Palace Full of Delicacies Chapter 13   40 Oct 14, 2019

It's the long-awaited opening day! Su Yu's restaurant is now open for business! Come one, come all~! Come on down to the Hall of Delicacies!

Hope you'll enjoy~

C13. Open For Business

The man wore a white robe, fast asleep as he lay sideways on top of the blankets. It seemed like an injustice for someone with such a tall figure to curl up on this small wooden bed. Seemingly roused, his thick, straight brows pinched together slightly. He opened his eyes a bit, looked at Su Yu, then rolled over and continued to sleep.

Su Yu couldn't understand the situation at all. He had only gone off to make breakfast and it hadn't even been an hour, how could there suddenly be another person on his bed.

"Um…Sir, if I may ask…"

The man who had been limp in bed opened his eyes with a start. He slowly turned back, looked at Su Yu with his puzzled expression, then looked at himself. He froze up immediately.

The air seemed to go still for a moment. The one lying in the bed sat up, staring straight at Su Yu. He had very pretty eyes, clear and bright with upturned outer corners, but they were currently narrowed slightly, giving them a somewhat dangerous feel.

Faced with those eyes, Su Yu had the impression of being stared at by a wild animal. Even the hairs on his back were standing on end.

"Sir, why…have you come to be in my room?" He swallowed his spit nervously. As the owner of this room, he should be questioning this trespasser with a firm attitude, but at this moment, he felt like he was the one being wronged.

"My…" The man stood up, lifting his arm. A bit of golden fur showed through the end of his sleeve.

"Saucey!" Shocked, Su Yu reached out to tug at his sleeve.

"No one is to know of this." The man deftly avoided Su Yu's touch, instead grasping Su Yu's cheek with a slim, pale hand. He spoke in a voice melodious and clear as a cool mountain spring, but the words he uttered were chilling: "Otherwise, the entire Su family may not be spared."

Su Yu was utterly bewildered. He didn't understand how keeping a cat as his pet could involve even the lives of his family. Before he could react, the man shoved him aside roughly, then leapt lightly to the top of the wall without a sound, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

East Avenue was bustling with activity today. At the opening ceremony of a restaurant, there would of course be lion dances and acrobatic performances.

Since half a month ago, people had been curious about the spiral staircase at the far corner. Normally, people wanted buildings to be built symmetrically, with the boards of even sizes and the carvings matching on the top and bottom. It was quite rare to see such wooden staircases that spiralled upwards and had boards larger on one end.

Now the strange staircase's paint had dried, and it was openly displayed for the world to see. The railings were vermillion in colour, simple and without any decorative carvings. The wide stairs looked like a dragon soaring upwards in a spiral, and at the top there was a small gazebo with a round roof. It looked unique and interesting.

To treat the customers on opening day, Su Yu had the two assistant chefs prepare several large basketfuls of fried squid rings. He carved a chop stamp from a carrot, and every customer who received a stamp on the back of their hand could get a fried squid ring. Free items were popular in any era, and once the squid was brought out, the area in front of the lion dance stage was immediately packed full of people.

The guest scholar from Arch Prince Zhao's manor was surnamed Yuan, and everyone in the manor called him Mister Yuan. Just as Su Yu squeezed into the crowd, he was pulled over by Mister Yuan, who was busying about.

"Young Master Su, here you are."

"Where's His Highness?" Su Yu looked about, frantically searching for Arch Prince Zhao. Only An Hongyi could answer his questions about Saucey. He knew this kitten seemed to be very important to the imperial family, as Arch Prince Zhao had made it clear he was not to give away any information about the kitten.

"I do not know." Mister Yuan pushed Su Yu upstairs, signalling for the musicians below to change the tones of the cymbals and drums. "Go and unveil the signboard."

Looking downward from where he stood on the stairs, Su Yu quickly noticed An Hongyi in the crowd. At this moment, His Highness Arch Prince Zhao was squeezing in with the people, happily redeeming free squid rings with everyone else.

He sighed, unable to do anything about it. Rushing it wouldn't get him anywhere. He could only accept the pole Mister Yuan handed him, whisking the red cloth off the signboard in time with the cymbals and drums. At once, firecrackers were set off, and everyone looked up to see the three large gilded words 'Hall of Delicacies' sparkling in the sunlight.

It was the first time he was owning a restaurant. Su Yu was excited, even after having lived two lives, but since he was thinking about other things now, these feelings had been dampened quite a bit, making him look steady and experienced. Looking at him, Mister Yuan nodded to himself, gesturing towards the musicians, and motioned for Su Yu to speak.

"Today our humble store has opened for business. Drinks aside, all dishes will be sold at half the price," Su Yu said loudly, straightening his back.

The cymbals and drums stopped playing the moment he spoke. For a moment, the crowd was silent.

"Excellent!" Arch Prince Zhao shouted from within the crowd. The people snapped out of their daze, making their agreement heard as well. The cymbals and drums were played once more. Some foodies were already going up the spiral staircase; the crowd surged up after them.

It was a small place with two rooms, occupied by ten square tables. Three of the walls had large windows, and the counter was against the one wall without windows. Su Yu rented the small yard behind to serve as the kitchen area, and the original stairway was turned into a passageway for transporting the cooked food.

Having failed to get a seat, Arch Prince Zhao could only circle around to the kitchen area and have Mister Yuan set up another table for him in the yard.

"This Young Master Su must be someone with great things in mind. Indeed, Your Highness has a good eye for talent," Mister Yuan said quietly as he sat opposite An Hongyi.

Mister Yuan's name was Yuan Ce, and he was the most competent adviser under Arch Prince Zhao. When Arch Prince Zhao had tasked him with handling an important task, Mister Yuan worked earnestly with the mindset of one who served the imperial family, and he hadn't discovered any other deeper motives aside from opening a restaurant.

However, these few days, Su Yu had proposed various astounding ideas about the restaurant's management. Even the greatly knowledgeable Yuan Ce was deeply in awe. After seeing the seafood restaurant achieve such good sales today, he finally understood the 'important matter' His Highness had spoken of. It was about this talented man, Su Yu!

"Yes…" An Hongyi nodded as he ate. That man was the kind of good chef who only appeared every hundred years.

"Your Highness, I have something to discuss with you." Su Yu glanced at Mister Yuan. Arch Prince Zhao had previously told him not to talk about the cat in front of others.

"I shall take a look upstairs." Mister Yuan took the hint and rose from his seat, heading off to attend to the customers.

After Mister Yuan left, An Hongyi looked about, frowned, and asked, "Where's the cat?" The man and his cat had been practically stuck together every day, so why wasn't the cat here today?

"This morning, someone appeared in my room and took Saucey away," Su Yu said worriedly.

"What did you say?" An Hongyi got up immediately.

Su Yu gave a quick explanation of what had happened in the morning.

After listening to Su Yu's descriptions, An Hongyi slowly sat back down. He coughed awkwardly, saying, "Ah, no worries. Since it is him, there is nothing to it."

"By that, Your Highness means…" Su Yu blinked.

"Uh, he probably returned to where he used to be," An Hongyi said vaguely. "This cat is of great importance to the imperial family. Rest assured, you will meet him again in future."

Arch Prince Zhao didn't seem very willing to talk about the mysterious man from earlier. Instead, he urged Su Yu to go cook.

Was Saucey some mystical beast who guarded the empire? Su Yu's imagination ran wild as he put the prepped ingredients into the pot. That kitten was unusually intelligent, what if it really had some magical power.

"Shifu, we should serve all our best dishes on opening day, why are we only preparing two dishes?" The assistant chefs couldn't understand Su Yu's decision to prepare only two dishes per day.

Su Yu looked at the assistant chef who was only sixteen and gave a sigh. Child, it's not that your shifu doesn't want to earn money, it's because I can't handle it all on my own.

He hadn't any idea where Mister Yuan had recruited them from, but the two assistant chefs were very clever, and their skills were pretty good. But the effects of short-term training weren't much, and they still needed some time until they became able to prepare the dishes in the Su Family Recipe Book. Currently, the main dishes still had to be prepared by Su Yu himself, and during the ancient times where refrigerators didn't exist, seafood storage was also a big problem.

To save resources and energy, Su Yu decided that they would only provide two higher-class dishes every day. Other dishes such as grilled foods, seafood noodles, and seafood congee would be provided in unlimited amounts. Dishes such as poached prawns, where the ingredients just had to be cooked and served with soy sauce for dipping, were also available daily.

After being busy the whole day, Su Yu went home. Staring blankly at his bed, he felt a bit empty inside. Out of habit, he searched his blanket for the little furball. It would usually be sleeping with splayed limbs in the centre of the bed; only when Su Yu came over would it move aside a little, like it was giving alms, and it looked like some lord granting a poor man a space to sit.

In this alternate universe full of unknowns, Saucey had been his mental support. And he had been snatched away so suddenly, without even any farewells…

Su Yu lay on his belly in bed, moving around a bit. He remembered the strange man in the morning. Arch Prince Zhao had implied that the man would take the cat back to the palace; was that man a bodyguard for the imperial family? Then why would a bodyguard be sleeping on the job?

"Bodyguards must have it tough on night shifts, huh…"

🙂 Oh, Su Yu, he's still in the dark about everything. But we'll just let him find out on his own, okay~

New names:

Yuan Ce = 袁策. (A common meaning of 策 is 'plan', both as a noun and a verb. Maybe parents will name a child this when they want the child to be smart, resourceful?) AKA Mister Yuan, that adviser from Arch Prince Zhao's place.

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