I Want to Learn This!

Zhou Jie watched the pot, allowing Auntie Zhao to free up her hands to handle reception. Amid cries of "dear," the young female workers ordered briskly.

"Are noodles that cost sixty cents a bowl really this easy to sell?"

"They didn't even hesitate."

"A plate of Pickled Vegetables can make customers that happy?"

Watching from the side, Zhou Jie was a little dumbfounded, feeling as if his entire understanding had been reshaped.

"Mmm! This Beef Braised with Dried Bamboo Shoots is so good!"

"Try one of my ribs. They're absolutely amazing!"

"The noodle soup is so fresh. It was made with bone broth, right? The noodles are so springy too. These are the best noodles I've ever had!"

"No wonder college students love eating here. They really know good food!"

"Not to mention anything else, the beef fragrance drifting from that soup pot is irresistible. It's nothing like what they make across the street."

It was clear that the customers were truly satisfied. Praise rang out from time to time.

Perhaps because of the notice, the occupancy rate was especially high today. Before long, every table had customers.

Zhou Yan had instructed them that customers could not casually share tables at lunch or dinner, but sharing tables was allowed for breakfast noodles.

Zhou Yan had written that rule in a conspicuous spot above the menu wall.

Sharing a table for noodles was no big deal.

You could catch a glimpse of Sichuan-Chongqing people's easygoing nature just from their bench noodles.

A row of benches would be placed outside a shop, with little stools alongside them. A whole crowd would sit on the benches eating noodles. It was a sight rarely seen elsewhere.

At lunch and dinner, some customers came to gather or discuss business. They ordered several dishes, so seating a stranger at their table would be inappropriate no matter how you looked at it.

Of course, if fellow workers voluntarily wanted to share a table and order several dishes to split the bill, that was another matter. The restaurant naturally would not stop them.

"Dear, there's still an empty seat here. Would it be okay for this pretty lady to share your table?"

"Oh, you're so kind. If you run out of Pickled Vegetables, I'll bring you some more."

"Kid, come sit over here. The four of you fit perfectly at one table."

Auntie Zhao was perceptive. She took the initiative to arrange shared tables without making anyone uncomfortable. Female workers sat with female workers, male workers with male workers, and young couples could sit however they liked. Customer preference came first, after all.

This clearly raised the customers' favorability toward Auntie Zhao. Even their voices sounded a little sweeter whenever they called for her.

Zhou Jie watched from the side, nodding repeatedly in surprise and admiration.

Fourth Auntie was a famously sharp-tongued woman in Zhou Village, nicknamed the invincible Iron Lady. Zhou Jie had never expected her to be so skilled at talking to restaurant customers. She had every customer smiling, and they paid willingly.

In this era, waiters at state-run restaurants and the Factory Canteen held their heads high and looked down their noses at people. They simply did not take customers seriously.

You went out for a meal, paid money, and still had to swallow a bellyful of anger.

Even private restaurants and street vendors tended to be reserved and indifferent. Their mindset had yet to change.

Zhou Jie thought he was fairly eloquent and had done a good job maintaining his regular customers.

But after seeing Fourth Auntie's performance today, he felt like a raw recruit.

Fourth Auntie, I want to learn this!

Zhou Jie was beginning to figure out the secret.

Zhou Yan's restaurant did well, and his sixty-cent noodles sold like hotcakes not merely because they tasted fantastic.

He put the customers first!

"Why have all the workers gone to Zhou Erwa Restaurant? We sell ours for fifty cents a bowl, yet they won't even ask about it?" Wu Guihua clutched her hair, her face full of confusion.

"Yeah, why? Where did things go wrong?" Zhou Liangliang was equally baffled.

He knew there had been shortcomings on their first day selling noodles, but those workers had not even given him a chance to sit down and taste them. That was far too unreasonable, wasn't it?

Back when he had set up a stall at the docks, he had moved it beside Zhou Jie's stall. By undercutting him by ten cents, business had been decent for the first few days, and he had snatched quite a few customers from Zhou Jie.

It was completely different from today.

Buying a new pot and stove, purchasing a whole pile of ceramic noodle bowls, and buying all kinds of ingredients that morning had drained their savings dry.

Zhou Liangliang and his wife were starting to panic.

Zhao Tieying took down the signs for Suihua Beef Noodles and Beef with Dried Bamboo Shoots Noodles and hung them in the sold-out section.

By the time work started, only two portions of Spare Rib Noodles remained unsold.

During that time, Zhou Yan had cooked Zhou Lihui a bowl of Spare Rib Noodles, letting him finish it before sending him to school at seven thirty.

So that morning, the restaurant had sold a total of seventy-seven bowls of noodles, setting a new record and also perfectly meeting Zhou Yan's expectations.

"Fourth Auntie, you're amazing." Zhou Jie helped clear the bowls and chopsticks, unable to stop himself from praising her.

Without Auntie Zhao, this restaurant really would have fallen apart.

"How am I amazing? I just called out a few times." Zhao Tieying smiled and shook her head, not feeling that she had done anything special.

"Come on, let's have breakfast too." Zhou Yan came out carrying four bowls of noodles: two bowls of Braised Pork Rib Noodles and two portions of freshly stir-fried Double-Pepper Beef Tossed Noodles.

"I'll have the soup noodles. I've been calling out all morning, and my mouth's dry as sand." Zhao Tieying took a bowl of Braised Pork Rib Noodles first.

"I want to try the Double-Pepper Beef Tossed Noodles. Everyone who ate it said it was good." Zhou Jie chose the tossed noodles.

Zhao Hong chose soup noodles, leaving Zhou Yan with the remaining bowl of tossed noodles.

"Whoa! These tossed noodles smell incredible! How did you stir-fry the beef so fragrant and tender? And these noodles taste different too. How are they this springy? How are they this good?" Zhou Jie's eyes widened like bronze bells, his face full of disbelief.

He had originally thought those people had been exaggerating, crying out over a mere bowl of noodles.

Now, he understood them, became one of them, and surpassed them!

The portion of Noodle Mince was so generous. There had to be at least an ounce of meat, with green and red peppers making up the other half. With this much mince on tossed noodles, every bite came with both noodles and topping. The sense of satisfaction was overwhelming.

Was sixty cents a bowl expensive?

Not at all!

At that price, Zhou Yan did not even make half the profit.

It was simply too conscientious.

After finishing the bowl, Zhou Jie even scraped up all the green and red peppers from the bottom, still wanting more.

"It's so fragrant. These are the best tossed noodles I've had in my life, bar none." Zhou Jie spoke with absolute certainty, then took out sixty cents and placed it on the table. "I have to pay too, to show my approval."

"A master doesn't take money from his apprentice." Zhou Yan smiled and stuffed the money back into his pocket. "I may be using more chuck flap from now on, so when you go home tonight, help me tell Second Uncle first. When the time comes, I'll buy it at market price."

"Sure. I'll tell my dad when I get home tonight." Zhou Jie nodded. "What market price? We're family, so of course we'll give you a discount."

"I'll tell Zhou Fei tonight too, so he can save some chuck flap for you. Just charge you the cost price." Zhao Hong also set down her chopsticks.

"Exactly, just the cost price," Zhou Jie echoed.

"I'm running a business. I can't possibly take advantage of you. If you won't sell it at market price, I'd rather buy it elsewhere." Zhou Yan was firm. Even real brothers had to settle accounts clearly.

Of course, Old Zhou was different.

That was his real father.

Any discount on beef would eventually return to his little treasury twofold.

Hearing him say that, Zhou Jie and Zhao Hong could only let the matter drop.

After finishing their noodles and resting for a while, Zhao Hong and Zhao Tieying went to wash the dishes. Zhou Yan sat in the reclining chair by the entrance, resting while keeping an eye on the soup pot.

"That couple's going to fall flat on their faces. They didn't sell a single bowl of noodles all morning, and their faces were black as coal." Zhou Jie dragged over a bamboo chair and sat beside Zhou Yan, sounding somewhat gleeful.

"It was expected. After what happened with Wang Laowu, the Textile Factory workers already had some bad feelings about the stall across the street. Their noodles don't look appetizing, and their soup pot smells gamey. It'd be strange if they got any business." Zhou Yan smiled.

After chatting for two hours, Zhou Yan began slicing the chuck flap, tripe, and other ingredients that would be blanched for the lunchtime Qiaojiao Beef.

"You're putting chuck flap in the Qiaojiao Beef? Isn't that investment way too high?" Zhou Jie watched from the side, somewhat surprised.

He only added beef during holidays, and adding an ounce of beef meant charging thirty cents more.

"If I slice the beef this thin, one jin can make one hundred and fifty slices. For one hundred bowls of Qiaojiao Beef, I use four jin of chuck flap. The cost only goes up by eight yuan, but customers get to eat six slices of beef." Zhou Yan pinched up a thin slice of beef. "Six slices make customers feel like there's plenty of beef, but in reality, each bowl only gets four qian of beef."

"Customers these days are all shrewd. Those six slices of beef are the key to selling this bowl of Qiaojiao Beef for sixty cents. It's important to make customers feel that they're getting good value."

Zhou Jie nodded repeatedly as he listened, but he was still shocked by the beef in Zhou Yan's hand. "One jin can be sliced into one hundred and fifty pieces?"

He had been slicing beef since childhood. If he could get one hundred slices out of a jin, he thought he was already extremely skilled.

Zhou Yan's beef slices were thin and large, and every single one was remarkably even.

"Your knife skills are incredible. Haizi and I can't do it. One hundred slices is our limit." Zhou Jie shook his head, his eyes filled only with admiration.

"One hundred is fine too. Just put in four slices." Zhou Yan smiled. Knife skills could not improve overnight.

"Sure." Zhou Jie nodded and kept watching. "Are there any professional techniques? I want to learn how to slice one hundred and fifty pieces too."

In the Factory Canteen kitchen.

All the chefs, prep cooks, and plating assistants stood in three rows, listening to head chef Huang Fusheng's lecture.

"Everyone should know that the reputation of the canteen's stir-fried dishes has declined lately. Of course, the main reason is that Zhou Erwa Restaurant has been causing trouble and stealing our customers."

"Director Wang has repeatedly instructed us to cook well, make good food, and let our worker comrades eat with peace of mind and comfort. I hope everyone listens with their ears and remembers it in their hearts."

"Don't try any tricks when you cook. Whoever makes the food so salty it's inedible, or stir-fries the meat dry and tough, I'll crack you over the head with my wok spatula!"

"Director Wang worries himself sick over the canteen every day. He's even lost weight lately from all the exhaustion. Aren't you ashamed? I can't sleep at night just thinking about it!"

The others answered from time to time.

Wang Defa stood outside the door, nodding repeatedly as he listened, his grin nearly stretching to his ears. Although Huang Fusheng's cooking was only average, the man was quite capable when it came to talking and handling affairs.

"Every day, he licks fat asses and bites skinny dicks, trampling others to make himself look tall." A sneer sounded from the corner. "Lost weight? If he gets any fatter, he won't fit through the canteen doors."

The kitchen fell silent at once.