Chapter 23: Universal Stir-Fried Meat Sauce
The next day at noon, after Ivy returned to Dragon Town, the mother and daughter finally began to move.
Mira didn’t actually believe Ivy’s description of the tax rates. She couldn’t fathom why a lord would have any reason to do that.
Although those lords seemed independent and didn’t interfere with each other’s decisions, they were actually quite taciturn. The rising tax rates were a result of this “tacit understanding.”
From the lords’ perspective, this “understanding” had no downside, they could all make money together, and wealth accumulated more and more.
So, how could anyone actually lower tax rates? It made no sense at all.
Mira firmly thought this way. The reason she agreed to Ivy’s move was that she sensed Ivy’s excitement and urgency in their messages last night. After Ivy returned home today, that excitement and urgency became even more direct.
All of this made Mira feel a bit pained. On one hand, she knew Ivy felt this way because their home was too poor, and Ivy wanted to improve their lives. On the other hand, she often felt that life’s pressures made Ivy mature too quickly. Despite being only fifteen or sixteen, Ivy never expressed any desires for things like new clothes or accessories, it seemed she wasn’t interested at all.
But how could it be true that she wasn’t interested?
Therefore, seeing Ivy so excited made Mira feel it was a rare opportunity. She wanted to seize this chance to fulfill her daughter’s wish.
So, the two quickly packed their bags. Mira also completed a series of procedures before leaving the territory, listing their house on the panel for the system to sell.
Then, they stepped out the door, leaving behind Dragon Town, where they had lived for over ten years, and headed toward Qiana Town in their hearts.
Neither Mira nor Ivy felt particularly nostalgic about Dragon Town.
When they arrived at Qiana Town, it was evening again. The market square, which had been empty yesterday, was gradually starting to fill with stalls. A few snack stalls, potion stalls, and equipment stalls were scattered about, and a small building with a sign reading “Nightfall Restaurant” was especially eye-catching at the entrance.
Seeing that sign, Mira asked Ivy, “Do you want to go greet Miss Ye first?”
Ivy thought for a moment and said, “It’s almost time for business, she should be very busy. Let’s find a place to stay first, and I’ll go see her tomorrow.”
“Alright,” Mira nodded, and they walked into the residential area together.
There were still about twenty to thirty empty houses in the residential area, but the cheapest bungalows had already been snatched up, with no rentals available at all. The mother and daughter took a look around and could only settle for a two-story building without a yard.
They walked to a building and raised their hands to touch the door. The panel immediately popped up.
“This house is currently vacant, welcome to purchase!”
【House Price: 150,000 Copper Coins.】
“Ah???” Both mother and daughter were taken aback.
Ivy had been so focused on the excitement over the tax situation yesterday that she hadn’t thought to check the housing prices. Now, this price was quite surprising to her.
To put it into perspective, their little bungalow in Dragon Town had sold for 350,000 copper coins. After deducting the 40% related taxes, they still had 210,000 left.
In fact, houses in Dragon Town were worth about 250,000 to 300,000 copper coins. However, facing enormous tax bills, most people had to choose to sell at a markup to avoid taking such a big loss. Buyers, desperate for a place to stay, had no choice but to pay a bit more for houses that weren’t worth that much, making it tough on both sides.
But in Qiana Town, to buy such a two-story building, it was only 150,000 copper coins???
The mother and daughter exchanged glances, and Ivy stammered, “Maybe… maybe it’s because the town is newly opened, and housing prices aren’t high yet?”
This line of thought led them to decide without further delay and immediately purchase the house in front of them.
—
Nightfall Restaurant.
Ye Mu only set up a stall for a short while today before closing up. With Jeff already off work and no one else in the restaurant, she and the trio of Isaac, Chase, and Jenna were just idly chatting away.
During their conversation, Ye Mu gained a clearer understanding of how ruthless the lords were.
For example, regarding housing prices, most houses in the territory were built by the lords themselves. If you calculated the costs, including labor and materials, a bungalow would cost about 50,000 copper coins, a two-story building would be 70,000 copper coins, and a house with a yard would be 100,000 copper coins.
Here, the prices for these three types were 100,000, 150,000, and 200,000 copper coins, which was already a high profit margin. However, in other territories, it was said that bungalows started at 200,000 coins, and if they were sold as second-hand, an additional tax would be charged based on the sale price.
Of course, residents could choose to buy land and build their own houses, but the lords were not foolish, they raised the prices of the land as well. When calculated, it was roughly the same as buying a house directly, and selling second-hand would also incur the tax.
“Hit two birds with one stone.”
Ye Mu spouted this phrase.
“Haha, it’s not just ‘hit two birds with one stone.’” Jenna said with a wry smile. “There are many types of taxes. If you hadn’t just moved out of Dragon Town, you would have had to pay the Christmas tax next month, and I wonder how much it is this year.”
“Christmas tax?!” Ye Mu exclaimed in disbelief. “What right do they have to charge that tax?”
Jenna shrugged. “For the sake of God.”
“…Aren’t you afraid of being struck down by God?” Ye Mu retorted.
Chase sighed and shook his head. “So far, I haven’t seen God strike anyone down. But many lords have done plenty of striking, those who offend them usually meet a gruesome end.”
“That’s too much.” Ye Mu frowned. After crossing over, she quickly immersed herself in her culinary career and hadn’t interacted much with the poor. It wasn’t until she moved to Qiana Town, where a significant portion of the townspeople were brought in by Isaac from the slums, that she suddenly realized how dire the situation was for the poor here.
In the real world, there are no safety nets like “social assistance” or “health insurance” here. Not only that, but people in the slums still have to pay taxes in their previous territories, and if they can’t, they end up in prison.
A significant portion of these individuals are in poor health and have no way to earn money. Tightening their belts further lowers their physical and health recovery, creating a vicious cycle.
Ye Mu doesn’t see herself as a savior, but witnessing these bloody realities makes it hard not to want to do something. However, simply reducing taxes or handing out money might only treat the symptoms, not the root causes.
As the saying goes, “¹Teaching a person to fish is better than giving them a fish.” She suddenly understood clearly why the country implements compulsory education.
She pondered for a moment and said, “I have a somewhat immature idea. Can you help me see if it’s feasible?”
Jenna asked curiously, “What kind of idea? Is it about selling breakfast?”
“No.” Ye Mu chuckled. “I want everyone to have a way to make money. What do you think about me teaching everyone how to cook? Or selling recipes?”
“Uh…” Jenna didn’t expect her to say that. She exchanged glances with Chase, both hesitating to respond.
Isaac thought for a moment and said, “From the territory’s perspective, I have no objections. But as a friend, I have to ask, won’t this impact your business too much?”
For a chef, cooking skills and recipes are akin to her life.
But Ye Mu shook her head. “No, my idea is… well, it’s hard to explain. Wait for me a moment!”
After she finished speaking, she stood up from the table and walked into the kitchen, starting to rummage around.
The three of them couldn’t understand what she was doing. After a while, she brought out a small bowl and placed it in the center of the table, handing over three spoons. “You all try this.”
“What is this?” Jenna asked, holding the spoon but not daring to take a bite.
It wasn’t that she didn’t trust the culinary genius, but the bowl contained a clump of dark, sauce-like substance with a faint layer of orange-red floating on top, which didn’t look very appetizing.
Chase was more straightforward and took a bite, immediately furrowing his brows. “It’s so salty… and a bit spicy!!!”
“Mm.” Ye Mu nodded.
Salty and spicy were exactly what she wanted.
This was a mixture she created using 【Primary Magic Potion】, 【Intermediate Magic Potion】, 【Advanced Magic Potion】, 【Primary Life Potion】, 【Intermediate Stamina Potion】, and 【Advanced Cold Resistance Potion】.
That meant salt, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, white sugar, scallions, ginger, cooking wine, and chili oil.
Ye Mu asked Chase, “What do you think would happen if this were brushed on roasted meat?”
“Hmm…” Chase couldn’t cook, but imagining the flavor wasn’t hard. His frown relaxed, and he nodded repeatedly. “That should taste good!”
Ye Mu sat back with a smile. “My idea is to let everyone know that it’s delicious for cooking meat, teach a few simple methods for using it, and then sell the sauce directly.”
By selling the well-proportioned seasonings at cost price, she could help others while also protecting herself.
Ye Mu thought this was a “moderate” approach!
“This…” Chase’s eyes lit up with surprise. “I think this will work!”
Jenna finally tasted a bit of the seasoning, smacked her lips, and agreed with this approach but thoughtfully reminded her, “But you can’t accept just any students.”
Ye Mu asked, “Why’s that?”
Jenna propped her chin on her hand. “If I remember correctly, you need at least a level 30 cooking skill to handle fresh meat, maybe level 25? Otherwise, the meat will definitely be overcooked, which will ruin your reputation.”
Ye Mu: “…”
Thanks for the reminder!
Otherwise, with her maxed-out cooking skills from the start, she completely forgot about the level issue!
—
The next day, Ye Mu activated the recruitment mode at nine in the morning, planning to hire five people first. Surprisingly, the applicants were still mostly children, and to Ye Mu’s astonishment, Ivy showed up!
Upon asking, she learned that Ivy and her mother had moved here, and Ivy had come over to greet Ye Mu. She didn’t expect to coincide with Ye Mu’s hiring and decided to apply.
That was just perfect!
Ye Mu felt relieved.
She had always been satisfied with Ivy as the little foreman and offered her directly, “The base salary is 3,500 copper coins, six days of work with one day off. Meals are provided, but no accommodation. There will be bonuses for good performance.”
“Is that much?!” Ivy was shocked by the amount.
Ye Mu smiled and patted her shoulder for encouragement. “If you work well, your salary can increase. I heard from Jeff that he wants to go to a magic academy in the future… Do you have similar thoughts? If so, work hard to earn money!”
Ivy knew about Jeff’s desire to attend the Nascar Magic Academy, one of the three major magic academies currently. Students there were either nobles or had exceptional magical talent.
Ivy didn’t have a noticeable talent in this area and had never considered such a possibility.
But she still smiled and said, “I will! I’ll definitely earn money!”
After all, simply making money can also be quite joyful!
The recruitment ended, and Ye Mu now had six employees. This number felt a bit excessive for her, as she was currently only setting up a stall each day, but it was mainly for future preparations.
If she planned to operate all day and provide breakfast that was distinctly different from regular meals, six people would likely not be enough, she would need a second round of hiring.
Taking advantage of the daytime, Ye Mu conducted some basic employee training, mainly covering tasks like chopping vegetables, taking orders, and cleaning tables and chairs. These operations in the game world were much simpler than in the real world, and she only needed to explain things briefly, Ivy and Jeff would teach them the specifics during work.
As evening approached, Ye Mu started her third round of selling. The widely recognized dishes from the new territory—【Salted Fried Pork Belly】, 【Spicy Pork Belly】, and 【Secret Vegetable Soup】—were still on the menu today.
In addition, she also made a small innovation, creating a new dish that belonged to the same series as the two fried pork belly dishes.
The thinly sliced pork belly was first marinated with scallions, ginger, and cooking wine, then during the frying process, she added a generous amount of minced garlic along with salt.
Garlic not only helped eliminate the fishy smell and enhance flavor but also brought a unique aroma during cooking.
As Ye Mu was halfway through, several new employees couldn’t help but gather around to watch.
When the new version of the fried pork belly was ready, Ye Mu generously let them all taste it while she checked the panel values.
【Garlic Pork Belly】
—Will continuously restore health points, magic points, and stamina points while eating.
—Can restore up to 1,000 health points, 500 magic points, and 500 stamina points (the total recovery amount is affected by the quantity consumed).
—Eating it will increase magic resistance by 10%, lasting for 1 hour.
Hmm? Increased magic resistance? Not bad, not bad!
Ye Mu nodded, satisfied with this attribute. The employees tasting the dish cheered, “Wow, this smells amazing! It’s so fragrant!”
“Is this garlic? How can it taste so good?”
“No wonder everyone says the chef’s pork belly is different from others. I thought it was too expensive and didn’t buy it the other day, but I didn’t expect it to be this delicious!”
Ye Mu smiled and thought: Is this really it? It’s not that impressive!
Compared to the restaurant before, the food she had been selling at the stall these past few days was incredibly simple. Once more townsfolk arrived, she would resume regular operations.
At that time, she’d give the townspeople a little culinary shock!
—
Before she knew it, it was 5:00 PM. Two employees helped Ye Mu move the tables outside while the others pitched in to organize the goods, allowing them to clock out. Only Ivy stayed behind to help her sell.
The introduction of the new product made tonight’s business even hotter, many garlic lovers came over as soon as they caught a whiff of the aroma. Some mages who liked to hunt monsters with higher levels immediately noticed that the new product could enhance magic resistance, and they hurried to line up to buy it.
Meanwhile, Jeff, following Ye Mu’s instructions, first handed out flyers to the people waiting in line at the stall. Then he walked a bit further away, distributing flyers to all the vendors within the market area.
He didn’t miss a single food stall.
In the past three days, since Ye Mu had set up her stall daily and was selling simple, inexpensive food, other vendors found themselves with little business. This led to some hostility towards the Nightfall Restaurant, when its employees came to distribute flyers, the other vendors often ignored them, and some even couldn’t help but hurl insults.
Ye Mu had anticipated this kind of malice from her experiences in the Dragon Town, so she had advised Jeff beforehand not to take it personally.
Jeff was very obedient, regardless of being ignored or insulted, he maintained a smile and responsibly finished handing out the flyers before heading home.
—
At nine o’clock in the evening, Holly finished selling her prepared goods and, dragging her exhausted body, headed back to the residential area and entered her home.
She was 26 years old and had been married to her husband Ethan for two years, with no children yet.
Neither of them had high magical talent, reaching their thirties in level was already quite challenging for them.
Therefore, their livelihood mainly relied on setting up stalls. During the day, Ethan would go out to gather and harvest some wheat and vegetables, most of which Holly would turn into pancakes and stir-fried vegetables to sell. Any leftovers would be sold as raw ingredients.
In the past couple of days, since Ye Mu wasn’t selling pancakes, Holly’s pancakes had sold relatively well. However, the stir-fried vegetables fared poorly, with Ye Mu offering 【Secret Vegetable Soup】, Holly’s stir-fried vegetables went nearly unnoticed.
Nonetheless, both Holly and Ethan had a very calm mindset. Even though not selling their stir-fried vegetables had nearly halved their income, they didn’t harbor much resentment, as they could still eat the stir-fried vegetables themselves if they didn’t sell.
Compared to the past, when they would wake up each day worrying about taxes, they felt much more relaxed over these three days, so they had nothing to complain about.
After entering the house and putting down her bag, Holly walked into the bedroom and lay down on the bed.
Today, Ethan returned home a bit earlier and had prepared dinner for her in advance. He brought the meal into the living room, placed it on the table, and then walked into the bedroom, sitting by the bed with a gentle voice, “Dear, you’ve worked hard. Let’s eat something before sleeping.”
After a moment to gather her strength, Holly opened her eyes and sat up. Seeing this, Ethan assumed she was ready to eat and started to get up to head outside, but she reached out and pulled him back.
“I need to tell you something,” Holly said.
Ethan sat back down, sensing her serious expression, and felt a bit nervous. “What is it?”
Holly touched the pocket of her clothes, took out a flyer, and handed it to him while saying, “This was sent by the Nightfall Restaurant today. I’m a little tempted to check it out.”
Ethan took the flyer and read it carefully.
The contents were straightforward, stating that the Nightfall Restaurant would begin offering free cooking classes. The first session was a trial, starting tomorrow morning at ten o’clock, and only five students would be recruited. The requirement was a cooking level of 30 or above, with no age limit and open to both genders.
After reading it, Ethan didn’t quite understand his wife’s concerns and pondered, “Since it’s free, why don’t you just go if you want?”
But Holly appeared hesitant, frowning as she said, “The Nightfall Restaurant has always been very successful, we’ve heard the legends of the culinary god in Falling Sunset Town, and they’re true. But why would she start teaching classes? Wouldn’t it be better for her to keep making money quietly? And it’s free—don’t you think there might be some kind of issue with that?”
Ethan looked confused. “What kind of issue do you think there could be?”
“I can’t think of anything, which is why I’m asking you,” Holly replied.
After that, the couple fell silent, exchanging glances.
Ethan hadn’t thought much about it, but after hearing his wife’s words, he found some merit in her concerns, it was indeed unlikely that anything would come without a catch. So both of them began to seriously ponder what risks might be involved.
However, after thinking it over, they really couldn’t come up with anything!
…The only thing that might happen seemed to be that the chef might try to sell products after the class ended.
But if that were the case, they could simply refuse to buy!
After all, the chef was just an excellent cook with a great reputation, not a person in power, and certainly not the lord of the area, she couldn’t force them to buy anything!
With this analysis, the couple finally came to a decision, letting Holly feel at ease about attending the class the next day.
—
In another nearby small building, Ye Mu had worked all night and finally prepared a sauce she was satisfied with.
The version she had shown to Isaac and the others earlier was just something she had whipped up on the spot. Now, she had carefully adjusted the proportions of various ingredients and replaced the chili oil that tended to float to the top with the chili essence that she had previously found unsatisfactory.
Chili essence was a 【Intermediate Cold-Resistance Potion】 here, it wasn’t oily and perfectly solved the problem of the chili oil floating on top. Moreover, it was much cheaper than the chili oil, which was classified as a 【Advanced Cold-Resistance Potion】, effectively helping everyone lower their operating costs!
Once the sauce was ready, she tasted it and felt pleased. However, as a rigorous chef, she believed that customer feedback was far more important than her own satisfaction.
So, she used this sauce to stir-fry a plate of sliced meat and sent a message to call over Isaac and his team, along with the Xibel team that had just arrived in the town today, for a tasting.
The result of the tasting was that they devoured the food in her living room with such enthusiasm that they couldn’t stop.
“Oh, there’s still late-night snacks! Thank goodness we rushed over today, otherwise, we would have missed out on a fortune!” said Xibel.
Leah stuffed two slices of meat into her mouth before she could stop to savor the flavor. As the taste spread, she furrowed her brow and exclaimed, “Hmm… this spiciness!!!”
Ye Mu quickly leaned in, eagerly asking, “What? Is it too spicy?”
But Leah took a sharp breath and said, “No! Just right! Refreshing! It’s so addictive… Can I have a bowl of rice?”
“Sorry…” Ye Mu chuckled and apologized, “I didn’t think of that, I didn’t prepare any rice in advance.”
Leah didn’t mind and turned back to shove two more slices of meat into her mouth, completely lost in the deliciousness.
In less than ten minutes, the entire plate of meat was wiped clean. After politely bidding farewell, they left Ye Mu’s home, looking not only happy but also pleasantly warm.
…The chef was impressive! Even a casual tasting late-night snack had a warming effect!
—
The next morning, Holly left her house at nine-thirty. Her neighbor, a middle-aged man named Frank, also set up a stall at the market, mainly selling sausages, so they were somewhat familiar with each other.
Seeing her come out, Frank greeted her enthusiastically, “Good morning, Holly! Going to set up your stall so early today?”
Holly smiled and said, “The chef is offering free cooking classes, I’m going to check it out!”
“Ah?” Frank looked surprised, but not at the news of the chef offering free classes, instead, he said, “Do you really believe she can teach you anything good? Don’t be too naive!”
—
¹”Teaching a person to fish is better than giving them a fish” means that it’s more beneficial to teach someone how to do something for themselves rather than just providing for them temporarily. It emphasizes the value of self-sufficiency and long-term empowerment over short-term solutions.