Chapter 68: Entertaining Guests
Translator: Xiong Guoqi Editor: DesTheSloth
Suddenly, a good idea occurred to Yuan Zhou. Maybe he could make himself appear kinder and more easy-going in order to complete this mission.
But first, he had to make things clear.
“What exactly does part of a cuisine’s recipe mean?” Yuan Zhou asked quietly in his mind.
The system displayed the words, “A part of one of the random cuisines.”
“Then if I draw the lottery again, will other parts of the same cuisine appear?” Yuan Zhou asked the question that he was most concerned with.
The system read, “It depends on the first cuisine that you draw. The parts later would have a higher chance of being drawn.”
“Are the parts for each cuisine the same in quantity?” after giving it some thought, Yuan Zhou continued asking.
The system displayed the words, “It is different every time you draw. The size of each part will also differ.”
Only after clarifying all his concerns did Yuan Zhou head off to prepare the ingredients. Of course the good idea that he thought of would be put into action as well.
Therefore, when he turned back again, a smiling expression had emerged on his usual solemn face.
It startled the regular customers tremendously.
“What do you think happened to Boss Yuan?” A regular customer began to ask a stranger beside him.
This stranger was here for the first time; he was another one of the audience that watched the live broadcast. When he saw the person beside him revealing preparing-for-war expression, he couldn’t help feeling curious. “What’s wrong with you? Boss Yuan only smiled a little.”
“What? Brother, it’s your first time here, right?” the regular customer said with confidence.
“Yeah. I came here after watching Meng Meng’s live broadcast.” The audience who had watched the broadcast confirmed the regular customer’s suspicion.
“Boss Yuan never smiles. I have been here plenty of times but have never seen it happen. What do you think the situation is?” the regular customer cryptically said.
“Perhaps he is just in a good mood,” the audience of the broadcast said without paying much attention to that issue.
“Naïve. I believe Boss Yuan is thinking about slacking off,” at this time, somebody chipped in.
Ling Hong, on the other hand, looked at Yuan Zhou cautiously, worrying that he would say something disappointing.
Coincidently, with Yuan Zhou’s heighten senses, he could hear every word clearly. Now, Yuan Zhou was considering whether he should sleep in tomorrow morning. It was tiring to get up early and open the doors for business.
Then, Yuan Zhou returned to his usual expression, the expressionless one.
“I’m scared. Boss Yuan’s mood finally returned back to normal,” the man who had just chipped in said suddenly.
“Yeah, exactly. I thought something had happened to him.” Another customer continued the conversation while patting his heart.
Meanwhile, Yuan Zhou could clearly hear every word these customers said, thus decided to sleep in for two more days.
Having decided that, Yuan Zhou suddenly recalled the new mission. The few glittering words “Incomplete” were still hanging under the mission. Furthermore, Yuan Zhou was quite curious about the type of cuisines he could obtain from the lottery.
“This is what you call a genuine Egg Fried Rice!” While Yuan Zhou was immersed in his own thoughts, he was interrupted by a loud shout.
He raised his head and found it was the guy, Bamboo Eating Panda. Beside him were two empty plates, which were formerly filled with Egg Fried Rice and Beef Mince. It seemed that this guy had poured the remaining rice grains into the plate of beef mince before proceeding to finish his meal. Otherwise, the plates wouldn’t be eaten as clean as if they were newly bought.
“I feel that the Clear Broth Noodle Soup was better.” Ling Hong refuted against him with his mouth full.
“You’ll know which is better after you try the Egg Fried Rice along with the beef mince.” Bamboo Eating Panda then stopped talking and continued to eat other dishes after wiping his mouth.
“Let’s talk later,” Ling Hong swallowed the noodles and drank a mouthful of broth before replying.
The usual situation in Yuan Zhou’s restaurant was that customers would start eating as soon as they were served their dishes and basically wouldn’t speak . After all, there was a crowd of people waiting behind them. Even when they wanted to talk, they would chatter fervently with each other while they were queuing in the line.
Even if they were asked to leave once they finished the meal just like in a fast food joint, the customers still couldn’t stop their pursuit of those delicacies.
Customers waiting in line at noon were usually less than those in the evening since the limited time during their lunch break. Time was aplenty in the evening after they got off work. However, today was different. The audience from the live broadcast kept crowding around the entrance of Yuan Zhou’s restaurant.
“My apologies. Business hours of my restaurant at noontime are almost up, thus I can no longer serve anymore customers.” Yuan Zhou said as he looked at the customers waiting in line.
“How could you be so heartless? I haven’t managed to eat your dishes yet.” Someone started complaining immediately.
“Me either. I even endured a full week before coming once!” a short-haired girl said in grievance.
“Boss Yuan, why don’t you extend your opening hours today? See, there’re still so many customers who haven’t managed to eat your dishes,” a slightly elderly middle-aged man said.
“Sorry, this is the rule.” Yuan Zhou still maintained the same expression on the face and said lightly.
This is right the epitome of aloofness.
But capable as Yuan Zhou, he was, nevertheless, quite upset in the heart. He not only was driving away his loyal customers but also money, more specifically, money that he could have a share of.
“I hate Boss Yuan. How could he do that do us? It isn’t easy for us to come once.” the customers went away while complaining.
“Eh, when will Boss Yuan stop being a Compass?”
After pulling down the door, Yuan Zhou climbed up the stairs and started to think over how to accomplish this new mission. Normally, he had a fairly large amount of customers. Nevertheless, few of them could meet the basic requirement of eating at least two times per month in his restaurant. After all, this was the current situation of his customers.
He looked at the mission completion status, thankfully finding that he had only a few more to go.
Lying in bed, Yuan Zhou drifted off to sleep, until he heard loud noises coming from downstairs.
“Boss Yuan, Boss Yuan, open the door.” anxious yells came from the downstairs, repeatedly. It was extremely noisy, thus as soon as Yuan Zhou woke up, he sat up immediately from his bed.
He stood up, walked to the window and opened it. There, he saw lots of people gathering around the entrance. There were so many that Yuan Zhou became clear-headed instantly. In his mind, these people were all his precious customers necessary for accomplishing the mission.
“Pi Li Pa La”, after cleaning up, Yuan Zhou ran heavily down the stairs. He only opened the door after slightly catching his breath.
“You are all so early today.” Yuan Zhou first greeted the customers.
“It’s not early, Boss Yuan. It’s already 5:30 p.m.” Wu Hai walked into the restaurant slowly.
“So it is.” Following him, Ling Hong entered. The remaining few others then came in in succession.
“Boss, are the Soup Dumplings available now?” Ling Hong directly ordered the Soup Dumplings served specially only in the morning.
“Sorry, this is a dish for breakfast.” Yuan Zhou pointed to the small characters behind Soup Dumplings on the menu and said.
“All right. Then give me a serving of Egg Fried Rice along with a plate of beef mince and a bowl of Clear Broth Noodle Soup.” All the dishes he had ordered and eaten at noon merely made him feel slightly stuffed. Since it was getting dark, he felt it better to eat less in the evening. While thinking this way, Ling Hong decisively ordered two different dishes.
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Opening hours of Yuan Zhou’s restaurant was normally fixed in the evening. Nevertheless, it was unusual today. Many customers were still waiting in line outside the entrance even when the time was almost up. The crowd included not only the regular customers from the nearby districts but also the live broadcast audience who had eaten here during noontime and waited until now to eat dinner. Apart from these people, others were the live broadcast audience who only had time in the evening and thus came for the dinner.
Most of the customers today were attracted here via Meng Meng’s publicity. They were now all convinced of Yuan Zhou’s superb culinary skills.
When it arrived at the closing time, there were still many customers outside Yuan Zhou’s restaurant. At this time, the wealthy guy Ling Hong said, “Boss Yuan, I think you can close the restaurant later today. All of us are waiting for a late snack.”
“No, I can’t.” there were only 5 minutes left before he closed the restaurant.
“What if I treat all these people to dinner. Can you close the restaurant later?” Ling Hong said while pointing to the dozen of customers who were still waiting for their turn.
“How wonderful for you to treat them. Then tomorrow is good. He said he would invite you guys a meal,” Yuan Zhou said to the remaining people directly, setting up a trap for Ling Hong.
“Boss Yuan, I meant if you extend the opening hours a little longer, then I will treat them to dinner.” Ling Hong kicked the ball back to Yuan Zhou with ease.
As for Yuan Zhou’s decision...