After arriving at the restaurant.
He put the plums, various vegetables, and eggs away in the Storage Pavilion.
He also checked on the soybeans that Da Bai had soaked in the early morning.
They looked great.
All that was left was to wait for Wei Ping’s family, along with Liu Xu, Xiao Yue, Zhang Rui’Er, and the others to arrive.
They were among the restaurant’s very first customers, and Li You hoped to see them continue to visit.
With no customers yet, Da Bai and Xiaohai were in the kitchen preparing the ingredients.
Li You sat in the rocking chair by the entrance, eating plums and scrolling through his phone, waiting for his patrons to show up.
The time slowly crept toward ten in the morning.
Over a dozen cars and vans pulled into the parking lot one after another.
Doors opened, and an increasing number of people stepped out.
Liu Xu, Xiao Yue, Zhang Rui’Er, and their group had arrived.
A huge, sprawling group of people made their way over.
Among them, aside from Liu Xu, Xiao Yue, and Zhang Rui’Er, most of the faces were familiar.
However, there were some new faces as well.
Clearly, new people had joined their ranks this time.
The group was getting larger with every visit.
Last Saturday, there were about fifty people. This time, Li You estimated there must be seventy or eighty.
With so many people, they would need seven or eight tables, even for a courtyard banquet.
In fact, a smaller-scale courtyard banquet was often around this size.
This left Li You somewhat stunned.
Still, this was definitely a good thing.
When you’re running a restaurant, you can never have too many customers.
Li You stood up and went forward to greet them.
Liu Xu, Xiao Yue, and Zhang Rui’Er were leading the pack.
Seeing Li You come out to meet them, Liu Xu laughed heartily. "Boss, we’re back! We brought even more people this time. Did we scare you?"
Li You chuckled. "To be honest, I was a little startled. But it’s a good thing!"
He then raised his voice to address the crowd, "Welcome! Welcome, everyone! We’re so glad to have you!"
"Haha! Hey, Boss. We can finally eat your food again!"
"It’s been a week, and the boss is still as handsome as ever."
"Nonsense. He’s clearly even more handsome now!"
"..."
Within the crowd, the returning customers all chimed in to greet Li You or crack a few jokes.
The scene was incredibly lively.
The newcomers, meanwhile, were discreetly sizing Li You up.
’He really is handsome,’ they thought. ’The others weren’t exaggerating.’
But they hadn’t come here today just because the owner was good-looking. They were here for the food.
’Is everything here really a culinary masterpiece?’
They were highly skeptical.
But they had come anyway. They needed to verify it for themselves.
After Li You exchanged some pleasantries with the crowd, Liu Xu spoke to him.
"Boss," he said, "you must be curious why our group keeps getting bigger, right?"
Li You nodded.
He was, in fact, quite curious.
In the beginning, the people who came with Liu Xu, Xiao Yue, and Zhang Rui’Er were just their colleagues.
’But there’s no way all these people are their coworkers, right?’
Liu Xu laughed. "Well, I created a group chat called ’Gourmet Food in the Wild.’ At first, it was just the dozen or so of us. Then, everyone started adding their friends who are into good food. We all just kept inviting people because we wanted everyone we knew to experience what real gourmet food is. So, the group grew and grew, and now we have over 200 members. About a third of them are here today."
’So that’s how it happened,’ Li You thought.
He nodded to show he understood.
Then, Liu Xu added, "Boss, everyone is hoping you’ll join the group chat. Would you be interested?"
Li You nodded. "Of course! I’d love to."
The group was full of his customers and potential customers.
Therefore, Li You had no objection to joining.
Though he didn’t enjoy participating in group chats, that was fine. He could just lurk.
Seeing Li You agree, Liu Xu, Xiao Yue, Zhang Rui’Er, and all the others were delighted.
Liu Xu quickly said, "Great, Boss! Let’s add each other as contacts, and I’ll invite you to the group. And don’t worry, we won’t bother you for no reason."
Li You smiled. "It’s no bother at all."
The two then added each other as WeChat contacts.
Liu Xu pulled Li You into the group.
The moment he joined, the chat naturally exploded with excitement.
After the hubbub died down, Xiao Yue suddenly exclaimed in pleasant surprise, "Boss, you have spicy crayfish now?"
Her excited cry made Liu Xu, Zhang Rui’Er, and the others hurriedly look toward the "Today’s Specials" board.
They hadn’t paid any attention to it earlier.
A single glance confirmed it: Spicy Crayfish was now on the menu.
What’s more, at 35 yuan per jin, the price wasn’t even expensive.
Back in the county town, you’d be paying upwards of forty yuan per jin, unless there was a special promotion.
In addition to the spicy crayfish, Crucian Carp with Agastache was also a new dish.
They had been away for just one week, and there were already two new items.
This meant two new items had been added to the menu of culinary masterpieces.
And one of them was spicy crayfish!
This was an incredible surprise.
All the returning customers, including Liu Xu, Xiao Yue, and Zhang Rui’Er, were absolutely thrilled and excited.
They all loved to eat crayfish.
They already enjoyed the crayfish from other restaurants immensely.
But there was no doubt that the Boss’s spicy crayfish would be leagues better than anything they’d had before.
Exactly how much better? They didn’t know yet.
But the answer was definitely something to look forward to!
This truly was a massive, pleasant surprise.
Everyone was dying to order the spicy crayfish and dig in right then and there.
But ultimately, they managed to restrain themselves.
For one, it was still early.
For another, they had something else to do first.
Namely, using the stone mill to grind soybeans and make tofu.
This was something they had all agreed on last Saturday.
Over the past week, they had been eagerly looking forward to it, itching to give it a go.
So, there was no way they were going to back out now.
Just then, Wei Ping and his family arrived.
Wei Ping wasn’t surprised by the bustling scene.
He was also in the group chat Liu Xu had created.
He just hadn’t traveled with everyone else.
"Uncle Li You!"
"Uncle Li You!"
Wei Ping’s two children were as warm and friendly toward Li You as ever.
Li You was delighted. He patted the two little ones on the head and smiled. "Yu, Xiaoxi, I’m so glad you’re here again. Make sure you have lots of fun today, okay?"
"Okay!" the two children chirped in unison.
"Master Wei, the Boss rolled out two new dishes—spicy crayfish and crucian carp with agastache!" Liu Xu eagerly told Wei Ping.
Wei Ping and his family were equally surprised and delighted!
His two children even cheered, "Yay! We can eat spicy crayfish!"
’Even the kids are this happy.’ Li You couldn’t help but sigh inwardly. ’Crayfish really has become one of the most popular ingredients around.’
’That Spicy Crayfish recipe dropped at the perfect time.’
Just then, Zhou Yang and his four classmates from the Xingshui Academy of Fine Arts also arrived.
They weren’t in Liu Xu’s group chat.
So, the sheer number of customers left them speechless.
’But on second thought, it makes perfect sense,’ they mused. ’Sooner or later, the Boss’s place will be packed like this all the time.’
After Zhou Yang and the other four arrived, another round of lively greetings and chatter broke out.
Now that everyone was present, they could finally begin grinding the soybeans with the stone mill.
Everyone was itching to get started.
...