He was grinding ink with heather leaves, and his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, revealing a part of his forearm that was as white as a washed white radish, with blue veins faintly visible beneath the skin.

Jiang Muyu took a glance and then looked away.

She picked up the brush, dipped it in ink, and began to write down the recipe.

Heather lifted her eyelids and took a look, and couldn't help but say, "Your handwriting... should be practiced more."

"Uh..." Jiang Muyu didn't respond. She really had no power to refute the fact that the word was ugly.

She wrote three pictures, all of which were Shandong dishes, namely yellow croaker and tofu soup, braised shredded chicken, and crucian carp in milk soup.

"Boss, please take a look."

Heather took it up and took a look at it, then said with a smile, "This recipe is very exquisite, sir. Wait... isn't crucian carp in milk soup a new dish of Shui Yunjian?"

Jiang Muyu said, "I won't hide it from you. I wanted to sell the recipe to Shui Yunjian earlier. I borrowed their kitchen to make this crucian carp in milk soup. However, the price they offered was not up to my expectations, so I didn't sell the recipe to them. I left the prepared dish in the kitchen. Their chef should have roughly copied it after tasting it."

"I see." Heather smiled and said, "So, I guess I got a bargain."

Jiang Muyu smiled and said, "However, they never got the official recipe. Since I can write it down, I can make it better."

"Customer, please name a price."

"I want to hear your price first."

Heather gestured, "Why don't we sit down and talk?"

"Um."

The two of them came out from behind the curtain and sat back at the table.

Heather said, "I am sincere in doing business with you, my guest, so I offer you one thousand two taels of silver for a menu. Do you think it is appropriate?"

Jiang Muyu was stunned for a moment. She had originally planned to charge five hundred taels for each dish, but she didn't expect the other party to be so rich and generous. However, since he offered this price, Jiang Muyu would not think it was too much. She would take the money that was delivered to her doorstep.

Jiang Muyu smiled and said, "I can see your sincerity. If that's the case, I'll sell you two recipes. The crucian carp in milk soup is a gift, and I'll charge you two thousand taels."

"Hmm--the guest is so easy to talk to? Then I won't be polite."

He took the recipe from Jiang Muyu's phone, got up and went to the inner room to get two thousand taels of silver.

After receiving the money, Jiang Muyu naturally became more talkative. "I like that the boss is so happy to do business! If the two dishes sell well, you can come to me again. I will give you a 20% discount."

"20% off?"

“It means preferential treatment.”

"Oh, the guest's conversation is really interesting."

"Don't call me guest all the time. My last name is Jiang. You can just call me Miss Jiang..."

She originally wanted to say Mrs. Jiang, but then she felt it was inappropriate, so she just called her Miss. Although she was a married woman now, her mentality was still young.

A hint of interest flashed across Heather's eyes and she nodded, "Okay, Miss Jiang, you can also call me Master Shi."

"OK."

At this point, the discussion is concluded.

Heather personally escorted her to the entrance of the trail, and then storekeeper Lu led her back to the lobby of Bamboo Forest Residence.

Chu Yu saw her coming back and then told the waiter to bring the dishes.

She had been waiting with an empty stomach.

As soon as Jiang Muyu sat down, she came up to him and asked, "Have you settled the deal?"

Jiang Muyu looked very pleased, "Of course it's a deal. I made a total of two thousand taels from the two recipes."

Chu Yu didn't think two thousand taels was a lot of money. "Once you sell this recipe, it will become someone else's property. They won't lose out if you give them two thousand taels."

"It doesn't matter. I'm not sure if those dishes will be popular here. Let's wait and see."

After all, the tastes in each place are different. She was used to eating Shandong cuisine, and when she suddenly tried Fujian cuisine, she felt that it was not so appetizing. She also didn't know whether the people of Tiangan Country could accept her dishes.

Soon, the waiter brought the dishes.

Four dishes, one soup and one dessert were enough for the two of them.

Having been hungry for the whole morning, the two of them adhered to the principle of not talking while eating and not talking while sleeping, and did not put down their chopsticks until they were eight-tenths full.

Chu Yu took a sip of tea and sighed, "Zhulin Youju's craftsmanship has always been good."

Jiang Muyu also nodded, "Not much inferior to Shui Yunjian."

“It’s a pity that the taste is a bit monotonous.”

Jiang Muyu smiled and said, "It will be abundant soon."

"That's right. Once your dishes are on the menu, I will definitely come over to try them."

"good."

Chu Yu looked around and suddenly lowered his voice, saying, "Madam, if your dishes sell well, would you consider opening a restaurant of your own?"

Jiang Muyu had actually considered this, not just a restaurant or a wine shop, she had even thought about opening a brothel, but it was just not within her capabilities to make it a reality right now.

“I have thought about it.”

Chu Yu suddenly became sad and let out a long sigh.

Jiang Muyu looked at her and asked, "What's wrong?"

Chu Yu said, "I also opened a restaurant a few years ago, but it was not well managed and closed down in less than two years."

Jiang Muyu didn't know this. When the original text mentioned Chu Yu, she had already made Lingqie Pavilion bigger and stronger, and all the large and small industries under it were making a lot of money. She unconsciously associated her with the business tycoon, but ignored the fact that the tycoon had also capsized in the ditches.

"Isn't the restaurant business very profitable? How come it failed?" Jiang Muyu asked.

Chu Yu said with a bitter face, "It is true that restaurants and eateries make money quickly, but that is based on the big ones. When the previous emperor was in power, there was a period of time when a large number of restaurants suddenly emerged in the capital. At that time, our family did not seize this opportunity, and it was difficult to gain a foothold later if we wanted to do it again."

"Then if we really want to open a restaurant in the future, won't we face the risk of losses?"

"That's not necessarily true."

"What do you mean?"

Chu Yu smiled slyly, "That depends on how much you can earn from selling your recipes. As long as the dishes are good, there will be no shortage of customers."

Jiang Muyu was puzzled: "When you first opened the restaurant, did it go bankrupt because the food was not good?"

Speaking of this, Chu Yu couldn't help but sigh and said, "Alas - I opened the business with great enthusiasm, but it ended up in a miserable way..."

"Get to the point."

She coughed and said embarrassedly, "Business was good when we first opened. My chef was hired from another restaurant. The dishes he cooked were OK, but a little dishonest. He worked under me for less than two months before he was poached by Shui Yunjian."

"How could Shui Yunjian do such a wicked thing?"

After Jiang Muyu finished saying this, he suddenly realized that he had scolded Chu Yu as well, and felt a little embarrassed, "This..."

Chu Yu didn't care at all. Instead, he affirmed her statement, "I should have thought of it earlier. People who can be easily poached by me can also be easily poached by others at a higher price. So we really can't do such immoral things."

"Oh..." Jiang Muyu poured her some tea and then asked, "What happened next? Didn't the new chefs work?"

"This time it's not the chef's fault, but the shopkeeper offended someone and got me into trouble."

"What do you mean?"

"The shopkeeper I hired was from a town outside the city. He used to run a shop, but his son owed gambling debts and someone came to his house and threatened to break his son's legs if he didn't pay back. So he sold the shop to pay off his son's debts. I met him by chance and felt that he was pitiful and indeed very capable, so I brought him back and let him work under me."

When she said this, her expression was somewhat unhappy, and she said, "Who knew that the son of that guy was such a scoundrel that he raped another girl outside. And the girl's brother was a notorious hooligan. He brought people to my restaurant every day to cause trouble, causing my restaurant business to plummet."

Jiang Muyu frowned when he heard this, "Wasn't this matter resolved later?"

"I personally went to negotiate, gave gifts and paid compensation, but it was all useless. The reason why a gangster is called a gangster is because he has no bottom line and is extremely greedy. After getting some benefits from me, he would stop for a while and then come back again."

"Tsk tsk - it really proves the old saying that it is easy to invite a god but hard to send him away."

"That's right. In the end, I fired the manager. The restaurant had a bad reputation and couldn't continue to operate."

"What about the gangster?"

Chu Yu snorted coldly and said, "He thought I was easy to bully. I hired someone to ambush him on the way home, put a sack over his head, and broke his leg."

Jiang Muyu couldn't help but smack his lips when he heard this, and sighed in his heart: This woman is really a ruthless person!