After selling all the roast pork buns, Gan Lan logged off the live stream. She had a robot pack up a batch and send it down the express delivery chute for her friends and teachers. Then, she handed two additional packaged portions to her two apprentices for tomorrow’s breakfast.
"No need, I’m already full," Cheng Haozhen said, declining the temperature-controlled box Gan Lan offered. He felt quite embarrassed to keep eating and taking food from her. After all, they were the ones who were supposed to be paying tuition. Over the past two days of helping out here, his practical skills had improved far more than usual.
"I don’t need it either. I’m already more than satisfied that you didn’t charge me tuition," Su Wanying said sincerely. "When the teacher checked my homework yesterday, he said I’d made rapid progress. It’s all thanks to you, Master Gan Lan. Thank you. In just two days, I’ve learned so much from you."
"That’s because you’re both smart and dextrous. I just offered a few pointers," Gan Lan replied, feeling a bit sheepish. In truth, she hadn’t taught them much; she had simply applied the mindset of her previous life to their current setting.
Usually, when it came to apprenticeships, the master merely opened the door, while the actual cultivation depended on the individual. Since they already had a solid foundation, rapid progress was perfectly normal with just a little guidance. She didn’t dare take the credit.
"Dean, do we need to give Gan Lan extra tutoring these next few days before departure?" Ye Lanyu asked as she sat by the table, picking up a shrimp dumpling with her chopsticks. She took a bite and chewed thoughtfully; it was tender and savory.
In her opinion, Gan Lan’s cooking was already on par with the great Culinary Masters leading Sunny Day Restaurant. There was absolutely no need for extra tutoring; she was just asking casually. Plus, the dishes Gan Lan made were very affordably priced.
"No need, she’s already outstanding. If she wins first place in this upcoming culinary competition, she can apply for early graduation. The school doesn’t have much left to teach her anyway," the Dean said happily, taking a sip of soy milk. "But if she does plan to graduate early, ask if she’d be willing to stay on at the school as an instructor."
"This soy milk is quite good. It tastes similar to the green fruit pulp from Sunny Day Restaurant. But green fruit pulp is expensive, whereas soybeans are very cheap. This can definitely be popularized. We’ve already tested it, and its nutritional value is high," the old man added slowly, rubbing the glass of soy milk in his hands.
"The ingredients for the recipes Gan Lan patented are all very cheap. Qingtian’s cuisine follows a high-end route, using things like Exotic Beast Meat and premium ingredients. All of those are monopolized, so commoners basically never get to eat any dishes with excellent color, aroma, and taste," Liang Cong said. He took a bite of a roast pork bun and observed the filling inside, nodding in approval. It was truly a brilliant idea.
The rich barbecue sauce mixed with ordinary pork actually tasted fantastic. High-grade Exotic Beast Meat might have a better texture, but it was far too expensive.
Even he couldn’t afford to patronize Sunny Day Restaurant very often. A single meal there cost at least a million Credit Points. The Credit Points weren’t even the main issue; he was over two hundred and twenty years old this year, and he had only managed to secure a reservation there about thirty times in his life. The wait was simply too long.
For an uninfluential, ordinary teacher like him, managing to eat there over thirty times was something he could brag about for a lifetime.
Wealthy and powerful families had special access channels that took a month at most to clear. And if they belonged to one of the five major noble families, they didn’t have to wait in line at all; they could just walk right in.
The food was genuinely delicious, but it was a shame that they only served the noble families. They had even monopolized the recipes.
Almost all the outstanding Culinary Masters were concentrated in Sunny Day Restaurant.
It wasn’t that Mingzong hadn’t cultivated great Culinary Masters of its own, and some of them had firmly chosen to stay at the school. However, they would inevitably face inexplicable suppression, ultimately forcing those Culinary Masters to compromise and bow to Qingtian.
The school was helpless to stop it, but there was simply no other way. Sunny Day Restaurant had held a complete monopoly for hundreds of years, and Mingzong was no longer capable of contending with them.
But now, after centuries, Mingzong had finally produced a culinary genius—a genius who could stand against certain individuals within Sunny Day Restaurant!
Sunny Day Restaurant was divided into two factions. One faction advocated for making recipes public and lowering standards so that ordinary citizens could also enjoy fine dining. The other advocated for a strict monopoly, seeking to dominate the entire industry. The two sides fought bitterly, and the Monopoly Faction ultimately won a resounding victory.
The Open Faction suffered heavy casualties during that clash, severely damaging their core strength.
Liang Cong found this student a bit strange. Why did someone who was previously a complete failure in practical classes suddenly have an epiphany? And not only that, how was she able to produce so many new recipes in a single day? Since her sudden breakthrough, she had created nearly a hundred recipes. It was incredibly curious. Furthermore, why was she so fixated on the word "Huaxia"?
Though there were many things they couldn’t figure out, what she was doing was beneficial to the school, to Culinary Masters, to the common people, and to the development of gastronomy across the entire Federation. Therefore, the school had no intention of getting to the bottom of her secrets and would even cover for her.
This time, the school had already found a powerful backer. They had even contacted over a dozen other schools to ally with the Open Faction. They were determined to put everything on the line to protect Gan Lan, aiming to break the Monopoly Faction’s exclusive grip within Sunny Day Restaurant and allow a diverse array of culinary delicacies to bloom across the Federation.
"Dean, did the Open Faction and those dozen schools agree to the conditions?" Ye Lanyu asked, setting her chopsticks down to look at the old man.
"The Open Faction agreed, and the other schools consented as well. I gave those schools some of Gan Lan’s unpublished recipes—one for each school—and let them taste the finished products. How could they not be tempted?" the Dean replied softly.
"Did the Marshal agree too?" Liang Cong asked with a tone of reverence.
The old man nodded but was unwilling to elaborate.
The reason they hadn’t told Gan Lan about any of this was that they didn’t want to cause her unnecessary worry and stress. It was enough that the school was standing on the front lines to handle these matters. Even though Gan Lan had previously told the school to handle her recipes as they saw fit, he still felt the need to inform her that they were using them to trade for resources with other schools and to secure the backing of a powerful patron.
He opened his Light Brain and contacted Gan Lan. He first praised her cooking, then reassured her by explaining that he was using her recipes to exchange for resources and allying with over a dozen schools to ensure her protection. Finally, he gave her a brief rundown of Sunny Day Restaurant’s background.
Gan Lan had just finished washing up and was about to go to bed when she received the Dean’s call. Hearing all of this made her feel that this world was entirely too complicated and unsuitable for her. She just wanted to cook good food and promote Huaxia cuisine. How had being a chef turned into a high-risk profession here?
She had only ever heard of Sunny Day Restaurant but had never looked deeply into it. She hadn’t realized how powerful this establishment truly was. Their monopoly was absolute. It wasn’t that this world lacked good food; it was just heavily monopolized to the point where commoners might never taste it in their lifetimes.
The Dean also mentioned during the call why, despite trending on searches multiple times, her follower count had only reached around a billion. It was because the Monopoly Faction was secretly suppressing her visibility. Right now, she hadn’t yet fully drawn the Monopoly Faction’s attention, so the suppression was relatively mild. However, when she participated in the upcoming competition, the entire Federation Star System would be watching. If she achieved a high ranking and officially entered the Monopoly Faction’s crosshairs, it would no longer be just a mild suppression.
If they couldn’t win her over, they would definitely destroy her. They would never allow her to shake Sunny Day Restaurant’s undisputed status across the entire Federation Star System!
After all, ordinary citizens made up the vast majority of the Federation Star System’s population. If she truly became popular and gained the support of the common people, the Monopoly Faction’s position at Sunny Day Restaurant would undoubtedly be threatened.
Gan Lan hung up the call and lay in bed, tossing and turning, unable to sleep. No wonder. No wonder she had trended so many times, yet her follower count hadn’t broken into the tens of billions as it logically should have...
Gan Lan scratched her head. She just wanted to be an ordinary cook!