If Anyone Says Your Cooking Tastes Bad...

Zhao Dong had been thinking about this for a while. After eating the perfect Steamed Basket Rice today, he could no longer resist imagining how satisfying it would be mixed with Two-Pepper Beef.

The customers in the restaurant also turned to look at Zhou Yan.

Noodles were fine for breakfast, but rice was more filling for lunch and dinner.

Zhou Yan's braised ribs and beef were genuinely fragrant, and the Suihua Beef would definitely go well with rice. If the price was reasonable, two or three people could split a meal. Just thinking about it felt wonderful.

The Factory Canteen's stir-fried dishes were not cheap, yet there were still around a hundred people eating them every day.

The Textile Factory was doing well. Senior workers and management staff earned decent wages, and there were plenty of people like Zhao Dong who were willing to spend on food.

"Soon. Once the Qiaojiao Beef business stabilizes, I'll start preparing braised dishes and stir-fries," Zhou Yan said with a smile and a nod.

This was already part of his plan. The problem was that he could not handle everything alone. He had to make the hand-pulled noodles himself, and it would be difficult for his sister-in-law to master them anytime soon.

Once the Qiaojiao Beef business stabilized, he would shift noodle sales to the morning. That way, they could sell stir-fries and braised dishes at noon and in the evening, making the restaurant live up to its name.

The daily ceiling for noodle sales was sixty yuan, but stir-fried dishes had a much higher ceiling.

Zhou Yan's target customers were clear: the people who ate small stir-fries at the Factory Canteen, as well as customers from the Suji State Restaurant.

Stealing customers from the Factory Canteen meant digging up Wang Defa's foundation. Zhou Yan was more than happy to do that.

He still remembered how Little Zhou had jumped into the river.

"Fine. If you start selling stir-fries, I won't go to the Factory Canteen for small stir-fries anymore." Zhao Dong nodded and muttered, "Ever since your master stopped cooking, those dishes have been getting worse by the day."

"Alright, you all keep eating. I need to get back to work." Zhou Yan called out before turning into the kitchen.

Zhao Dong was a loyal customer of the Factory Canteen's small stir-fries, eating them twice every three days. He used to love ordering the Sizzling Crispy Intestines and Stir-Fried Liver and Kidney made by Zhou Yan's master. Even he had started complaining about the food. Wang Defa really had lost the people's support.

Little Zhou's master, Xiao Lei, was the Factory Canteen's only Level Two chef and had previously been its head chef.

A Level Two chef was nothing to scoff at. In Suji Town, that made him one of the best savory-dish chefs around.

The other Level Two chef was the head chef at the state-run restaurant.

Wang Defa had demoted his master to prep cook, which was practically the same as laying off the most essential employee.

It was only because the private economy had just been opened up and people still valued jobs at state-run factories that his master had endured the humiliation.

It was not as though Zhou Yan had never considered poaching his master. A Level Two chef skilled in savory dishes, along with the authority he had built among Textile Factory workers over the years, would make Zhou Erwa Restaurant's business soar.

That would not even count as poaching. It would be like digging out the entire foundation of the Factory Canteen.

But he soon realized a problem. His parents did not know about his cooking skills, so he could brush many things off by saying he had learned them from his master.

But his master knew exactly what he was capable of.

Back when Little Zhou wanted to open this restaurant, his master had earnestly tried to talk him out of it three times, scolding him more harshly each time.

Unfortunately, kind words could not persuade someone determined to court death. Little Zhou simply would not listen and charged ahead recklessly.

It had nearly angered Xiao Lei to death, leaving him with one sentence:

"If anyone says your cooking tastes bad in the future, don't you dare say you're my apprentice!"

He had nearly expelled Little Zhou from the school.

Later, when Zhou Erwa Restaurant opened, his master only sent a red envelope through someone else. He had never visited the restaurant even once.

If Zhou Yan invited his master over, there would be no way to explain how he had suddenly mastered so many dishes, or how his seasoning and heat control had improved by leaps and bounds.

For now, he could only put that idea aside.

After the last customer paid and left, Zhao Tieying hurried into the kitchen. Looking at Zhou Yan, who was stir-frying greens, she said, "We sold thirty portions of Qiaojiao Beef at noon today! Eighteen yuan in total!"

The opening of the Qiaojiao Beef business had gone far more smoothly than she had imagined. When she used to sell soup pots, a bowl cost twenty-five cents. She sold twenty or thirty bowls a day, making six or seven yuan after working hard all day. After deducting costs, earning two or three yuan was already considered good.

That was only possible during the winter peak season, built upon years of accumulated reputation and regular customers.

Today was the first day their restaurant had sold Qiaojiao Beef. It was even priced at the high rate of sixty cents a bowl, yet they had sold thirty portions!

Zhao Tieying felt a little dazed. Even clutching the money in her hand, it did not feel quite real.

"Every customer said it was delicious. Zhou Yan's Qiaojiao Beef is truly amazing!" Zhao Hong entered carrying a basin of bowls, her face equally full of smiles.

"This is only the beginning. Business will get even better later." Zhou Yan smiled as he plated the stir-fried greens. With Lin Zhiqiang's tasting session, Qiaojiao Beef selling well was exactly what he had expected.

Besides the Qiaojiao Beef, they had also sold thirty-two bowls of noodles at noon, only four fewer than yesterday afternoon.

That eased Zhou Yan's concerns. Strong Qiaojiao Beef sales had not affected noodle sales at all. This was pure additional income.

After lunch, Zhou Yan moved a bamboo reclining chair beneath the tree by the entrance and lay down, enjoying the cool autumn breeze in complete comfort.

"Brother, have some Dingding Candy." Zhou Momo leaned close, stood on tiptoe, and held out a piece of candy in her chubby little hand to his mouth.

Zhou Yan opened his mouth and took it, smiling as he reached out to pat her head. "Good girl."

"Hehe." The little one grinned. "Sister-in-law said Huihui and Fanwa don't have school tomorrow, and they're coming to play with me."

"And how are you planning to play with them?" Zhou Yan asked with a smile.

Huihui and Fanwa were Zhao Hong's two sons. The elder was fifteen this year and in the third year of middle school, while the younger was seven and had just started elementary school.

By seniority, they were supposed to call Zhou Momo auntie. Since she was the youngest, they usually called her Little Auntie.

"I'll take them to play on the slide, hopscotch, and the seesaw!" Zhou Momo counted on her fingers. "And I know a super fun secret base too!"

"Our Momo really knows how to be a Little Auntie. You know so many fun things." Zhou Yan smiled fondly.

"Of course!" The little one grew even more pleased with herself. She ran off to carry over a small stool, set it beside Zhou Yan's reclining chair, and began chatting with him.

"Brother, look, there's a caterpillar on that leaf."

"Brother, look, there's a flock of geese in the sky. Where are they going? Will they come back for dinner?"

"Brother..."

Zhou Momo was a little chatterbox with a hundred thousand whys in her head.

Zhou Yan answered her now and then. Listening to her soft, sweet voice, he soon fell asleep.

"Brother, Brother..." After not hearing Zhou Yan speak for quite some time, Zhou Momo stood up and saw that he had fallen asleep. She did not wake him. Instead, she carried the little stool back and ran off to play by herself.

Textile Factory, main conference room.

Lin Zhiqiang sat at the head of the table, holding a sharing session for the factory's technical backbone. He spoke about what he had learned from attending the technical conference in Chengdu, as well as industry news.

Compared with the morning, he was clearly in much better condition that afternoon, his voice loud and energetic.

"Zhiqiang, that was very well said. Our factory still has to rely on young people like you who understand technology." After the meeting, the old factory director, Wang Hongliang, left the conference room with Lin Zhiqiang.

"You're too kind, Director. Our factory has only achieved what it has because of your excellent leadership and management. I only know how to bury my head in technical research," Lin Zhiqiang said quickly with a smile.

"If you had not worked so painstakingly on research, how could our factory have such good results? I've already submitted the techniques you improved and summarized for the Ministry of Light Industry's technical award selection. The leaders think very highly of them." Wang Hongliang looked at Lin Zhiqiang with admiration in his eyes.

"Thank you, Director. This isn't my achievement alone. It belongs to all the technical staff at the Textile Factory." Lin Zhiqiang's eyes lit up. A technical award from the Ministry of Light Industry was an enormous recognition for a technician.

"I saw you sneezing all morning. You look much better this afternoon. Did you go to the hospital for medicine?" Wang Hongliang asked with concern.

"I caught a little chill. At noon, I had a bowl of Qiaojiao Beef at Zhou Erwa Restaurant by the factory gate. After sweating a little, I felt much better. It seemed even more effective than medicine." Lin Zhiqiang smiled. "Director, how about we go have a bowl of noodles? Zhou Yan's hand-pulled noodles are exceptional, and the Qiaojiao Beef has plenty of flavor too."

"Zhou Yan is the young man who saved your niece last time, right? But not today. My youngest grandson is celebrating his birthday, and he reminded me first thing this morning that I had to go home for dinner." Wang Hongliang shook his head, then added, "Next time, bring Xiao Meng and the two children along. We'll have a meal together."

"Alright." Lin Zhiqiang agreed with a smile. He helped Wang Hongliang push his bicycle out of the bike shed, watched him ride away, and only then headed toward the factory gate.

The Qiaojiao Beef at noon really had done a good job of driving out the chill. Otherwise, he definitely would not have been able to hold the meeting at noon. He would have another bowl that evening to reinforce the treatment.

"Uncle Lin, you're here." Zhou Yan was playing with Zhou Momo outside the restaurant when he saw Lin Zhiqiang approaching and greeted him with a smile.

"Little Zhou, your Qiaojiao Beef really helped me out today." Lin Zhiqiang laughed heartily.

After Lin Zhiqiang ate a bowl of Qiaojiao Beef and drank two bowls of soup, he turned toward the canteen to pack meals for his two children.

In his words, children were still growing, so they did not need to eat that well. They only needed to eat enough, with meat and vegetables.

He truly was their biological father.

Watching Lin Zhiqiang's retreating back, Zhou Yan could not help sighing.

"Brother, when will Sister Yaoyao come eat noodles again?" Zhou Momo tugged at his clothes, her chubby little face full of anticipation.