Chapter 553: Chapter 553: Disappointment

At that time, no matter who was eliminated, it would not be a pleasant experience.

Would they still be friends then?

Blake Walker, filled with anger, returned to his position and continued turning the grill.

Blake occasionally cut into the lamb leg to ensure the inside was cooked as well, while also sprinkling salt.

However, everyone else had plenty of seasonings.

The aroma was already filling the entire area.

With only salt, his dish was bound to lose.

Unless other contestants’ dishes were undercooked.

But by now, only a few competitors were left in the game.

How could anyone who made it this far make such a basic mistake?

Blake Walker knew that he was going to lose!

The anger in his heart grew stronger, and he became increasingly irritable.

He couldn’t help but think, why was he still competing?

No matter what he did, he was going to lose!

Why did he have to work so hard!

With this thought, Blake’s performance inevitably became less serious.

He just handled his dish haphazardly.

Cindy Clarke noticed that the time was almost up, so she put out the flame.

After all, the dish was wrapped in so many layers, it wouldn’t cool down quickly.

Then, she calmly waited for the time to pass and the judges to come over.

Grace Green and the five judges came to their side.

“Thank you all for your hard work today,” Grace said with a smile.

“The group had invested a lot in today’s competition, but little did we know that as soon as Cindy arrived, she saw through our arrangement,” Michael Greene laughed. “It really caught us off guard.”

“Yes, we thought you would only begin to suspect something when you found the ingredients. It turns out our cover was blown right from the start,” said Wesley Gordon, dejectedly.

Cindy felt a bit embarrassed, as if she had destroyed the organizer’s layout and plan.

“I’m sorry,” Cindy said apologetically.

“Hey, we’re not blaming you,” Rosaline Parker said with a smile. “It’s your ability to analyze that made you discover the truth. We can only blame our arrangement for not being careful enough for you to find out so easily.”

“You didn’t break any rules, and you even shared your findings with other contestants,” Rosaline said, still amazed at how much time had passed.

People would usually keep such decisive-winning factors a secret, but Cindy actually had the courage to share it.

Cindy became even more embarrassed by the praise and quickly waved her hand, saying, “Actually, I just found out earlier. Even if I hadn’t said anything, just as Chef Gordon said, everyone would have noticed something when they were looking for ingredients.”

“In fact, whether I say it or not, it wouldn’t have changed the outcome. So I might as well tell everyone to save them the trouble of taking the wrong path,” Cindy said.

This was just an excuse she had thought of at the moment.

However, early in the competition when she had just discovered the secret, Cindy hadn’t had time to think that much.

She simply believed that there was no harm in sharing the information.

Moreover, she thought everyone else was pretty good, except for Blake Walker.

If she found something useful, she never even thought about hiding it from them.

But now, if she were to say this, many people probably would not believe her.

They would think she was putting on an act to create a good image and appeal to others.

As a result, they would think that she was fake.

After being a food blogger for so many years, Cindy understood the mindset of netizens all too well.

So now, when the judges brought up the issue, Cindy came up with this temporary reason.

As expected, after Cindy explained her reasoning, nobody in the live chat criticized her.

In the audience, Christy Xenos seized the opportunity to say to Joshua Clarke, “Look at her. She’s so smart. In such a short time, she can think of so many things. How fast can her mind work?”

“Her mind is full of cunning ideas. The intelligence of our entire family combined can’t match hers,” Christy said sarcastically.

“You really think she could have become this clever with just five years of practice? Stop lying to yourself,” Christy added.

Joshua sighed deeply.

He could no longer deceive himself.

Cindy had always been very smart.

Going through hard experiences might teach a person a lesson and help them avoid making mistakes in the future.

After being in the workplace, one might become more polished, worldly, and gain a lot of experience.

People would try their best to avoid repeating past mistakes in the future.

However, intelligence wouldn’t increase by gaining experience alone.

So, from a young age, Cindy had been very smart.

“She’s so smart that if she really wanted to help our family, she could have definitely done so. Instead, she pretends to be stupid all the time and relies on her sister to handle everything.”

“Now I even doubt whether her hard work in school was just a show she put on to make us believe that her good grades were due to hard work, not because she’s innately talented and learns things easily,” Christy sneered.

“I don’t understand her. What has she got to hide? Being smart is a good thing, and learning things easily is also a good thing. Why would she even have to be so guarded towards her own family? What is she thinking?”

“Even if we knew she was smart, what could we do to her? If we knew she was talented, we would be even more supportive of her. How could we harm her?”

“By being so guarded against us, she doesn’t treat us like family. We’re still her parents. What kind of child would be so suspicious of their own parents?” Christy said angrily. “It’s so strange. We’re both just ordinary people.”

“We can’t say we’re stupid, but I must admit, our intelligence is just at the level of normal people. How could we have given birth to someone as smart as Cindy?” Christy felt puzzled.

Did Cindy inherit the intelligence of both her parents?

“She’s so smart that when she first came to Belfard, she had no connections and built a successful career. Our family had a restaurant beforehand, so I don’t believe that she couldn’t have made the family business even better.”

“Instead, she did nothing and let her sister handle everything. She was always unhappy when we asked her to help out at the restaurant,” Christy rolled her eyes.

“Enough,” Joshua said, feeling more and more disappointed with Cindy the more he heard.

It just wasn’t the same as what he had thought before.

“Let’s keep watching the competition. The judges are starting to taste the dishes,” Joshua said.

Due to the limited conditions of this competition, the contestants couldn’t present their dishes to the judges one by one.

So, the judges went to each contestant’s work station to taste their dishes directly.

While Parker Honi’s roast chicken was still on the branch-turned grill, a staff member brought a plate to place the chicken on.

Wesley Gordon used tongs to cut the chicken open from the middle, and the juice immediately flowed out from the inside.