Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Happy had a certain habit. When waiting for food to arrive, he enjoyed beating against his bowl with his chopsticks to create clanking sounds. Brain also had a habit. When waiting for food to arrive, he liked to drink beverages. One time, he waited half an hour for the food to arrive at a certain restaurant. In that time, Brain had drunk about seven or eight pots of tea. He was nearly turned into a sack of water by the time his food arrived.
But at Yuan Zhou’s restaurant, both of them restrained themselves. Happy had once heard that the tableware of this restaurant was very expensive. He was scared that he might accidentally break them. As for Brain, he would only be drinking beverages provided by the restaurant. Unfortunately, Yuan Zhou’s restaurant only provided him a glass of water.
But then, it was also fortunate that the dishes did not take long to be served here. Steamed Rice Powder and Pork, Twice Cooked Pork, Jin’ling Grass, and two bowls of plain white rice were in front of them before long.
As the saying went, a potluck was equivalent to a war. It meant that a social gathering could be as complicated as a war. But today, both Happy and Brain reevaluated their understanding on the meaning of this saying.
They even felt like that saying might be a lie after all.
Their chopsticks started moving everywhere as Happy and Brain started fighting over dishes. Anytime one of them tried to pick up food, the other chopsticks would arrive to cut it off. Clanging sounds could be heard as the chopsticks clashed like swords.
They had never experienced such an intense meal before. Finally, Brain used a distraction technique to get a piece of Twice Cooked Pork. The piece of meat he got was balanced in terms of fat and meat, and was incredibly delicious. He spent quite a bit of time thinking of a term to describe this piece of meat he was eating but was unable to think of anything. After a while, he only came out with one term: fat yet not greasy.
“Chengdu School, a subcategory of Sichuan Cuisine. This is a true Twice Cooked Pork. After eating the first piece, one will want to eat the second piece, a third piece, and more.”
While speaking, his chopsticks did not fail to continue invading the dish, preparing to pick up a second piece of meat. Brain had already decided to bring that annoying friend here, to let him know how the food cooked by an authoritative person in the food industry should taste like.
“I knew it. Boss Yuan’s food will definitely be tasty,” Happy said, even while his chopsticks accurately shot out to stop Brain’s chopsticks.
By the side, Yin Ya was dumbstruck looking at them. Suddenly, she started wondering about something. What would happen if Wu Hai was thrown into the mix as well?
The restaurant had a harmonious atmosphere. Suddenly, a person that stood out from everything here appeared. He was dressed in a suit with his hair combed in a slickback. He asked, “Excuse me, are you Boss Yuan? I know that you will pay full attention when cooking. Can you give me some of your time after you are done cooking?”
The guy with a slickback expressed his intention with the shortest sentence he could. After saying that, he stepped outside the restaurant and started silently waiting.
It was apparent he knew how to conduct himself appropriately. The customers nodded when they saw this. Some were wondering if it was a culinary show inviting Yuan Zhou as their guest or something. After all, such invitations had been coming without stop ever since the exchange meeting.
The guy with the slickback entered the restaurant again after the final customer left and spoke his intention.
“Boss Yuan, I am the contact person of Roll, Dear Beef. You might have heard of this show before,” the guy with the slickback said and looked at Yuan Zhou, hoping that there would be some reaction from Yuan Zhou. Alas, Yuan Zhou was completely expressionless, seemingly waiting for him to continue speaking.
The guy with the slickback sighed. He wanted to borrow the reputation of that show to impress Yuan Zhou. He had not expected that Yuan Zhou would be one that did not care about the entertainment industry. He quickly readjusted his state of mind and continued, “Our show has high ratings and is an outdoor show. Some missions would be completed in each of the cities we go to. We are hoping that Yuan Zhou’s restaurant can be our filming location for this city.”
Roll, Dear Beef was currently a very popular outdoor variety show. It was in the first episode of the latest season. Each season, they would send some celebrities to a city to complete a series of missions. This time, they had arrived at Chengdu. Therefore, it was reasonable that they would come looking for Yuan Zhou’s restaurant.
In fact, Yuan Zhou would watch the replay of this show each night. It was quite an interesting show. When he heard that his shop had been selected, he felt elated. Of course, to maintain his image as a prince charming, he maintained an expressionless face.
After the guy revealed his reason, Yuan Zhou did not give a clear agreement, yet he did not reject him as well. He told him he would give it some thought and give an answer tomorrow.
“I am definitely not agreeing because of the female celebrities,” Yuan Zhou calmly muttered when he thought of the pretty celebrities that would be on the show while lying on his bed.
Then, he fell asleep.
The next day, the weather was very good.
“Huh? I thought you said you’re not coming to Yuan Zhou’s restaurant ever again? Why are you here?”
Apart from Wu Hai, nobody would be that free to ask a question like this. And why did Wu Hai remember this person? Because the day before, this guy suddenly called out his name like a madman before proceeding like nothing had happened.
And after this person finished his meal, he had even muttered that he would definitely not come here ever again. As a matter of fact, Wu Hai was very sensitive toward two kinds of sounds.
The first was the sound of Yuan Zhou opening his restaurant. This was a sound that for some reason, Wu Hai could hear even without coming downstairs. He could even clearly differentiate the difference of the sounds between the opening of Yuan Zhou’s restaurant and his neighbor.
For him, the shop at the left of the restaurant would have a comparatively more ear-piercing sound when it was being opened. As for the shop across the street, it was loud and sounded like gurgling water. The shop at the right had gone without repair for years so it had a whooshing sound instead.
Returning to the topic, the second sound Wu Hai was extremely sensitive to was anything related to Yuan Zhou. Therefore, even though Unworried Mulberry was muttering in a whisper when he said that, Wu Hai still heard him.
Unworried Mulberry blanked out slightly. He had never expected this question coming. Of course, if it was someone else, that person could reply with a “That is none of your business.” Unfortunately, he did not have the confidence to say something like that to this Wu Hai, a freakishly talented painter.
Thus, he replied in this manner instead: “Did I say that? No way. Only an assh*le would say something like that.”
“Huh? Your shamelessness is very impressive. Lad, come, learn painting from me,” Wu Hai replied.
“You are really teaching? I’m in.”
“Brother Wu, if you are taking students, don’t forget me.”
Before Unworried Mulberry could reply, the voices of a man and woman sounded behind him.
The man was in his thirties and was even older than Wu Hai. He only called Wu Hai Brother Wu because he was a faithful fan of him. During Wu Hai’s previous art exhibition, out of the 10 paintings auctioned, this guy got four of them. It was obvious how big of a fan he was.
As for the woman, she was Miss Feng. She was also a regular customer here. Moreover, she was a very eye-catching customer. Each time she came, she would have a bodybuilding coach and a nutritionist following her around.
Miss Feng seriously said, “You told me last time that painting is a mental labor capable of helping one lose weight. You must teach me the ultimate technique to lose weight. So long as it works, I am willing to pay any amount of money as the tuition fee.”
The fan of Wu Hai did not want to fall short of the woman. He knew that Wu Hai was not short of money, so he tried to move him with emotions instead, “Brother Wu, the feelings we had built with each other over the course of five years can’t be faked.”
When Unworried Mulberry saw that he had no business here anymore, he quickly ordered his dishes from Zhou Jia and made the payment.
It was purely coincidental that Unworried Mulberry was able to enter the restaurant before Wu Hai and to be the first person to order today. He had arrived one hour before the restaurant opened, and Wu Hai was kept busy by the man and woman.
Since he was seated near the door, while waiting for his dishes, he noticed the money box. From a glance, not much money was left in the box. It was probably lower than 200RMB.
“Return what you borrowed on time, you may borrow again next time.” Unworried Mulberry had already changed his mind. The money box was not a ruse to gain publicity. Therefore, it was truly there for people in an emergency. In an ideal world, the money in the box would not reduce. Rather, it would be increasing.
Unfortunately, reality was always different from a dream. From how the box looked, it was clear that at least half of the people that had borrowed the money hadn’t returned what they borrowed.
