Quick Transmigration: The Supporting Female Lead Stays Out of It - Chapter 16: Chef 15

That’s right, Lin Dan’s return to the capital this time was indeed to compete with the Yan Family Restaurant. She had no resentment about losing to Yan Langqing, but the predecessor of this Yan Family Restaurant was the Lin’s Restaurant, which was founded by Lin Baotian. Every signature dish in the restaurant was his painstaking effort. Could things in the world be so cheap that they would be taken by the second and third branches of the family and the Yan family?

The Yan family didn’t feel any remorse, but Lin Dan, who inherited the original owner’s will, always couldn’t get past that hurdle. It’s still that sentence, what belongs to her, she has to take it back; what doesn’t belong to her, she won’t accept it even if it’s given to her for free.

As the saying goes, “Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated.” If she wanted to compete with the Yan Family Restaurant, Lin Dan still had to taste their dishes and see how the taste was. But her facial features hadn’t changed much over the years. If people from the second and third branches of the family recognized her, they would definitely do something bad to her, so she could only ask that handsome man to pack a few signature dishes and take them elsewhere to eat.

After eating the dishes, the two of them sat in a private room in a teahouse and talked. The handsome man asked in a low voice: “How is the taste of the Yan Family dishes?”

“The skills are very good, worthy of being a family of imperial chefs.” Lin Dan gave a fair evaluation.

“Compared to you?” The handsome man hadn’t eaten the Lu cuisine made by Lin Dan, and really wanted to have a taste.

“You will know when I open the shop.” Lin Dan smiled gently and pushed the door to leave. Although she didn’t answer directly, her calm attitude was enough to show her confidence.

The handsome man stared at her tall and straight back, and shook his head with a smile.

The two of them continued to stroll around Qingyun Alley. When they came to a corner, they saw another Lu cuisine restaurant. Lin Dan waved and said: “Go in and have a taste.” Since she wanted to open a shop, she naturally had to investigate the nearby restaurants. She didn’t even say she wanted to steal business, but it was always necessary to make the most of her strengths and avoid her weaknesses.

This restaurant was called Qiaoyuan Restaurant. The storefront was twice as big as the Yan Family Restaurant, and the decoration was also extremely luxurious. There were pavilions and towers, as well as small bridges and flowing water, and the environment was extremely elegant. The dignitaries loved to pay attention to the pomp and circumstance when they went out, and the pomp and circumstance of this Qiaoyuan Restaurant was far more luxurious than that of the Yan Family Restaurant. Logically, the business shouldn’t be bad, but Lin Dan and the man only saw five or six tables of guests in the lobby, which was far worse than the Yan Family Restaurant’s bustling crowds.

When she ate the dishes, Lin Dan found out the reason. It was nothing more than that the chef of this restaurant had poor skills, and the Lu cuisine they made was not authentic.

“After eating the Yan Family dishes, and then eating the dishes from this restaurant, the taste is one or two grades worse. No wonder it can’t retain repeat customers.” Lin Dan put down her chopsticks and sighed.

The handsome man didn’t say anything, but just waved for the waiter to come over and pay the bill. Lin Dan had just taken out her purse when he pressed it, and with a flip of his wrist, a small silver ingot of half a tael fell into the waiter’s palm, and the speed of paying the bill was as fast as it could be. The waiter didn’t know how this thing appeared after receiving the money, scratching his head for a while, puzzled.

Lin Dan was amused and slightly curled her lips, and started a conversation with the waiter: “Does your restaurant want any dried goods? They are all the top-grade goods I brought from Nanyang, with abalone, Bird’s Nest, Sea Cucumber, scallops, etc. I also have mountain delicacies here, and there are many varieties, which can provide a stable supply of goods for a long time.”

In order to support her family, Lin Dan had to do some small business while learning skills. Over time, she established a caravan, specializing in reselling dried goods, bringing seafood from the coast to the inland, and also bringing mountain delicacies from the inland to the seaside, earning a lot of money back and forth.

The shop was specially for the dignitaries’ business, and of course the ingredients had to be top grade. The waiter dared not make the decision, and quickly asked the shopkeeper to come out. The shopkeeper was naturally happy to have another stable source of goods, and Lin Dan had the servants bring the goods to the shop for inspection.

The shopkeeper didn’t know much about the quality of the ingredients, so he had to call the head chef. This head chef was just over twenty years old, with a fair and handsome appearance, and looked very tender. Although his skills were not good, his eyesight was extremely good. He affirmed: “The abalone is double-headed abalone, the bird’s nest is first-grade official bird’s nest from the rainy season, the fish fins have shark fin, Qun Fins, Tianjiu Fins, all of which are excellent…The fungus is not ordinary fungus, but rock fungus picked from cliffs, which can be called the best among mountain delicacies. They are all good ingredients, no deception.”

After speaking, he let out a long sigh of relief, as if he had put down a big stone in his heart. With this batch of top-grade dried goods, he was not afraid of not being able to make Lu cuisine with excellent taste. He was originally going to graduate in two years, but his father suddenly died of illness, and this restaurant was also his father’s painstaking effort, so he had to manage it well. But his skills were still lacking some finesse. Since he became the head chef, the business in the shop had become worse and worse, and there were even signs of difficulty in supporting it. If he wasn’t both the head chef and the shop owner, the shopkeeper would have kicked him out long ago.

“We want all this batch of goods, Shopkeeper Lin, name your price.” The head chef decisively made a decision.

Lin Dan gave a medium price, which wasn’t too expensive, but it wasn’t cheap either. Seeing the other party readily took out the banknotes, her attitude also became relaxed, “Are there any other restaurants nearby? Give me some pointers, so I don’t have to run around so much. You can rest assured, I don’t have any top-grade goods in my hand, they are all inferior goods, selling them to others won’t affect you.” Selling all the goods in hand would be able to fill the gap in her funds.

The handsome head chef shook his head, and his tone was a little bad: “There are no others, there are only Qiaoyuan Restaurant and Yan Family Restaurant in these few streets nearby. You are from out of town, you might not know, the head of this Yan Family Restaurant is an imperial chef in the palace, and she has great power, and she is not allowed to open another Lu cuisine restaurant nearby to compete with her for business.”

“But you are doing well, aren’t you?” Lin Dan frowned slightly, and the handsome man also revealed a touch of harshness.

“My family is not without origins either. My grandfather served the former emperor, and my father served the Empress Dowager. They were both imperial chefs who came out of the palace. The calligraphy and painting hanging in my hall are the genuine works of the former emperor. No matter how arrogant the Yan family is, they wouldn’t dare to bully us.” The handsome head chef was proud, but he was also apprehensive. Although his family had a foundation, his skills were not good, and there had been a decline in recent years. And Yan Langqing, at a young age, was already the head chef in the Imperial Kitchen, and she was also the emperor’s favorite, and her fame had already spread from inside to outside the palace.

Even if those gourmets in the Xicheng District didn’t give her face, they had to give the emperor face, so the Yan Family Restaurant got bigger and bigger.

Lin Dan often sent people back to the capital to inquire about the situation, and she also knew how Yan Langqing had made her fortune. She left the Marquis’s Mansion and became the head chef at the Yan Family Restaurant. One day, the emperor, on a private visit, happened to eat at her restaurant, and he was very fond of her skills, and he also talked with her. Afterwards, he recruited her into the palace to cook, and she gradually gained favor.

Later, Lin Dan didn’t pay attention to what happened to Yan Langqing, but she didn’t know that she had already gained power to this extent.

Hearing the head chef continued: “The head of the Yan family is Yan Langqing, and her most famous signature dish is the Wanfu Meat. The emperor loved it so much the first time he ate it, that he kept her in the palace as an imperial chef. It is said that if the emperor doesn’t eat the dishes she makes for a day, he will feel uncomfortable. You say, is she favored or not?”

Lin Dan wasn’t interested in whether Yan Langqing was favored or not, but she was interested in the Wanfu Meat, and couldn’t help but ask: “How is this Wanfu Meat made, is it really so delicious?”

“I don’t know either. It is said that when making Wanfu Meat, Imperial Chef Yan will let others avoid it, and only she knows the recipe.” The handsome head chef shook his head regretfully.

Lin Dan’s face was as usual, but her eyes were full of coldness. She left her address and said goodbye. After leaving Qiaoyuan Restaurant, she immediately went back to find the owner of the grocery store, and coaxed him that she had already raised enough money and could transfer the shop. The owner indeed refused in every way, and also said that after she left, someone had offered a higher price and bought the shop.

Lin Dan carefully looked at him and found that his eyes were full of the pain of refusing a good deal, and what else didn’t she understand? Bidding from multiple parties was all fake, and it was true that they were warned by the Yan family and not allowed to sell the shop to others to open a Lu cuisine restaurant.

After saying goodbye to the owner, Lin Dan had no interest in strolling around, and walked back without a word.

The handsome man looked at her back, and his voice was a little low: “I was running around in the Northwest a few years ago, and only returned to the capital recently. I also often go out to walk around, but I didn’t know that the Yan family’s actions were already so biased.”

“Biased?” Lin Dan turned her head to look at him, and smiled with a meaningful look.

Soon, the handsome man knew why she had to smile like that. It seemed that from the grocery store owner, it was known that someone was going to open a Lu cuisine restaurant across the street and compete with their own, Yan Shouye then sent people to investigate, and Lin Dan had no power or influence, so she was soon investigated. Therefore, no matter where Lin Dan wanted to open a shop, it would be sabotaged by the Yan family. No one in the Xicheng District dared to sell her a shop, and it wouldn’t work in the Dongcheng District either. The shop in the Beicheng District had just been bought, and the seller regretted it, and swindled Lin Dan out of a deposit. After going around and around, Lin Dan finally found a shop in the Nancheng District, located at a wharf, and the people coming and going were extremely complicated, and the security was also very poor, and there were often incidents of theft, robbery, and even murder. Doing business here, let alone making money, it was good if she didn’t lose all her money.

So the Yan family was finally satisfied, and felt that they had knocked Lin Dan down so that she couldn’t get up. Only then did they stop.

The handsome man followed Lin Dan around every day, watching her being targeted, ostracized, and squeezed out. Only then did he know that the Yan family’s actions couldn’t be described as “biased” at all, it was simply “despicable”. Even if he was strong-willed and had a calm temperament, there was also a heavy fire in his chest. But Lin Dan always maintained a positive and optimistic attitude. When she encountered difficulties, she only frowned slightly and quickly relaxed, as if no one, no matter what, could bring her down.

On this day, Lin Dan brought the servants to tidy up the shop in Nancheng, while the handsome man guarded the door, with a pair of sharp eyes scrutinizing the passers-by, and with a strong aura. He would leave every day in the evening and appear the next morning. After eating breakfast at Lin Dan’s house, he would go with her to do errands. Fortunately, with his protection, Lin Dan could come and go freely in the chaotic land of Nancheng. In the future, without this bodyguard, she would have to hire some strong and reliable guys to watch the shop for herself.

Thinking about this, Lin Dan sighed and said, “My affairs are all settled, you don’t need to follow me anymore in the future.”

The man didn’t take this topic, and once again proposed: “This shop’s location is not good, I’ll find you another one, right in the Xicheng District.”

“We are strangers, with no great relationship, how could I be so bold as to take your shop. I will always remember the care you’ve given me these days, and in the future, if you come to eat at my place, I will give you a 50% discount.” Lin Dan refused as always. She wasn’t an ungrateful person, but she was even less of a person who was insatiable and pushed their luck.

The man’s lips were slightly pursed, not knowing how to persuade her, and seeing that it was getting dark, he could only turn and leave. When he reached the mouth of the alley, he looked back, his heart filled with worry. This place was truly not a good place to open a restaurant. It was fine that the shop was hidden in the winding alleys, but it was also surrounded by gambling dens, cockfighting rings, wharves, brothels, and other unsavory places. How could she do business here?

Lin Dan’s personality was so stubborn, the man wanted to help her, but he didn’t know where to start.