Chapter 85

Chapter 85: Jin’ling Cuisine

The alarm rang on time. Yuan Zhou got up immediately and finished washing up with his eyes closed before returning to his bedroom and changing his clothes.

“Dong Dong Dong”, Yuan Zhou walked downstairs and raised his head, looking towards the green plants unconsciously, which remained green and fresh, without the slightest change. Speaking of which, Yuan Zhou hadn’t looked at them carefully. Therefore, as he thought that, he walked over there and pressed on a white inconspicuous button at the left side.

The board that had appeared the night earlier turned up instantly again. Yuan Zhou stepped onto it and opened the glass enclosure. Then a blast of delicate fragrance instantly came out, along with the dark green color, which made Yuan Zhou feel relaxed.

Under the water channel was the incomparably clear water. It seemed to be still circulating rather than stagnant water. Upon closer inspection, he saw, on the other side of the water channel, a white water pipe. It was much thinner than an ordinary one and quite inconspicuous if one did not observe carefully.

The greens were lined up in perfect rows, their height and thickness being basically similar to each other and each of them standing upright in the water. There were three rows in all, separated exactly by the same distance. The white roots of the green plants in the water grew separately, without getting entangled with one another.

After watching their growth, Yuan Zhou closed the glass enclosure and got off from the board which automatically folded back to its original place.

He looked at the clock in the main hall. It was 7:15 a.m. thus he decided to cook the Soup Dumplings. This way he would get breakfast and it would also be more convenient.

He then took out the flour and started to knead the dough. The proverb “Practice makes perfect” applied to Yuan Zhou quite well. From what he could recall, his skill of kneading dough had always been rapidly improving. The three necessities of the kneading skill (in which the hands, dough, and basin were all clean) were merely the primary stage. Currently, the dough that kneaded by Yuan Zhou had a better plumpness now, looking shinier and more elastic.

While waiting for the dough to be fermented, Yuan Zhou chopped up the meat stuffing and diced the frozen pigskin kept in the refrigerator.

With a few minutes left, Yuan Zhou pulled off his mask and went to open the door, finding, as expected, Mu Xiaoyun already waiting while standing outside.

“Finished your breakfast?” Yuan Zhou was rarely in a good mood; thus he asked with an unsmiling face.

“Yes, I did.” Mu Xiaoyun nodded joyfully.

“Good. I will eat my breakfast shortly,” Yuan Zhou nodded and said.

“Eh…” Mu Xiaoyun first spluttered at Yuan Zhou’s reply before asking curiously.

“Boss, do you always speak that way?”

“What’s the problem?” Yuan Zhou had a doubt in his voice.

Mu Xiaoyun looked carefully at Yuan Zhou’s face and realized he still maintained his solemn and reserved expression as if he hadn’t understood the problem.

“Boss, the way you talk always makes people speechless.” After thinking for a while, she mustered her courage and spoke out her thoughts.

“Oh. I’m going to eat breakfast now.” Yuan Zhou did not give an answer that matched the question.

“Ok. Then I won’t disturb Boss.” Mu Xiaoyun obediently took up a dust cloth, which was merely for decoration purposes, and began to wipe the tables and chairs. This was the work the little loli had actually demanded on her own initiative.

Of course, Mu Xiaoyun did this after her brother instructed her. There wasn’t any waiters or waitresses who didn’t clean up restaurants; therefore the little loli specially applied for a dust cloth to clean the tables and chairs the next day.

This cloth was a white towel that Yuan Zhou specifically went to buy from a grocery store. It was of medium quality, worth 10 RMB per piece. The quality was of average level but sufficient to be used for wiping the tables. Once it was gotten into her hands, Mu Xiaoyun immediately set out to work.

However, when Mu Xiaoyun wet the towel in a small basin and began to clean, she found that the restaurant was unbelievably clean.

Even the bottom of the table was spotless. Even after Mu Xiaoyun had wiped everything she could reach throughout the restaurant, the white towel was still white, without any change in the color at all. However, there were still some changes to it.

The average-quality towel was not like before anymore. After being washed again, though the white color still remained unchanged, the towel, nevertheless, had begun to shed wool. This was the defect of cotton blended with fibers.

Mu Xiaoyun merely wiped the restaurant randomly during the cleaning as she didn’t want to drool in face of the Soup Dumplings cooked by Yuan Zhou.

Even so, when Yuan Zhou poked a hole on the Soup Dumpling to pour the vinegar, the scent was fully inhaled by Mu Xiaoyun’s nose.

“Gu Gu,” though Mu Xiaoyun already had her breakfast, her stomach couldn’t help making such sounds.

She looked around in shame and found that there was nobody around. After that, she stayed away and pretended to be busy working, with her hands on her stomach. Not until Yuan Zhou finished two Soup Dumplings did she come over and stand upright at her usual position.

Yuan Zhou had never given any special notice whenever he developed new dishes; therefore even Mu Xiaoyun barely noticed the newly-developed dishes on the menu just now. However, the prices refreshed her “three outlooks” (outlooks on the world, on life and on values), again. Then following the good habit of “ask when you don’t know”, she opened her mouth. “Boss, I can understand the other two dishes. But for the dish of Jin’ling Grass, is it really the grass?”

“Yes, it is indeed grass.” Yuan Zhou nodded, admitting that.

“Boss, you are so humorous. It should be wild vegetables, right?” Mu Xiaoyun indicated that she knew something about the wild vegetables.

“Good that you know that.” Yuan Zhou nodded.

“Boss, did you cook the Soup Dumplings today?” suddenly, a customer came into the restaurant and asked, indicating that the breakfast hour had formally commenced.

During the entire hour, no customers noticed the new dishes. Regular customers basically didn’t look at the menu on the wall. Besides, Yuan Zhou didn’t have the habit of propagating his new dishes.

The slightly longer lunch time was the main point.

“Little Master Yuan, are there any new dishes today?” The grandpa arrived first with a leisure pace. After being absent for a whole week, he came up and asked directly once he arrived.

“Yes, they are on the wall.” Yuan Zhou nodded while pointing at the new dishes added in the menu.

“Ok. Judged from the name, they are all dishes from the southern part of China.” The grandpa took a seat and turned his head to look carefully at the menu.

There were indeed three more dishes added to the menu, and what’s more, the Herbal Tea Eggs that he had eaten once had risen back to its original price.

“Little Master Yuan, it turns out that the Herbal Tea Eggs were truly a special offer,” the grandpa became speechless when he saw the Herbal Tea Eggs with the unit price of 1888 RMB written aside before asking.

“Yes, you’ve already tried it. This is just its original price,” Yuan Zhou answered humbly.

The reason why he was so humble was naturally because of the temporary mission that he had received out of a sudden.

“An old man like me still prefers bland dishes. So offer me a serving of Jin’ling Grass and a bowl of plain rice.” The grandpa probably knew that Yuan Zhou would definitely charge for the rice, thus he ordered it consciously.

“I’m sorry, I am unable to provide the plain rice now,” Yuan Zhou said with a prim manner.

“Little Master Yuan, how can I have lunch with only dishes but no rice?” the grandpa looked at Yuan Zhou and asked incredulously.

“Eat like this,” Yuan Zhou answered calmly.

“Little Master Yuan, this old man finds that you know nothing about how to do business.” the grandpa’s tone carried some helplessness. This young man had such a superb culinary skills but as for his character, it was too cold.

Yuan Zhou responded with an “Oh”, without giving an affirmative or negative answer at all. He merely waited for the grandpa to change his order.

“Jin’ling Grass, and the Clear Broth Noodle Soup.” The grandpa immediately changed the dishes to wheat-based food.

“The so-called Jin’ling Grass is a vegetable dish, right?” the grandpa made a detailed inquiry again. He was not fully convinced.

“It’s indeed a vegetable dish.” Yuan Zhou nodded affirmatively.

“If anyone comes to order dishes in a while, just remember them first.” Yuan Zhou instructed Mu Xiaoyun who was standing at the side.

It was actually still early. The grandpa had arrived ahead of others since he didn’t want to squeeze with those people who were rushing to work.