"Come in," Zach said and the door slowly opened to reveal Jade.

"I guess what Luna and Aurora said last night was true. You are really talking to everyone," Jade muttered, walking into Zach's room.

She folded her arms before shifting her gaze to Luna.

"Luna, go and play with your big sister Aurora. I want to have a few words with Zach."

"Eh? But I wanna tell Big Brother something."

"Don't worry, you can talk to him later."

Luna didn't know exactly why Jade wanted to see Zach but she decided that it had to be for an important reason, so she decided to listen to her big sister.

Luna excused herself, leaving both Zach and Jade alone in the room.

The moment the door closed behind Luna, Jade turned her attention to Zach. Her arms were still folded but her gaze was on him like a hawk.

A minute passed and Jade said nothing. The room remained as silent as a graveyard and Zach didn't like it.

He had things he needed to do and he couldn't afford to be wasting valuable time in his room doing nothing.

"Big sister Jade, is there something you want to tell me?' Zach asked politely.

Of all the girls in the mansion, Jade was the second oldest at twenty-one years old, and so, she rightfully deserved his respect.

It was the least Zach could do after everything Jade had done for him.

Jade had been the one responsible for cooking every meal Zach ate while he isolated himself in his room, and she never once failed to ensure that he had eaten.

______

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Spill it," Those were the first words that came out of Jade's mouth but they only confused Zach even more.

"Excuse me? I don't understand what you mean."

"How many times have you practiced cooking that porridge?" She asked and Zach finally understood her reason for coming to his room.

"Yesterday was my first time preparing it," Zach replied truthfully.

Although he had a lot of experience in his first life, it was really his first time making that recipe in his new life.

"Don't play dumb with me."

"I'm not."

"Do you really expect me to believe that it was your first time cooking it despite how well it turned out?"

"Yes."

Hearing this, Jade clenched her fist and mana flowed to her hands, causing it to glow with a beautiful white hue.

She could see that Zach was determined not to say anything and this made her angry, but she took in a huge gulp of air before exhaling it.

It calmed her nerves long enough for her to say, "I can see that you're hell-bent on remaining silent. So, we'll make a bet."

"A bet?"

"Yes, we'll have a cook-off. If I win, you will tell me exactly how you came up with that recipe and why it was so good."

"You just admitted that my cooking was better than yours," Zach teased, but Jade retorted instantly.

"I didn't."

"Yes, you did."

"No, I didn't. Now stop this nonsense."

Just as her name suggested, Jade had beautiful jade-coloured hair that flowed down to her waist. Her beautiful teal-blue eyes accentuated her pale beauty while she was dressed in denim jeans and a black sleeveless shirt that brought out the shape of her huge breasts.

Underneath her eyes, were heavy bags that indicated that she had been awake all night long, trying to replicate Zach's cooking but failed.

Before tasting Zach's cooking last night, Jade had begun to lose faith in her cooking skills. Her cooking skills could best be described as ordinary.

It basically had the same kind of taste you could find in any restaurant and this drastically reduced the number of customers she could attract.

At the age of fifteen, she began to work at a restaurant where the pay had been too small for her to take care of herself, let alone everyone else in the mansion.

Still, she kept working there, knowing that the restaurant was the only one that paid well compared to other restaurants.

She persevered through the cruel treatment of being underpaid for three whole years while saving whatever she could for her own personal goal.

Which was to one day open her very own restaurant.

However, the money she had saved so far wasn't necessarily for building a restaurant right now; that would require a larger amount of money than she had at the moment.

It was saved entirely for something else.

At the age of eighteen, Jade decided to work as a street food vendor. That way, she could have her very own source of income while also doing what she loved the most.

It was supposed to be a win-win situation for her, but things weren't working out the way she hoped.

With her food tasting just like the ones found in popular restaurants, most buyers would rather buy from the restaurants where the chefs had better equipment and a better environment where the customers were treated like the kings and queens that they viewed themselves as.

Jade knew the only way to attract more customers was to prepare a meal that would overshadow that of most restaurants in the city.

It would be something the customers could easily recognize her by.

This had been Jade's dream for quite some time now, but achieving that dream was proving to be more difficult than she ever imagined.

And to make matters worse, she had less than three days before her food cart and cooking equipment became completely confiscated by the culinary guild.

Her chef identification card was also going to be seized, thereby stripping her of her licence as a registered chef in the guild and in the world as a whole.

The culinary guild was responsible for granting future chefs a place to build their restaurants or in Jade's case, a spot for her to sell her food.

Without registering in the guild, one would never be recognized as a cook.