The Onion-Cutting Ninja's Secret Crush

60 Deciding on the Contestants

An hour later, the last contestant's dish had been presented to Xiao Ming and Mister Yu, making the casting come to its official end.

Even though most of the contestants had already left the venue and there were only a couple of the most curious still sticking around, the host, E Cheng Jun, stepped forward with a smile to give the small speech.

"Time's up, everyone! I hope that you were successful in making your dishes and had fun. By now, all of your dishes should have been tested by our judges. Our two main judges, Mister Yu and Mister Xiao, will now make their way behind the stage and discuss which dishes they deem to be the best.

"This process will likely take a couple of hours as I'm sure there were a lot of awesome dishes presented to them today. So you don't have to stick around. You will be informed through the contact information that you left with us whether your dish made the cut or not and a list of the contestants that made it to the first official episode will go online at eight pm today.

"So for now, I will have to bid you farewell. On your way out, you can take a look at the lobby. We have gathered some of the dishes that the preliminary judges thought of well so that you can give them a taste as well and see how you compare.

"These dishes were all provided by the other contestants in the hope that you will provide them with feedback. So, after giving them a taste, you can leave your opinion on the cards that are provided next to each dish. We will show these on the website of the show later on. It is up to you whether you want to leave your name or if you'd rather provide your comment anonymously.

"Now, let me wish you all a wonderful day and I hope to see you again next week!" She smiled and bowed before she waved at the contestants and indicated the way out of the hall.

The remaining contestants clapped her hands, save for the two that were standing in the first row, just staring behind her.

E Cheng Jun wasn't quite sure what to make of the two of them but she still continued to smile and wave, finally going behind the stage together with Mister Yu and Xiao Ming.

As soon as they were out of earshot, she couldn't help but heave a sigh of relief. "Phew! This was harder than I thought it would be. The two contestants left in the first row were staring so intently, I was afraid there was something wrong with my clothes." She hurriedly patted her chest and hips, making sure that nothing was peeking out anywhere. No, everything seemed to be alright.

Xiao Ming gave her commiserating smile. "Yes, they were like that when we were testing their dishes as well." He could imagine that it had absolutely nothing to do with either of their work and was just the way that Nin Sha usually behaved but it was still a little unnerving when you were stared at all the time. And there really was no way not to notice it. If somebody stared at you like that, it just made your skin crawl.

Even Mister Yu furrowed his brows and rubbed his chin, nodding slowly. "Those contestants were indeed rather strange. In fact, I'd like to have a word with you about that, Xiao Ming. Let's go and start the discussion."

Xiao Ming inclined his head and hurriedly bid his goodbye to E Cheng Jun before he followed Mister Yu. For this part, there wouldn't be too much on camera, just a few shots of them sitting there with their notes, discussing. So after just a scene or two being filmed, they could actually discuss things all by themselves.

Mister Yu usually wasn't somebody who would keep anything back but considering that this was a show and that he wasn't quite sure how much would be shown on TV later, he still felt that it would be better to be a bit more careful. After all, his granddaughter had warned him several times.

Sitting down, he immediately took out the notes he had made at the side between tasting the dishes and pointed to a couple of them. "I marked down a few candidates that I felt had very notable dishes, whether that was in terms of how they presented them or their taste being really refreshing. They would be the first I would choose to let into the first episode."