Gourmet Food Supplier

Back to Unworried Mulberry’s quarrel. His extremely dramatic post had yet to be published on his Weibo. However, this had no effect on Yuan Zhou’s restaurant.

Yuan Zhou still opened his restaurant at the usual time, and apart from the regular customers, he was still getting new customers without a stop.

Some were here to try his minced meat, some were here to try and steal his recipe, some were here on a date, some were here just to see Yuan Zhou, and of course, there were also many that were here to look at the money box in front of the restaurant.

Today, a rather odd pair had appeared. From their looks, they seemed to be a father and son pair.

The father was about 50 years old and was dressed in plain and yet neat and comfortable clothing. The son was about 20 years old and was wearing a suit. The contrast of how they were dressed made them look odd, but then again, Yuan Zhou’s restaurant already had a lot of weird people anyway.

An example of those weird people was a boxer with bruises filling his face, a woman who wanted to stuff herself with food yet was scared of gaining weight, the pair of master and disciple who would get into an argument each time they came but were actually very close to each other, the youth that was only here to smell the food and hypnotize himself, and so on. As such, this father and son pair did not appear too conspicuous.

The father was called Lu Yun. He was the owner of a grocery store in the countryside. Although his entire life had been ordinary, he prided himself in supporting his son through his studies at Fudan University. His son was Lu Cheng. While studying in university, he worked part-time jobs. After he graduated, he returned to Chengdu and manage to find a decent and stable job, living comfortably.

In a very well-practiced manner, Lu Cheng took a number and joined the line.

“We have to line up for this?” Lu Yun felt that lining up to eat was way too troublesome.

Lu Cheng explained, “Dad, this restaurant is very popular. Luckily, we arrived early. Otherwise, the line will be even longer.”

After about 30 minutes, their turn arrived. They entered and sat down at the first empty seats they saw.

At first, Lu Yun did not feel anything and was merely following behind his son. But the moment he sat down and saw the price on the menu, his eyes went wide as he asked, “Is the boss here sick? 188 RMB for an Egg Fried Rice? I can buy about 70 or 80 catties of rice grains with this, and many catties of egg as well.”

“What are you talking about, dad? Boss Yuan has excellent cooking skills and the ingredients he uses are all top-notch ingredients,” Lu Cheng said.

“Even if the ingredients are top-notch, they still can’t be worth 188 RMB, right? How good can they be? Are the eggs laid by some golden chicken or something?” Lu Yun muttered.

Lu Yun had quite an intense reaction to this. He truly couldn’t understand the reasoning for this price for a mere Egg Fried Rice.

Today, he did not open his groceries shop and came to the city. He had two things to do here. Firstly, Lu Cheng would send about 4,000 RMB to the family each month. He always claimed that he made about 10,000 RMB so it wasn’t a problem to give his family a few thousand RMB.

Although Lu Yun had been in the countryside his entire life, he still knew something. His son had only graduated two years ago. It could be considered very good for him to be able to find a decent job. How was it possible for him to get a job with that kind of pay?

A short while ago, Lu Yun saw a news article on his phone saying that the average salary of last year’s fresh graduates was about 3,000 RMB. When he thought of how his son had been sending 4,000 RMB to the family each month since last year, he decided to come and see for himself if his son was living a decent life.

Secondly, Lu Cheng hadn’t been able to return home even during Chinese New Year because he was working overtime. As such, Lu Yun was missing his son and decided to come visiting with some preserved meat and sausages. He also brought a huge bag of family-cooked dishes for his son. Of course, all the dishes he brought were those that could be kept for a prolonged period of time.

“Don’t look down on this restaurant, dad. Although this restaurant is small, it is the most popular restaurant in Chengdu. The chef here is Boss Yuan. Don’t look down on him just because he is young. He once defeated a very good chef from Japan. Now, he is now an internationally acclaimed chef,” Lu Cheng explained as he pointed at Yuan Zhou who was focused on preparing the food ingredients.

With this explanation, Lu Yun understood why the price here was so high. After all, this was the best restaurant in the city. It was understandable why he would mark up the prices this much. But understanding did not equal to acceptance. Lu Yun still felt like the food here was overpriced. But since he did not want to embarrass his son, he asked in a whisper if they should eat somewhere else instead.

“Dad, like I said, I am living a good life here at Chengdu. I have about 10,000 RMB salary per month and I will come to eat here every month. Don’t worry. I am a regular customer here,” Lu Cheng assured him.

Lu Yun did not seem to believe that. To prove himself, Lu Cheng started looking around and saw a customer who was in the midst of his meal. He was dressed sloppily yet had a nicely trimmed mustache. This person was easy to spot among the crowd.

“Dad, look at this.” Before Lu Yun could react, Lu Cheng stood up and walked to the opposite table.

There, a rich guy and a mustached guy were eating. Both of these seemed to dislike each other, yet most of the time, they shared the same table and sat side by side.

“Mustached guy,” Lu Cheng called, his voice not too loud.

Wu Hai raised his head, instinctively hiding the Egg Fried Rice in front of him. In front of him was an unfamiliar youth.

Lu Yun coughed and said, “Mustached guy, have you forgotten me after snatching my food the other day?”

Wu Hai appeared lost as he had no recollection of that. But the moment he heard that he had snatched this person’s food, he immediately became energetic. Without saying anything, he immediately started stuffing food into his mouth. Half the Egg Fried Rice was left initially but in 10 seconds, he finished it. Only then did he raise his head to look at Lu Yun.

He said, “Snatching your food? What are you talking about? I am not a person like that.”

Beside Wu Hai, Ling Hong was completely dumbstruck. Wu Hai was way too horrifying. He was actually capable of finishing his food in 10 seconds. Suddenly, Ling Hong felt like this Herbal Tea Eggs were at risk. Therefore, he abandoned his noodles and started eating the eggs instead.

“I knew you wouldn’t own up to that,” after saying this, Lu Yun returned to his table. He appeared much more relaxed now.

“See, that mustached guy is a very famous painter in our country. I will come here two times per month. I know all the regulars here,” Lu Cheng proved his words with action. Only now did Lu Yun nodded his head, finally believing him.

“So dad, listen to me today. Enjoy yourself here,” Lu Cheng continued placating his dad before calling Zhou Jia over to make his order.

He ordered two plain bowls of white rice from the 100 Styles of Rice Cuisine, one Jin’ling Cuisine, one Sweedish Meatball, and one Steamed Tofu with Minced Pork. These would be enough for two of them. Lu Cheng wanted to order a vegetable dish as well but he was stopped by Lu Yun.

They had just finished their order while Wu Hai had already near the end of his meal. Ling Hong had already finished his Herbal Tea Eggs and was finishing up the remaining noodles.

“Hey, do you snatch food from everyone? You don’t even remember the people you steal from anymore,” Ling Hong asked after setting his chopsticks down.

From how Wu Hai was reacting earlier and now, it was clear Wu Hai did not remember who that person was.

Wu Hai nonchalantly waved his hand. His memory was quite good. Even though he did not have a photographic memory, he would definitely not forget those he had stolen food from. There was no need to mention why he would not forget these people. He was sure that he had never seen that young man before. But it did not matter since the entire incident did not have any effect on him.

Finally, Zhou Jia served what Lu Cheng ordered. The dishes he ordered were those that could be cooked quickly. Therefore, all the dishes arrived shortly after.

“Eat more, dad.” Lu Cheng pushed the dishes nearer to his father.