He walked over to the braised food display case.
Inside were four braised chickens. Li You let the customer pick one.
The customer’s eyes lit up when he saw the braised chickens. Their color looked incredibly appetizing.
He wanted to eat one more and more.
They all looked about the same, so he told Li You to just grab any one of them.
Li You nodded, picked up a braised chicken, and sliced it down the middle, splitting it in two.
He also separated the head and the neck. One half came with the head, the other with the neck.
"Do you want the half with the head or the neck?" Li You asked.
"The head."
"Alright."
He placed the half chicken and the head on the scale.
Two jin and one liang.
"Two jin and one liang. Is that alright?" Li You asked again.
The customer nodded. "That’s fine."
Then he started chopping. He first cut off the entire leg, then chopped the rest of the chicken into small pieces.
Once it was chopped, he arranged it on a plate and handed it to the customer.
The customer took it, picked up the chicken leg with his hand, and took a bite.
The first bite was a delightful surprise. ’This is so fragrant and delicious! It’s countless times better than the braised chicken from the market.’
"Boss, another bowl of wine."
He hadn’t even finished one piece of meat before he was eagerly asking for more wine.
Originally, he hadn’t planned on drinking.
’It’s breakfast, why would I drink? I don’t drink in the morning.’
But now, with this braised chicken being so fragrant and delicious, not pairing it with a bowl of fine wine would be a complete waste.
So, he didn’t care that it was morning. He would drink the wine first and worry about it later.
Li You agreed with a smile. He walked over to the wine jar and ladled out a bowl for the customer.
Then he returned to the rocking chair at the entrance and went back to his phone.
A short while later, the customer finished his wine, but he had only eaten a small portion of the braised chicken.
Why was that?
It was, of course, because the customer was deliberately eating it sparingly.
He wanted to pack up the rest to take home and savor slowly.
"Boss, could you please pack this up for me?"
"Of course."
Li You agreed, took out a to-go box, and packed up the customer’s leftover braised chicken.
The customer thanked him, paid his bill, and left.
...
The time slowly crept toward 11 AM.
Customers looking for lunch began to arrive one after another.
They were all pleasantly surprised to see the restaurant had a new offering today—braised chicken. Many of them chose to order it.
As for the taste, everyone was full of praise, of course.
...
「The parking lot.」
A total of ten cars drove into the parking lot in succession.
This was Xie Feng and his party of over forty people.
"We’re finally here. This place is really far. But the scenery along the way was fantastic, so it was worth it."
"The view here is even more beautiful. And we haven’t even reached the gorge yet. It must be even more stunning inside the gorge. Based on this alone, I feel like Jiulong Gorge really lives up to its reputation."
"Jiulong Gorge is definitely worth a visit. I never knew we had such a beautiful place in Changxi County!"
"Everyone, look over there. That must be the restaurant Boss Jiang told us about, Boss Li You’s place, right? ’Mountain Restaurant’—the name is quite fitting," one person said, pointing toward Li You’s restaurant.
Everyone else, including Xie Feng, saw it too, of course.
"So it’s a wooden building. It looks quite rustic."
"There are a lot of motorcycles and electric scooters parked here. Are they all here to eat at Boss Li You’s restaurant? If so, business is actually pretty good."
"It’s past 11 AM. Why don’t we eat first? We can take our time exploring the gorge after we’re done."
"Alright. I’m curious to see if the Yangchun Noodles here are really better than Master Liang’s. The claim that Master Liang only has about eighty percent of Boss Li You’s skill is really hard to believe."
"Are we getting Yangchun Noodles? Didn’t Boss Jiang say they have stir-fried dishes too? Since we’ll be exploring this afternoon, wouldn’t stir-fry and rice be a better choice?"
"Let’s get both. There are so many of us, we can just order a few bowls of Yangchun Noodles and share. The main thing is to have a taste."
"That works. Let’s go. Let’s see how the food here is supposed to ’open up a new world of culinary delights’?"
"You can listen to Boss Jiang’s words, but you don’t have to take them so seriously. You actually believe him?"
"Do you guys think Boss Li You will be over the moon when our whole group walks in? He’s probably never had this much business at once."
"It’s possible."
"..."
The group chatted amongst themselves as they slowly walked to the restaurant’s entrance.
"Welcome!" Da Bai greeted them at the door.
When the crowd saw Da Bai, they were all taken aback.
’There’s a robot?’
’Boss Li You is something else! He’s even got high-tech stuff like this.’
’Then again, does a restaurant like this really need a robot?’
The group members muttered this to themselves as they filed into the restaurant.
Once inside, they were surprised again.
The restaurant didn’t look very big from the outside, but walking in, they found it was a world of its own.
And there were indeed quite a few customers.
No, there were more than they had imagined.
There were at least thirty or forty customers.
’Business is this good?’
Just a moment ago, they were saying the boss would be thrilled when their group of forty-some people walked in, because he’d never had such good business.
Now they realized they were just being presumptuous.
The number of customers the boss already had was no less than their own group.
Although this place wasn’t too far from the main street of Wenxian Town, it wasn’t exactly close either!
’How could so many people come all the way out here to eat?’
’This restaurant must really have something special to it!’
"Do you guys smell that? The aroma of braised chicken?" someone asked.
Everyone else nodded. Of course they smelled it. They had smelled it the moment they walked through the door.
"Over there."
Someone spotted the braised food display case and pointed at it.
The group walked closer for a look and saw two and a half braised chickens left inside.
"Look at that color. It looks like it would be incredibly delicious. I’m afraid the food here is genuinely something special," someone else commented.
The others nodded in agreement.
To be honest, their mouths were watering.
Braised chicken was a fairly common dish. They ate it often enough.
’Normally, when I see it, I don’t feel much of anything!’
But now, they were craving it intensely.
’The food here really isn’t so simple.’
This was the second time the group had this feeling.
"Greetings, customers! Would you like some braised chicken?" Xiaohai walked over and asked the group.
The group looked over.
’Holy crap!’
’Another robot?’
’And this robot even knows to ask customers if they want braised chicken?’
’Isn’t that a little too smart?’
’Wait, if we say yes, what will it do?’
Xie Feng said, "We’ll take all two and a half of those braised chickens."
Xiaohai replied, "Certainly. The braised chicken is 35 yuan per jin. I will weigh it for you."
With that, Xiaohai placed all two and a half chickens on the scale.
"The total is ten jin and six liang. Is that alright?" Xiaohai asked.
Xie Feng and the others were completely stunned.
’This robot is way too intelligent, isn’t it?’
’This is so high-tech!’
’No wonder we didn’t see any waiters in the restaurant. It turns out they have two incredibly smart robots.’
’That’s freaking awesome!’
’This restaurant is truly extraordinary.’
The group felt this way once again.
...