AEOGA CH27

Two guests entered the lobby, discreetly taking in the establishment’s layout. After scanning the room, their gazes landed on the screen in the center.

While the exterior of Huaman Pavilion looked utterly unremarkable, the interior revealed a whole new world. The vulgar, gaudy decorations characteristic of its past as a brothel had been completely stripped away, replaced by a quiet, elegant, and refined ambiance. Every table in the lobby was separated by a screen to ensure the diners’ privacy. The patterns painted on each screen were unique—some depicted ink-wash landscapes, others showed fish playing among lotus blossoms, and some featured swallows flying together in the rain. Each was accompanied by an excellently composed poem written in a flowing, elegant cursive script. Though there were no signatures, it was clear that these were by no means the work of an ordinary hand.

In particular, the screen placed right in the center of the lobby, titled Seeking Plum Blossoms in the Snow, was exceptionally vivid, capturing the very essence and soul of the blossoms.

The poems and paintings on these screens alone would be enough to make groups of scholars and artists linger and forget to return home. Anyone who didn’t know better would mistake this place for a poetry society rather than a restaurant.

When Hua Yan was designing the interior decor for Huaman Pavilion, he and Wang Yiming had a severe disagreement. Wang Yiming wanted a magnificent, gold-clad interior, which Hua Yan dismissed as vulgar. Hua Yan wanted an arrangement of warm red silk curtains, which Wang Yiming criticized as tacky. With their aesthetics clashing, they reached a stalemate, so Hua Yan simply asked Fu Xinian to arbitrate.

Both Hua Yan and Wang Yiming were semi-illiterate men who disliked studying, but they deeply respected scholars. They held a strange, inexplicable faith in whatever Fu Xinian—a third-place tanghua graduate—had to say.

After hearing both proposals, Fu Xinian felt neither was viable. Since Huaman Pavilion had just opened, its target clientele would undoubtedly be the wealthy and noble. While a magnificent, gold-clad decor suited the guests’ status, those nobles frequented such venues so often that they had long grown accustomed to it; doing so would only make the restaurant blend into the crowd. Warm red silk curtains were even more out of the question—this was a restaurant, not a brothel. They were running a legitimate business and shouldn’t provoke the guests’ carnal desires once they were full and warm.

Hearing this, Hua Yan thought it made sense, but then he began to worry. “Then what should we do?”

After a brief moment of contemplation, Fu Xinian noted that most of the customers would belong to the scholar-gentry class, meaning there would be many literati. It would be better to opt for something elegant and refined. Placing painted screens in the hall would serve two purposes: first, it would respect the guests’ privacy; second, featuring poems and paintings on the screens would be both tasteful and alluring to customers. However, the skill behind the poetry and painting had to be flawless. Otherwise, if they showed any inadequacy in front of those refined scholars, it would backfire completely.

The Kingdom of Changli had once produced the breathtakingly brilliant Lu Xuechao, who had been absolutely unmatched in his prime. The title of a fourteen-year-old shengban top scholar was no joke. If even Fu Xinian admired him to that extent, the fanaticism of the other scholars was practically wild. For a period, it had even driven the scholars of Changli to scramble to imitate him, learning to wear white robes and white jade pendants. Originally, men in Changli wore green jade at their waists, but because Lu Xuechao preferred white jade, the customs of an entire nation were single-handedly altered by him alone.

Lu Xuechao was unparalleled in both poetry and painting, which caused the literati to revere these arts to the absolute extreme. Fu Xinian’s strategy was indeed highly effective for drawing crowds.

Hua Yan grew even more anxious. “Where am I supposed to find someone to write poems and paint?”

He didn’t know how to appreciate poetry and art, and neither did Wang Yiming. If they ended up hiring a fraud to make up the numbers, wouldn’t they ruin their own reputation?

Fu Xinian said apologetically, “You’ll have to find a way for that yourself. I still have to handle cases for the Ministry of Justice.”

Hua Yan knew everyone had been assigned tasks, and he couldn’t keep troubling Fu Xinian, so he went off to rack his brains alone.

After agonizing for a few days without finding a solution, Hua Yan was so stressed that he lost handfuls of hair. Suddenly, Fu Xinian approached him, sporting two massive dark circles under his eyes. He mentioned that during his “leisure time,” he had painted over twenty screens and composed poems for them, which could be displayed in Huaman Pavilion.

Hua Yan stared at Fu Xinian’s dark circles: …Do you actually have leisure time?

The tanghua graduate was truly a kind-hearted man who said one thing but did another.

Fu Xinian added, “If possible, you should go beg His Highness the Empress to paint a screen. Even if I painted a hundred screens, they wouldn’t compare to a single one of His Highness’s.”

Then, after a moment of hesitation, he added shyly, “I do have a bit of a selfish motive… I wish to behold His Highness the Empress’s calligraphy and painting.”

Hua Yan had feared that Lu Xuechao was too busy, so he hadn’t dared to trouble him over such a trivial matter. But considering that the tanghua graduate had stayed up all night painting and writing poetry to solve his urgent crisis, he felt he should fulfill the scholar’s selfish wish. Thus, he boldly went to plead with Lu Xuechao.

Lu Xuechao proved very easygoing and painted the screen Seeking Plum Blossoms in the Snow. Fu Xinian was ecstatic, dedicating an entire night just to appreciate it. Only the next day did he reluctantly hand the screen over to Hua Yan. It was then placed right in the center of the Huaman Pavilion lobby, becoming the restaurant’s ultimate treasure.

Now, seeing the two guests staring intently at Seeking Plum Blossoms in the Snow, Hua Yan thought to himself that these distinguished guests truly had an excellent eye. Out of so many screens, they had spotted the one painted by His Highness the Empress at a single glance.

Though, to be fair, this screen was indeed placed in the most prominent position.

“Would the honored guests prefer the main hall or a private room?” Wang Yiming asked.

The man in the green robe replied, “Right here in the main hall.”

Since they were currently the only pair of customers in the building anyway, there was no real difference between the main hall and a private room.

“Right away, please follow me, honored guests.” Since this was their very first piece of business, Wang Yiming took it very seriously. He spread the handwritten menu onto the table and began pitched his heart out. “This is the menu, please take your time ordering. I highly recommend our establishment’s signature dish, the Squirrel Mandarin Fish. Also, you absolutely must try this dish, the Emerald White Jade…”

“Then we shall have those two, and feel free to add a few more dishes at random,” the man in the white robe said gently.

The first transaction was made! Wang Yiming’s heart leaped with joy.

He was certain that as long as they secured one customer, they would gain a returning regular.

No one could refuse the Emerald White Jade and the Squirrel Mandarin Fish. No one!

Because there were no other customers in the shop at the moment, the food was served very quickly. Wang Yiming waited upon them personally, eagerly anticipating the guests’ reactions.

When the two guests saw the freshly prepared, succulent cabbage and the fragrant mandarin fish, their expressions showed nothing extraordinary.

These two clearly look well-traveled, wealthy, and noble, so it’s normal for them to show no reaction now. Once they taste it, their expressions definitely won’t stay like this! Wang Yiming thought with absolute certainty.

The guests picked up their chopsticks. Yet, even as they ate, their expressions remained completely calm, as though they were merely eating ordinary home cooking.

Wang Yiming: “…”

That shouldn’t be right.

He had tasted these two dishes prepared by the chef himself. Although they weren’t as delicious as those made by His Highness the Empress personally, the chef had followed the recipe strictly, so the flavor shouldn’t be far off.

How could there be absolutely no reaction!

Or perhaps they possess such age and experience that they don’t wear their emotions on their sleeves like rash young lads?

As Wang Yiming’s thoughts ran wild, the guests’ bowls of rice gradually emptied.

Wang Yiming asked apprehensively, “How do the honored guests find the flavor?”

The man in the white robe elegantly wiped his lips with a handkerchief and offered serious feedback: “The cabbage lacks a certain crisp sweetness.”

The man in the green robe added, “The mandarin fish is crisp enough on the outside, but insufficiently tender on the inside. The head chef is likely not yet fully practiced; there is room for improvement. The bill, please.”

Hearing this less-than-stellar critique, Wang Yiming felt a pang of insecurity. Out loud, he said, “Since our little shop has just opened and you two are our very first customers, this meal is on the house.”

The guest smiled. “In that case, thank you for the hospitality.”

Watching the two guests depart side by side, Wang Yiming said dejectedly, “This is not how I envisioned it…”

For these two guests to be so critical of such delicious food, did they used to dine at the heavenly Peaches of Immortality Banquets?!

Hua Yan was also at a loss. His Highness had said that distinguished guests would arrive. The distinguished guests had indeed come, but their response was mediocre. What should they do now?

Just when they thought business would be dismal moving forward, barely half an hour passed before another formidable, martial-looking man of extraordinary presence stepped through the door. The moment he entered, he boomed loudly, “Is this the Huaman Pavilion that Old Lu praised as being matchless under heaven?”

“Bring out your establishment’s signature dishes—that whatever Squirrel Mandarin Fish, and that Emerald White Jade dish—let this General taste them.”

Hua Yan’s eyes widened. “Gen—General—”

Grand General Qin?

The Grand General of Weiyuan had spent his entire life in the military. When he marched back to the imperial capital after triumphing at the border, Hua Yan had caught a glimpse of him from afar.

Moreover, Qin Yulong and the Grand General looked as though they were cast from the exact same mold; even their upright, resolute, and martial aura was identical. Having met Qin Yulong, it wasn’t hard to recognize the Grand General.

A flash of insight struck Hua Yan, and he suddenly understood why that man in the white robe from earlier had looked so familiar.

It was because His Highness the Empress bore a slight resemblance to him!

It was just that their temperaments were entirely different. That white-robed man was purely gentle, refined, and as pleasant as a spring breeze. His Highness, however, carried a hidden layer of aloofness within his gentleness, and a natural coolness beneath his smiling words, which was why Hua Yan hadn’t realized it right away.

This perfectly explained why those two guests had been completely unfazed, as if they were eating ordinary home cooking, and could even pick out a flaw or two.

That was the birth father of His Highness the Empress! He must have frequently tasted His Highness’s cooking at home, so to them, wasn’t this exactly what ordinary home cooking tasted like?

What the chef at Huaman Pavilion made was naturally inferior to His Highness’s own culinary skills. Expecting them to shower it with praise would be asking them to speak against their conscience.

However, it was clear that no matter how critical and judging the Prime Minister and his wife had been inside the restaurant, they had heavily praised Huaman Pavilion to the high heavens once they stepped outside. Otherwise, the Grand General wouldn’t have burst in with the line, “Is this the Huaman Pavilion that Old Lu praised as being matchless under heaven?” demanding those two dishes right off the bat.

No wonder His Highness the Empress had been so certain that distinguished guests would arrive today. As it turned out, he had invited his own father.

While the thick-headed Wang Yiming was still wondering who “Old Lu” was, Hua Yan had already whispered to him, “That is the Grand General of Weiyuan. The two guests from earlier were invited by His Highness the Empress—the current Prime Minister and his wife.”

Wang Yiming sucked in a sharp breath.

Prime Minister Lu was His Highness the Empress’s father—

Since Wang Yiming’s family was in business, he possessed some understanding of commercial strategies.

Among them was a tactic used to stimulate consumer spending called the “celebrity effect.”

An item that no one cared about could instantly drive mass consumption if a person of high renown praised it a few times, or even simply used it once. When his father did business, he often hired famous figures to speak highly of their products. Once the word spread, the items sold much faster.

The target clientele of Huaman Pavilion belonged to the scholar-bureaucrat class. In terms of fame, who could be more renowned than the Prime Minister, a man at the absolute pinnacle of court officials?

Currently, the imperial court had undergone a massive restructuring. None of the noble houses dared to move rashly, terrified of committing an error and being investigated. Everyone was watching the movements of the four great aristocratic clans. And the four great clans were led by the Lu family. Especially after the Empress was reinstated, the Emperor’s guilt toward and reliance upon the Lu family were plain for all to see. It could be said that every single action of Prime Minister Lu now defined “political correctness.”

Even if Prime Minister Lu merely uttered a single phrase like “Huaman Pavilion’s signature dishes are delicious,” every noble and official in Yuijing would flock to the restaurant to try it. Even if it weren’t delicious, they would claim it was, let alone the fact that the food truly was excellent.

For a scholar like His Highness the Empress to be so thoroughly well-versed in these merchant tactics—even utilizing the prestige of his own father—was astonishing.

Even Wang Yiming couldn’t help but marvel. If he hadn’t become a scholar, His Highness the Empress would have been a natural-born merchant—calculating enough, and black-hearted enough.

Prime Minister Lu had indeed been invited by Lu Xuechao.

And why wouldn’t he?

As early as fourteen years old, when Lu Xuechao discovered that the scholars nationwide had swapped their green jade for white jade just to imitate him, he realized exactly how terrifying the celebrity effect could be when fully utilized.

Now, it had finally been put to good use.