Open a small noodle shop
Upon arriving at the chosen noodle shop on East Street, Shen Yan and Xiao Man Niu took a closer look.
The location is indeed excellent, near the county school and at the entrance of an alley leading to the main street, where people come and go.
Students from the county school, villagers going to the market, and even clerks going to the county government office all had to pass through here.
Most importantly, this place is quiet amidst the hustle and bustle, making it convenient for diners without being too noisy, perfect for enjoying a bowl of noodles in peace and quiet.
Shen Yan nodded and walked with Xiao Man Niu into the empty shop.
He was greeted by several old accountants whom Shen Yan had made friends with in the county. He bowed and said, "Mr. Wen, you've worked hard."
Mr. Wen shook his head with a wry smile.
"I say, Mr. Shen, how many copper coins can such a small noodle shop earn in a year? It's really not worth it to put in so much effort."
In Mr. Wen's view, although Shen Yan is a businessman, he is currently studying law diligently, and opening a noodle shop is really "not doing his proper job".
Shen Yan knew that these old gentlemen, who had once worked as accountants in large businesses in the prefectural city, naturally looked down on this kind of small-scale business.
He explained with a smile, "Since my son likes to tinker with these pots and pans, and feels sorry for his father not having a hot meal at noon, I'll just let him do it."
He didn't expect to keep this a secret from the neighbors forever.
So they asked a familiar old accountant to help manage the shop and calculate the articles of association.
Since they were willing to help, it means they also felt that the matter was harmless, which can be considered as tacit approval of the father and son's "fooling around".
A few people were talking in the back room of the shop. Little Bull was biting the handle of a brush and scribbling on paper, with a simple account book spread out in front of him.
Once the ledger is in front of him, the boy will become completely absorbed and forget everything else.
As they were talking, the master chef who had been invited from the time-honored restaurant "Heshenglou" in the county town to provide guidance also arrived.
The chef, surnamed Zhang, had an honest face and eyes that, unlike those of a shrewd businessman, were calm and reliable. Little Bull was pleased and quickly pulled Chef Zhang to the stove to ask for his tips on kneading dough and making soup.
A few days ago, Shen Yan wrote down several noodle recipes and gave them to Xiao Man Niu. Mr. Wen also helped order simple signs and menus from a printing shop in the county, so there shouldn't be any problems. Xiao Man Niu keeps urging Shen Yan to think of other specialty noodles so that he can make a name for himself in Linshan County.
Chen Yan has been preoccupied these past few days and hasn't had time to think of any new ideas, so she's been putting it off.
Having agreed on the opening date for the noodle shop and confirmed that getting the food permit from the county government's household registration office should be possible through connections, everyone looked around the shop and seemed to have nothing urgent to attend to. They would simply make the noodles according to the recipe, add some toppings that the locals liked, and then wait for customers to come.
As for serving customers, Little Bull patted his chest and said he could handle it.
If you get the kids in the family to lend a hand, you won't have to worry about anything else.
Shen Yan was somewhat puzzled as to why Mr. Wen and the others spoke so highly of Chef Zhang from Heshenglou. After Chef Zhang finished instructing Xiaomanniu, Shen Yan found a moment to ask gently, "Chef Zhang has been in charge of cooking at Heshenglou for many years, hasn't he?"
Master Zhang smiled and replied, "Yes, I've worked at Hesheng Restaurant for almost twenty years."
Shen Yan's heart stirred slightly, and he asked casually, "I heard that there are several master craftsmen in Hesheng Restaurant whose skills are passed down from their families?"
Master Zhang seemed to sense the hidden meaning in his words and was somewhat puzzled, but he still answered honestly.
“What Master Shen said is true. There are several experienced chefs in the kitchen of Heshenglou, all of whom have passed down their skills from their families. This has been a long-standing tradition in Linshan County.”
"A family recipe?" Shen Yan frowned slightly and asked, "I vaguely remember someone mentioning that twenty years ago, there was a noodle shop in the county town run by a man surnamed Ye, whose soup was exceptional?"
Master Zhang looked slightly surprised, glanced at Shen Yan, and a trace of vicissitude crossed his face.
"After all these years, I thought nobody remembered the Shi family shop. That's right, we old guys all apprenticed and graduated from the Shi family shop back then. Later... something happened to the Shi family, and the shop went out of business. We originally planned to set up our own stalls to make a living, but for some reason, the county didn't seem to want us to use the Shi family's name to run our own businesses. So later we all went to Hesheng Restaurant to help the owner manage the kitchen, and our own skills were just left unused."
Shen Yan looked at Master Zhang again, a sense of closeness rising in his heart. Curious, he asked, "After the Shi family's incident, what did the county government do...?"
Master Zhang sighed: "We also find it strange. Over the years, we've been living very cautiously. Although the county government hasn't explicitly said we can't leave the county, there's always been some kind of constraint. Everyone is on edge and uneasy."
"When you have some free time another day, Chef Zhang, would you mind taking me to the kitchen of Heshenglou to see what it's like?"
Shen Yan's tone suddenly became more enthusiastic, "I have some interest in those old crafts."
Back home, Shen Yan told the old Taoist about her encounter with Master Zhang that day, and finally asked curiously, "Are those old masters in Hesheng Restaurant really the old people from the Shi family shop back then?"
"Most likely."
Xuan Chenzi seemed to be recalling, "Those people had real skills, but unfortunately their master... later suffered a misfortune. I heard that the Shi family's pastries were famous not only in Linshan County, but throughout Qingzhou. When the shop closed down, many of the regular customers in the county complained. Later, the county government probably wanted to stabilize the situation and was also afraid that they would cause trouble by using the Shi family's name, so they gathered these master chefs together and settled them in Hesheng Restaurant, letting them train apprentices and pass on their skills, but they were not allowed to open their own shops. That's how Hesheng Restaurant's kitchen team came to be today."
“You’re right to ask Master Zhang for guidance if you want to teach Little Bull how to open a noodle shop,” Ling Zhan added.
With a touch of sadness, Shen Yan said, "These master chefs have been trapped in Hesheng Restaurant for more than ten years for this reason, with all their skills going to waste... Ling Zhan, if we really open a noodle shop and learn from Master Zhang and the others, will it displease the county government?"
Ling Zhan shook his head: "It's common for the masters of Heshenglou to give private guidance to other businesses or to be invited to help out for a few days. As long as it's not poaching or kidnapping, the county government is too lazy to care about these trivial matters. But it's impossible for you to invite all the old masters of Heshenglou to come and take charge."
"If the county government really disliked the Shi family's name so much, why didn't they just drive all these old craftsmen away or..." Shen Yan asked.
Ling Zhan looked at her husband and analyzed, "Although the Shi family had an accident back then, their craftsmanship was still a unique skill in Linshan, and it would be a pity to let it die out like this. In addition, the old folks in the village liked this kind of food, so they must have spoken up for them. The county government probably just went with the flow and brought them together in Heshenglou."
The sound of a night watchman striking his clapper could be heard from outside the courtyard.
Ling Zhan stood up and said, "It's late, you should get some rest. You have to go to the county school tomorrow."
She turned to leave, but stopped, hesitated for a moment, and said in a low voice, "I know you want to poach people... but it's not the right time yet."
Shen Yan was taken aback, not expecting the deeper meaning behind his wife's words. He was speechless for a moment.
"Two things... Little Bull is still young, he can practice at the noodle shop." Ling Zhan's voice was low. "Do you want to gradually develop the Shura Guard?"
"Go see the Asura Guard?" Shen Yan's eyes suddenly turned cold. "You were training secretly on your own?"
Ling Zhan nodded.
Shen Yan's face drained of color, and she dared not look Ling Zhan in the eye.
She only murmured, "When...when did you start...why?"
"There's danger, prepare in advance." After saying that, she took her leave, "Going back to the hospital to rest."
As soon as she finished speaking, Shen Yan left the room almost as if he were fleeing, running towards his own courtyard.
Ling Zhan spoke calmly, saying, "There is danger, prepare in advance" and "Go back to the hospital and rest."
But it struck Shen Yan's heart like a silent thunderbolt.
He watched his wife turn and leave, her blue cloth dress appearing particularly thin in the dim light.
Yet it also contained a weight that terrified him.
"Shura Guard..."
He muttered to himself, his fingertips icy cold.
He staggered back to his courtyard, his mind in turmoil.
Is the wife secretly training a private army?
The very thought itself was terrifyingly rebellious!
What exactly does she want to do? Isn't the danger of Broken Soul Cliff enough?
Does she want to deliberately provoke an even bigger storm?
He tossed and turned all night, barely closing his eyes.
As dawn broke, he waited anxiously at the courtyard gate, his eyes gleaming with even darker dark circles.
When he saw Ling Zhan appear, still dressed in a simple and neat manner, he swallowed hard, his voice dry: "Let's... let's go."
He didn't say anything more, and he didn't even dare to look Ling Zhan in the eye.
Ling Zhan nodded.
With steady steps, she led him away from the road leading to the cotton mill, and instead turned again onto the secluded path leading to the mountains and forests outside the city.
This time, Little Stone wasn't with them; it was just the two of them.
The morning mist in the mountains was thicker, carrying a damp chill that seeped into Chen Yan's collar, making him shiver involuntarily.
I don't know if it was from the cold or from fear.
The mountain road is winding and rugged, and the further you go, the deeper you go.
His dreadful heart sank higher and higher, his mind filled with all sorts of terrifying imaginings—
A gloomy mountain stronghold?
Hidden weapons and armor?
A menacing thug?
He could almost hear his own heart pounding like a drum.
Finally, Ling Zhan stopped in front of a mountain wall that was partially hidden by dense vines.
She reached out and tapped several seemingly ordinary rocks in a specific order.
"Creak—"
With a dull thud, a gap, just wide enough for one person to pass through, silently slid open behind the thick vines!
A unique aroma, a mixture of earth, sweat, and ironware maintenance oil, wafted towards me.
Shen Yan's heartbeat suddenly stopped for a moment. He subconsciously clenched his fists, his nails digging deep into his palms.
"Keep up."
Ling Zhan's voice remained calm as he stepped inside first.
Shen Yan took a deep breath, and with a sense of tragic grandeur, almost as if she were going to her death, followed them inside.
The gap closed silently behind them, and the light dimmed instantly.
However, after taking only a few steps, the view suddenly opened up before us!
This is a huge, hollowed-out, and transformed natural mountain cave!
Several beams of sunlight were cleverly introduced from the cave ceiling, illuminating the vast space below.
The sight before him made Shen Yan forget to breathe for a moment, his pupils contracting sharply from extreme shock!
It wasn't as gloomy and terrifying as I had imagined, nor was it chaotic.
The entire cave resembles a huge, well-organized military training ground!
Dozens of sharp-looking figures dressed in uniform gray-brown outfits, their faces covered by half-masks.
They are training in perfect formation!
Their movements were swift, precise, and silent; only the sound of their clothes rustling through the air and the deep breathing of their bodies as they exerted force combined to create an invisible, suffocating, and chilling aura of killing intent!
Spears stood like a forest, swords flashed like snow, and the cold, sharp light of crossbows gleamed in the beam of light cast from the cave ceiling.
Further away, some people were practicing climbing cliffs, while others were crawling and scrambling through the mud.
Two people were fighting each other, each move sharp and ruthless, yet they stopped short of killing the target.
Their training content was so dull and unheard of.
But that unified will, that iron discipline, and that efficiency honed purely for killing—
It made his blood seem to freeze!
These are definitely not ordinary guards or servants!
This is clearly a...
A terrifyingly elite private army!
The "Shura Guard" that the lady spoke of actually looked like this!
Ling Zhan stood on the high platform at the entrance without making a sound.
But the moment she appeared, all the Asura Guards who were training, no matter how intense their movements were, were instantly brought to a halt as if a pause button had been pressed!
The movements were clean and efficient, without the slightest hesitation.
Immediately afterwards, everyone turned towards the platform and pounded their left chests with their right fists, producing a deep but uniform "thump" sound!
There were no shouts, no clamor, only dozens of cold, sharp, yet absolutely loyal gazes.
The focus was on Ling Zhan as if it were a tangible entity!
Shen Yan was so shocked by the silent salute and the focused gaze that she took a half step back.
A chill ran from my tailbone straight up to the top of my head!
He had never seen such a pure and awe-inspiring sense of power!
He looked at Ling Zhan beside him. She was still standing straight, her blue cloth dress fluttering gently in the slightly chilly air in the cave.
They calmly accepted this silent loyalty.
Her figure appeared so small against the backdrop of the steel torrent below, yet she exuded an overwhelming and domineering aura that was impossible to look at!
"them……"
His voice was hoarse and almost incoherent, the immense shock temporarily overpowering his fear.
"Who...are they?"
Ling Zhan's gaze slowly swept over the Shura Guards below who were returning to training. His voice was not loud, but it clearly reached Shen Yan's ears.
"They have a solid foundation, connections, are willing to work hard, and know the rules."
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