Volume 1 Beginning of Summer Chapter 8 Serving the Food
After going upstairs, Jiang You put the beer on the table and sat down. "I remember that the business here was not so good last year."
"The catering business is profitable now. I heard that Fatty Hu has already bought a house for his son in the inner ring road." Li Ronggao took out the wine opener hanging on the key chain and opened the beer caps one by one.
“ It’s hard-earned money.”
"Yes, you have to get up at three in the morning to go to the market to buy vegetables. I still admire you. You are accurate and ruthless. It has only been a few years, and you have turned one set into four sets." Li Ronggao glanced at Zhou Liang, "You should learn from Xiao Jiang."
"Luck, luck."
As they were talking, two pots of crayfish were brought up.
Jiang You put on gloves, grabbed a crayfish and put it on the plate, twisted off the head and tail, and peeled out the meat.
The meat is plump and elastic, and fully cooked with flavor.
Jiang You ate three in a row. "The crayfish sold on Wenhua Street are not as clean as those sold here by Fatty Hu. They don't remove the shrimp threads."
"Waiter, why haven't our dishes been served yet?"
A sharp female voice attracted everyone's attention.
Jiang You looked in the direction where the voice came from. It was Xiao Chen.
The proprietress hurried up the stairs. She walked to Xiao Chen's table and apologized, "I'm sorry, there are a lot of people here today. I'll help you go to the kitchen and ask them to come."
"That table already had two dishes, but my table didn't have a single dish..."
"They came earlier, and all they served were cold dishes..."
"We've been here for almost half an hour!"
"Hey, I'll check the list right away. Sorry, I'll be right there, right away!"
Zhou Liang bit the shrimp into his mouth, chewed it and swallowed it. Then he said, "We have been here for less than half an hour."
Xiao Chen's voice continued to torture their ears, "Not only did they not serve the food, they didn't even give us a glass of water..."
At this time, Fatty Hu walked upstairs and asked, "What's going on?"
"The dishes are a little slow to arrive," said the proprietress.
"I'm sorry, there are really too many people this year. How about I give you a bottle of drink?"
Xiao Chen glanced at her three companions and said, "Who wants a drink? Send a dish. Let's have the steamed sea bass."
The proprietress looked at Fatty Hu with some embarrassment.
Jiang You stood up and walked to their table. He looked at Xiao Chen and said, "Xiao Chen?"
Fatty Hu made a glare at the proprietress, and she turned around and walked downstairs.
Xiao Chen was stunned for a moment, then she recognized Jiang You and lowered her voice, "You are eating here too."
"Just now when I went downstairs to get beer, I thought I saw you come in. I didn't see you clearly, so I didn't dare to call out. I didn't expect it was really you."
Xiao Chen smiled awkwardly.
"Shall I give you two pounds of lobster to eat first? I'm at that table. It's just been served and it's very hot." Jiang You pointed to his seat.
Xiao Chen looked in the direction of Jiang You's finger, his eyes fixed on the gold chain around Li Ronggao's neck.
Noticing her gaze, Li Ronggao smiled at her.
Xiao Chen retracted her gaze, her momentum suddenly dropped , "No, no, no, no, I'm just waiting anxiously."
The proprietress came up with a dish containing fried eggs with leeks and braised meat with potatoes. She placed the dishes on the table and said, "The chef has already started preparing the rest."
"Then I'll go over there." Jiang You said.
"Oh, okay."
Jiang You walked back to his seat.
The dishes were served one after another.
Jiang You looked at Li Ronggao and said, "Luckily, Boss Li is here today."
"You mean I don't look like a good person, right?"
"No, no, no, Boss Li looks very righteous, right, Xiao Zhou?" Jiang You sat down, he smiled and picked up the bottle and clinked it with Li Ronggao, Xiao Zhou also raised the bottle and clinked it with him. They drank half of the bottle in one go.
"Do you know her?" Zhou Liang asked.
"After meeting her once, I knew her last name seemed to be Chen, and she seemed to be a big V," Jiang You put down the bottle of wine, "I went to return the money to Liang Hao's parents that day, and she came in and threw a crowdfunding link to me without saying a word," Jiang You shook his head, "For this kind of crowdfunding, the platform will charge a handling fee, and those two old people seem to be good."
"Did you get cheated by that woman?" Xiao Zhou said.
"Who knows?" Jiang You picked up a piece of pig intestine, put it in his mouth, chewed it for a few times, and swallowed it. "Nowadays, no matter what happens, good or bad, as long as it becomes a hot topic, people will try to get involved. No one cares about the truth."
"That's true."
"By the way, Xiao Zhou, where did you see the anonymous person you mentioned earlier?"
"Hey, um, let me look for it on Weibo..." Zhou Liang put down his chopsticks and prepared to take off his gloves to get his phone.
"Eat first, I don't have the hands to look at it now," Jiang You stopped him, "Just send it to me later."
"Okay."
The meal took about an hour.
After eating, Jiang You went downstairs to pay the bill. Fatty Hu pressed a few buttons on the calculator and said, "185."
Jiang You glanced at Fatty Hu and said, "Why are you being polite to me? It's the right amount."
"Luckily you're here today. That woman," Fatty Hu lowered his voice and glanced outside, "she was sure we wanted to do business and wouldn't argue with her. She had the nerve to ask for steamed sea bass. There were four of us, but we only ordered three dishes and one serving of fried rice."
"I saw that the bag she was holding was a famous brand." Jiang You took out his mobile phone, scanned the payment QR code, and entered the amount.
Fatty Hu snorted, "Who knows? People who can afford brand-name bags won't patronize a place like mine."
"Hey, I'm leaving."
"Okay, I'll treat you to a meal next time you come."
Jiang You walked out of the restaurant. Li Ronggao and Zhou Liang were already waiting outside smoking.
Jiang You walked over to them. Li Ronggao threw a cigarette to him. Jiang You took it in his hand and glanced at the time. "I'll go back first. It's getting late. It rained so hard this afternoon. I have to go back and check on my potted flowers to make sure they don't get damaged."
As he spoke, he opened the app and called a taxi.
"Please share some experience with me next time. Last time I moved a few pots of green ivy into the store, and they all died in less than two months." Li Ronggao handed the lighter to Jiang You.
Jiang You took it, lit the cigarette, took a puff, and slowly exhaled the smoke. "I do have some experience in growing flowers. When I have time, I plan to renovate my small yard. It's about 20 square meters. I'll build a stone path, some important shrubs, dig a small pond, make a rest area against the wall, and put up a succulent flower stand as a background..."
"Do you want to keep a bird or a few turtles? You are really living the life of an old retired man."
“You can’t keep birds.”
As they were talking, a taxi stopped on the side of the street.
Jiang You threw the cigarette on the ground and stomped it out. He waved at Li Ronggao and Zhou Liang, "Boss Li, I'm leaving now. Xiao Zhou, remember to send me that Weibo when you get back."
Li Ronggao and Zhou Liang also waved to Jiang You.
