Being the Boss Felt Great!

"You're here, boss."

"Good morning, boss."

As soon as Lin Zhe walked in, the two women who had started work that morning greeted him with cheerful smiles.

"Are you both settling into the work all right?"

Lin Zhe asked with a smile after entering, without putting on any airs as their boss.

"Absolutely! We couldn't be happier! This is so much better than doing landscaping for a contractor!"

"Thank you for giving us this job, boss. We'll work hard from now on. We won't let you down!"

After trying out the kitchen work for a while, both women had fallen in love with the job. It was so much easier than hoeing soil and pulling weeds under the blazing sun!

Besides, there wasn't much heavy labor in the kitchen, just picking over vegetables, washing them, and chopping them.

The women were all housewives with decades of cooking experience.

To them, this little bit of kitchen work hardly counted as work at all. It felt more like coming over to have fun, and they handled it with ease.

What's more, Lin Zhe wasn't as harsh or unreasonable as the other bosses they had worked for.

Some of the sweatshops near the scenic area offered low pay for loads of work and treated their employees like beasts of burden.

This wasn't allowed, that was forbidden. Even a bathroom trip had to be reported and timed, and they were forever handing out fines or docking perfect-attendance bonuses.

As the newly appointed boss still learning the ropes, Lin Zhe had his own ideas about running the Fortunate Inn.

He wanted to create a relaxed, lively, united, and friendly workplace.

The Fortunate Inn was a place for the fortunate. He wanted not only every guest who stayed there to feel happy, but his employees as well.

The women who had started that day loved the atmosphere right away and felt lucky to have landed jobs at the Fortunate Inn.

"Haha, there's no need to be so formal. Just make yourselves at home. Enjoy your work, and enjoy earning your money."

After speaking to the two women with a smile, Lin Zhe turned to Lin Xiaomeng and asked:

"Xiaomeng, is any egg fried rice ready? I promised to get fifteen portions over to Brother Dan before twelve. We're running out of time."

"I already sent Aunt Wang over with Brother Dan's order. She's been gone a while, so she should be nearly there."

Lin Xiaomeng turned to speak to Lin Zhe without missing a beat as she stir-fried the rice. Her cooking skills were slick.

"You've already sent it over? Great, great. That's one less thing for me to worry about."

At that moment, Lin Zhe once again appreciated the benefits of having plenty of capable people working for him. Being the boss was getting more enjoyable by the day.

"Zhe, there are already three batches in the insulated food box over there, about seven or eight portions. This batch is almost ready too. We can start serving."

Even as Lin Xiaomeng spoke to him, the spatula in her hand never stopped, clattering away as she tossed the rice.

What did it mean to be a professional? This was it!

"Great. Thanks for your hard work, Xiaomeng."

Lin Zhe walked over to the insulated food box and lifted the lid. It was already almost half full of golden-orange egg fried rice that looked incredibly tempting and delicious.

"Your cooking just keeps improving, Xiaomeng. Your fried rice is getting better and better."

Seeing the finished rice Lin Xiaomeng had made, Lin Zhe gave her a thumbs-up and called out his praise behind her.

"Hehe, thanks for the compliment, Zhe. Keep that up and it'll go to my head! Another batch is ready. Aunt Liu, come here."

"Coming!"

At Lin Xiaomeng's call, Aunt Liu hurried over, picked up the pan of egg fried rice, and poured it into the insulated food box.

"Xiaomeng really is a wonderful cook! I've been making egg fried rice for decades, but mine has never looked this lovely or tasted this good!"

"Exactly. Even cooking is becoming more of a young person's game as times change. Our grandchildren don't like the food we make anymore!"

Both women praised Lin Xiaomeng's cooking. Even with the exact same ingredients, they couldn't produce the flavor she did.

As they chatted, their hands never stopped working. They wouldn't let conversation interfere with the job. That was basic professionalism.

"All right, I'll tell Hu Ting we can start serving."

Lin Zhe nodded with a smile, took out his phone, and called Hu Ting to let her know she could start taking orders.

In the Fortunate Inn's front hall.

"Yes, of course, boss. We already have several customers waiting here."

"Mm-hmm. All right, bye."

After ending the call, Hu Ting smiled at the people standing beside the reception desk and said:

"Sorry for the wait, everyone. The kitchen just called to say we can start taking orders."

"I'll take two portions!"

"I'll take three!"

"One for me, thank you."

With the customers ordering one portion here and two there, more than a dozen portions sold in under a minute. Business was even brisker than the day before.

They kept busy from around eleven thirty in the morning until one thirty in the afternoon.

In those two hours, they sold thirty-one portions of egg fried rice, bringing in about 930 yuan.

If they had kept selling, they certainly could have sold a few more portions. Making another hundred yuan or so wouldn't have been a problem.

But Lin Zhe wasn't the sort of person who cared only about money. He saved the remaining fried rice for himself, Lin Xiaomeng, and the women to have for lunch.

"Xiaomeng, your cooking is incredible. This egg fried rice is delicious! In all my years, I've never had egg fried rice this good."

"No wonder so many people buy it even at thirty yuan a portion. I'd buy it too. The flavor is wonderful!"

"Delicious, absolutely delicious. I've never eaten anything this good in my life."

It was the women's first time tasting their own inn's egg fried rice. Every one of them was amazed and gave Lin Xiaomeng a thumbs-up.

They had spent a couple of hours that afternoon selling dozens of portions of egg fried rice. They'd had plenty of chances to sneak a taste if they wanted, but none of them had.

Their professionalism pleased Lin Zhe immensely. He felt he had hired the right people this time.

"My cooking is nothing special, really. It's just ordinary home cooking. It's mostly because the eggs from the chickens Zhe keeps in the bamboo grove taste so good."

Listening to everyone's praise, Lin Xiaomeng felt a little embarrassed. The others didn't know the real reason, but she did.

The chickens in the bamboo grove deserved ninety percent of the credit for the success of the Soul-Stirring Egg Fried Rice. Her contribution was just a little hard work.

"Come to think of it, the eggs Xiaomeng uses for the fried rice really are different from the ones our chickens lay at home."

"The color is brighter, the flavor is richer, and they don't have any of that eggy smell."

"That's right. I've raised chickens all my life, but I've never seen eggs this good."

When it came to eggs, the women had plenty of experience.

They had noticed how unusual the eggs were while cracking them to help Lin Xiaomeng in the kitchen.

As for why the eggs were so special, no one tried to investigate. It wasn't anything they needed to worry about.

They were all ordinary people, not researchers. Even if they were asked to study it, they wouldn't be able to figure it out.

Everyone ate and chatted. Once they had eaten and drunk their fill, they rested for half an hour before starting the afternoon's work.

Although it was the first day on the job for both the women and Hu Ting, they worked well together, and everything proceeded in an orderly fashion.