AST 0075 – Troublesome Black fishes
For the past two days, Qing Shui immersed himself fully into his cultivation, and understanding the techniques that he had uncovered. Now that he’d gotten a taste of how powerful Xiantian Qi was, he couldn’t wait to break through to it.
These past two days, the Yu He Inn hired a new chef with extraordinary skills. Be it steaming, grilling, braising, frying, or even making soup, the taste of the dishes could only be described as as mouthwatering as a celestial banquet.
During these two days, there were many in the city, even visitors from outside the city, who had heard about the news of the heavenly food, but the majority of them merely treated it as a rumor. After all, a dish was still just a dish. How extraordinary and outstanding could the taste of a dish be?
However, truth soon prevailed, because emanating from the Yu He Inn was an irresistible aroma of cooked fish that seemed to perpetually waft out to the streets, which caused the majority of the crowd to salivate, whetting their appetites and attracting them over. The aroma of the fish were so satisfying that just by breathing in the smell of the cooked fish, one could almost imagine themselves tasting the fish.
The most important factor was that there is only a limited number of black fish that the Yu He Inn would sell each day. Even when the prices were outrageously high, there would still be people queuing in line for it. Eventually, only those with money and status, could enjoy the fish, which caused Yu He to feel somewhat helpless. After all, the supply of 10 fish per day did seem to be too little for the size and reputation of a high class inn like the Yu He Inn.
Despite the low number of fish supplied, the news regarding the taste of the fish got more and more exaggerated, drawing even more visitors in while boosting the name of the Yu He Inn.
As the Yu Clan was one of the four great clans in Hundred Miles City, although there were many customers who were unhappy with the low number of fish sold, they did not dare to make a ruckus openly. However, soon afterwards, the elders of the Yu Clan came to know about this matter, and after they had had their first taste of the meat, they were unable to stop themselves. How could a mere 10 fish per day be enough to be split amongst them?
As someone from the junior generation, Yu He was truly put in a difficult position. The various elders had all watched her growing up, and had over 10 years of an extremely deep relationship with her father. Furthermore, what was money to them? Even if the black fish was worth two times, or even 10 times more, it would still not bother them the slightest.
Yu He, under great pressure, could only cave in to the old fellows’ demands. After all they were all the pillars of Hundred Miles City.
Naturally, after people saw how prosperous Yu He Inn’s business was, they too wanted a slice of the cake. Using every possible means, they tried to uncover the secret behind the new chef. Although Yu He did not disclose any information, there were bound to be spies, as well as servants who were more talkative, trying to get close to her daily.
Extremely tired of their hassle, Yu He started to let out depressed sighs every time the black fish were mentioned, as involuntarily, the figure of a young man would appear in her mind. 10 fish per day were truly too little. What was going through Qing Shui’s head? Why did he refuse to earn such easy money? She really felt like hitting him right then.
“Hmm, but still, he did say that these fish were reared using a secret breeding method, and thus the supply of them was extremely low. 10 fish per day was already the absolute maximum number he could afford to sell me.” Yu He thought back to Qing Shui’s words.
There were many who begged Yu He to sell them more black fish but helplessly, she could only use reasons such as prior bookings, immense amounts of efforts needed to cook the fish, lack of manpower etc to deny their requests.
“No, this can’t be allowed to continue, after the discussion with uncle hong, the 100 black fish that were supposed to last for 10 days have already been depleted by half after three days. We must restrict the amount of fish being sold even further.”
There were many scheming people within the customers who wanted to headhunt the head chef, but Yu He was not worried, after all no matter how good the chef was, it was still useless. The key point to this whole thing was that young man named Qing Shui!
At the northern region of Hundred Miles City, there were an ancient looking yet elegantly designed pavilion! The interior of the pavilion was exquisitely designed, with no considerations being given to cost, signifying that the owner of this place was someone who was extremely wealthy and had an extraordinary status.
“Have your investigations revealed who was the main chef over at Yu He Inn?” A middle-aged, tall and sturdily built man, with moustache akin to steel needles, with eyes that flashed like lightning, in a embroidered satin robe with two arms, that were longer in length compared to ordinary humans, questioned in a low voice.
“Useless trash, get lost. You better open your eyes wide and monitor the movements of anyone you deem suspicious at the Yu He Inn. Scram.”
“Roger that!” The figure, who had his back bent in a deep bow for the whole conversation, rapidly retreated!
A kind looking old man, carried a black fish in a plate, walked over as he stated, ”Ba`er, let us try the fish.”
“Ah, Uncle Lei, you should just get the servants to serve us. Come come, let us eat. Eating with Uncle Lei is sure to bring out the true tastiness of the dish. However, this fish… is really something, even we our statuses, we could only eat one per day. How unsatisfying!” Situ Ba angrily stated, as he led the old man to the dining table.
The old man inclined his head in agreement, as the two of them began to savor the fish, both of them were bonded by mutual understanding.
“Excellent excellent, this fish truly delicious, every time I taste it, I could never have enough. F*ck this.” The old man unhappily said.
“If we can headhunt the main chef over at the Yu He Inn, we could manage to eat this every day. However, the Yu Clan is really good at keeping mum. Till now there hasn’t been any news regarding who the main chef was.”
“Main chef my foot.” The old man snorted. “Myself, with my vast years of experiences can tell that there is no “main chef” at the Yu He Inn. The special taste, can be produced by anyone. The only secret to this, is the fish. No matter the smell, the taste, the feeling when you chew on the meat, all this originated from the fish.” The old man who was named Uncle Lei, ate rapidly as he talked.
Situ Ba was dumbstruck, this Uncle Lei was the valued guest of his Situ Clan and was an extremely close friend with Situ Nantian. This person, was a Precious-Graded Alchemist. Even in the bigger cities of the continent, his status would still be extremely revered.
“What? Uncle Lei you said that this fish is the secret? There’s no main chef?”
“Although I’m old, my eye power is still pretty good. You should know that they only sell 10 fish per day, which means that these type of fish can not be mass breed, that why they have to control the supply.” A sinister light shone in his eyes as Uncle Lei explained.
“Uncle Lei, do you think we should investigate the source of this black fish instead? If there were a huge batch, in the near future, we would all be rolling in riches. By then, recruiting Xiantian Cultivators to aid my Situ Clan would no longer be a problem.” The gleam in Situ Ba’s eyes, mirrored that of the old man.
“Although it might be difficult, we cannot give up as long as there’s a strand of hope. 10 fish to fill a bucket, arrange some men to keep watch on the main doors and side entrances of the Yu He Inn for anyone that seems to be transporting something.” Uncle Lei smiled, as he lost himself in the delicious taste of the black fish.
Qing Shui, had no inkling of the troubles his black fish had caused, and had no idea how depressed Yu He was because of this matter. Naturally, he did not know of the plans that were hatched by the Situ Clan.