Chapter 392: Plans to Counter the Four Backups
It took a lot of effort for Ma Chun to convince Liang Gufeng, who wanted to hang himself by tying a belt around his waist, to change his mind. Of course, Lin Dong and the others weren’t sure if he really had changed his mind, but at least he wouldn’t hang himself at Lin’s Inn. After sending Liang Gufeng away, Lin Dong asked Ma Chun to bring Liu An over, and the three of them discussed things in the courtyard for a long time, until sunset. The topic of discussion was undoubtedly the backups that Liang Gufeng had revealed. Lin Dong felt a chill run down his spine at the thought of Liang Gufeng having so many backups. If it weren’t for Liang Gufeng showing up to threaten them and getting enraged enough to reveal all those backups, Lin’s Inn would have been completely caught off guard—whether he revealed them all at once or gradually. It would have been a disaster for them. Headaches were inevitable. Lin Dong also had many trump cards: large ones like spirit stone heaters, medium-sized ones like vases for refining plants, perfumes, the chef and signature dishes promised by Hong Wanfu, and small ones like a spicy dish newly developed by Cheng Bao and bicycles developed by Lin’s Inn’s factory. Altogether, these far outnumbered Liang Gufeng’s trump cards. Yet, Liang Gufeng’s trump cards were indeed remarkable. In a direct confrontation, the chances of defeating Lin’s Inn were slim, but with decades of experience, it wouldn’t be hard for him to drag things out for two or three years using these trump cards. Fortunately, since they already knew about Liang Gufeng’s trump cards, if they could take preemptive action to stop them or prepare accordingly, they could at least minimize losses. Liang Gufeng had four backups. The first was having twice as many chefs. This left Lin Dong and his companions utterly puzzled—they couldn’t figure out how Maple Forest Restaurant could double its number of chefs in such a short time. Sending chefs from the main headquarters was almost impossible. After all, Maple Forest Restaurant wasn’t the only competitor in Lingnan City; even sending one or two chefs would take time, let alone dozens. The only possibility was recruiting chefs in Lingnan City itself. But this was also unlikely, as Maple Forest Restaurant was one of the top restaurants in the city, and chefs who could work there were extremely rare throughout Lingnan City. Most of these chefs were already working in the kitchens of wealthy families or other major restaurants.
Generally speaking, top chefs from major restaurants and wealthy families sign employment contracts. Breaching such contracts isn’t just a matter of paying compensation—it often comes with prison sentences. Some chefs who can create signature dishes even have clauses in their contracts that require them to work there for life.
No matter how high the price, Maple Forest Restaurant can at most recruit a few top chefs whose contracts have expired; it’s impossible for them to hire dozens at once. After much research, Liu An suddenly realized the most likely explanation: Hongfu Restaurant.
Hongfu Restaurant and Maple Forest Restaurant are rivals, and their numbers of top chefs are roughly equal. If it were possible to bring Hongfu Restaurant’s top chefs to Maple Forest Restaurant, it would indeed double their number of top chefs instantly.
The problem is that Hong Wanfu had already reached an agreement with Lin Dong months ago: if Hongfu Restaurant closed down, Hong Wanfu would have to transfer it along with its chefs to Lin’s Inn first. Hong Wanfu wouldn’t dare play such a sneaky game. Not only is Maple Forest Restaurant the main driver behind this, but without Lin Dong, Hongfu Gambling House wouldn’t have lasted this long. With Hongfu Gambling House still standing and Lin Dong’s connections to the Hua family, Hong Wanfu wouldn’t dare act deceitfully.
Yet, the most likely scenario is that the chefs from Hongfu Restaurant moved to Maple Forest Restaurant. After careful consideration, there are only two possible reasons. First, the chefs from Hongfu Restaurant all signed contracts with Hong Wanfu at the same time, but now Liang Gufeng took the lead and secretly convinced them before their contracts expired. Second, Liang Gufeng hired a thief or bribed one of Hong Wanfu’s closest subordinates to steal or destroy the contracts, then secretly contacted these chefs.
Whether it’s as guessed or not, having more chefs from Hongfu Restaurant add to Maple Forest Restaurant poses significant pressure on Lin’s Inn. If they really come from Hongfu Restaurant, it’s as if Lin’s Inn has lost a strategic advantage, increasing its pressure even further.
In running a restaurant, the most crucial factor is always the chefs. If we consider a top restaurant to be 100 points, the quality of its chefs accounts for at least 50 of those points.
If Maple Forest Restaurant doubles its number of chefs overnight and even takes over Hongfu Restaurant’s signature dishes, its strength will surely increase dramatically. With a few more elite chefs, it could even establish a foothold in the capital.
The best solution, undoubtedly, is to prevent these chefs from entering Maple Forest Restaurant. Liang Gufeng must have already signed agreements with these chefs; unless he uses some despicable tactics, there’s little chance of success. Even if he did try such tactics, Liang Gufeng would likely hide the agreements so well that not even he could find them.
In Lin Dong’s view, forcing Liang Gufeng to hand over these agreements was no better than forcing him to close down outright. He hadn’t thought much about this method—it wasn’t something his department would handle—and he simply saw no need for it. If even Lingnan City had to resort to such tactics in business, Lin Ji Inn would probably be forced to shut down within a year or two once they went to the capital.
Other than that, the only option was to find a way to transfer a few chefs from Lin Ji Inn, which lacked competitiveness, especially from Qiufeng City. Lin Dong had a good relationship with Wang Shuangxi, the owner of Kelei Restaurant, and if he asked him to send over three or five top chefs from Kelei Restaurant for a year or so, Wang Shuangxi would definitely agree without hesitation.
These chefs might not be as skilled as those at Maple Forest Restaurant or Hongfu Restaurant, but with the seven-fold cooking skill boost from the inn’s system, their performance could be on par. Coupled with a spicy dish newly developed by Cheng Bao, which would attract those wealthy clients already fascinated by Cheng Bao’s six spicy dishes to visit Lin Ji Inn more often, the additional clients could offset the impact of Maple Forest Restaurant having twice as many chefs.
Losing a large number of chefs from Hongfu Restaurant and having to rely on Cheng Bao’s new spicy dishes meant a significant loss.
Worse still, Liang Gufeng still had three backups.
The second one was having several better signature dishes.
Without the word “better,” Lin Dong would unhesitatingly consider these dishes as additional signature dishes for Hongfu Restaurant. But with “better” in front of it, there was only one possibility: Maple Forest Restaurant’s headquarters had introduced new signature dishes.
The three of them racked their brains but came up with few effective solutions. The most effective one was to use added fragrance powder—having an unlimited supply of it would elevate Lin Ji Inn’s cooking skills by a notch, including its two ever-popular signature dishes: Stewed Turtle with Maple Leaves and Vital Beef Balls. Together with the improved skills of chefs like Jiang Kui, they could match, if not surpass, Maple Forest Restaurant’s new set of better signature dishes.
Besides this, there is another method: find out the ingredients for these signature dishes. If certain rare materials or beast meats that cannot be transported and must be purchased locally are involved, one can try to monopolize them at any cost, leaving Fenglin Restaurant without ingredients and forcing them to stare blankly at their recipes. The cost of monopolizing a certain rare material or beast in a county city can vary greatly, depending on factors such as its rank, availability, and storage duration. For rare ones that are only of first or second rank and difficult to store, it might take just 100 to 180 taels of silver to monopolize them for several months or even years. On the contrary, for materials that even ordinary hunters can stockpile in large quantities, millions of taels of silver may not be enough to monopolize them for just one or two months. This method isn’t very reliable, but it’s still worth trying—provided that one can uncover the ingredients needed for Fenglin Restaurant’s new signature dishes. This can be done by secretly investigating the rare materials and beasts recently purchased by Fenglin Restaurant and analyzing them. Thirdly, Fenglin Restaurant also has a gymnasium. Undoubtedly, Liang Gufeng has already bought large plots of land near Fenglin Restaurant. Lin Dong was completely unaware of this in advance; it seems the gymnasium hasn’t been built yet. Since it hasn’t been built, things become much easier. If one can monopolize the wood, do so. If Fenglin Restaurant already has enough wood in stock, one can also try to recruit all the carpenters in Lingnan City first. Just the second method alone would be enough to render Liang Gufeng’s gymnasium useless. Originally, building a gymnasium takes at least three to six months. If the carpenters are lured away by competing offers, it will take at least half a year, plus the time needed for construction. By the time it’s built, Lin’s Gymnasium will already have established an unshakable advantage. Even if Liang Gufeng is foresighted enough to spend more money to secure the carpenters first, Lin Dong still has other plans. No matter how well Liang Gufeng builds his gymnasium, it will still have a huge disadvantage compared to Lin’s Gymnasium: its transparent roof. Promoting sports stars and betting events can be imitated, but Liang Gufeng, no matter how talented, cannot create a transparent roof. To overtake Lin’s Gymnasium, he must focus on prizes and competitors. These two aspects are interrelated. Lin Dong is 100% certain that Liang Gufeng’s plan must involve using large prizes to attract martial artists in their prime to compete.
Martial artists are naturally several times, even dozens of times more entertaining than the competitors at Lin’s Gym. Liang Gufeng doesn’t have to worry about running a gym in the long term—this is the fastest and most convenient method. As for this… Lin Dong also has a solution. What martial artists value most is not money, but strength. With strength, they can have as much money as they want. At that time, they can go to the Gu Huan Sect and Xing Li Sect to get carts full of low-grade spiritual materials for cultivation, and have the Hua family use some pretext like a large-scale hunt to recruit guards in large numbers, using these materials as payment. The martial artists from Lingnan City will surely flock there—who would pay attention to the bounty offered by Maple Forest Restaurant? As for those martial artists at the Mental State stage who don’t value these spiritual materials, they certainly despise any bounty even more. If they want money, even if they’re unwilling to serve the Great Han Nation, they can simply work as guards for some wealthy family or become mentors to their precious sons—thus becoming the masters in front of their employers while having money pouring in endlessly. It can be said that Lin Dong is almost certain to sink Lin’s Gym. Just this alone is enough to make Liang Gufeng regret coming to Lin’s Inn to set a trap for Lin Dong. Finally, there are the thirty portraits of ladies. Even though Lin Dong spent most of his time practicing in the backyard, he had heard of these portraits. After all, the owner of these thirty portraits was too conspicuous. Several times when he went shopping with Lin Shuang, people talked about them. The sixth prince, Liu Yao, was the governor of Qianye Prefecture under Lingnan Commandery. The owner of these thirty portraits, or rather, their original owner, was Liu Yao. Judging from his rank, it’s clear that Liu Yao is an incompetent man. After all, the princes who made it into the top ten were all over forty years old. Princes over forty took advantage of Emperor Qianwei’s revenge against princes and officials who could compete for the throne to become governors in their own regions. Their abilities can be imagined. Given the Great Han Nation’s testing methods for princes, not many who reach adulthood at sixteen pass the tests in the first year. But by the second, third, or fourth year… it’s impossible not to pass after twenty or thirty years. After all, the test content remains consistent—those with average abilities, even slightly worse than ordinary people, can still pass with experience. Those who fail can only be said to have more than just average abilities. And after Liu Yao took advantage of the opportunity created by the establishment of the merchant guild to become the governor of Qianye Prefecture, his abilities were once again proven.
In less than a year, there were fifteen absurd decrees, thirteen senseless wrongful cases, and twenty-eight amusing jokes… If it weren’t for the Ministry of Personnel realizing something was wrong and sending a few officials to supervise Liu Yao and clean up his mess, even more problems would have arisen.
Still, Lin Dong believed that such records were surely rare among the princes who ruled their own territories in the history of the Great Han Dynasty. After all, throughout the long history of the Great Han Dynasty, it was not common for an emperor like Emperor Qianwei to need to suppress powerful princes and officials.
These thirty portraits of ladies were part of Liu Yao’s collection—masterpieces created hundreds of years ago by one of the most talented and charming men in the Great Han Dynasty. Valued individually, each portrait was worth about 18,000 taels of silver, while together their total value could reach millions.
The reason was simple: these thirty portraits depicted the most renowned and beautiful ladies from the aristocratic families of the Great Han Dynasty. With their extraordinary beauty and distinct personalities, each portrait alone was just that of a beautiful woman, but together they formed something truly extraordinary. They not only showcased the painter’s superb skills but also served as a comprehensive representation of those famous aristocratic ladies from that era. Their significance made many wealthy people feel it was worth spending any amount of silver on them.
Lin Dong didn’t know how Liu Yao had obtained these thirty portraits, nor did he understand how Liang Gufeng had convinced Liu Yao to give them to him or lend them. For him, knowing that Liu Yao was a complete fool was enough.