Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 2108 - The Extremely Expensive Imperial Cuisine Hall Dishes

Nuo Lan watched Qing Shui as he turned the building into a clinic. They were only one step away from opening it. Though it was a bit small, it was as Qing Shui said: So long as there was a Miraculous Physician in it, there was nothing to be worried about.

“When will it open?”

“Probably within the next few days. I am not in a rush to open it, so we can find a good date to do so.”

While speaking, Qing Shui decorated the sign of the Imperial Cuisine Hall. When it came to advertising a brand, the techniques used in this world could rival against the ones from his previous incarnation. After all, the World of the Nine Continents was also a colorful world. One of the simplest examples was the beast’s blood. The blood of a lot of the demonic beasts wasn’t red. Of course, there were also things like the branches and leaves of a particular plant.

However, Qing Shui’s signboard was designed to be quite simple. The majority of the rectangular shaped board was made of snow-white beast’s parchment, whereas the materials for the frame on the right-hand side were the beast’s bones of the same color. Qing Shui wrote the words “Imperial Cuisine Hall” himself. His writing seemed bold and at the same time retained some of its elegance. From here, it could be seen that Qing Shui had decent writing skills.

The signboard only acted as a guide to tell people what they did. Even though a good quality signboard might be important, it didn’t mean everything in a business.

Qing Shui didn’t expect Nuo Lan to be like Qing Ci or Yuan Su in the future. Nevertheless, he still hoped that she could be good enough to support the business on her own. After all, it was not easy to find a person with a medical background but also trustworthy.

Qing Shui’s room was on the second floor, whereas Nuo Lan’s was on the third. In the past, that was where Nuo Lan also used to live. Each floor already had the size of a big house from his previous incarnation. There were living rooms, kitchens, and so on. Everything was prepared in full.

They decided not to run the business today. Nuo Lan seemed to be very eager to learn more about medical skills. Seeing that, Qing Shui handed her some of the medical notes that were hand-written by himself. Considering it was his own records of different medical knowledge, it was one of his treasured possessions.

It was already noon, and yet the woman didn’t seem to want to stop at all. Seeing that, Qing Shui went up to the second floor and started preparing some food. The building was soon filled with the smell of smoke and fire as well as some pleasant smell. Very quickly, an abundant fragrant food aroma diffused across the area.

The food which Qing Shui prepared mostly centered around medical cuisines. There were also some Crystal Buns. These things were indispensable if he wanted to increase the reputation of the clinic.

Nuo Lan glanced towards the second floor the moment she smelled the fragrance. Driven by curiosity, she neared the area with the medical notes in her hand. By the time she noticed Qing Shui, there were already three dishes on the table. There was also an additional plate with four crystal-like buns on it.

“Alright, let’s have some food.” Said Qing Shui as he took out a bottle of wine and two Crystal Night Light Rings.

He poured the wine into two separate cups while Nuo Lan sat there and looked at him blankly. She couldn’t believe that the dishes which he had prepared would be so perfect in both their looks as well as their smells. Most importantly, in this world, the majority of the powerful warriors wouldn’t bother making dishes. Despite that, chefs also held a considerably high status in this world. A lot of people wouldn’t mind spending thousands of gold just to request a famous cook to help them prepare their meals.

“Are you the one who made this?” Nuo Lan’s mouth was slightly opened as she looked at Qing Shui in shock.

Looking at the woman’s current expression, especially her sexy lips, Qing Shui felt a strong urge to move forward and nipped on it. To Qing Shui, her lips were even more seductive than the food on the table.

“Since the Imperial Cuisine Hall will be opening tomorrow, I feel that it’s necessary for you, the female owner, to have a taste of our food.” Qing Shui smiled and said. But he soon realized that what he had said was a bit incorrect. A female owner?

Actually, Qing Shui didn’t have any special meaning with his words. However, the statement which he just made had too much ambiguity to it.

Meanwhile, Nuo Lan also gave Qing Shui a weird look. However, she remained silent as she took the chopsticks from Qing Shui’s hands. She picked up the food from the dishes and put it in her mouth. She revealed a lot of different expressions as she was doing so. Her seductive eyes were tranquil and beautiful. 

“Delicious! This is the most delicious food I have ever eaten!

In the beginning, Nuo Lan was still reserved with herself but eventually, she let herself go and ate more than half of the food on the table. Among the dishes, the Crystal Buns seemed to be her favorite. She ate all four of them.

By the time she finished eating, she looked at Qing Shui, a bit embarrassed, and rubbed her tummy that was still flat like usual, “I am so full!”

Qing Shui looked back at the lazy woman and passed her the wine, “Give it a try, I am sure you will like it.”

“Big sister, this is the Imperial Cuisine Hall. Other than treating illnesses, we will also sell some dishes. Do you have any advice on how the price of the dishes should be set?” Qing Shui asked.

“To be honest with you, I don’t feel comfortable with you selling this.” Nuo Lan said in a serious tone.

“You don’t want me to sell it?”

“Yes. I mean don’t sell it as in don’t sell it for money. What else can we exchange the meal for, other than money?” Nuo Lan looked at Qing Shui, a bit worried.

“Even though it may be good quality stuff, they are still just food. I think it will be better if we start off selling it for money first. We can sell it for a higher price since they mainly serve the purpose to help us increase our reputation. As we become popular, more and more people will come to visit us. That way, we will soon become one of the forces strong enough to influence the area.” Qing Shui understood how Nuo Lan was feeling.

“That could work too. But we must limit the number of food that’s going to be sold per day, and we must make sure that we sell it at a very high price. Each person is only allowed to buy a maximum of two meals per day. But since we just started our business, it’s more sensible if we start off at a lower price than the originally expected price. Let’s charge everything at a standard price, 100 golds for everything. As our reputation increases, we can follow along and increase the price of our food. We can also let the customers accumulate points. Once they collect enough points, they will be allowed to enjoy a meal here.”

Qing Shui couldn’t believe what he had just heard from Nuo Lan. To think that she would have even thought about letting the customers accumulate points. This was quite common in a lot of stores in his previous incarnation. But in this world, it was his first time hearing someone mentioning about points accumulations.

“Why are you looking at me like this? Is there anything wrong with what I said?” Nuo Lan asked, feeling a bit embarrassed.

“It’s good! That was exactly what I planned to do! Let’s go along with your plan. For now, let’s think about what else we need and how much points need to be accumulated overall. We will go through it again in the afternoon. If everything goes as expected, we will get on with this plan not long after the clinic opens.”

Just like that, the two spent the entire afternoon discussing the measures that they had to carry out.

On the next day, the Imperial Cuisine Hall was officially opened. A few people came to visit the clinic, like the people from the shrine, as well as the Battle God Squad. Because of this, a lot of people had their eyes fixed on the newly opened business.

Since they were here, Qing Shui naturally entertained them with good food and wine. The fragrance of the food diffused across the areas and attracted a lot of people to come and ask for food. Since today was the opening day of the clinic, these people naturally didn’t come empty-handed. They offered Qing Shui presents before settling down to enjoy their meal.

A lot of people expressed shock at the food which they ate. What Qing Shui was truly after was for them to advertise his brand. He believed that not long after, a lot of people would know about his clinic.

It was only after a few days that the people found out how expensive the food which they had eaten was. They couldn’t help but began to wonder how many golds they have swallowed into their stomach on that day.

The people from the shrines were all amazed by how delicious the food was. Since they weren’t short in money and also shared a close relationship with Nuo Lan, they planned to come here a few times a week. However, they were soon stopped by Nuo Lan, saying that they were only allowed here once a week and if they exceeded the number of times they were allowed here, they wouldn’t be allowed in. Though the people from the shrine got a bit upset when they heard that, they were already quite satisfied with what they had. After all, no matter how delicious a meal might be, it shouldn’t be eaten every day. Thus, they agreed to it after taking away some of the food.

With that, the Imperial Cuisine Hall could finally be considered to have started business. 

There wasn’t very much food sold every day, and the shop would close once the food had finished selling. Early in the morning, on the next day, they had started to charge a hundred gold for everything. A Jade Bun, a bowl of porridge, a bowl of soup, fish, everything was charged at a standard price that was a hundred golds.

A hundred gold wasn’t a small amount. Even the annual expenses of a family of five would be around ten gold. Thus, there was no doubt that a hundred gold for anything was extremely costly. This was exactly what Qing Shui was after, his reputation. The food wasn’t meant for ordinary people. It was not that he looked down on them, nor was he overestimating himself. In fact, he was a normal person back in his previous incarnation. He only felt that he wouldn’t be able to run his business if he had set the price so low that even ordinary households could afford them. Besides, it was a kind of business technique. He felt good if he could cheat some money from the riches.