Due to the cooler weather and the National Day holiday, which sees almost as much traffic as Spring Festival, coupled with effective government promotion, the Matchmaker Temple has been bustling with worshippers.

Moreover, their village is famous for persimmons, attracting visitors who come to pick them.

So during the National Day holiday, there are even more tourists, and Qiao Wanqing’s vegetarian restaurant is booming.

The manager hired five extra staff members temporarily to help cope with the rush.

Qiao Wanqing and the others went to check on the restaurant around noon on the 2nd and found people already waiting outside, indicating how busy they were.

“Business was even better yesterday,” the manager told Qiao Wanqing. “Some people came as early as 10 AM to avoid waiting. The queue even stretched outside. Today, I heard a new restaurant opened nearby, and many people headed there.”

“The Blissful Union Farmhouse Cuisine?” Gu Yanqing asked, holding a flyer someone had left outside.

He picked it up while they were out.

Qiao Wanqing couldn’t help but laugh, “That name is something else.”

“Why not just call it ‘Pay Respect to Heaven and Earth’?”

“Yeah, that’s the one. They seem to be targeting us. They even put up a banner near the Matchmaker Temple saying ‘Drink heavily, eat meat heartily, that’s living life to the fullest. Enjoy green eating in life.’ It’s quite funny.”

Qiao Wanqing and Gu Yanqing exchanged a glance.

Was this some kind of prank?

However, many people nowadays use unconventional methods for marketing.

Whether it’s controversial or not, as long as it gets attention, it works.

“50% off,” Gu Yanqing noticed the discount on the flyer. “Shall we go check it out later?”

Their place was small, just a vegetarian restaurant, barely covering all the customer flow.

Even during hot weather, they sometimes operated at a loss on weekdays.

Now, with a new restaurant attracting customers, it wasn’t very friendly to them.

So, they needed to investigate and analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the competition to strategize accordingly.

“We can. The owner there probably doesn’t know us. Hope they won’t kick us out later,” Qiao Wanqing said.

She wasn’t sure if the other restaurant’s owner knew her, but she wasn’t familiar with them.

“Just because I own a restaurant doesn’t mean I don’t have the right to eat at other restaurants.”

That’s true.

While they were queuing, the other place was offering a 50% discount, so business wouldn’t be bad.

They waited until after 1 PM before heading over, the three of them.

As Qiao Wanqing expected, the restaurant was located right at the spot she had initially picked, down a flight of stairs, which was quite conspicuous.

However, the stairs were a long, steep descent.

Going up, you might not notice anything, but coming down, the long, sloping stairs could make you dizzy, giving you the feeling that you might tumble down uncontrollably.

So, you could see many people climbing up, but hardly anyone going down.

Kou Kou walked to the stairs, then clung to her leg, softly saying, “Mommy, carry me, Kou Kou is scared~”

Qiao Wanqing was grateful she wasn’t wearing high heels today.

She picked up Kou Kou and said to Gu Yanqing, “Let’s go, Mr. Gu.”

Gu Yanqing glanced at the steep slope, cursing the lousy designer who came up with such a harmful design, and said, “Let’s go.”

Qiao Wanqing noticed something was off with him and, thinking of how scared Kou Kou was, seemed to have figured something out: “You’re not afraid of heights, are you, Mr. Gu?”

“……”

Gu Yanqing was ruthlessly exposed, feeling a bit embarrassed.

After all, he had the image of an omnipotent boss.

How could he be afraid of heights?

“Of course not, let’s go.”

Qiao Wanqing extended her hand to him: “Being afraid of heights isn’t something to be ashamed of. Come on, I’ll hold your hand, and you can walk on the inside.”

“……”

After hesitating for a moment, Gu Yanqing still reached out and took her hand.

Qiao Wanqing, holding her man with one hand and her son with the other, walked down the stairs briskly, exuding an air of dominance.

She felt her own image becoming even more impressive.

Ahem.

The restaurant seemed newly built, clearly hastily constructed to open before the National Day holiday.

The road at the entrance was a yellow dirt road covered with a layer of fine sand.

At this hour, there weren’t many customers at the entrance.

As they reached the door, a woman in her forties came out to greet them.

It was awkward.

This woman was the same one who had bought vegetables from Farmer Cai instead of them.

Later, she even caused trouble at Qiao Wanqing’s house, insisting on picking vegetables from her garden herself.

She ended up destroying their crops and being scared off by Huang Daxian.

Qiao Wanqing remembered they weren’t locals, yet here they were, opening a restaurant in the area.

It was quite unexpected.

No wonder their advertisements were directly targeting them.

It wasn’t just to make a name but because they held a grudge!

The woman saw them and sneered sarcastically, “Oh, isn’t this Boss Qiao from the vegetarian restaurant? Here to spy on the enemy? Tsk, tsk, tsk, seeing our business doing well, feeling jealous, huh?”

Her voice was loud and sharp, attracting the attention of the diners inside.

They saw a handsome couple with a cute little child and couldn’t help but take a few extra glances.

Qiao Wanqing smiled slightly and said, “We heard a farmhouse restaurant opened here and thought we’d try something different. We’re just here for lunch. I hope the lady boss doesn’t mind?”

In front of so many diners, the lady boss couldn’t say anything unwelcoming.

She replied, “Of course, you’re welcome. If Boss Qiao can’t eat at your own vegetarian restaurant and comes to improve your diet here, how could we not welcome you?”

Qiao Wanqing continued to smile, “Our customers are still queuing at our restaurant. We’re only here because our business is so good there’s no place for us to sit and eat.”

“……” The lady boss was momentarily speechless.

Gu Yanqing secretly gave her a thumbs up, indicating that her retort was well done.

“Well then, lady boss, we’ll head inside.”

With that, Qiao Wanqing and Gu Yanqing walked in and found an empty table.

Qiao Wanqing whispered, “Do you think they might poison our food?”

Gu Yanqing chuckled, “You’ve watched too many TV dramas. Do you really think any restaurant can just easily get their hands on a pack of poison to use on you?”

“……” That did seem quite unlikely.

They probably wouldn’t even have poison on hand.

They looked at the menu.

While their own restaurant had an average per person spending of about 30 yuan, this place was not cheap, with a single large dish costing around 50 to 60 yuan.

However, the pictures looked good and the dishes seemed quite tempting.

Since they needed to “know the enemy,” they ordered several of the restaurant’s specialties: steamed reservoir fish, farmhouse stew, salted wine chicken, grandma’s vegetables, and old duck soup.

All these dishes had a strong farmhouse feel, and just looking at the pictures made them hungry.

The first dish to arrive was the salted wine chicken.

Gu Yanqing handed her the chopsticks and said, “Time to test the truth.”

Kou Kou was very happy to see the food. He grabbed his own chopsticks and tried to pick up some chicken.

Qiao Wanqing picked a piece of chicken, removed the skin, shredded it with the chopsticks, and put it into Kou Kou’s bowl.

Kou Kou struggled with the chopsticks for a while, but the meat wouldn’t cooperate.

Frustrated, he put down the chopsticks and grabbed the meat with his hand.

Qiao Wanqing knew this was Kou Kou’s usual tactic, so she had washed his hands before they came.

Kou Kou stuffed a small piece of chicken skin into his mouth.

Being even pickier than his father, he immediately spat it out and made a face, saying, “Not good, not good!”

Not only him, but Gu Yanqing also frowned after taking a bite. “Did they put too much wine? It tastes a bit bitter.”

“They soaked it too long,” Qiao Wanqing identified immediately.

Salted wine chicken is made by soaking the chicken in wine for 2-3 hours, then cutting it into pieces, stir-frying with scallions and mushrooms, and cooking it in the wine broth before pouring it over the chicken on the plate.

If the chicken is soaked too long, it gets too flavorful and can become bitter unless the wine’s concentration is low.

“And this isn’t authentic free-range chicken. It’s definitely farm-raised and fed with corn, which makes the texture worse.”

“You’ve got quite a sharp tongue,” Gu Yanqing laughed softly.

“Hey, I’m a restaurant owner after all,” Qiao Wanqing said proudly, then whispered, “I wonder if they made it bad on purpose or if the chef just isn’t very skilled.”

“It shouldn’t come to the point of ruining their own reputation.”

In front of a competitor, one would certainly want to showcase their best dishes.

Of course, there was always the possibility that their culinary style was just peculiar or they were hiding their true capabilities.

The dishes continued to arrive.

Though the food looked as good as it did in the pictures, the taste was somewhat disappointing.

Besides the poorly made salted wine chicken, the other dishes were average at best, with a tendency to be overly seasoned.

Moreover, while an ordinary person might not notice, Qiao Wanqing, having eaten a lot of genuine farmhouse meat, could easily tell that the so-called free-range chicken and duck were fake.

The texture was looser, and the flavor wasn’t as rich as authentic free-range poultry.