GFS Chapter 1

Unexpected

In most of the world, by the beginning of April, the flowers have all withered up and been scattered abroad. In this temple on a hill, however, the peach blossoms have only just begun to flower.¹

In this large, bustling city, on the border between the third and second rings², was a shop as unremarkable as a housefly. But Yuan Zhou, who was in the dimly lit building, did not think the same.

“Ai!” Sitting on a chair that only had a missing arm and a broken leg, Yuan Zhou looked around at the small room and sighed, his thoughts drifting far away.

This was the only thing that Yuan Zhou’s parents had left behind after 50 thousand RMB worth of funeral expenses.

Located on the grocer’s street and behind an office building, was this two-story shop. The upper floor made a cozy residence for a family of three, while a small noodle shop operated downstairs.

Since his parents had died three years ago, he hadn’t gone to the downstairs shop. Normally, he would even go out the back door.

Presently, the room was filled with dust. The tables and chairs had been destroyed in an accident. The dishes were all dirty. The second floor was in far better shape. Except for the living area, it was just like what it was like three years ago.

Who would have thought that, two years ago, when he had put up a notice for renting out the place,there would actually have people interested in taking up the offer.

Yuan Zhou stood, giving it a final once over. His mature face was a bit world weary and frustrated, as though he was trying to burn the disorderly noodle shop into his memory.

This expression did not last even three seconds. It was unknown what he had tripped on to make a ‘peng’ sound, but right after, Yuan Zhou became intimate with the hard tile, causing dust to fly into the air.

“Aiyou, my face.” Yuan Zhou grimaced while he got up, using a hand to rub the left side of his face that had hit the ground.

“Just wait, you. Tomorrow, there will be people coming to take over you.” Yuan Zhou immediately stood up and felt pain in his face.

He patted the dust off his body as he muttered to the old building. He sighed inwardly and didn’t say anything more.

He passed through the dirty room with a practiced walk to the kitchen area. Located near the back door was a secret, narrow staircase that could only fit one person.

He went up the stairs. Yuan Zhou’s face was expressionless as he the places that had been hurt when he had fallen.

The stairs were not long; there were only eight steps. In a few moments, he had already reached the second floor.

The second floor had far better lighting than the first floor.

Near the stairs was a creamy white shoe cabinet covered in dust. The first shelf had two pairs of old and worn leather shoes, while the second shelf contained several pairs of outdated women’s shoes. The third shelf was the most full, with a pair of polished snow-white sneakers and comfortable, new casual leather shoes.

Yuan Zhou didn’t mind the dust, directly taking off his shoes and stepping into the room with barefeet.

The relatively small second floor was divided into three rooms. Two of the rooms were close together, but not crowded. On the white door on the left hung the words “Good Fortune,” while the right door had the word “Happiness” hanging from it, visible when the door was opened. The color of the words had faded with age. The final room was located on the far right and had a yellow door.

A ‘kaca’ sound pierced the ears.³.

He twisted open the right-hand door with the word “Happiness” on the inside. The floor was covered in dirty clothes. The bedside dresser was also half open, with clothes piled haphazardly in the drawer. On top of the dresser was a black laptop, its display blinking.

In the whole room, only the two-person bed was tidy. The blanket was folded up nicely and the pillows were in their proper place.

Emotionlessly, he looked at all the dust that covered his body. Yuan Zhou grabbed clothes to change into and without closing the door, directly headed for the wooden, yellow door.

Setting down the clothes, he first washed his face in the sink. Reflected in the mirror above the sink was a mature face that seemed to be in its early thirties. His eyes were unfathomably deep and charming, displaying maturity and calmness. They gave his ordinary features a bit of the handsome uncle type charm that was popular these days.

Yuan Zhou’s hands had some faint burns, and there was a cut on his finger. His fingers could not be regarded as pretty. While the lines of his arm muscles were beautiful, his other muscles were ordinary.

He had once thought of training his abdominal muscles to pick up girls, but after three months of training, he had looked down to see that they still hadn’t developed any lines at all and  abandoned the idea.

Quietly, he cleaned up and returned to his room. His phone made a ‘weng weng’ sound as it buzzed. Wiping his hands dry, he opened up the message from Boss Wang. There was only one sentence: “Yuan Zhou, I’ve recruited someone. You don’t need to come tomorrow. Your month’s wages will be delivered to your card on time.”

He let out a sigh. Although he had resigned half a month ago, Boss had said that, per normal procedures, he had to recruit some to fill his position before he left. Yuan Zhou had wanted to leave this sad place and move elsewhere.

Seeing the picture on the table, Yuan Zhou’s heart softened. However, when he thought of the meeting with his future tenant, he became annoyed.

This was, after all, the shop his parents had filled with their hopes. They had said that if he didn’t have any success in life, he could always inherit this store, but since his parents had passed away, he hadn’t opened it at all. Currently, he was going to rent it out. Yuan Zhou felt somewhat irritated and stretched out his hand to move the photo farther away.

Lying back on the bed, he looked at the gradually darkening sky outside the window. He closed his eyes and cleared his thoughts, looking as though he was planning to sleep.

“Di di, detecting stability of the host spirit. Binding is compatible. Begin binding. Binding complete.”

A strange electronic voice suddenly appeared in his mind. Yuan Zhou opened his eyes in shock, though his face remained expressionless.

“System?” Yuan Zhou couldn’t help but ask in a low voice.

“Host, I am here.” The strict, cold electronic voice responded in Yuan Zhou’s mind.

“Ha?” This was really somewhat stupid.

“What, is there a ghost?” Yuan Zhou got up and started to look around at everything in the room, trying to identify the source of the sound, or something that was different from yesterday.

Except for the leftovers from his lunch and the lunch box that had been neatly thrown into the trash can by the bed, the room was devoid of anything different.

“There is no need to look around, host. The system is bound to your hindbrain…….” When the electronic voice said hindbrain, Yuan Zhou acted as if the thunder had come so fast, there was no time to cover his ears⁴. He reached his hand to the back of his head, carefully feeling the spot several times but was unable to discovering anything. There was no protrusions at all.

The cold, electronic voice continued, “Neither the naked eye, microscope, nor any other thing cannot see me. This is the Cooking God System. The conditions for the host are as attached. The first task has just been opened.”

“Wait, wait. What system?” Since Yuan Zhou’s search was fruitless, he returned back to bed with a calm face and asked his question.

“In order to avoid excess energy consumption, the Cooking God System will project text in the host’s mind. You only need to concentrate to read it.” With that, the cold, electronic voice disappeared entirely.

The text said: This system is from a planet you don’t know of and was invented by a famous doctor, Dr. A, to help mankind attain a higher level of spiritual enjoyment. The system has been on earth for 2,500 years. I have had ten hosts throughout history. You will be my eleventh.

Goal: The system will help you learn both Chinese and Western cuisines to become this world’s first Cooking God.

Host: Yuan Zhou (Ordinary Han Chinese human)

Gender: Male

Age: 24

Physical Fitness: C (Comprehensive evaluation based on mental reaction speed, strength, coordination, and sensitivity)

Culinary Talent: Unknown

Skills: None

Tools: None

Five Dimensions of Culinary Arts Rating: Beginner

(You are a beginner in culinary arts. In the two years of studying cooking, you have not even learned how to make egg fried rice.)

【Task】……