Chapter 328: Ingredient Acquisition IV and Promotion Quest
"Really!?" Ying Shuang looked joyfully at Ye Lingqing, who stood beside Qi Han.
As the afternoon business hours began, the seven employees entered Han Shi and quickly noticed the new face standing behind Qi Han.
After introducing Ye Lingqing to everyone, Qi Han explained that Ye Lingqing would be staying at Han Shi to learn culinary skills from him as his apprentice.
Naturally, the happiest person upon hearing this was Ying Shuang.
Ye Lingqing wouldn't be leaving anymore—and as the boss's disciple, she'd get to see him every time she came to Han Shi!
Was there anything more delightful than that?
Fu Ya tugged on Ying Shuang's sleeve, subtly reminding her to mind her demeanor. Still, inwardly, her resistance toward Ye Lingqing softened.
Previously, Fu Ya hadn't been very fond of the boy, mostly because Ying Shuang liked him. She felt that the two of them didn't seem compatible in many ways and probably wouldn't work out.
But now that Qi Han had accepted Ye Lingqing as his apprentice, her opinion began to shift.
Maybe I just haven't seen his strengths?
After all, Qi Han was someone she deeply respected. For him to acknowledge this boy meant Ye Lingqing must be truly exceptional.
"Of course it's true," Qi Han nodded with a smile, though a curious glint flickered in his eyes.
He had already sensed something was going on between his new apprentice and Ying Shuang during lunch. Now, seeing her visibly more excited than anyone else only confirmed his suspicions.
Could these two possibly become a couple someday?
The matchmaker in Qi Han stirred, though he kept his thoughts to himself. They'd be seeing each other often now—no need to rush. Time would reveal everything.
"Alright, what do you all want for dinner?"
Qi Han's twice-daily meal inquiries had become routine. The seven employees were used to it by now and didn't hold back like they had in the beginning.
Although they'd all silently agreed not to order any of the Purple Card Dishes, they were no longer shy about requesting other items.
Once the group finished rattling off their choices, all eyes turned to the only person who hadn't ordered yet—Ye Lingqing. Qi Han's gaze also landed on him.
This made Ye Lingqing feel slightly embarrassed. "I'll just have a plate of egg fried rice."
After all, his teacher had already spent so much on him today—not to mention giving him such a nice place to stay. He felt he should try to help save money where he could.
"That won't do." Qi Han's tone was warm, but firm. "You're still growing. Look at Ke Ke—he's about your age but much taller. You've got to eat more."
Ye Lingqing glanced at the man beside him, who was a full head taller. His expression grew conflicted.
Teacher makes a good point, but… wouldn't eating that much cost a lot?
"It's fine," Ying Shuang chimed in, unable to hold back any longer. She'd wanted to speak up earlier when he only ordered fried rice, but Qi Han had beaten her to it. "We all order like this for our staff meals. If you eat too little, it'll make the rest of us feel awkward."
Though blunt, her words made perfect sense. If one out of eight people ate significantly less, the others would inevitably feel uncomfortable.
Ye Lingqing wavered, his resolve shaken. He bit his lip and finally gave in, "Then… I'll also have a serving of Fish-flavored Shredded Pork and one Crab Stuffed with Orange."
These two dishes had caught his eye on the menu earlier, and he had been craving them ever since. Now, with a bit of courage, he went for it.
But no sooner had he ordered than a sliver of regret crept in.
Maybe… just one dish would've been enough?
He snuck a glance at his teacher and saw that not only was there no displeasure on his face, but the smile on his lips even deepened slightly at seeing how much he had ordered. Ye Lingqing's heart warmed, and he finally relaxed.
Teacher is really good to me.
Because among the seven employees only Ke Ke was male, Ye Lingqing had naturally stood next to him from the start. Now that everyone had finished ordering, he instinctively sat beside Ke Ke as well.
Originally, Ke Ke had been sitting with the Qin sisters at a four-person table that was missing one seat. Now, Ye Lingqing filled that spot.
Seeing this, Ying Shuang gently tugged on Qin Yao's sleeve. "Yaoyao, how about we switch seats? Fu Ya has something she wants to talk to you about."
Fu Ya: "…Huh?"
Qin Yao looked at the bewildered Fu Ya, then at Ying Shuang's expectant expression, a faint amused smile appearing on her face.
She was more sensitive and had already noticed that Ying Shuang was acting a little… off.
Fu Ya wants to talk? Yeah right—clearly just an excuse.
Ying Shuang was obviously interested in that boy named Ye Lingqing.
"Sure, let's switch," Qin Yao agreed easily. It wasn't a big deal to her, and there was even a small joy in secretly helping two people get closer.
Come to think of it… haven't I done this before?
Qin Yao suddenly fell into thought.
Didn't I do the same thing recently to help my sister get closer to Ke Ke?
"Yueyue, you sit with Ying Shuang. I'll sit with Fu Ya."
"Ah! Okay, okay." Qin Yue quickly agreed, her eyes drifting back to Ke Ke again.
Sigh, once a girl grows up, you can't keep her around forever.
Shaking her head with a smile, Qin Yao exchanged a look with Fu Ya, and the two sat down together.
Soon after, Qi Han and Pururu brought out everyone's meals. In the cheerful and harmonious atmosphere, they all enjoyed dinner together before returning to prepare for the evening's work.
Ye Lingqing's official culinary training wouldn't begin until tomorrow, but he had already unpacked all his belongings and now found himself a bit idle. Seeing how everyone else was working with such enthusiasm, he hesitated for a moment and then asked if he could help Qi Han with some chores in the kitchen.
Qi Han had no objections to this, of course. On the contrary, he felt quite pleased by the request.
And so, the evening's business began.
…
Time flew by—soon, another half month had passed.
Including the half month before, it had now been about a month since Qi Han had returned to Shrek City from Star Luo City.
The Qin sisters and Ke Ke hadn't stayed at Han Shi any longer. About a week after the Food Festival ended, visiting diners from out of town also gradually dispersed, the lingering buzz fading away. Han Shi's business began to return to its usual rhythm.
Though a little reluctant, the three knew the customers back in Star Luo City needed them too. The hotpot restaurant there had already been closed for ten days, and its regulars had long been eagerly awaiting its reopening.
After seeing the trio off, business at the small Han Shi restaurant continued as usual.
In just a week, the honors Han Shi had won at the Food Festival had already spread across the entire Douluo Continent—partly because Xuan Ye, feeling guilty, secretly ramped up the publicity. Combined with the dramatic fact that Han Shi's eight dishes had swept the top eight rankings, it created a hot topic that went viral even faster than expected.
By now, countless people were likely already on their way from all over the continent to try Han Shi's legendary cuisine.
However, this didn't have much impact on Han Shi's daily operations.
Even if people did come, they wouldn't all arrive at once but would trickle into Shrek City gradually—so it barely made a ripple in the restaurant's business.
Back to its daily routine, Han Shi remained busy as ever, though not quite at the fever pitch it had reached during the festival. With the return to normalcy, the four remaining employees were more than enough to handle the workload.
After Ke Ke left, Ye Lingqing took over his duties, becoming responsible for recording and tallying the recommendation votes.
Over the course of two weeks, the recommendation system remained unchanged, but the dish ranking board hanging on the wall underwent two updates based on customer votes.
As expected, the 3 Star dishes did not rank very high—during the first update, they barely made it into the top twenty; in the second, two of them even dropped out of the top twenty entirely.
Following his previous decision, Qi Han treated all dishes equally and didn't give any preferential treatment to the 3 Star dishes.
During this same two-week period, Ye Lingqing made rapid progress.
After careful consideration, Qi Han decided to synchronize Ye Lingqing's schedule with his own. Each morning, he would wake Ye Lingqing and let him independently practice the xiaolongbao technique he had previously taught. The same practice continued during breaks in the afternoon, and at night, they both went to bed early.
Unlike the simulated training in the virtual environment of the training space, Ye Lingqing used real ingredients during his practice in the restaurant. However, with Ru Yi in charge of recycling and repurposing, there was no actual waste—most of the leftovers could be processed into feed for various livestock in the system's small world.
Ye Lingqing, unaware of Ru Yi's existence, was always quite anxious about causing waste.
Qi Han didn't try to explain too much. Especially after noticing how seriously Ye Lingqing reflected on his mistakes each time he failed—motivated by a fear of waste—Qi Han felt even less inclined to clarify things.
Maybe this guilt is actually pushing him to improve faster, he mused.
Meanwhile, when Ye Lingqing was practicing on his own, Qi Han certainly didn't just idle nearby. Once he saw that Ye Lingqing understood his instructions and was practicing independently, Qi Han would find an excuse to slip away to his room—then flash into the training space to continue working on Dinghu Shangsu.
Half a month had passed, and Dinghu Shangsu still wasn't complete.
There were two main reasons for this:
The first one is that Dinghu Shangsu itself was extremely expensive and used rare, high-grade plant-based ingredients, making it very difficult to prepare.
The second one is that Qi Han had to allocate part of his time to teaching Ye Lingqing various dough and pastry techniques, leaving less time for his own training.
Still, Qi Han wasn't overly frustrated.
After long stretches of grueling training in the system space, his temperament had grown increasingly calm and composed.
Over this same period, the progress bar for Main Quest 7 had been steadily advancing.
In the early days, Qi Han had been excited, often checking the progress and calculating how long it would take to complete. But recently, he'd grown indifferent.
After all, when the quest is complete, Ru Yi will notify him anyway.
Life is like that—when everything is predictable, there are fewer pleasant surprises.
Like right now.
[Main Quest 7: Following the Scent (Completed)]
[Quest Rewards: Random 3 Star Dish Recipes x 2 (Claimable), 3 Star Star Optional Recipe Fragment x 4 (Claimable), Spirit Power Level +2 (Claimable)]
Since he hadn't checked the progress in a while, the sudden appearance of the quest completion panel gave Qi Han quite a pleasant surprise.
So much so that even Ye Lingqing, who was standing beside him, noticed something different in his teacher's demeanor.
"Teacher, is something wrong?" Ye Lingqing turned his head, looking at Qi Han in confusion.
At that moment, the lunch shift had just ended. The four staff members had only just left when Qi Han suddenly displayed such an expression of joy that Ye Lingqing couldn't help but find it odd.
"Nothing, I just remembered something that made me happy," Qi Han said with a light cough, reining in his smile. "I'll head back to my room first—keep up with your practice."
"Okay." Ye Lingqing nodded and resumed kneading the dough.
After two weeks of hard work, his teacher had praised his progress, saying he was already close to reaching the so-called three shine realm.
That filled Ye Lingqing with anticipation—after finishing his dough-kneading practice, he would move on to rolling the wrappers, at which point he could finally use his spirit power—his rolling pin martial spirit.
The thought brought a smile of excitement to Ye Lingqing's face.
Meanwhile, having said his piece, Qi Han practically rushed back to his room on the second floor. Only there, with trembling hands full of excitement, did he claim the reward for the spirit power level boost.
A warm current once again flowed through his meridians, his spirit power steadily increasing. Qi Han could clearly feel his power hitting a threshold—it could no longer grow any further. As if sensing this bottleneck, the warm current receded halfway like an ebbing tide.
Spirit Power Level 40.
The reward had only activated halfway; the remaining level would be granted after Qi Han acquired a spirit ring and broke through his limit.
Then, the quest interface popped up again—this time with two brand-new quests.
[Time-Limited Quest: Ingredient Acquisition IV]
[Objective: Within five days, the host must travel to the Extreme North Snowfield and independently hunt a 1,000-year spirit beast: the Snowfield Ice Pheasant.
Description: Time for another fan-favorite ingredient hunt! I bet you're already itching to get started, right?
Reward: System Spirit Ring x1, 3 Star Dish Recipe: Furong Chicken Slices]
[Promotion Quest: Innovation & Evolution]
[Objective: As a host who has already passed the Junior Chef promotion, you've no doubt come to appreciate the value of innovation. Now it's time to level up!
Travel to a spirit beast-rich area—Star Dou Forest—freely search for ingredients, and create an original recipe. Once the system evaluates this dish as 2 Star quality or higher, the quest will be deemed complete.
Notes:
No time limit
You retain pricing rights for the original recipe
No fixed rewards; quest rewards will vary based on the star rating of the original dish]
Finally… it's here.
Qi Han grinned.
I've been waiting for this day for far too long!
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Tn:
Furong Chicken Slices:
https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E8%8A%99%E8%93%89%E9%B8%A1%E7%89%87/2243106
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