I Have a Countryside Gourmet Restaurant

After returning to the restaurant, he closed up for the day.

The World Cup was about to start, and Li You wanted to watch it properly.

...

The next day.

In the morning.

After breakfast, Li You officially added two new dishes to the "Today’s Specials" sign: Tomato and Egg Drop Soup, and Salty Steamed Pork Belly.

The Tomato and Egg Drop Soup was 10 yuan a bowl.

Each bowl was made with one egg and one tomato.

’Right, I need to start buying eggs from the villagers in large quantities.’

He had over 150 eggs left in his Storage Pavilion, but that wouldn’t last more than a few days.

While the market wasn’t short on eggs, most of them were of low quality.

Only authentic free-range eggs could be considered medium-quality.

So, his main source would have to be purchasing from the villagers.

’I wonder if the villagers have many eggs to sell?’

’It probably won’t be a problem.’

Even if the villagers here didn’t have enough, there was still Taoshan Village, Shuiyuan Village, and the others.

He’d find an opportunity in the next couple of days to put out the word that he was buying free-range eggs.

As for the Salty Steamed Pork Belly, it was 25 yuan a bowl.

Afterward, Li You went into the kitchen and started preparing the Salty Steamed Pork Belly.

He would steam fifty bowls at once.

If they didn’t all sell today, he could just continue selling them tomorrow.

After all, he could store the cooked pork belly in the Storage Pavilion without worrying about it spoiling.

He took out enough pork belly from the Storage Pavilion.

First, he seared the skin.

After searing the skin, he brought water to a boil and began to cook it.

After a series of steps, all fifty bowls of Salty Steamed Pork Belly were in the steamer.

Now, he just had to wait another half hour for the pork belly to be ready.

’It wasn’t actually that complicated.’

Li You walked out the front door, leaned back in his rocking chair to rest for a bit, and started a game.

It was still *Plants vs. Zombies*.

As he was playing, a voice reached his ears. "Boss, you’re still playing this game?"

It was Ling Xiaoru’s voice.

On the way home after walking Ling Xiaoru back last night, Li You had learned her name and that she was an artist.

He looked up, and sure enough, it was Ling Xiaoru.

She was holding a rolled-up object in her hands, which he guessed was a painting.

And he was right.

Ling Xiaoru handed the object to Li You and said, "Boss, thank you for walking me home last night. I don’t have much to offer as a thank you. Only my art. This is a piece I finished a while ago that I’m very proud of. If you don’t mind, please accept it as a token of my gratitude."

Li You smiled. "You brought me something?"

Ling Xiaoru said, "It’s not very good, I’m just afraid you won’t like it."

Li You replied, "How could I not?"

He then put down his phone and took the scroll she offered.

He unrolled it.

It was longer than he had imagined—a huge painting.

The entire piece was about two meters long and sixty centimeters wide, meant to be viewed horizontally.

It was an ink wash landscape painting.

In the distance, white clouds drifted high above rolling mountains, with a waterfall cascading down.

In the foreground were craggy ravines and a secluded path. A lone figure stood on the path, gazing into the distance.

The entire scene was majestic and grand, with a profound artistic conception.

It was stunning!

It was breathtaking at first glance, and he liked it very much.

’This beautiful woman is a highly skilled painter!’

Li You was a little stunned.

He hadn’t expected someone so young to be such a talented artist.

’Is she really giving this painting to me?’

Li You asked, "A painting this good... are you sure you want to give it to me?"

Ling Xiaoru replied, "If you’ll have it."

Li You said, "How could I possibly dislike it? This is painted so well! Even to my untrained eye, it looks no different from the work of a famous master."

Hearing Li You say this, Ling Xiaoru was very happy, but she said, "Compared to those famous masters, I still have a long way to go."

Li You said, "I can’t tell the difference. But even so, you’ll definitely become a master yourself one day. You’re still so young."

Ling Xiaoru smiled. "Then I’ll take your auspicious words to heart."

Li You also smiled. "When you become a master, this painting will be worth a lot. I’ll be able to sell it for a good price then."

Of course, he was joking.

Ling Xiaoru knew he was joking and smiled back. "In that case, I’ll try my best to become a master sooner."

Li You said, "Great! I’ll be waiting, then."

As he spoke, he carefully rolled up the painting, feeling very happy.

He really did love this painting.

’I’ll find a place in the restaurant to hang it up later.’

’A painting this good should be appreciated by everyone, right?’

Seeing how happily Li You accepted the painting, Ling Xiaoru was also very happy.

Then she noticed that two dishes, Tomato and Egg Drop Soup and Salty Steamed Pork Belly, had been added to the "Today’s Specials" sign.

She was certain those two dishes hadn’t been there when she came last night.

"Boss, did you add new dishes today?" Ling Xiaoru asked.

Li You nodded.

Ling Xiaoru said, "Salty Steamed Pork Belly is delicious, but it gets a bit heavy after a few bites. I wonder if yours is the same?"

Li You smiled. "Why don’t you order a bowl at lunch and find out?"

Ling Xiaoru said, "Okay! I’m actually having lunch with Xiao Yue today, so I’ll have her try it too."

"Hm?" Li You asked. "Which Xiao Yue? Xia Xiaoyue from the Xingshui Academy of Fine Arts?"

Ling Xiaoru nodded. "That’s right! She’s coming over today too."

"You two know each other?" Li You was a bit surprised.

Ling Xiaoru said, "It was because of her that I found out you opened a restaurant here, Boss. Otherwise, it might have been a while before I knew."

Then, Ling Xiaoru explained her connection with Xia Xiaoyue.

Li You understood after hearing her explanation. So that’s how it was. Then he added, "By the way, you must have graduated from an art academy, right? Was it Xingshui Academy of Fine Arts?"

Ling Xiaoru shook her head. "No. I graduated from the Southwest Academy of Fine Arts."

Li You said, "Ah, okay. I thought you two might have been alumni."

Ling Xiaoru smiled and shook her head. "No."

After that, the two of them chatted casually.

After they had been talking for a while, the Salty Steamed Pork Belly in the kitchen was ready.

Li You went into the kitchen and turned off the stove.

As for the Salty Steamed Pork Belly, he just left it in the steamer.

A little while later, Xia Xiaoyue, Mu Qingye, Yu Wei, and the other girls arrived.

Xia Xiaoyue hadn’t come alone; she was with Mu Qingye, Yu Wei, and about twenty other girls, same as before.

They were constantly craving the spicy crayfish here, so of course they had to come along.

Ling Xiaoru went to greet them.

When she and Xia Xiaoyue met, both were very happy and affectionate.

They hadn’t been particularly close before. But because of their chat yesterday, and because of Li You’s restaurant, the two of them had quickly grown close.

Before coming, Xia Xiaoyue had already told Mu Qingye, Yu Wei, and the other girls about Ling Xiaoru.

And Ling Xiaoru had only just graduated from college two years ago, so she wasn’t much older than Xia Xiaoyue, Mu Qingye, Yu Wei, and the others.

So, Ling Xiaoru quickly became acquainted with Mu Qingye, Yu Wei, and the other girls too.

"By the way, the boss just launched two new dishes today, Tomato and Egg Drop Soup and Salty Steamed Pork Belly. We should give them a good try at lunch," Ling Xiaoru said.

The eyes of Xia Xiaoyue, Mu Qingye, Yu Wei, and the other girls all lit up.

Since there were new dishes, they definitely had to give them a try.

However, what they wanted to eat most was still the spicy crayfish.

So, their main course would still be spicy crayfish.

Just then, Lin Guodong arrived at the parking lot on his motorcycle.

A very large burlap sack was tied to the back rack of the motorcycle.

When Xia Xiaoyue, Yu Wei, and some of the other girls saw Lin Guodong, they went over to greet him, saying, "Uncle Guodong, good morning!"

A few of the girls, like Ling Xiaoru and Mu Qingye, were seeing Lin Guodong for the first time.

However, they also followed suit and called out, "Uncle Guodong."

You can’t be faulted for being too polite, after all.

When Lin Guodong saw it was Xia Xiaoyue, Yu Wei, and a group of vibrant, pretty young women, he was very happy and said with a smile, "Miss Xiao Yue, Miss Yu Wei, and all you other young ladies, hello, hello."

Then, he untied the burlap sack from the back rack.

Seeing this, Xia Xiaoyue asked, "Uncle Guodong, what’s in the sack?"

Lin Guodong said, "Crayfish. I’m delivering them to Xiaoyou."

As soon as they heard it was crayfish, the eyes of all the girls—Xia Xiaoyue, Ling Xiaoru, Mu Qingye, Yu Wei, and the rest—lit up.

They had just been saying that spicy crayfish would be their main course for lunch, and now Lin Guodong had delivered such a huge sack of them.

"Uncle Guodong, can you open it and let us see?" Xia Xiaoyue asked.

Lin Guodong chuckled. "Of course, you can."

He then untied the sack.

All the girls crowded around to look. Inside, they saw that the sack was indeed full of crayfish.

Xia Xiaoyue asked again, "Uncle Guodong, did you catch these crayfish in the fields yourselves? Or did you get them from somewhere else? Do you supply all the crayfish for the boss here?"

Lin Guodong replied, "We catch them ourselves in the fields. Thanks to Xiaoyou, we all have a new source of income. A lot of people in our village go out to catch or fish for crayfish in the fields when they have free time. Then I deliver them to Xiaoyou all at once. Xiaoyou pays us 14 yuan per jin, which is a very high price around here. Besides our village, the villagers in Xiaoyou’s own village, Changle Village, are also catching crayfish to sell to him. The people in both our villages are very grateful to Xiaoyou."

So that was how it was.

Xia Xiaoyue, Ling Xiaoru, Mu Qingye, Yu Wei, and the other girls all nodded in understanding.

’So the boss’s crayfish are all caught or fished from the fields by the villagers from two different villages.’

’That’s really great!’

’He’s helping the villagers increase their income, and he doesn’t have to buy crayfish from the market.’

’Plus, the quality of the crayfish from the fields is guaranteed.’

’It’s like killing three birds with one stone.’

At the same time, the girls all became very interested in the idea of catching and fishing for crayfish in the fields.

...