Chapter 57

The air became fresh when Xia Yu walked away from the restaurant.

He looked back at the horrible number of people in the line and murmured to himself.

It was not yet five o’clock, and there was more than an hour before the shop opened for business, but the number of people in the queue seemed to be almost the largest hospitality numbers of the restaurant that night.

In other words, the latecomers did not have to wait. They could just turn around and go home as soon as they saw the line in front.

Young guests were always full of enthusiasm, and this enthusiasm came from a sense of freshness. Perhaps in another month or two, the lively scene in front of the shop would return to normal. But there was another possibility. The lively scene would not only not subside, but also expand.

Therefore, Xia Yu was thinking about how to establish a stable business rule so that the people who were queuing would not come early to wait, and latecomers would not run all the way here in vain.

What about opening online reservation like other restaurants?

Making a reservation was good.

In the new era, people had to adapt to the trend of online queuing and offline dining.

The question was, what good catering software was available in Nihon?

In the motherland of his previous life, Xia Yu knew a lot of such software. For example, Meituan and Eleme became such merchants. They allowed customers to pay for meal coupons through the Internet and eliminated the trouble of finding change.

“Open a website?” Xia Yu shook his head.

There was no time for that.

He knew nothing about building and maintaining websites, and it was unnecessary to hire people. Xia Yu planned to check mobile catering apps after tonight and obtain a reservation mode as soon as possible.

People lined up in front of Xia’s restaurant in the old shopping street, which highlighted the coldness of the other shops.

Xia Yu walked past a well-established ramen restaurant, and there was a roar from inside. Xia Yu could not be more familiar with the voice, and he laughed in his heart. “Uncle Nishio is drunk again. He’s crazy about drinking every day. It’s like an entertainment program.”

The operator of the ramen restaurant, a middle-aged uncle who was addicted to alcohol, was divorced and had been alone for many years. He had a bad temper. Xia Yu expressed his understanding.

He planned to go to the new shopping street in front and take a breath of the air of the modern city, but unexpectedly, a few people ran out of the ramen restaurant.

Bang!

A young man in a suit, who seemed to be a businessman, hit Xia Yu.

After his physical enhancement upgraded to LV.20, Xia Yu lifted the wok and cooked for six hours without much fatigue. So, when the man ran over, Xia Yu’s feet were rooted on the ground without moving.

“Be careful—” Xia Yu was speechless as he supported young man who was about to fall with his hand.

“Thank you, thank you!”

The young man had not stood firmly yet. He turned back and ran away when he saw the burly man chasing from the ramen restaurant.

Pedestrians passing by avoided this ramen restaurant.

“These bunch of rabbits!” The boss of the ramen restaurant put his hands on his hips, spat at the group of people who were holding their heads and running away, then turned to look at Xia Yu and smiled. “You’re a real man!”

He put a big palm on Xia Yu’s shoulder.

“Aren’t you crazy about drinking?” Xia Yu noticed the clear eyes of Uncle Nishio in the ramen restaurant and was amazed.

Hearing the words, Uncle Nishio waved his hand. “These days, I’ve been annoyed by these rabbits and full of anger. I don’t have the mood to drink!”

“Oh?” Xia Yu wondered about it. “Who are they?”

This time, Uncle Nishio felt strange.

“They haven’t been to your place?”

“No…” Xia Yu realized something faintly.

Snap. Uncle Nishio patted his thigh and his face looked even darker. “It must be that your small restaurant is popular, so they do not dare to find trouble with you. So, they first look for us to bully.”

“The developer?” Xia Yu tentatively asked.

“Do you know Urban Life Planning Company? Their chairman is known as the real estate queen. She looks pretty cute. I have seen her on TV. TV Tokyo had an exclusive interview with her…”

Wait.

Urban Life Planning Company.

How come the name was so familiar?

Xia Yu could not think of it for a moment. He rubbed his eyebrows, and asked, “Uncle Nishio, you mean that many of our shops in old shopping street has been harassed by this real estate company?”

“It’s not harassment. The price they offered is very reasonable. I would rather sell this shop and go back to countryside if my wife and children had not run away.”

Uncle Nishio touched his chin and said those words, then he pointed to the depths of the old shopping street.

“The opposite side of your restaurant was a grocery store, remember? The old lady died alone at home some time ago. The body was found only two days ago, and the police called the old lady’s son back. I heard that the old lady’s son left and sold the shop to the Urban Life Planning Company after handling all these matters…”

Xia Yu nodded.

Two days ago, the siren sounds had been so noisy. How could he not hear it? But at that time, he had been focused on studying dishes in the Chef God Space. An Ya and Mu Xiaoyue had probably went to watch, and they chatted with him at the dinner table that night.

Lonely death. It could be said that it was a Nihon social phenomenon. Xia Yu had heard a lot about it, and he was used to it.

What he cared about was that the grocery store opposite the Xia’s restaurant… Was acquired by the Urban Life Planning Company.

That was not particularly good.

It used to be a grocery store. If it were renovated and a new restaurant was opened across the street, he would feel uncomfortable. Xia Yu scratched his face.

“It is said that the traditional Japanese bathhouse next to your restaurant is also negotiating with the people of Urban Life Planning Company.” Uncle Nishio patted Xia Yu on the shoulder. “Listening to the rumours, the company seems to want to construct a modern gourmet shopping street with tall buildings and skyscrapers. Large shopping malls with skyscrapers, and Western-style restaurants. Gee, it is a big project hiding gold based on the flow of people at the Ueno Station.”

Uncle Nishio hummed a little tune and returned to the ramen restaurant leisurely after speaking.

There was a very realistic problem in front of the old shopping street. In the past two years, Xia Yu had also noticed that the pace of expansion of the new shopping street had become significantly faster. The old streets that were full of the Japanese style had been compressed inch by inch. Now, it was estimated that they only occupied less than one third of the entire city.

From an emotional point of view, Xia Yu was unwilling to see this old shopping street that was full of humanity submerged by the urban steel jungle, but rationally, he knew that he was unable to stop this process.

Xia Yu just came out for a breath of fresh air. He decided to put these annoying trivial things aside first.

Walking to the boundary between the old block and the new block, Xia Yu planned to return. But unexpectedly, he glanced at a pair of teenagers arguing in the small alley next to him.

“It’s all your fault. It’s too late, and we definitely can’t queue up!”

“This time and last time we came, it was only a few minutes before and after, but it seems to be almost the same…?”

“I don’t want to listen!”

The girl was pretty and cute, with an iconic anime character’s blonde hair, and double ponytails. At this time, the girl was very annoyed, and she constantly swung her double ponytails to beat the black-framed glasses boy.

Uh.

Xia Yu was stunned.

What was going on with these familiar characters?