Three: Do you need a waiter here?

Chapter Three: Do you need a waiter here?

Three days later. Ning City.

Ning City was a metropolis with considerable historical and cultural heritage. It was more prosperous than Xing Cheng and was far from Xiao Qing Shan. Ji XiaoYu had traveled for three days on foot to reach the place.

Although Xing Cheng could be reached in a day, the hotel incident left Ji XiaoYu with an unbearably bad impression. After half a year, the money he had hidden away must have disappeared. Even if the door was more or less open to come back, it wouldn’t be good to have the blame from before put on himself, so he ruled out that place and chose the farther away Ning City.

Big cities had more job opportunities and more money to earn, so Ji XiaoYu was more confident about his future.

When he departed, he left a message on the stone wall in his nest, so that the old monkey wouldn’t worry when he suddenly found him missing.

After entering Ning City just as evening came, Ji XiaoYu, with his little white egg in his pocket, stood on a busy street with high-rise buildings. Momentarily confused on the direction, his pair of phoenix eyes, containing an ability to distinguish right and wrong and filled with a strong aura, reflected the colorful roadside neon signs like the glare of light off glass.

Then a soft “guuuu” sound came from his belly and Ji XiaoYu couldn’t help but frown. He had finished the dried food he had brought out from Xiao Qing Shan at noon and he was little hungry at the moment.

On either side of the main road were all kinds of luxuriously-decorated high-end shops. There was no need to say that Ji XiaoYu, who didn’t have even half a coin in his pocket, wouldn’t have enough money to feel confident going in, so he turned and walked into the row of buildings behind, to a small street called Screw Street, intending to find a small restaurant to try his luck.

Thanks to the past year’s work experience of the hotel in Xing Cheng, Ji XiaoYu had a few skills, from serving people tea to washing the dishes and the floor, as long as the job could solve his immediate problem of accommodation and food, he could do anything without any concern and find something else to do in the long run eventually.

There are all kinds of shops on Screw Street, selling milk tea, selling fruit, selling squid cooked on an iron plate. The street was bustling and crowded, showing Screw Street more popular than that prosperous street before. Ji XiaoYu walked all around to look and soon found a small restaurant called “Old Li’s Home-cooked Dishes.” Although the decorations were old, and the storefront wasn’t spacious enough, the business was very popular. The two rows of tables and chairs in the shop were full and there were even a few people waiting for seats on the plastic stools outside. Looking at this sight, it was clear the food in this restaurant must be delicious.

Ji XiaoYu swallowed back his mouthful of saliva and lifted his foot to go in.

The restaurant was small in size, the total space of forty square meters divided into inner and outer halves. There were six sets of simple tables and chairs outside and inside was a semi-open kitchen with man in his 40s or 50s stir-frying with an iron cooking pot.

In the outside dining area, a girl in her twenties wearing a floral apron was running around serving the guests their dishes and, although the store was air-conditioned, she was still sweating heavily. When she heard the automatic bell at the door call out “Welcome,” this girl named Zhang QiaoYan turned her head to look. Her eyes were bright and she warmly greeted him, “What does this handsome boy want to eat?”

Ji XiaoYu hadn’t yet answered when a man with a beer belly sitting by the door, protested in dissatisfaction, “Hey, waiter, why did you start treating everyone unequally? This kid just came, but I’ve been waiting for a long time, shouldn’t it be ‘first come, first served’?!”

Zhang QiaoYan also realized that she had made a mistake in her moment of swooning and quickly apologized to the man, “I’m sorry, sir, I made a mistake, your turn will be next.”

The beer-belly glared at Ji XiaoYu and sat down angrily.

Ji XiaoYu wore an innocent expression.

Zhang QiaoYan was a bit annoyed and she said soothingly, “Handsome guy, you should sit and wait for a while, soon there’ll be a vacancy.”

Ji XiaoYu scratched his head and asked, “Jiejie, I’m not here to eat, I’m looking for a job. Do you still need a waiter here?”

The “jiejie” shook Zhang QiaoYan’s heart and her face went red. At the same time, a table guest called for the check, so she also shouted “coming”, and then wiped her sweat and said helplessly, “I think it’s definitely necessary, but unfortunately my word doesn’t matter. You ask our boss, in the kitchen, Old Man Li. You can just call him Uncle Li.” After that, she ran off to serve the guests.

Ji XiaoYu went to the kitchen counter window, leaning over to ask, “Uncle Li, do you need any more staff here?”

The old cooker hood in the kitchen was roaring like a tractor. Li DeFa was covered with sweat and oil. He was too busy to understand what he was saying and thought it was a door-to-door salesman, so he waved impatiently, “No, no, don’t bother me!”

Ji XiaoYu reluctantly glanced at the fragrant, oily pork that was frying in his pot. He inhaled two sniffs of the meat and turned to prepare to leave.

A landline on the counter rang just then and the ringtone was particularly harsh. Li DeFa put the fried pot with pork on the counter and shouted, “QiaoYan, answer the phone”. He picked up the big tea pot on the counter and took an aggressive swig.

Zhang QiaoYan rushed over like her butt was on fire and picked up the receiver, saying quickly: “Who? ……..HongSheng Building, you want a delivery of two meals? Sorry, we are short of staff today, so there’s no one to deliver…… Honestly, too busy to come over…..”

Li DeFa quickly put down the tea pot and grabbed the phone, “We can deliver, can deliver! What do you want to eat? …….Ah, pork strips stir-fried with fish-sauce and duck tea mushroom soup; beef with green peppers and cordyceps flower boiled pork rib soup……. HongSheng Building, Block A, Room 1208, Miss Zhou? Good, good, we’ll be there in about half an hour!”

Li DeFa put down the phone with a smile, then he moved as if to start cooking.

Ji XiaoYu had already reached the door, but his ears twitched and his footsteps stopped again.

Zhang QiaoYan brought the pork pot meat back over to the table to serve the guests, bitterly saying, “Uncle Li, why did you agree, Qiang Zi isn’t here today, who will take the delivery?”

(t/n: Zi is an ancient honorific essentially the same as ‘mister’, used for those who were young talents or gentlemen)

Li DeFa blinked his eyes, only then realizing that Qiang Zi had gone home because there was a family emergency. He had taken leave this afternoon and went back to his hometown. The shop now had only two people, himself and Zhang QiaoYan. And he had to take the helm and cook, while Zhang QiaoYan had to greet the shop guests; indeed they were out of hands to take the delivery.

What could be done, he had already promised the customers. The most important thing to do business is to pay attention to their reputation. If this time they failed, the loss was not just in the dozens of yuan.

Besides, HongSheng Building was a high-end office building nearby. The city’s famous HongSheng Group’s headquarters was located there. It had its own staff restaurant, so previously no one had ordered a delivery. He had just recently asked Zhang QiaoYan to temporarily work overtime. At one time, he had taken the restaurant deliveries himself. Today, he was going to have to work overtime with this little sister for a change. If they could get attention from this, they might have a very promising customer base and their own small restaurant might also go up a notch too, but if they couldn’t deliver this order immediately, this path might be blocked……

The more Li DeFa thought about it, the more pain he felt and he cried out, “Qiang Zi, that son of a bitch, when is he coming back? Take a leave of absence at this time! When he comes back, Laozi will deduct half his month’s salary!”

“Qiang Zi asked for leave because his mother had a sudden illness and he has to take care of her. He’s not deliberately absent from work.” Zhang QiaoYan pouted her lips and whispered, “Told you to recruit more staff, but you don’t want to do it, so willing to cut corners. Someone to specialize in delivery, it would be both convenient and efficient, and the cooperation couldn’t cost too much more……”

“QiaoYan, what did you say?”

“Oh, nothing, I’m just saying we don’t have enough people right now. I just can’t fulfill this order. Uncle Li, you’d better call and talk to the person.”

“Ah, such bad luck. Forget it, I’ll hire someone tomorrow…”

Li DeFa sulked, about to dial the phone. The receiver was suddenly covered by a slender, white hand, “Uncle Li, this order, I’ll deliver it. How’s that sound?”

Li DeFa turned his head to look, it was a young man who was about twenty years old, pretty with a clear complexion, who looked a little enlightened and pleasing to the eye, like a student who was still studying. Suddenly a little dazed, he said, “You’ll deliver? Who are you?”

Zhang QiaoYan saw it was Ji XiaoYu and couldn’t help but say happily, “Uncle Li, what a coincidence. This handsome guy just came to apply as a waiter. You might as well let him go on the delivery and give it a shot, as a trial!”

Li DeFa hesitated a little. This young man hadn’t been too clear about his situation, this seemed a little too fast.

Immediately, Ji XiaoYu said earnestly: “Uncle Li, my name is Ji XiaoYu. You can rest assured that I’ve worked as a waiter for a hotel before and the process is clear to me. And my feet are fast, so the delivery won’t be delayed.”

Whether it was Ji XiaoYu’s appearance or his rhetoric, it was hard to refuse him, so Li DeFa was immediately convinced, “Okay, then you go deliver it!”

Such a pure, handsome young man, it is possible to say that he could draw people in to engage in pyramid schemes or could fool a woman with his little white face, but he probably wouldn’t steal the two servings of delivery anyway. In that case, let’s try it as a trial, okay?

Boss Li didn’t know that Ji XiaoYu, who was hungry, really thought about taking the delivery order and running away, to fill his stomach first. However, it was really unkind to do so and also it was against his principles as a pheasant spirit. If the news of him stealing got out, it would be even more humiliating. So after considering it, he dismissed the idea and decided to endure again, perform well, and take the job in an honest way.

This conversation had already delayed the delivery by seven or eight minutes. Li DeFa scrambled to turn on two of the cooking stoves. He showed off the skill of cooking with his left and right hands at the same time and made the two dishes in ten minutes.

Ji XiaoYu took a green apron from a kitchen shelf with the words “Old Li’s Home-cooked Dishes” printed on the chest. The bottom was embroidered with a small yellow chicken. He also put on a small yellow hat. The whole effect looked fresh and playful. When Li DeFa’s dishes were out of the pot, he immediately packed the boxes and added two cold soups. The whole process was smooth and steady, so Li DeFa couldn’t pick out any faults. He could see that the young man had been specially trained.

Li DeFa glanced to the side with cold eyes and said nothing, secretly nodding in his heart. The young man worked more quickly than Qiang Zi and he looked more pleasing to the eye. If he can really stay, then even if Qiang Zi doesn’t come back, it will be fine…….

Before the thought could finish, Ji XiaoYu had already gone out with a sticky note with the delivery address and the customer’s phone number.

The author has something to say:Preview: Next chapter, the president will appear!

The pheasant is what we usually call ‘wild chicken’. The male pheasant has gorgeous feathers (as shown below) and looks better than a normal chicken. Our friend, Xiao Ji, as an accomplished fighting pheasant, has an even more beautiful look!

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Footnotes:

1. Red phoenix eyes (丹凤眼): eyes with outer corners that incline upwards

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