Chapter 26: Memories Are the Best Dish

"No need for a performance."

Mikami Ai was uninterested, completely disregarding the club members' wishes—here, no names are given, using "club member" instead, at Qingshan Li's own request.

Speaking of which, Qingshan Li suddenly realized that every girl he had met so far seemed to have some problem.

Shouldn't normal people not be like this?

Was it because this was Japan, and in Tokyo? Or because they were in puberty? Was his own puberty in his past life this strange?

"Thank you!" Senior Ando braced her arms on the cooking counter and lowered her head.

Mizuguchi's eyes were moist, his arms pressed tightly against the seams of his school uniform trousers, bowing at ninety degrees.

"Tsk." Kisue took the bass off her shoulder, seemingly clicking her tongue in secret?

"If you have any questions, please ask away, even if it's someone else's privacy, I'll embellish it all and tell you!" Senior Ando said.

"This isn't cooking, no need for embellishment, and I don't need anyone else's privacy, huh? Are you being sarcastic, telling me not to be curious about your privacy?" Mikami Ai asked.

"I absolutely didn't mean that!" Senior Ando banged her head on the cooking counter again.

"Whether you do or not, if you don't answer, I'll have to bring the Student Council President to compete with you." Mikami Ai said.

"Please!"

"It's a simple question." Mikami Ai said, "Why did you join the Cooking Club? Why do you insist on cooking?"

As long as one knew Mikami Ai's purpose, one could explain the motive behind all her actions.

The reason for choosing the Cooking Club when there were other options was very important in the evaluation.

"The reason, for cooking, the reason is indeed important." Senior Ando sighed emotionally.

She seemed to have become serious.

"When I was very young, my father went to cook at a certain important person's house, because that important person's house had children, so the important person allowed children to come in and play."

"That time, father took me there, it was a house so big I thought it was another world."

"I stayed in the corner, as if I had really come to another world, not daring to act rashly, carefully observing my surroundings."

"At that moment, a little girl leading a dog passed by, and the dog bumped into me."

"The angelically cute little girl helped me up and let me eat a piece of meat, which her father made for her by hand, it was the most delicious meat I had ever eaten."

Senior Ando was immersed in her memories.

Kisue seemed to be hearing this for the first time, unable to help but ask: "Because of that piece of meat, Senior, did you fall in love with cooking?"

"Do you know how big the dogs of rich people's houses are?"

"Ah? I don't know, but they're generally big, to be precise, any size is possible!" Kisue kept correcting her answer.

"My ambition in cooking is as big as the dog that bumped into me back then!"

"Senior, I have truly understood the meaning you want to express."

"Senior Ando!" Male club member Mizuguchi was about to cry again.

It turned out that mastering both literary and martial arts would bring wealth and the emperor's house; put bluntly, it meant studying cooking hard to be a dog for rich people.

Qingshan Li looked at Mikami Ai, trying to read her expression to gauge her evaluation of Senior Ando's answer.

It seemed no result had come yet, Mikami Ai had a look of contemplation.

"What about you two?" she asked the other two again.

"When I was young, my stomach and intestines were not good, my mother always personally cooked food beneficial to the stomach and intestines for me to eat, so I have my current healthy body—I also want to be like my mother and become a warm cook." Mizuguchi answered.

"Not bad." Unlike how she treated Senior Ando, Mikami Ai immediately showed an appreciative expression.

After all, Senior Ando's experience was so complex that clarifying it alone required a lot of time, and then she had to convince her own ethics before finally making a judgment.

"What about you?" Mikami Ai looked at Kisue.

The ribbon on Kisue's chest was also the color of the second year, the same grade as the two from the Yaken Club.

"I was in the Light Music Club in junior high." Kisue also used a reminiscent tone, "The same sheet music, no matter how I played it, I couldn't play it well, but others could do it easily."

"So you gave up the Light Music Club full of enemies and came to the cooking room to play the guitar?" Senior Ando asked.

Kisue picked up the kitchen knife.

Unlike the single-edged blade Senior Ando used, the one she used was double-edged, easier to cut with than a single-edged blade, but not as sharp as a single-edged blade.

"What does brandishing a kitchen knife mean?" Senior Ando asked again.

"I just wanted to look at the kitchen knife." Kisue put the kitchen knife back.

"Senior Ando, it's a bass, not a guitar." Mizuguchi reminded softly.

"Mizuguchi, how many times have I told you, a cook who doesn't dare to speak loudly, customers won't feel safe eating the food he makes with his own hands!"

What spurted out when speaking loudly was not just confidence, but also saliva.

"You continue." Mikami Ai slightly raised her head toward Kisue.

"Back then, those people told me, as long as I played according to the sheet music, it would be fine—so I understood a truth, humans have limits, maybe there are only one or two things where 'playing according to the sheet music is fine,' so I came to the Cooking Club."

"What do you mean?" Senior Ando didn't understand.

"You mean you want to find something you're good at?" Mikami Ai confirmed.

"Yes." Kisue nodded, "I also want to achieve 'playing according to the sheet music is fine,' so I chose the Cooking Club, feeling that cooking is the club most suited to this."

"What nonsense are you talking!" Senior Ando flew into a rage, "The same kind of fish in the same river, because the water flow is different every day, the taste won't be the same, how can cooking possibly be 'playing according to the sheet music is fine'!"

"After coming to the Cooking Club, I understood another thing, it turns out what they played according to was the sheet music in their own hearts."

Kisue was like a bass that had lost its strings.

"So you came to the Cooking Club just to confirm whether you have talent for cooking?" Mikami Ai asked.

"No, I just want to know if I really only like music."

"Like it?"

Kisue held the bass, plucked it lightly, and sang without emotion: "Holding a kitchen knife~, when cutting vegetables~, it's also the sound of a bass~"

"Senpai Ando, what are you doing with a kitchen knife?! Put it down!" Mizuguchi grabbed Senpai Ando.

"Mizuguchi, how many times have I told you? As a cook, you must never let go of your knife!"

"I've never heard of that before!"

"This song is called 'I Guess I Still Like Music,' I guess I still like music~"

"Saturday." Miue Ai ignored both the 'self-accompanied singing of a terrible original song' and the 'murder scene.'

After saying that, she turned and left the cooking club.

As she turned, she habitually brushed her hair with a 'light touch,' her glossy, elegant long hair swaying slightly in the air.

Aoyama Satoru followed her to the corridor, and the two returned to the school building together.

Lunch break was almost over.

"I'll taste the hamburger steak you make yourself next Saturday."

"That doesn't matter. How did you evaluate those three people's answers? I'm curious," Aoyama Satoru asked.

"Mainly Senpai Ando, right?" Miue Ai said with a smile.

"Yes," Aoyama Satoru did not deny it.

"That friend I mentioned last time also has a very large dog, a female dog, and she treats it like a little sister."

"Are you going to introduce a job to Senpai Ando? Isn't someone who carries knives around too dangerous?"

"Next time I'll bring that dog over for you to see, and you'll know how big Senpai Ando's dream is; then you won't look down on her."

Aoyama Satoru had no money; if he did, he would definitely let them get their brain waves checked for free!

How big can a dog be!

"Don't believe me? I'll just have her send a photo, although it's not as spectacular as in reality," Miue Ai said.

Just before they parted, Miue Ai showed her phone screen to Aoyama Satoru.

That dog.

Senpai Ando, I'm sorry.

【School Mystery, Main Ability is Beauty: 92.3%】

Directly added 0.2.

The system was also startled.

—The dog is just that big!

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(End of Chapter)