Chapter 596: Chapter 595: Gathering for Dinner (Part 1)

Tiqie Mansion, front gate.

“I shall take my leave then—”

Xia Yu prepared to get into the Tiqie family’s luxurious car, as Senzaimon arranged for a driver and vehicle to take him back.

“Wait!”

At the end of class, a school bus fortuitously stopped at the mansion’s terminal station, and a girl with clean silver hair dressed in a uniform, gasping for breath and running, came shouting.

Behind her was a male student, hands in his pockets and under-eye circles betraying his lethargy.

It was none other than Heimuzhang Liang and Tiqie Ailisha.

“Instructor Xia!”

The silver-haired figure swiftly approached. After Tiqie Ailisha came to a stop, she somewhat frantically straightened her silver locks, her cheeks showing a peculiar flush of red. But being bold by nature and the type to speak her mind, she pursed her lips and said, “Did you come to visit Grandpa? Stay for a while longer, I’ve just returned and there’s a lot I want to talk to you about.”

Senzaimon stood not far away.

“Hey, Ailisha.” Xia Yu greeted her and scrutinized her closely, then, unaccountably, the elegant and beautiful figure of the housewife Leonora surfaced in his mind. He couldn’t help but think to himself:

Ailisha will be like that in the future, won’t she?

“I should head back now. We have plenty of opportunities to talk, it’s not urgent.”

With a shrug, he waved to Ailisha and the approaching Heimuzhang Liang, then Xia Yu got into the car and left.

They watched the black car drive off into the distance.

“Ailisha…” Senzaimon called out, grinning, “Let’s go back, I’ll cook tonight!”

After chatting with Xia Yu the whole afternoon, the old man was clearly in a good mood.

“No!”

But Ailisha refused.

Senzaimon’s smile immediately froze.

“Let’s go to Xia’s Restaurant for dinner, I only want Chinese cuisine today!” Ailisha said, her eyes sparkling.

“Go to Xia’s Restaurant?”

“Yes!”

Ailisha raised her hand, and in it, she was actually holding the latest special edition of “Taste Weekly” featuring renowned chefs. On the cover, a young man held a toolbox in one hand and a windbox in the other, his gaze serene as he stepped towards his cooking station.

This image was a snapshot of the Sapporo Food War.

At the top of the cover were the silhouettes of figures like Mars, Li Han, Tang Yuqiong, Tiqie Ji, and Bernard.

Senzaimon took it and flipped through it.

The special feature detailed Xia Yu’s first battle against Bernard with “Bovine Porcine Avian Blood Sausage,” the battle against Tang Yuqiong with “Golden Open Smile,” the battle against Mars with “Barbeque Feast,” and the ensuing dishes presented in the competition—”Gold and Jade” and “Xia’s Seven Kingdoms United Fried Noodles.”

Each dish was heralded as a classic by the magazine, and of course, the food articles were all penned by Dubian Yuuki, the editor-in-chief who was invited to be one of the hosts for the Sapporo event and had thus witnessed the competition up close.

Images of the delicious foods flitted across their vision.

“Good! Let’s go to Xia’s Restaurant for dinner! To eat Chinese cuisine!”

Senzaimon’s appetite was also piqued, his corners of the mouth blooming with an interested smile, “Speaking of which, I must try these five dishes to honestly say I’ve experienced the Sapporo competition firsthand.”

“Wait, I’ll call Eriina.”

As evening approached, similar scenes unfolded across multiple locations in Tokyo.

On a bus returning from the suburbs.

Beep beep.

Luther received a call and immediately, with a strange expression on his face, told the surly goth girl beside him, “Your brother just informed me that he’s invited us to Xia’s Restaurant for dinner…”

Upon hearing this, the girl exclaimed with delight, “Yes, yes!”

The researchers were also excitedly discussing.

“Xia’s Restaurant?”

“That’s Chef Xia’s restaurant, right? I must eat the five classic dishes he presented at the competition today!”

Seeing no objections from the crowd, Luther happily directed the driver to change their destination.

“Barbeque Feast, Bovine Porcine Avian Blood Sausage, Golden Open Smile…” He muttered the three classics he had missed, his gaze burning, “I never thought I’d get to taste them on the very day after the competition!”

IGO Neon Department.

“Bang” as the door burst open, Shinohara Shigetaro said to Aoki and Reiko, “Tonight we go to Xia’s Shopping Street!”

“Ah?”

Aoki Motota was carving a ferocious demon face into a block of wood with a small knife; he looked up in surprise at the news, “That district has just started bustling, is there any highly-rated top-tier restaurant…”

Noticing the mysterious smile on Shinohara Shigetaro’s face, he paused midsentence.

Thump!

The knife dropped as Aoki Motota excitedly slapped his thigh, “Xia’s Restaurant is open for business now?”

“No…”

With a pitiful scream and clutching his head in pain, Aoki Motota’s face fell, “Then, department head, you…”

“We’re not just any customers, and besides, with guests like us, there will surely be many tonight. If everyone rushes over at once, there’s no reason for Chef Xia to turn us away,” Shinohara conveyed with a twinkle in his eye.

“Let’s go!”

Aoki sprang to his feet.

As for Liangzi Lina, she had silently donned her black coat while he was speaking.

…

Meanwhile, as the VIP guests converged,

The Tiqie family car slowly entered the shopping street.

Leaving in the morning and returning in the evening, Xia Yu was frightened by the crowd outside the car window, which was as dense as a busy train station, bustling with people coming and going.

And thanks to the overflowing crowd in the district, the few restaurants and snack shops in the shopping street were thriving.

As the car passed by Shigong Xiaoci Lang’s shino’s branch, Xia Yu glanced inside and saw both floors packed with guests and a long line of diners waiting outside the glass doors.

Tsk tsk.

Xia Yu withdrew his gaze and thought to himself, “With this, the recently renovated shops on the shopping street won’t have to worry about rent. In a couple of days, I’ll probably worry about how to select tenants for the shops.”

One single tree does not make a forest.

After all, wasn’t the initial aim of acquiring and renovating the shopping street to restore its former prosperity?

Therefore, the shopping street needed many outstanding and principled restaurateurs to join, naturally, Xia Yu only considered those who were part-time head chefs.

The car stopped near the brightly lit Xia’s Restaurant.

Further ahead, the crowd and vehicles were intermixed.

The main entrance to Xia’s Main Store was half-closed, with the lanterns outside already lit, but the entrance to the VIP restaurant was open, and the silhouettes of arriving diners could be vaguely seen.

“Didn’t we put up a ‘Closed for Business’ sign?”

With a bad feeling, Xia Yu got out of the car and snuck into the VIP venue through the back door.

“What’s going on?”

He shouted at Yuchuan Ayaka, who had just finished turning away guests at the door.

“Phew…”

Seeing him return, Yuchuan Ayaka visibly relaxed and said, “Starting from two hours ago, there has been a steady stream of customers coming to the door, and I’ve been turning them away one by one. Their… identities are quite unusual.”

Xia Yu had thought that Xia’s Restaurant would only resume operations after the Sapporo event had completely finished.

After all, the restaurant’s menu hadn’t been updated for some time.

And the VIP area still needed expansion; the current capacity couldn’t cope with the customer flow.

Buzz buzz.

His pocket phone vibrated.

Answering the call, it was Zhu Qing, her voice lazy, “You brat, when are you coming back? I’ve been holding them off for you all day to the limit. You should dismiss them yourself, I can’t handle it anymore.”

Hearing this, Xia Yu’s eyes widened slightly, “Them? …The Eight-Sided Tower crowd still hasn’t left?”

“You don’t understand these people’s peculiar temperaments.”

Zhu Qing spoke with a sense of helplessness, “They’ve been stopping by the shopping street all day, just waiting for you.”

“Here I go!”

Xia Yu rolled his eyes.

“Do they miss me that much?”

“What do you think?”

Zhu Qing seemed to relish in the misfortune.

“Well then…” Sensing an uneasy night, Xia Yu simply said, “Bring them over to the branch here, and keep the main store closed.”

“No problem!”

She agreed readily, not an illusion, and Zhu Qing’s response exuded the thrill of watching the excitement.

Xia Yu massaged his eyebrows.

“Do I need to order ingredients?” Yuchuan Ayaka asked, looking at him.

“Um, let me think about what ingredients I want.”