Chapter 96: I Just Hope It Doesn’t Taste Too Bad
Jiulong Gorge.
Li You welcomed another new group of customers.
It was Lin Guodong, Lin Zhonghai, and other villagers from Taoshan Village.
They had come for the mapo tofu.
The day before yesterday, they had come for mapo tofu. But because Li You was out of tofu, they’d had to leave disappointed.
Today, after going to the market in town, they decided to stop by again.
The moment they arrived, they saw people everywhere in front of the restaurant and were secretly amazed. ’Has the young man’s business gotten this good already?’
Of course, this was a good thing. They were all happy for Li You.
"Young man, do you have tofu today?" Lin Guodong asked Li You.
Li You smiled. "Uncle Guodong, I do."
"That’s great!" Lin Guodong was overjoyed.
Finally, he could show those guys what truly delicious mapo tofu tasted like.
Lin Zhonghai and the other villagers were, of course, also delighted.
They were also eager to find out what truly delicious mapo tofu tasted like.
Seeing so many customers today, Lin Guodong, Lin Zhonghai, and the others decided to order and eat now to avoid the noon rush.
It was already ten-thirty in the morning, so it wasn’t too early.
"Young man, we’ll have six orders of mapo tofu," Lin Guodong said.
Even though there were twelve of them, six orders of mapo tofu would be enough.
Li You nodded. "Alright. Have a seat, it’ll be ready soon."
With that, he walked into the kitchen and started cooking.
After a flurry of activity, six servings of mapo tofu were ready.
He served them to his customers.
The moment the dishes were set on the table, Lin Guodong said excitedly, "Everyone, take a look, just look. Doesn’t it look completely different from the mapo tofu we make ourselves?"
Lin Zhonghai and the others all nodded repeatedly.
The difference was indeed obvious. Just by looking at it, you could tell it would be far more delicious than the mapo tofu they made at home.
Seeing everyone’s reaction, Lin Guodong felt a deep sense of satisfaction.
Just then, Li You brought over two large basins of steamed rice.
After everyone had scooped a bowl of rice for themselves, they eagerly began to eat.
The first bite confirmed it: this was leagues better than the mapo tofu they made at home.
They finally understood what truly delicious mapo tofu was supposed to taste like.
Everyone felt an unprecedented sense of satisfaction.
They never thought they’d one day be able to eat such delicious mapo tofu.
They had the young man to thank for opening his restaurant here.
Otherwise, people like them, who had lived their whole lives in the countryside, would probably never have had the chance to taste something so good.
The villagers all felt this way, their hearts filled with emotion.
Meanwhile, Liu Xu, Xiao Yue, Zhang Rui’Er, and the others, who were chatting near the orchard, as well as Wei Ping’s family, all noticed that people were already eating in the restaurant.
In an instant, they felt hungry too.
They had originally planned to eat around eleven-thirty.
But now, they couldn’t wait any longer.
So they wouldn’t wait.
They would just have an early lunch today.
So, Liu Xu, Xiao Yue, Zhang Rui’Er, and the others, along with Wei Ping’s family, all walked into the restaurant and found themselves seats.
"Boss, we’re ready to eat too," they all called out.
Li You smiled. "Alright. What would you all like to have?"
Wei Ping said, "We’ll have one order of mapo tofu, one twice-cooked pork with garlic sprouts, one twice-cooked pork with green peppers, and one shredded potato stir-fry. And rice, please."
Liu Xu, Xiao Yue, Zhang Rui’Er, and the others also placed their orders.
Aside from the "boiled cabbage in broth," they ordered several servings of every other dish.
There were a lot of them.
In addition to the main dishes, many people also ordered Yangchun Noodles or beef noodles.
They wanted noodles instead of rice.
’After waiting all week for the weekend to finally come here, why would we eat plain rice? Wouldn’t noodles be much better?’
After noting down all the customers’ orders, Li You once again entered the kitchen and began to cook.
Even though they had ordered a lot this time, Li You worked with three large woks simultaneously, and it didn’t take long for him to start sending out the dishes one after another.
The speed at which the food came out was impeccable.
And as expected, both the mapo tofu and the twice-cooked pork left Wei Ping’s family and the group with Liu Xu, Xiao Yue, and Zhang Rui’Er completely thrilled and satisfied.
They had been eagerly anticipating what these two dishes, already delicious on their own, would taste like when made by Li You.
Now, they finally knew.
All they could say was that it was far more delicious than they had ever imagined or hoped.
This was, without a doubt, the pinnacle of mapo tofu and the pinnacle of twice-cooked pork.
Now, they just wanted to say that only after eating Boss Li’s mapo tofu did they know what real mapo tofu was.
Likewise, only after eating Boss Li’s twice-cooked pork did they know what real twice-cooked pork was.
They were incredibly lucky to have found a restaurant like this.
And the newcomers, who were here for the first time today, felt even luckier.
The doubts they had been harboring had long since vanished completely.
All that remained was utter surprise, excitement, and disbelief.
At the same time, they finally understood why Liu Xu, Xiao Yue, Zhang Rui’Er, and the others had been so excited and expectant after hearing about the new dishes.
They also thought to themselves that the next time new dishes were announced, they would surely be just as excited and expectant as Liu Xu, Xiao Yue, and Zhang Rui’Er’s group.
This was a magical restaurant.
Fortunately, they had finally made their way here too.
At this moment, all the newcomers were silently celebrating their decision to come along today.
...
Meanwhile, on the road from Wenxian Town to Jiulong Gorge, a car from Xingshui City was driving along.
There were five people in the car, all of them young men.
Right now, every one of them had a look of anticipation on their face.
"We should be there soon. Wild Red-crowned Cranes, here we come!"
"Whether we get to photograph them or not depends on luck. I hope we get lucky."
"Mu Qingye managed to photograph them. There’s no reason our luck should be any worse than hers!"
"I hope so!"
"..."
Without a doubt, these five young men were all photography students from the Xingshui Academy of Fine Arts.
They were in the same major as Mu Qingye, but in a different class.
This morning, when they saw Mu Qingye’s set of Red-crowned Crane photos, they were both surprised and thrilled.
’How awesome would it be if we could also take a set of photos like that?’
So, the five of them immediately set about finding out the exact location where Mu Qingye took her pictures.
Once they found out, they drove over right away.
Thus, they were the first group from the entire Xingshui Academy of Fine Arts to set out for Jiulong Gorge after Mu Qingye’s Red-crowned Crane photos went viral.
The two-and-a-half-hour drive was a bit long, but that didn’t matter.
If they could get pictures of wild Red-crowned Cranes, what was a little drive?
"Oh, right, there’s a rumor at school that there’s a restaurant in Jiulong Gorge with super delicious food. Should we try it later?"
"We can try it, sure. It’s almost lunchtime anyway, so we can grab a bite. But you guys better not get your hopes up about the taste, or you’ll be seriously disappointed. I, for one, don’t believe the food there is ’super delicious.’"
"I don’t believe it either. That rumor at school has to be some kind of deliberate hype, right? I don’t know why someone would be hyping it up at our school, but it’s definitely hype."
"The taste doesn’t matter. As long as it’s not bad and can fill our stomachs, it’s fine. We need to be full to have the energy to shoot this afternoon."
"Exactly. Let’s just hope it’s not too terrible."
"..."
...