Chapter 30

Chapter 30: Surprise

“Did you say boss Yuan had some sort of incident that caused him to forgo his business in the afternoon?” The man in the suit looked at Wu Hai and asked in a curious manner . He was impatiently looking at the entrance that was sealed tight .

“How do I know? I didn’t even manage to get breakfast . ” Wu Hai‘s anger rose once again as he was now confronted with those who had tried the new menu item . His speech had also lost its usual gentleness, and instead carried dissatisfaction .

“Weren’t you living nearby? I thought I’d ask . ” The man in the suit didn’t mind too much . He had only himself to blame for being amongst the first batch of people to try out the new dish . Besides, he wouldn’t lose anything if he was being grumbled at a little .

“I didn’t get my breakfast despite living nearby . ”

That philosopher’s saying certainly rang true . A hungry stomach would definitely leave one on edge . True to form, Wu Hai left behind those words, then stormed off .

(ED note: Snickers satisfies . )

Everyone else was still talking over each other and criticizing Yuan Zhou . At that moment, the grandpa who had been waiting for a while gave up . Thinking of how he shouldn’t starve his wife, he opened his mouth and said, “Everyone should return, I guess the lil’ chef will not be opening his door in the afternoon . ”

The grandpa’s words had reached everyone’s heart . In reality, just from looking at the slip of paper, they already knew that Yuan Zhou would not open that afternoon . However, they had been waiting to see if a miracle would happen . However, as time passed, it was looking more and more unlikely .

As such, the crowd began to unwillingly scatter, grumbling under their breath as they left .

“I’m not sure what he’s thinking . How can he follow through with what he said and abandon a proper business like that? “ A middle aged man helplessly glanced at the signboard-less shop and said .

On the other side, there were also people who rebutted .

“What do you mean by abandoning? He’s still going to open the shop at night . The way you say it really ticks me off . ”

“Exactly, exactly!”

“Sigh, but the customer is god . If this was any other restaurant, I’d have left by now . But . . I just can’t bear to part with the egg fried rice in this restaurant!”

“Agreed . The owner’s culinary skill is truly too good . Damn it, the egg fried rice from any other place tastes just like pig food compared to this . ”

“My whole life is done for! I can only rely on the owner’s food to keep me alive at this point .

The crowd continued to disperse and gradually disappeared .

On the other side of the street in her dry-cleaning shop, Boss Tong witnessed the entire commotion, exclaiming, ”I didn’t know lil’ Yuan’s skill was that good . It’s only been this long and he already has this many regular customers . ”

However, Boss Tong had never thought of going there and giving it a try . One had to know that there was a time when Boss Tong entered Yuan Zhou’s shop and was prepared to support him as a neighbour . One look at the price however, frightened Boss Tong to the point of being speechless .

At that point, she’d even thought that Yuan Zhou had most likely gone crazy . Who was willing to spend 200 RMB to eat a plate of egg fried rice? The first two days had gone exactly as Boss Tong’d predicted . However afterwards, Boss Tong saw a bustling crowd whenever the restaurant was open, and had firmly convinced herself that there truly were so many stupid people with money to blow in this world .

The large commotion that had played out today made Boss Tong understand that those people had actually rushed here for Yuan Zhou’s culinary skill .

“Maybe I should also set some time aside to give this 200 RMB egg fried rice a taste?” Boss Tong’s mouth couldn’t help but whisper .

As for the Yuan Zhou who was seriously sampling each and every dish in front of him at that moment, he was completely oblivious to the chaos that had unfolded in front of his shop . No matter what, he had already spent money, and these few dishes were twice as expensive as their counterparts in other restaurants .

“The frog meat is too tough and the spicy flavor is too heavy . It has completely overshadowed the fresh taste inside the frog meat . ” Yuan Zhou finished eating the poached bullfrog dish and evaluated it .

“The beef is too tough, I actually couldn’t bite it apart . ”

“The fishy smell of the eggs in the egg fried rice has completely covered up its fragrance . ”

Almost every bite was accompanied by a comment of this nature . At last, there was only the turtle soup of the head chef that he hadn’t yet tried .

The turtle soup was plated in a large pottery bowl decorated with a lotus flower . The soup was snow-white without any oil droplets, and there was nary a hint of fishiness in its subtle fragrance . Dark-green chopped scallion floated on the surface of the soup and with a light stir of the spoon, the neatly chopped turtle meat below was exposed .

“Looks like its appearance isn’t too bad . ”

Yuan Zhou muttered to himself . He then scooped up and drank a mouthful .

That mouthful made Yuan Zhou felt like he should obediently eat the meals he made from now on and call it quits . It wasn’t that the soup was unpleasant to drink—he felt the soup itself was still passable . However, Yuan Zhou’s acute tastebuds could detect the faint fishiness of the tortoise, the disinfectant smell of the water, as well as the smell of the earth from the onions that were inside it .

This table of dishes allowed Yuan Zhou to thoroughly compare and understand that the items provided by the system were truly the finest of their class .

Seeing how he basically only ate a mouthful for each of the dishes, Yuan Zhou’s mouth uncontrollably twitched .

“If I had known earlier, I wouldn’t have acted pretentiously . This is really a waste . ”

Yuan Zhou consoled himself incessantly that his heartache came from his food wastage, since many kids do not have access to food in Africa, and definitely not because of the amount of money spent .

About 5 minutes later, Yuan Zhou calmly called .

“The bill please . ”

“Nice to meet you, sir . Your total bill comes to 2986 RMB . Will you be paying by card or cash?” The waiter calmly said . He had brought the bill and walked over while scanning the virtually untouched dishes on the table .

Thinking about the full and bulging hundred RMB bills in his wallet, Yuan Zhou said with a voice full of pride, “By cash . ”

“Understood . This way please, the checkout counter is right over here . ” The waiter brought Yuan Zhou to the checkout counter .

Yuan Zhou comfortably took out his wallet and forked out 3000 RMB . Taking the 14 RMB change he received, he left in an elegant manner . Once he had gone, the waiter who was cleaning the table invited the head waiter over .

“You see, that customer ordered the speciality dishes yet had practically never touched them . ” The waiter pointed at the fundamentally intact dishes .

“In that case, you should make a note . I will report it to the high-ups later and see what they do about it . ” The head waiter contemplated for a moment and instructed the waiter to settle this matter in a low profile way .

After that, the head waiter found a few servers and carried those dishes into the kitchen .

The head waiter’s note from the restaurant speedily made its way up to the hands of the lobby manager . As this matter involved the back kitchen, the lobby manager could only pass it on to the administrative department .

In the end, the head chef was called into the general manager’s office .

“Chef Liao, take a look at this person . Is he a food critic?”

When the general manager saw the head chef arrive, he pointed at the computer monitor where Yuan Zhou was eating and asked .

The head chef’s surname was Liao, and he wasn’t as fat as the other chefs . Instead, he was a middle aged man with a shrewd face who had an enthusiastic temperament . Walking up to it, he examined the scene on the monitor .

“It doesn’t actually seem like it from the way he dressed up, but I can’t be certain either . Did we receive news that someone is going to come over for a taste-test?” In the monitor, Yuan Zhou was wearing a simple T-shirt and a pair of jeans, yet the way he ate was very similar to those food critics . At this point, head chef Liao didn’t dare make the final call .

The general manager looked at it again and really couldn’t make out anything . He could only say to the head chef, “I see . Go and make a few more dishes for the next two days, I will see if any magazine reports it . ”

“No problem . ”

Head chef Liao readily agreed . Seeing that the young guy in the video didn’t seem to be very pleased when drinking his soup, he also felt somewhat discontented in his heart . He believed he was pretty proficient when it came to his culinary skill .

Yuan Zhou had never expected that he would be the cause of a tremor that shook the hotel .

Exiting the entrance of the hotel, Yuan Zhou sat on a relatively better taxi called by the bell boy .

“Where do you want to go?” The professional driver asked .

“14 Peach Creek Road . ”

After saying which, Yuan Zhou closed his eyes and began to nap .

The car steadily traveled along a road . The driver had also gone by the book and didn’t even take the longer route .

After paying for the passenger fare, Yuan Zhou alighted and directly entered through the back door .

Of course, none of this was seen by Wu Hai, who had been continuously observing from across the street . He was still hung up over whether he would starve today if Yuan Zhou didn’t open his door . Would I starve for today or would I not, would I starve for today or would I not…?

This wasn’t a difficult question for Wu Hai . In the past, it was a very normal thing for him to not eat a day’s worth of meals when things started to get busy . However, only now that Yuan Zhou’s small restaurant had appeared, whose food was extremely compatible with his own taste, did he start the habit of punctually eating his three meals without fail .

Returning to his home, Yuan Zhou first put his old phone and computer away, then placed his newly unboxed computer and handphone down .

Yuan Zhou did not have his afternoon nap that noon and directly played an afternoon’s worth of games . He was playing spider solitaire, a software which was pre-installed inside the computer all the way till half past 4,and had never once won before .

Closing his computer furiously, Yuan Zhou could only head down and prepare to open his shop . Needless to say, there was also a surprise waiting for him when he opened the door…