Chapter 59: Chapter 53: Asking for Death
In Suji Town, anyone could have been a shill for Zhou Yan, but no one from the textile factory believed the old factory director was one.
The old factory director was a highly respected figure at the textile factory. He had guided it every step of the way, leading to ever-increasing wages and more prosperous lives for the workers. The veteran employees admired him from the bottom of their hearts.
Besides, the old factory director was a well-known gourmand who could cook himself. He even looked down on Master Xiao’s cooking, so there was no way he would have come just to be a shill for Zhou Yan.
Everyone was more inclined to believe that the food at Zhou Yan Restaurant was genuinely delicious.
The menu signs hanging on the wall showed prices that weren’t cheap, about the same as a state-run restaurant.
Zhao Dong voiced the question everyone wanted to ask but was too embarrassed to, living up to his reputation as the Director Zhao who dared to lead the charge against the factory cafeteria.
"The factory director and his group ordered one of every dish on the menu yesterday. They said everything was good and couldn’t pick a favorite," Zhou Yan said with a slight smile.
"Huh? They said everything was good?" Zhao Dong was a little surprised.
The other customers looked at each other. ’Is this Zhou Yan bluffing?’
"It’s true. I was eating here last night. The old factory director commented on every dish he ate and was full of praise." Three customers walked into the restaurant, and one of them came up to Zhou Yan. "We want a Huo Xiang Carp and a Double-Pepper Shredded Beef."
"You got it. Please have a seat at Table Three." Zhou Yan picked up a pen and paper and quickly jotted it down.
After the worker sat down, he said with a laugh, "The old factory director tried it and said it was good, but after he finished the Huo Xiang Carp, he also said something else: ’It’s no worse than Rongcheng Restaurant.’ He also said that the dishes Master Zhou makes are even better than those from a First-level Chef in Rongcheng. So go ahead and order with confidence, you won’t go wrong."
As soon as he said this, everyone’s eyes lit up.
"In that case, I’ll also have a Huo Xiang Carp and a Double-Pepper Shredded Beef," Zhao Dong said immediately. When it came to food, following the crowd wasn’t a bad idea, and besides, he had been craving that Double-Pepper Shredded Beef with rice for a long time.
"I’ll have one too..."
Everyone quickly sat down and started ordering. The Huo Xiang Carp was the most expensive dish, yet it became the one everyone was clamoring to order.
It was expensive, but the portions were generous.
Two carp, weighing eight liang each, and they went great with rice.
For most of the workers, Rongcheng Restaurant was a legendary high-class establishment. It was said that many leaders went there to eat when they came to Rongcheng for inspections. The quality was exceptionally high, and so were the prices.
They didn’t know when they’d ever get to eat the Huo Xiang Carp from Rongcheng Restaurant, but they could order the Huo Xiang Carp from Zhou Yan Restaurant for lunch today.
At two yuan a portion, it suddenly seemed like great value for the money.
"At this rate, the forty carp that were just delivered won’t make it to dinnertime," Zhou Jie whispered with a laugh.
"The fish are easy to handle. We’ll just have Boss Gao deliver more," Mrs. Zhao said, grinning from ear to ear as she helped take orders and seat customers.
After taking orders from a few more tables, Zhou Yan headed back into the kitchen to get busy.
There were many new faces today, which was good news.
The old factory director had been promoted to "King of Endorsements"; his few words had brought a flood of new customers to Zhou Yan Restaurant.
The workers’ enthusiasm even somewhat exceeded Zhou Yan’s expectations.
It wasn’t just the factory leaders and senior technicians; many veteran workers with long years of service also came in groups of two and three to try the food.
When it came to eating, the people of Sichuan and Chongqing didn’t mess around.
Zhou Jie, who was originally in charge of the Kneeling Beef pot, was temporarily called into the kitchen to help clean fish; Zhou Yan simply couldn’t handle it all by himself.
Fortunately, with the large pot on the earthen stove, he could pan-fry eight fish at once, so the food came out at a decent speed.
The Double-Pepper Shredded Beef was prepped in advance, so it took just over a minute from hitting the wok to being served.
As for the pre-cooked Braised Beef with Bamboo Shoots and Braised Pork Ribs, they just needed to be heated up before serving, coming out in perfect condition.
Dish after dish was brought from the kitchen to the customers’ tables, and sounds of admiration rose and fell.
"This fish is so fresh! The flavor is fantastic!"
"This shredded beef is delicious! I think it’s even better than the noodle topping from this morning. Freshly stir-fried out of the wok, it has that wok hei, and the beef is more tender!"
"Now I’m living the life of a rich person from Rongcheng."
"I told you the old factory director wouldn’t lie!"
"Compared to this, the food at the factory cafeteria is basically pig slop."
The customers were happy with their meal, and they didn’t hold back on the praise.
Zhao Dong shook his head in delight as he ate, sighing in admiration, "This Huo Xiang Carp is just incredible. I bet even Master Xiao couldn’t make it taste this good. Zhou Yan is so young, how are his culinary skills so amazing?"
"It means he’s a genius, which is a blessing for our taste buds," laughed Zhu Zhe, the deputy director at the same table.
"The prices are about the same as a state-run restaurant, but the taste is way better, and it’s right at the factory gate. We should come eat here every few days from now on." Another person, Finance Head Song Yang, chimed in, "Just make sure you guys call me, don’t come eat by yourselves!"
"Deal. We’ll come once every three days," Zhao Dong nodded.
"Deal. Any more often and we couldn’t afford it," Zhu Zhe also nodded.
The dining trio had reached an initial consensus.
...
"Render the fat more! You call this watery mess Twice-Cooked Pork?"
"I told you to render it, not burn it to a crisp! This is harder than your grandma’s dentures. You think the customers can chew this?"
"I told you to slice the pork liver thin, not mince it! And who cut these kidneys? I really give up on you!"
Huang Fusheng held an iron ladle, pointing and criticizing around the back kitchen, his forehead beaded with sweat. His eyes kept darting toward the entrance.
Wang Defa stood there, his face ashen as he looked at the empty stir-fry section.
The worst-case scenario had happened.
Overnight, the stir-fry section had lost all its customers.
An apprentice had just run to the entrance to check. More than half of them had gone to Zhou Yan Restaurant.
Huang Fusheng felt like his world was collapsing. Just last Saturday, he had made a solemn vow to Wang Defa that he would win back all the customers the stir-fry section had lost.
Well, great. Now the stir-fry section had no more customers left to lose.
’So what were the chefs in the kitchen doing now?’
’Putting on a show for an empty house, perhaps?’
Huang Fusheng tried to keep himself busy to make things less awkward.
"Huang Fusheng, get the hell out here," Wang Defa said coldly.
Huang Fusheng put down his ladle with a dejected look, but quickly forced a smile and hurried toward the entrance. Sucking up to Wang Defa, he followed him and whispered, "Director, don’t worry, I’ve already made arrangements..."
...
Since the dishes all went well with rice, the workers ate quickly, and the table turnover rate at Zhou Yan Restaurant was quite high.
The first wave of customers was finishing up, and the second wave was sitting down, with a few empty tables still available.
Just then, a tall, skinny man with a pockmarked face, a cigarette dangling from his lips, walked into the shop with three young men in gaudy synthetic-fiber shirts. He glanced around before picking an empty table near the center and sitting down.
Zhao Tieying glanced at the four of them and frowned slightly. ’These punks usually just loiter on the streets. What are they doing wandering into the restaurant today?’
But a customer is a customer. Zhao Tieying still went up to them and said, "The menu’s on the wall. See what you’d like. Everything is still available."
The leader, Wang the Pockmarked, looked Zhao Tieying up and down. Seeing she was just a country woman, he paid her no mind, and his gaze finally fell on the menu signs on the wall.
HISS... "Two yuan for a Huo Xiang Carp? That expensive?!"
"What? The pork ribs are one-sixty? That’s half a month’s cigarette money for me!"
"Brother Pockmark, what should we order?"
After seeing the menu, the other three young men’s expressions changed, and they all looked toward Wang the Pockmarked.
"What are you squawking about?" Wang the Pockmarked sat up a little straighter, coughed twice, and said to Zhao Tieying, "We’ll have one of each of these dishes to start."
"You got it," Zhao Tieying replied and headed for the kitchen.
Inside the kitchen, Zhao Tieying found Zhou Yan and whispered, "Those four punks don’t look like they’re here for a proper meal. They probably don’t have two cents to rub together, yet they ordered one of everything."
"Let me see." Zhou Jie, a carp still in his hand, poked his head out for a look. "Isn’t that Wang the Pockmarked, that dumbass? He got locked up for half a year during the crackdown last year. He wouldn’t dare cause trouble now, would he?"
"It’s fine. If he ordered, serve him. We’re right next to the security department, anyway," Zhou Yan said with a smile.
In 1984, the last thing anyone was afraid of was hooligans causing trouble.
If you threw the first punch, the hooligans would curse you for not playing by the rules.
"Right. And it’s not like my knife isn’t sharp," Zhou Jie nodded, brandishing the fish-cleaning knife in his hand.
"If there’s trouble later, you can call the security department, but you two are not to act recklessly. Getting arrested these days could get you a bullet. You have to be smart about it." Mrs. Zhao pointed a finger and warned the two of them before leaving the kitchen.
The four punks waited for their food with their legs crossed, mouths running a mile a minute. They were either bragging about sneaking into some widow’s house or about how tough some "Brother Chao" from a Jiazhou gang was.
The other workers kept shooting them sidelong glances, their eyes filled with disgust.
Feeling the attention, the punks got even more worked up, spouting all sorts of nonsense without a care.
The food arrived quickly: Huo Xiang Carp, Braised Pork Ribs... a magnificent spread.
The men immediately fell silent, swallowing their saliva in unison.
Spending their days loafing on the streets, they had never seen such dishes. Even at the village banquets they crashed, the local cooks couldn’t whip up a Huo Xiang Carp like this.
"Eat, eat. We’ll talk after we’re full," Wang the Pockmarked said, picking up his chopsticks and grabbing a piece of rib first.
The others also grabbed their chopsticks and began to wolf down the food.
It wasn’t that they usually ate poorly; it was that they hadn’t had a full meal in days.
They had never eaten anything so delicious in their entire lives.
With two pots of rice, five dishes, and one soup, they sucked the fish heads bare and even used the sauce from the Huo Xiang Carp to flavor their rice, polishing off every last drop.
*BURP...*
Wang the Pockmarked let out a full burp, still wanting more.
It was truly delicious; he had never eaten such tasty food in his life.
"Brother Pockmark..." The young man next to him nudged him under the table, pressing something into his hand, and whispered, "We accidentally ate it all... What do we do?"
Wang the Pockmarked’s expression froze. He looked at the empty plates on the table, cleaner than his own face. He glanced left and right, then gritted his teeth, quickly dropped his hand onto a plate, and slammed the table as he stood up. "Hey, boss! How come we found a cockroach in our food?! I don’t think you want to stay in business anymore, do you?"
"I was just waiting for you son of a bitch to pull a stunt!"
"Motherfucker! You dare throw a cockroach on my plate!"
"You’re so dead!"
Zhao Tieying snatched a cleaver from the stove and charged at Wang the Pockmarked.
...
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