You're not dating someone, are you?

Lin Qianqian's expression changed when she saw Zhou Fan spit out all the pastries.

"Are these pastries... really that awful?"

She had put a lot of thought and hard work into making them.

Although she knew they might not taste great, she hadn't expected such a strong reaction from Zhou Fan.

"Awful doesn't begin to cover it. I seriously suspect you're trying to poison me!"

Lin Qianqian had made these pastries herself.

Normally, when someone made something by hand, it was a gesture of goodwill, at the very least.

Even if it tasted bad, you shouldn't say so outright. In fact, you were supposed to say it tasted good-that was how social niceties worked.

But Zhou Fan simply couldn't bring himself to say it.

Because this stuff tasted absolutely terrible!

Even if Lin Qianqian had made it, he couldn't lie through his teeth.

"Is it really that bad?" Lin Qianqian pursed her lips, thinking he was overreacting.

"Why don't you try one yourself?"

"Fine, I will."

With that, Lin Qianqian picked up a pastry and put it in her mouth.

The moment it touched her tongue, before she had even started chewing, an intense burnt taste spread through her mouth.

Her expression instantly froze.

This tastes awful...

She had never eaten anything so horrible.

"Ptooey! Ptooey! Ptooey!"

Lin Qianqian hurriedly spat out the pastry, then spat several more times before she barely managed to get the burnt taste out of her mouth.

"It really does taste a little bad..."

Even she felt embarrassed now.

"Right? Did you really think I was lying to you?"

In truth, Zhou Fan had thought Lin Qianqian had done this on purpose and was trying to "poison" him!

But now that she had tried it herself...

Zhou Fan could finally confirm one thing-Lin Qianqian wasn't trying to poison him. She was simply a terrible cook!

"It's actually not that bad. The flavor is just a little lacking. It'll be fine with a few improvements..." Lin Qianqian argued.

But even she sounded less and less confident as she went on.

"Take these back with you," Zhou Fan said.

He really couldn't stomach this particular kindness.

"Fine, if you don't want them."

Despite having no leg to stand on, Lin Qianqian remained defiant.

"I'm leaving. I'll come see you again tomorrow."

She left.

Watching her graceful figure retreat, Zhou Fan was still rather baffled.

He couldn't figure out what Lin Qianqian was trying to do.

Did she really want to ask him for cultivation advice?

He couldn't make sense of it.

Still, he had no intention of turning Lin Qianqian away.

Because he had gained quite a bit from fighting her, too.

He had always fought mutant beasts and rarely fought Espers.

Although mutant beasts were humanity's greatest threat, they weren't the only one.

Humans were also among humanity's greatest enemies!

In fact, humans understood other humans better than mutant beasts did.

Which meant they also knew better how to deal with them.

Aside from mutant beasts, humans killed more humans than anything else!

Therefore, Espers needed to learn not only how to deal with mutant beasts, but also how to deal with other Espers!

Zhou Fan had never had many chances to fight other Espers.

He had learned quite a lot from his fight with Lin Qianqian today.

Compared to mutant beasts...

Espers were better at thinking during combat, studying their opponents' weaknesses, then overcoming a stronger foe despite being weaker themselves.

Zhou Fan could clearly feel that fighting Lin Qianqian was completely different from fighting mutant beasts!

"I could spar with her a few more times. It would help improve my fighting ability, too."

Back home.

Lin Qianqian lay on her bed, feeling so exhausted she could barely move.

It wasn't physical exhaustion, but mental fatigue.

She glanced at the box of burnt pastries on the table.

Zhou Fan's verdict echoed in her mind.

"That jerk actually said my pastries tasted awful... How dare he!"

"No, I have to make him admit he was wrong!" She was furious.

She had made that box of pastries after more than a dozen failed attempts and had thought they were pretty decent.

Yet Zhou Fan had dismissed them as utterly worthless.

That jerk!

They only tasted a little bad, didn't they?

Did he really have to embarrass me like that?

Lin Qianqian couldn't bear being treated this way.

She swore she would make a batch of delicious pastries!

And make Zhou Fan admit he was wrong to her face!

Lin Qianqian was fired up for battle.

The next day.

As soon as she got up that morning, Lin Qianqian launched her pastry-making campaign.

The second attempt... the dough was too hard. A failure.

The sixth attempt... too much sugar. A failure.

The tenth attempt... the heat was too high.

Failure!

Looking at the entire basin piled high with failed pastries...

Lin Qianqian suffered an unprecedented sense of defeat.

She had started out brimming with confidence, but now she looked as though her soul had left her body.

She was an esteemed Esper with an s-rank superpower!

And she couldn't even manage a single pastry?

How humiliating!

She didn't even know which step she was getting wrong.

She followed the instructions every single time.

Yet something unexpected went wrong every time.

This feeling... was more agonizing than fighting mutant beasts!

"Mengyao knows how to make pastries, doesn't she? I'll call and ask her."

Lin Qianqian suddenly remembered that Li Mengyao knew how to make pastries.

She washed the flour off her hands, took out her phone, and called Li Mengyao.

The call connected quickly.

"Hello? What's up, Qianqian?"

"Mengyao, you know how to make pastries, right?"

"Sure. Why? Are you craving my homemade pastries?" A cheerful voice came through the phone.

"I want to learn how to make them. Could you come over and teach me?"

"What?!"

A shocked voice came from the other end, followed by the sound of someone falling off a table onto the floor.

"Mengyao, are you okay?"

"I-I'm fine. I'll be right over!"

Li Mengyao hurriedly hung up.

Ten minutes later.

She arrived at Lin Qianqian's door in a frantic rush.

The moment she stepped inside...

Li Mengyao was dumbfounded at the sight of Lin Qianqian wearing an apron, her hands covered in flour.

"Oh my god!"

"Did the sun rise in the west today? Xixi, what made you want to make pastries?" Li Mengyao couldn't believe it.

She knew her best friend very well.

Aside from being talented at cultivation, pretty, gentle, kind, beautiful, and gracious, she had plenty of shortcomings.

The biggest of them was that Lin Qianqian was utterly hopeless in the kitchen!

Li Mengyao had tried teaching her to cook before.

The result?

The first time Lin Qianqian learned to cook, she blew up the pot.

The second time, she nearly blew up the kitchen.

Li Mengyao had been so frightened that she never dared let Lin Qianqian learn to cook alongside her again.

Lin Qianqian had never liked cooking, either.

Yet now...

She was actually wearing an apron and learning to make pastries?

The world must be ending!

"Hurry up. I've been following a tutorial, but I can't get it right no matter what I do."

"Come teach me," Lin Qianqian said.

But Li Mengyao wasn't concerned about that at all right now.

"Xixi, why do you suddenly want to learn to make pastries?"

"I just suddenly felt interested and wanted to learn. Is that not allowed?"

Li Mengyao looked utterly serious.

"I don't believe you. Let me guess. They say that when someone suddenly makes a major change, it's always because of something or someone."

"Xixi, you're not dating someone, are you?!"