Chapter 177 - 133: Naturally Unsmiling?
"The braised beef still needs better Fire Control. Once I’ve mastered it, I’ll definitely bring you some to try," Zhou Yan said with a smile.
"Sounds good." Wang nodded, picking up a slice of pig’s head meat and putting it in his mouth. He took another sip of his drink and let out a long, contented sigh. "Still writing letters to that girl?"
"Yeah. Thanks to the Grandmaster’s guidance, I’ve got the letter format, opening, and closing down pat now." Zhou Yan smiled and nodded. He wasn’t in a hurry to leave, so he pulled over a small stool and sat down.
"You want a drink?" Wang gestured to the liquor bottle beside him.
"I can’t drink a drop. I still have to cook tonight." Zhou Yan shook his head with a smile, a gossipy look spreading across his face. "Grandmaster, did you write a lot of love letters when you were young?"
"I was incredibly busy when I was young, running all over the country. What damn time did I have to write love letters?" Wang took another sip of his drink, his gaze drifting to the distance, his expression growing more profound. "But you know... was I really that busy back then? So busy I couldn’t even write a single letter..."
From the tape recorder, a young Shan went on and on, but Wang didn’t say another word.
Zhou Yan rode away on his bike. He hadn’t gotten any gossip, but he was more certain than ever that the Grandmaster was a man with a story.
’Next time I’ll bring him a good bottle of liquor. After a few more drinks, he might just loosen up and talk.’
With sales to Feiyan Restaurant now open, today’s revenue immediately increased by 21.70 yuan. Although the profit margin was a bit lower, the gross profit should still be around seven yuan.
’This is easy money. Once the food is braised, Huang Bing comes to pick it up himself. We don’t even have to do any cutting. What a sweet deal.’
The Huang siblings came to eat three meals a day.
Judging from what they ordered yesterday, their daily meal budget was about 6.60 yuan, which came out to twenty yuan every three days.
For two people, that was a pretty high standard.
They were high-value customers.
As for helping Huang Ying lose weight, Zhou Yan didn’t really have any great ideas.
He could only resort to a little trick. For example, before every meal, he had Mrs. Zhao serve them a huge bowl of warm water.
After cycling over ten kilometers and working up a sweat, they were at their thirstiest. No one could refuse a bowl of perfectly temperate water.
With a bowl of water in their stomachs, they were already half-full.
When they ate afterward, their appetites were naturally cut in half.
Judging from yesterday’s results, Huang Ying’s appetite had indeed decreased significantly. The effect was remarkable.
Huang Bing, however, seemed to have a surging appetite. He was guzzling down the Kneeling Beef soup and could still polish off two bowls of rice.
’That’s good too. With his current withered, kidney-deficient appearance, being able to eat is a good thing.’
Zhou Yan guessed that when Zhao Shulan had the siblings eat together, she not only wanted Huang Ying to lose weight but also wanted Huang Bing to put on some meat.
’Too bad a mission for that didn’t pop up.’
’Useless dog of a system!’
Zhou Yan felt this would be much simpler than making Huang Ying lose weight.
It was just past three when Zhou Yan got back to the restaurant and parked his bike.
"Brother, I wanna sweepy," Zhou Momo said, rubbing her drowsy eyes as she came over and tried to climb onto Zhou Yan.
"Don’t let her sleep! If she sleeps now, none of us will sleep tonight!" From her recliner by the door, Zhao Tieying sat up and looked at Zhou Yan. "If you don’t wear out the kitten during the day, the kitten will wear you out at night! Take her out and run her around for a bit. Let her go to bed early after dinner."
"Got it..." Zhou Yan, who was about to bend down and pick up Zhou Momo, took her hand instead. He said with a smile, "Come on, Brother will take you to find the Old Man and go fishing."
The sleepy-eyed Zhou Momo paused for a moment, then tilted her head up, her eyes quickly lighting up. "Fishing for fishies?!"
"That’s right, fishing for fishies," Zhou Yan nodded with a smile.
"Yay! Yay! Momo wants to fish for fishies!" The little one jumped up happily, all traces of sleepiness gone.
"Let’s go, then. We’ll find the Old Man first." Zhou Yan took her hand and started walking toward the riverbank.
Comrade Zhou usually spent his afternoons fishing near the restaurant. Ever since he took Zhou Yan’s advice and switched to using small earthworms, he had been catching a few small fish every day, successfully shaking off his reputation for getting skunked.
Sure enough, after walking two hundred meters upstream along the riverbank, they saw Comrade Zhou sitting by a clump of reeds.
With a small folding stool, a homemade fishing rod, and a military-green water bottle at his feet, he could sit by the river for an entire afternoon.
Sometimes, Zhou Yan really had to admire the willpower of anglers.
"Dad!" Zhou Momo let go of Zhou Yan’s hand and scampered down the riverbank.
"Slow down, slow down." Comrade Zhou turned around, quickly setting his fishing rod aside to catch the little one as she rushed toward him.
"Did you catch any fishies?" Zhou Momo peered into the fish basket beside him. Seeing it was empty, she couldn’t help but sigh. "There’s nothing here?"
"Not yet." Comrade Zhou scratched his head in embarrassment but still vowed, "But I’ll definitely catch one on the next cast."
"Momo wanted to take a nap, so Mom asked me to bring her out for a walk," Zhou Yan explained with a smile as he walked over.
"Good idea. Last night she was up until one in the morning. It drove your mom crazy." Comrade Zhou nodded with a smile.
"Dad, I wanna fish for fishies too," Zhou Momo said, looking expectantly at the fishing rod lying on the ground.
"Alright, you can fish for a bit." Comrade Zhou picked up the rod, put a new piece of earthworm on the hook, and handed it to her. "Hold it steady, it’s a little heavy."
"It’s okay, I’m Super Strong~~" Zhou Momo held the rod with both hands and casually cast it into the water, muttering, "Fishy, fishy, take the bait, I’m here to feed you your dinner~"
Zhou Miao kept his arms loosely around her to keep her from falling into the water. He said with a grin, "Fishies aren’t that easy to catch. See, Dad’s been sitting here for half the day and the bobber hasn’t even..."
Before he could finish his sentence, the bobber, which hadn’t moved at all, suddenly twitched twice and then plunged downward, pulling the tip of the rod into the water with it.