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On the first day of school, the restaurant's business was far better than Jiang Feng had imagined.

From sharp-eyed upperclassmen to starving freshmen, everyone had bulging wallets on the first day of school and refused to settle for cafeteria food. A University's cafeterias were famous for being unpredictable. When the chefs were on form, everything was normal. When they felt like doing whatever they wanted, there was dishwater Seaweed Egg Soup, seasoning-powder miso soup, pineapple stir-fried with tomatoes, and peppers stir-fried with mooncakes. There was nothing they wouldn't make, only things you couldn't imagine.

Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant already counted as a fairly large restaurant near A University. Though its prices were on the high side, there were always people with money to spare who were willing to give it a try. By noon, both the first and second floors were completely full, and even the large round tables had been filled by groups of unrelated diners sharing seats.

"President? Hey, where's the president? Brother Hao, the teacher ran over time today, so I'm late!" Liu Zixuan ran into the restaurant with a backpack on his back, panting heavily. The sea of people before him left him stunned. Not only were all the seats taken, there were even people standing around waiting for tables.

Had he really... not arrived at the cafeteria?

Even the cafeteria's discount days weren't this crowded, right?

"There are too many people in the restaurant, so Brother Feng went into the kitchen. Go help Brother Chen on the second floor. He's been running up and down nonstop—I bet his legs are about to fall off." Wang Hao assigned Liu Zixuan a task.

They stayed busy all morning and did not get a chance to rest until half past one.

"Brother Feng, where did you advertise? Why are there so many customers today?" Wang Hao gulped down Sour Plum Drink, very much in the style of Comrade Jiang Jiankang.

"It's the first day of school. Cafeterias One, Five, and Six aren't open yet. What restaurant isn't crowded?" The contractors for Cafeterias One, Five, and Six were all the same company, and they always began operating on the third day of school.

"True." Qiu Chen recalled the terror of fighting for food in the cafeteria on the first day of school in previous years. "Brother Feng, isn't your restaurant planning to do delivery? Liu Qian asked me about it at noon. She wanted to know when your restaurant would be joining a delivery platform."

"Isn't there a notice posted at the entrance? Hiring part-time delivery workers." Wang Hao kept his head down as he ate.

If they did delivery, it would greatly ease the pressure from the restaurant's customers.

"Our restaurant doesn't do delivery," Comrade Jiang Jiankang said. "I've run restaurants for over twenty years. I've never bothered with that kind of nonsense."

"Give me a break. You're just upset about the commission fees!" Comrade Wang Xiulian rolled her eyes at Jiang Jiankang. "Xiao Chen, even if our family did deliveries, we wouldn't be able to keep up. Your uncle is the only cook, and he can't handle that much."

"Our restaurant used to deliver only to regular customers. They could just call directly. We had considered it before, but let's wait until we hire someone. We can barely keep up with the restaurant as it is," Jiang Feng explained.

After lunch, those with classes went to class, while those without classes returned to their dorms. Jiang Feng had no classes that afternoon, so he stayed at the restaurant to prepare ingredients and cooked two more pots of congee. A skill as good as Congee Cooking (Intermediate) could not go to waste.

At noon, Comrade Jiang Jiankang had been too busy to manage, giving Jiang Feng a chance to take charge of the wok. His proficiency in Heat Control and seasoning had both risen quite a bit. Looking at the Plain Congee bubbling in the large pot, Jiang Feng could not help but ponder a question.

If he made Clear Soup with Bird's Nest Slices himself...

Forget it. If Comrade Wang Xiulian found out that he had wasted so much white bird's nest just to practice one dish, she would probably execute him on the spot for the greater good.

Humming a tune, Jiang Feng sliced cucumbers into strips. On the long row of plates to his right were neatly piled shredded carrots, strips of white radish, shredded potatoes, potato chunks, sliced onions, shredded peppers, and pumpkin slices. The colors were rich and looked especially appealing.

It was not that Jiang Feng did not want to cut meat. Rather, as a devoted carnivore, Comrade Jiang Jiankang had far stricter standards for meat than vegetables. Every piece of meat had to be cut and sliced by him personally. How the fat should be cut, how much should be cut, whether it would be used for kung pao chicken or Sweet and Sour Pork Tenderloin—all of it had to pass his personal inspection. In a way, he made sure every pig and chicken died for a worthy cause.

"Ding! Main quest The Advancing Little Shop completed. Quest reward obtained: item—Takeout Cooler Box."

"Ding! Optional main quest discovered: Gain a Foothold: earn the approval of 1,000 diners for Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant."

He opened the quest panel and selected yes after the main quest.

Gain a Foothold: earn the approval of 1,000 diners for Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant. Quest progress: (2/1000)

Quest Hint: Diners' approval is crucial to a new restaurant. Please make Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant the number one restaurant in the hearts of A University's many diners.

Becoming the number one restaurant at A University would not be easy. In the university town where A University was located, setting aside the food street for the moment, there were more than twenty restaurants of varying sizes hidden within the faculty housing area alone. Add in those that had made their way onto campus, the university's own commercial street, the commercial streets outside, shopping malls, and restaurants of every size and price range, and there were at least several hundred restaurants. Among them were plenty of old establishments that had been open for twenty or thirty years.

For a new restaurant like Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant to snatch customers from the jaws of those established restaurants would be quite difficult.

It would have been easier if, like the previous quest, he only needed the approval of a hundred diners. This campus had only a little over ten thousand students and staff in total, while the other campus was a full forty kilometers away. He could not exactly hope that the students and staff there would come all the way over to eat, could he?

After calculating Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant's daily customer flow, Jiang Feng decided to set this main quest aside for now and let nature take its course. He began studying the quest reward the game had given him.

The Takeout Cooler Box in the item menu showed that it could be retrieved. Jiang Feng tapped retrieve, and a large foam box appeared out of thin air on the ground.

It was an utterly ordinary-looking foam box. The words "takeout" were scrawled crookedly on the lid. The fact that it was not damaged was probably already the game's greatest blessing to him.

It perfectly matched the sort of foam box every cheap stir-fry restaurant near a school used for takeout.

Jiang Feng stared at the foam box for a long time, speechless.

This was the reward for his main quest?

And it had the nerve to call itself a cooler box? It would already be impressive if this kind of box could retain heat at all. He would have to seal it tightly with tape.

Forget it. If they started doing delivery in the future, they really could use it.

Jiang Feng silently tapped retrieve in the item menu.

"Hello? Is anyone here?" someone shouted from outside.

"Coming." He walked out of the kitchen and saw a girl with a ponytail standing in front of the hiring notice.

"Hello, are you still hiring part-time... Jiang Feng?"

"President?"

The two stared wide-eyed at each other for a long while.

"You work part-time at this restaurant?" Ji Yue asked in surprise.

"President, weren't you studying for the graduate entrance exam?" Jiang Feng was even more surprised that Ji Yue, who should have been preparing for the exam, was looking for a part-time job at a time like this.

Ji Yue was the former president of the Chess Club. She had majored in graphic design in the Fine Arts Department and had just graduated. After failing the graduate entrance exam, she rented a small apartment near the school to study for another attempt.

"Something happened at home. My younger brother still has to go to college, and there's no money to support me taking the exam for another year. I can't find any proper work, and drawing commissions for others isn't enough to support myself, so I came out to find something to do." Ji Yue gave a bitter smile.

"This is my family's restaurant. Senior, it's a bit beneath your talents to have hands that can draw doing odd jobs," Jiang Feng said sincerely.

"I'd like to draw too, but no one wants my drawings." Ji Yue was very familiar with Jiang Feng. "I never realized you were a rich second-generation kid. You know my situation. The art programs at our school are pretty weak to begin with, and I'm not someone who formally studied fine arts. I only learned to draw for two years at the last minute so I could get into a better university on the college entrance exam."

"So? You know what kind of person your Senior Ji is. Give me three meals a day and whatever pay you can spare, and I'll get by for the time being." Ji Yue was quite easygoing about it.

"Fifteen hundred a month, three meals included, no days off. It's only busy during mealtimes. Senior, you can work for as long as you want. Just let me know when you find another job," Jiang Feng said.

"Thanks." Ji Yue looked greatly relieved. "I'm good at neither literature nor martial arts. No one would even hire me as an elementary school tutor. If you hadn't helped me out so loyally, Junior, your senior might have starved to death."

"By the way, how's the food at your family's restaurant?"

"I made congee. Do you want to try some first?"

"Sure. Sweet congee or savory congee?"

"Senior, tell me the truth. How many days has it been since you last ate?"

"..."