Chapter 107 Assessment Failure
As Pei Hening finished teaching today, she heard the assessment announcement again: "The examinees are in place, and the assessment is about to begin. Spectators, please take your seats as soon as possible."
823786 handed her the analysis report and was about to leave when he heard the announcement and looked up at the assessment area.
Seeing its strange reaction, Pei Hening asked in confusion, "What's wrong?"
823786 said, "Titi's students went for the assessment."
Is it Frank?
Or is it that unknown alien race?
"My calculations show that there is a 98% chance of failing this assessment."
Pei Hening remembered that Titian had recently been teaching cooking, and asked curiously, "What's the difference between the cooking exam and the close combat exam?"
823786 confirmed that there was still plenty of time and said, "Go and see for yourself."
Pei Hening's vision contorted for a second before she was thrown into the audience by 823786.
She first sat down in her seat, sent a message to Chu Xuange, and then observed the audience sitting around her.
Pei Hening spotted Ping Yuan's excited face at first glance, glancing back every now and then.
Following Pingyuan's gaze, she spotted Titien sitting in the last row, arms crossed, leaning back in her chair with an unpleasant expression.
Yes, Pingyuan's schadenfreude was too obvious and quite unreliable.
She was brave and not afraid of Titien.
Pei Hening turned her attention to the assessment area.
When she saw the person being assessed, she paused for a moment; it was Frank.
Frank was dressed very professionally today, wearing a chef's uniform and a tall white chef's hat, looking like a chef from a Michelin-starred restaurant in the West.
Is Titien angry?
"To correct you, she's been angry all month, and her hair is the best proof of that."
"These two students are quite impressive to make Titien so angry."
"Dian won the Best Temperament Award at the last Magic Forest Festival."
"This is the first time I've seen Titian so irritable. Did she give in because she didn't get the Outstanding Teacher Award? It can't be that she's been fooled by her students, can it?"
"Stop talking, Titien is looking at you."
Upon hearing this, Pei Hening subconsciously looked in the direction where Titian was, and she was indeed looking at them.
The cooking test is much more interesting than the melee combat test.
The cooking assessment lasts for one hour.
From identifying ingredients to preparing dishes with four added attributes, one needs to be proficient in both ingredients and cooking methods to pass the assessment on time.
Does Frank possess this qualification?
He took out the ingredients that needed to be identified, picked out a specific part, and put it in his mouth.
The analysis of the effects and processing methods of ingredients is quick and uses very professional terminology.
"This student's analysis is correct, and there is hope for passing the level."
"Eating the bitterest part of a bitter fruit raw? Doesn't he have a sense of taste?"
"The assessment did not restrict the methods of identifying ingredients, and his actions were legal and compliant."
"So, he still has a chance to clear the game?"
"The way Titián taught him to identify ingredients was too crude and completely violated the code of conduct for elves."
Frank picked out the ingredients he needed and began cooking.
His cooking methods are so bad they make your eyes go black.
He laid the ingredients in the pot, sprinkled on a thick layer of seasoning, covered it, and turned up the heat.
Pei Hening felt inexplicably familiar with his technique, which resembled an exaggerated version of the cooking videos of foreign housewives she had seen on short video platforms.
His action sparked even more discussion among those around him.
"Is this how Titián teaches his students?"
"Is this what you call cooking?"
"All the ingredients have been wasted!"
"This isn't cooking, it's brewing poison! This is outrageous!"
"Who were the three judges for this assessment? This is terrible."
"He actually opened another pot? Could it be that he's planning to process four portions of poison—uh, dishes—at the same time?"
Pei Hening subconsciously looked at Titian and saw that she had a calm expression and was ignoring the surrounding discussions.
He is quite composed.
She looked at the big screen again, watching Frank's bizarre cooking techniques, and secretly clicked her tongue in amazement.
Someone sat down next to her. Pei Hening looked up, smiled, and said, "Gege, you came pretty fast. I thought you were going to be late again today."
Chu Xuange habitually took her hand and whispered, "Lu En had something to do today, so he only gave me the usual classroom objectives and didn't increase the difficulty. I came over after class."
While they were talking, Frank had already started cooking all four pots.
Chu Xuange noticed his cooking method and his eyelids twitched. This foreigner was simply wasting a lot of good food.
He spoke with difficulty, emphasizing, "Baby, you have to be careful about what you put in your mouth. You can tell from the chef's appearance that some dishes are not fit for human consumption."
Pei Hening thought of the soup Frank had asked her to critique last time and nodded decisively: "Okay."
A short while later, Frank lifted the lids of the four pots one by one.
A strange, bitter taste spread in wisps, clinging to the audience like a ghost.
Some audience members who are sensitive to smells left their seats the moment they smelled the strange odor.
Frank plated the four oddly colored dishes and waited for the magical artifacts responsible for assisting with the assessment to deliver them to the judges.
Pei Hening's gaze followed the magical creation and soon spotted the three judges of this assessment—all unfamiliar faces.
Two women and one man remained unfazed as they faced the dishes delivered by the magical creation.
The female teacher on the far left, with long brown hair and wearing a black and gold magic robe, took off her black gloves, picked up a spoon, and took the first sip.
Many viewers looked at her, wanting to see her reaction.
But her fair and beautiful face remained unchanged. She drank water to suppress the strange taste in her mouth and then tasted the other three dishes.
After the other two judges finished tasting, she spoke first: "Your cooking is unconventional, and your methods seem strange, yet you unexpectedly extracted the essence of the ingredients, which can increase attribute points. On that point alone, you could have passed. Unfortunately, the taste is really hard to praise, and—"
The brown-haired teacher raised his hand, revealing his greenish-blue skin, and said helplessly, "With the random negative effects and food poisoning status, I can only give you 50 points."
The other two teachers gave similar evaluations, and one of them even joked, "Maybe you're not suited for cooking, but rather for researching potions with negative effects. If you're interested in that, you can come find me."
The teacher with long brown hair smiled gently and said, "I'm sorry, you failed this assessment."
Frank reached up and took off his chef's hat, looking bewildered.
He didn't expect to fail the test. Titien must be very disappointed in him.
Frank glanced around but didn't see Titien, and his heart sank.
Chu Xuange leaned on Pei Hening's shoulder and chuckled, "The judges were being too tactful."
She watched the audience leave one after another, and gently nudged his head: "Let's go too."
They left the audience section of the assessment area.
Pei Hening suddenly grabbed Chu Xuange and hid behind a nearby statue.
A middle-aged man with a good figure, slicked-back hair, and refined and handsome appearance, wearing a silver-white suit, hurried by.
When Chu Xuange saw the man's face clearly, his eyes darkened and became dangerous.
Qin Lianghan!
This was such a big surprise for him!
Pei Hening hugged his arm tightly and whispered, "Gege, let's follow them."
Chu Xuange calmed himself down and gently patted the back of her hand to comfort her: "I know what I'm doing and I won't act impulsively."
They followed him and discovered that Qin Lianghan was heading towards the school's plantation.
Qin Lianghan intercepted a beautiful girl with long, curly black hair, wearing a silver necklace and a light yellow dress with short, fluttering sleeves.
The girl with long curly hair is approximately 1.6 meters tall, with an error margin of no more than two centimeters.
Qin Lianghan reluctantly asked, "What price must I pay for you to lift the curse?"
His shrewd eyes were fixed on the girl with long, curly black hair.
[Feeling helpless like a dog] She looked Qin Lianghan up and down as if he were an interesting object, and asked curiously, "How did you find me?"
She paused. "Props? Skills? Divination? Prophecy? Or those strange cards on the highway?"
Qin Lianghan could tell that she felt no remorse whatsoever, only curiosity about why he had come looking for her, and he felt a lump in his throat, unable to calm down.
Seeing that he remained silent, [like a helpless dog] was not happy and snorted coldly: "Why are you so stingy? You won't even answer a question."
Qin Lianghan's eyes flickered, and he tentatively asked, "If I answer your question, will you lift the curse?"
[Helpless as a dog] Her eyes were filled with shock. She rolled her eyes at him speechlessly: "Do you think I'm an idiot?"
Qin Lianghan's face turned green, and he broke down, saying, "What have I done to offend you? Why are you treating me like this?"
[As helpless as a dog] With that innocent and harmless pretty face, she said matter-of-factly, "I'm happy to."
She naturally reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear. Suddenly, the white bracelet on her wrist, next to the silver one, opened its eyes, flicked its tongue, and crawled up her fingers to her shoulder. She glared at Qin Lianghan, walked past him, and went outside.
Qin Lianghan wanted to chase after him, but then he heard a cheerful voice: "Don't you dare follow, or I'll curse you!"
It must be said that her threat was quite effective.
[Like a helpless dog] She walked briskly outside for a while, then bumped into Pei Hening and the other person.
She had only glanced at it casually, but her gaze instantly locked onto Pei Hening, her eyes filled with pure surprise: "Sister Ning!"
Pei Hening looked at the person in front of her with a puzzled expression. After thinking for a while, she realized she had never seen her before and asked, "Do you know me?"
[Feeling helpless like a dog] happily replied: "Yes, I'm from Guangming Village. I'm so glad to finally meet you."
Guangming Village?
Pei Hening had no recollection of it, so she asked Chu Xuange for help.
He lowered his voice and explained, "Do you remember when you were fifteen and had pneumonia and were admitted to the ICU? We prayed for you then, and my uncles, aunts, and I donated money to many places in your name, including Guangming Village."
After the donation, Pei Hening's condition did improve.
Chu Xuange became even more attentive to the matter of praying for blessings, installing the necessary infrastructure in those areas and even setting up a special department to provide targeted assistance.
The villages that received assistance also lived up to expectations, and in just two or three years they were lifted out of poverty and began to achieve a moderately prosperous life.
Guangming Village is a Miao village nestled in the mountains, with a well-preserved Miao culture.
In Chu Xuange's memory, this place seemed to have developed tourism.
[Feeling helpless like a dog] sincerely asked, "Sister Xiaoning, how did you end up on this godforsaken highway? How have you been this past month? What's your ID? Do you need any supplies? I'll give them to you~"
Chu Xuange was not pleased with how Pei Hening clung to him like a helpless dog.
But seeing her sincere and pure concern for Pei Hening, he suppressed his displeasure.
Pei Hening saw her seriousness and shook her head: "I don't need the supplies, you keep them."
Feeling a bit lost after being rejected, [Dog-like Helplessness] tried to understand, saying, "Sister Xiaoning, my name is Zhao Tiantian, and my ID is [Dog-like Helplessness]. What's your ID? Is it [Princess Ningning]? Let's exchange IDs."
Seeing the expectation in her eyes, Pei Hening relented: "My ID is [Dibi Dibi]."
The girl is probably not very old, and she doesn't hide her emotions well; her joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness are all written on her face.
Zhao Tiantian's eyes lit up: "We've interacted a lot before, Sister Xiaoning!"
She opened the light screen and saw that she hadn't directly replied to Pei Hening's message. She felt a little guilty: "Sister Xiaoning, the second curse I gave to [A Dream] is that he will have bad luck every time he gains an attribute point."
Pei Hening:!!!
Is Zhao Tiantian a genius?
Pei Hening was genuinely curious: "Your curses against him are quite unique. Can you tell me why you cursed him?"
Zhao Tiantian felt even more guilty; she had only wanted to have fun.
If Xiao Ning knew what she was thinking, would she think she was a bad person?
Pei Hening saw that she had a bitter face, full of guilt and confusion.
After a while, she came up with an excuse and said confidently, "The dream seemed very anti-human, and I was very scared, so I cursed it. Sister Xiaoning, I'm really not a bad person."
Chu Xuange stood silently beside Pei Hening, pretending to be invisible, and began to design a 'perfect' ending for Qin Lianghan.
Speaking of which, Zhao Tiantian's two curses are really interesting. They cut off Qin Lianghan's leveling speed by undermining his resources, making him easier to deal with.
Pei Hening readily accepted her reason and then asked, "Did you just see [A Great Dream]? What did he want with you?"
Zhao Tiantian complained softly, "I saw him. He wanted me to lift his curse, but I didn't agree. He's super stingy; he wouldn't even tell me how he found me."
Pei Hening laughed. Qin Lianghan meeting Zhao Tiantian and being cursed by her was nothing short of karma and retribution.
The girl tentatively said, "Sister Xiaoning, I don't want to break his curse."
Seeing the conflicted look on her face, Pei Hening said frankly, "No need to untie it, I have a grudge against him!"
Zhao Tiantian's eyes lit up, and she looked very happy: "Yay, I knew he was an anti-human villain."
Seeing that it was almost time, Pei Hening asked, "We need to go back now. Do you want to come with us?"
Zhao Tiantian nodded and followed Pei Hening, but kept a distance of about one meter from her.
Seeing how distant she was, Pei Hening took another look and noticed a small white snake crawling onto her ear.