The first two episodes of The Great Chef debuted quietly without much hype. The ratings were mediocre at best. Most of the general public had moved on from The Great Chef after its sixth season; there were newer variety shows and cooking formats to watch. For the hardcore fans, the show must be watched no matter how many seasons had passed. As the credit rolled for the first two episodes, the fan’s comments could be seen across the screen.

(:Foodie:): It looks like the direction of this season will be focused on the food. There are so many well-thought-out cooking tips!

:3Fan: Love the first two episodes. No drama, just pure cooking. Mingya is my fave, she’s just a sweetheart.

Celery78: Anthonio is so fricken cool! And he’s half-French, no wonder his cooking looks so refined. 

MrPotatoHead: I like Xinda’s no-nonsense attitude towards her competitors, but when she talks about food, it’s pure art!

IEATPIE: I don’t like Ang and his ‘I don’t need to make friends’ attitude. Is he going for the villain role?

ChefHeaven: I spy Dr. Li!

TeaDrinker456: Dr. Li is a contestant!? I didn’t know he could cook.

:3Fan: Is Dr. Li some sort of celebrity?

Celery78: Don’t know, let me see… 

Celery78: Apparently, he’s the boyfriend of some streamer.

ChefHeaven: Not just some streamer, it’s Meimei! She’s becoming one of the most influential new steamers on ZZ-Live. I heard she’s being courted by TeeBee Live to move to their platform.

MrPotatoHead: His cooking seems average.

BRUH: Blob Neutral

The audience established their early favorites by the end of the second episode as the producers had intended. The editors, under the director and producers’ direction, kept the focus on the contestants who they knew would remain until the end, sprinkling in edits of the other contestants as red herrings. Aside from the contestants, the audience gathered clues and theorized about the identity of the third judge with absolute taste. To make it more interesting, the show kept contestants’ ballots for the judge were kept hidden and eliminated the audience’s ability to narrow down the suspects.

The first week's ratings were lower than usual, but it was the natural decline of a long-running show. The producers had forgone advertisements and banked on the public interest and word of mouth to increase the future episodes. There were many people talking about the show over the net. Everyone was debating the existence of absolute taste.

(:Foodie:): I’m curious about the judges with absolute taste. While in music it is possible to have someone with perfect pitch, but someone with absolute taste is unheard of. Even the most refined taster could not name all the ingredients.

Celery78: And if you want to get technical, many refined tasters use their sense of smell to distinguish between the flavors, so in essence, absolute taste is a flawed title.

IEATPIE: What are you guys yapping about? Do you think the judge can name all the ingredients or not?

ChefHeaven: It will be interesting to see when they reveal the judge.

The fourth and fifth episodes aired the following day, but no clues were given about the hidden third judge. The guesses on the internet ranged considerably. Some astute viewers had noticed that Li Yun did very little cooking. He issued a lot of commands to his sous chef.

IEATPIE: Do you think the judge is Li Yun? 

Celery78: Maybe, I have noticed he doesn’t really do that much cooking.

ChefHeaven: Li Yun is 100% a real chef. This is how most chefs operate in the kitchen. They oversee the other staff to make sure the food is prepared correctly.

Celery78: Really? Now that you have mentioned it, his station usually looks the cleanest and most organized.

ChefHeaven: I know, right? That’s the definition of Mise en Place. Everything is precisely measured, the ingredient selection is top-notch, and the orders are perfectly executed. This ability cannot be underestimated!

IEATPIE: Take a look at this, someone did a composite of all of Li Yun’s clips.

The clips rotated around the inner Great Chef fans, and then various food show forums. Eventually, a meme of Li Yun commanding Hun Lun in the kitchen spread everywhere over the net. People with zero interest in the show saw the meme and immediately asked where it came from.

Li Yun’s abilities to prepare medicinal formulas were maximized. There were certain things he couldn’t do because of his silly childhood trauma, but as long as he wasn’t actively cooking when he prepared the ingredients, it didn’t affect him as much. He could easily complete most of the mundane tasks like measuring and laying out the ingredients. He didn’t think it would make others qualify him as a chef. Only the people who personally knew Li Yun was surprised he made it past the first episode. 

“How in the world!?” Bufu was shocked and impressed that no one was able to figure out something so simple. Bufu didn’t normally attend Shennong’s director’s meeting room, but Li Yun has a special announcement. “You got to give it to the editors, they made you look better.”

On the show, the clips showed Li Yun picking out the ingredients and using the blender. There was even a clip of him holding the chef's knife, but it cut away to another contestant. If the clip had continued playing, it would have shown Hun Lun taking the knife away from Li Yun. In the end, no one noticed that he had barely cooked anything in the first two episodes. But from the montage of the other sixteen contestants, people naturally assumed Li Yun had cooked the meal.

“Yeah, we know you can’t cook s***,” said Fatty Fang. “You got to give Hun Lun a raise for not making you look bad.”

“What do you mean? I came up with that recipe myself,” Li Yun wasn’t a good cook, but the adjustment he had made to the recipe was based on a balanced nutritional meal for the body. Taste wasn’t important to Li Yun, but he made sure the combination of nutrients was easily absorbable and beneficial to the body.

Li Yun noticed his ZZ-live chat page was becoming more lively and he had been gaining a lot of subscribers after the episode aired. Everyone jokingly asked Li Yun to reveal the identity of the secret judge. They also wondered how far he had gotten in the competition. The fifth episode had aired with twice as many viewers as the previous week.

“You’re a better poison master than a chef,” Bufu joked. Ju De and Fatty Fang joined in.

Li Yun put down his phone and returned to his actual work. “Did Lawyer Lang reach an agreement with the Chenchen hospital?” 

“Chenchen’s new law representative agreed, they are drafting up the settlement,” said Ju De. “Everyone at the hospital is nervous after seeing what had happened to the Galba Group. I made it seem like we were behind the collapse.”

It wasn’t Shennong behind the political upheavals, but Ju De used it as an opportunity to strike fear into the other competitors. A borrowed knife worked best when competitors were too afraid to think clearly.

“How is the expansion plan overseas?” Li Yun asked.

“We are buying up homesteads and auctioned properties in other countries,” said Fatty Fang. “Do you really need a lot of land? Even in the middle of nowhere?”

“Just preparation for the future. You never know where the market will move, but land will always be important and valuable.”

The clinical trials for Yunli restarted the clinical trial after the judge declared a mistrial and threw out the lawsuits. It was progressing slowly, but it was expected. It would take another year before they were to release it to the public.

“Why did you call me into this meeting again?” Bufu asked.

“I’m going to Imperial City again to see my uncle and make arrangements for the traditional ceremony over there. Before I go, I need you to investigate the Tang, Long, and Xia for me.” Li Yun had looked through the list of people who knew about the original Zhao Mengfu painting in Song Taiji’s possession. Of everyone on the list, Tang Jiang knew the most about antiquities.

“Oh, why not have your people do it?” Bufu was referring to Wing Bo and the Abyss.

“This has to be done in the open.”