Chapter 138: Preparations for Both Eventualities
Translator: Xiong Guoqi Editor: DesTheSloth
When night fell, Sun Ming drove hurriedly to Yuan Zhou’s restaurant. Coincidently, there was already a long line of customers waiting at the entrance of Yuan Zhou’s restaurant when he arrived.
Although he worried about the physical condition of his brother, at the same time he believed he should be fine when he saw so many people were waiting in line, indicating that Yuan Zhou had opened the restaurant as usual.
Half an hour later, Sun Ming finally got his turn.
"Are you ok?" As soon as he sat down, Sun Ming asked.
"Why are you asking?" Yuan Zhou asked back curiously as he put away the kitchenware on the azure stone countertop.
"As for the treat, is your brain damaged by the fever?" When Sun Ming looked carefully at Yuan Zhou, he found his face blushed with rosy health, appearing to be quite healthy.
"Nope. Remember to come tomorrow," Yuan Zhou said with a slightly unfriendly tone, even though it wasn’t very obvious.
"Are you sure?" Sun Ming was still a little suspicious.
"I’m pretty sure. Are you here for meal or to gossip?" Yuan Zhou directly asked.
"For meal, of course I’m here for meal. I haven’t been here for days." when he found there was indeed no problem with Yuan Zhou, Sun Ming let out a sigh of relief.
"What do you want to eat?" Yuan Zhou asked in his formulaic way.
"Didn’t you say there are new dishes? Get me one of them to taste." Sun Ming revealed a curious manner.
"Check the price first and then decide," Yuan Zhou pointed at behind of Sun Ming.
"Expensive, right?" Sun Ming turned his head and looked behind.
"Well, I’d rather eat a vegetarian dish. Thank you," after checking the unusual price, Sun Ming immediately changed his mind.
"Ok, it’ll be here soon." Yuan Zhou nodded.
"Hey, bro. Can I order whatever I want tomorrow?" Suddenly, Sun Ming recalled it was Yuan Zhou who was treating them tomorrow and he immediately became expectant.
"Yes, you can. But no wasting, as usual," Yuan Zhou said before wearing the mask.
"No problem. I treasure food the most." Sun Ming agreed right away.
There is decorum for inviting one to a banquet; with three day’ grace, it’s known as inviting, with two days it’s known as asking and on the same day, it’s known as urging without courtesy.
Although Yuan Zhou didn’t officially send out invitations, he nevertheless offered them sufficient preparing time. Furthermore, it wasn’t a formal banquet; therefore, he set the time at 11:00 a.m.
Sun Ming and Meng Meng both arrived on time.
The several streamers brought here by Meng Meng were also her colleagues working in the same company. They had a good relations.h.i.+p in normal times. Sometimes they even got together to make joint live broadcasts, hence had many of the same fans.
As for Sun Ming, he only brought the two people Zhang Daming and Monkey, who happened to be free.
It was still early then and there weren’t any customers in the restaurant. When the two groups arrived, they all looked at each other, with the same suspicion in their eyes, "Are you guys also invited by Boss Yuan?"
Sun Ming and Meng Meng took their seats in the very middle, as if they had agreed by implication.
"Boss Yuan treating all of us?" As a lively girl, Meng Meng asked curiously.
Sun Ming nodded with a rather solemn expression.
He felt that Yuan Zhou had been rather normal during the evening of the previous day when he came. However, now he felt he was acting rather abnormally when he saw Meng Meng and her friends. There were 8 people in all here, including 5 from Meng Meng’s side and 3 from his side.
It was due to their brotherhood that Yuan Zhou treated him to the meal, but what was the reason for treating these girls? Yuan Zhou had definitely become abnormal. Had his brain been temporarily occupied by Alien creatures?
Sun Ming and Meng Meng looked at each other and then at their own friends and in the end looked at Yuan Zhou.
"You ask first?" Meng Meng signaled him.
"Better you ask. You brought more people here." Sun Ming showed no compa.s.sion to the pretty girl.
"But I heard you and the boss are good brothers." having been here for quite a few times, Meng Meng naturally knew Sun Ming had a good relations.h.i.+p with Yuan Zhou.
"Let’s ask together," Sun Ming considered for a little while and finally said in a low voice.
"Humm," Meng Meng nodded earnestly.
While the two persons were fervently communicating with their eyes, their friends had nevertheless different reactions at the side.
"Is it really Boss Yuan that offers to treat us?" Monkey dared not believe that either.
"I don’t really care. Anyhow, I have already intended to come over here to eat," Zhang Daming cared little about the matter of treating. Instead, he stared at the price list behind him and carefully selected the new dishes, trying to figure out which combination should he take to have the most new dishes.
"Alright," when he found Zhang Daming didn’t care about this matter, Monkey also gave up thinking more of that and likewise started to study the new dishes.
The streamers at the other side, nevertheless, were different. These relatively reputable streamers would also be invited by some unpopular stores occasionally to advertise for them on site; therefore, they had gotten quite used to these kinds of treats.
They talked in a low voice and didn’t really care about the dishes. After all, they came all for the sake of Meng Meng’s kind invitation. After eating here and going back, they would casually post a microblog for the restaurant. Recently, Meng Meng’s live broadcast booth had been quite booming, thus her invitation should obviously be accepted.
"Thank you, guys, for your visit. Now you can order your dishes freely. The only rule is that wasting is not allowed," Yuan Zhou went up personally to greet them.
"Wait a moment. Yuan Zhou, are you all right?" as there were many people around, Sun Ming asked him euphemistically.
"Order your dishes, please," if not for the sake of his image, Yuan Zhou really wanted to support his forehead with his hands. Why were they so fussy about a mere treat?
Seeing Yuan Zhou not want to talk anymore, Meng Meng and Sun Ming stopped asking and then started to order their dishes earnestly.
As per Yuan Zhou’s tradition of serving not more than 300 grams of prawns, it basically meant an individual serving. Therefore, they chose to order the dishes respectively.
Having earnestly taken notes of the dishes ordered, Yuan Zhou took out the money himself and directly put it into the cashbox. This time, the system didn’t refuse him doing so anymore and returned the small change to Yuan Zhou, who subsequently took it back into his pockets.
At that time, Monkey mocked him, "What, Boss Yuan also has to pay for the treat?"
"This is the rule," Yuan Zhou answered primly.
"Even the restaurant belongs to you. Even if you pay, it’s more like moving the money from your right pocket to the left pocket." Monkey implied in his words that Yuan Zhou’s practice was totally equal to taking off pants to break wind, which was completely redundant.
"It’s easier to settle the accounts. These are the rules," Yuan Zhou still said so, as usual.
"It’s indeed clearer and more coherent by doing so," having rich experiences in opening a store, Sun Ming agreed.
"Everything has a final place to go. You can’t take it in and out casually just because it belongs to you. If that way, how could the boss settle all the accounts?" Sun Ming ill.u.s.trated.
The several people were all smart. They considered for an instant and felt the thing was really like what he said.
On the other side, nevertheless, Yuan Zhou truly let out a long sigh of relief.
"System, I had thought that I am unable to treat others," Yuan Zhou spoke with a tone of pure doubt.
In the first mission of the Egg Fried Rice, the system judged him to be failing when he intended to treat Sun Ming to eat it. That was why Yuan Zhou would ask so.
The system displayed, "Host, you can’t help in finis.h.i.+ng the number-based mission in the place of anyone."
"Then for treating among the customers, can I also pay for them later?" after thinking for a while, Yuan Zhou asked in hope of getting a clear answer.
The system displayed, "It’s not allowed during the implementation of the number-based mission."
"Humm," Yuan Zhou expressed that he had understand it.
Although Yuan Zhou didn’t use the second alternative means, he remembered the purpose of the treat well.
It was to make friendly contacts, as well as to complete the mission.
Yuan Zhou wore a pair of disposable fish skin gloves and took out some more money and then put it somewhere else. Only after that did he begin to wash his hands and cook the dishes meticulously.
That’s right, he was prepared to directly give Sun Ming and Meng Meng the money and let them pay as a second alternative in case the system didn’t allow him to treat just as last time. Despite the trouble, Yuan Zhou was fairly confident to be able to persuade them to do it that way.
The eight people ordered a total of 11 dishes, of which Yuan Zhou had already prepared the ingredients. For the most popular dishes, he even had finished half of the procedures, for example, three servings of Melt-In-The-Mouth Chicken Feet that had been cooked in the wok and two servings of Phoenix-Tail Prawns that were being processed.
Yuan Zhou had a habit of personally attending to every procedure. Moreover, he never touched the parts of the meat that would be swallowed by customers in order to maintain the freshness and prevent it from being contaminated by another’s presence.
Suddenly, something unexpected took place on the quiet chopping board…