Chapter 62: Golden Eggs
Translator: Xiong Guoqi Editor: DesTheSloth
“You are welcome,” Yuan Zhou responded politely.
“Boss Yuan, are your Herbal Tea Eggs golden eggs?” A seemingly high-spirited man with short hair asked curiously while holding a briefcase under his arm.
“Do you want to try?” Yuan Zhou asked him back directly.
“Well, no thanks. I couldn’t afford to eat one of those expensive golden eggs.” He refused Yuan Zhou’s proposal without slightest hesitation.
“Ok.”
Although he failed in promoting his Herbal Tea Eggs, Yuan Zhou didn’t appear to be upset. It didn’t matter even if no customers tried his eggs. Actually, he was just curious about the original price and ingredients of the Herbal Tea Eggs.
Ever since the ancient times, tea had always been enjoyed by the nobles. It was basically a luxury good. Since the rapid social development decreased the cost of the tea leaves, ordinary people could afford to drink the tea now.
In recent times, it was merely an ordinary drink.
While Yuan Zhou was lost in thought, the Division Chief of the tax bureau walked towards the restaurant with the Vice Division Chief Lee in tow.
“Division Chief, this is it, the one with the most customers.” The bald Vice Division Chief Lee led the way in the front while the Division Chief slowly followed behind him, looking around the small street from time to time.
The surname of the Division Chief was Lin. He was not young, 48 years old this year. He had been in the current position of Division Chief for years, thus was familiar with the surroundings. All the restaurants in this street depended on the personnel from the several office buildings and inhabitants from the two residential estates nearby for customers. It was a peaceful place but that also meant there were not many visitors.
Seated in a sparsely populated place like this, the restaurant could still obtain such high revenue. There were presumably no problems, since so many people were still waiting in line at the entrance of the restaurant.
“Division Chief, maybe I can buy some dishes for you and take them back to eat. Look, there are too many people here,” Vice Division Chief Lee suggested when they saw the queue of more than 20 people at the entrance.
“Never mind. Let’s wait in line. When it’s our turn, we can buy and take away the dishes. The restaurant isn’t big, so I think most of the customers would also order takeout.” Division Chief Lin was experienced. His wife and children all loved to eat the delicious specialties, thus he often went out to buy some for them.
“All right. Let’s wait in line.” Vice Division Chief Lee had no dissent about that.
“Is this your first time here?” the man waiting ahead of them suddenly turned around and asked.
“That’s right. What’s the matter?” Vice Division Chief Lee was slightly dumbfounded thus didn’t say anything. It was the Division Chief who asked curiously.
“You can’t buy dishes and take them away. You could only eat them here at the restaurant.” When the man heard their answer, he told them decisively and straightforward.
“The restaurant is so small, it will be pretty troublesome if they don't allow takeout,” Division Chief Lin continued saying.
“I don’t know why, but Boss Yuan has adhered to this principle firmly. If he says you could only order one serving, then it’s indeed one serving. If he says you can’t order takeouts, then you can’t.” The man shrugged, revealing that he didn’t know either.
“Then the boss will probably lose much business, wouldn’t he?” Vice Division Chief Lee was puzzled.
“With Boss Yuan’s culinary skills, opening such a small restaurant is unworthy of his talent. On the contrary, that’s good for us. Only in this way could we eat the delicacies he cooks,” The man summarized in delight.
“This Boss Yuan doesn't seem to know much about running a business.” Apart from the caprice, Vice Division Chief Lee found another drawback of Yuan Zhou’s.
“Actually, it seems that the boss has his own understanding of running a business.” Division Chief Lin didn’t seem very concerned about that.
It turned out that this restaurant didn’t seem to have any problems. Other affairs, such as how they operated the restaurant were all within the owner’s authority. However, now he was quite curious about the dishes, wondering if they were truly as delicious as told by the others waiting here.
It wasn’t a long wait. Within an hour, it was their turn.
After the two people entered the door, Vice Division Chief Lee looked directly at his target, the price list.
Division Chief Lin, on the other hand, acted more casually. He just curiously looked around the restaurant with interest.
The door was made from ordinary glass but was exceptionally clean. The interior space was 30 square meters, exactly like it was written on paper. A small single table with two seats was facing the entrance. Besides that, along the long curved table circling the open kitchen, a total of 8 high chairs were placed.
From this point of view, the restaurant was sparkling clean; even the wall cabinet in the kitchen was free from any stains. They walked up to the two vacant seats and reached out to touch the table top. It didn’t feel greasy at all.
Division Chief Lin was quite satisfied with the clean tables and chairs and the absence of smoke and oil in the air despite it being an open kitchen. At least the sanitary conditions were satisfactory.
“Hi, what would you like to eat, sirs?” Yuan Zhou didn’t recognize that they were the staffs who dealt with his tax declaration, thus merely asked his usual question.
“Boss, this price is ...?” Vice Division Chief Lee really felt that his previous years were all lived in vain. A mere Egg Fried Rice costing 188 RMB was still affordable. But what the heck was with the Herbal Tea Eggs? It was an astonishing 888 RMB even with a special offer.
“Which one do you mean?” Every new guest coming for the first time would ask about the prices, thus Yuan Zhou would basically answer them all.
“Let’s not mention the other dishes first. Just the Herbal Tea Eggs deserve an explanation.” Vice Division Chief Lee was especially curious about this very expensive dish.
“You’ll know why after you order and taste it.” This was exactly how Yuan Zhou answered.
The Bureau of Commodity Price regulated that prices should be marked clearly, without any intentional deception and should not affect the average market price. Under this regulation, Yuan Zhou’s restaurant was too small to affect the market price. As for intentional deception, the prices were all clearly marked at a conspicuous place on the wall behind thus they couldn’t even pretend to miss it.
It really was a scam that everybody willingly went for.
He recalled the memory of a song: “Deceit shall be open and straightforward. Don’t put on an act until the day long.”
“Lee, let’s follow the boss’s advice and order some to taste,” Division Chief Lin instructed directly.
“Please offer us the Egg Fried Rice Set and Clear Broth Noodle Soup Set, one serving for each.” Since he knew Division Chief Lin liked eating noodles, Vice Division Chief Lee made the decision to order the set meal of the noodles.
“All right. Altogether, it is 588 RMB.” Yuan Zhou directly told them the total price.
Vice Division Chief Lee paid the bill without hesitation.
“Young brother, are the dishes here so delicious?” With great interest, Division Chief Lin started talking to a customer beside him.
The customer was a silent and shy young boy wearing a pair of glasses. He was startled at first by the abrupt question but after calming down, he said, “Very nice. The culinary skills of Boss Yuan are truly top-notch but I just come here occasionally because the price is way too high.” While saying that, he touched his head with a shy expression on his face.
“It’s indeed quite expensive. Such a small restaurant, yet surprisingly, it sells such expensive dishes.” Division Chief Lin nodded his head in agreement.
“In my opinion, this is too deceitful.” Vice Division Chief Lee touched his bald hairstyle and grumbled in low voice.
“No, I don’t think so. Though they are expensive, the dishes well deserve the price. There is nowhere else that you can enjoy such delicacies,” the shy boy refuted Vice Division Chief Lee immediately.
“Yeah, it’s indeed a good deal for such magnificent dishes. The only problem is that Boss Yuan is too lazy. The restaurant is open for not more than 6 hours every day.” another customer beside them interrupted their conversation, speaking the last sentence in very low voice.
Just as Division Chief Lin was about to say something, he was interrupted by the dishes being served to them.
“The set meals that both of you ordered.” Yuan Zhou carried the dishes out one after another.
Looking at the set meals, Vice Division Chief Lee felt a complicated feeling welling up inside him. Division Chief Lin also had the same feeling. What did these two unpeeled cloves of garlic mean? They had never seen a restaurant acting so rudely to its customers.
At this time, Yuan Zhou kindly reminded, “The garlic is not spicy nor will it give you dragon breath after eating it.”
Even though Yuan Zhou already said that, Division Chief Lin still found it hard to swallow them. Of course the garlic wouldn’t go to waste here. He had already noticed all plates that the customers used shone like they had been washed. They shone clean and bright as if the customers had licked every inch of the plates.
While Division Chief Lin was still hesitating whether or not to eat the garlic, another customer took a seat beside him and asked directly.
“Young master, are the new dishes Watermelon Juice and Herbal Tea Eggs?” said an aged but vigorous voice.