Chapter 7: An Idea to Start a High-End Restaurant!
Translator: AstralGhost Editor: Kurisu
The truck was naturally faster than the pedicab. They had arrived at the border of the village in but a short moment.
As the road only led to the edge of the village, the truck was unable to proceed anymore and for the rest of the way, they had to continue on foot.
“Ahem...I say, little brother... how much further do we have to walk?”
The sun was high in the sky, and the deliveryman was carrying a huge flat-screen LCD television as he followed behind Bei Feng. He was panting loudly as giant beads of sweat covered his face. They had been trudging along the mountainous path for what felt like eternity. Finally, he could no longer stop himself from asking this question.
“It’s not much farther. We’ll arrive in another... seven to eight minutes,” Bei Feng replied with a hint of apology in his voice.
The deliveryman carrying the LCD television heaved a sigh of relief upon hearing that. At the same time, he directed a sympathetic glance at the two deliverymen behind him. The duo was carrying a heavy refrigerator between them and looked extremely pitiful. Both of them were huffing and puffing pathetically, and were already staggering, left further and further behind himself and Bei Feng on the mountainous road.
As the saying went, there’s no pain if there’s no comparison. [1] The deliveryman suddenly felt that the TV in his arms wasn’t that heavy after all.
“Argh….huff huff... b...boss! Where do you want us to put this refrigerator?”
After the group finally entered the mansion, the two deliverymen who were carrying the refrigerator hurriedly put it down as they both collapsed onto the ground, gasping heavily for breath.
“Just leave it in that room,” Bei Feng pointed at the kitchen.
Unfortunately, the duo did not have the luxury of being able to rest for a long time. Gulping down a few cups of water, they quickly caught their breath and moved the refrigerator to the kitchen. Immediately after that, they had to hurry back to the truck again. There were still a few more items left in the truck that they had to carry over.
By the time everything had been moved, it was already time for lunch. As it was quite late, Bei Feng tried to keep the three deliverymen for a meal. However, the three had insisted on leaving. In the end, Bei Feng could only buy them a few packets of cigarettes to thank them for their effort.
“Now that everything’s taken care of, I’ve finally got some time to waste...” Bei Feng switched on the TV, chose a random channel, and left it turned on.
Living alone can become quite a boring affair. It was better to have some noise running in the background. At least, the place would feel less empty.
Bei Feng went to the kitchen and placed the rest of the raw chicken meat in the fridge. After that, he started cooking lunch.
First was a dish of spicy stir-fried cabbage, followed by braised chicken with soybean. Today, Bei Feng once more proceeded to gorge on the two dishes as if he was possessed.
‘This chicken is ridiculously delicious! Even if I were to eat this every single day, I still would never grow tired of it!’ Bei Feng patted his bloated belly and thought contentedly.
‘Compared to those so-called royal hen and silkie chicken or whatever, this chicken meat was far tastier! If I were to start a restaurant, the business would surely be booming!’ A spark of inspiration flashed within Bei Feng’s mind. ‘Since I have some savings now, I can’t just sit around idle and nibble away at my fortune. With how heavenly this chicken tastes, there would surely be lots of people lining up to get a bite!’
‘Although I can only use the Myriad Heavens Fishing System once a day, I can simply open for business only if I catch something! I can also just make it an exclusive high-end restaurant which caters to only one or two tables a day,’ the more he thought, the more feasible his idea seemed. Bei Feng’s eyes brightened up as he went over the plan.
“Right now, just a simple, authentic wild chicken dish would cost around 200-300 yuan. It shouldn’t be too far-fetched for me to set the price of 880 yuan for this chicken, right?” [2] Bei Feng started calculating. Firstly, there was no need to rent a place. He can serve his customers within the mansion itself. If the weather was nice, he could set the tables directly beneath the banyan tree, too.
If the weather were to go bad, he could simply set aside a few rooms as dining rooms.
After all, there were a lot of empty rooms in his mansion. Setting aside one or two out of the total of eight was not a problem at all.
‘The daily fishing attempt for today has not been used yet. I wonder what I will catch today…’
Thinking of the possibilities, Bei Feng felt a surge of anticipation. He picked up the Purple Bamboo Fishing Rod and headed toward the Ancient Well.
After digging around for a short while, Bei Feng grabbed a fat, greenish-black earthworm, ran the hook through it, and cast it into the well.
A freshly sharpened chopper lay by his side, gleaming brightly in the sunlight. It was prepared in advance to fend off any possible danger that might pop out of the well.
‘A table of food for 880 yuan...now that I think about it, am I charging too little for this? I’m actually risking my life to fish here like this, after all!’ Bei Feng started daydreaming as he waited for something to take the bait.
***
Under the skies of a strange world, there was an azure ocean. Fishes several hundred meters in length leapt out of the water and then crashed back into it every now and then, giving birth to waves which reached the height of several stories!
A number of seabirds was gliding above the ocean, each one with size reaching tens of meters. Their claws looked extremely sharp and powerful, a layer of metal-like keratin wrapped around them.
Eyes gleaming, a small seabird with a wingspan of “only” seven, eight meters seemed to have located its target. Chirping excitedly, it folded its wings and dived, as swift as a sword, right toward the ocean’s surface.
Although it would be likely considered a monstrous existence on earth, this seabird was actually considered quite small when compared to those other seabirds nearby, all of whom, at a casual glance, reached at least tens of meters in size.
“Peng!”
The little seabird pierced into the ocean like an artillery shell.
A short period of tranquility, that is around thirty seconds, passed before something could be seen at that location, shooting out of the water. It was the little seabird, returning from its first successful hunt! A green-colored fish over a meter in length was clutched tightly within its claws!
“Yin!”
The little seabird chirped excitedly. Its sharp claws gripping the fish firmly, it flew proudly towards two huge adult seabirds while calling out time and again, just like a child showing off to its parents.
“Shua!”
Right at that moment, a transparent, silk-thin line suddenly descended from the heavens and, of all the places where it could have landed, it actually fell right into the gaping mouth of the green fish...!
‘Eh? There’s some movement! Bei Feng knew that he had caught something and hurriedly reeled the line in.
“YIN!”
The little seabird immediately realized that something was not quite right! How come it could not move all of a sudden?! An enormous pulling force suddenly appeared, tugging at it through the fish in its claws. Caught unaware, the poor seabird squawked in fear as it suddenly found itself being dragged across the skies at an enormous speed!
“YINNNN!”
The two adult seabirds saw that something was wrong with the little seabird and immediately flew toward it, calling out anxiously.
“Yin!”
The little seabird saw that it was being dragged upside down into the sky, higher and higher and was starting to panic. Finally, with much reluctance, it loosened its claws. Watching the food it had caught with so much difficulty being stolen away like this right beneath its beak... how could any bird stand something like this?! However, there was really nothing at all it could do in the current situation! After letting out a depressed squawk, it flew back to the two adult seabirds with tears in its eyes.
“WOW! What an enormous fish!”
Looking at the huge fish that had emerged from the well, Bei Feng exclaimed in delight. He was so shocked that an adult’s clenched fist would likely fit into his gaping mouth.
‘This fellow lives in the water...so it shouldn’t be as ferocious as that Giant Cock from before since it’s on land now, right?’
Bei Feng felt some butterflies in his stomach. However, he swallowed his nervousness and proceeded to carefully pull the fish out of the well.
Oddly enough, this fish was obviously weighing at least around a hundred catty, and yet the weight coming from the Purple Bamboo Fishing Rod was only several tens of catties!
‘Looks like there are still some other mysterious functions in this Purple Bamboo Fishing Rod,’ Bei Feng thought silently. This should not be something to feel surprised about. Any product of the Myriad Heavens Fishing System was guaranteed to be a top-quality one!
Bei Feng laid the huge fish on the ground and started to inspect it. The smell of the seawater was especially obvious.
‘So it’s a sea fish...no wonder it can grow to such a size!’ Bei Feng mumbled softly. He felt a little regretful about this. If it turned out to be a freshwater fish, he could still put it in a tank and rear it. However, as it wasn’t, he could only kill it immediately and place it in his fridge.
Bei Feng picked up his chopper and, without any hesitation, slashed it at the fish’s throat. The poor fish could only open and close its mouth, gasping at the air in vain, unable to struggle at all. It was just as if it was bound by some mystical strength, causing it to be completely unable to move.
Bei Feng pulled out the hook after making sure that everything was fine.
The moment the hook was removed, the huge fish immediately started thrashing around crazily on the ground!
In the end, however, this was nothing more than the poor creature’s death throes. Finally, after a long time, its movements completely ceased.
Bei Feng cut the fish into three sections and stuffed them into the fridge.
‘In the end, this fridge’s still too small, huh? Forget it, I’ll have to make do with it for the time being.’
Bei Feng closed the fridge and started to clean the spare rooms in preparation for receiving customers in the future.
After busying himself for half a day, the room acquired a completely new outlook. By the time the layers of dust were removed, the beauty and design of the room had also resurfaced. There were beautiful patterns engraved both onto the wooden window panes and doors, while a 30-centimeter-thick pillar was erected in each of the two ends of the room. The entire design gave others a feeling of having returned to ancient times.
Only, it was a pity that the room was really too empty. There were hardly any decorations or furniture in it, making the room look rather spartan. [3]
‘One must sacrifice the child to catch the wolf. Since I’ve decided to start a high-end business, I need to fix this place up properly! Other than that, I’ll need a set of tables and chairs as well,’ Bei Feng looked around the empty room and considered the things he would need to buy in order to liven up the room.
[1] TL/N: The phrase 没有对比就没有伤害 probably means that a person will not feel that their task is difficult or painful if they don’t compare with or see someone else doing an easier task. So in the context of this story, it should mean the opposite. When the deliveryman saw someone else having a more difficult task, he felt that his task was easier in comparison.
[2] TL/N: The number 8 八 (ba) stands for luck or fortune in Chinese culture as the word has similar pronunciation to the auspicious word 发 (fa).
[3] ED/N: It sounds like it’s just one room despite the previous paragraph saying “rooms”...