Chapter 33: Boss, They Are All My Classmates
After the two teachers left, Li You made himself a bowl of beef noodles.
After eating, he took out his phone and called Luo Yunlin.
The matter of the orchard was best handled sooner rather than later.
On the phone, Li You arranged with him to go to his orchard at two o’clock this afternoon to take a closer look at the condition of the fruit trees.
The man was in Shuiyuan Village, on the other side of town. It was about seven or eight kilometers away.
At 1:30 in the afternoon, Li You closed up the shop, got on his motorcycle, and set off.
A little over ten minutes later, Li You entered Shuiyuan Village.
Then, following Luo Yunlin’s directions, he arrived at Luo Yunlin’s house.
There, he met Luo Yunlin, a man of about thirty-five or thirty-six.
"Xiaoli, you must be tired from the journey," Luo Yunlin said with a smile.
Li You said, "Not at all, not at all. It’s not far. Brother Luo, you have so many fruit trees!"
Li You saw a huge lychee tree at the edge of Luo Yunlin’s yard.
The tree was laden with lychees, hanging in clusters. They weren’t fully ripe yet, but they already looked incredibly tempting.
Not far from it were also cherry, plum, peach, loquat, and walnut trees.
The cherries on the cherry tree were bright red and fully ripe.
Luo Yunlin laughed. "I just planted them for fun. Xiaoli, pick some cherries and loquats to eat. Help yourself, don’t be polite."
After thanking him, Li You picked a couple of cherries to try. They were very sweet, with an excellent texture.
Afterward, he went to the orchard with Luo Yunlin.
There were even more fruit trees here.
Luo Yunlin explained that he had planted over ten different kinds of fruit trees in total.
However, it wasn’t a large-scale operation. He mainly did it because he enjoyed planting and would sell some of the fruit retail. It wasn’t meant to be a full-fledged fruit business.
Li You nodded. ’That’s a nice way to do it.’
Then, Luo Yunlin showed Li You the saplings for four types of fruit: plum, grape, kiwifruit, and ponkan.
For now, these were the only four types for which he had large saplings to sell.
Li You was very satisfied after looking them over. All the saplings were growing well.
So, it was time to pick the saplings. And then discuss the price.
Li You picked out two plum trees. The base of their trunks was as thick as a man’s forearm.
Strictly speaking, they couldn’t even be called saplings anymore.
Then he chose five grapevines, five kiwifruit vines, and three ponkan trees.
Strictly speaking, a "grape tree" should be called a grapevine.
Grapes are a type of woody vine.
"Grape tree" is just a colloquial term.
Ponkan is a type of mandarin orange, and it’s delicious.
"Brother Luo, how much for all of these?"
Luo Yunlin pondered for a moment before saying, "How about 3,500 yuan for the lot? That includes delivery and a guarantee they’ll take root. What do you think?"
The price wasn’t expensive. You could even say it was very cheap.
Since Luo Yunlin didn’t quote a high price, Li You was just as straightforward. He nodded and said, "No problem. Brother Luo, when can you deliver them?"
Luo Yunlin said, "Tomorrow afternoon. Where exactly should I deliver them?"
Li You replied, "Head out of town towards Changle Village, to the entrance of Jiulong Gorge. When you get there, Brother Luo, you’ll see a restaurant. There’s a parking lot too. Just park in the lot."
"A restaurant?" Luo Yunlin was a bit puzzled. "I know that spot. But there’s no restaurant there! Why would there be a restaurant there?"
Li You smiled. "There wasn’t before, but there is now. I opened a restaurant there not long ago. I want to plant some fruit trees in the open space in front of it."
Luo Yunlin found it a bit hard to understand. "Xiaoli, why would you open a restaurant there? Can you even get any business?"
Li You said, "Mainly because I think it’s a great spot with nice scenery. I get some business. It’s not great at the moment, but it’ll pick up over time."
Luo Yunlin nodded. Since Li You had put it that way, there wasn’t much more he could say.
"Oh, right, do I need to pay a deposit or anything?" Li You added.
Luo Yunlin shook his head and said it wasn’t necessary, explaining that since they were both locals, he could definitely be trusted.
Li You nodded.
After that, the two of them returned to Luo Yunlin’s house.
Li You said his goodbyes and got on his motorcycle, ready to leave.
Luo Yunlin told Li You to wait a moment. He then went back inside and came out with a large bag of cherries. "Xiaoli, take these cherries home to eat. I just picked them this morning."
Seeing this, Li You quickly tried to refuse. "Brother Luo, I can’t take this, I really can’t."
The large bag of cherries probably weighed at least ten or so pounds.
Cherries weren’t cheap. Even in town, they sold for more than five or six yuan a pound.
Luo Yunlin said, "Xiaoli, don’t be polite. The trees are loaded; we can’t eat them all ourselves. Just think of it as helping us eat some. Take them, take them."
After refusing for a while, Li You found it hard to turn down such hospitality. He accepted them and said, "Brother Luo, thank you so much for this!"
Luo Yunlin said, "It’s just some cherries. Be careful on the road. I’ll deliver them around three or four tomorrow afternoon."
Li You replied, "No problem."
Then he drove off on his motorcycle.
He rode straight back to Jiulong Gorge. He saw three cars parked in the lot.
One of them looked a bit familiar, like it was Xia Xiaoyue’s car from the Xingshui Academy of Fine Arts.
’Is she here again?’
Li You was delighted. If Xia Xiaoyue was here, that meant business was here.
Even if she was mainly here to sketch or just for fun, she would definitely stay to eat.
There was no one at the entrance to the shop. ’They must have gone into the gorge to have some fun.’
’I should hurry up and open the door and wait for them to come back.’
Li You returned to the front of his shop, parked his motorcycle, and opened the door.
About ten minutes later, a group of people came over from the direction of the gorge.
There were twelve or thirteen of them, all girls.
Sure enough, Xia Xiaoyue was among them, and Yu Wei was there too.
The rest were all unfamiliar faces. They were all around the same age as Xia Xiaoyue and Yu Wei. He guessed they were probably Xia Xiaoyue’s classmates.
Several of Xia Xiaoyue’s classmates had come before.
This time, it was another ten or so new classmates.
’Xiao Yue is really coming through for me!’
As the group approached, Xia Xiaoyue said, "Boss, you’re finally open."
Li You laughed. "Sorry, sorry. I had to step out for a bit. Have you been waiting long?"
Xia Xiaoyue said, "Not too long. We got here late today. Boss, these are all my classmates."
Li You thought to himself, ’Just as I thought.’
"Hello, Boss!" the dozen or so girls greeted Li You one after another.
Li You smiled. "Hello, and welcome. Please, come in and have a seat."
"Thank you, Boss," the girls all said.
Then, they walked into the shop and found seats.
"What’s everyone having?" Li You asked.
Xia Xiaoyue said, "My three classmates who came last time told me you’ve added beef noodles and stir-fried shredded potatoes. We also saw it on the ’Today’s Specials’ sign outside. I’ll have a large bowl of beef noodles."
"I’ll have a small bowl of beef noodles and an order of shredded potatoes," Yu Wei said.
"I want a small bowl of Yangchun Noodles. I’ve heard Xiao Yue say for a long time how delicious your Yangchun Noodles are. I’ve been wanting to try them for ages."
"A large bowl of beef noodles."
"A small bowl of Yangchun Noodles and an order of stir-fried shredded potatoes. I love shredded potatoes, so I want to see how the boss’s are."
"..."
Li You jotted down all the girls’ orders. Then he said, "Please wait a moment. It’ll be out soon."
Then he turned and went into the kitchen.
...