Chapter 125: Research

The next morning, after waking up, Luo Hang went out for a run with Xie Yunfan.

Winter in Rong City was not as freezing as in the north. Dressed in sportswear, the two ran a few laps around the residential area’s track, breathing in the fresh air and feeling thoroughly refreshed.

Luo Hang said, “When we get the chance in the future, I’ll take you mountain climbing.”

Xie Yunfan said, “Do you mean that monkey mountain? When we made Journey to the West back then, we climbed it once. Quite a few of our colleagues had their glasses and backpacks snatched away by the monkeys.”

Luo Hang couldn’t help but laugh: “Is that so?”

He stopped in his tracks, turned back to look at Xie Yunfan, and said, “I meant Mount Feng in the Imperial Capital. The autumn scenery there is exceptionally beautiful—maple leaves blanket the ground like a blazing fire. Given the chance, I’ll take you to see it.”

Xie Yunfan said, “Sure, we’ll see when the opportunity comes.”

Luo Hang said, “You’ve been buried in work these past few years and rarely go out normally. This time, taking advantage of the business trip, why don’t we also wander around a bit?”

Xie Yunfan nodded: “Mm, research as the primary focus, sightseeing as the secondary.”

The two looked at each other and smiled, ran another lap around the track, and then returned home to eat breakfast.

Breakfast was made by Xie Xinghe. Seeing the two return, he said, “Come eat! I’ve already made an appointment with the restaurant owner for this morning.”

Xie Yunfan called his college roommate, Ji Yan: “Ah-Yan, are you free to come out today?”

Ji Yan hurriedly said, “Of course I am, I’ve been idle lately.”

Xie Yunfan sent him an address via WeChat: “10:00 AM, see you at this restaurant.”

Ji Yan was puzzled: “A restaurant? Are we getting food together?”

Xie Yunfan said, “It’s related to our next game. We plan to make a culinary game next. Aren’t you our school’s ‘ultimate foodie’? Come along and give us some reference feedback.”

Ji Yan realized what was going on and said excitedly, “No problem!”

After Xie Yunfan transmigrated to this alternate world, he had only attended university for two years before graduating. Ji Yan was his best friend in college and had helped him out quite a lot.

After finishing his graduation project, Ji Yan had followed him to Yangfan Studio. After these past few years of honing his skills, he had served as the Level Director for their previous game, Turbulent Spring and Autumn, performing remarkably well.

Ji Yan himself had a deep understanding of food; during every holiday, he would travel around the country to sample delicacies from all over. Thus, Xie Yunfan thought it best to involve this fellow foodie in the next culinary game project as well.

At 9:00 AM, Xie Yunfan, Luo Hang, and Xie Xinghe set off by car.

When they arrived at the restaurant at 10:00 AM, Ji Yan was already waiting at the entrance. Since it wasn’t working hours right now, he didn’t need to address him formally as “Boss.” He stepped up to greet them: “Yunfan, coming out for market research right on the first day of the New Year—you really are dedicated!”

Xie Yunfan smiled and said, “It was boring staying at home anyway, so consider it stepping out to unwind.”

The group of four walked into the restaurant.

At this time of the morning, the restaurant didn’t have many guests. The four entered the private room booked in advance, and Xie Xinghe quickly called over the owner on the phone.

Xie Yunfan politely extended his hand: “Hello, I am Xie Yunfan, the Game Planner from Yangfan Studio, whom you spoke with over the phone earlier.”

The restaurant owner was a man in his 40s named Liu, with an approachable demeanor. He smilingly shook Xie Yunfan’s hand and said, “Hello! I wonder what I can help you with?”

When it came to games, he was completely clueless.

Xie Yunfan said, “We’d like to understand the operation process of your restaurant—such as how to source low-cost ingredients, recruit staff, and manage employees. Of course, our seeking advice from you is strictly related to our game. Please rest assured, we will not leak any of your ‘secret recipes’.”

The PR manager had contacted the owner in advance and provided a generous “consulting fee,” which was why the owner was willing to cooperate and answer his questions.

For the culinary game he wanted to make this time, Xie Yunfan intended to design it around “restaurant management.” Players who enjoyed running a shop could open all kinds of gourmet restaurants in a holographic world, trying out a management simulation to see if their store could actually turn a profit or end up bankrupt and out of business.

Other players could also sample various delicacies within the game.

The great advantage of a holographic game was—no matter how much you ate, you never had to worry about gaining weight!

Since the consulting fee was very generous and Xie Yunfan was extremely polite, Manager Liu didn’t hold anything back.

Manager Liu sat down and spoke eloquently, sharing his experiences down to the finest detail with Xie Yunfan—from how he started his business, selected the location for the restaurant, recruited head chefs and waitstaff, ran advertisements, to which channels he used to source ingredients.

He said with a smile, “Running a restaurant is a massive field of study. Our shop has been open for eight years now, while the restaurants around us have changed several times over. Take that stone pot fish place right across the street, for example—they just finished renovations last month, and this month they went bankrupt and put the place up for rent. I heard they lost over a million yuan, sigh.”

He paused, sighing with emotion: “Some young people nowadays act far too impetuously when doing business, without even conducting proper market research. Last year, the food service industry was in a slump, and many surrounding restaurants closed down one after another. Small-scale losses were still manageable, but for those who spent heavily on renovations, they couldn’t even earn back the renovation fees.”

This owner was quite enthusiastic, chatting with them about plenty of gossip in the catering industry. Everyone listened with great interest, and Xie Yunfan even took notes occasionally, looking just like a reporter conducting an interview.

After the interview concluded, Xie Yunfan asked, “May we take a tour of the kitchen back here?”

The owner enthusiastically said, “Of course you can!”

The group arrived at the kitchen.

Xie Yunfan observed the chefs division of labor and their process of handling ingredients. This restaurant’s kitchen was exceptionally clean, and the chefs were swift and agile, executing their stir-frying and wok-tossing movements with immense professionalism.

Although Xie Yunfan had spent a month learning culinary skills and his stir-fries tasted decent enough, he was still a far cry from professional chefs… at the very least, he hadn’t learned how to toss a wok yet.

Seeing him observe so intently, Luo Hang leaned into his ear and asked, “Observing the chefs so carefully—do you want to make the chefs in the game into NPCs? Or can players also choose the chef role?”

Xie Yunfan pondered for a moment and said, “As for the exact gameplay format, I still need to think it through further.”

A purely management-focused game was better suited as a single-player title.

Players would open a restaurant in the game, and the system would provide gold coins to buy vegetables and recruit staff. When NPC customers came in to order, the player would process orders in a timely manner, earning money from every single transaction.

Players would need to master the “balance of income and expenditure.” Restaurant rent, employee wages, and procurement costs were all expenditures, while gold coins from customer orders and takeout were income. If income fell below expenditure, the restaurant would inevitably go bankrupt over time.

This type of management simulation mobile game used to be extremely popular.

Now in the holographic era, Xie Yunfan felt it would be a huge waste of this theme to only make a single-player game. But if he were to make an online game, he didn’t have a crystal-clear idea yet on what specific format it should take.

He would walk around more, observe more, and conduct detailed market research on the catering industry before deciding.

Rong City was a major city with a highly developed food service industry, covering a wide variety of regional cuisines. Of course, after northern dishes arrived in the south, they might be adjusted according to local tastes and wouldn’t be as “authentic.” Therefore, to eat genuine northern cuisine, one still had to go to the local regions.

Next, Xie Yunfan planned to go on a business trip, traveling across the country to investigate and sample local delicacies along the way. This business trip plan was also something he and Luo Hang had agreed upon long ago.

For lunch, the four of them ordered 8 dishes and 1 soup, making for a lavish meal.

This restaurant served Southern cuisine, identical to the “Cantonese cuisine” from his past life. The culinary culture of the alternate world had surprisingly been preserved, which relieved Xie Yunfan quite a bit.

Ji Yan stared at the fragrant roasted pigeon, desperately holding back his mouth watering.

Xie Yunfan glanced at him and smiled: “Go ahead and eat, remember the taste and texture of these dishes.”

Ji Yan scratched his head with a silly grin: “This job seems like it’s very easy to gain weight!”

Xie Yunfan suggested, “How about you lose weight after we finish making the game?”

Ji Yan said, “Great idea! With delicious food right in front of me, who cares about getting fat or not!”

The four picked up their chopsticks and dug in together.

Worthy of a well-known local restaurant, the flavors of the dishes were indeed outstanding.

After finishing his meal, Xie Yunfan looked toward Luo Hang and asked, “Has the system recorded all these dishes?”

Luo Hang said, “Mm, system data for famous Rong City dishes has already been logged, but I feel it’s still lacking a bit—it’s not as delicious as this store’s.”

Xie Yunfan thought for a moment and said, “For the exact same dish, different restaurants will naturally produce different flavors. For instance, with sweet honey char siu, this restaurant’s taste is sweeter, while the one we went to before had a crispier texture.”

Luo Hang nodded in agreement: “That’s true. Cooking relies heavily on heat control and skill; there is no fixed standard for what every dish’s flavor should be.”

A single plate of hot and sour shredded potatoes could yield ten different flavors from ten different people. Those with poor skills might even create a “dark cuisine,” burning it to a crisp for you.

In reality, diners could taste the difference in flavor when visiting different restaurants.

However, in a holographic game, it was impossible to log dozens of sets of data just for a single plate of shredded potatoes, right? With so many regional cuisines nationwide, the workload for data logging wouldn’t be completed even in three to five years.

Yet, if every single restaurant in the game produced dishes with identical tastes, wouldn’t players grow tired of eating after trying them two or three times?

How on earth should this problem be solved?

And how should the discrepancies caused by game data versus a chef’s manual craftsmanship be reflected in the game?

Xie Yunfan fell deep into thought while eating.

If they solved the problem from the root—such as logging the data of each individual ingredient into the system, and then generating different flavors based on different player operations?

For example, stir-frying with scallions, ginger, and garlic produced one flavor.

Mincing green onions, sprinkling them over, and drizzling hot oil created another flavor entirely.

Mincing scallions and ginger together, drizzling hot oil, and adding a spoonful of vinegar could make a delicious dipping sauce.

Adding seasonings like light soy sauce and sesame oil would yield further subtle differences.

Adding more or less salt would severely impact the texture and taste of the food even more.

If the flavor of every single ingredient could be realized, the flavors presented after mixing ingredients would become extraordinarily diverse. When players cooked in the game, it could mimic the real-world “cooking” process to the greatest extent possible, and the final dishes produced would naturally vary from person to person.

It was just that this technology was far too difficult. How were the flavors of ingredients supposed to be fused together?

On the way back, Xie Yunfan shared his thoughts with Luo Hang.

Luo Hang lowered his head in deep thought: “Fusing them through different ingredients? This requires a massive amount of experimentation. Sometimes, even subtle differences in heat control will lead to variations in flavor.”

Xie Yunfan said helplessly, “I know it’s difficult, but if the same dish tastes identical across all restaurants, it feels like this culinary game would lose its soul, becoming nothing more than a bundle of fixed numerical values.”

Silence fell inside the car.

Xie Yunfan’s standards for game development were sometimes ridiculously high.

Who else making a culinary game would completely restore the food preparation process and fuse the flavors of different ingredients?! Directly logging the preset flavors of dishes was vastly simpler and less troublesome.

However, as a fellow foodie, Ji Yan had a lot of say in this matter. He said seriously, “I think Yunfan’s words make a lot of sense. I’m especially fond of hot pot. When I went to Mountain City back then, I ate hot pot for half a month straight, switching between over a dozen different stores, and every single one had a different flavor profile.”

If the “spicy hot pot” in the game all tasted identical, the holographic game wouldn’t be able to provide players with a more realistic experience. But if every restaurant had a unique flavor, players would surely be pleasantly surprised, wouldn’t they?

Luo Hang pondered for a moment, then made the final call: “Regardless of whether we can succeed or not, let’s try it out first.”

Xie Yunfan let out a breath of relief, smiling toward Luo Hang: “Alright. If it really can’t be done, we’ll drop it, but let’s at least give it a shot.”

Thank you for being willing to try new things with me every single time.

This time, together, we will truly break through the technical barrier of the holographic game ‘taste system’.

From the first to the seventh day of the New Year, the group spent their time visiting restaurants all across Rong City.

Xie Yunfan interviewed several successful owners, familiarized himself with restaurant operation models, sampled various dishes and local snacks, and even went to the back kitchens to observe the chefs’ workflows.

On one occasion, he even got up early in the morning to visit a restaurant and watch vegetable vendors haul truckloads of fresh produce to deliver goods to the venue. He also carefully learned about how they wrapped up operations after dinner ended.

Of course, successful cases needed to be studied closely, but failed cases also required summarizing experience.

There was a restaurant that went bankrupt in less than half a year. Xie Yunfan contacted that owner and conducted a thorough interview, carefully learning about the reasons behind his poor management and closure.

The owner actually had plenty of ideas, and the restaurant’s revenue was very high during the first three months. However, later on, a competitor serving the same regional cuisine opened nearby, offering various opening discount coupons and serving food that tasted better than theirs. Under the competitor’s squeeze, their returning customers grew fewer and fewer.

Peer competition was also a critical factor affecting the food service industry.

Through a solid week of investigation, Xie Yunfan got a firm grasp of Rong City’s catering market and filled up a thick notebook.

Looking at “Reporter Xie’s” earnest attitude, Luo Hang joked, “If you didn’t work as a game planner and went to open a restaurant instead, I bet you’d make a fortune too—maybe even expanding a restaurant chain across the entire country.”

A person as smart and diligent as Yunfan would achieve success in any industry. Luo Hang firmly believed this.

Xie Yunfan put away his notebook and smiled: “Let’s pass on that. Making games is my true comfort zone.”

He had never held any plans of opening a restaurant.

Ji Yan, on the other hand, felt a bit tempted after listening to the various owners share their insights over the past few days. He even said that after retiring in the future, he’d open a restaurant and hire a few master chefs to cook delicious meals for himself.

On the eighth day of the New Year, both Yangfan and Qihang resumed work together.

The storefront sign of Yangfan Studio was officially replaced with “Yangfan Games Group.”

When employees arrived at the Nanyang Park, they looked up to see the massive “Yangfan Games” sign hanging at the top of Office Building A, facing the “Qihang Games” sign at the top of Office Building B across from it. Beside Yangfan Games was a sailboat icon, while beside Qihang Games was their corporate logo—a uniquely styled starship.

Under the morning sunlight, the signs of both gaming companies shone brilliantly.

Employees couldn’t help but sigh with emotion: “Yangfan and Qihang—the logos of both companies have such a CP feel!” “Yeah, both are on the rooftops, and the two buildings are so close to each other, it’s like they’re gazing at each other?”

Someone gossiped in private: “I severely suspect President Luo had ulterior motives when he set up Qihang’s branch here back then! The so-called ‘the pavilion closest to the water gets the moon first’—look, in just a few short years, his relationship with President Xie has gotten better and better, and now Yangfan and Qihang are bound partners.”

It had to be said that Luo Hang’s move displayed immense foresight. It completely eliminated any risk of Xie Yunfan being poached by Cool Play or Wings of Dream—by moving right next door to Xie Yunfan’s office, who would dare intercept him?

Over these past few years, employees from both companies often collaborated and had grown thoroughly familiar with each other.

The news of Yangfan Studio changing its sign quickly spread throughout the entire company.

Everyone was delighted—who could resist the satisfaction of playing a real-life “company management sim”?

Especially those original veterans who joined at the very beginning; watching the company grow from a team of fewer than 10 people to over 500 today, continuously expanding in scale and developing better by the day.

Year-end bonuses were naturally rising continuously as well. Employees who had worked at Yangfan for over three years could afford cars and houses, drawing immense envy from their industry peers.

With great benefits, good compensation, and approachable bosses, everyone felt even more motivated at work.

After the holiday ended, everyone assumed the bosses would officially announce the proposal for the new game. But to everyone’s surprise—President Xie and President Luo were actually going on a business trip together?

When this news hit the company group chat, everyone was shocked.

Moreover, this business trip was actually going to last a whole month?

Some discussed in private: “The bosses are going on such a long business trip—it must be to do market research for the new game!” “Definitely. He rarely leaves the company normally, so taking a month-long business trip must be preparation for the next game.”

It seemed the bosses were planning to pull off something huge!

The employees felt full of anticipation in their hearts.

Before leaving on the business trip, Xie Yunfan met with HR Manager Liu Muyao and arranged: “Muyao, look for headhunting agencies to scout some talent in fashion design. The style shouldn’t be too flashy; they should excel in traditional female apparel design. If there are suitable candidates, negotiate with them and recruit four or five designers over.”

Liu Muyao was taken aback and asked, “Boss, are we going to make a game related to fashion design?”

Xie Yunfan nodded: “Mm, the next female-oriented game will be Hanfu dress-up, scheduled for project approval in the second half of this year. We’re scouting talent in advance to avoid getting caught in a frantic rush when the time comes.”

Liu Muyao said with a smile, “Understood, I will contact them as soon as possible.”

That very afternoon, Xie Yunfan and Luo Hang, bringing along Ji Yan as well as three heads from Qihang’s Taste Laboratory, set off on their business trip together, leaving the company in the hands of older brother Xie Xinghe to manage.

Currently, there were no new game proposals, only updates and events for old games. Different projects had their respective project heads, while Turbulent Spring and Autumn, which lacked a designated project head, didn’t require updates anytime soon.

Even if Xie Yunfan left temporarily, the company would operate as usual.

The first stop of their business trip was the largest northern city—the Imperial Capital.

The Imperial Capital also possessed a vast number of restaurants and famous dishes, such as its famous roast duck—crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, melting in one’s mouth, and dipping it in a bit of sweet bean sauce made it not greasy at all, leaving a rich, fragrant, and unforgettable aftertaste.

Ji Yan had eaten roast duck elsewhere before, but eating the signature duck from a famous local established brand this time—the flavor was truly sublime!

Sure enough, although these common dishes could be found across the nation, one could only truly appreciate the most original flavor of the food by visiting the local region.

Ji Yan was overjoyed during this business trip.

Following Yunfan around to eat and drink everywhere—could they please have more of such wonderful assignments in the future?!

The “research delegation” led by Xie Yunfan and Luo Hang inspected a large number of restaurants in the Imperial Capital.

Wings of Dream’s headquarters was located in the Imperial Capital, so they quickly caught wind of this movement.

Tang Tonghai was puzzled: “Investigating restaurants? Are they planning to make a restaurant management game?”

A subordinate said, “High probability, yes. Xie Yunfan and Luo Hang brought a research team, and I heard they are tasting delicacies everywhere, interviewing restaurant owners and head chefs.”

Tang Tonghai fell silent.

Culinary games had appeared before. After all, Huaxia never lacked foodies, nor did it lack game players interested in “gourmet food.”

A few years ago, Wings of Dream’s Simulated Restaurant, which had exploded in popularity, was a culinary management mobile game. Later on, because many ingredients in the game required paywalling to purchase, players couldn’t stand it, and it gradually went downhill.

Tang Tonghai thought thoughtfully: “If it’s a holographic culinary game, it is indeed quite fresh. But the sense of taste in a holographic game isn’t easy to tune; it depends on how far they can take it.”

The subordinate asked, “Boss, should we do anything?”

Tang Tonghai sneered lightly and said, “Immediately approve the project for a holographic version of Simulated Restaurant 2 to beat them to market! This time, we shouldn’t lose again!”

Imperial Capital, Cloudside Hotel.

Xie Yunfan had been eating different dishes every day over the past few days, causing his stomach and intestines to feel somewhat indigestion-ridden. After coming out of the bathroom, he was frowning while considering whether to go downstairs to buy medicine, when he heard a knock on the door outside.

Xie Yunfan opened the door to see Luo Hang holding two boxes of gastrointestinal medicine, handing them to him: “Need these?”

Xie Yunfan froze: “How did you know I wanted to go downstairs to buy medicine?”

Luo Hang said, “The food at that restaurant today might not have been very fresh. I had diarrhea after coming back, so I thought you might also feel unwell and bought two boxes for you while I was at it.”

Xie Yunfan accepted the medicine boxes: “Thank you.”

The top of the medicine box still carried Luo Hang’s body temperature, causing a wave of warmth to sweep through Xie Yunfan’s heart as well.

In truth, Luo Hang was an exceptionally meticulous person. This time, as the two led the team on a business trip together, Luo Hang had arranged all the itineraries along the way in advance. Following Luo Hang’s lead meant there was no need for excessive worries.

Xie Yunfan felt extraordinarily at ease.

Luo Hang said, “Tomorrow we change locations to go eat barbecue. If your stomach can’t handle it, eat a little less, and I’ll order lighter dishes for you separately.”

Xie Yunfan nodded: “Alright.”

Luo Hang said with a smile, “That roommate of yours, Ji Yan, really has a stomach of iron—he can digest whatever he eats smoothly. I feel he’d be much more suited for the job of a ‘food experience specialist’.”

Xie Yunfan also burst into laughter: “That’s certainly true. Back in college, he even snuck snacks during class. This business trip has really made him thrilled.”

The next day, because of indigestion, Xie Yunfan didn’t try any food himself while out for barbecue.

Ji Yan still ate with great relish.

The engineers brought along by Luo Hang also ate quite a bit, carefully taking note of the food flavors.

After returning that evening, everyone held a meeting. Through this period of inspection and research, the engineers had also found a method.

He Honglang, group leader of Qihang’s Taste Data Center, said: “Logging the taste of each ingredient into the system, then making data adjustments based on different heat controls, followed by big data analysis and fusion—although it’s very troublesome to process, it is theoretically achievable.”

Xie Yunfan asked, “Director He, will the final product closely resemble dishes prepared by real-life chefs?”

He Honglang said, “This requires a massive amount of experimental data to support it. My suggestion is to hire a few professional chefs, purchase common ingredients, and come to our smart kitchen to conduct experiments. We will collect the tastes of different ingredients under different heat controls, attempt fusion and adjustments, and then find the optimal processing solution.”

Ji Yan raised his hand and said, “I think this method is workable. Those professional chefs have an extremely precise grasp of ingredients and heat control. Using data obtained from their personal experiments as a foundation, the ingredient flavors in the game can be restored to the maximum extent, giving players a more immersive experience.”

Xie Yunfan nodded in agreement: “That makes sense.”

Luo Hang asked, “In terms of time, how long will it take?”

He Honglang pondered for a moment and said, “The number of ingredients is too large. Logging them item by item will take at least half a year…”

Luo Hang looked toward Xie Yunfan.

Xie Yunfan said with a smile, “Half a year is fine. We will build the game in the first half of the year while Qihang handles the taste data here. The dress-up game planned for the second half of the year can just run directly on the existing dual platform without needing technical breakthroughs. So, releasing two games a year is still completely achievable.”

Luo Hang nodded: “Alright, let’s do that then. After returning, everyone write up a proposal first. Tomorrow we will set off for the Jiangnan region to inspect some lesser-known specialty foods.”