Chapter 79: Yuan Zhou’s Principle

Translator: Xiong Guoqi Editor: DesTheSloth

“No, it’s not expensive. You don’t need to spend money. You just...” Of course, Sun Ming knew Yuan Zhou’s temper well. He directly expressed that money was not his wish.

“Tell me.” Yuan Zhou changed his position while holding the telephone.

“Yuan Zhou, we have known each other for years. As your brother, I can say to have treated you pretty decently. And you...” Sun Ming switched to a gentler tone, talking about their old days.

“Just get to the point,” Yuan Zhou didn’t wait for Sun Ming to finish his emotional speech and just interrupted directly.

Sun Ming choked back the long paragraph of emotional words he had prepared due to Yuan Zhou’s words. He felt uncomfortable with the words stuck in his throat and unhappy without being able to say what he meant.

“Can’t you just let me finish my words?” Sun Ming’s tone started to get cold.

“Ok, sure. Go on, please,” Yuan Zhou had thought himself to be a considerate person all along, thus he accepted the good advice answered.

“HoHo”, Sun Ming could only reply with that.

“Can we get to the point now?” Yuan Zhou asked considerately.

“For my birthday tomorrow, you don’t need to prepare any gift,” while holding the phone in his hand, Sun Ming took a deep breath and said calmly.

“I’ve never intended to send you the gift. A man doesn’t need gifts.” Yuan Zhou didn’t really accept Sun Ming’s seemingly friendly offer. He directly brought out his idea.

“After being friends for several years, are you going to make me die of anger and then come attend my funeral tomorrow?” Sun Ming asked in a cold tone.

“No, no. I was just joking.” Yuan Zhou immediately corrected himself.

“Just cook a bowl of Clear Broth Noodle Soup for me tomorrow, treating it as longevity noodles.” Sun Ming felt that he had gone through great difficulties just for this request.

Having considered for a second, Yuan Zhou answered, “Just this?”

“Yes. I’ll appreciate it if you want to cook something else,” Sun Ming tone became lazy as he spoke, as he knew Yuan Zhou feared troublesome matters.

“You prepare the ingredients and I’ll cook Egg Fried Rice for all of you,” Yuan Zhou thought for a while and said.

“That would be great. Thank you.” There was an obvious surprise in Sun Ming’s tone.

“You’re welcome.” Yuan Zhou was very polite. He would never hang up on others randomly, even if it was a sales call.

“Let’s meet tomorrow at my home at 5:00 in the afternoon, alright?” Sun Ming told him the time and address.

“Alright.” After calculating the time, Yuan Zhou felt it was not a problem, hence agreed.

“Then I’ll hang up now. Don’t be late tomorrow.”Sun Ming hung up immediately as soon as he finished talking.

“Sure.” The call was ended by Sun Ming before Yuan Zhou could answer him.

Yuan Zhou set down the telephone and thought for a while before heading upstairs to wash up. After setting the alarm at 6:30 a.m. for the next morning on his phone, Yuan Zhou went to sleep.

........

“Ling ling ling, Ling ling ling”

The alarm woke Yuan Zhou up from his sound sleep in the morning. He then reached to turn off the clock and walked with his eyes closed to the bathroom familiarly to wash up.

Every morning, Yuan Zhou cleared his head in the bathroom. Today would be no exception as well.

He changed into his work clothes and then walked downstairs to prepare breakfast.

Normally, Yuan Zhou would only provide one dish in the morning for the sake of convenience and speed.

However, he took out two different types of flour today, one for making the wrappings of the Soup Dumplings and the other for the noodles.

It was 8:00 a.m. when Yuan Zhou put the Soup Dumplings onto the steamer and finished preparing the noodles. After getting up and washing his hands, he opened the door with a “Hua La” sound.

“Morning, boss.” Mu Xiaoyun, who was standing at the door, greeted him politely.

“Morning. Come on in.” After nodding his head, Yuan Zhou moved his body aside and entered the restaurant first.

“Ok, boss.” Since she had gotten her salary yesterday, Mu Xiaoyun’s heart was filled with delight; thus she bounced about while entering.

“As usual, you work for an hour in the morning and two in the afternoon today. But you don’t need to come in the evening,” Yuan Zhou said while walking inside.

“Huh? Why?” Mu Xiaoyun asked with puzzlement.

“I have something to do and will not be here in the evening.” Yuan Zhou was still willing to patiently answer the little girl.

“Ok, no problem.” Mu Xiaoyun didn’t feel that it was a big deal, three hours less merely meant a half-day salary cut; hence, she nodded her head and agreed.

“Just like lunch yesterday, all dishes will be served this morning.” Yuan Zhou added after thinking for a while.

“Got it.” Standing at the same position as yesterday, Mu Xiaoyun obediently expressed that she understood.

“Good.” Yuan Zhou felt there were some benefits in recruiting a well-behaved little loli. After all, he didn’t need to greet the customers anymore ---although he never did it before.

Those customers, nevertheless, enquired much again when they heard that every dish was served in the morning.

“As I have something to do in the evening and the restaurant can’t be opened for business, I will keep the restaurant open for 6 hours during the daytime. If any of you have time, you guys can come over to eat some tea snacks in the afternoon. Likewise, 100 Soup Dumplings will be served by then.” While the little loli Mu Xiaoyun was still confused about what to do next, Yuan Zhou walked out and explained.

“Ah, sounds good. Even if we can’t have the supper here, it would be awesome to sneak out and eat the Soup Dumplings,” a girl with a long hair said, sighing with emotion.

“Yeap, that’s right.” Customers beside her started to chime in.

“I like Boss Yuan’s character, which adheres to his principles, but also has humanity.” A man wearing a pair of glasses started to praise Yuan Zhou.

“What, you feel that he has humanity merely because of the extra 100 Soup Dumplings? If I had to say it, it would be if Boss Yuan could develop a new dish.” a man wearing a suit at the side started to change the topic away as he spoke.

“Yeah, yeah. It’s been a long time since you developed the last new dish.” the pretty girl who was drinking the Watermelon Juice swallowed it and said excitedly.

“Soon.” Yuan Zhou gave an affirmative answer.

“How soon is your soon?” immediately, someone asked loudly.

“Very soon.” as always, Yuan Zhou still answered vaguely.

Seeing that Yuan Zhou would not answer them anymore, the customers could only discuss it among themselves. There were even some who started gambling a meal out of amusement to guess what the next new dish would be.

When Mu Xiaoyun saw Yuan Zhou solve the problem merely with a few words, she was fairly delighted. However, when she heard Yuan Zhou’s arrangement of his opening hours, she nevertheless said in an apprehensive tone,

“Boss, since your restaurant is opened for 6 hours during the daytime, I will stay and help.”

“You don’t need to. Just come at the time that we agreed upon just now,” Yuan Zhou refused decisively.

“But...” Mu Xiaoyun was interrupted by Yuan Zhou before she could continue to talk more.

historical

“Alright, alright. Go do your work.”

During the gap between 10:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m., Yuan Zhou took a break for one hour and also to make the Soup Dumplings. Then at 11:00 a.m., he opened the restaurant again for business.

Yuan Zhou had a fairly good sense of time. Once the agreed working hours were up, he told Mu Xiaoyun, “You can get off work now. Time is up.”

“It’s alright. I can still work longer,” Mu Xiaoyun said while smiling.

“No need. Go back home.” While saying that, Yuan Zhou stood up and took out a note of 100 RMB from the drawer, handing it over to Mu Xiaoyun.

“Boss, I don’t have 50 RMB to return to you.” Mu Xiaoyun tweaked the edge of her clothes and said while looking at the red brand new note.

“You don’t need to give me any change. This is your salary,” Yuan Zhou said clearly.

“Why? I have only worked half of the 6-hour shift. The salary should be 50 RMB.” Her lovely white face showed a puzzled expression.

“It’s me who has something to do in the evening, not you. So just take it.” Yuan Zhou held out the money and told Mu Xiaoyun to receive it with a solemn look.

After she blinked her big black watery eyes, Mu Xiaoyun said, “No, I can’t. I only worked for half a day.”

This time, Yuan Zhou felt that the loli, although being considerate, was also troublesome. He could only explain, “It is a breach on my side, so this is what you deserve to get.”

“Alright.” Mu Xiaoyun was finally persuaded by this reason. Only by then did she receive the full salary from Yuan Zhou.

.......