AST 2109 - Flourishing, the Future of the Imperial Cuisine Hall, Tai Clan (1/2)
It was unknown whether it had to do with the people from Divine Palace who came on the opening day but the Imperial Cuisine Hall managed to increase its reputation fairly quickly. On the second day, it was spread throughout the city that the food prepared by the Imperial Cuisine Hall could beat even the best restaurant in the Northern Emperor City in terms of its taste.
The only problem was its ridiculous price. However, this was because they were mainly targeted at the rich. Putting aside the Imperial Cuisine Hall that charged their food at a ridiculously high price, ordinary people wouldn’t even visit restaurants bigger than usual. To them, 100 gold was enough to cover their expenses of their entire family for ten years.
However, there were also a lot of people who spent their money recklessly. The moment the smell of the delicious food went into their nose, they would immediately start eating and drinking as much as they like without putting a second thought to it. Unfortunately, there was a limit to how much they could eat. They were only allowed to spend up to 300 golds at a time. That was equivalent to three Crystal Buns.
Qing Shui had never intended to make a person go broke by spending all of their money on this, nor would he want, or could possibly do it. Money wasn’t his true aim. His true intention was to make himself well-known. Besides, things were precious only when they came in small amounts. The rarer something was, the more value it would carry.
Qing Shui would spend some of his free time resting in the realm every day. The amount of food which he prepared per day was only enough for 100 people. Thus, by selling all of the food that was available for a day, he would be able to earn roughly 30000 gold. This could already be considered to be a large amount. As a matter of fact, they were earning more than the extremely luxurious restaurants in the area.
On the third day, they were already able to sell all 100 packs of food. However, Qing Shui didn’t plan to make any more than that. He felt that it was good enough in letting things stay this way. Moving on, he also attended to a few ordinary patients and helped treat them from their incurable diseases. One of them gave Qing Shui a kind of ore that was passed down from his clan, whereas the other one gave him 50% of the money he had. It might not be much, but without doubt, it could already be considered a significant amount for the ordinary man. Nevertheless, he was already satisfied with it. If he had gone to other clinics, he might not be able to afford the fee, even if he paid with all the money he had.
Qing Shui only treated terminal illnesses here. Furthermore, it was up to him what he wanted to demand from the patients once the treatment was finished. However, he wouldn’t ask for things that were too difficult for the patients to get.
Nuo Lan had a lot of free time while she was here. She was in charge of the Imperial Cuisine Hall. When Qing Shui had time, he would also teach her to make some stuff. With the super ingredients around, he wasn’t worried that she wouldn’t be able to make food as delicious as his. The main things which he focused on were her techniques when cutting the ingredients and how to decorate the food so that they would look appetizing.
Nuo Lan enjoyed cooking and learning medical things. Her only problem was that she didn’t seem compatible with the kitchen. For the time being, all that she did was sell some of the dishes and Crystal Buns. Once they finished selling, she would have nothing left to do. From here, it could be seen that her job was quite relaxing.
It was very rare for Nuo Lan to admire a person. But this time, she must admit that she was really envious of this young man. By now, she had more or less figured out to what extent Qing Shui’s medical skills had reached. After all, she had seen, with her own eyes, him curing some terminal illnesses. So far, she hadn’t seen a single physician or an alchemist who could manage to pull off such a feat.
Furthermore, he was also an outstanding alchemist. This had already been proven when he gave her the medicines before. As if those weren’t enough, it was beyond her expectations that he would even be a good chef.
“Qing Shui, remember to put on the signboard tomorrow!” Nuo Lan reminded Qing Shui.
Although it had only been a week since the business started, Qing Shui still wanted to wait for a while longer. The main thing that was written on the signboard was the method to accumulate points. The points accumulated were represented by tokens exclusive to the Imperial Cuisine Hall. They were divided into different kinds. By then, the customers could purchase the food with the tokens. However, the rule which said that only a maximum of 300 golds could be spent still applied.
There were many variations of the tokens listed on the board. Depending on the things which the customers exchanged, the number of points they accumulated would also be different. A point was equivalent to 100 gold, and all of the items stated above contained a minimum of one point. There were also some things that contained hundreds, or even thousands of points. However, those were very rare.
“Alright then, let’s put it on tomorrow. I will pass the tokens used for accumulating points to you. It’s impossible to make replicas of these tokens as they have my Spiritual Sense imprinted on them.” Qing Shui said.
“The money is being earned so easily at the moment. Unfortunately, it will become useless once we have too much of it.” Nuo Lan let out a sigh and said.
“How will it be useless? We can spend them on hiring more workers and building a large restaurant near here. The restaurant can then be used to house widows, orphans, or the ill ones so that they can spend the toughest time of their life in there. In addition to that, we can even let the jobless or the people who have nobody else to rely on to live the rest of their life in it.” Qing Shui smiled and said.