Chapter 121: Victory Within Reach

Maple leaf stewed with turtle is the signature dish of Lin’s Inn, priced at two taels of silver per serving.
For the wealthy in Xilan City, this price might not allow them to eat it every day, but it’s definitely worth it. Just the maple leaves alone are clearly magical ingredients.
Anything related to magical beasts or materials usually costs at least one tael of silver. Moreover, this dish also has the effect of strengthening the body—a result that’s not just theoretical but quite evident.
If the competition between Maple Forest Restaurant and Changlin Restaurant benefited the scholars of Xilan County the most, then the competition between Maple Forest Restaurant and Lin’s Inn undoubtedly benefits the local wealthy.
In just over a month, the price of maple leaf stewed with turtle dropped from two taels to three qian per serving. Various magical beasts and materials also saw steep price reductions, which was a great boon for the wealthy. After all, though a few taels per meal might not seem much, eating it frequently still adds up.
In these two price wars, Maple Forest Restaurant was always the protagonist. Normally, this would be the happiest time for their managers. When it came to competing over money, Maple Forest Restaurant had never feared anyone.
But with Liu Chuanxiang in charge, things felt different.
There were barely ten thousand taels of silver left.
It was absurd to think that ten thousand taels of silver couldn’t even bring down an inn in just one county. For an ordinary restaurant, this amount would take a lifetime to earn. Even if they could monopolize all the wealthy in the county, it would still take over three years to earn that much.
Chen Yeyuan, the spy inside Lin’s Inn, had disappeared without figuring out the ratio of white tolerance grass to the other four herbs. After nearly a thousand experiments, trying every possible combination of those five ingredients, he still achieved nothing.
If the amount of white tolerance grass exceeded one qian, the cost would exceed two taels of silver. Liu Chuanxiang simply couldn’t understand how Lin’s Inn managed to create their dish.
Subconsciously, he began to suspect it might be a conspiracy.
Otherwise, why would Chen Yeyuan disappear? Despite trying all possible ratios, they still couldn’t replicate Lin’s Inn’s dish.
At the counter, Liu Chuanxiang frowned, staring at the ledger in front of him, his gaze distracted and absent-minded.
“Boss, something bad has happened…”
A worker rushed in in a hurry, his anxious expression making Liu Chuanxiang’s heart pound. Could it be that Lin’s Inn had lowered their prices again?

Taking a deep breath, Liu Chuanxiang stood up. Though anxious, his expression remained calm as he shouted, “What’s the hurry? What happened?”
After several deep breaths, the employee said urgently, “Boss, I don’t know what’s going on today, but suddenly everyone outside is saying that our Maple Leaf Turtle Stew is fake.”
“What?” Liu Chuanxiang widened his eyes in shock and stared at the employee.
“Everyone in the streets is talking about it—claiming that the more we eat our Maple Leaf Turtle Stew, the worse it gets, and it can’t maintain the same health-enhancing effect with each serving.”
Liu Chuanxiang collapsed back in his chair, with only one thought in mind: It’s over!
Calculating the time, the guards sent to the Hou Dan Sect to buy White Endurance Grass would be back in a few days. But with rumors spreading that the Maple Leaf Turtle Stew was ineffective, it was undoubtedly Lin’s Inn causing trouble.
There was now less than a thousand taels of silver left in the account. Once the White Endurance Grass, worth four thousand taels, arrived, and they used it along with the Maple Leaf Turtle Stew to promote other dishes, they would still be losing money, but at least it could sustain them for another month or two.
By then, they could at least try to ruin Chang Lin Restaurant.
Without the effectiveness of the Maple Leaf Turtle Stew, without Qiao Tianhao, and their cooking skills not matching Lin’s Inn’s, the stored spirit beast meat and spiritual materials would pile up in the kitchen. Not to mention competing with Lin’s Inn, they wouldn’t even have enough to cover the costs of free meals against Chang Lin Restaurant.
With a hundred thousand taels of silver, they would be left with only six or seven thousand taels of ingredients in less than half a year—this time, it was truly over.
Seeing Liu Chuanxiang looking pale and weak, the employee asked carefully, “Boss, are you alright?”
“Go! Keep an eye on things. Report back if anything happens,” Liu Chuanxiang said weakly, waving his hand.
The employee nodded and slowly left the restaurant.
Glancing at the bustling lobby, Liu Chuanxiang smiled bitterly. Compared to the credit for setting up the consultation board, losing control of a county-level restaurant was forgivable. The owner of a prefecture-level restaurant might still have a chance, but as the first county-level restaurant owner to fail, the first to lose over ninety thousand taels in less than half a year, the first to be defeated by an inn… With these labels, facing other prefecture-level restaurant owners, he would have no face left.
There was no way to compete anymore, and with no hope of winning, continuing would only increase the loss from ninety thousand taels to a hundred thousand. Staring at the lobby for a long time, Liu Chuanxiang sighed deeply, took out pen, ink, and paper from the counter, pondered for a moment, and reluctantly wrote the first stroke.

At Lin’s Inn, after waiting anxiously all morning, upon learning that Maple Forest Restaurant not only failed to respond to the rumors but had even canceled the free meals for scholars, Lin Dong heaved a deep sigh of relief. He understood that this final straw had completely overwhelmed Maple Forest Restaurant. Victory was within sight; all that remained was to wait for Liu Chuanxiang to arrange a withdrawal and then find a way for Huang Wanren to quietly buy Maple Forest Restaurant. With Zhou Zhengye in charge officially, the Liu family posed no threat anymore, and their financial pressure had greatly decreased after securing a sudden windfall of 100,000 taels of silver. Coupled with their dishes being far superior to those of other restaurants, once Maple Forest Restaurant, their biggest competitor, fell, banquets costing more than three taels of silver in Xilan City would entirely belong to Lin’s Inn. After a month of intense competition, although Lin’s Inn hadn’t lost money thanks to the seating fees, it still suffered losses of four to five thousand taels of silver per month from the free meals at Changlin Restaurant. Fortunately, they had finally defeated Maple Forest Restaurant, and in the future, they could gradually raise the prices of spirit beasts, spirit materials, and turtle stewed with maple leaves. Even without competitive pressure, being able to reach level 4 a month or two earlier would already be worthwhile. Without competitors or worries, it was time for Lin’s Inn to expand into Autumn Wind City. Lin Dong carefully analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of the inn in his room—everything that needed to be arranged had been taken care of; all that was lacking was time. The recipe given by Lou Jingsong was genuine, and Lou’s Winery had also been purchased for just 7,000 taels of silver. A large piece of land could fetch 7,000 taels of silver, and although it would take three to five years to sell it, the winery’s brewing equipment and craftsmen could be used to increase Lin’s Winery’s production, so it wasn’t a total loss. Moreover, Thyme was preparing for large-scale brewing, and once completed, combined with the advantages of the King Wine recipe, their mid-range wines would not only have no competitors in Autumn Wind City but also hold a significant advantage due to their low cost. Adding to this were the information network from the consultation boards and Jiang Kui’s gradually improving cooking skills. Although it would still take some time to build a strong advantage, with the experience from the inns in Xilan City to support them as they expanded into Autumn Wind City, there was no need to worry about not having enough time to progress steadily. Everything was going well—now they just had to wait for the good news of Maple Forest Restaurant’s defeat.