Culinary Expert

Chapter 3: Beginner’s Quest

In Chinese, “Supreme” means the most noble and exalted. It generally refers to a person, indicating a status that is lofty and unattainable. The tea eggs before him were made with top-tier ingredients, and in terms of appearance, color, and aroma, they were flawless—truly deserving of the title “Supreme Tea Egg.” After eating five “Supreme” tea eggs in a row, Bai Xiaobai pursed his lips before finally stopping. [Ding-dong—The mission system has officially activated. Host, please accept the beginner’s mission. ] “Beginner’s mission?” Before Bai Xiaobai could even figure out what was going on, the system’s text appeared in his mind Beginner’s Mission: Sell five “Supreme” tea eggs within three days. System Rules 1. Each tea egg is priced at fifty. Since the Host is currently at a low level, they must not alter the price without authorization. 2. Each customer may only purchase one per day in the store; the Host’s own consumption does not count toward the sales total. 3. Do not actively invite friends to the store to boost sales; doing so will be considered cheating. 4. Violating any of the above rules or failing to meet the sales quota within the specified time will result in failure of the Beginner Quest. Reward for Completing the Beginner Quest: 1 Level-Up Experience Point The system’s rules were downright strict. Bai Xiaobai had originally planned that if things got really tight on the last day, he could thick-skinnedly ask a few close buddies to help boost sales—after all, it was only five eggs, so it shouldn’t be too much to ask. But the rule forbidding him from actively inviting friends into the shop to increase sales shattered his plans completely. Looking at the system’s dense list of rules, then glancing at the reward, Bai Xiaobai was left speechless. Such strict rules, yet the reward is only 1 experience point. This is a serious imbalance! “System, I protest! The effort-to-reward ratio is severely out of whack. I strongly demand more experience points,” Bai Xiaobai protested. [Host level is too low; cannot request additional experience. Please level up!! ] Heh… Protest rejected! Fortunately, the beginner’s quest wasn’t too outrageous—as long as he sold five in three days, the task would be complete. “System, can you take one out of the quest? Five tea eggs, selling for fifty each—that’s two hundred and fifty, right?” Bai Xiaobai continued to haggle with the system; after all, as a businessperson, he was quite sensitive to numbers like that. 【Host’s level is too low; you may not tamper with the data】 “Heh…” Bai Xiaobai gave a dry laugh. 【Ding-dong, beginner quest countdown! Officially starting】 As the system’s electronic voice trailed off, a countdown clock immediately popped up in Bai Xiaobai’s mind. Three days equals seventy-two hours. In Bai Xiaobai’s shop, he used to sell an average of twenty tea eggs a day—five was a breeze—but now he wasn’t selling ordinary tea eggs; these were “Supreme Tea Eggs.” One tea egg sold for fifty yuan. If the **X Bureau** saw this price, they’d probably come to check his water meter. Even if ordinary people saw it, their first thought would be that the shop owner was out of his mind—crazy for money. How to sell these delicious tea eggs was Bai Xiaobai’s top concern at the moment. Although “good wine needs no bush,” he still felt he should take the initiative. After downing a large carton of breakfast milk and letting out a satisfied belch, Bai Xiaobai packed the remaining “Supreme Tea Eggs” into a rice cooker, moved it to the shop entrance, and placed a sign next to it that read “Supreme Tea Eggs” along with the price. Looking at her beautiful cursive handwriting on the sign, Bai Xiaobai couldn’t help but give herself a thumbs-up. With everything ready, all that was left was to wait for customers to walk in. Wang Tuzi from next door poked his round, half-bald head out again, grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth, and teased, “Oh, Boss Bai, you’re selling tea eggs again. They smell pretty good.” Bai Xiaobai smiled and said, “Mr. Wang, why don’t you grab one to try?” “No, thanks. I’ve got some boiling in my pot too. But Mr. Bai, setting the price at five yuan—isn’t that a bit high? This isn’t the train station, after all.” Mr. Wang pointed at the price sign and feigned well-meaning advice. Bai Xiaobai seriously suspected that Wang Tuzi’s wife had completely drained him the night before, causing him to see things wrong first thing in the morning—even misreading the price—so he quickly corrected him: “It’s not five yuan; there’s a zero at the end. It’s fifty yuan.” Upon hearing “fifty,” Wang Tuzi was startled and stammered, “You… said fifty… for one tea egg?” “That’s right.” Wang Tuzi was initially stunned, but quickly hid his surprise and said slyly, “Mr. Bai, you really are getting more and more business-savvy these days.” Bai Xiaobai knew that Wang Tuzi’s remark was a backhanded compliment, but he ignored him. With fair and transparent pricing, customers who appreciated the quality would inevitably come. Sure enough, the rich aroma of “Supreme Tea Eggs” soon drew in passersby. An elderly man in a gray jacket was walking his little grandson to kindergarten when they passed by Bai Xiaobai’s shop. The little boy pointed at Bai Xiaobai’s rice cooker and said, “Grandpa, those are tea eggs! I want to eat a tea egg.” That little kid sure has a keen sense of smell! Bai Xiaobai stepped out to the door and smiled slightly. “Sir, how about one? They’re fresh off the stove and smell wonderful.” The elderly man looked at the deep reddish-brown tea eggs in the pot, and a trickle of drool involuntarily ran down the corner of his mouth. “I’ll take two, then.” “Sure thing.” With a customer in the shop, Bai Xiaobai was full of energy. He grabbed a slotted spoon and deftly scooped out two “Supreme” tea eggs, placing them in a plastic food bag. Just as the old man was about to reach for his wallet, he suddenly spotted the price tag next to the rice cooker, and his eyes nearly popped out of his head. “You’re charging fifty-one for these tea eggs!?” “That’s right, fifty-one. Two for a hundred.” Bai Xiaobai handed the plastic bag to the old man. The old man stared at Bai Xiaobai’s face with a strange look for three seconds, thinking to himself, “How can such a lively-looking young man be such a nutcase?” But he said aloud, “Never mind, I won’t buy them.” Sure enough, fifty for a single tea egg was simply unacceptable to the average person. After waving his hands repeatedly in refusal, the old man tugged at his grandson, trying to leave, but the boy cried and threw a tantrum, refusing to budge and demanding the tea eggs from Bai Xiaobai’s pot. Furious, the old man raised his hand as if to hit the boy and cursed, “You little b*stard! Fifty-one for a single tea egg? If you want to eat one, tell your dad to buy it. I can’t afford it. There are tea eggs next door—go buy them there.” What kind of grandfather curses his own grandson as a “son of a bitch”? Bai Xiaobai was instantly flabbergasted, feeling that the old man was taking a dig at him. Not quite satisfied with his tirade, the old man dragged his grandson over to Wang Tuzi’s shop next door to Bai Xiaobai’s, bought five tea eggs in one go, and shouted at the top of his lungs as he paid, “Boss, these tea eggs are really cheap!” Hearing the praise, Wang Tuzi grinned and gave Bai Xiaobai a sly wink. “You little punk—you’re way too green to mess with me. Fifty-one for a dozen tea eggs? You must be desperate for money. Even if you let those eggs rot, nobody would buy them.” Wang Tuzi’s inner monologue, channeled through his piercing gaze, turned into a flying dagger that shot straight at Bai Xiaobai’s chest. Bai Xiaobai, of course, got the hint. Although he was seething inside, he still maintained a slight smile on his lips. “There’s plenty of time ahead. Let’s take it one step at a time and see how things play out.” Ten minutes later, a Maneki-neko appeared next to the electric pot for Supreme Tea Eggs. It was Bai Xiaobai who had placed it there. This Maneki-neko was a keepsake from when his parents used to run a shop; Bai Xiaobai hadn’t brought it out to display in a long time. And sure enough, placing it there actually worked. The Maneki-neko was already shiny and eye-catching, and with its cute money-inviting gesture, it was incredibly effective at drawing customers in. Sure enough, less than two breaths after it was set up, the cat worked its magic to attract customers. A man wearing a cheap suit spotted the Maneki-neko from a distance and paused for a moment. After three seconds, he caught a whiff of a rich black tea aroma. It was the aroma of tea eggs! The man in the suit followed the scent to the entrance of Bai Xiaobai’s shop and called out, “Hey, boss, those tea eggs smell great. How much are they?” Customers can usually see the food, but not the price. Bai Xiaobai stood up, held up one hand, and said gently, “Fifty yuan each. Want one?” No matter how gentle Bai Xiaobai’s tone was, the moment the man in the cheap suit heard the price, his jaw nearly dropped to the point of dislocation. He exclaimed in shock, “Fifty yuan… for one? You’ve got to be kidding me!” The man in the cheap suit shot Bai Xiaobai a few almost eerie glances, then scrambled away in a hurry. As he ran, he cursed under his breath, “Damn it, “This is a rip-off. I’m an insurance salesman—I usually can’t even bring myself to spend ten yuan on breakfast—and you’re fucking charging fifty for a single tea egg? Forget running a Restaurant; you might as well put on a mask and go rob people.” The “Supreme Tea-Eggs” were indeed very fragrant, and all morning long, a steady stream of people came to ask about the price. But after hearing the price, everyone immediately turned on their heels and walked away without a moment’s hesitation. No matter how delicious a tea egg is, it can’t make up for an empty wallet—most people still prioritize value when it comes to food! Who’d be such a sucker as to shell out fifty for a tea egg without even knowing it? Business is tough—now I have to start from scratch. No matter how slow business used to be, selling five or six tea eggs in a morning was a breeze. Bai Xiaobai felt a bit down at that moment. Wang Tuzi, on the other hand, was grinning from ear to ear. He’d also moved his tea egg rice cooker outside his shop and used a particularly eye-catching large piece of cardboard to display the price in red letters. “Delicious tea eggs—1. 5 yuan each” One shop sells tea eggs for 50 RMB each, while the other sells them for 1. 5 RMB each. With the two shops right next to each other, the contrast couldn’t be more striking. If you were a customer, which one would you choose? The result was predictable. Adhering to the principle of “small profits, high volume,” Wang Tuzi’s large pot of tea eggs was soon almost empty. In contrast, Bai Xiaobai’s pot remained full—he hadn’t even sold a single “Premium” tea egg. By noon, the contrast between Wang Tuzi’s and Bai Xiaobai’s shops had become even more striking: Wang Tuzi’s shop was bustling with customers and packed to capacity, while Bai Xiaobai’s shop was completely empty. What a desolate sight! Li Qingzhao’s repeated characters—“qī qī, cǎn cǎn, qī qī”—seem to have been crafted specifically for Bai Xiaobai. Normally at lunchtime, Bai Xiaobai’s Restaurant could sell egg fried rice, egg fried noodles, and the like, but now that lousy system won’t let him. It claims it needs to train him to become a top-tier culinary master, so he can’t just sell food that isn’t in the system. Of course, he can’t just cook other dishes on the stove either. Bai Xiaobai was too lazy to go out for lunch, so he just wolfed down a few “Supreme” tea eggs and muddled through the meal. There wasn’t a single customer in the middle of the day, and Bai Xiaobai sat alone in the shop, bored out of his mind. “System, I’m bored. Chat with me.” 【System is sleeping. Please do not disturb】