From the cooking classroom filled with black smoke came Teacher Cai’s scolding:
“You little brats! Always causing trouble! Class dismissed, class dismissed!”
“Ha ha~”
The students, their faces covered in black soot, really did look like a group of gray rabbits smoked out from a fire, laughing as they filed out of the cooking classroom.
“Wow! Ye Lan, your cooking skills are really…”
Yaselin’s golden beautiful hair had been dulled to a lifeless earthy yellow by the black soot, but she was laughing so happily that tears almost came to her eyes.
As for Ye Lan, he stood expressionless in front of the stove.
Although his face was gray and dirty, his expression remained very serious:
“You can’t blame me. After all, there were no tomatoes in the ingredients.”
Ye Lan never cooked stir-fry.
He only knew how to grill or make one-pot stews, and even then, he didn’t care about taste—he only ensured a safety factor: “cooked through.”
As for “burnt,” that also counts as “cooked,” so when he was unsure, he would just cook a little longer.
This was why Su Lixiao was so worried about Ye Lan’s cooking skills.
“That boy who cooked, don’t leave yet. Come over here.”
Although visibility in the classroom was extremely low due to the black smoke, Teacher Cai’s voice still carried clearly to Ye Lan’s ears.
Ye Lan smiled wryly at Yaselin:
“Looks like I’ll have to stay a little longer.”
Having blown up a pot in the classroom, it seemed some punishment was unavoidable.
Ye Lan said goodbye to Yaselin and walked toward the teacher’s podium.
Through the thick smoke, he saw Teacher Cai still sitting at her desk; the smoke didn’t seem to affect her.
Teacher Cai kindly looked at Ye Lan and pointed to the stool beside her:
“Sit.”
Ye Lan sat down cautiously.
After he was seated, Teacher Cai clapped her hands.
The cooking classroom’s exhaust fans roared to life, and the black smoke was quickly sucked out.
Only one stove continued to emit black smoke—and that was Ye Lan’s work.
“Teacher, you’re not going to make me pay for this, are you…” Ye Lan asked cautiously.
He was broke, and eating in the cafeteria for free was purely because the communal meals were free.
Teacher Cai smiled:
“Of course not, I just want to ask you a few questions.”
Ye Lan felt a wave of relief.
Teacher Cai asked:
“Why did you think that handling the poisonous ingredients could also pass the test?”
Ye Lan replied:
“You’ve been emphasizing that these 300 ingredients are all for cooking.
So that means even poisonous ingredients can be made edible with proper handling.”
Teacher Cai laughed:
“Rare to see a student so meticulous with words.”
Ye Lan humbly said:
“Teacher, you overpraise me.”
He knew he wasn’t as pedantic as Teacher Cai imagined.
According to the Military Academy’s First Lesson Theorem—if a teacher wants to establish authority, they must give students a taste of it first.
Teacher Cai was no exception.
Ye Lan had never taken a cooking class in his previous life, so his skills were terrible, and he didn’t know Teacher Cai well.
But he knew one thing: this “authority display” must not go too far, or it would lead students down the wrong path—a major teaching error.
This was why Teacher Cai immediately stopped D Class when they began bullying their classmates.
Ye Lan believed that this test, where someone was bound to be punished, also contained a turning point for clever students.
So he thought more about Teacher Cai’s words, looking for opportunities to let E Class shine.
However, Ye Lan’s humility seemed to slightly annoy Teacher Cai.
She said:
“Since you have such knowledge, you shouldn’t hide it. What’s your name?”
Ye Lan answered truthfully:
“Ye Lan.”
“Oh? So you’re Ye Lan! No wonder it sounded unbelievable. Now I understand why E Class students were so unfriendly to you at first.”
Ye Lan could only smile wryly.
“But to be clear, I didn’t call you over to scold you for running away on the battlefield.”
Teacher Cai tapped on the screen of her lectern.
“Rumble—” The floor of the cooking classroom shook as a long table, covered with multicolored plants, rose from the ground.
“This is your personal test. You have ten minutes to identify wild vegetables not recorded in this guidebook.
Of course, this is an open-book test; you won’t have to turn in the book.”
Teacher Cai handed Ye Lan a thick dictionary titled Beiken Star Food Guide:
“You have a good homeroom teacher who understands your difficulties.
But this is my classroom. Without my permission, I don’t allow students to skip class and still expect credit.”
Ye Lan didn’t know what agreements Gongsun Shen had made with other teachers, but Teacher Cai’s words left no room for argument.
This task was different from selecting edible ingredients earlier.
He had to exclude foods listed in the guidebook, so he had to know what was in it.
But this guidebook, several thousand pages thick, was incredibly heavy.
It listed countless ingredients, many of which were very similar.
Even if given an entire day, he might not finish it all.
What should he do?
Ye Lan spent a minute flipping through the guidebook, noting the page numbers for kingdoms, phyla, classes, orders, families, genera, and species.
Then he approached the table to start identifying wild vegetables.
After eight minutes of sorting, he selected 104 plants as his answer and presented them to Teacher Cai.
When Ye Lan reported the number, Teacher Cai’s eyes lit up, and she asked excitedly:
“104 species? Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.” Ye Lan’s voice lacked full confidence because he was gambling that this Beiken Star Food Guide was comprehensive enough.
But judging by Teacher Cai’s expression, he had probably guessed right.
“Ye Lan, you really impress me. I have nothing more to teach you,” she said, glancing at the still-smoking stove.
She added:
“Except for cooking skills.”
“Uh…” Ye Lan scratched his head awkwardly.
Cooking was indeed his weak point.
“Now tell me, how did you identify these 104 plants?”
Teacher Cai picked up a plant from the basket, checking its type to ensure Ye Lan wasn’t randomly guessing.
Ye Lan pointed to the words “Beiken Star” in the guidebook:
“Since the book records ingredients on Beiken Star, I just excluded plants that could grow on its continents, oceans, and polar climates.
This way, I could identify wild vegetables not native to Beiken Star.”
“In fact, I don’t know Beiken Star’s plant communities well, so I relied on my common sense.
When I found a possible alien plant, I still needed the guidebook to confirm it, which is why I first noted the page numbers.”
Ye Lan explained his method in full.
Even using this method, it was still impressive.
It required vast geographical and biological knowledge, extraordinary courage, and the experience of having explored countless stars.