Chapter 5 (1/2)
Chapter 5: Mission Completed
Thus, he went into a small eatery and ordered one serving of Fried Rice with Eggs. Seated in the greasy eatery, Yuan Zhou silently tapped on the panel to check his mission progress and discovered it was still incomplete. At that moment, Yuan Zhou was sure that only by setting up his business would the mission be considered complete..
“Here’s your Fried Rice with Eggs. The soup can be taken from that pot. Feel free to have as much as you like.”
His Fried Rice with Eggs arrived, which interrupted his thoughts.
Since the system had rewarded him with God Tier Fried Rice with Eggs, he would first like to taste the ordinary ones.
The Fried Rice with Eggs sitting in front of him was very ordinary, it had only some scattered bits of ham, a little bit of carrots and the indispensable ingredient of every Fried Rice with Egg, chopped green onions, along with a small side dish of pickled vegetables.
After gobbling down the rice hastily, Yuan Zhou puzzled over how can one make a superb Fried Rice with Eggs.
“Is the God Tier Fried Rice with Eggs, rewarded by the system, as tasty as the shining ones shown in the movie of Cooking Master Boy?” Yuan Zhou couldn’t help doubting silently after leaving the eatery.
On the way back, Yuan Zhou found some workers that did wallpapering work, he bargained with them and managed to pay only 18 RMB per square meter. He then returned to the restaurant by hitching a ride on the workers’ electrical-powered car. The smart and devious Yuan Zhou even managed to save on his bus fare.
Boss Wang had already repaired all the pipelines when Yuan Zhou returned. The gas furnace with two burners which was newly installed and the clean and tidy kitchen gave off a good vibe.
After Yuan Zhou had arranged for the wallpapering work to commence, he went up to Boss Wang, “Thank you very much, Boss Wang. This is the pay. Please check if it is right.”
“No problem. The pay is just right. I am going back now. Just give me a call if you ever need my help again.” He then returned to his own shop after he received, counted and put away the cash into his pocket.
“Shua Shua”
The store fell silent, except for the sound of the workers. The previous chairs and tables had all been thrown away as rubbish. Therefore, the main hall appeared to be fairly spacious. Yuan Zhou was wondering what kind of chairs and tables to buy while awaiting the workers to complete their wallpapering work.
He was quite confident concerning his system, so was prepared to put as many tables in the main hall as possible to serve more guests.
“HaHaHa”
Yuan Zhou couldn’t help laughing out loud when he fantasize about the crowds coming to his restaurant, and his branch restaurants opening one after another.
The two workers that were engrossed in their work couldn’t help but turn their heads to look at Yuan Zhou as they heard his laughter. The tall and young guy gave a doubtful look at the elderly man while the elder one glared back at him. It meant “ You just get back to your work. It’s none of our business.”
The tall and young guy shrugged his shoulders and begun to labour seriously when he noticed that the elderly man was getting angry at him.
After a few laughs, Yuan Zhou suddenly remembered the importance of his image. Looking around decidedly, at the surroundings, he found no one passing by his restaurant and the two workers were doing their work carefully.
Waiting was always boring, thus Yuan Zhou started to calculate the today’s expenditures: 1500 RMB for the gas pipe repairs and gas furnace; 1080 RMB for sixty meters of wallpapers; 600 RMB for the two license registrations; a budget of ten thousand RMB for tables and chairs and other kitchen wares. As for the cleaning, it was free of charge since he had done that himself. Having added up all those items, the total cost would be 13180 RMB. Then there was only 36820 left out of the 50000 RMB. Of course the 320 RMB from selling the iron scraps had already been included in the earnings.
Yuan Zhou was slightly unhappy with the money remaining. Just a simple decorating had already costed him so much. It was a little difficult for diligent and thrifty Yuan Zhou to accept that.
Yuan Zhou felt worse when he thought about the expensive tables and chairs that were to be purchased that afternoon. This stemmed from Yuan Zhou’s decision to buy more tables and chairs previously, as he wanted to fill every inch of the main hall to serve more guests in one go. If it wasn’t for the strict city administration officials, he would have set up as many tables and chairs as he could on the pavement outside his entrance.
The wallpapering work went quite fast. After all, Yuan Zhou had already torn off the used wallpaper from the walls and the workers merely needed to stick the new wallpaper up. After they finished their work, Yuan Zhou paid off all his remaining debts to them. They then left hastily.
After all the renovations, the beige floral wallpapers which were pasted evenly took up two and a half walls, giving off a cozy atmosphere. After doing some simple cleaning, the floor seemed bright and clean too.
Pulling down the rolling shutter door of his restaurant, Yuan Zhou took a bus to the flea market. Only here could he reveal his great virtues, being diligent, thrifty and stingy.
Of course, Yuan Zhou may have a thrifty nature, most likely passed down from his ancestors, but even he wouldn’t buy old second-hand goods. The flea market also sold new goods alongside the used goods, furthermore with a lower price and decent quality.