I Have a Countryside Gourmet Restaurant

Chapter 209: Chapter 205: Eating Raw Cucumber with a Beauty

1,100 jin meant 2,200 yuan.

With the money in their hands, Liu Jialiang’s family was overjoyed.

Selling these plums had been incredibly easy.

The other villagers at the scene were extremely envious. Many of them were inwardly hoping they too could sell their produce to Li You’s customers soon.

It was already five in the afternoon. Time to head back to the restaurant.

Li You and his customers said their goodbyes to Liu Jialiang’s family and the other villagers.

Then, they made their way out of the village and slowly returned to the restaurant.

Time to order and eat.

Even though they weren’t hungry at all after eating so many grapes and plums, they still had to have dinner.

They only got to eat here twice a week—today’s two meals. They couldn’t let one go to waste.

They’d just eat a little less, at most.

Li You went into the kitchen and got busy.

Besides Xiao Yue, Wei Ping, Liu Xu, and the others, more customers trickled in for dinner.

After Xiao Yue, Wei Ping, Liu Xu, and their group finished eating, they said their farewells and left.

Li You remained busy. It wasn’t until eight in the evening, after the last wave of customers had left, that he finally had some downtime.

He closed up shop.

Then he poured himself a bowl of wine, grabbed the braised chicken feet he had specifically saved for the evening, and went upstairs to the second floor.

He sat on the sofa and turned on the TV.

It was that comfortable time again: watching TV, sipping wine, and nibbling on braised chicken feet.

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「The next day.」

「Morning.」

After breakfast, Li You was busy in the kitchen.

He needed to braise some chicken and chicken feet today as well.

A somewhat surprised voice came from outside the restaurant entrance. ”Boss, I think your cucumbers are ready to be eaten.”

It was Ling Xiaoru’s voice.

The cucumbers she was talking about were the ones Li You had planted in the plot of land next to his restaurant.

Previously, Li You had cleared a small plot of land and planted four types of vegetables: cucumbers, luffas, bitter melons, and tomatoes.

The seeds for all four vegetables had been a gift from the System.

Perhaps because the seeds came from the System, all four types of vegetables grew exceptionally well, at a much faster rate than normal.

Fortunately, the speed wasn’t so exaggerated as to be unbelievable.

Otherwise, the customers who frequently checked on the garden would have started questioning reality.

Li You had been eagerly anticipating the harvest of these four vegetables.

He wanted to know if they would yield superior-grade ingredients.

After all, the seeds were a gift from the System.

’Even if not all of them are superior-grade, at least some of them should be, right?’

About ten days ago, all four types of vegetables had started to bear fruit.

As soon as they did, Li You had tried to get the System to appraise the ingredients’ quality.

But the System indicated that it could only appraise the quality after the fruit had ripened and been picked.

It could not perform an appraisal before they were picked.

This was because the ingredient’s quality had not yet fully stabilized and could still change.

Li You thought about it. ’That seems to make sense.’

’I’ll just have to wait until they’re ripe, then.’

Now, hearing Ling Xiaoru’s voice, Li You was pleasantly surprised. He quickly finished what he was doing, walked out of the kitchen, and went to the restaurant entrance.

When Ling Xiaoru saw Li You come out, she pointed to a spot on the cucumber trellis and said, ”Boss, come look! These few cucumbers are so big already; they should be ready to eat. They seem to grow so fast. I was only gone for a day, and it’s like they’ve grown a lot.”

Li You followed her finger and saw that, indeed, a few cucumbers had grown long and thick. They were noticeably larger than the others around them.

They definitely looked ready to eat.

There were six of them in total.

Li You was also very happy and said with a smile, ”They certainly are. Do you want to try one? If you do, just pick one and eat it.”

Ling Xiaoru said, ”I really do want to taste how good your cucumbers are. But one is too much; I can’t finish it. How about I pick one, and we each eat half?”

Li You nodded. ”Sounds good!”

Ling Xiaoru said cheerfully, ”Then I’m going in to pick it.”

Li You nodded again.

Ling Xiaoru walked into the garden and, among the six ripe cucumbers, chose one and picked it.

”Ingredient: Cucumber.

Quality: Superior-grade.”

The moment Ling Xiaoru picked the cucumber, the System promptly appraised its ingredient quality.

Superior-grade. Li You was both surprised and excited.

’A randomly picked one is already superior-grade. That means even if not all of these cucumbers are superior-grade, the proportion of them that are must be quite high.’

’Of course, it’s also possible that Ling Xiaoru just got incredibly lucky, and this is the only superior-grade one out of the six.’

’But at the very least, this proves that the seeds from the System really can produce superior-grade ingredients.’

’That alone is enough to be excited about.’

Ling Xiaoru walked out of the garden with the cucumber. She then snapped it in the middle, breaking it in two.

She handed one half to Li You. ”Here you go, Boss.”

Li You took it and said, ”Thanks. Aren’t you going to wash it first?”

Ling Xiaoru shook her head. ”No need. It’s not like you used any pesticides.”

Li You nodded with a smile. ”That’s true.”

He then brought the half-cucumber to his mouth and took a bite.

It was incredibly crisp and refreshing, juicy, and had a hint of sweetness.

’This texture is amazing!’

Li You was very surprised. As expected of a superior-grade cucumber, it tasted this good even when eaten raw.

’If I use this to make a smashed cucumber salad, the flavor would be absolutely incredible.’

He had never tasted a cucumber with such a good texture before.

While Li You was surprised, Ling Xiaoru was just as much so.

After swallowing a bite of cucumber, Ling Xiaoru said excitedly, ”Boss, the cucumbers you grew are delicious! They’re not only crisp and refreshing but also have a hint of sweetness. It feels like you could eat them as a fruit. This is the first time I’ve ever had such a tasty cucumber.”

Li You smiled. ”I think it’s pretty good too. Better than I imagined.”

Ling Xiaoru added, ”Boss, I never expected that on top of being an amazing cook, you’re also this good at growing vegetables.”

Li You said, ”It’s not that I’m good at it. It’s probably that the soil in this plot is especially suited for growing cucumbers, combined with the high quality of the seeds. That’s why they taste so good.”

Ling Xiaoru nodded slowly. ”That’s also possible. By the way, Boss, since these cucumbers are so delicious, are you planning to introduce a new dish, like a cucumber salad?”

Li You chuckled. ”Not necessarily. We’ll see. The main thing is, there aren’t that many cucumbers in total. There might not even be enough for me to eat myself.”

Ling Xiaoru replied, ”The quantity certainly isn’t large. But, Boss, you could clear more land! Expand the plot and increase the scale of your planting. This current plot is indeed a bit small.”

’Clear more land?’

Li You had considered this before, but he hadn’t felt much desire to do it.

But now that the System’s seeds could truly produce superior-grade ingredients, expanding the planting scale was indeed a good idea.

So, Li You nodded and said, ”That’s a good idea. I can clear some more land and expand the plot.”

Ling Xiaoru was delighted and added, ”When you get around to clearing the land, I’ll come help you.”

Li You said, ”Are you sure those delicate little hands of yours, the ones that hold a paintbrush, can handle clearing land?”

Ling Xiaoru made a fist and raised it. ”Of course, they can! I’m very strong. Don’t underestimate me, Boss.”

Li You chuckled. ”Alright, then. When the time comes, I’ll ask for your help. Room and board will be on me. How does that sound?”

Ling Xiaoru said, ”It’s a deal!”

Li You nodded. ”A deal it is!”

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