Soon, the dishes the young women had ordered came out of the kitchen one after another.

They were served to each of them.

Seeing the two new dishes, beef noodles and stir-fried shredded potatoes, Xia Xiaoyue and Yu Wei were certainly amazed, but they had been mentally prepared.

The other ten girls, however, had no idea what to expect and were completely blown away.

’This presentation is on another level, isn’t it? It looks super delicious!’

’And the stir-fried shredded potatoes look amazing, too.’

Everyone eagerly dug in.

Those who had ordered the stir-fried shredded potatoes shared their portions, inviting the others who hadn’t ordered it to try some.

And with the first bite...

Even though Xia Xiaoyue and Yu Wei were prepared, they were just as pleasantly surprised as everyone else.

The beef noodles were also unbelievably delicious, far exceeding their expectations.

Both the noodles and the beef were so good it was hard to describe with words.

They used to genuinely dislike noodles and almost never ate them.

But now, whether it was the Yangchun Noodles or the beef noodles here, they couldn’t stop eating.

It was the same with the shredded potatoes.

Of course, they had always loved shredded potatoes. They ate them often and never got tired of them.

But now, they realized that shredded potatoes could taste so much better than what they were used to.

It was a truly delightful surprise.

The other ten girls were even more astonished.

Although they had believed what Xia Xiaoyue and Yu Wei said from the start—that the Yangchun Noodles here were delicious...

They had no real concept of *how* delicious they would be or to what degree.

They had just assumed they would be a little better than the noodles at other restaurants.

But now, they finally understood.

’This isn’t just "delicious"! This is clearly a gourmet masterpiece!’

’It’s hard to believe that such common dishes as noodles and shredded potatoes can taste this incredible.’

’What kind of skills does this owner have?’

’He’s so freaking good!’

’If I’d known, I would have come ages ago.’

’Even though it’s a bit of a trek, a drive of over two hours, it’s totally worth it!’

The girls thought this to themselves, but their mouths never stopped moving.

Soon, the noodles were eaten, the broth was drunk, and the shredded potatoes were polished off completely.

All the girls felt a satisfaction they had never experienced before.

"Owner, your skills are simply out of this world. I can’t believe noodles and potatoes can be this delicious," the girls all chimed in.

Li You smiled. "If you like it, come back often."

"No problem! We’ll definitely be back. How about this, Owner? Why don’t you move your restaurant to the city, right next to our university? That way, we can come every day, for all three meals. What do you think?" one of the girls suggested.

Li You smiled again. "The city is nice, but I prefer it here."

The girl who had just spoken said, "I knew you wouldn’t go. Even though it’s far from the bustling city, it really feels nice here. The scenery is so beautiful, and you can grow vegetables and fruit trees. You can even go catch fish in the gorge. By the way, Owner, we saw a fish trap in the gorge earlier, and it already had a lot of fish inside. Xiao Yue said it was yours."

Li You nodded. "That’s mine. I go to check it every so often."

"That’s the life," the girls all said.

After that, the girls started scanning the QR code to pay.

Li You did a quick calculation. The girls’ total bill was 197 yuan.

This meant that after this group, he was only 8 yuan away from completing his main quest.

After the last girl paid, Li You opened his mission panel to check.

Sure enough.

"Main Quest: Achieve a total revenue of 2,000 yuan within one week.

Current Progress: 1,992 yuan."

Only 8 yuan left. Just one more customer, and the quest would be complete.

Li You felt a surge of excitement.

After paying, the girls walked out of the restaurant.

"Owner, it’s getting late. We’re heading back to school now," said Xia Xiaoyue.

Li You nodded. "Drive safe."

"Okay."

...

After the girls left, Li You grabbed a chisel, a hand hammer, a hoe, and other tools, and went to the area he had designated for his orchard.

He continued clearing away stones and weeds.

He hoped to finish before Luo Yunlin delivered the fruit tree saplings tomorrow.

Time passed, and the sky began to darken.

He called it a day.

’I’ll continue tomorrow. I should be able to finish it by tomorrow morning.’

Back in the restaurant, he rested for a bit and ate some cherries.

’These cherries from Yunlin are really delicious.’

’Oh, right. After I’m done tomorrow afternoon, I’ll take some cherries back to Mom and Dad so they can try them too.’

After eating cherries for a while, he started preparing dinner.

He would make some stir-fried shredded potatoes and scoop out a bowl of pure beef from the beef broth.

One vegetable dish and one meat dish—a perfect meal.

As for the rice, he would of course use the Qiankun Rice Cooker.

Li You had used it a few times already, and the rice was indeed exceptionally good. He felt it was even tastier than rice steamed in a traditional wooden steamer.

And this was just with ordinary rice, the kind that cost only about 2.5 yuan per half-kilogram.

If he used better quality rice, it would surely taste even better.

Dinnertime.

Both the shredded potatoes and the beef were delicacies fit for the gods.

...

「The next day.」

After breakfast, Li You went back to work in the orchard area.

Around 11 a.m., a car slowly pulled into the parking lot.

Inside were two men in their thirties.

The two of them didn’t get out of the car right away.

Instead, they both looked toward the restaurant.

One of them, wearing a white shirt, spoke. "This should be the place. We finally found it. This location is really remote. It’s truly strange to find a restaurant out here in the middle of nowhere."

The other man, in a black t-shirt, frowned. "So Master Qu lost to the owner of this restaurant? The owner of a place like this makes better Yangchun Noodles than Master Qu? It’s really hard to believe."

The man in the white shirt said, "My guess is that Master Qu made a serious mistake during the competition. But he doesn’t want the public to know he’s capable of making mistakes, so he didn’t reveal the reason."

The man in the black t-shirt said, "That’s a strong possibility. Making a mistake is perfectly normal. Master Qu could have just admitted it openly."

The man in the white shirt replied, "Master Qu must have his reasons. Still, we won’t know if that’s really what happened until we try a bowl of their Yangchun Noodles."

The man in the black t-shirt nodded. "Let’s go. That’s why we came all this way."

The man in the white shirt was named Huang Liangwen, and the one in the black t-shirt was He Wenjie. Both were chefs from Heyang City.

Huang Liangwen was a junior chef, and He Wenjie was a junior noodle chef.

Neither of them had ever met Qu Feng, but they all knew of each other.

After the news of Qu Feng’s defeat to the owner of the Jiulong Gorge Restaurant in Changxi County spread through the Heyang Chef World, Huang Liangwen and He Wenjie both felt there might be more to the story.

All this talk about Changxi County being full of hidden masters and how the top expert in Yangchun Noodles wasn’t Liang Heng... for some reason, they just couldn’t bring themselves to believe it.

So, the two of them decided to go to Changxi County, find this so-called Jiulong Gorge Restaurant, and investigate the matter for themselves.

What was the truth of the matter?

Perhaps the answer would reveal itself after a single taste of the Jiulong Gorge Restaurant’s Yangchun Noodles.

...