Multiverse Gourmet Hunter

Haruto set down his chopsticks and looked toward Mao and Sanjie.

"The green peppers and bamboo shoots are cooked perfectly. They’re crisp and refreshing without being undercooked or going soft. The pork is tender, well seasoned, and still has just the right amount of bite, and you did an excellent job keeping the juices inside."

"The seasoning is balanced, and the sauce coats everything evenly."

"You could absolutely call this a successful plate of shredded pork with green peppers."

Meili immediately nodded in agreement.

"Exactly! It already tastes really good!"

"But Mao and Sanjie keep saying it still isn’t enough!"

Even now, she could not quite understand what kind of dish the two boys were trying to create.

Haruto smiled and gave her a simple explanation.

"This dish really is close to perfect as traditional shredded pork with green peppers."

"But what you two need is something that goes beyond the traditional version, right?"

Mao and Sanjie nodded.

Only then did Meili finally understand why they had refused to settle for what they had already made.

Haruto paused for a moment before continuing.

"If you want to surpass the traditional dish, then just polishing the existing recipe isn’t enough."

"You need to rethink it."

"Break out of the usual framework and rebuild the dish in a new way, while still preserving the qualities that make it shredded pork with green peppers in the first place."

Mao and Sanjie would probably have reached that realization eventually, but it might have taken them a great deal of trial and error.

Haruto’s words immediately made both boys stiffen.

Until now, they had been obsessing over the details—how to make traditional shredded pork with green peppers better, how to improve the seasoning, the timing, the knife work.

Neither of them had seriously considered stepping outside the traditional recipe itself.

Mao and Sanjie looked at each other, excitement suddenly returning to their eyes.

"Haruto-san’s right!"

Mao’s eyes lit up as he turned toward Sanjie.

"We need to change the entire recipe! Let’s make a completely new version of shredded pork with green peppers—one that belongs to us!"

"That’s it, Mao!"

Sanjie tightened his grip around his knife, his fighting spirit returning in full.

"We’ll overturn the traditional recipe and make something so good that Master Zhou Yu has no choice but to acknowledge us!"

Seeing the two of them fired up again, Meili smiled happily as well.

But just as Mao and Sanjie leaned over the cooking station and began discussing how to redesign the dish, they ran into an extremely awkward problem.

Everything they had bought was meant for ordinary shredded pork with green peppers.

Green peppers.

Bamboo shoots.

Pork loin.

That was about it.

If they wanted to reinvent the recipe, they naturally needed something new to add.

Unfortunately, they had nothing else.

"What do we do, Sanjie?"

Mao stared at their ingredients as his excitement faded into helplessness.

"We only have what we need for the original dish. There’s nothing else to work with!"

Sanjie looked just as frustrated.

A chef could have all the ideas in the world, but without ingredients, those ideas would remain nothing more than ideas.

Meili sighed as she watched them.

It was already late at night.

Every shop nearby had long since closed, so there was no chance of going out to buy more ingredients now.

The mood inside the bamboo shelter sank once again.

Haruto looked at the three discouraged faces and decided to give them another hint.

After all, he wanted to taste the improved version too.

He stood, walked out of the shelter, and headed toward a persimmon tree growing nearby.

It was an old tree with a broad canopy, its branches heavy with ripe fruit.

Dozens of bright red persimmons hung among the leaves like tiny lanterns, particularly striking beneath the night sky.

Whenever the evening breeze passed through the branches, the ripe fruit swayed gently and released a faint, sweet fragrance.

Haruto reached up and picked one.

The persimmon was soft in his hand, its skin so thin that even a little pressure seemed capable of breaking it.

While considering how best to nudge the three of them in the right direction, Haruto rubbed the dust from the skin with his fingertips, raised it to his mouth, and took a bite.

Soft, sweet flesh immediately filled his mouth.

The juice flowed across his tongue and down his throat, richly fragrant without becoming cloying, carrying the distinctive mellow sweetness of a perfectly ripe persimmon.

There was not the slightest trace of astringency.

Haruto’s eyes brightened in genuine surprise.

"Wow. These persimmons are seriously sweet."

He paused, glanced back toward the shelter, and added almost casually,

"With fruit this good growing right here, it’s a shame nobody’s picking any."

His surprised praise, combined with the persimmon’s fresh, sweet aroma drifting into the shelter, immediately caught the attention of Mao and the others.

Mao first looked toward Haruto.

Then his gaze snapped upward toward the tree covered in red fruit.

His eyes lit up.

"Persimmons!"

He spun toward Sanjie.

"That’s it! Sanjie, I know how we can change the dish!"

Sanjie blinked.

Then realization struck him too.

Of course.

They could use persimmons.

The flesh of a fully ripened persimmon was soft and naturally sweet. It could help thicken the sauce while also adding another layer of gentle sweetness to the shredded pork and green peppers.

It was exactly the ingredient they needed.

Mao and Sanjie immediately began picking fruit from the tree.

Haruto watched the three of them spring back into action, anticipation growing in his eyes.

They briefly blanched the persimmons to loosen the thin skins, removed the seeds, then mashed the flesh into a smooth purée.

Mao prepared the green peppers, bamboo shoots, and pork loin while Sanjie took charge of the wok.

The iron wok heated until it was nearly glowing.

A small amount of cool oil swept across its surface, and the moment the pork entered, a loud sizzle erupted along with a wave of rich meaty fragrance.

Sanjie’s wrist moved rapidly, sending the wok through clean, controlled arcs over the flame.

He stir-fried the pork until it was about eighty percent cooked, sealing in the juices before immediately removing it from the heat.

Using the remaining oil, he quickly bloomed a little minced garlic before tossing in the green peppers and bamboo shoots.

Two quick turns of the wok followed.

Then came the persimmon purée.

The fruit softened immediately beneath the heat, melting into a glossy pale-red sauce.

Sanjie returned the pork to the wok and stir-fried everything over fierce heat for several more seconds, coating every strand of meat evenly before transferring the dish to a plate.

The pale-red sauce gleamed around bright green peppers, tender white bamboo shoots, and reddish-brown strips of pork.

It looked glossy without appearing greasy in the slightest.

The mellow sweetness of persimmon mixed with the savory richness of pork, the refreshing aroma of green peppers, and the fresh sweetness of bamboo shoots.

Even the smell alone was enough to make everyone swallow.

"Everyone, try it!"

Sanjie placed the finished dish on the table and eagerly gestured toward it.

"This one’s definitely going to be good!"

"Then I’m not missing out."

Haruto smiled and immediately picked up his chopsticks.

He had helped point them toward this version, after all.

Naturally, he intended to taste the result properly.

He picked up several strips of pork coated in the glossy sauce and put them into his mouth.

His eyes brightened immediately.

The first thing to reach his tongue was the mellow sweetness of the persimmon.

It was nothing like the direct, aggressive sweetness of refined sugar. Instead, it spread softly across his palate like warm spring honey, gently enveloping his taste buds.

Then came the pork.

The strips had been cooked perfectly, tender and juicy with just a slight springiness between the teeth. The moment Haruto bit down, the meat juices burst out and blended with the sweet-savory sauce.

Finally came the crisp freshness of the green peppers and the delicate sweetness of the bamboo shoots, balancing the richness of the pork and the mellow sweetness of the persimmon purée.

The four flavors unfolded one after another but still blended naturally into a single whole.

The sweetness never overwhelmed the savoriness.

The pepper never dominated the dish.

Every bite felt precisely balanced, making it difficult to stop eating.

"The persimmon purée gives it a soft, mellow sweetness without becoming cloying. It smooths out the salty edge of the soy sauce and makes the entire dish rounder."

Haruto nodded in satisfaction.

"And at the same time, it makes the crisp freshness of the peppers and the juicy tenderness of the pork stand out even more."

Mao, Sanjie, and Meili could no longer resist.

They immediately reached for their own chopsticks.

The moment the pale-red sauce coated their tongues, the gentle sweetness of persimmon spread first, followed by the savory juices of the pork and the crisp freshness of the peppers.

The flavors unfolded in layers.

Mao finally let out a long breath of relief.

Sanjie’s eyes even grew slightly wet.

The two looked at each other and immediately saw the same uncontrollable smile.

"It’s so good! This is amazing!"

Meili’s cheeks were stuffed full as she spoke excitedly through her food.

"Mao, Sanjie, you two really did it!"

"This is better than any shredded pork with green peppers I’ve ever had! Even Dad couldn’t make one this good!"

With a dish like this, Meili was certain her father would change his mind.

Sanjie would not have to leave Yangquan Restaurant after all.

"Yes!"

Mao excitedly slapped palms with Meili.

"Now Sanjie can stay!"

Sanjie looked at the two of them, warmth filling his chest even as his nose began to sting.

Yet beneath the happiness, he had already made a decision.

He was going to leave Yangquan Restaurant.

Not because he had given up.

And certainly not because he envied Mao’s talent.

Quite the opposite.

It was precisely because he had worked alongside Mao to improve this recipe, cooking and experimenting together, that Sanjie had finally seen the distance between them with complete clarity.

Mao possessed an instinctive sensitivity toward cooking and an understanding of ingredients that Sanjie could not simply catch up to by staying awake longer or practicing his knife skills a thousand more times.

If he stayed at Yangquan Restaurant, he would always be looking at Mao’s back.

He would never discover a culinary path that truly belonged to him.

So he needed to leave.

But one day, he would return.

And when he did, he would place a dish he had created with his own hands before Master Zhou Yu and earn the man’s recognition through his own strength.

Mao, meanwhile, was still completely immersed in the joy of believing Sanjie could remain.

He had no idea that Sanjie had already decided to go.

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