Reborn in Japan as a Chef God
Chapter 151: Two-Mouthed Woman

Chapter 151: Chapter 151: Two-Mouthed Woman

Is the secret in the broth?

Xia Yu glanced at Aoki Motota, who was standing behind the middle-aged man with a bowl in his hands, his expression stern as he whispered something indistinguishable in the kitchen.

Not in a hurry to leave, Xia Yu picked up some chopsticks and hoisted a piece of beef from the pot, dipped it in spicy sauce, and swallowed it in one bite.

"Wow!"

His eyes widened in astonishment.

A furnace!

As the food entered his mouth, an image of a glowing red furnace emerged in Xia Yu’s mind, stewing in it were the ingredients of the pot—chicken, duck, beef, and fish—tumbling around before transforming into a colorful plate of exquisite dishes!

Chewing the beef over and over, the broth filled his mouth. Xia Yu breathed out and exclaimed, "This texture..."

The beef was tenderer than any steak, melting as soon as it entered his mouth, requiring no effort to chew. With a gentle bite, the meat crumbled into pieces. Xia Yu savored the endless delight as he swallowed the meat.

"I feel like I’m melting too!"

Xia Yu’s eyes showed his shock.

He had been watching Aoki Motota cook the whole time, which was unremarkable except for the impressive handling of the ingredients at the beginning, and nothing else noteworthy.

Yet, the taste of the dish was beyond imagination.

If Dojima Yin’s "Spice Nine-layered Egyptian Roasted Chicken" was crafted using a pyramid of spices to push the flavors to the extreme, then Aoki Motota’s Kantou stew was like gathering all the ingredients in a furnace to distill the essence of each!

"Furnace!" Xia Yu felt as though, through the food, he peered into the fervent culinary heart of Aoki Motota.

"Ah—"

Suddenly, a loud cry in the dead of night pierced through the glass, echoing in the kitchen.

Xia Yu’s expression changed slightly, and he quickly stepped outside only to find the middle-aged man collapsed over the counter while Aoki Motota stared at him intently, holding an empty stainless steel bowl.

Blood was trickling down the back of the middle-aged man’s neck, flowing to the ground where it naturally dispersed and vanished.

Soon, the shop regained its calm, and the oppressive and sinister atmosphere that had weighed on Xia Yu’s mind returned to its original, mild tranquility.

"Is it gone?" Xia Yu asked quietly.

"Yes, it’s gone!"

Aoki Motota sighed, beads of sweat faintly visible on his forehead.

"So, what exactly was it?"

"A type of demon." Aoki Motota placed the empty bowl on the counter and sat down casually, continuing, "There was a ghostly tale in Chiba about a man who remarried after his wife died. But the new wife, being jealous, killed the man’s child from his previous marriage. Then, the resentful spirit of that child turned into a demon and possessed the stepmother..."

"The possessed person would grow a second mouth on the back of their neck, which needed to continuously eat."

"That type of demon is called the ’Two-Mouthed Woman’!"

Xia Yu fell silent for a long while.

"But, he is a man!" Xia Yu pointed at the middle-aged man lying on the counter, now snoring loudly.

"That’s why I said it’s clever, attaching itself to a man. I’ve been searching for it in the late nights recently!" After saying this, Aoki Motota stood up and slammed his hand on the back of the middle-aged man’s head.

Bang!

The middle-aged man immediately jumped up, awake, and scanned his surroundings in panic, "Where is this?"

"Have you been treating your child poorly lately?"

Aoki Motota grabbed the middle-aged man’s collar, looking almost like a thug from the Yamaguchi Group.

"Who are you?! I’m calling the police!" The middle-aged man tried to pull out his phone, but Aoki Motota chopped his arm with a hand blade, causing the just removed phone to immediately fall to the ground.

Upon seeing this, Xia Yu was startled, "Did this guy kill his child?"

"What, is my son in trouble?!" The middle-aged man anxiously reddened in the eyes.

"You all got it wrong!" Aoki Motota couldn’t help but laugh and cry, letting go of the middle-aged man and pressing him into a chair, "You sit down first."

"He’s just possessed, he’s got resentment on him, but actually, that household had been confined years ago, and the resentment only recently grew into that filthy thing."

Hearing this, Xia Yu breathed a sigh of relief.

"And my son?"

The middle-aged man asked anxiously.

"Your son is fine." Aoki Motota sat next to him, then turned to Xia Yu and said, "Bring over some shochu and glasses, I’ll drink with this old fellow, and you sit down later too."

So, Xia Yu went to heat up the shochu, brought over a tray, and sat to the left of the middle-aged man.

Aoki Motota was on the right, took a glass, and filled it up with hot shochu for the middle-aged man, chuckled and said, "You’re so worried about your son, yet you still wander outside until you don’t return at night?"

The middle-aged man had a sip of the hot shochu, his body warming up, and upon hearing this, he showed a bitter smile, "I missed the last train, the company has been demanding a lot of overtime lately."

A swig of shochu opened up his heart, and the middle-aged man sighed, "I, I’m not competent enough, I’ve been in the trading company for more than a decade, still a lower-level employee, while those Tokyo University graduates under me, in just two or three years, have been promoted to the middle management..."

"My child, Jiantai, is advancing to junior high next year, I have to strive to send him to the best private academy!" A glimmer of hope appeared in the eyes of the middle-aged man, it seemed his child was everything to him.

"What about your wife?" Xia Yu took a sip of shochu, noticing the sourness in his words.

"Jiantai’s mother, she left us early due to illness..."

The middle-aged man shook his head, unable to hide the gloom and remembrance in his eyes, "The year after his mother passed away, a girl who had just joined our department wanted to pursue me, but, you see, I once asked Jiantai, and he didn’t agree, so I gave up, and this year that girl has become my boss’s wife."

After drinking another glass of shochu, Xia Yu poured him another.

He glanced at Aoki Motota, and said with a wry smile, "What you said earlier was right, I haven’t been good to my child, he must hold resentment against me, lately I’ve been so busy with work that I had him stay at a relative’s house."

Afterwards, the middle-aged man got a bit drunk and kept talking to Aoki Motota.

Xia Yu quietly left and returned to the kitchen, reflecting deeply.

It turned out, the world’s waters are indeed deep, so deep that even Xia Yu dared not speculate recklessly.

Two-Mouthed Woman?

Xia Yu knew the name of this yokai, having read about it in a book titled "Night Parade of One Hundred Demons." He never thought he would one day encounter a living yokai, even though it was just a possessor.

Undoubtedly, tonight’s ’Two-Mouthed Woman’ was merely a fledgling spirit, and Aoki Motota had dealt with it in a matter of moments.

Actually, the true form of ’Two-Mouthed Woman’ should be female. Xia Yu didn’t dare to think about whether the Great Demons that had lived for hundreds of years existed in this world. And if they did exist, could a chef subdue them?

"Use food to influence them?"

Xia Yu stared at the knife rack in the kitchen, each kitchen knife shining brightly and incredibly sharp.

Yet these ordinary kitchen knives gave him not the slightest sense of security.