A Bite of Douluo Continent

"Gulu's racial potential is higher, but because of the mutation, it has not yet fully developed its own power. The inherited talent of the Mist Cloud Cat engraved in its bloodline is useless to it, so it can only use brute force. It doesn't seem very strong now."

"If its potential is fully explored, the probability of it becoming a 100,000-year-old soul beast in the future is already quite high. With the injection of life energy from the life crystal, it can almost reliably enter the level of a 100,000-year-old soul beast."

“Soul beasts are not like humans. The only race that can be said to have a 100% chance of advancing to a 100,000-year soul beast is the True Dragon. Even for a top-tier soul beast as strong as the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear, only 50% to 60% can break through from 10,000 years to 100,000 years.”

After introducing Gulu's situation and giving Qi Han a brief introduction to soul beasts, Ruyi changed the subject, "And the amount of cat food you make for this little guy every day is equivalent to a whole dragon-scaled fish. A pig a day would be enough to send you flying."

At this point, Ruyi couldn't help but roll her eyes.

Although dragon-scaled fish are not particularly rare due to the ability to accelerate time within the small world, using them to feed Gulu, a ten-year-old soul beast, is a waste of their resources.

Speaking of cat food, Qi Han suddenly remembered something, "By the way, Ruyi, do you have any cat food recipes here?"

Ruyi remained silent for a moment, then finally couldn't hold back and exploded, "The recipe is for humans, not cats! There isn't one!"

"Why are you being so fierce? Cats are man's best friend..." Qi Han changed the subject, "Then tell me, can I give this cat food a one-star rating?"

"Hey? Ruyi, why aren't you saying anything?"

"Hey?"

"... "

After talking Ruyi until she became withdrawn, Qi Han shrugged and began cooking working meals for the Qin sisters.

...

The peaceful time passed quickly. The restaurant was located in the most bustling street, and the popularity of Hanshi was rising rapidly. The new restaurant was almost full of customers every day, and there were even queues of customers outside.

Five days passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, the rating week was drawing to a close.

Things were somewhat unexpected for Qi Han, because five days had passed and Cao Pingzhi still hadn't come to Hanshi Restaurant, as if he didn't even know the restaurant existed.

...

Cao Pingzhi walked amidst the bustling crowds of Chenxing Street, examining a piece of paper in his hand.

The paper contained a list of all the restaurants and food stalls in Morning Star Street. He had been wandering around this street these past few days, sampling each dish and crossing off the corresponding name on the paper for easy reference.

At this moment, only one name remains on this piece of paper.

Cold Food Festival.

The scoring week lasts seven days, but the time for the scorers to give their scores is only six days. On the last day, the editor-in-chief, Mu Liufeng, will review and proofread the manuscripts. In other words, this is the last day.

It was now time for dinner, the last meal of the rating week. He planned to visit Hanshi Restaurant and have the owner serve him the most sumptuous dishes before respectfully seeing him off.

He naturally remembered Zhao Fenglai's request. That Boss Zhao was a shrewd fellow. Not to mention the beautiful jade worth thousands of gold soul coins that he had given him before the rating week, he also gave him a benefit of nearly ten thousand gold soul coins when he went to Fenglai Pavilion for rating.

Therefore, Cao Ping was happy to help Zhao Fenglai with this small request.

It's simply a matter of preventing these dishes from being featured in food reviews; it's that easy.

Cao Pingzhi is an expert in this field. He knows exactly what scores to give that guarantee a dish will never be featured in a food review without being too deliberate. This allows him to easily control any restaurant.

As Cao Pingzhi approached the location of the Cold Food Festival restaurant, a look of surprise appeared in his eyes.

The store was already packed with over a hundred people, and there were more than a dozen people queuing outside.

Business is so good?

Even at Fenglai Tower, such a situation is extremely rare.

He was unaware of the situation on the second floor; otherwise, he would probably be even more shocked.

Because the second floor was already full at that moment.

After glancing at the queue outside the door, Cao Pingzhi stepped into the Cold Food Festival area.

Queuing? What a joke.

When I arrived at Fenglailou, it was already packed. So what?

Zhao Fenglai simply asked one of the guests in the private room to leave, and then politely invited him in to dine.

Cao Pingzhi has never had to wait in line since he became a food critic.

Qin Yue was on guard on the first floor when she saw Cao Pingzhi ignore the group and walk straight in, and her expression changed slightly.

Cao Pingzhi arrived, but the shop was already full...

broken!

She hurried over to him, "Hello Mr. Cao, our shop is currently full..."

"Qin Yue, little girl?" Cao Pingzhi glanced at Qin Yue and muttered to himself.

Wasn't Yueyao Tower closed down? What's she doing here?

"Don't you know what to do when the restaurant is full? I'm a food critic, my time is so precious, are you expecting me to wait in line?"

Qin Yue smiled ingratiatingly, "Then... I'll go ask the boss?"

"Go ahead." Cao Pingzhi stood in the dining area, looked around, and felt a sense of doubt.

boss?

Isn't this shop owned by the Qin family?

Upon seeing Qin Yue, he thought the Qin family had changed their name and renovated and reopened Yueyao Tower.

The surrounding diners were enjoying their meals, and the tempting aromas of various foods mingled together, filling Cao Pingzhi's mouth and nose, causing his salivary glands to produce saliva like crazy.

The food at this restaurant smells pretty amazing...

Soon, he saw the price list. He rubbed his eyes in surprise at first, and then his face lit up with joy.

Wonderful!

The average price of this shop is almost ten times that of Fenglai Pavilion, yet the business is so good that the profits are at least several times that of Fenglai Pavilion.

He immediately forgot about Zhao Fenglai's request; as long as he controlled this Hanshi family, he would have a steady stream of money in the future.

Phoenix Pavilion? What a load of rubbish.

Look at this restaurant where a single dish costs hundreds of gold soul coins, it shouldn't be difficult for you to casually take out tens of thousands of gold soul coins to serve yourself, right?

He has even started to dream about a wonderful future where he has endless money.

As for more expensive dishes, does that mean you have to pay more money?

Cao Pingzhi had never even considered this question.

Seriously? Are you kidding me? There aren't restaurants that actually make reviewers pay for their meals?

Chapter 158 Fishing

"Boss, Judge Cao is here!"

Qin Yue's slightly nervous voice suddenly came, causing Qi Han to pause slightly in his stir-frying of the dishes in the wok.

Over the past five days, Qi Han's mood has gone through a rollercoaster, from initially not paying much attention to now being puzzled.

Although Qi Han didn't have a very good impression of Cao Pingzhi, the food appraisal was still very helpful for the mission, so he had some expectations.

But after waiting for five whole days, Qi Han still hadn't seen Cao Pingzhi, the judge, and he couldn't help but feel a little puzzled.

Although I don't have much affection for him, we've never met before and there's no possibility of any conflict. Why hasn't he come to Hanshi Festival yet?

The deadline was on the seventh day, which meant it was the last day. Qi Han couldn't help but mutter to himself.

Could it be that my new store opened too late, and the other party doesn't even know there's a store here yet?

That's not entirely impossible.

The fact that the other party came to Hanshi on the last night before the deadline made Qi Han feel even more strange.

Shaking his head without giving it much thought, Qi Han continued stirring the food, subconsciously saying, "Then let's find him a seat, and just have him take orders and explain the dishes normally."

He didn't intend to treat this reviewer any differently; he would treat the other diners the same way, just like everyone else.

"But... all the seats in the store are full." Qin Yue said hesitantly.

"It's full?" Qi Han subconsciously looked back at the dining area outside. The dining area was indeed full. In the middle seat, a middle-aged man dressed smartly but not extravagantly was looking at the price list of the shop with great interest. It should be Cao Pingzhi.

"Then let him go to line up."

Once the seats are full, people will naturally have to queue up and wait for the customers in front to leave; Qi Han's thinking is quite clear.

“But they’re the raters…” Qin Yue blinked.

"Even the emperor has to queue." Qi Han shrugged, took a plate of Kung Pao Chicken out of the pot after stir-frying it, and glanced back at Qin Yue. "All diners are treated equally."

"Okay." Qin Yue nodded, a mix of emotions stirring within her.

Treating all diners equally is an easy statement to make, but how difficult it is to put into practice is something she knows all too well, having run Yueyaolou before.

But with Qi Han around, she seemed to have gained more courage. As she carried the Kung Pao Chicken to a table of diners and walked back to Cao Pingzhi, Qin Yue's back seemed to straighten even more.

"Mr. Cao, the boss said that the shop is full right now, please wait in line."

The expected outburst of anger did not materialize. Cao Pingzhi smiled and said, "Your boss seems to be a new face."

"Yes, the boss is from Shrek City." Although she didn't know why Cao Pingzhi had a smile on his face and wasn't angry as expected, Qin Yue still nodded in response.

"Hehe, okay, then I'll go queue up." With that, Cao Pingzhi actually calmly went to queue up.

what happened?

Qin Yue was a little confused, recalling the sarcastic manner of Mr. Cao when he made things difficult for Yueyaolou, and couldn't figure it out for a long time.

Has Mr. Cao actually changed his ways?

Qin Yue was naturally unaware of what Cao Ping was thinking.

When he saw that the busy kitchen owner was a stranger, he already had a plan in mind.

If it were any ordinary restaurant, and they dared to make him stand in line, he would definitely walk away and give all the food there a low rating. But not the cold food he was about to eat.

He had already regarded the Cold Food Festival as his long-term meal ticket, so naturally he wouldn't offend it so easily.

Even when fishing, don't you have to scatter bait to let the fish bite the hook first?

This boss is new and doesn't know my rules, Cao Pingzhi. Ignorance is no excuse, so I'll give him some face. What's the big deal about queuing up?