Chapter 49: Mother Juan from the World of Black Cuisine

Translator: Henyee Translations  Editor: Henyee TranslationsOn this day, there was something unusual in the air at No. 59 High School…The wind blows on school grounds except where there are no storm clouds…Senior He Bufeng, who had scored just 8823 marks after three years of school, had actually come to class!Seeing this, the students were silent and the teachers shed tears…No one knew what had happened to this delinquent in the last twenty-four hours.Tang Jingze felt that this was really too unusual and suspicious — this was far more shocking than Director Xie Huaichun falling in love.He didn’t know exactly what had happened to He Bufeng, but based on his actions, Tang Jingze could roughly guess that he had completely failed in his confrontation with the pretty boy with the crew cut from No. 60 High School. Otherwise, given his attitude toward studying, there was no way he would give up and lower himself to start going to class.Through this incident with He Bufeng, Tang Jingze had now finally seen through to the heart of the matter.No. 59 High School was fated to be oppressed by this group of people from No. 60 High School — they were truly a poisonous bunch!Since their arrival at No. 59 High School, not only had school facilities been wrecked… even Director Xie Huaichun and the number one delinquent He Bufeng had one by one fallen into their hands… these two individuals, who in Tang Jingze’s heart were godlike figures that were just like the Highland Guard Tower and Incisor Guard Tower ¹ , had no longer existed after the arrival of the No. 60 High School team.He had completely accepted the fact that this was a group of people he couldn’t afford to provoke.He was just a president of a student union; he wasn’t about to needlessly risk his life to offend these people.…Tomorrow would be the last day of the student exchange meet between No. 59 High School and No. 60 High School and the curtain would finally go up on that all-important spirit sword exchange meet.Mindful of the fact that the spirit sword exchange meet was about to begin, the bunch from No. 60 High School were all feeling somewhat antsy.It was impossible to not be nervous. After all, both schools’ honor was at stake. Their levels were virtually the same, so the difference would be in their ability to focus mentally… but it was hard to say, since this had a lot to do with mindset.Usually when they trained, it was in a relatively closed environment. Tomorrow, however, they would be showcasing their ability to fly their spirit swords under thousands of gazes, as representatives of their school… even the smallest mistake might destroy their entire mindset.Of course, the spirit sword exchange meet wasn’t the most terrifying thing.The most frightening thing was the grim news which Old Antique had announced in the afternoon — Mother Juan was coming…This news was far, far more terrifying than the spirit sword exchange meet.Actually, Mother Juan was also an elder at No. 60 High School, having worked diligently in the school canteen for hundreds of years; even all the first generation teachers at No. 60 High School had eaten her communal cooking before.She had a character which left a deep impression on people — her hand never faltered when she ladled out food, especially when she ladled out meat; she was never stingy as she dished up heaps of meat, earnestly wanting the students to eat more.Therefore, until now, a lot of people still remembered her communal cooking from those days. Plenty of No. 60 High School alumni who returned to visit their alma mater would all ask to once again taste her cooking… at that time, every dish she cooked had been a classic.However, that was back then.Roughly a few years ago, Mother Juan had suddenly asked Headmaster Chen if she could train two apprentices to replace her to do the communal cooking; she had decided to step back to research new cuisine. At first, Headmaster Chen had thought this was a good thing — absolutely no one, however, had expected her to go down a road of no return with black cuisine.She was a violent person, and such violence wasn’t just reflected in her researching a new menu, but also in other aspects… back then, when Shadow Stream had attacked No. 60 High School, she had killed one of the assassins with a large soup ladle…By the time Odd Zhuo graduated, the students had already said their final farewells to the era of Mother Juan’s communal cooking…Her two apprentices were fairly ordinary in terms of cooking standards and didn’t have even a tenth of her skills when she had been at her peak. As No. 60 High School’s well-known foodie, Old Antique had made this comment after personally tasting the difference.The food cooked by these two apprentices might not be much… but what the whole of No. 60 High School feared the most was Mother Juan’s love bento every Friday at noon…Her biggest pleasure was packing the black cuisine which she had invented into her love bento, then happily distributing them to every teacher and student at noon every Friday.For the teachers and students, this was unbearable suffering.While No. 60 High School had already had five headmasters, Mother Juan had been at the school since the beginning and had been in charge of No. 60 High School’s canteen for hundreds of years, so she could be considered a true senior figure. Even Headmaster Chen and Director Shi were very respectful when they saw her and absolutely no one would dare complain about her.Of course, Headmaster Chen also received his own lunchbox of black cuisine from her.At that time, Headmaster Chen could only brace himself, and beneath her smiling gaze, finish eating his stir-fried chili mooncake…After all, a lot of time and thought had gone into the preparation of this lunchbox. The food might be very dark… but her intentions were very bright.The path of food exploration was a difficult one to begin with.Hence, even though all the teachers and students at No. 60 High School were miserable in their hearts, they chose to suffer in silence. They could only hope that Mother Juan would research brand new cuisine sooner rather than later and the dark food would no longer be dark……The spirit sword exchange meet happened to fall on a Friday. On Thursday, Mother Juan prepared the menu for her love bento in advance as always. However, when she checked the numbers, she realized that there were actually six people less than usual that Friday.She patted herself on the head as she immediately remembered the student exchange meet at No. 59 High School. Without a moment’s hesitation, she hurriedly made six special bentos and flew off on her Louis Vuitton flying sword to deliver them.And so, this was the scene now…In the utterly silent school dormitory, Wang Ling, Lotus Sun, Super Chen, Feather Lin, Hero Guo and Old Antique all sat in a row. In front of each of them was a love bento that had been meticulously prepared by Mother Juan.The pink bento box was an undisguised display of her young maiden heart.This middle-aged woman in front of them wearing a light yellow apron over a snow-white chef’s uniform, with curly hair tied up in a small ball under her chef’s hat, was Mother Juan.At the moment, she had her hands on her hips as she said in an overbearing manner, “Everyone, hurry up and eat while the food’s still hot! I specially made these six bentos to deliver them beforehand! They’re full of all sorts of nutrients to build up your body’s health, so that everyone will be able to better face the spirit sword exchange meet tomorrow!”“…”Wang Ling took a deep breath.His sense of smell was much more sensitive than that of ordinary people — even with the “black seal” on this love bento, he could already detect a smell that was far, far weirder than that of the fruit and vegetable juice which Tang Jingze had given them.…If they ate this, it could be game over for all of them tomorrow!“Everyone, dig in… let’s not betray Mother Juan’s good intentions…” In the end, Old Antique was Old Antique; he didn’t break down even in such a situation, and instead behaved quite calmly.Bracing himself, Old Antique was the first to open the lunchbox, and everyone was shocked — today’s meal unexpectedly seemed very normal?“Is this stir-fried potato strips?” Old Antique asked as he picked up a crystal clear potato strip with his chopsticks.Mother Juan shook her head and said, “No, this is heavenly silkworm potatostrips ² .”Lotus Sun pointed to the tomato slices next to the potato strips. “Then what is this dish?”“Oh, this dish~”With a smile, Mother Juan said, “This dish is called bloody hell tomatoes ³ !”Everyone: “…”