Having finished his statement, he pulled out his mobile phone, opened the WeChat payment QR code, and showed it to the few elderly men nearby,

"Each of you transfer a thousand yuan to me, and I'll share his detailed information with you."

"How can you have the nerve to charge us?"

"This is intellectual property; why shouldn't I charge for it?"

After all the elderly men had transferred a thousand yuan each, Old Gao said with a teasing smile,

"That young man's name is Lin Xu; he's my newly accepted apprentice... Do you guys need him for something? Oh, and on behalf of my apprentice, thank you for the welcoming gifts."

Everyone was speechless. Old Gao, can't you stop being so infuriating? After all these years, he still has that same cheeky, infuriating look on his face.

But since he was Old Gao's apprentice, there was no question of anyone else snatching him away. After all, Xie Baomin, generally acknowledged as the most talented of their generation, had also been this tricky old man's apprentice. Now there was Lin Xu. How is Old Gao's eye for apprentices so consistently accurate?

「In the arena.」

Lin Xu finished cutting the tofu and flexed his slightly sore wrist. He then dipped the knife in water again and carefully tilted the cut Lactone Tofu, making the whole block slant.

Then he poured a little more water over it and began to slice it thinly.

「Meanwhile.」

Having honed his knife blade, Guo Xinghai successfully cleaned the fish. He then sliced horizontally from the Fish Tail towards the head, cutting through to just behind the gills, and removed a whole fillet of Fish.

Then he removed the Fish Skin.

He picked out the fish's rib bones.

Next, he rinsed the piece of Fish in clean water, washing off any blood and surface mucus. He then used his kitchen knife to trim the fish, creating a flat surface on one end.

Then, using the kitchen knife, he sliced down along this flat surface, stopping just before cutting all the way through. He shifted the knife slightly and made another cut, this time slicing completely through. A piece of Fish, cut using the Continuous Cutting technique, was thus produced.

He rinsed the Fish in water again, spread it out, and arranged it on a black plate.

A beautiful butterfly shape emerged on the plate.

Geng Lishan nodded approvingly.

This young man's Knife Skills are not bad at all.

The butterflies he cut using the butterfly knife technique looked almost real, a true testament to his Knife Skills. It wasn't just about slicing thinly; one also had to consider the overall shape of the butterfly, the symmetry of its wings, and other details. You couldn't expect to master it without cutting hundreds of pounds of Fish.

But he learned how to sharpen the knife from that other young man earlier. I can't give full marks for that.

As for the other contestants, they also had noteworthy skills.

For example, the young man who had snatched the Carrots was now using them to create a "Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix" pattern on his plate.

The one who had grabbed the Winter Melon was using his knife tip to carve Su Shi's "Red Cliff Nostalgia" onto it.

And the contestant who had secured the cucumber was using a rectangular plate, cutting the cucumber into bamboo shapes to arrange a "Bamboo Reports Safety" scene.

As expected of the Fishing Platform. Even the younger contestants possessed impressive skills. Perhaps this is the underlying strength that allows the Fishing Platform to be a State Guesthouse?

Beijing actually had several State Guesthouses, such as the Jianguo Hotel and the Yanjing Hotel, but in the hearts of the people, the Fishing Platform remained the most important.

It couldn't be helped; its heritage was just too profound.

After Lin Xu finished cutting the tofu, he carefully lifted it with his kitchen knife and placed it into a basin of water.

Just then, the competition time was up.

"All contestants, please put down your chef's knives. Anyone who fails to comply will be disqualified."

All participants laid down their knives.

The judges stepped down from their platform and began scoring the contestants.

However, the online viewers in the live-streaming room had already made their choices:

"This first place has to go to Boss Lin, the pioneer of Hardware Cooking, right?"

"Exactly! He first did that hardware demonstration, then cut the Lactone Tofu. Logically and emotionally, he deserves a high score."

"I pick Boss Lin because his girlfriend is beautiful!"

"Damn! I can't find a reason to refute that right now."

"I'm an electric welder; I support Boss Lin."

"I work in hardware processing; I support Boss Lin too!"

After stepping down from the judges' platform, Geng Lishan headed straight for Lin Xu.

Wu Kexin, who was live-streaming, immediately followed with her phone. It was time to showcase the contestants' Knife Skills, and she couldn't get close-ups from too far away.

Arriving at Lin Xu's station, Geng Lishan picked up a pair of chopsticks, casually stirred the contents of the basin, and then, with the chopsticks, lifted out some tofu threads as fine as hair, a smile never leaving his face.

"Young man, your basic skills are quite solid!"

He said to a staff member beside him,

"Bring me a needle."

Soon, a sewing needle was brought over.

Geng Lishan handed it to Wu Kexin,

"Try to thread these tofu strands through it."

Despite being known as the 'queen of mishaps,' Wu Kexin was quite skilled at threading needles. In front of the live camera, she threaded one tofu strand through the eye of the needle. Seeing there was still space, she picked up another strand and threaded it through. In the end, she managed to thread four tofu strands through the needle's eye, thoroughly impressing both the on-site audience and the online viewers with Lin Xu's exquisite Knife Skills.

Awesome! In such a short time, he first deliberately chipped his knife's edge and then resharpened it, before cutting an entire block of Lactone Tofu into such fine strands. This demonstrates not only incredible Knife Skills but also exceptional mastery in other areas. More importantly, one must have an excellent mentality to pull it off.

After the scoring was completed, Lin Xu rightfully became the first-place winner of this round with a perfect score of ten points.

Meanwhile, Guo Xinghai received a high score of 9.5 points, with a 0.5 point deduction for his knife sharpening.

As for the other contestants, most scored between eight and nine points.

Soon, twenty contestants were eliminated.

It was now time for the second round.

A group of staff members came in, cleared the cutting boards in front of each contestant, and placed a small basket in front of them. Each basket was filled with various seasonings, dry starch, garlic, Scallions, and Ginger.

Once everything was set, Geng Lishan stood up and announced,

"The second round will test your seasoning skills. Contestants, you have five minutes to prepare a dipping sauce suitable for plain boiled mutton. Your time starts now!"

A dipping sauce? I've never practiced making one before, and the system hasn't provided any related Techniques for it.

Remembering the expectant look in his senior brother's eyes before the competition, Lin Xu reluctantly opened the Skill exchange section of the points shop and began searching for Techniques related to dipping sauces.

It's hard to refuse when you've received so much help. After all the assistance from my senior brother, today's the day to repay him...

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