I Opened a Restaurant in Honkai

Himeko understood. This was the kind of wine young girls loved—soft and lacking any kick, with a pitiful five percent alcohol content. It was weaker than even draught beer, more like fizzy cherry-strawberry juice.

I wanted to drink, and you gave me fruit juice?

She took a bite of the sliced filet. The flavor was wonderfully satisfying; everything was just right. It was still Boss Zhao's familiar style, with that uniquely fragrant taste carrying an indescribable ruggedness.

She took another sip of the cherry-strawberry wine she had looked down on most. It was sweet, like summer strawberries beneath the afternoon sun.

Honestly, it was pretty good.

Though it was not the hard liquor she had imagined, alcohol that was less intoxicating was indeed a good thing.

Boss Zhao wiped down a glass and took the opportunity to tell a story.

"When I went to an italian winery for an on-site inspection, I suddenly saw oak barrels filled with huge, bright-red strawberries. They had just been washed and seemed to gleam in the afternoon sunlight. How could any normal person resist that temptation? I ate several on the spot..."

"Mm."

Himeko nodded, signaling for him to continue.

"Not until I had eaten nearly half a barrel did the person in charge of the winery tell me that those strawberries were supposed to be crushed and mixed into the cherry wine."

"Wouldn't that be awkward?"

"The awkwardness was manageable. The main thing was that I got a little too full."

Zhao Bai answered with a smile.

"I booked seventeen percent of Canella Winery's fruit wine production for that year, and they gave me another six barrels of strawberries."

What a big spender.

Then why was Boss Zhao usually so stingy? Like some desperately poor little miser?

She could not figure it out.