Kaiseki Cuisine

Although he found the other party's tone when sighing somewhat subtle, Xi Shenlian still agreed:

"Awakened people are indeed a little peculiar!"

At the same time, he took the fruit basket and various offerings from Qian Shan Xuehui, then squatted down and placed them beside the grave.

"So, Miss Qian Shan Xuehui, did you come here specifically to pay respects to the dean today?"

He squatted down as well.

After lighting and arranging the incense from among the offerings, she answered:

"Yes."

"The school is on break these two days, so I thought I'd come home for a visit and pay my respects to Grandpa while I was at it."

Then.

Once the offerings had been arranged, she clasped her hands and began to pray.

Seeing this, Xi Shenlian, who was puffing on a cigarette nearby and looked rather unseemly, simply squatted there and quietly watched her profile.

Beautiful and mature.

Yet possessing an inexplicable softness.

If one only considered her appearance.

She might have been about on par with Saigo Kadoko before.

Although she was a rare beauty, there were still quite a few women like her if one looked across all of Tokyo.

Those with less fortunate circumstances even had to earn money selling their bodies in nightclubs.

But looks were secondary.

Qian Shan Xuehui was special in Xi Shenlian's heart...

She was filled with a kind of childhood beauty.

It was a feeling he had rarely experienced, either in this life or his previous one.

Moreover, everyone's childhood inevitably contained some strange feelings and thoughts.

Those things...

Were undoubtedly even more complicated.

Impossible to explain, impossible to make clear.

In the past.

Xi Shenlian could only look up to and reminisce about them.

They were things he could see but never reach.

Because he had always felt unworthy.

Was someone with a screw loose even qualified?

Qualified my ass.

But now, he was qualified...

After thinking for a while.

Xi Shenlian exhaled a cloud of smoke and silently put away his cigarette.

A while later.

Qian Shan Xuehui rose with a happy smile on her face.

"All done!"

"If Grandpa knew that one of the children he adopted had become an Awakened, he would definitely be very happy!"

Then.

She patted Xi Shenlian on the shoulder and said:

"You're successful now. You should treat me to a meal, right??"

"You ate so many of my snacks back then!!"

Hearing this.

Xi Shenlian did not hesitate.

He immediately laughed:

"Of course."

"I could treat you for the rest of your life."

"What do you want to eat?"

At his answer, Qian Shan Xuehui's pretty face flushed slightly. She stood up and said:

"I want to eat Kaiseki Cuisine!!"

"The really high-end kind!!"

Kaiseki Cuisine.

Refers to a relatively high-end type of Dongying cuisine.

It was generally prepared with the freshest seasonal ingredients, while relatively few seasonings were used. The chef tried to preserve the ingredients' original flavors as much as possible. In short, it placed extremely high demands on both culinary skill and ingredients.

Therefore.

The price was relatively expensive as well.

And the high-end varieties could cost an ordinary person one or two months' salary for a single meal.

But Xi Shenlian clearly would not care about such a small amount of money.

He could eat several meals simply by taking a button off his clothes.

Precisely because she knew this.

Qian Shan Xuehui made the request.

"Of course, no problem."

As he readily agreed, Xi Shenlian immediately pulled out his phone.

He began operating it right in front of Qian Shan Xuehui.

Qian Shan Xuehui naturally leaned her head over as well.

"What brand of phone is this?"

"The global nuclear missile launch button?"

"Classified data repositories from various countries?"

"These apps are so strange..."

"Did you change the app names?"

Listening to one question after another.

On the surface, Xi Shenlian appeared to be operating the phone with his fingers.

But in reality, he was communicating with the Auxiliary AI through his thoughts. He immediately began spouting nonsense:

"This is a phone I had specially customized. You know, Awakened people can easily damage fragile objects, so you've never seen one before."

"Changing app icons and names is just a basic function that comes with the phone."

"For example, this app called the Dongying Bank Data Circulation Oversight app is actually just an ordinary food recommendation app..."

After saying this, Xi Shenlian tapped the app in front of her as a demonstration.

The phone screen immediately switched to a food interface.

Then, under Qian Shan Xuehui's gaze, Xi Shenlian began searching for Kaiseki Cuisine.

Qian Shan Xuehui was impressed:

"I see. That's quite a good customization feature..."

--

Two hours later.

At the most high-end Kaiseki Cuisine restaurant nearby.

As soon as Xi Shenlian entered, he spoke to several female servers who were bowing to inform him that the restaurant had already been booked out for the day:

"I'm the one who booked the entire restaurant."

"Have the chefs prepare as quickly as possible."

Hearing this, Qian Shan Xuehui, who followed behind him, was somewhat confused:

"Booked out?"

"Just for the two of us?"

Without turning his head, Xi Shenlian answered naturally:

"Of course. It'll definitely just be the two of us."

"To avoid being disturbed, I thought booking the whole place would be better."

As a local of Yuquan District who had visited this restaurant twice before, Qian Shan Xuehui was stunned:

"I remember this restaurant usually requires reservations in advance. If you suddenly decide to come, you generally need to have some connections. And you suddenly booked out the entire place—the owner should never have agreed, right?"

"That would definitely affect all the customers who made reservations..."

Xi Shenlian turned back to Qian Shan Xuehui and shrugged slightly:

"At first, the owner really did refuse."

"Even when I said I would buy the entire restaurant outright, he still refused."

"He really is a man with firm principles."

Qian Shan Xuehui became even more puzzled:

"The owner's personality is that stubborn?"

"Then how did you book out the restaurant?"

Before this.

She had never expected him to directly plan to buy a restaurant just to treat her to a meal.

And judging by the owner's reaction, he was clearly a very spirited person who had directly rejected Xi Shenlian.

She did not understand.

How had Xi Shenlian managed to settle everything in the end?

Even the surrounding servers began secretly listening, curious as well.

Not long ago.

They had suddenly received a phone call.

They were told to cancel every reservation and refuse every customer.

Today, they were to accept only one guest named Xi Shenlian.

Something like this had never happened before!

Moreover, the owner's voice over the phone had been filled with bitterness and helplessness.

Xi Shenlian's answer was very straightforward:

"The answer is actually very simple. I bypassed the owner of this restaurant and directly bought the parent company behind it, as well as the headquarters behind that company—a large catering group."

"It only cost 500 billion Yen in total."

"After that, the restaurant owner could only obediently submit~"

"Jie jie jie jie jie jie~"

Qian Shan Xuehui cried out in shock:

"What??"

The servers beside them suddenly saw a burst of light—a dazzling golden radiance that completely obscured their vision!!

Damn...

That dazzling glow of money...

I can't open my eyes...