Chapter 330: 20 Days Leave
After reading through both Quests in full, Qi Han finally stepped out from the training space.
His next immediate priority was clear—the Ingredient Acquisition Quest.
Ingredient Acquisition Quests came with a time limit, while the promotion Quest didn't. And considering that survival in the Star Dou Forest would only become easier the stronger he was, the choice was a no-brainer—finish the ingredient Quest first.
"Ru Yi, is there any high-tech solution to deal with the extreme cold of the Extreme North Snowfield?" Qi Han asked.
The Snowfield Ice Pheasants lived in the mid-region of the Extreme North Snowfield. While it wasn't the terrifying core zone with temperatures below minus 100°C, minus 30 to 40°C was still commonplace. For ice-type spirit masters, this already posed danger—let alone for someone like Qi Han, who had zero affinity with ice.
He vividly remembered how, during Huo Yuhao's first journey into the Extreme North Snowfield, he had to be secretly protected by the Skydream Iceworm. The moment that protection wore off, he almost froze to death. Qi Han wasn't about to take that same risk.
"System high-tech windproof and cold-resistant outfit, priced at 10,000 gold coins," Ru Yi replied sweetly, instantly pulling up a glowing display in front of Qi Han.
The outfit was sleek—more like tactical outerwear than bulky cold-weather gear. It included insulated pants and jackets that were tight-fitting without restricting movement. It came complete with thermal gloves, high-grip snow boots, and a windproof face mask and hood.
A small annotation next to the image caught his attention:
"When fully worn, activates a special high-tech field that keeps the internal environment at a constant 25°C (77°F), with adjustable humidity."
After reading the description, Qi Han felt like he could stroll through even the core region of the snowfield if he wanted to.
—That is, as long as he didn't get murdered by the Ice Empress or Snow Empress.
This was yet another piece of god-tier tech that would make any reader cry tears of envy. Without hesitation, Qi Han slapped down the 10,000 gold coin voucher.
Buy it!
With the gear problem resolved, Qi Han no longer had to worry about environmental hazards. The only thing left was figuring out how to confront the Snowfield Ice Pheasant.
Since lunch service had only just wrapped up, Qi Han decided not to depart immediately that afternoon.
At the very least, he wanted to complete the rest of the day's operations, and more importantly, give his employees and customers a heads-up.
This time, he expected to be away for quite a while.
The Extreme North Snowfield was far, and he'd also need to head to the Star Dou Forest afterward. Just the round-trip travel could take a week. Add in the time to hunt the Snowfield Ice Pheasant, then figure out which dragon-type spirit beast to choose for his promotion dish, and experiment with cooking and improvement…
A 20-day leave sounded totally reasonable.
Qi Han felt just a tiny bit guilty—he had only just returned for a month, and now he was going to ghost his customers again for nearly three weeks.
Still, this time he had plenty of legitimate reasons.
First, by completing the intermediate promotion, he'd be able to release brand-new dishes based on the recipes he developed.
So that's one solid excuse:
"Developing new dishes!"
Second, upon completing the promotion, he would gain the right to expand and renovate his restaurant.
And what does that mean?
It meant he could enlarge the dining area, and even replace regular tables with hotpot tables, finally bringing hotpot to his Shrek City location.
So here's another excuse:
"Renovating the store!"
Look at that—if the restaurant's under renovation, of course it can't operate.
A 20-day closure for remodeling? Sounds totally reasonable.
After all, no one knows that Ru Yi's renovation tech only takes 24 hours.
I mean, doesn't normal human renovation take at least 20 days?
Not only that, during the renovation period, I—Qi Han—will be diligently researching new dishes to surprise my customers.
When you think about it like that, isn't it kind of touching?
And if any customer dares to complain, Qi Han can always drop a little teaser about hotpot to get everyone hyped in advance.
At this point, he's a professional flake.
There's a saying, isn't there?
"The more you flake, the better you get at it."
If only Ye Lingqing had already finished his training—just knowing how to cook one or two dishes would be enough to keep the store running and help customers with their cravings.
Of course, that was just wishful thinking. Ye Lingqing had only been training under him for half a month, and he didn't have access to his accelerated time-space training room. How could he possibly learn so quickly?
Right now, Ye Lingqing was still practicing kneading dough, and he was already close to mastering the "three shine" standard.
Next time then. Hopefully, the next time he goes on leave, Little Lingqing will be able to hold down the fort himself, even if just a little.
Yep, the shameless transmigrator was already plotting his next vacation.
He messed around this time, and he'll absolutely dare to do it again.
Overflowing with excitement, Qi Han had no interest in spending the afternoon practicing Dinghu Shangsu. Instead, he pulled out his Douluo Continent Ingredient Encyclopedia and cheerfully clomped down the stairs. He sat in the kitchen, supervising and coaching Ye Lingqing's practice while continuing to research dragon-type ingredients.
Since he had already decided to use dragons as the main ingredient for his custom 2 Star recipe, he naturally had to do plenty of homework.
Not only that, he also wanted to study other specialty ingredients from the Star Dou Forest.
You know what that's called?
Being well-prepared.
…
"Eh? Boss, you're going on a 20-day leave again?"
Afternoon business hours rolled around quickly. After all four employees had arrived, Qi Han casually mentioned his upcoming leave.
Ping Xinyan took it calmly. She had only joined a month ago and hadn't experienced one of Qi Han's leaves yet, so she didn't show much reaction.
Fu Ya and Ji Yunruo both looked amused, their expressions a little strange.
But the most dramatic reaction came from Ying Shuang.
About a month ago, Ying Shuang had broken through the 40th spirit power level thanks to a Jade Dragon Tendon. But because of the food festival, business at Han Shi had been booming, and she'd felt too guilty to take time off to go get her fourth spirit ring.
Even after the food festival's week-long aftermath, she never brought it up. But now that business had finally returned to normal, she had been planning to request a short leave—even discussing it with Fu Ya that very afternoon—to go and return in a single day if possible.
But now… there was no need to ask.
Because her boss had beaten her to it.
Of course, this was great news for Ying Shuang. But the problem was, Qi Han's leave was twenty full days.
Her eyes quietly drifted toward Ye Lingqing.
Did this mean she wouldn't see Ye Lingqing for twenty days?
"Teacher, am I going with you?" Ye Lingqing only now realized what was happening. Stunned for a moment, he quickly asked.
"No need. The place I'm going this time isn't really suitable to bring you along," Qi Han replied with a smile. "So, you'll stay and help look after the store while I'm gone."
"I hope that when I return, you'll have already mastered the dough-kneading."
"Okay, Teacher!" Ye Lingqing nodded hard, full of determination.
Teacher isn't taking me with him because I'm not skilled enough to help.
That means I have to work even harder to improve my cooking!
Ying Shuang blinked upon hearing that.
Ye Lingqing is staying at the restaurant.
Then coming to the store every day sounds… totally reasonable, right?
After all, I'm a Han Shi employee—I need to check whether the boss is back yet.
Yep, that makes perfect sense. Ying Shuang, you're a genius!
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