Chapter 495: God Before Ordering Food

A streak of golden-red appeared on the horizon, growing larger over time until it painted the entire sky with a hue that was neither gold nor red. Then, the sun peeked out.
The doors of Lin’s Inn were lowered one by one. Next door, the doors of another Lin’s Inn were also lowered one by one.
By the time the doors were fully open, the two Lin’s Inns appeared almost identical, with only the appearance of the staff members differing slightly.
Soon, a carriage parked between the two inns once again demonstrated their similarity. The coachman was at a loss, unsure which inn to stop at, and the middle-aged man who lifted the carriage curtain could not give any guidance either.
Seeing the coachman and the middle-aged man’s confusion, Ma Chun felt sorry for them and asked, “Owner, how about me and a few staff members stay at the door? I’m sure when customers come, some of them will recognize us.”
“Wait and see!” Lin Dong shook his head. He had thought of countless ways to distinguish between the two Lin’s Inns the previous night, but these could only temporarily ease the inn’s business struggles. The real intention of the other Lin’s Inn was likely to suppress Lin’s Inn’s business, not to compete with it. Therefore, any random changes—like placing a dung cart at the door or arranging fights there—could easily put Lin’s Inn in a difficult situation again.
In comparison, things were actually easier now. At least customers couldn’t tell if they had entered the wrong inn. Lin’s Inn would only suffer losses in business, and over time, customers might develop a dislike for it because of the neighboring shady inn. If the other side placed several dung carts at the door or caused bloodshed there, most customers, not knowing which one was the real Lin’s Inn, would suspect Lin’s Inn from a distance. That would be a reputational loss, and it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to recover from it.
Ma Chun nodded helplessly.
The sun rose higher, and street vendors began shouting their goods. Shops on both sides also opened one after another to welcome the new day, and the number of pedestrians on the streets gradually increased.
Although mornings were a slow time for restaurants, customers and carriages were already stopping outside Lin’s Inn.
Confusion arose in many customers’ minds. The existence of two Lin’s Inns was beyond their expectations. Before this, no one had paid attention to the exact location of Lin’s Inn or the shops around it.

Over half of the diners, either by intuition or based on the staff in the shop, entered the real Lin’s Inn. The remaining few wandered into another Lin’s Inn in a daze. Still, some diners wisely chose to leave. With two Lin’s Inns existing, it was clear that someone was trying to cause trouble for Lin’s Inn. Under such circumstances, it was indeed the safest option not to enter either one—what if a conflict broke out between them? It wasn’t worth putting oneself in danger just for a meal.

“What kind of terrible food and drink is this? I almost vomited eating it.”

Outside the other Lin’s Inn, several diners stepped out, their faces showing disgust. Behind them stood burly men in staff uniforms, expressionless and unbothered by their curses and complaints.

The diners left the other Lin’s Inn grumbling, glanced at Lin Dong’s Lin’s Inn, hesitated for a moment, and then walked away while chatting. Clearly, even though they knew the real Lin’s Inn was right next door, they didn’t want to enter it.

“Go ask!” Lin Dong instructed.

Ma Chun stepped forward immediately. His previously pale face naturally broke into a friendly smile as he approached the diners.

“Boss Wang, Boss Hong, it’s been a while! Business must be so good that you don’t even have time, right?”

The men were surprised to see Ma Chun coming from the street. Their annoyed expressions softened somewhat due to Ma Chun’s smile. One of them bowed his hand to Ma Chun and said helplessly, “We had planned to discuss some business cooperation. Since your Lin’s Inn isn’t crowded early in the morning, we thought we’d gather here. Who would have thought we’d end up at the other one? Manager Ma, does your Lin’s Inn’s success mean you no longer care about your guests? If we’d seen you at the entrance, we wouldn’t have taken the wrong path.”

“It’s all my fault, Manager Ma’s fault. How about I invite you all upstairs later? All expenses will be on me, Ma Chun,” Ma Chun said with a smile, quickly taking responsibility.

The men’s resentment dissipated greatly. One of them felt it wasn’t really Lin’s Inn’s fault—getting a meal for free was clearly a huge advantage—and began to complain, “Manager Ma, you don’t know—those new Lin’s Inns have such terrible food and drink it makes you want to vomit.”

“How can these be called food and drink! Meat stir-fried with mud, fish cooked in sand, mushrooms stewed with mosquitoes… Every dish contains something disgusting. The wine is even worse—so-called fine liquor, but in my opinion, it tastes like sewage.” Another person added, “I was in a good mood early in the morning, but as soon as I ate this stuff, my anger surged. The staff are even more infuriating—arrogant to the extreme, either responding with ‘if you like it, eat it; if not, leave’ or ‘if you can’t afford it, get lost.’ Is this about money? Even if they paid me, I wouldn’t bother looking at such food and drink.”

“Exactly. I, Mou Wanhuhu, may not be extremely wealthy, but I’m not someone who would disdain a few taels of silver. If I had my servants with me, I would have already smashed this fake Lin Ji Inn.”

Everyone nodded in agreement, though of course, it was just for show. The staff at the other Lin Ji Inn weren’t just indifferent—they even threw broken stones at them for entertainment.

With that attitude, even all their servants combined weren’t worth anything.

From afar, Lin Dong frowned deeply. The tactics of the other Lin Ji Inn clearly exceeded his worst expectations. By serving inferior food, they were undoubtedly trying to damage the reputation of Lin Ji Inn. Although everyone knew deep down that this wasn’t the real Lin Ji Inn, the lingering suspicion remained.

If a group of customers came out and they used Ma Chun’s method—offering another group a free meal to calm them down—then the anger could be resolved, and the suspicion dispelled. But they couldn’t keep giving away meals; money wasn’t the main issue, but it was possible the other Lin Ji Inn might resort to even more extreme measures.

If they ignored it, once enough customers of Lin Ji Inn had suffered losses, at least half of them would blame Lin Ji Inn.

In the end, unless they could identify those ruthless people or their masterminds, they could only passively try to make amends.

“Owner, what should we do?” After greeting a few customers who had just left the other Lin Ji Inn, Ma Chun returned to Lin Dong’s side.

“You go back and take care of the guests. I’ll go to the back yard,” Lin Dong said firmly.

“The back yard?” Ma Chun was surprised. Were they just going to ignore it?

“Ask the old man to help me disguise myself as a middle-aged man, dress me in silk, and then go in to see if we can come up with a plan,” Lin Dong replied casually.

Ma Chun understood immediately and nodded eagerly.

Back in the back yard, with Old Ding’s help, Lin Dong disguised himself as a middle-aged man and put on silk clothes. Now, he appeared as a moderately wealthy man.

Alone, he walked onto the main street. Then, Lin Dong deliberately stayed outside the two Lin Ji inns for a while before entering the newly opened one.
“Please come in, sir. Would you like to sit upstairs or have a table here?” The burly waiter wasn’t as rude as those customers who had left had said; instead, he wore a smile and was very polite.
Of course, Lin Dong wasn’t stupid. He understood that those customers were just angry and were only saying bad things. If a waiter looked gloomy, fierce, or indifferent when customers entered, they would likely leave right away—proving it wasn’t the original Lin Ji inn. If that were the case, there wouldn’t be any issues like finding sand or mud in the food.
“I’ll have a table here.” Lin Dong glanced around the first floor. There weren’t many customers—thirty dining tables, with only two occupied. Of course, for an ordinary restaurant, this level of business in the morning was already good. After all, there were five more floors, and if each floor had two tables, that meant over a dozen tables of guests. At this time of day, having over a dozen tables would make an ordinary restaurant quite busy.
As soon as Lin Dong sat down, six waiters came in from the back yard, each carrying a large tray, bringing all the dishes for those two tables at once.
“Waiter, what the hell is this dish? It’s full of sand just from taking one bite!”
“Yes! There are flies in my plate too. How can I eat this? I ordered braised pork, not braised fly meat!”
Soon, the people at both tables started complaining loudly, spitting constantly, clearly having eaten something they didn’t want to eat.
In the lobby, the waiters indeed acted as those customers had described—arrogant and domineering. Some ignored them, some mocked them for not having enough money to pay, or tried to extort the Lin Ji inn. One of them even took out a fist-sized rock, tapped it on the table to prove its weight and hardness, then slowly crushed it into powder with one hand.
If those burly men disguised as waiters still seemed like waiters before, now they were purely terrifying. Their expressions forced the people at both tables to pay and leave, filled with resentment.
“This…”

As soon as Lin Dong spoke, the staff member who greeted him said with a smile, “Sir, you may not be aware, but with such a large establishment, there are naturally those who come to extort money or cause trouble. This isn’t your first time at our Lin’s Inn, so you should know well whether our food and drinks contain sand or flies. Those two tables of people are clearly troublemakers, or perhaps they were sent by another restaurant out of envy. If you don’t believe me, you’ll see once the food is served. As for our staff’s attitude, I hope we haven’t scared you—we had no choice. If we tolerate such behavior, we won’t be able to run a business in the future.” Lin Dong nodded. Before ordering, you’re God; after ordering, you’re just a victim. Those customers had nowhere to vent their anger. If they sued, the food was genuine and honest—there was just an extra ingredient in it. They couldn’t possibly accuse the restaurant of serving bad food. If they tried to vandalize the place, the staff could easily crush stones into powder, and those who came might even need to be taken to a doctor.