A Bite of Douluo Continent

"Excuse me, I'd like to ask where your shop is located?" she asked cautiously.

I haven't heard of any new restaurants opening on Riyue Avenue recently.

“On Mink Street.”

Mink Street?

Wu Yue frowned slightly.

This street... is rather unusual.

Previously, it was just a remote and deserted street, but with the imperial edict posted a few days ago, this street has shown the potential to become the second Riyue Avenue. Recently, many people have been paying attention to this matter, and even yesterday my father was still considering whether to open a branch of Tianxingzhai there.

At such a critical juncture, it seems particularly unusual for a new restaurant on Mink Street to launch a food competition.

Never mind, let's inform Father first.

"Please sit down and wait a moment while I have my father come out to answer."

After leaving a message, Wu Yue quickly left the spot and soon returned, following behind a burly middle-aged man.

"It's been a long time, Manager Zhang." The burly middle-aged man laughed heartily and sat down next to Manager Zhang, patting him familiarly on the shoulder. His eyes then turned to Qi Han. "Is this the young man who started the food competition? He's truly a promising young man."

“I admire your courage, but…” the middle-aged man paused, “I regret to inform you that Tianxingzhai will not accept this food competition.”

Upon hearing the words of the owner of Tianxingzhai, Manager Zhang immediately revealed an expression of "I knew it."

Qi Han, however, was stunned when he heard this.

To be honest, he had never considered that Tianxingzhai would refuse such a situation.

The feeling of things going against plan was unpleasant, and he immediately felt a bit resentful. "May I ask why Tianxingzhai refused?"

“The reason is simple,” the middle-aged man explained. “I heard your shop is located on Mink Street? There isn’t much foot traffic there these days. Although the prospects are good, it will take time to monetize it. I understand your eagerness to expand your brand awareness, but I cannot accept this food competition because it’s unfair.”

After giving Qi Han a deep look, the middle-aged man spoke again, "I never look down on anyone, but Tianxingzhai is known to everyone in Mingdu. Under these circumstances, it would be meaningless for me to defeat your restaurant and have you recommend it to me for a week. But it would be completely different for you. If you win, Tianxingzhai's recommendation for a week will be of great help to your business."

"The chips we hold are worlds apart. There's no such thing as a free lunch, and there's no such thing as a gamble with unequal chips, is there?"

Qi Han was speechless for a moment.

The reason given by the owner of Tianxingzhai for refusing was impeccable. Tianxingzhai is a large and well-established company, and participating in this food competition would bring almost no benefit, but would only risk failure.

Although the other party may not feel that the risk is great, even if there is only a slight risk, it is something that Tianxingzhai has no need to bear.

Therefore, there was absolutely no need for the other party to accept Qi Han's challenge.

"I understand. I'm sorry to have bothered you." After politely leaving a message, Qi Han followed Manager Zhang and left Tianxingzhai.

It seems that if the Cold Food Festival wants to compete in food-related events, it needs to change its approach.

Starting from a lesser-known and less established restaurant, how did you rise through the ranks?

Although this will waste more time, there is no other way.

"Boss Qi, what are your plans now? Do you want to start a food competition at a different restaurant?" Manager Zhang asked, glancing at Qi Han who seemed lost in thought.

"Sure," Qi Han nodded. "However, I'm not familiar with the other restaurants on Riyue Avenue..."

"That's fine. The restaurant association has a complete list of registered restaurants, and you can choose from it."

The two chatted all the way back to the catering association.

Upon entering Director Zhang's office, the two were both taken aback.

Inside the office, a slightly overweight man dressed in luxurious clothes was leisurely drinking tea. When he saw the two people enter, his face lit up with a smile.

He first nodded to Manager Zhang, then looked at Qi Han with a smile, "This must be the owner of Hanshi Restaurant. Let me introduce myself."

"My name is Zhao Yangfan, the person in charge of Mingtingque. I heard that Boss Qi wants to find a restaurant to launch a food competition... I wonder what Mingtingque thinks?"

"...Huh?" Qi Han's expression suddenly became quite interesting.

Because the royal family stood behind Ming Tingque, he had no intention of competing with him.

Now that Tianxingzhai has rejected him, he never expected that Mingtingque would come knocking on his door himself?

Life is truly unpredictable, like a large intestine enclosing a small intestine.

Chapter 505 Qi Han's Choice

There is no free lunch in the world.

If Tianxingzhai had no reason to accept food competitions, then why was Mingtingque, which was on par with Tianxingzhai, the same?

But at this moment, Zhao Yangfan, the person in charge of Mingtingque, took the initiative to propose to compete with his own catering, and even came to the catering association in person. Judging from this, he had been waiting for a while.

There must be a demon in the abnormal situation.

Therefore, Qi Han did not agree directly. Instead, he looked at the other party in silence for two seconds and asked the most crucial question, "Mr. Zhao, how did you know about Hanshi, and how did you know that Hanshi was going to compete with other restaurants?"

This is very unusual. You have to know that Hanshi is not well-known in Mingdu, and it is only recently that the association has launched a food competition. How could the other party have received the news so quickly?

“This…” Zhao Yangfan coughed lightly, “To be honest, a good friend of mine is a regular customer of your restaurant. He always mentions the food of the Cold Food Festival to me, so I am very interested in your restaurant. As for how I know about the food competition… there are naturally people from Ming Ting Que in the Catering Association. So when I heard that there was a food competition for the Cold Food Festival, I came to tell you.”

Hmm... I think I can get away with this, right?

Zhao Yangfan thought to himself with a guilty conscience.

After hearing his words, Qi Han looked at Manager Zhang standing next to him with a questioning look. Manager Zhang nodded, "Ming Tingque has a very high status in the restaurant, so the Catering Association does have people from him involved in daily affairs."

Having received confirmation from Manager Zhang, Qi Han finally put aside his doubts, looked at Zhao Yangfan standing in front of him, and began to ponder with a furrowed brow.

To be honest, he didn't want to come under the noses of the Sun and Moon Royal Family too quickly, so Ming Tingque was not among his potential rivals.

However, Tianxingzhai has now declined his food competition, so if he wants to beat a restaurant and achieve a similar effect, he probably has no choice but to choose Mingtingque.

Of course, he also has another option: to launch a series of food competitions, defeat multiple stores, and win by sheer quantity.

While a single restaurant may not be as popular as Tianxingzhai and Mingtingque, the combined effect of multiple restaurants is not much different.

Choosing the latter option would be more troublesome and time-consuming due to the multiple food competitions, while choosing the former option would save trouble but could attract the attention of the Sun and Moon Imperial Family.

After a moment's hesitation, Qi Han slowly nodded, "Mr. Zhao, I accept your invitation to the food competition."

In eighteen days, he will be able to complete his main quest nine. Once he completes side quest twelve, he can leave the Sun and Moon Continent and return home.

Therefore, the best-case scenario is to complete side quest twelve within eighteen days. Once both quests are completed, he can simply run away.

To complete side quest twelve, he needs to gather a large number of new diners in a short period of time, which is very tight. Competing for meals multiple times wastes too much time and is not advisable.

Moreover, there are only a dozen days left. Even if it attracts the attention of the Sun and Moon Royal Family, it shouldn't be a big problem. Once the mission is over, I can just run away, and they won't be able to catch me.

Thinking about it this way, competing with Ming Tingque for food isn't so unacceptable after all.

Upon hearing Qi Han's words, Zhao Yangfan's eyes lit up with joy. "According to the rules of the food competition, since I initiated it, you can decide when it will start. When do you plan to begin?"

"The sooner the better," Qi Han said without hesitation.

“Um…” Manager Zhang felt he needed to say a few words.

He was still a little dazed; the quick agreement reached between Zhao Yangfan and Qi Han seemed almost magical to him.

One side is a top-tier restaurant with royal connections, the other is a restaurant he'd never heard of before today; the two are engaged in a culinary competition…

That sounds outrageous.

"Are you two sure you want to have a food competition?" Manager Zhang confirmed one last time.

"Confirmed!" the two said in unison.

"Alright then." After confirming that he hadn't misheard, Manager Zhang shook his head helplessly. "The food competition is divided into two steps: drawing the theme in advance and the official start. According to the rules, there needs to be a 24-hour interval between drawing the theme and the official competition. The food competition participants must provide their own ingredients."

After saying that, he turned to look at Qi Han, "If you want to start as soon as possible, you can start drawing a theme now, and we'll start the food competition at a set time tomorrow."

"Then let's do it this way." Qi Han nodded. "Draw now, and the food competition will begin at 1:30 PM tomorrow... What do you think, Mr. Zhao?"

"I have no objection to this time." Zhao Yangfan said casually. Compared to when he first arrived, he seemed more relaxed, as if he had completed a task. However, he didn't show it obviously, and Qi Han didn't notice anything unusual about Zhao Yangfan.

Seeing that both sides had reached an agreement, Director Zhang nodded, "Then you two, come with me to draw lots. There will be three draws in total. The drawn themes will not be replaced. To be fair, each of you will draw once, and I will draw the last one on behalf of the association."

"Okay." Qi Han and Zhao Yangfan exchanged a glance and followed Zhang, the manager, out of the office and headed towards the place where the themes were drawn.

...

"Your Majesty, Qi Han has accepted the food competition initiated by Ming Tingque."

A figure tightly wrapped in a black robe appeared in the council hall and quickly reported the information he had just obtained to Xu Haolong.

Upon hearing this, Xu Haolong and Zhou Yuan exchanged a glance and smiled easily.

Early this morning, the Secret Service sent a secret report that Qi Han, who never left Hanshi in the morning, unusually left Hanshi this morning and headed towards the Sun and Moon Avenue, even saying that he wanted to find out what was going on.

This startled Xu Haolong, who had already temporarily put aside everything related to the Cold Food Festival. He quickly summoned Zhou Yuan to see what was the meaning behind the other party's unusual behavior.

Before the two could remain tense for long, the seventh-tier Soul Master in charge of tracking them sent a new secret report: Qi Han had joined the Mingdu Catering Association and was going to compete with Tianxingzhai for food.

After some investigation and understanding of the meaning of the food competition, the two were both amused and exasperated, realizing that it had all turned out to be a misunderstanding.

Furthermore, that Boss Qi is really audacious. Is this a charade, a genuine and serious business for Hanshi? He even came up with such a method to boost popularity.

Upon learning that Tianxingzhai had refused to serve the Cold Food Festival, Xu Haolong couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Looking to find a restaurant to hold a competition to increase its popularity?

What's so difficult about that?

Xu Haolong was more than happy that Qi Han would just stay in Mingdu and run his restaurant business honestly, without having any ulterior motives.

So with a wave of his hand, he instructed the person in charge of Mingtingque to take the initiative to compete with Hanshi Catering.

Ming Ting Que is backed by the royal family, and they have no choice but to obey Xu Haolong's orders. Therefore, although Zhao Yangfan had never heard of the Han Shi restaurant before, he could only obediently follow the emperor's instructions and come to the restaurant without revealing his royal family status. When faced with Qi Han's questions, he could only make up a reason to brush it off.

"Prime Minister, which of these two restaurants do you think will win?" Although Mingtingque is a royal property, the outcome of this food competition is not important. In a good mood, Xu Haolong casually asked.

"I believe... it should be Cold Food Festival." Zhou Yuan spoke quickly, almost without much hesitation.

"Oh? Several of the head chefs at Mingting Palace are former imperial chefs, yet the Prime Minister is so confident in the Cold Food Festival?" Xu Haolong rubbed his chin. "How about I go and take a look at this food competition?"

After Zhou Yuan said that, Xu Haolong became a little curious.

As the emperor, he could not put himself in danger. It was suspected that a powerful figure at the Title Douluo level was hiding in that Cold Food Festival, so Xu Haolong had never been there.

"No, Your Majesty, this is too dangerous." Zhou Yuan shook his head. "I will go and take a look incognito, and then return to report to Your Majesty."