Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
“Well, I’ll personally try and see how much has the quality of the food here dropped,” Unworried Mulberry also joined the line, waiting to confirm his guess.
As someone who had arrived early, he managed to get a spot at the front part of the line.
Unworried Mulberry watched on as Yuan Zhou entered the restaurant to get ready and Zhou Jia arrived at the door to keep watch on the line. When he received his number, he knew that dinner time was arriving soon.
“I hope it won’t be too bad. Otherwise, my one hour spent lining up would have been a waste,” Unworried Mulberry muttered softly.
That’s right, one hour had passed since Unworried Mulberry started lining up.
And he had only gotten the number after an hour of queuing.
“Everyone, please enter,” Zhou Jia loudly said after checking the time.
“Hu, finally we can enter,” Unworried Mulberry heaved a sigh of relief. He was already tired from standing. If it wasn’t for his profession as a journalist, he would have left long ago.
“Well, I guess the boss does have a conscience,” before the meal started, Unworried Mulberry noticed one of the good points this restaurant had. Although all the seats in the restaurant were full, it still did not feel crowded. There was still a decent distance between each table. This was much better than many other popular restaurants that would fit as many tables as they could in their shop.
“Even I feel like there are too little tables. I feel like this restaurant can fit two more tables and it will be just right.”
Unworried Mulberry was still a fair person. If he saw something good, he would acknowledge it. Whatever venue it was, whenever the crowd grew, things would get annoying. An example would be the scenic spots that were so popular which caused the people in the crowd to basically touch shoulders. At a place like that, nobody would have the mood to appreciate the scenery regardless of how scenic it was. This was the same for eating. If a slight movement would result in one touching another person, it would greatly affect the taste one felt when eating the food.
“This boss is surprisingly considerate of his customers,” Unworried Mulberry judged. He decided that for this point alone, he would hold his punches when writing his article even if the food here ended up being bad.
Just like that, Yuan Zhou was praised even though he was unaware of it. If Yuan Zhou knew that he was being praised like this, he would probably be depressed. After all, he did want to add two extra tables. Unfortunately, the system would not allow that.
“The price is as what the rumors online said. It is so expensive. A Clear Broth Noodle Soup is priced at RMB268 while a Clear Broth Noodle Soup Set is priced at RMB308. With this price, people with income below five figures are probably not willing to come and eat here.”
Unworried Mulberry was attentively studying the menu. In truth, whether one could afford the food here or whether one was willing to spend for the food here were two entirely different things. For example, those who were stingy would probably be unwilling to come and eat here even with five-figure incomes, while a rickshaw driver who only made about 3,000 RMB per month would happily spend his money here.
“Huh?” Unworried Mulberry noticed something interesting. On the menu, this line was found: Chengdu School of Sichuan Cuisine (Any dishes in the Chengdu School of Sichuan Cuisine can be ordered)
“How about the price?” Unworried Mulberry knew that regardless of how much people complained about the price here, or how much they threatened to report the price here to the authorities, nothing happened. It was because the price of all the food here was clearly displayed.
But now, not even the price was displayed anymore?
He lowered his head to continue studying the menu on the table. The menu on the table was the same as the one on the wall. Therefore, he called out to the waitress. Zhou Jia had been working here for quite some time. Therefore, she moved nimbly and spent only one minute to complete the order of the previous table and arrived before Unworried Mulberry.
“Excuse me, what do you want to order?” Zhou Jia asked.
“I spent a long time going through the menus on both the table and wall and am wondering about something. Why is there no price label for the Chengdu School of Sichuan Cuisine? How am I supposed to order from the Chengdu School of Sichuan Cuisine?” Unworried Mulberry emphasized on the fact that he had indeed looked everywhere looking for the price. He was not someone who came here to pick a fight.
Zhou Jia had an odd expression on her face, not knowing what to say.
Unworried Mulberry said, “It’s fine if you don’t know. After all, you’re only an employee here. If you don’t know the answer, you can get your boss here.”
Unworried Mulberry had his way with his words. In a tactful manner, he expressed his dissatisfaction while insisting to see the boss. He inwardly praised himself for his splendid performance.
“Customer, there are two menus on the table,” Zhou Jia said after staying silent for a while. Pointing at the menu on the table, she continued, “Since there are too many dishes in the Chengdu School of Sichuan Cuisine, we can’t fit them all on the wall. Therefore, Boss Yuan prepared a second page on the menu for it.”
This left Unworried Mulberry dumbstruck. Zhou Jia thought that he was still confused so she separated the two menus. Previously, they were stacked together. Unworried Mulberry had not lifted the menu and had thus not noticed this.
It was as Zhou Jia had said, the second page of the menu was filled with Chengdu School of Sichuan Cuisine dishes. It went without a doubt that all the prices were labeled clearly here.
Unworried Mulberry did not feel like speaking anymore.
“Excuse me, what would you like to order?” Zhou Jia asked again. After all, there were still a lot of customers who had yet to make their order.
“Um… I want a serving of Egg Fried Rice and Tea-smoked Duck.” Unworried Mulberry had initially planned to only order an Egg Fried Rice to test it out. But on second thought, if he did not order anything from the Chengdu School of Sichuan Cuisine, he would look stupid asking about it.
Therefore, he ordered a Tea-smoked Duck as well. As for the reason for ordering this dish, Unworried Mulberry had an ulterior motive. This was a rather difficult dish among the Chengdu School of Sichuan Cuisine. More than 10 spices were required to cook this dish, such as anises, Chinese cinnamon, tea leaves, and so on. It was not an easy feat to use the correct amount of spices when cooking.
And even after nailing the amount of spices used, the duck still needed to be smoked on hardwood slices. The difficulty of cooking this dish was extremely high, and it was not known as the “Chinese Twin Ducks” together with the equally popular Beijing Roasted Duck for no reason.
After making his order and payment, Unworried Mulberry started observing his surroundings.
He was of the opinion that Yuan Zhou’s restaurant had only been able to attract so many customers despite having the quality of its food dropping through fake customers. After all, when people saw a long queue, they would get curious. In this situation, even those who did not intend to eat here would want to try out the food here as well.
Currently, all the seats were full. The guy with the bowl-cut hairstyle and the woman that looked full of authority were definitely not fake customers. Unworried Mulberry was able to recognize that the pair of shoes she was wearing would cost several thousand. To the other side, the girl dressed formally did not seem like a fake customer as well. She was naturally radiating the aura of a person that was good at her job, a feeling that could not be faked.
Through the process of elimination, Unworried Mulberry erased the potential fake customers from his list. Finally, his gaze landed on a certain person, a person who was wearing pajamas on his upper body and sportswear on his lower body. His hair was messy, his eyes looked empty, yet his mustache was neatly trimmed. Hum? Something seemed out of place here?
Simply put, from head to toe, this person radiated the aura of a loser.
This was an aura Unworried Mulberry had on himself as well. He praised himself for being smart enough to recognize a fake customer.
While Unworried Mulberry was attentively scanning his surroundings, Zhou Jia arrived to serve his food.
“Customer, your Egg Fried Rice. Your Tea-smoked Duck will be coming shortly,” Zhou Jia said as she placed the Egg Fried Rice before Unworried Mulberry.
Unworried Mulberry thanked her. Since the Egg Fried Rice was the first to arrive, he decided to deal with it first.
