Chapter 401: Visitors Asking to Have Meals Served at the Restaurant

In the middle of the night, at Maple Forest Restaurant, Liang Gufeng heaved a sigh of relief after hearing the report from his staff.
Whether it was ordinary wealthy clients or extremely wealthy ones, Maple Forest Restaurant’s business had surged significantly these past few days. Especially the private rooms—today alone, they were completely booked.
In Liang Gufeng’s eyes, true full occupancy meant that as soon as the dishes were cleared, new guests would take their seats. All 30 private rooms on the third floor of Maple Forest Restaurant had reached this level.
Over the course of the day, there were more than 310 groups of guests.
If each group included two extremely wealthy clients, then these over 300 groups meant more than 600 such clients in total.
Throughout the entire Lingnan City, the number of extremely wealthy individuals—landowners, nobles, high-ranking officials, and wealthy merchants—with assets of over a million taels of silver totaled only about 1,800. Including those favored elites who could spend generously, the total was still around 2,000. In other words, Maple Forest Restaurant gathered nearly 30% of Lingnan City’s extremely wealthy clients in just one day.
To Liang Gufeng before, this would have seemed like an unimaginable miracle. Even if Maple Forest Restaurant were the only restaurant in Lingnan City, achieving such a level would still be considered miraculous.
After all, extremely wealthy clients did not frequent restaurants every day.
Spending hundreds or even thousands of taels on a meal was still not something they could easily overlook.
Moreover, no matter how excellent the signature dishes or the environment, eating there three times a day might not necessarily be enjoyable over time.
Hosting officials, maintaining relationships with friends, or conducting business—visiting a high-end restaurant every ten days or half a month was already considered good. Some extremely wealthy families with top chefs at home only went to high-end restaurants when doing business or hosting officials, and it was common for them not to go for two or three months.
Having so many guests in one day, especially now that the merchant association had been established and the authority of the county government had diminished, meant that many ordinary wealthy families no longer had to spend hundreds or thousands of taels on meals to host officials regularly—this was indeed a miracle.
Liang Gufeng remembered that on the first day Maple Forest Restaurant opened, its 30 private rooms only saw a little over 200 groups of guests.
Of course, Liang Gufeng didn’t expect this level of traffic every day. If he could have 150 to 160 groups of extremely wealthy clients visiting daily, he would be satisfied, and the business for 30 private rooms would still be booming.
Liang Gufeng believed this wasn’t something difficult to achieve.

The Fenglin Restaurant has 30 private rooms, with nearly a hundred groups visiting each day on average. This target can be achieved if they can attract those large clients who have left the Hongfu Restaurant. Despite having quite a few headaches these past few days, Liang Gufeng remains full of confidence. The construction of the gymnasium being delayed and the Lin’s Inn suddenly hiring a large number of chefs have really given Liang Gufeng a hard time for several days. After much thought, he can only blame himself for not setting a trap for Lin Dong at Lin’s Inn back then. As a result, he didn’t only fail to steal anything but also lost a duck. Fortunately, the effect of the 30 paintings of ladies exceeded expectations, and the two signature dishes introduced later also surpassed expectations. Liang Gufeng planned to place one painting in each private room. With their graceful and vivid depictions, he assumed the ladies in the paintings were renowned noblewomen from hundreds of years ago, many of whom are still talked about to this day, giving them great significance. Coupled with their superb painting skills, these paintings should have held considerable appeal to those large clients. Yet in reality, their appeal was not just significant—it was downright fatal. Some of these large clients couldn’t resist knocking on the doors of other private rooms, using trivial conversations as an excuse to take a peek at the paintings hanging there. These large clients were all people with numerous wives and concubines and wide-ranging experiences. A painting of a beautiful woman shouldn’t have made them act so recklessly, but many of them indeed did. Ultimately, it was because the identities of the women in the paintings were extraordinary—almost all the most prominent, talented, and beautiful women of that era were represented. With one painting per room, Liang Gufeng thought that to see them all, one would need to visit Fenglin Restaurant at least 30 times. If unlucky, one might encounter guests already in a room by the time they reached later paintings. In short, fewer than 40 visits would definitely not be enough. Although the fact that some large clients disregarded their status and knocked on other rooms exceeded Liang Gufeng’s expectations, it indirectly demonstrated the allure of the 30 paintings. One viewing was certainly not enough. Some of these people even visited more times than those large clients with better self-control. Relying solely on these 30 paintings, it would be no problem to keep those interested in them at Fenglin Restaurant for a year or two. With a year or two at Fenglin Restaurant’s strength, Liang Gufeng was convinced they could become regular customers. In addition, Fenglin Restaurant also had two signature dishes.

These two signature dishes were developed by the headquarters of Fenglin Restaurant for the county-level branches. After training a group of chefs skilled in preparing these dishes, they were assigned to each county-level restaurant.

One of the signature dishes is called “Five Spices, Ten Colors,” made by stir-frying thirteen kinds of lower-tier spiritual ingredients. It has a rich flavor; upon closer inspection, its aroma is intense, with five distinct flavors that complement each other. As for the colors, there are indeed ten, just as the name suggests. If the dish were larger by a hundred or a thousand times, its vibrant colors would resemble those of a colorful lake.

In addition to its excellent taste and aroma, it also has some medicinal value, though not significant. Still, this can be used as a selling point, and exaggerating it further can add to its appeal.

The other dish is named “Golden and Silver Treasure Basin.” Its main ingredient is a sixth-tier Golden and Silver Beast with meat that comes in gold and silver hues. The meat is cut into ingot-shaped pieces and combined with various balls resembling pearls, agates, or jade, along with spiritual ingredients. The dish looks so much like a treasure basin that it might easily be mistaken for one.

The meat of the Golden and Silver Beast is extremely fresh; with just one bite and a few chews, all you can think is “delicious!” Combined with the seasonings prepared by the headquarters of Fenglin Restaurant, it’s so delicious that one might want to bite off their own tongue—yet it never feels greasy.

Reaching such excellence, coupled with the symbolic meaning of “treasure basin,” makes it highly attractive.

Of course, these two signature dishes, sent by the headquarters to the county-level Fenglin Restaurants, do have their flaws. “Five Spices, Ten Colors” uses many mixed ingredients, and although their flavors are all rich and aromatic, they differ somewhat, resulting in an inconsistent taste. This might be uncomfortable for those with extremely refined palates among the elite families.

As for “Golden and Silver Treasure Basin,” it is fresh without being greasy, but its meat quality is somewhat subpar—much coarser compared to many sixth-tier spiritual beasts that can be used as ingredients.

Of course, in the capital city, where profits are extremely high and competition is fierce, the nobles and wealthy merchants accustomed to almost perfect food might be dissatisfied with these flaws. But in a county town, among the local elites and wealthy merchants, they are undoubtedly treasures among treasures.

The price of the first dish is thirty taels of silver, while the second, “Golden and Silver Treasure Basin,” costs 120 taels of silver. In particular, it not only sets a new record for the most expensive dish in Lingnan County but also breaks the record for the most expensive spiritual beast meat in all restaurants in Lingnan City.

Just this alone is enough to elevate the quality of Maple Forest Restaurant. Coupled with the fact that the taste, aroma, and appearance of these two signature dishes far surpass those of other restaurants’ signature dishes, they may not be as intensely tempting as the thirty paintings of ladies, but their appeal is more enduring. As long as one doesn’t eat them every day, they’re definitely never boring to eat.

It is these two signature dishes, along with the thirty paintings of ladies and the chef brought over from Hongfu Restaurant, that have created the miracle in Liang Gufeng’s mind at Maple Forest Restaurant.

Without the gymnasium, Lin’s Inn still isn’t completely defenseless; it can at least hold its own for a while. Although these aspects differ slightly from what Liang Gufeng had planned when he teamed up with Lin’s Inn to deal with Hongfu Restaurant, overall, they still meet expectations—even better than expected better than expected.

“Owner Lin, no matter what schemes you use, trying to trick me into revealing my hidden cards is in vain. At most, it might cause trouble for the gymnasium, but that trouble might not even be insurmountable.”

On the rocking chair under the banyan tree, Liang Gufeng’s right foot tapped rhythmically on the ground as his body swayed back and forth with the chair.

“Owner, something bad has happened!” A waiter rushed in in a panic, interrupting Liang Gufeng’s thoughts about how Lin’s Inn was failing and his plan to go there in person to discuss acquisition, wondering if Owner Lin would be too ashamed to meet him.

“Panicking like this—no sense of composure at all!” Liang Gufeng wasn’t an overly strict owner, but the waiter’s interruption of his pleasant thoughts made him feel a bit annoyed.

“Owner, the Sixth Prince has come in person,” the waiter said with a worried face.

“The Sixth Prince?” Liang Gufeng was stunned. He quickly pulled back the blanket covering his feet and frowned. “Was he invited to the lobby for tea?”

“He was, but he refused, saying he wants to take back the thirty paintings of ladies!” the waiter said urgently.

“What! What did you say?” Liang Gufeng stood up abruptly, his violent movement causing the rocking chair to shake violently.

Grabbing the waiter, Liang Gufeng asked anxiously, “What’s going on? Why does the Sixth Prince want to take back those thirty paintings again? Those paintings were agreed to be lent to us for three years—how can he go back on his word?”

“I don’t know.” Seeing Liang Gufeng so panicked, the waiter felt a hint of satisfaction, but he didn’t show it and explained, “The golden jade Buddha you gave him has been returned. The Sixth Prince just said that since it wasn’t delivered within half an hour, he left on the spot. That’s all he said.”

Turn around and leave? Who would dare make a prince walk away angrily like that? Even if the prince was a bit silly, no one would dare.
Liang Gufeng’s legs turned weak, and he staggered. In his buzzing head, there was only one thought: Lin Dong!
It must be Lin Dong’s doing. Though Liang Gufeng didn’t believe Lin Dong could have any connection with the Sixth Prince, subconsciously, he felt there was no one else possible but Lin Dong.
Regret and frustration swirled in Liang Gufeng’s mind—all because of that trip to Lin’s Inn.
“Hurry, hurry to the lobby!”
Anxiously, Liang Gufeng tried to figure out where things had gone wrong as he rushed toward the lobby.
At that moment, Lin Dong was sitting on the back of the Hundred-Winged Bird, soaring through the hurricane in the sky as night gave way to dawn.