In the Ming Dynasty 1498, my restaurant connects two worlds.

After finishing the phone call and returning to the first floor, Song Xiaoyi saw Zhu Zhishan and his group of four eating breakfast with Xiao Shifu at a table in the corner. Song Xiaoyi was about to go over and greet them.

Upon seeing Song Xiaoyi approach, before Song Xiaoyi could speak, Tang Bohu began to complain, "Brother Xiaoyi, look at your restaurant, it hasn't added any new dishes in years."

"Hey, Brother Bohu, are you tired of this?" Song Xiaoyi retorted while grabbing the bowl of noodles in front of Tang Bohu. "If you're tired of it, save some for others. Our little Shifu is at the age where he's growing."

After a playful tussle, Wen Bi and Gu Qian ate while shaking their heads and chuckling, "Even eating for free isn't enough, Bo Hu, why don't you cook for yourself?"

"Enough, enough, I must study for the exam."

"What's there to prepare for? With your talent, Bo Hu, you're practically guaranteed to be the top scholar this year."

"Silence! My dear brother, do you not know that I almost failed the imperial examination because of you?"

"I know, I was just targeted and almost failed the exam."

"Then why do you say you're a shoo-in for the top scholar title? I wouldn't even dare to dream of it."

Being targeted doesn't mean you're not good at the game.

Saying too much would be revealing secrets, so Song Xiaoyi ultimately chose to keep quiet and stop. There was only one month left.

It is already July, and there is still more than a month until the Southern Zhili provincial examination in early August. If history had followed its normal course, Tang Bohu would have reached the pinnacle of his life by becoming the top scholar in the provincial examination, and the capital city next year would have been the nightmare turning point in his life.

How to persuade him or how to help him requires careful consideration.

Despite the arguments and commotion, Song Xiaoyi knew in his heart that neither the system upgrade nor the plan to change Tang Bohu's fate was a joke.

New dishes still need to be made. It's summer now, and there are plenty of shrimp at the market, which are cheap. Song Xiaoyi went to the Modern Market and bought 100 catties of shrimp at once. He saw that the farmed crucian carp looked good and were all of average size, so he bought 20 crucian carp and cut 5 catties of hind leg meat. After returning home, he started to process them.

Today, we're launching "Song Family Fried Shrimp" and "Song Family Spicy Braised Crucian Carp" for the Ming Dynasty.

Song Dynasty Spicy Braised Crucian Carp: Clean the fish, first brush off the scales, then put it in water to make soup. After boiling for a few minutes, remove the scales. Stuff the belly with fatty pork sauce and stir-fry until sandy. This method is often used to remove scales from crucian carp. (From "Miscellaneous Records of Zhuyu Mountain House")

Anyone who has been a chef knows that processing 20 fish at the same time takes about the same amount of time as processing 5 fish. The minced meat is seasoned with ginger juice and light soy sauce and then stuffed into the hollowed-out fish bellies one by one. Finally, it is fried in two batches in a large flat-bottomed frying pan for later use.

The people of the Ming Dynasty relied solely on the spiciness of pepper, ginger, and evodia, but Song Xiaoyi thought about it and replaced the pepper and evodia with chili oil made from mildly spicy lantern pepper powder.

Song Family Fried Shrimp: (1) First, stir-fry the shrimp in hot oil until cooked, then season with soy sauce, vinegar, and scallions; (2) Season only with salt. (From "Miscellaneous Notes from Zhuyu Mountain House")

This shrimp dish is simple: sauté the shrimp in hot oil in several batches until cooked, then set aside. When customers order, they can choose between sauce flavor or salt and pepper flavor, which is advantageous in terms of data, as it counts as two dishes.

Song Xiaoyi updated the restaurant menu for the afternoon ahead of schedule.

Tang Bohu, who was the first to enter, had a keen sense of smell and caught the aroma of stir-fried shrimp. "Brother Xiao Yi! Are there fresh shrimp today?"

"Bohu, take a look at the menu." Zhu Zhishan habitually looked at the menu first and noticed the changes. New dishes had been added: Song Family Spicy Braised Crucian Carp, Song Family Fried Shrimp with Sauce, and Song Family Fried Shrimp with Salt and Pepper.

Before Tang Bohu could speak again, Song Xiaoyi brought the three dishes and seasonings he had prepared to the table and invited the group of five to sit down. "Don't bother looking at the menu. Take a look. To encourage Brother Bohu to study hard, I have added two new dishes and three ways to eat them. Please enjoy them, gentlemen."

When it's hot, lunch naturally includes supplementary drinks like "Brave the World," "Song's Secret Herbal Tea," and "Song's Secret Fruit Juice."

Song's Restaurant served three new dishes, which quickly spread among the students on their way to take the imperial examinations. The tables in the restaurant were soon full, and a queue formed outside.

In the end, if Song Xiaoyi hadn't secretly kept one for each of them, both new dishes would have sold out completely, and even their own people wouldn't have had any to eat.

The improved "Songfu Spicy Braised Crucian Carp" is indeed very popular. At this rate, it will be natural to introduce mildly spicy hot pot in winter.

After seeing off the last table of customers, Song Xiaoyi ordered a few more dishes and had a working lunch with Miaolan and her sister Song Yunqiu.

When Mu Bin rushed in, looking travel-worn, he froze on the spot when he saw three people eating at the table.

"Brother Mou, have you eaten yet? Why don't we sit together?" Song Xiaoyi greeted him naturally.

Mu Bin stammered "This, this, this..." three times, not knowing what to say, and didn't move his legs. But Song Xiaoyi immediately understood, got up and pulled Mu Bin to sit in her seat, changed the bowl and chopsticks, and then sat in the empty seat herself.

"Brother Mou, why are you being so formal? We're all family here. In our shop, this is called workers eating lunch together."

When Song Yunqiu saw Mu Bin sit down at the table, she wanted to get off the table herself, but Song Xiaoyi pressed her down, saying, "Sister, just eat here. We're all family. In the future, Deputy Envoy Mu will also be family. There's no need for so many rules."

"I'm going to change these ridiculous rules of the ancients," Song Xiaoyi thought to himself.

Seeing Mu Bin start eating, Song Xiaoyi asked, "Brother Mu, do you have some good news to tell me?"

"Let me have a few bites...tsk tsk, this fish sashimi is absolutely exquisite!"

"Here, don't choke, try my secret-recipe herbal tea." Song Xiaoyi took a cup, poured a cup of Wanglaoji herbal tea for her, and then gestured for Miaolan to fill a large bowl with rice from the rice bucket in the corner.

After eating and drinking his fill, Mu Bin let out a comfortable sigh and said, "The land has been settled, and the craftsmen are ready to break ground. Brother Liu... asked you to go and inspect it."

"Then hurry up and go!"

Song Xiaoyi pulled Mu Bin up and left the house, hurrying south.

It took half an hour to reach their destination. Although Song Xiaoyi was wearing a modified version of thin, light clothing, she was already soaked through.

Traveling in ancient times was indeed inconvenient, as there were no means of transportation. We need to find a way to improve it. I wonder if bicycles can be brought in. I'm not expecting electric bikes; bicycles don't have electronic components, so they should be allowed, right?

The location that Liu Kexi found was indeed excellent, far exceeding expectations.

It is an independent, medium-sized, three-courtyard siheyuan (traditional courtyard house) with no other houses or shops around. There is a river at the back, a main hall at the front, and a main road right outside. There are seven empty rooms at the back of the courtyard, all of which are quite large. Only four rooms need to be renovated, and the rest will be cleaned up and used as storage rooms.

Now, the renovation needs to be carried out according to Song Xiaoyi's requirements. The four rooms in the back row should be connected in the middle. The first room on the left should be used as a kitchen, responsible for washing rice and cooking. The second room should be a packaging room, responsible for packing takeout boxes and then passing them to the third room.

The fourth room was also the kitchen, with a row of large stoves built against the back wall, responsible for stir-frying and stewing dishes; the third room also served as a takeout room, responsible for receiving the boxed fast food dishes from the second room.

After all the fast food boxes are packed, they are secured with rubber bands and taken to the front of the restaurant for sorting and boxing. The deliverymen then carry the boxes out to deliver the food.