Chapter 554: Mutton Soup (5)
Many customers had returned in high spirits, only to leave in disappointment.
By this morning, Guilin Restaurant was completely deserted.
He Ying didn’t understand how things had turned out this way. The restaurant had clearly been a money tree, how had it suddenly withered away in an instant?
In order to get to the bottom of things, she personally visited Guilin Restaurant herself early this morning.
It was when she tasted the dishes that she finally realised what had happened.
The famed dishes of Guilin Restaurant had suddenly become completely unpalatable! Even the cooks in the Jing’an Estate could do better than this!
He Ying was immediately enraged. She called the manager over for questioning.
This manager was someone that Matriarch He had newly assigned to manage the restaurant. He was an old servant who had already managed the matriarch’s businesses for many years. With his long, white beard, he looked like a wise old sage.
Under He Ying’s questioning, the manager revealed the whole story.
All the staff in Guilin Restaurant, from the cooks to the waiters and the accountants, had been completely replaced. However, this hadn’t been their intention at all. They simply hadn’t been able to find any of the original staff.
Since they wanted to reopen Guilin Restaurant at the earliest possible time, they had no choice but to fill the staff with new hires.
Unfortunately, even though they had enough hands now, they couldn’t replicate the original taste of the restaurant’s dishes.
The dishes that Guilin Restaurant had produced had been made from Third Young Madam’s secret recipes, so of course they wouldn’t be able to find anyone who could reproduce those dishes so easily.
It had been Manager Qin who had chosen the cooks himself and Xiyan who had personally taught them the recipes and cooking techniques required for the dishes.
The commoners of the Great Wu Dynasty valued recipes greatly. Many techniques and secrets were passed down to male descendants alone, and it wasn’t guaranteed that masters would teach their disciples their secrets. The common view that most masters held was that passing down their secret skills would lead to their death. Guilin Restaurant’s cooks had been taught those secrets by Xiyan, so they treated her as their master. Thus, they upheld their honour and integrity as her disciples and kept the recipes secret.
Eldest Madam He Ying gritted her teeth and slammed the table, shaking the teacups on the wooden surface.
No wonder Chu Lian had given the restaurant back to her mother so easily! So this was where her trap lay!
However, when she had returned the deed, Chu Lian had already made it clear that anything concerning the restaurant would have nothing to do with her from then onwards.
Thus, He Ying couldn’t confront Chu Lian face-to-face and demand for all of Guilin Restaurant’s original staff to be returned.
He Ying was still fuming when a senior servant rushed into the restaurant.
With her belly full of fire, He Ying was about to unleash her rage upon the unfortunate servant, when the servant hastily spoke up first, “Eldest Madam! Bad news!”
“What’s wrong now?! Speak!”
The senior servant stepped forward and took out a few letters from her sleeve, offering them up to Eldest Madam with both hands.
He Ying took the letters and scanned through the senders’ names. Her hands trembled and she almost dropped the letters to the floor.
Duke Zheng, Lord Yang, Marquis Fu’an, Duke Ding…
These were all well-known nobles or high officials in the capital.
Although House Jing’an had risen in status, they couldn’t handle this many great personages coming to ‘greet’ them at the same time…
She didn’t understand why all these people had suddenly written letters to House Jing’an and why they had been specially passed on to her.
She took in a deep breath to calm her curious and anxious heart before opening the first letter, which had been personally written by Lord Yang, one of the officials of the cabinet.
When she finished reading his letter, she was rooted to the spot in shock.
Of all the possible reasons that these great personages would have written to House Jing’an, this was something she hadn’t expected in the least!
Lord Yang had actually written a public letter just to reprimand her for ruining Guilin Restaurant and destroying one of the food paradises of the capital.