Translator: Xiong Guoqi Editor: DesTheSloth
“I’m actually praising Master Yuan, not you.” Wang Shuyuan felt speechless at the grandpa’s words before he replied him
“But I took you here, didn’t I?” the grandpa revealed a proud expression, feeling that he had good taste.
The two old men, who seemed to become more childish as their age increased, walked out of the restaurant while debating.
.........
As usual, the restaurant was crowded with customers and many more were waiting in line outside at 8:00 in the evening. However, Yuan Zhou didn’t seem to have any intentions of driving them away. Instead, he summoned Mu Xiaoyun to him.
“You can go back now.” While saying that, Yuan Zhou handed a 100 RMB note to her.
“But I worked for only three hours today. I can’t accept this.” Mu Xiaoyun was also a girl of principle.
“As long as it is caused by me, whatever the reason that prevents you from working for less than 6 hours, I will still pay you as was agreed before. This is my principle,” Yuan Zhou said earnestly, not allowing any sort of refusal.
“But...” before Mu Xiaoyun finished her words, she was again interrupted by Yuan Zhou.
“Go back now.”
Then Yuan Zhou turned around and said to the customers waiting outside, “The restaurant will be open for business until 11:00 at night today.”
“Gee? How comes Boss Yuan increased the opening hours all of sudden?” a man at the head of the line asked in surprise.
“Not really. He didn’t open the restaurant during the daytime, thus is probably making up for the loss of time at night.” a girl standing behind him speculated calmly.
“Anyway, we can finally eat delicious dishes tonight.” Obviously, this was a customer who merely waited for his food regardless of whatever reason.
“Yeah, exactly.” more people behind him chimed in.
“Boss Yuan, you’ve changed a lot. You increased the opening hours so unexpectedly.” Wang Anlu, the chief of the sales department who hadn’t been here in a while, said ironically.
“What do you want to eat today?” However, Yuan Zhou never responded to such teasing. On the contrary, he directly got to the main point.
“Boss Yuan, you can’t do things this way.” Wang Anlu wasn’t actually choked by Yuan Zhou’s aloof manner. He shook his head and said while pretending to be serious.
“Why can’t he?” Even though Yuan Zhou wasn’t interested in this matter but someone else was. For example, Ling Hong.
“Just take a look at Boss Yuan’s appearance. We all know, his culinary skills are undoubtedly perfect but his character is truly rigid. In that case, I’m worrying that his appearance will seem to be even older than his actual age.” Wang Anlu explained seriously as if he had analyzed everything quite reasonably.
“So you have a girlfriend, right?” Yuan Zhou asked straightforwardly.
“We are talking about you. Why are you mentioning about me now.” Wang Anlu tried to evade this question.
“I have much interest in that.” Crossing his arms against the chest, Yuan Zhou showed an earnest expression on his face.
“Wu, tell us.” Ling Hong nodded, indicating he likewise agreed. This fellow was the kind of a person who liked to watch the fun. The merrier, the better.
“Boss Yuan, I’ve chosen my dishes. Please cook for me one serving of Melt-In-The-Mouth Chicken Feet and Egg Fried Rice,” Wang Anlu pretended not having heard Yuan Zhou and began to order his dishes immediately.
“Alright.” Yuan Zhou raised his eyebrows and stopped questioning him. He then went to prepare and cook the dishes.
It had been quite some time since Yuan Zhou opened the restaurant until so late last time. To his surprise, the business at night was much better than during the daytime. Some people even called more of their friends to come over.
In just one night, the percentage of mission completed increased a lot.
For the next consecutive days, the business of the restaurant remained stable. However, something odd seemed to be happening during the recent two days. While Yuan Zhou was cooking, he often noticed people discussing something while looking at him.
Yuan Zhou had long gotten used to being watched while cooking. However, this was still the first time he heard such a weird discussion.
While frowning a little, Yuan Zhou paid little attention to that.
“Boss, these Phoenix-Tail Prawns cost 1288 RMB?” a young and bright youth with some pimples on his face asked in astonishment.
“Yes.” Yuan Zhou nodded.
Then the youth just looked at Yuan Zhou in astonishment, as if he wanted to circle around Yuan Zhou for a closer look.
Yuan Zhou merely stood behind the countertop, letting him watch freely.
“Boss, is it really appetizing?” Although the young youth was curious, he didn’t reveal any intention of eating the dish.
“Yes.” Yuan Zhou nodded again, not preparing to give any more explanations.
“Alright. Anyway, I can’t afford it. I’m just asking. Anybody who wants to eat, just order it. I’m merely having a look,” the young man shrugged the shoulders and said to those who were waiting behind in line.
At that time, a girl rushed into the restaurant again. She was dressed in a white shirt and pleated skirt, and wore white knee socks with black shoes, exposing her white thighs. With the ponytail tied up high and the youthful and beautiful face, she was just the girl who had came previously and liked to say odd words.
Just like last time, she apologized while rushing into the restaurant hurriedly.
“Boss Liu, Boss Liu, something big happened. Someone is challenging you.” the girl approached him and said immediately.
“Oh.” Yuan Zhou just raised his eyebrows. Frankly speaking, he wouldn’t have thought the girl was talking to him due to the ‘Boss Liu’ coming from her mouth if she had not been constantly looking at him.
“Eh? You don’t even care? Have you known about it already?” This time, the girl still continued her distinctive manner of abrupt and meaningless babble.
Of course, Yuan Zhou didn’t really intend to further question it.
“Boss Liu, do you know?” The girl looked from left to right while opening her eyes wide.
“My surname is Yuan.” Yuan Zhou responded with an irrelevant answer.
“Yuan? Ok, that has nothing to do with me. But do you know about it or not?” the girl first gave a startle before saying carelessly.
“Then that’s also none of my business.” Yuan Zhou nodded, indicating they have the same attitude on this matter.
“Gee, someone is challenging you. Aren’t you going to accept it?” The girl didn’t seem to know what ‘giving up’ meant, thus she said straightforwardly this time.
Standing still in his same position, Yuan Zhou just waited for customers behind to order their dishes. However, the customers nevertheless seemed to be more interested in the quarrel.
“Exactly. This event has been broadcasted on TV some days ago. From the address, I got to know it’s the restaurant of Boss Yuan,” another curious girl stepped out and said.
“True. I have also seen that. He is really arrogant and aggressive.” Yuan Zhou’s restaurant wasn’t short of female customers. It was again another one.
“They are right. What do you think of this matter?” a curious man asked Yuan Zhou.
“What?” there appeared a little confusion on Yuan Zhou’s solemn face, which gave others a sort of quirky cute feeling.
At least those female customers thought that way.
“Boss Yuan, don’t tell us you have no idea about that?” someone asked tentatively.
“No, I don’t know.” Yuan Zhou was rather frank and honest.
“Such a big event, Boss Yuan, you don’t even know anything? Come, let me show you the broadcast.” While speaking, a customer prepared to take out his the phone and play the video for Yuan Zhou.
“Wait a moment, please. It’s time for lunch now. Let me watch it after lunch,” looking at the time, Yuan Zhou directly refused.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. We can’t waste the originally short lunch time. Eat first.” The customer quickly kept his phone and waited in line quietly to order dishes.
“Humm. When the opening hour is over, Boss Yuan, you can shut the door later and watch the video and then you’ll understand,” a girl suggested carefully.
“No problem. Now everybody, please order your dishes first.” Yuan Zhou nodded, indicating that he had accepted their kindness.
“Boss Yuan, how about if I tell you about it verbally now?” the girl looked at Yuan Zhou’s tranquil face curiously and said excitedly.
“No need.” Yuan Zhou refused straightforwardly. He didn’t like to be bothered while cooking.
“Alright. Then I’ll wait until lunchtime is over then.” After saying that, the girl walked aside and waited there obediently.
That young man, nevertheless, also looked at Yuan Zhou curiously, as if he were looking at a rare creature.
Even with such a situation that was closely related to him, Yuan Zhou could suppress his curiosity and continue to do the job at hand. He must be an extremely earnest man...