Chapter 83: Drawing a Lottery
Translator: Xiong Guoqi Editor: DesTheSloth
All the other friends at the dining table revealed an “eating all by oneself would result in serious consequences” expression.
As the man nicknamed KFC was more familiar with Sun Ming and Yuan Zhou, he directly put his arm over the shoulders of Sun Ming and said, “How sly. We are all friends, so we don’t embarrass Chef Yuan. How about this, just share your longevity noodles with everybody here.”
Sun Ming answered helplessly after looking around from right to left, “Ok, sure. Now there’s no problem, right?”
“No, no. Hey, guys, let’s toast to Chef Yuan first.” The girl wearing glasses raised her wine glass without hesitation.
“Thanks.” Yuan Zhou may have stopped drinking alcohol now but he still accepted the toast. A toast from a girl on her own initiative should be accepted regardless of any circumstances.
“Chef Yuan is so awesome! Then, let’s continue.” The fat man likewise started to raise a toast to him.
“My apologies. A chef needs to maintain a sharp sense of taste. But since today is the birthday of my brother, I propose a toast to each of you.” Yuan Zhou fired off a shot first. He directly brought up the wine glass and said.
“Accepted. Just do it this way.” Sun Ming made the final decision directly.
About four bottles of beer were still within the tolerance of Yuan Zhou. Last time, he could finish a box of beers (9 bottles) without any problem but after he started worked diligently as a chef, he had stopped drinking alcohol as it might affect his sense of taste.
Having rapidly toasted each of them, Yuan Zhou said, “I’ll go cook the noodles now.”
While saying that, he stood up and went to the kitchen.
The most important part of the Clear Broth Noodle Soup was the clear broth. Therefore, Yuan Zhou merely used mineral water to boil the noodles instead of specially preparing some elaborate soup stock.
Yuan Zhou turned on a small flame and, when the water started bubbling, poured the noodles into the wok. After that, he immediately turned up the flame. Within 10 seconds, the water inside the wok started to boil. Along with the boiling water, the snow-white noodles danced ardently in the wok.
Yuan Zhou took up a spoonful of cold water and scattered the water over the noodles evenly. Immediately, the noodles sank for a while and then started rolling about again.
After three times, Yuan Zhou immediately moved the cooked noodles out of the wok and immersed them into the mineral water filled with ice cubes. The cold water made the noodles become more elastic. Three seconds later, while the interior of the noodles was still warm, Yuan Zhou scooped up the noodles into the big and white porcelain bowl.
Afterward, he added the flavorings into the bowl. Then the Clear Broth Noodle Soup, without any chopped green onions, as usual, was ready for eating.
After carrying out the noodles, it naturally attracted everyone to fight for a bite. As the leading role for the birthday party, Sun Ming, on the contrary, only managed to eat one mouthful. Yet, it was the several girls who ate most of the noodles. Foodie girls were both cute and scary with their surprisingly good appetite.
“Luckily I’m not over there fighting with them over a bowl of noodles,” Yuan Zhou thought that as he stood at the side, feeling a little drunk and slightly dizzy.
In the end, all Yuan Zhou could recall was that he strongly demanded to head back. The more acquainted KFC drove him home. The rest were lost to his mind and he just slept until 7:30 a.m. the next morning.
After he cleared his head, Yuan Zhou just stared at the ceiling mechanically and gazed into space for a while before he got up and started to clean himself.
When it was 8:00 a.m. sharp, Yuan Zhou opened the door. The little loli, Mu Xiaoyun, was already standing and waiting at the entrance obediently. Upon opening of the door, she walked straight to her particular place, standing there and waiting for the customers to enter.
Along with the “Pa da, Pa da” sound of his slippers, Wu Hai entered first and immediately said to Yuan Zhou in an ironic tone, “Boss Yuan became more diligent after hiring the waitress. You have been on time recently.”
“One serving of Soup Dumplings.” Recently, Yuan Zhou had been providing Soup Dumplings every day. This couldn't be better for Wu Hai who loved this dish the most. Hence he ordered the dish like usual.
“Sorry, Soup Dumplings are unavailable this morning,” Yuan Zhou said in a natural tone as if he hadn’t noticed Wu Hai, who was embarrassed and thus revealed an unpleasant expression.
“Egg Fried Rice and the beef mince.” Covering his stomach as if he had gastric, Wu Hai continued to order another favorite dish of his.
Taking a glance at him, Yuan Zhou asked primly, “You’d better not eat hot spicy dishes if your stomach hurts. How about a serving of Clear Broth Noodle Soup?”
“My stomach hurts because you always make me angry. I insist on ordering the Egg Fried Rice and beef mince.” Wu Hai said persistently after giving Yuan Zhou an angry glance.
“Alright. One moment, please,” Yuan Zhou went to prepare the dishes after saying that.
Each time when such things happened, Mu Xiaoyun couldn’t get a word in and would merely try to hold back her laughter quietly.
In her opinion, Wu Hai and his boss Yuan Zhou must be good friends, even though one apparently deceived the other every day and the other was willing to be deceived every day.
The girl was still too innocent. She didn’t understand that this was all an outward manifestation of a foodie that was kidnapped by delicacies.
A qualified foodie must be quite shameless in order to eat delicious dishes.
It was another busy day. Half an hour before closing time in the evening, Yuan Zhou found a pleasant surprise.
The system displayed, “Congratulations, host. You have completed the second stage of the mission. Reward can be claimed.”
The sudden and unexpected joyful surprise made Yuan Zhou reveal a faint smile.
“Boss Yuan, are you ok?” Ling Hong made a weird noise.
“Boss Yuan, I feel it is better for you to maintain your cold manner,” a short-haired girl said frankly.
“I’m not saying Boss Yuan is not handsome. It’s just that he’s not handsome when he smiles,” a more honest girl with a long hair couldn’t help grumbling.
“So, Boss Yuan, don’t smile if you can keep it back. It’s really scary.” Wu Zhou concluded at the side.
“Eat. We only have half an hour left.” Yuan Zhou’s counterattack was to ignore them directly and reminded them of the time left.
“What’s wrong, Boss?” Mu Xiaoyun showed a caring look on her face.
“Nothing.” Yuan Zhou managed to refrain from letting the corner of his mouth twitch again and said with a flat and natural tone.
“Speaking of which, Boss Yuan, you haven’t come up with any new dish for half a month already.” Wu Hai was still thinking about the matter of new dish that Yuan Zhou had mentioned before.
“The watermelon juice you are now drinking is relatively new,” Yuan Zhou said indifferently.
“That’s not a dish. When are you going to have a new dish?” while speaking, Wu Hai drank a big gulp of watermelon juice.
“Soon.” Yuan Zhou nodded seriously, indicating it was real this time.
“Really? What new dish are you going to serve us?” Ling Hong also asked curiously.
“You’ll know when the time is right.” Yuan Zhou maintained a mysterious manner, and a confident and calm expression on his face.
“Boss Yuan is always like that. He never tells us anything.” Wu Hai became speechless.
Likewise, Ling Hong supported his forehead, indicating that he really was helpless.
“The time is almost up,” Yuan Zhou checked the time and said.
This half an hour seemed to stretch out for ages. Yuan Zhou was also curious about the kind of cuisine that he could get from the lottery. Was it one of the eight famous regional cuisines? Although there were also other cuisines, the eight famous regional cuisines were, nevertheless, most well-known.
Yuan Zhou was quite expectant.
“Be careful on your way home. This is your salary,” after seeing off all customers, Yuan Zhou handed his daily salary to Mu Xiaoyun and instructed her.
“Ok, thank you, boss,” Mu Xiaoyun answered happily.
Yuan Zhou didn’t shut the door until Mu Xiaoyun vanished from his sight.
He reclined on his seats, took a deep breath, and tapped open the system.
[Second Stage of the Mission] Working hard to get at least one hundred regular customers
(Mission Tip, “An excellent restaurant should have at least 100 regular customers. Only those who enter the restaurant and eat dishes at least 8 times per month can be considered as regular customers.)
[Mission Reward] A chance at the lottery to gain dishes of a regional cuisine (available to obtain)
(Mission status, 103/100, completed)
“Receive the reward now.” Yuan Zhou read silently.
Subsequently, many squares appeared, forming a rectangle as a whole, in his mind. The eight famous regional cuisines took up most of the grids while there were several obscure cuisines remaining on the squares respectively. On one of the two short sides, there was a device like a door. A ball was at the entrance and would choose dishes of a regional cuisine randomly by rolling over it.
Specific dishes contained in each of the parts were unknown, including the quantity.
Yuan Zhou became rather speechless at such method for drawing a lottery. It looked like playing marbles, in which Yuan Zhou never did very well. After carefully checking, he found each cuisine consisted of very detailed subcategories.
For examples, the Sichuan Cuisine consisted of Rong-Style Sichuan Cuisine, Yu-Style Sichuan Cuisine and, Yanbang Cuisine. The other cuisines were, likewise, the same.
After watching them carefully for quite a while, Yuan Zhou decided to try his fortune. The way how he got the system proved that he had fairly decent luck. Thinking that way, Yuan Zhou directly pushed the ball, letting it start to roll…