Chapter 566: A Genuine Foodie
Translator: Xiong_Guoqi Editor: DesTheSloth
However, the grandpa still wouldn’t tell Yuan Zhou. He was triggered by this event. Intending to show off the good stuff in Yuan Zhou’s restaurant in front of his old friends, his limelight had been stolen by that old guy from the tax bureau, who said that he had drunk some good tea.
In the beginning, he described as if it were raining flowers and almost brought out that he actually drank the tea from the parent tree of the Dahongpao Tea.
After the grandpa asked about the address, he knew this old guy had drunk the tea in Yuan Zhou’s restaurant. Then, he believed the words and thus rushed here hurriedly.
The grandpa had enough reasons not to believe in him at first. If it was at other places, the grandpa would have reservations about Division Chief Lin’s words no matter how perfect he described it. However, he wouldn’t feel surprised at all if Division Chief Lin told him that he had drunk the tea from the parent tree of Dahongpao Tea in Yuan Zhou’s restaurant.
“This guy even dares to cook the Tea Eggs with the Keemun Black Tea.” The grandpa’s heart was bleeding while he was thinking of that.
Fortunately, the grandpa wasn’t the kind of people who pestered others endlessly. Having waited for a while, he left voluntarily when he found Yuan Zhou was indeed sculpting attentively.
By then, Yuan Zhou had just sculpted a donkey as promised.
“This grandpa is really persistent about tea?” Yuan Zhou muttered to himself and continued sculpting.
The whole afternoon pa.s.sed as Yuan Zhou honed his sculpting techniques.
In the evening, the dinnertime commenced after Yuan Zhou had prepared the ingredients, just as usual.
“Tu Tu Tu Tu”, the sound of an electrically operated tricycle pa.s.sed.
It was a bright red electrically operated tricycle just like those running in the streets for transporting pa.s.sengers. Though this tricycle was not very new, it was quite clean. And that might be the only difference between this one and those ones in the streets, if any.
The blanket over the back seat for two was apparently very clean at first glance.
As soon as the tricycle stopped, a smiling old man who was dressed in an army green overcoat and a knitted woolen hat headed straight for Yuan Zhou’s restaurant.
“Hey hey. It seems that I arrive just in time.” The grandpa took off the gloves, put them on the back seat and then came over to line up, preparing to enter the restaurant.
This grandpa that drove the tricycle was about 60 years old. With a smile on his face, he looked quite amiable. Once he arrived, Zhou Jia greeted him.
“Grandpa Zhang, you are here. What do you want to eat today?” Zhou Jia asked smilingly.
“Me? I must eat some meat today. It’s the beginning of the month.” Grandpa Zhang was taking the reservation number. It happened to be his turn.
“Yeah, yes. What about the Dongpo Pig Knuckle?” Zhou Jia seemed to be quite familiar with Grandpa Zhang, thus she smiled and joked with him.
“This old guy can’t afford that. Let me just eat some other meat dishes.” On entering the restaurant, Grandpa Zhang took off his hat and overcoat deftly and then he sat down and prepared to order dishes.
“Here you are, Grandpa Zhang.”
“Hi, Grandpa Zhang.”
“What do you want to eat this evening, Grandpa Zhang?”
Seeing Grandpa Zhang get seated, most of the people who were waiting for their meals or eating greeted him immediately.
In response, Grandpa Zhang nodded the head smilingly and also greeted them.
“I want to eat the meatb.a.l.l.s today.” Grandpa Zhang told Zhou Jia straightforwardly.
“Okay. One moment, please.” It was Yuan Zhou who answered him this time.
Grandpa Zhang wasn’t a regular customer of Yuan Zhou’s restaurant. He came once a month and that was all.
But even so, many regular customers were acquainted with him as he was an interesting person.
“Who’s that?” Huang Ya asked Ma Zhida beside him curiously.
“He’s Grandpa Zhang. He comes here for meals.” Ma Zhida said straightforwardly.
“I can tell. I mean, you all seem to know him?” Huang Ye was a little curious.
“Of course. This grandpa is very interesting. If only I can live as unrestrained as him!” Ma Zhida even revealed an envious tone.
“What do you mean?” Huang Ye was puzzled.
“Grandpa lives by transporting the pa.s.sengers on his electrically operated tricycle. Do you know how much he earns every month?” Ma Zhida said with a mysterious tone.
“It might be 4 or 5 grand?” Huang Ye asked with uncertainty.
In his opinion, it was barely acceptable to come occasionally for a meal in Yuan Zhou’s restaurant with a salary 4 or 5 grand per month.
“No, not so much. Just two or three grand. After all, he’s old.” Ma Zhida shook the head.
“Does he often come here? Then he must have a very rich family.” Huang Ye didn’t get it, again.
“Of course not. Grandpa Zhang is a widower and he only needs to support himself. He comes only once per month and spends within 1 grand and 2 grand.” Ma Zhida said directly.
“Then how does he plan for his future life?” Huang ye asked in surprise.
“Just live as normally as usual. But Grandpa Zhang has a good temperament. Every time he comes here, he talks about the experiences when he was young. He’s funny.” Ma Zhida had been noticing Grandpa Zhang as he waited to listen to stories.
“This is way too capricious! Doesn’t he keep something for a rainy day?” Huang Ye shook the head repeatedly. He totally couldn’t understand Grandpa Zhang’s way of life.
In his opinion, it was way too extravagant to eat such expensive dishes at even if the condition was that he only came once per month. This was absolutely unacceptable.
“I know you are unable to understand that. You can ask him directly when he finishes the story and then you’ll know the reason.” Ma Zhida appeared rather mysterious when he said that.
“I am not really curious.” Huang Ye shook the head mildly.
The temperament of Huang Ye was lukewarm, so he didn’t really like intervene others’ life.
“Even if you don’t ask, others will do.” Ma Zhida started to listen to the story after he said that.
Grandpa Zhang was good at telling stories. He was capable of telling a sad story with some fun of life. There had always been a gentle smile on his face.
That even made Huang Ye who wasn’t interested in listening to the story look at him with awe.
When the story was told halfway, Yuan Zhou carried the dishes to him personally.
“Here are the Dongpo Su Meatball and Soy Sauce Fried Rice of 100 Styles of Rice Cuisines for you.” Yuan Zhou set down the plates gently.
“Thank you, Boss Yuan. Without your craftsmans.h.i.+p, there would be no fun in life.” Grandpa Zhang took up the chopsticks happily and ate some quickly. Then, he squinted and said.
“Thank you for your compliment.” Yuan Zhou nodded the head and accepted that.
“You are welcome.” Grandpa Zhang waved the hand and started to eat the dishes directly.
When he was eating, he didn’t tell stories, but just concentrated on eating seriously.
However, the grandpa was satisfied every time he ate here. He ate happily and carefully without leaving a drop of gravy.
He did that just like Wu Hai who licked the plates every time.
“Grandpa, if you spend most of your money on a meal every month, where will you get money when you are sick and need to go to the hospital?” A young girl asked hesitantly.
“I am old. If I need to go to the hospital one day, I probably don’t have much time left. Then, I will sell my house and go to the hospital with the money.” Grandpa Zhang wiped his mouth and said without any hesitation.
“What about the money left?” The house was currently so expensive that people would immediately think of this problem once they heard selling the house.
“He will definitely donate all the money left.” Huang Ye thought inwardly.
“The money left? That won’t happen. If I live in the hospital, I will employ somebody to carry me to Boss Yuan’s restaurant to eat every day. The taste will be awesome.” Grandpa Zhang looked at the plate carefully and confirmed there was nothing left before he said that.
“Huh?” For an instant, Huang Ye and others who didn’t know Grandpa Zhang were all slightly puzzled about the interesting answer.
…