Meal

'Mm...'

'Not bad...'

After looking at his new hairstyle in the reflection of the glass beside the street,

Xi Shenlian was fairly satisfied with the result.

His handsomeness had skyrocketed!!

He was so handsome that he wanted to punch himself!!

'Very nice. Beauty comes naturally to me, as expected~'

With that thought,

he smiled at a female student passing by who pretended to play with her phone while secretly observing him.

At that moment.

Besides the other party's excited, hushed exclamation, Xi Shenlian also heard her heartbeat clearly accelerate after adjusting his auditory senses.

He immediately understood.

His current appearance really was highly effective in battle!

Next.

He arrived at another location in the nearby area.

It was a restaurant.

It was located in a shopping mall near the subway.

Judging by the reviews online,

it was the type with excellent flavor and relatively high prices.

The Auxiliary AI had even given it a comprehensive premium rating of seventy percent.

This meant that, compared with dishes of the same quality in ordinary areas, the dishes here were approximately seventy percent more expensive, benefiting from the premium attached to a prosperous district.

The reason the Auxiliary AI recommended this place was that, after monitoring the city's transportation, communications, and ordering systems, it had confirmed that the ingredients ordered by this restaurant from the raw-materials market were excellent and had arrived successfully an hour and a half earlier.

Furthermore, according to feedback from the surveillance cameras installed inside the restaurant,

the restaurant had just finished preparing most of its ingredients.

It was the perfect time to go and eat.

One could only say... the Auxiliary AI had even dug up the other party's underwear.

--

Judging solely from the outside,

the restaurant's decor could only be described as above average.

The wooden doorframe clearly showed the marks of age.

But being able to stand firm on a prosperous street for so many years was itself an achievement.

The only minor problem was that a sign saying "Not Yet Open" still hung at the entrance.

That was because it was only ten in the morning.

The posted business hours beside the shop were still more than an hour away.

But after taking one look, Xi Shenlian still chose to lift the patterned white cloth curtain and slowly walk inside.

He had not even taken two steps.

Hearing his completely unabashed footsteps,

a young waiter who was diligently mopping the floor and cleaning raised his head in surprise. Looking somewhat flustered, he waved his hands repeatedly:

"Sir, we haven't opened yet!!"

"Please come back later!!"

Xi Shenlian did not make things difficult for him. He merely said calmly:

"That doesn't matter. Your ingredients should already be partly prepared at this hour, right?"

"Next, I'll book the entire restaurant. I'll cover today's revenue and let you start work early and finish early."

Hearing this,

the waiter knew a big customer had arrived.

But the request still violated the restaurant's rules to some extent.

The waiter immediately hesitated.

He felt that he might need to inform the owner first.

Seeing this,

Xi Shenlian calmly added:

"I'll pay more. Ten times more."

Those brief six words.

They instantly defeated the waiter.

They also instantly defeated the owner.

--

Two minutes later.

Amid the somewhat obsequious attitudes of the waiter and owner, he was successfully seated.

After all, he was paying ten times the price. Whether it conformed to the rules no longer mattered at all.

The interior covered only a few hundred square meters and was somewhat narrow and elongated.

Several long tables and rows of tall stools made up the so-called dining area.

The exposed kitchen was right beside it.

This made it convenient for customers to take food and watch the chefs cook it on the spot.

Sitting on one of the tall stools,

Xi Shenlian glanced at the dim yet non-glaring light above his head before speaking to the several prepared chefs in front of him:

"I have no dietary restrictions."

"Just serve me whatever you're best at."

"Keep serving until I tell you to stop."

Hearing this,

the chefs immediately bowed slightly and replied, "Yes!"

The head chef among them

was actually the owner.

He was an ordinary-looking, somewhat stern middle-aged man around fifty years old.

In a small, high-end restaurant that had operated successfully for many years,

the owner was often also the head chef and the pillar of the entire restaurant.

That allowed him to control costs more effectively and run the business better.

At that moment,

while preparing the food,

the owner secretly observed Xi Shenlian from the corners of his eyes.

As the owner of a high-end restaurant, a relatively wealthy man himself, and someone in the service industry,

he could vaguely judge the approximate value of Xi Shenlian's clothes from their brand markings and fabric.

They cost nearly as much as a luxury car.

Although he could afford such clothes,

he would probably never be willing to buy them in this lifetime.

It was not because he was poor, but simply because he could not bear to spend the money.

Furthermore,

when facing a customer who could afford to wear such clothes as everyday attire,

he clearly understood that this was someone he could not afford to offend...

It was precisely because he understood this

that he had agreed earlier to Xi Shenlian's request to book the entire restaurant.

Otherwise,

even with ten times the payment,

he would still have been somewhat unwilling deep down.

Because some of today's tables had already been reserved in advance.

Booking the entire restaurant

would unquestionably damage the interests and dining experience of certain customers.

For a small high-end restaurant that valued its reputation and regular customers, this was undoubtedly an extremely bad thing...

It might very well cost them their regular customers!

But...

The situation was ultimately somewhat beyond his control.

Even an owner had to assess the circumstances.

A minute or two later.

"Please enjoy."

Three plates of sliced Tuna Sashimi, arranged according to different cuts, were respectfully placed in front of Xi Shenlian.

The chefs were also skillfully preparing various follow-up dishes.

Since several chefs were serving a single customer, they all appeared very relaxed.

Two of the chefs even leisurely began grilling yakitori, or grilled chicken.

They all felt that today would be easy!

But soon...

they discovered that something was wrong.

The problem was that Xi Shenlian's appetite was exceptionally good.

One person's portion.

Five people's portions.

Ten people's portions...

All of it smoothly entered his stomach.

At first,

they merely thought the customer could eat a little more than usual.

But as the process continued,

they soon realized deeply that they had been wrong...

Along the way,

they went from cooking with an ordinary mindset to bringing out everything they had learned in their entire lives.

They strove to make every dish as perfect as possible!!

Don't misunderstand.

It was not that the customer's appetite had awakened their professional ethics.

It was simply because...

they were genuinely afraid...

In this world,

there were basically only two groups of people capable of eating that much food.

The first was naturally born monsters: the Awakened.

The second was the elites among ordinary people: high-level cultivators.

And both of these groups

were upper-class figures and embodiments of humanity's military power.

With a wave of their hands, they could wipe out every employee in this restaurant...

Thanks to Bai Ye, the Savior Scoundrel and Ancient God Hunter, for the 100 Qidian Coins! Yu Yu's 500 Qidian Coins! The Power Holder's 1,500 Qidian Coins! Book friend 20200821152415604's 5,100 Qidian Coins! Book friend 20220502122256809's 5,600 Qidian Coins!