CHAPTER 668: CHAPTER 667: PUBLIC OPINION (PART 1)

"Fame Points have been paid."

"Manga skill level has increased!"

"Fame Points have been paid."

"Manga skill level has increased!"

...

There were a total of three similar information prompts.

Xia Yu didn’t bother to check how much Fame Points he’d spent. After the Sapporo event, his Fame Points were temporarily in a state where they could hardly be exhausted and were continuously replenished, unless he lost his mind, cashing in all his Fame Points for Forbidden Ingredients, there would be no need to worry about the Reputation Pool drying up.

"Ah!"

A twinge of pain shot through his head.

Since the awakening of his gourmet cells and mastering of "qi," which resulted in a superhuman physique, he hadn’t felt such pain in a long time, which was enough to illustrate how terrifying the influx of information was when Xia Yu upgraded his manga drawing skill to the purple level.

After a while, his vision cleared.

"So there are so many techniques and details in manga!" Xia Yu rubbed his brows; it was as if he had forcibly stuffed an entire manga artist’s career into his memory. His previous intense study of cooking seemed to have turned into expertise in lines, storyboarding, and designing vivid characters.

Standing still for a moment, he constantly visualized human figures twisting in his mind—it was the strong desire to practice taking effect!

There was no digital drawing tablet that modern manga artists use.

Nor was there any charcoal pencil for sketching.

He went upstairs to the living room, rummaged through various drawers, and finally found an ordinary pencil and a few sheets of plain white paper. Spreading them out on the clean dining table, Xia Yu began to sketch.

It wasn’t copying; he was transferring the images from his mind onto paper, which was essentially improvisation and original creation.

For beginners, being able to outline the rough contours of a figure within 5 minutes was considered passable. Xia Yu had just picked up the pencil and didn’t care about the correct posture; whatever felt comfortable was fine. As he started, his fingers were quite stiff, drawing lines of uneven thickness. But just a few strokes later, the initially rough strokes quickly became smoother...

Ten minutes later.

"Snap!"

He tossed the pencil aside and scrutinized the swiftly drawn character on the paper, resting his chin in his hand, with an almost expressionless face.

It was a character wearing ancient attire with long hair, a red headband fluttering atop, holding a chef’s knife—a focused and determined likeness. Was this character not Liu Maoxing, the protagonist of "Chūka Ichiban"?

"It looks okay at a glance, but there are quite a few problems when you look closely!"

Xia Yu sighed inwardly.

Just like buying cookbooks to learn, for any skill, the system only provided a basic crash course. To reach higher levels of mastery, practice was indispensable.

Drawing fundamentals—lines, human anatomy, dynamics, attire, color, scenes, storyboarding, and much more—Xia Yu could claim to have mastered. But after one sketch, he found himself like a reclusive swordsman who had secludedly practiced basic swordsmanship for decades and had just descended the mountain, always feeling that something was missing and that he lacked the guidance of Inner Strength to hone his foundation...

"Let’s practice a few more!"

Xia Yu decided to compress the restaurant’s interior scene into a single storyboard panel; he looked at the table and chairs while also glancing at the large Hua Mao cat with amber eyes, watching him from close by. His strokes were smooth and flowing.

Xia Yu had his way of practicing—if need be, he would ask the system to trace memories back to recall the classic works and masterpieces from the previous world.

In short—

More observation, more writing!

...

That evening, in Tokyo.

United Kingdom Diplomatic Residence, Bedroom.

Eriina lifted her head from her desk and stretched, putting down her pen: "Finally, the third draft is out! Just need to color it!"

Beep beep!

The cell phone in the pocket of her tracksuit sounded with a message notification, and once it started, it wouldn’t stop.

What’s going on?

Confused, Eriina opened the message only to find that the LINE social group had exploded into chaos. This group, for Eriina, was practically a group for hobbyists, as each member shared the same identity with her—

Doujinshi artists!

"Wow, check out the breaking news!"

"You’re just seeing this now? Why doesn’t Mr. Kubo stay home and focus on his work instead of going to that shopping street?"

"Maybe to try Chef Xia’s cooking? But, looking at the picture of Mr. Kubo, he seems pretty upset. He could’ve gotten turned away, right? Besides, Xia’s Restaurant hasn’t officially opened yet. No one could get in, I guess!"

In the group, there was a discussion about the manga world’s great figure, Kubo Ryunosuke. Someone posted a news flash, which Eriina opened and finally understood the whole story.

She couldn’t help but laugh out loud in her heart.

Turned away?

Isn’t that normal! Showing up without an appointment is just causing others trouble, isn’t it?

Just as the doujinshi artists’ social group was abuzz, the mysterious group admin piped up:

"Got some accurate info!"

"Mr. Kubo didn’t visit to just try Chef Xia’s cooking; he wanted to discuss a collaboration! Mr. Kubo’s next work has already got its theme set—gourmet battle manga!"

Boom!

The news was like a depth charge, and the group fell silent for a moment before becoming even louder than before.

"No wonder! But Chef Xia... rejected Mr. Kubo?"

"Of course! Just look at Mr. Kubo’s face, pfft..."

"Are you reveling in his misfortune? From what I see, it’s that star chef who’s become too proud after the Sapporo competition, so full of himself! Mr. Kubo extended an olive branch only to be rejected!"

Soon, the group split into two factions, turning into a battlefield of curses and insults, leaving the admin no choice but to mute everyone.

Eriina couldn’t laugh anymore.

This is bad!

The group is silenced, but there’s still Twitter and other online forums buzzing with discussion. Eriina quickly opened her laptop, and sure enough, wherever this news was mentioned, it was causing a huge commotion. She rerouted to Xia Yu’s personal social media platform, where the situation was even more horrific. The fan camps were sharpening their knives, ready to go into battle!

"This is bad, Eriina!"

So, Eriina called her close friend right away.

It was around dinner time.

Xia’s Restaurant.

Zhu Qing was in charge of cooking dinner. She hummed a Chinese folk tune in the open kitchen, not with a spatula in hand, but a pair of silver chopsticks, stirring the dishes in the pot with them.

In the dining area, after nearly a full day of sketching, the table was piled high with a stack of papers. Xia Yu threw down the last bit of his pencil and frowned, "There goes another pencil!"

"Aunt Qing, is it ready yet?" he called out, turning his head and rubbing his stomach.

"Almost, just sit down!"

Click!

At that moment, an urgent braking sound came from outside the door. A black car abruptly stopped outside, and Xia Yu watched, dumbfounded, as a pair of blonde girls hurriedly got out of the car and rushed into the restaurant.

He then slapped the table, looked at one of the blonde girls with a smirk that was not quite a smile, and said, "Eriina, you’re practically walking into a trap, huh? And in such a hurry...?"

The girl had definitely rushed out of the house; her signature twin ponytails weren’t tied properly, and her golden hair was draped loosely over the shoulders of her green tracksuit.

Oddly enough, while she was wearing a tracksuit on top, her bottom half sported a blue and black uniform skirt paired with black tights. Her long, straight legs were so barely covered, making contact with the near-December air, oblivious to whether it was cold or not.

"This is a disaster!"

Ignoring Xia Yu’s jest, the girl leaned on the table with both hands, her breath short and her face flushed with urgency as she looked at him tensely.

"Hmm?"

Xia Yu noticed an equally anxious Tiqie Helinai, who had entered the restaurant biting her thumb, her eyes showing a hint of blame as she stared at him intently.