CHAPTER 44: CHAPTER 044: GUIDANCE FROM ELDER GAO! DOES MR. LIN OWN A SCENIC SPOT?

「10:50 AM.」

Old Master Gao, tall and wearing a floral T-shirt, came to Lin Ji’s Food with his hands clasped behind his back. When he arrived at the entrance, he noticed a new dish on the electronic blackboard.

[Black Bean Sauce Steamed Pork Ribs: 42 yuan per serving, limited to fifty servings per meal]

Wow! I haven’t been here for a while, and they’ve already introduced a new dish.

He entered the restaurant with some interest. Song Tiantian, who was busy scooping rice behind the cash register, quickly greeted him, "Good morning, Old Master Gao, are you here for a meal this early?"

Old Master Gao smiled and replied, "I only had a bowl of soy milk this morning and got hungry by mid-morning. Give me an order of Black Bean Sauce Steamed Pork Ribs and a bowl of rice. That’s 47 yuan total, right?"

He took out his phone and efficiently scanned to pay 47 yuan.

Lin Xu came over smiling. "I was just about to tell you not to pay. We were giving it away to our regular customers yesterday afternoon, waiting for you to try it, but you didn’t show up."

Old Master Gao was somewhat surprised. This kid actually remembered me. Not bad, not bad.

He laughed heartily. "I was visiting someone yesterday. If I had known such a good thing was happening, I wouldn’t have gone."

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Lin Xu went to the kitchen. He opened the steamer door and, using tongs, took out a plate of Pork Ribs exuding a rich black bean aroma. He sprinkled a pinch of finely chopped Scallion, prepared in advance, on top. Then, he placed it before Old Master Gao, along with a bowl of rice. Old Master Gao’s lunch was ready.

After taking care of these things, Lin Xu checked the time and ordered a courier service online. Then, he took out a large meal box and filled it mostly with rice. He also took out an order of Black Bean Sauce Steamed Pork Ribs and, following Shen Jiayue’s request, poured the Pork Ribs and sauce directly into the rice. After pouring it in, he closed the lid. He then took another meal box and packed some sliced lotus root and Chicken Feet. Lastly, he prepared a small bowl of Nori Egg Drop Soup.

These past few days, whenever Lin Xu had free time, he would practice making it the way Old Master Gao had taught him. Although the task required making one hundred bowls, it actually meant making it one hundred times. This was because Lin Xu had made a small basinful this morning, but the system still counted it as only one bowl. As a result, everyone in the shop was now holding small bowls, drinking Nori Egg Drop Soup.

After packing Shen Jiayue’s lunch, Lin Xu also served a bowl to Old Master Gao. "After you taught me last time, I’ve been practicing whenever I have a moment. Please try my cooking now and tell me how it is and what needs improvement."

Old Master Gao was currently marveling at Lin Xu’s skill in making the Black Bean Sauce Steamed Pork Ribs. The Pork Ribs were steamed to a deliciously fragrant, tender, and smooth perfection. The black bean aroma mingled perfectly with the savory scent of the meat. One taste of this black bean sauce revealed it was made using an old-fashioned technique. Only dried black beans and Scallion and Ginger were used to flavor the peanut oil; no other miscellaneous sauces were added. This resulted in a black bean sauce with a rich fragrance and pure taste. Old Master Gao felt that even if he made it himself, this was the best it could be. This kid’s talent is incredible!

Seeing Lin Xu bring over a bowl of soup, he picked it up and tasted it carefully before speaking, "You can add slightly more salt; about ten more grains per bowl should do. Also, for the salt, don’t use ordinary iodized salt. Buy some Qinghai salt or a similar high-end variety, as the umami will be enhanced significantly. As for the nori, it was soaked for a bit too long. Additionally, when you blanched it, the water temperature was still a little too high."

To pick out such detailed flaws with just one taste! And you say you’re just a handyman? Lin Xu was thoroughly impressed by Old Master Gao, almost to the point of prostrating himself in admiration. He could even identify an issue like needing about ten more grains of salt. A State Banquet Master is truly something else!

Just as he was marveling, the system’s prompt sounded in his mind: "The host has humbly accepted the guidance of the State Banquet Master. The difficulty of the ’Practice Makes Perfect’ task has been halved. The host now only needs to make fifty bowls to acquire the Perfect Level Nori Egg Drop Soup Cooking Technique. Congratulations to the host."

WOW! Lin Xu hadn’t expected that chatting with Old Master Gao would yield such a reward. This is an incredible surprise!

Old Master Gao was eating his meal at that moment, so Lin Xu didn’t disturb him much. After exchanging a few more words, he returned to the kitchen and started searching for the high-end salt Old Master Gao had mentioned on an online shopping platform.

「Yinzhou City.」

At the entrance of the Longqi Mountain Scenic Area, Panda, still wearing a panda costume and a straw hat, was waiting with Chen Meijuan and Lin Hongqi for the tourists to arrive.

"Uncle Lin, is everything arranged at the scenic area?"

The tall Lin Hongqi waved his hand at him. "Don’t worry, Xiao Pan. From last night until now, we haven’t been idle for a moment. The entire scenic area has been mobilized."

After Panda arrived last night and the contract was signed, Lin Hongqi immediately took several employees from the scenic area to purchase supplies overnight. About a thousand people would be staying and eating in the scenic area for three days. This required purchasing tons of rice, flour, and various types of meat. They also needed to buy large quantities of drinks popular with young people, such as fruit juices and mineral water, as well as various souvenirs.

For the scenic area, these items, especially the souvenirs, were major profit drivers. All the souvenirs were purchased by the jin from the small commodity markets in Yiwu.

In addition to purchasing a lot of supplies, the scenic area’s staff were also mobilized. Not only did they hire fifty temporary workers to help, but all available relatives of the Lin Family were also called into action. For example, the elderly man with graying hair wearing a security uniform at the main entrance now was Lin Xu’s second maternal great-uncle.

To ensure these students ate and drank well, Chen Meijuan had, overnight, hired all the banquet catering teams from several nearby villages. Dining spots were set up in four locations: the visitor center at the foot of the mountain, the cliff-side hotel on the mountaintop, the leisure cafe near the water park, and the tent campsite in the valley behind the mountain. Tourists could eat at any of these places with their tickets.

"They’re here, they’re here!"

On the distant highway, buses began to arrive one after another.

Panda quickly waved, signaling the buses to drive directly through the scenic area’s main gate. A large parking lot had been specially cleared inside for these buses.

Once the buses were parked, students with backpacks disembarked one by one. With expressions of slight bewilderment mixed with excitement, they began heading towards the visitor center under the guidance of their teachers, where lunch had already been prepared for them.

Those who didn’t want lunch could directly take the hiking trail on the left to go up the mountain, or follow the walking path on the right down to the water park. Food was also available at both alternative locations.

After coordinating with the school representative, Panda took out his phone and posted a set of photos taken that morning under the Lin Ji’s Food online topic. "Let me show everyone Boss Lin’s family’s scenic area—Longqi Mountain Scenic Area in Yinzhou City. I snapped these casually this morning. Feel free to take a look and get a feel for the place."

As soon as it was posted, the netizens went wild.

"What’s this? Boss Lin’s family owns a scenic area?"

"No wonder Boss Lin is so handsome! Such beautiful scenery must be very nurturing."

"I was just planning a trip! Say no more, I’m packing my bags!"

"Is there an RV campsite? I want to take my RV out for a spin."

"I searched on Meituan, and the scenic area tickets are only 29.9 yuan. Isn’t that too cheap?"

"Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go! This scenic area has mountains, waterfalls, canyons, and a reservoir, and you can experience it all for just 29.9 yuan. It’s totally worth a visit!"

"..."

Meanwhile, Wu Kexin was online searching for content for her live stream. Her company had suggested she do a few more store-exploration episodes to make it easier to secure commercial deals. But in this hot weather, what kind of stores would be good to explore?

Just as she was racking her brain, she saw the photos posted by her number two fan. Wow! Isn’t the scenery here absolutely gorgeous? Especially that cliff-side hotel; waking up in the morning and looking out of the floor-to-ceiling windows at the cliff—wouldn’t that be breathtaking?

The prominent live streamer immediately posted a preview for her next broadcast: "Hey everyone, I’m planning to explore a ’store’ that’s a bit on the larger side. Can anyone guess where it is?"