally have five heads.)
3rd Grade Silver-tree Ear fungus, poor quality ingredient. (This is a kind of mushroom, called the Tremella fuciformis which is quite commonly used for both gourmet dishes and cosmetics.)
Two 500g frozen Australian lobsters, inferior quality ingredients.
Sky Nine Shark fin, inferior quality ingredient. (I truly have no idea what this "Sky Nine" thing is. So I will translate it as is.)
In the end, there were only a few items left on the table in front of Gu Zheng. Looking at these ingredients, Gu Zheng's face could not help but begin to twitch.