Reborn in Japan as a Chef God
Chapter 269 - 268: Subsidiary Established

Chapter 269: Chapter 268: Subsidiary Established

Dojima Yin and Tiqie Xianzuowen didn’t stay for a meal. They left after sitting for a while.

No sooner had they left than Feng Zhizi Yaeko arrived.

Her car was parked in front of the small store.

Xia Yu, hearing the sound, went out.

"Finished on schedule in one week, according to the agreement!" Feng Zhizi removed her sunglasses.

"I will transfer the remaining amount to you tonight," Xia Yu said.

"Do you need our ’City Life Planning Company’ to handle the decorations?"

Feng Zhizi looked directly at him with her fox-like, mesmerizing eyes.

"The decorations are being taken care of by a professional company."

Xia Yu shrugged.

"Professional company?" Feng Zhizi scoffed, "Our company also has a dedicated decoration department."

"Forget it."

She waved her hand, "When do you plan to open your branch?"

"In two days," Xia Yu gave a specific time directly.

"Then, I will come by in two days."

Feng Zhizi didn’t stay long; she had originally wanted to discuss the refurbishment with Xia Yu, but he had already hired another company for the job.

Xia Yu watched as Feng Zhizi left.

Before she left, she left the keys for the branch. Xia Yu opened the branch that had been transformed from the public bathhouse.

Pushing open the front door, there was a spacious hall.

At the entrance foyer, there was a place to take off shoes, directly facing a classic folding screen. To the right and along the wall was the original bathhouse’s shoe cabinet, where guests would take off their shoes. The attendants would store them in the cabinet and guests would retrieve them when leaving.

Since it was the VIP area, Xia Yu planned to continue the Japanese tradition of taking shoes off for dining. There were no chairs or stools in the upper floor’s private rooms, only tables, cushions, and tatami mats.

At the staircase entrance, there was the front desk for settling bills.

However, since the bathhouse had been abandoned for some time, the furniture all looked rather old and worn, and the plants had withered. Xia Yu asked Feng Zhizi’s construction team to dispose of these as rubbish, so the hall looked too empty and lacked decorative items.

Just as Xia Yu was frowning, the system awoke and suddenly popped up a prompt:

"Detected items that can be added."

"Please name the new item."

"Xia’s branch!"

Finally, the system was up and running. Xia Yu heaved a sigh of relief and said with a hint of excitement.

"Naming successful!"

Following a beep, a three-dimensional projection diagram of the branch was displayed in Xia Yu’s field of vision. Since the branch was in its original form, without any upgraded items, the architecture’s framework was composed entirely of green lines.

"System, list the items that can be upgraded!" Xia Yu said.

"Hall/Courtyard/Private Rooms."

"Kitchen/Food Storage."

A total of 5 upgrade items, huh?

Xia Yu silently compared, Xia’s Main Store, including the living quarters, so it has an extra item. Nobody lives in the branch.

Moreover, the VIP area of the branch only has private rooms and no storefront.

"Let’s upgrade the hall first!"

Looking over the empty and quiet lower hall, Xia Yu told the system.

Then, three different upgrade plans popped up.

The first one, Japanese style.

The second one, Western style.

The third one, Chinese style.

The Japanese style was undoubtedly the closest to the building’s original style. After Xia Yu chose it, he immediately lost 1,000 Fame Points.

At the same time, in Xia Yu’s vision, the hall materialized with a grid of colors. Xia Yu felt like he was in a world of data. These grids stayed for about half a minute, after which the hall was transformed.

"This... an instant upgrade? Doesn’t it need time to upgrade?" Xia Yu stood stunned, returning to the entrance foyer.

First was the wooden floor, the old gone, redone with restrained color tones.

"Shoe cabinet..." Xia Yu glanced at it and paused.

The wooden furniture had been adorned with reliefs; at one end was a dragon soaring through the clouds and at the other, a spreading Phoenix.

The carvings were shallow and difficult to discern without close attention.

What were originally mid to low-end furnishings suddenly felt high-end yet subtle in character.

Xia Yu had already taken off his shoes, now only wearing white socks, and walked around examining the lobby that had undergone upgrades, eventually arriving at the cabinet by the stairwell.

The cabinet and the lattice shelf standing against the back wall were both charmingly antique, with various ancient ornaments placed neatly on the shelves.

Up the stairs he went.

Oh?

On the landing wall, there appeared two elegant traditional Chinese paintings, one of green bamboos and the other depicting a fisherman angling in the chilly river, each accompanied by a line of poetry:

"Emerald bamboo along the secluded path, blue vines brush the traveler’s clothes."

"Solitary boat fisherman in a straw hat, alone fishing in the snowy river."

Up to the second floor.

Standing at the top of the stairs, a small display stand next to him held two Japanese swords, one placed higher than the other.

"Clang—" Xia Yu picked up one, drew the blade from its scabbard, and was immediately confronted by a chill sharpness that made his pupils contract slightly, "So sharp!"

With that, the traces of the lobby upgrades ended.

The second floor consisted of private rooms which had not been upgraded, their appearance and ambiance clashing starkly with the newly upgraded lobby.

"Upgrade the private rooms!" Xia Yu said to the system.

"You have lost 1,000 Fame Points..."

The colorful grid reappeared, and once it faded, the layout of the second floor remained unchanged.

Xia Yu stood in front of a sliding paper door, which was white and semi-transparent, faintly revealing two kabuki portraits.

Behind the door was a small room primarily in off-white, with carved green bamboo on the walls and tatami mats covering the floor, exuding a pleasant straw fragrance.

An unvarnished wood tea table was set in the center of the room, surrounded by cushions, while two antique floor lanterns stood in the corners. Above hung a lantern casting a soft amber light, and a flowerpot on the cabinet held several delicate daisies.

Xia Yu then checked the other private rooms.

From the second to the third floor, each with five rooms, he returned to the first one he had started with, rested his chin on his hand, and murmured with shock in his eyes, "Every private room has a different decorative style."

Some featured bonsai and calligraphy, while others displayed a full set of samurai armor.

Although he didn’t grasp the nuances, Xia Yu, after making the rounds, couldn’t help but silently commend the system’s efficiency. If he had tasked Feng Zhizi’s City Life Planning Company with the job, whether they could achieve such effects was one thing, but the time cost would be too high. He couldn’t afford to wait.

"Oh right, the courtyard!" Xia Yu smacked his forehead, bringing some clarity back to his groggy mind.

The first floor also had two rooms, which were special viewing rooms generally left unused, set aside for entertaining unexpected distinguished guests, such as Dojima Yin or Tiqie Xianzuowen.

The importance of courtyard scenery goes without saying.

As he walked, Xia Yu spent another 1,000 Fame Points to continue the third part of the upgrade plan.

By the time he arrived at the courtyard, the colorful grid conveniently vanished from his field of vision.

He opened the door, and wow, a tranquil garden scene unfolded before his eyes. Xia Yu observed the small pond that curved around in front of him and the lush, secluded flora, feeling slightly stunned.

"It feels like an old temple, have I gone too far?" he muttered, deeply skeptical.

Such an amazing branch had been renovated in just two days.

If that woman Feng Zhizi came across this, wouldn’t she be suspicious?

Never mind!

The thought only spun in his head for a moment. Xia Yu turned around to upgrade the kitchen and the ingredient storage, spending the 5,000 Fame Points he had won from the exchange meeting, leaving nothing behind.

"System: You have a new mission."

"[VIP Branch Grand Opening]."

"Tip: Host at least 10 groups of VIP customers on the first day of opening, with a daily revenue reaching 20 million yen."

"Reward: [Pixiu Wood Carving] (Purple) *1, [Fast Memory Pill] (Purple) *1."

Fast Memory Pill?

Xia Yu paused at the staircase, pulling up the item information.

"[Fast Memory Pill]: After use, greatly enhances the efficiency of basic skill training. Recommended for the host to practice the four basics of noodle-making: ’mixing,’ ’kneading,’ ’rolling out,’ and ’shaping.’

What great stuff!

Basic skills require practice, and Xia Yu couldn’t afford to allocate his precious Talent Points to them. Therefore, his progress in the field of noodle-making was slow. With this pill, he could at least instantly max out one, if not two, of the basic skills, right?