Chapter 28 Dinner
"Hori, didn't I remind you and Coach Ryuzaki to call and send the ingredients this morning?" the girl in the lotus green school skirt asked, hands on her hips, "Did you oversleep and forget again?"
Horio scratched his head and glanced upwards, "No, there are other ingredients, so let's not waste them."
"You..."
"Peng Xiang, forget it, let's see if there are any other ingredients that can be cooked."
"It seems that there are no suitable ingredients to cook. Does anyone of you know how to cook these?" The three children of Qingxue were all in distress as they looked at the delicious dishes in the house.
"I heard this place is far from the city, and you can't usually buy food there."
"It's too late to go out now." Sakurano looked at the sky where the sun was no longer visible.
"Oh right, why don't we look for Senior Kazama," Tomoka's eyes lit up, "I remember hearing that Senior Kazama's family runs a Chinese restaurant. Maybe she can help us."
"Peng Xiang, it's not good to trouble you, senior..."
"It's okay. Kazama-senpai is such a nice person, she will definitely be willing to help us."
"Hori, don't run away," Tomoka Kosakata grabbed Horio who was about to sneak out and waved her fist. "I'll leave the matter I asked Kazama-senpai to help you with. Do you have any questions?"
"No... no," Horio swallowed, "Of course... no problem."
Suddenly she was called to the sidelines, and after listening to Horio's words, Kazama realized that she almost missed dinner tonight. In order to not go hungry after a hard day's work, she took on this important task without hesitation.
It’s just cooking for ten people, with each person having a bowl of Chinese food.
"Senior, these are all the ingredients we have left..." Several first-year students from Qingxue almost bowed their heads in the dust, "It's all because we didn't prepare in advance and bothered you."
"Don't be like this, just keep your head up, it's not a big deal," Fengtou said without raising his head, "These ingredients are enough for me, can you please help me with it?"
Several people were delighted and nodded in unison, "Of course no problem."
"Thank you so much, Kazama-senpai!"
"No big deal."
The sunset faded and the night crept in from the window. When the boys came back from the court, several long white tables in the open space outside the villa were filled with meals and the aroma filled the air.
"Wow, who made this? It smells so good!" Kikumaru was the first to go to the table.
"This whole table was prepared by Kazama-senpai," Tomoka said as she walked out of the kitchen carrying dishes, her tone filled with undisguised pride. "Kazama-senpai is truly amazing."
When the Hyotei people who had pulled out their chairs and were about to sit down heard the word "Kazama", Atobe's fingertips, which were pulling at his tie, stopped at his Adam's apple, Oshitari's movement of pushing up his glasses was stuck in mid-air, and even Shishido forgot to pout, and they all turned their heads as if the pause button had been pressed.
"This is the last dish... Hey, why are you all standing instead of sitting down?"
"Well, Kazama-san, let me say..." Oshitari's smile was a little stiff, "There shouldn't be any strange ingredients in these dishes, right?"
The others nodded in agreement.
"Strange food..." Feng Jian suddenly realized, "You are missing the stinky tofu from last time, right? Sister Ling made it last time, and I haven't mastered the essence of it yet. But if you want to eat it, you can..."
The next words were interrupted by the boys' uniform protest, "Absolutely not!"
"That kind of thing..." Shishido Ryo covered his mouth, his face looking ugly as if he had eaten a fly.
Feng Changtaro continued, "It smells really bad."
"It stinks terribly."
"Anyway, I don't want to see that kind of thing again in my life!"
"This food is really not fancy, right, kabaji?" Atobe looked unhappy, as if he was thinking of the unpleasant experience last time.
“Usu.”
"So, Agan's dry sauce dish originated from Lingjie's 'stinky tofu,'" Fuji said, sitting across from Fengjian. "But the name is just as impactful as the dry sauce, which is quite interesting."
"What's so interesting about this, Senior Fuji? The name of this dish alone makes me lose my appetite." Taocheng still felt a lingering fear as he stuffed food into his mouth.
He felt a chill down his spine when he heard that Shishido Ryo of Hyotei was hit in the face by that thing and fainted on the spot at the last cultural festival.
"It's as destructive as my smash, no...it should be even more powerful."
“Actually, stinky tofu is delicious…”
As soon as Kazama said this, he was strongly opposed by others, "You are the only one who thinks so!"
The teenagers who refused to give in on the court finally reached a consensus on not eating stinky tofu.
"Every photo Kazama takes is great," Fuji leaned forward slightly, his eyes falling on the phone in her hand facing the dishes, "Do you like documenting your life?"
"It's okay, actually it was for President Tezuka to see..." Kazama put away his phone, looked up and met Fuji's smiling sapphire eyes, and then he realized that the surroundings fell into a brief silence.
The Seigaku guys stared at her with wide eyes, the noodles in Momoshiro's mouth fell onto the plate with a "plop" sound; Oishi hurriedly handed sushi to Kikumaru, trying to break the silence; Echizen glanced at Kazama from under the brim of his hat, then continued to eat with his head down; and the Hyotei guys had different expressions, their eyes wandering between Kazama and their captain, and the atmosphere fell into a strange silence.
Realizing that he had just said something that might be misunderstood, Kazama gripped the edge of his phone tightly with his fingertips, his ears turning red. He deliberately raised his voice to change the subject, "Well, what I meant was that President Tezuka might not be used to the local food abroad, so taking a picture for him might just help him. Everyone, hurry up and eat, it won't taste good if it gets cold..."
As she spoke, she stuffed a piece of potato pancake into her mouth.
Taocheng laughed: "Yeah, yeah, President Tezuka must miss the local food. It's really thoughtful of Kazama, hahaha..."
"I think this potato pancake is delicious. Would you like to try it, Oishi?"
“Yeah, I think it’s delicious too.”
On the other hand, on Bingdi's side, several people turned their eyes to their own minister. The young man placed one hand on the chair, tapping the back with his fingertips. His cufflinks gleamed coldly in the twilight, and he looked completely unaffected. "What are you all looking at me for? Do you want to experience running laps?"
Everyone looked away in unison. Hibiki picked up a piece of sushi and brought it to his partner. "It's really delicious, Yuushi."
"Well, then I'll give you my share too, Yueren."
"Hey, is this true?"
The evening breeze, carrying the aroma of food, blew through the boy's hair. As plates clattered, only Kazama was still obsessed with the topic of stinky tofu: "It's really delicious..."
The three-day training camp is coming to an end, and the Kanto Tournament finals are just around the corner.
"Qingxue, you beat us, but don't lose to others again. I don't have the patience to see you make a fool of yourself a second time." Atobe raised his right hand high, snapping his fingers. The silver watch on his wrist flashed a cold light. "Let's go, Kabaji."
He watched Hyotei's luxury car roll across the road covered in the golden and red sunset glow, its taillights flashing one last time, like stars swallowed by the setting sun. When Kazama lowered his head, he saw that the notebook cover still had a hint of body warmth—the warmth that Huadi had just handed him.
"Is this... for me?"
The mountain-like figure just nodded.
"Kachi-san, who asked you to give me this book, 'Tennis Terminology for Beginners'?"
Huadi didn't say anything.
Kazama tentatively asked, "Atobe-kun?"
Huadi nodded silently.
She opened it and saw a signature on the title page that was as gorgeous as his own, in gold foil, but in the corner it was written in small letters: "Chapter 3 'Intercept' has a schematic diagram, so clumsy people should be able to understand it."
Her fingertips brushed over the gold-plated signature, and when her peripheral vision caught sight of the small words in the corner, she couldn't help but curl the corners of her lips - the guy who even put on airs as a mentor and wrapped his words of encouragement in three layers of fancy clothing, actually went out of his way to draw a diagram and stubbornly called her "clumsy".
Fengjian closed the notebook and smiled knowingly.
Atobe-kun is really... cute in his awkward way.
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