Extremely Envious

Chapter 186 Extremely Envious

"Damn it, where did they get so many ingredients?"

In a restaurant just two streets outside Dandian, the manager, upon hearing that the hot pot restaurant was still doing brisk business, angrily slammed his fist on the table, making a loud bang that frightened the servant who had brought the message back into silence.

"Shopkeeper, that hot pot restaurant is a branch of the Pill Shop, under the protection of the Xuan Dan Sect. We—it's best not to provoke them. Didn't Old Xiong give that young immortal the recipe yesterday? If we study it carefully, we might not be able to—"

"Are you stupid?" The innkeeper was furious. Seeing that the waiter dared to speak so recklessly, he yelled, "They just threw us a few meatless bones to get rid of us. Do you really think we're dogs scavenging for food on the street? You think a few flimsy recipes can put our minds at ease? Look at the shop these past few days, has anyone come to eat? They've all gone to eat that medicinal hot pot over there!"

"But—I heard from our kitchen staff that the recipe that the immortal gave us is indeed amazing. Last night, the head chef used the recipe to create a new dish. We all tried it, and it's even more delicious than our previous signature dishes, manager—"

"Sigh! What do you know?" The shopkeeper ignored him and irritably waved his hand to send the servant away.

In his view, the immortal—no, the evil cultivator—had clearly used some kind of high-level spiritual substance to create an addictive delicacy. Otherwise, how could it be so irresistible after just one whiff?

As someone in the same industry, he secretly went to the hot pot restaurant on its opening day. Let alone eating, just standing at the door and smelling it was so enticing that it made his mouth water. It was unlike any other food on earth.

Perhaps that evil cultivator really did have some skill in cooking, and the recipe he sent was indeed quite good, but compared to the fragrant broth of the hot pot, it was simply heaven and earth, incomparable.

And since that hot pot restaurant was a branch of the Dan shop, with his experience, he immediately realized that this was not a matter of good cooking skills at all. It was clearly that the evil cultivator and the Dan shop owner had concocted a drug to confuse the customers by using medicine in the food.

Otherwise, how could he possess such superb culinary skills at such a young age? Without years of hard work and experience, such skill could not have been acquired out of thin air.

"Hiss—no wonder, no wonder."

Suddenly, the shopkeeper discovered another blind spot.

No wonder the proprietress, who has maintained a reputation for purity and virtue for so many years, was willing to ruin her reputation to take that boy as her apprentice. Either the two of them conspired together, or the boy used some kind of bewitching drug to bewitch the proprietress of the alchemy shop.

This was incredibly explosive news. The shopkeeper, already consumed by jealousy over the stolen business, didn't even bother to reconsider the validity of his guess. As the owner of one of the top three restaurants in Emerald City, he couldn't possibly allow himself to be defeated by a newcomer in a single day.

Based on this guess, he immediately summoned a trusted servant.

"Remember, when the time comes, change into your usual clothes and go around the streets saying these things—understand?"

"clear."

"And you guys, take this money and go find some alchemists who aren't from an alchemy shop. Have them take the money and do the work, understand? Just like before." The servants received the order, immediately changed back into their everyday clothes, and left the shop.

The shopkeeper stood by the window, looking at the bustling scene at the street corner in the distance, and sneered inwardly.

"Hmph~ Just wait until they slip up. Even if there's really nothing wrong with that medicinal hot pot, medicine is still poison to some extent. If you use medicine as soup and eat too much of it, you're bound to get sick. Then~ hmph, we'll find someone to make a scene and see who dares to go there often."

Anyone with a basic understanding of pharmacology knows that no matter what kind of medicine it is, if you take too much, it will inevitably become toxic and put a burden on your body.

That Dan restaurant, taking advantage of its authority, vigorously promoted medicinal cuisine. So he picked on the side effects of medicinal cuisine and made the hot pot restaurant die because of its own advertising!

Inside the restaurant, Zhu Huan'e was sorting out the accounts of yesterday's hot pot business, while Fang Shi and Zhu Zhu idly leaned against the window, staring at the hot pot restaurant behind them.

The hot pot restaurant was still doing brisk business on the second day, but with the experience from the first day, Zhu Huan'e no longer needed to personally supervise the site at all times; she only needed to go down and check on things occasionally.

Zhu Zhu pointed to the crowd in front of the hot pot restaurant and said happily, "Ah, I remember those young masters. They came twice yesterday, and I didn't expect them to come again today—hehe, regular customers at other restaurants only come once a day at most, but our restaurant is visited twice a day. At this rate, wouldn't all the restaurants in the city be unable to compete with us? There are so many people in the entire Emerald City. If they all come two or three times a day, in less than a year, we'll probably be richer than Father and his family!"

Seeing his silly aunt indulging in unrealistic dreams, even actually starting to count on her fingers, Fang Shi poured cold water on her without any mercy: "How big is our hot pot restaurant? It can't even accommodate half a street's worth of people, yet you're thinking of the whole city? If you steal all their business, see if they'll fight you to the death."

"Hmph~ That's because we're good at launching hot pot, it's delicious. What can other restaurants do? If they want to win back business, they can just develop something even better themselves."

Zhu Zhu was still naive and didn't understand the intricacies of rivals in the industry. However, Zhu Huan'e, who was doing the accounting behind them, heard the two talking and stopped writing with some concern.

"Xiao Fang, I suddenly remembered something."

"What's the problem?" Fang Shi and Zhu Zhu turned around together.

She said, "We promote hot pot based on pharmacology, but medicine is medicine after all, and hot pot restaurants don't screen customers like other businesses do. If some customers come several times a day, I'm afraid some people with special health conditions might have problems eating it, and other businesses might use that to their advantage."

The reputation of medicinal hot pot is undoubtedly a double-edged sword. The general public doesn't understand medicine, only that it involves profound knowledge. Therefore, when they hear a fifth-level alchemist's advertisement, they think this medicinal hot pot is good. But as for why it's good, they don't know. They only know that it's good, very good, and excellent. But once they get sick from eating it, they will immediately change their tune and think it's bad, very bad, extremely bad.

Ordinary restaurants and eateries offer only ordinary food and simple cooking methods. Even if diners experience health problems, they will only think it is a problem with their own body. But medicine is different. Even if diners are not aware of this, there is a risk that unscrupulous people will try to attribute some common ailments to the name of medicinal hot pot, thus causing diners to feel resentful.

As the saying goes, "great rise and fall," a hot pot restaurant that rises to prominence in a day can also fall to its knees in a day if it does not eliminate these hidden dangers, and may even affect the original pill business of the pill shop.

Zhu Huan'e's concerns were not unfounded, but she was not actually afraid of pharmacological theories. Even if a professional alchemist came to her door to find fault, she was still confident that she could crush the other party with her knowledge of alchemy in all aspects.

However, she lacked the confidence to make baseless accusations in the business world. Once she was falsely accused, it would be difficult for her subordinates to explain themselves.

"Master's concerns are valid; this is indeed a problem."

Although Fang Shi had asked Xiong Shi to spread the recipe yesterday, when he went to inquire about the situation this morning, he heard Xiong Shi say that the managers of several large restaurants had given him a cold shoulder.

Even if the other party still accepts the recipe, there's no guarantee they won't cause trouble.

It seems I can't be idle today; there's still a lot to do.

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