Quick Transmigration: The Supporting Female Lead Stays Out of It - Chapter 2: Chef 1

The current Lin Dan was a bit dazed, and she instinctively called out the system in her mind, then froze—what was a system? She held a soup spoon in her hand, and a shallow layer of milky white soup was seeping out of the spoon, smelling fragrant and appealing. A faint aftertaste lingered in her mouth, clearly she had just taken a sip. But the problem was, Lin Dan couldn’t figure out who she was, what she was doing, or why she would inexplicably appear here.

She stared at her own small, calloused hands, feeling that these hands were hers, yet also not hers. She stood here, but clearly did not belong here, like an unexpected visitor from another world, completely out of place with everything around her. She couldn’t even understand what was happening right now.

But the people around didn’t realize that the Lin Dan of the moment was no longer the Lin Dan of before. One of them pointed at a plate of dishes placed in front of her and said, “It’s still lacking something in flavor.” But what exactly that flavor was, he couldn’t say for sure. After all, he wasn’t a professional chef, he was just more sensitive to taste than ordinary people.

Lin Dan was startled by this sentence, and looked up to see that the other person was a young man wearing fine clothes. He was slender, with fair skin, and handsome features. If he didn’t speak, he would look like a young girl. Like Lin Dan, he also held a soup spoon in his hand, tasting the dishes, with his eyebrows slightly furrowed and his expression very serious.

“Indeed, it lacks some finesse.” Another person said slowly.

Lin Dan turned her head to look, and found that the person speaking this time was an old man with white beard. He was currently savoring the taste, as if he was trying to discern the aftertaste of the soup.

Lin Dan quickly shifted her gaze to look around, even though she didn’t understand anything in her heart, she didn’t show any panic on her face. She seemed to be used to dealing with this kind of sudden situation.

“What do you mean lacking some finesse? I think it’s almost the same, there’s no difference.” This time, the person speaking was a middle-aged man with a stern appearance, wearing a robe embroidered with auspicious clouds and blue qilin, whose status seemed to be not low. As soon as he finished speaking, the people standing around began to nod in agreement, with a slightly flattering smile on their faces.

But Lin Dan didn’t focus her attention on him, but turned her head to look to one side. Standing about seven or eight meters away from her was a young girl, only thirteen or fourteen years old. In front of her was also a square table, and on the table was also a plate of dishes. Judging by the color, fragrance, and taste alone, it was almost indistinguishable from the plate in front of Lin Dan.

Combining the environment, people, and dialogue information, Lin Dan quickly came to the conclusion—she seemed to be competing in culinary skills with someone.

That young girl heard the words of the young man and the old man with the white beard, and a smile appeared on her face. Seeing that the middle-aged man didn’t support her, her eyebrows immediately knitted together, looking a bit stubborn: “I ask that the Marquis please taste it again carefully.”

Marquis? Lin Dan, who was desperately gathering information, quickly glanced at the middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man was just about to speak, when the handsome young man impatiently said, “Can’t you tell yourself whether the dish is good or bad? Why do you want to be a chef?” This obviously was addressed to Lin Dan, because his eyes, with their clear black and white, were staring directly at Lin Dan. Only then did the young girl become happy, lowering her head and smiling shyly, pressing her lips together.

The previous Lin Dan had already tasted her own dish, but she didn’t admit defeat. It wasn’t appropriate to say “didn’t admit defeat”, one should say that she simply couldn’t taste where her dish was lacking, what flavor it was missing, and the young man who thought she had already lost was very dissatisfied with this.

Having already figured out the situation, Lin Dan didn’t need to deal with the changing situation by sticking to the same method. She needed to act out this play according to a normal person’s reaction, so she put the soup in her spoon into her mouth and silently tasted it, and went to the side of the disgruntled young girl, and scooped up the soup from her plate.

These two plates of dishes were all crab roe and chicken soup with bok choy, which looked like just a few pieces of cooked white cabbage leaves, but it took considerable skill to do well. The way of cooking was like this, the simpler the dish, the harder it was to make.

Lin Dan originally only wanted to casually eat a few mouthfuls and then take the initiative to admit defeat, so that she could get away as quickly as possible, and then find a place to quietly digest this sudden situation. But when she actually tasted the two plates of dishes, her taste buds and brain unexpectedly gave a judgment automatically. She was surprised to find that her taste buds seemed to be much more sensitive than ordinary people, and even a slight difference could be magnified several times by her tongue, and this was exactly what the previous Lin Dan lacked the most.

“I lost.” After putting down the soup spoon, she said sincerely, “My bok choy is slightly bitter.” This kind of bitterness couldn’t be tasted by ordinary people, only gourmets with extremely sensitive taste could distinguish it.

The old man with the white beard looked at her deeply and reminded, “That’s right, when you thickened the soup, you didn’t wait for the bok choy to be fully cooked, which made the heating time of the starch excessively prolonged, making it easy to scorch and become bitter, and the taste wasn’t smooth. And the essence of crab roe and chicken soup with bok choy lies in two words, one is fresh and sweet, and the other is smooth. Your dish looks presentable, but it is still lacking in some flavor.”

Lin Dan nodded and said again, “I lost.”

Seeing her expression was open and composed, with no resentment after defeat, the old man with the white beard slightly nodded. The middle-aged man sighed with emotion, his face showing reluctance, and a woman hidden behind the people covered her chest and fell down, scaring everyone.

“Oh no, Qi fell! Lin Dan, come and see your mother!” Immediately, two women helped the woman up, and repeatedly beckoned to Lin Dan.

Lin Dan, quickly gathering information from the words to supplement her identity, ran over without hesitation and said in a loud voice, “I ask that you all help me find a doctor, I’ll take my mother back first.” After the words fell, she naturally took over from one of the women to support the woman. The woman who had free hands didn’t notice the abnormality at all, and hastily led the way in front. Soon, she brought Lin Dan back to her own home.

After a lot of commotion, the doctor finally came and said that the woman had no serious illness, but it was a result of excessive worry that led to fainting, it would be fine after drinking some calming medicine.

Lin Dan took the prescription and took off a silver hairpin from her head as a consultation fee. She didn’t know where the woman kept her money, and even if she knew, the money box was definitely locked. Now the woman was fainting, and she couldn’t ask her for the key, she could only do this.

The doctor looked at her with a look of pity and said in a gentle voice, “The Marquis has already paid the consultation fee, keep the hairpin yourself. Give this prescription to me, I’ll have the servants in the Marquis’s mansion help you get it, your mother is fainting and can’t be left alone. Alas…”

Looking at the doctor who was shaking his head and sighing as he slowly walked away, Lin Dan realized that the previous culinary competition seemed very important to her, otherwise, everyone wouldn’t have such great sympathy for her, and her mother wouldn’t have fainted after she admitted defeat. But losing was losing, this was an undeniable fact, so Lin Dan had no remorse at all for what she had done.

Seeing that the woman’s face was covered in cold sweat, she picked up the copper basin and went outside to fetch water, but saw a sixteen or seventeen year old young man walk in, and said in a low voice, “Lin Dan, I’ve already got the medicine for you. One packet of medicine and three bowls of water, boil it over high heat and then simmer it over low heat to a bowl, and don’t throw away the remaining dregs, you can boil two more doses, three doses a day, and drinking for seven days would be about the same.”

Lin Dan quickly expressed her thanks, and after sending the other party away, she went to the kitchen to boil the medicine. Whether it was splitting wood and burning the stove or carrying a bucket of water, this body could complete it subconsciously. The decoction had already boiled, and was gurgling and bubbling, Lin Dan removed some dry wood, changed to simmering over low heat, and then moved a small stool, sat by the stove, and sorted through her memories.

She seemed to have gotten used to doing this, so she quickly understood her situation. Her father was Lin Baotian, the head chef of the Yongding Marquis Mansion. Because the Yongding Marquis was a foodie, he was particularly particular about food, so Lin Baotian, who had superb cooking skills, was highly valued by the other party, even taking him along for military campaigns, the status could be seen. Because of this, Lin Dan and Qi’s days in the Marquis Mansion were very good, not only having their own private courtyard to live in, but also having maids and servants to serve them.

But two months ago, Lin Baotian suddenly died of a serious illness. On his deathbed, he passed down to Lin Dan, his only daughter, the cooking skills and cooking knives he had summarized throughout his life. Lin Dan had loved the young Marquis since she was a child, and the other party, like the old Marquis, was also a foodie, so she practiced cooking skills every day, just to make the young Marquis look at her a little more.

After her father’s death, she took over the mantle and continued to be the head chef in the Marquis Mansion. Although she was only twelve or thirteen years old, her skills were already very skilled. One day, she made a signature dish she had been practicing for a long time, Braised Sea Cucumber with Scallions, but she heard the young Marquis say that the dish was far inferior to the small maid in his courtyard.

Lin Dan had always been arrogant, and immediately went to compete with that small maid, but she didn’t expect that the small maid would shake out a shocking secret. It turned out that Lin Baotian’s cooking skills and knives were stolen from her grandfather, Lin Baotian wasn’t the descendant of the imperial chef with the Golden Knife at all, but a person who deceived his master and destroyed his ancestors.

The small maid was named Yan Langqing, and her grandfather was Yan Bo, the imperial chef with the Golden Knife of the former dynasty, who was quite famous in the industry. After he left the palace, he took in a few apprentices, one of whom was Lin Dan’s father, Lin Baotian. Later, Yan Bo was seriously ill and was about to die. Yan Langqing’s father happened to be away from home and couldn’t rush back in time to see his father for the last time. Lin Baotian buried Yan Bo, and took the opportunity to steal the imperial golden knife and the Yan family’s recipe, and disappeared without a trace from then on.

Yan Langqing’s father was deeply resentful of this, and traveled around with his wife and children, finally finding Lin Baotian in the Yongding Marquis Mansion, but he didn’t expect that the other party had already died, so he asked his daughter to sneak into the Marquis Mansion to understand the situation of his enemy’s descendants, and look for an opportunity to challenge Lin Dan, and the bet was the imperial golden knife and the Yan family’s recipe.

Lin Dan was very competitive, how could she be willing to lose face in front of the young Marquis, and also to defend her father’s reputation, she immediately accepted the challenge… Later, she lost, and then she became the current “Lin Dan.” The handsome young man who served as a judge before was the young Marquis, and the middle-aged man who clearly knew Lin Dan was no match for Yan Langqing but still spoke up to defend her was the old Marquis.

Although the name was the same, Lin Dan could clearly sense that the previous self and the current self were not the same person at all. The previous Lin Dan’s heart and eyes were filled with the young Marquis, she could be ecstatic for his smile, and also be at a loss for his frown, but now, Lin Dan felt nothing at all, thinking of the other party was like thinking of a stranger.

What she urgently needed to solve now was no longer the issue of identity and memory, but where to go. Having lost the competition, and with a frail mother who needed care, what should she do in the future?