Zhou Qiang leisurely picked up a translucent slice of twice-cooked pork, the oil glistening in its curled, saucer-like hollow reflecting his smiling face. He put it into his mouth and narrowed his eyes in satisfaction, chewing slowly as though savoring some peerless delicacy.
Wang Xiaoliang watched anxiously from beside him.
Only after Zhou Qiang had swallowed his food and taken a sip of tea did he speak, unhurriedly.
"Xiaoliang, look how nervous you are. Nothing's even settled yet. I'm just thinking things through in advance."
"But Sister Kong clearly shook her head just now. Didn't that mean the renovation costs would be huge?"
"When you're buying something, you only pick faults with it if you want it. That's when bargaining means anything. If she hadn't liked it, she would've praised it, and then we'd have left."
Kong Xiuyun nodded.
"It's not much different from buying vegetables at the market."
Wang Xiaoliang shook his head.
"You two really work in perfect sync."
Zhou Qiang continued:
"Back at the shop, the head chef nodded, and Manager Kong approved too. That tells us one thing-from a technical standpoint, we can take this place on. It meets all our physical requirements for opening a neighborhood Cantonese restaurant."
Zhou Qiang looked at Wang Xiaoliang as though teaching an apprentice who had just started out.
"I admit I was being too stubborn before. I kept wanting a big storefront, something at least on the same scale as Hongbin Tower's main branch. But Liu Xinyu brought me to my senses with one remark. He said dining gets tiring when there are too many people. Three or five close friends in a little restaurant-that's what you call relaxing."
"If Third Brother and the others can scale their business down, who am I to say I can't? It all