Cooking!
It can express emotions.
And it can warm a person's whole life!
Even with the God's Tongue, when Mana was a student, she actually enjoyed indulging alone in the atmosphere of appetizers, soups, side dishes, main courses, and red wine at high-end restaurants, savoring the chef's intentions.
Sometimes, she would go shopping. When she felt hungry, she would eat her favorite fried foods, wontons, and barbecued dishes in familiar eateries.
It was evident that, unlike her daughter, who despised ordinary cuisine, Mana, in her youth, did not feel that those ordinary places would slight her.
On the contrary, the human touch made her feel another kind of happiness!
Just that kind of feeling might not happen again.
Nowadays, she couldn't even find deliciousness in the most exquisite caviar.
So, how could these food street shops and places entrance her?
...
"I often wonder."
"In time, the appearance of a dish I would like, what would it be like?"
"Japanese beef?"
"Australian lobster?"
"Korean ginseng?"
"Bluefin tuna?"
"Or Iberian ham, caviar?"
"These represent the world's rare ingredients, but have never made me happy."
"So I always believed that what would completely move me was a super dish full of various culinary essences!"
"Yet never did I expect that the dish to conquer the God's Tongue would be a dish of fried rice made with spinach, bok choy, and rice."
Speaking here, Mana, who had fully recovered, suddenly displayed a look of respect when she looked at Zane.
Obviously, she was deeply impressed by Zane's talent and cooking.
Afterward, she hastily got up, bowed to Zane, and softly said, "Zane, thank you!"
"It was your cooking that made me see hope again in the darkest moment of my life."
...
"Sob, sob, sob!"
"Wonderful, it's truly wonderful!"
"I... I... sob, sob, sob... I really don't know how to thank you... sob, sob, sob..."
Beside her, seeing Mana regain her spirits,
Anne couldn't help but cover her mouth with both hands and cry.
Mana hurriedly turned to look at the crying Anne, and her eyes suddenly filled with tears.
Recalling that over these years, when she was at her most helpless, the only person who had been by her side was this loyal and devoted secretary. Therefore, her heart felt a bit warm too.
"Anne, you have struggled hard all these years!"
Finally, she could only raise her hand slightly to gently pat Anne's shoulder and softly say.
On hearing this, Anne immediately shook her head, raised her tear-filled eyes, and firmly said, "Not suffering! Compared to the pain and suffering that Madame Mana had to endure during her life, what were my efforts and struggles?"
"Moreover, without your guidance and training from the beginning, with my own dull talent, how could I have become a WGO executive?"
"So for you, even if I die, I would do so willingly."
"Anne, it should be me thanking you!"
Looking deeply into Anne's eyes, Mana was full of contentment inside.
...
The strong.
Wherever they go, they are respected.
Especially in this "supreme gourmet" culinary era.
Chefs like Zane, who were young and highly skilled, could win Mana's respect! Because they could create a dish that could conquer the God's Tongue with ordinary ingredients, just this audacity and ability made her sincerely admire and respect him.
Even without exaggeration, in the future, there might not be a chef like Zane again in the entire world!
And she, who had the ability of the God's Tongue, would inevitably be unable to leave Zane's cooking in the future.
"Since I left the Nakiri family."
"In the past ten years, I have been searching for various dishes and cuisines around the world."
"Along the way, I also met many talented chefs."
"Their dishes were not lacking in excellence, nor in the kind of creativity that could impress me."
"But for some reason, they could never conquer God's Tongue with their cooking, nor gain my approval."
"Every time they made food, I found it hard to swallow."
"Perhaps."
"In the entire culinary world nowadays."
"For any chef, I, Mana, am an insurmountable barrier."
"But this barrier, at the tavern tonight, was broken by a dish of fried rice."
So in a certain sense, to her, Zane was what she considered to be the world's strongest chef, with no doubt about it!
After pouring out her feelings for years to Anne, Mana then expressed her thoughts to Zane sincerely.
"Ah?"
"The world... the world's strongest?"
Anne, wiping her tears.
Hearing such high praise from Mana for Zane, she couldn't help but be surprised again.
Each year, "THE·BOOK" updates three-star restaurants, and these three-star restaurant chefs basically represent the top power of this world!
And yet, of these chefs, not one has gained Mana's approval!
So, Zane only relying on a dish of Comet Fried Rice was able to obtain the title of "world's strongest" from Mana?
Anne couldn't help but feel a bit bewildered, as if she were in a very vague and unreal dream.
But this dream... was ultimately too real!
"Sigh!"
"It's just a pity."
"I can't eat this dish of fried rice every day."
Otherwise, one day, I might feel disgusted with the taste again, just like before after adapting to the God's Tongue!"
Although Zane's cooking had already reached a level that even the God's Tongue had never reached.
But the God's Tongue also evolves, and when it grows to be able to adapt to the taste of Comet Fried Rice in the future, Mana would still be unable to escape the fate of starving to death.
But to be honest, this result already made her quite satisfied.
After all, for a dying person, being able to taste a dish she likes again before death, there really was no regret!
And, just thinking about those chefs who aimed to conquer the God's Tongue.
In the end, they were all driven to a complete breakdown because their cooking skills couldn't keep up with the evolution of the God's Tongue. Some of them couldn't even return to the kitchen because of this psychological shadow.
Therefore, Mana was very afraid in her heart, and also did not want Zane to step into their fate.
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