บท 8: Winning Heart and Money with Delicious Food
Since Wei Rong had said that he would come a few days later, Li Ming wanted to complete a few important tasks first.
She asked Elder Fu to arrange for two guards and four maids. After Elder Fu left, she called Madam Fu and her two daughters to discuss some kitchen arrangements.
"Huang Qing and Huang Ling, you both can cook. Right?" When the two girls nodded their heads, Li Ming smiled and said, "If we want to attract visitors to stay in our inn we have to provide something that the other inns are not providing. That's why I'm thinking of providing breakfast, lunch and dinner. Since we don't have anyone staying in the inn at the moment, we don't have to worry about it for now. But I want you two to be prepared for this task. Also I want to teach you to cook something new."
Li Ming brought the two girls into the kitchen and for rest of the morning she spent her time in teaching the girls how to make coffee and a few easy snacks.
When she was busy teaching the girls, a new idea struck her. She asked Madam Fu to bring a white paper and ink.
After writing on the paper she pasted it on a wooden plank and put it at the entrance of the inn. The message written on the paper was :
Special Lunch with New Dishes
Limited Offer
Price : 1 plate of each dish = 2 silver
taels
2 plates of each dish = 5 silver
taels
3 plates of each dish = 20 silver
taels
4 plates of each dish = 40 silver
taels
Special Sweet Dish :
1 plate = 3 silver taels
2 plates = 10 silver taels
3 plates = 30 silver taels
The people on the street saw the board and nearly everyone of them was surprised. The price of food in the black market was higher than the normal restaurants.
But even those normal restaurants didn't serve food as cheap as this inn. Although the price of the 3rd and 4th plates were higher than normal but it was rare that someone would order more than 2 plates of the same dish. And moreover the inn was serving new dishes.
This announcement attracted many people. It was still an hour early before the lunch time. Although the offer was attractive but not everyone fell for it and those who were interested had to wait for an hour.
On the other hand Snowy was going insane.
Li Ming had given him the duty of monitoring the oven and the ice-cream in the freezer.
He wanted to kick his master in a razing volcano right at that moment. Moreover he was not even allowed to taste anything. He was a familiar for goodness sake not a cook!
"You are the worst master possible. You want to torture me to death!" He said grumpily through their bond.
Elder Fu came back with two guards and four maids. Li Ming ran through their thoughts and found that they were okay to hire.
The guards were placed at the entrance of the inn and the maids went into the kitchen with her.
For next one hour everyone watched Li Ming cooking weird but mouth watering dishes. They had never seen something like this before in their lives but the aroma of the food was so good.
Even they wanted to taste the dishes prepared by Li Ming. But they stayed silent and observed her every step closely.
As the air was strong today, the people outside on the street also smelled the delicious aroma of foods and even those who were planning to go somewhere else for lunch changed their mind.
As soon as one hour completed and noon approached, the main room of their inn started filling with people. This room could serve at least 20 people at a single time. And every single table was booked.
Soon the four new maids and the Huang sisters brought lime soda prepared by Li Ming (with her magic) and started serving the customers.
The soda was cold and tasty. It was really a nice drink rather than drinking hot tea as it was summer season.
After the chilly soda, the customers were served the special dishes. Although they had never seen these dishes before but they could tell from the smell that the dishes were tasty. Even the cutlery was made of some fine material, making it shine brightly.
The dishes that Li Ming cooked were :
# Apple Cider - Glazed Pork Chops
# Jelloff Rice
# Crispy Honey Garlic Salmon
# Barley Cabbage Rolls
# Cherry Cream Desert
As soon as the people tasted the dishes they couldn't stop themselves from praising the cook and the dishes. They had never eaten anything more tasty than these dishes. Everyone ordered as many plates as possible.
By the end of the lunch everyone was full but they still wanted to eat more. But Li Ming stopped everyone.
"Do you all forget that this is a limited offer. You can't have more than four plates and nearly every single one of you had ordered more than two plates of each dish. Now it's time for the special dessert." Li Ming clapped her hands and the maids came out with the dessert and started serving everyone.
The people in the inn were amazed to see the desert. Actually it was confusing what impressed them more, the desert or the glass cup in which the desert was served, which they had never seen before.
Everyone enjoyed the desert and many of them even ordered more than once neglecting it's high price.
When the lunch was over and everyone was enjoying the free soda, the Manager of the Herb Hall, Elder Fang, asked Elder Fu about the cook.
Elder Fu looked at Li Ming and when she nodded her head, he said to everyone present. "This is Miss Li. She's the new owner of this inn and the delicious food that you all just enjoyed was cooked by her."
"How's that possible? She is so young and you are saying that she not only cooked the food but she's also the owner of this inn." A young lady said with surprise and a little sarcasm.
"Age doesn't matter when you are strong enough to pursue your goals. I hope you all have enjoyed the lunch." Li Ming said politely.
The manager of the Herb Hall, Elder Fang, laughed heartily and said in a praising voice, "Miss Li is very humble. You have changed the entire inn into a complete new world. All the things in here from those paintings on the wall, the plants, the food, the cutlery and that strange thing on the table (He's talking about Terrarium), everything is amazing and beautiful. Although I'm working in the black market for past three decades I have never seen anything like these before. I can see that the future days of this inn are going to be very busy and lively." Although he himself was surprised to see that the girl was so young but he was also not an idiot. Someone who could produce things out of this world couldn't be simple.
Everyone thanked Li Ming and her staff for the delicious food and left to complete their business.
The Huang Family and the servants were happy as they earned 1500 plus silver taels today. It was way more than what Huang family had earned last whole year.
After everyone left, the servants cleaned the entire main room making sure that it was again shining brightly.
These servants had known about the condition of Elder Fu's inn. When Elder Fu came to find guards and maids, they didn't want to go and work for someone who couldn't pay them properly. But when Elder Fu offered 10 silvers for the guards and 7 silvers for the maids, which was way more than the normal salary of servants, they all were surprised. Although they were suspicious but they needed money, so they decided to come over.
But what they saw here left them stupefied. Now all six of them decided to work diligently to earn their Master's favor.
In the evening Li Ming made the servants sit with them for dinner but they refused politely as it was not good to eat with your master. When Elder Fu and Madam Fu also persuaded them they finally gave in and all the servants and the entire Huang family had a delicious dinner with their Master. They finally got to taste the delicacies of Li Ming that moved everyone's heart.
Everyone was happy and looking forward to the coming days.
If you all were confused about how Li Ming got vegetables and other materials for cooking, then here's your answer.
The Magic Mansion has a storage which provide vegetables, fruits, snacks, meats, fishes and other materials related to food and cooking. It is magicaly inchanted and it's stock never finished. It's like someone or something is keeping the storage full with fresh food.
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