Chapter 61: Chapter 61: Reap What You Sow

"Auntie, how could she just leave without even trying to fight for it?"

Tong Ya was a bit puzzled, after all, it was her own child—isn't that worth fighting for? If it were her, she would never leave so easily.

Li Lan shook her head helplessly: "She's a big star, after all! They all have to cultivate a public image, and part of hers is being unmarried and single."

Tong Ya snorted with laughter: "She brought it on herself."

At this moment, Chen Yu was also pushing a cart filled with pig heads and elbows out of the cold storage.

"Hey, the spicy meat is out of the pot, why don't you guys give it a try?"

Tong Ya quickly responded and pulled Li Lan toward the kitchen.

By six in the morning, the shop was in full swing.

The number of people heading upstairs for fried cakes and vegetable turnovers had dwindled once more.

The five-spice marinated delicacies introduced earlier had already maximized the release of many people's taste buds.

Now with four new flavors launched, they felt as if they had entered another world.

There were even people who ordered half a jin of each of the five flavors, sitting there and starting their feast alone.

No matter how tasty the food, there had to be a limit—if someone got sick from overeating, Chen Yu would still be held responsible.

Therefore, he added a new rule to the ordering system: a single diner's consumption was capped at one jin of marinated meat.

At six forty-five, Li Lan quickly tidied up, ready to take Tuan Tuan to kindergarten.

But unexpectedly, Tong Ya had adeptly prepared everything for Tuan Tuan.

Li Lan instantly understood what was going on—only regular pickups could result in Tuan Tuan being this well-prepared.

It might have been due to the introduction of new flavors, but today's marinated meat was exceptionally popular.

By two in the afternoon, nearly two thousand pounds of the meat was almost gone.

Moreover, today's customers were behaving somewhat irrationally, almost trying every single flavor of marinated meat.

No matter how much Chen Yu tried to restrict them, these customers exploited loopholes in the system to place their orders.

Chen Yu knew, however, that this situation could only last for a day or two.

After all, there was only so much customer traffic in the vicinity, and these people couldn't possibly eat marinated meat as their daily meal.

By three in the afternoon, Chen Yu had no choice but to hang a 'Marinated Meat Sold Out' sign in front of the display window.

Just at that moment, a portly middle-aged man with two helpers made an abrupt appearance in the restaurant.

The fellow walked in the door and looked around before finding a table to sit down.

"Where's the boss? Come out for a moment."

Chen Yu stood up and glanced over the dining room, frowning.

The trio seemed to have ill intentions.

But there wasn't a hint of fear on his face, as he took off his apron and came out of the kitchen.

"You're the boss!"

The portly middle-aged man slammed the table and stood up abruptly.

"Buddy, you're ruthless! You've already driven three marinated meat shops in the area out of business, and my place won't survive today either."

As he spoke, Chen Yu could smell a distinct odor of gunpowder.

In the kitchen, Chu Hong had already grabbed a nearby strainer, ready to rush out at the first sign of trouble.

But to everyone's surprise, after his declaration, the stout man suddenly threw himself in front of Chen Yu and began to sob loudly.

"Big brother, I beg you, teach me how to make marinated meat! Otherwise, my little shop is going to close for good!"

Chen Yu was utterly baffled; he had thought this chubby fellow had come looking for trouble. seaʀᴄh thё NôvelFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Unexpectedly, he was here to ask for mentorship.

"The family recipe is not for sharing! But if you're interested, you're welcome to work here," Chen Yu replied.

The chubby guy was stunned for a moment; he was the owner of a small shop now, after all. Coming here to work would be like becoming someone's subordinate.

"No way! How could someone like me ever work under someone else?"

Chen Yu chuckled softly, "You should consider it. If that's not an option, you could choose to open a new shop elsewhere."

With that, Chen Yu returned straight to the kitchen.

The chubby man sat there, pondering for a long time, then left the shop with his two helpers.

Chu Hong finally breathed a sigh of relief, "People like Yu Ge should be driven out, can't even manage their own business properly and then come running over here…"

Chen Yu gestured with his hand to interrupt Chu Hong.

"It hasn't been easy for them, having worked hard to open a shop only to be run down by us! It's normal for them to feel uneasy about it."

At the moment, there weren't many customers left in the shop, as their signature marinated dishes had already sold out.

The next wave of customers would come in the afternoon, during the post-work rush.

Xie Jiang, at this juncture, entered the shop briskly with two workers.

"Old Chen called a while ago, asking you to save some marinated dishes for him. Have you saved any?"

Chen Yu hurriedly served the noodles and marinated dishes he had set aside.

"You called me, how could I possibly not save some for you?"

Xie Jiang rolled up his sleeves and started devouring the food like a wolf, clearly having gone a good while without eating.

"Old Chen, these new flavors you've introduced are simply divine! If you ask me, you should bump up the prices, nobody would mind paying more for such tasty food."

Chen Yu shook his head, "Fifty yuan a jin is already on the pricey side; how much higher could we go?"

Xie Jiang tapped in the air with his finger a few times.

"That's where you fail, Old Chen, too honest! Wang's Marinated Delights down the street, they've raised their price to seventy yuan a jin for meat."

Chen Yu was slightly taken aback, as the person who had come to see him earlier seemed to be the owner of Wang's Marinated Meat.

A long time ago, he had tried their marinated delights, and they were indeed quite good.

Moreover, their marinated dishes were famous in several nearby streets.

Chen Yu simply raised an eyebrow, after all, in business, he was not one to sympathize with his competitors.

If Wang's Marinated Delights tasted better than his, he was afraid they might kick him right off this street.

After finishing a bowl of noodles, Xie Jiang seemed to remember something and quickly took out a list from his pocket.

"Old Chen, I found that pressure cooker you asked me to look for. Here are a few models; which one do you want? I'll send it over tonight."

Chen Yu hastily grabbed the list.

The pressure cookers Xie Jiang found were all very comprehensive, each one a big stainless steel pot.

The largest could even fit sixty jin of meat in one go.

If he bought several of these large pressure cookers, he could produce marinated dishes even faster.

"The biggest one, send me a few extra, to have as backups for the future."

Xie Jiang hurriedly took out a pen and jotted something down in his notebook.

"Okay, I got it!"

Having said that, he and the two workers hurriedly finished their food and left, looking like they still had a construction project to rush off to.

At five o'clock in the afternoon, Tong Ya and Tuan Tuan bounced through the door.

"Mommy, can we go play at that place again next time? I think it was really nice."

"Sure thing, my sweet girl!"

This conversation instantly alarmed Chen Yu.

"Tuan Tuan!" Chen Yu called Tuan Tuan over, "What did you just call Teacher Tong Ya? Is that something you can call her on a whim?"