Chapter 121 - Investmen (1/2)

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However, how could he, Zhou Zixu, take advantage of his friend’s good will? He persevered, “That’s not okay! My Zhenxiu Restaurant has already profited a lot from you, Xiaocao! How could I possibly take your recipe for free? If you refuse to take the money, then Zhenxiu Restaurant will never sell the braised pig head meat or the pig ears!”

Yu Xiaocao was in a very good mood after earning three hundred taels and an extremely valuable jade pendant! She had barely managed to be generous this one time, but the person in question was not grateful at all!! After trying to persuade him, Third Young Master Zhou’s bullheadedness came out in full force, and he adamantly disagreed with her.

The head manager of Zhenxiu Restaurant saw that the two people were stuck in a deadlock. He knew his boss’s personality very well, so he started to persuade Yu Xiaocao, “Miss Yu, don’t feel embarrassed for taking three hundred taels from us. After all, we are businessmen. Using your recipe, Zhenxiu Restaurant can make that money back very soon, and in fact, make even more than three hundred taels in profit. If you don’t take this money, it will actually be our loss…”

Yu Xiaocao saw that Third Young Master Zhou was resolute and had made up his mind. She thought for a bit and then said, “Since you say it like that, then I will give you another recipe! For these two recipes, give me five hundred taels! In the future, I might be able to come up with more recipes that are new. If Zhenxiu Restaurant needs them…”

“We need them, we need them, we absolutely need them!” Third Young Master Zhou impatiently blurted out his thoughts before the head manager could reply.

Third Young Master Zhou trusted Yu Xiaocao’s cooking talents beyond a doubt. Since she could transform ingredients that other people didn’t touch, such as pig head and offal, into food that people clamored for, it was obvious that she could do the same with other ingredients. If pig head and offal could be transformed into delicious braised food, what could she do with ordinary or even ingredients of the highest quality?

When Zhenxiu Restaurant had just been established, the owners of Fulin Restaurant had colluded with a few smaller restaurants to squeeze them out of business. At the time, all of the established restaurants in Tanggu Town already had their regular customers. As for Zhenxiu Restaurant, it could be said that they were just trying to survive on the edges of the restaurant world.

Also, the Zhou Family had also made this restaurant’s success into a trial for Third Young Master Zhou. When Zhenxiu Restaurant was being suppressed by their competitors, the family didn’t get involved at all. This made the owners of Fulin Restaurant even more rampant and brazen! It wasn’t hard to imagine the difficulties that they had encountered.

Things turned around when Yu Xiaocao appeared. That was when they were able to push out a new dish: oyster sauce vegetables. That alone was enough for Zhenxiu Restaurant to reveal its talents among all of the other, older restaurants. In addition, it helped them to attract some of the other restaurant’s regular customers——and now they were the regulars of Zhenxiu Restaurant. With that, Zhenxiu Restaurant was able to set down its roots in Tanggu Town and was now striving to become one of the best restaurants.

Third Young Master Zhou firmly believed that with Yu Xiaocao’s braised food recipe and her other, unknown recipe, Zhenxiu Restaurant would be able to become the best restaurant in all of Tanggu Town. The one that no other restaurant could surpass. In the future, who needed to care about Fulin Restaurant or the others. None of them would be able to compete with Zhenxiu Restaurant.

In addition, Zhou Zixu’s ambitions went far beyond than the three plots of land that Tanggu Town stood in. In his heart, there were a lot more places he needed to conquer. They had already started building a Zhenxiu Restaurant in the capital. If they wanted to become an established, famous restaurant in the capital, then it wasn’t enough to rely on the oyster sauce vegetables alone. However, now that they had the two new recipes from Yu Xiaocao, he figured that they may have a better chance now. Therefore, he had to have a good relationship with this gifted chef, Yu Xiaocao, who had the talents that he could only seek but never get.

“Don’t get too excited!! Calm down, calm down!!” Yu Xiaocao looked at him with a bright smile on her face, which made Zhou Zixu feel like he was acting like a silly little boy. Furthermore, it gave him the feeling that the person in front of him wasn’t merely a nine year old little girl!

Yu Xiaocao stood on her tiptoes and patted his shoulder, “Don’t worry! With such a good relationship between the two of us, how could I not think of you when I come up with new recipes in the future? Quickly get some paper and a brush. After you finish writing down the recipe, I still have other things to do!”

After Third Young Master Zhou finished preparing his brush and paper, Yu Xiaocao dictated out the ingredients and methods to make ‘Fuliji Roast Chicken’. Zhou Zixu made sure to write every detail down and was concentrated at his task at hand.

Afterwards, Yu Xiaocao grinned, “This chicken will have a shiny outer skin, tender white meat, exquisite flavor, rich aroma, meat falling off the bones, and will taste rich without being greasy. If one chews on the bone, it’ll have a delectable flavor. In addition, if you try to lift a leg off the cooked chicken when hot, all of the meat will fall off. In terms of pairing it with other food, both cold or hot dishes will complement it well.”

“After hearing you introduce this dish, I can feel saliva pooling in my mouth!” Zhou Zixu smacked his lips and then a flabbergasted expression surfaced on his face. “Xiaocao, I didn’t expect that you would be able to speak so eloquently about food!”

“Hee hee!” Yu Xiaocao dryly laughed and then said, “I’m just spitting out what I’ve memorized before, that’s all! I won’t hide it from you anymore. I accidentally came across a fragment of a cookbook, and I learned a couple of recipes from it!”

“Ah you! You talk a lot, but it’s hard to tell what’s true and what’s false! It doesn’t matter where you learned these recipes from, I only hope that Zhenxiu Restaurant will be your only business partner from now and in the future!” Zhou Zixu had a winsome smile on his face, and it was obvious this thirteen to fourteen year old youth had the potential to grow into a devastatingly handsome fellow in the future.

“Wrong!” Yu Xiaocao smiled craftily, “What you should say is that you, Third Young Master Zhou, will only be my business partner, and no one else!!”

“Okay!! I, Zhou Zixu, promise you that!!” Zhou Zixu solemnly vowed.

Yu Xiaocao burst out laughing, “The way you’re talking makes it sound like you’re trying to elope with someone…”

“Cao’er!!” Yu Hai felt helpless in front of his youngest daughter. Was this something a little girl should be saying? When they got home, he really needed to have her mother teach her some manners!!

“Alright, we can end our talk now! There’s still someone outside waiting for us!” Yu Xiaocao knew that she had inadvertently said something inappropriate, so she stuck out her tongue, “If you have any troubles trying to make the braised food or roast chicken, feel free to find me! I guarantee that whoever I teach will be able to make it!!”