Madeline placed the watch on the table with dignity and stepped forward as a solemn judge between the two dishes: Xiao Ping's dish exuding the scent of the sea and assorted spices, and James's dish filling the space with the aroma of spices and rich meat.
Madeline looked at the two dishes hesitantly, and just as she raised her fork to begin tasting, something unexpected happened.
Sticky suddenly woke up! His small nose twitched frantically, as if the smell of the "Sol" fish had penetrated his cold dream world. He didn't wait for anyone's permission; in the blink of an eye, he jumped from the sofa to the edge of the table, passing James and Madeline like a gray phantom.
Sticky completely ignored the pork dish, not even casting a glance of disdain at it. With his agile claws, he sank his nails into the largest fish slice in Xiao Ping's dish, pulled it out with lightning speed, then jumped to a corner of the living room to begin devouring it with pleasure, emitting faint sounds indicating complete satisfaction.
Silence reigned in the living room for a moment before Xiao Ping burst into a cold, triumphant laugh.
"It seems the first judge has already announced his decision!" he said, looking at James whose features had frozen in shock. "Animals possess an infallible instinct, Jamesy... He chose 'purity' and left the 'mud' for you."
Madeline looked at Sticky, then at Xiao Ping's dish missing a slice, and said with a mysterious smile: "Since Sticky, who is hard to please, risked his dignity for this fish, and since the smell of the fish managed to overpower the richness of your meat, James... I declare Ping the winner of this battle!"
James's face turned crimson, not because of his abilities, but from embarrassment. "This... this is cheating! Cats are instinctively biased towards fish!"
"A loss is a loss," Xiao Ping replied, retrieving his gold watch from Madeline and putting it in his pocket coldly. "Remember the condition, partner.. From now on, this house is forbidden to pigs. And now, since I've won, I believe I'll enjoy my lunch while you think about how not to eat pork for life!" Xiao Ping's words were like a lightning bolt striking James's body at that moment.
James didn't say anything, just acted calmly, but he took the pork dish and threw it in the trash before turning around.
Before returning to the table and under everyone's gaze, he picked up a fork and took a slice of fish, then took a bite.
At that moment, he felt the various spices and seasonings overwhelming his tongue, before eating some of the rice which was also delicious.
"I admit... your cooking is very good." With those words, everyone in the room fell silent.
Xiao Ping didn't expect James, who had shown stubbornness earlier, to admit his cooking was good. But he wasn't shocked for long, because he soon took the fork from James's hand to taste a slice of fish.
"You... this is my fork!" James shouted, trying to retrieve the fork from Xiao Ping.
"Go get your own fork, instead of taking someone else's!" Xiao Ping retorted to James.
"What! It was clearly you who took it from my hand?" James spoke.
He wanted to take the fork from Xiao Ping's hand when he felt a poke in his left shoulder, so he turned and saw that Madeline had brought a fork for him.
He smiled before taking it and sitting in front of the table, extending the fork in his hand to take another slice of fish, while Madeline sat on the sofa and extended the fork in her hand also to take a slice of fish from in front of Xiao Ping, who was sitting on the floor opposite James, with a smile appearing on her beautiful face.
Xiao Ping looked at the scene before him and couldn't say anything because he wasn't accustomed to social moments, whether with family or friends, because he had neither. He lived alone and depressed in his room, never having any encounters with anyone except himself. He was frighteningly lonely, never finding anyone like him in his life, which is why he felt emptiness in his simple and miserable life... and why he turned to fantasy like novels and other works, to delude himself with imaginary ideas and forget his miserable reality.
That's why, upon seeing this situation, he didn't know how to express his feelings, so he chose silence and finishing his food, as he hadn't eaten since coming to this world.
"Ping! Will you be our personal chef?" Madeline asked while chewing rice with some parsley.
'Hehehehehe, no hero in the works I've read has experienced this situation, and that's due to the writer's mind focusing on giving him the strongest abilities or a system in his world to quickly climb the ranks of power in his new world, neglecting the development of his writing or his psychological growth that occurred upon moving to a new and different world, which is completely illogical... When heroes move to another world, they get what they want just by wishing for it. That's very ridiculous, but that's not the problem here!... The problem is with me, because I believed all that and fell into the illusion of fantasy! That's why when I woke up yesterday in this body... I tried to act as if I were in shock... just to present myself as someone with good writing. And as for the beliefs I wanted when I transferred... I threw them away and no longer want any of that!' Xiao Ping thought to himself before saying: "Madeline Sama, you will be the cook and responsible for washing the dishes. Just because I know how to cook doesn't mean I'll be your cook."
'Huh? No no... I must make him cook for us always... But washing the dishes will be on me!' Madeline was only annoyed by his saying he wouldn't be their cook, and as for the rest, she was accustomed to washing dishes for a long time, so it wouldn't make a difference. But not for the first part. "I'll give you four copper coins every week if you're willing to be our cook!"
"I refuse!" Xiao Ping refused coldly, still eating.
James intervened at that moment and said, "I'll increase your salary as a partner investigator, with an additional 6 copper coins for every meal you cook for us!" James was an excellent cook, but he did it only as a hobby, not out of love for it.
"Agreed!" Xiao Ping quickly agreed to James's offer, astonishing Madeline. But James knew Xiao Ping's real situation without his earlier lies to Madeline about losing his clothes in a bet!
'I just have to cook for them, and I'll easily get 6 copper coins, in addition to my salary as James's partner investigator! Speaking of money! I feel like I forgot something, oh I remembered, it's the wine bottle on the first floor!' Xiao Ping thought to himself as he quickly swallowed his food and ran towards the hall before going down the stairs and fetching the bottle from the table!
When he returned to the second floor and was standing at the hall door, he heard James's voice saying: "And now, Ping, let's go shopping."
James left the fork on the table next to the empty dish, then got up and headed to the coat rack by the door leading to the hall next to Xiao Ping, who was still confused.
"Don't tell me you forgot that we're going to buy some clothes for you, or do you want to keep wearing my clothes forever!" James laughed and gently patted Xiao Ping's shoulder before taking his coat and hat.
Also, he took Xiao Ping's coat and hat from the rack before handing them to him. Xiao Ping took the coat and put it on but didn't button it. Then he placed the black hat on his head and pressed it down.
"This suits you more than the hunting hat!" James praised while bending down to take his shoes from in front of the hall entrance before putting them on. Then he gestured for Xiao Ping to put on one of the shoes Madeline had taken out for him.
"Did she get rid of my previous shoes?" Xiao Ping asked while slowly putting on his shoe.
"Yes, that's guaranteed! I don't know if you noticed this or not, but she has a strangely sensitive nose for smells!" He approached Xiao Ping's ear before saying: "She's not a power-bearer, but she told me before that she inherited that from her late father. It seems her father was a power-bearer from a certain path!"
'Heredity! Do supernatural powers transfer to normal people if one of their parents is a power-bearer? I don't know, so I shouldn't think about this!' Xiao Ping looked towards the sofa and saw that Sticky had returned to it but wasn't sleeping this time; instead, he was looking at Xiao Ping.
...
End of Chapter ~ To be continued