I Have a Countryside Gourmet Restaurant

Chapter 339: Chapter 321: These Peaches Must Sell for at Least 10 Yuan per Jin

While they were eating, a customer said, ”By the way, Boss, are Uncle Liu’s peaches for sale? If they are, I’d like to buy some.”

”I’d like to buy some too. Peaches aren’t in season yet; I don’t think you can find any in the market. This is the first peach I’ve had this year, and the texture is amazing. I should definitely buy some.”

”If the price is right, I’ll buy some as well.”

...

Several customers were interested in buying the peaches.

Li You said, ”I’ll ask Uncle Liu when he comes by tomorrow morning.”

”Great. We’ll have to trouble you to ask him, Boss. We’ll be back tomorrow at noon,” the customers all said.

Li You nodded. ”Alright.”

By now, the customers had all finished their peaches. Li You offered them another one.

But the customers all insisted that one was enough. Mainly, there were so many of them that if each person took another, half the peaches in the bag would be gone.

So, even though they all wanted another one, they stubbornly refused to take any more.

Seeing this, Li You didn’t force the peaches on them.

’In that case, I’ll just keep them and enjoy them myself,’ he thought.

Peaches were still a novelty right now. You basically couldn’t buy them in the market even if you wanted to.

...

That evening.

Ling Xiaoru came over. She was still sleeping here.

Li You took out a peach and handed it to Ling Xiaoru. ”Here, have a peach.”

”A peach?” Ling Xiaoru was both surprised and delighted. She took it and said, ”There are peaches already? Boss, where did you get this?”

Li You said, ”An uncle from the village gave it to me. His peaches ripen a bit earlier.”

Ling Xiaoru said, ”They’re a lot more than just ’a bit’ early! But it looks delicious. I’ll eat it, then. I love peaches.”

With that, Ling Xiaoru brought the peach to her lips and took a bite.

After tasting it, she said excitedly, ”It’s really good! Boss, does he have a lot of these peaches? Are they for sale? If so, I want to buy some. I don’t mind if they’re a little expensive.”

Ling Xiaoru wanted to buy some too. It seemed early-ripening peaches really had a market.

Li You said, ”He’s coming over tomorrow morning. I’ll ask him for you then.”

Ling Xiaoru nodded repeatedly. ”I’ll have to trouble you then, Boss. Let me know what he says.”

Li You nodded. ”Okay.”

...

「The next day.」

Morning.

Changle Village.

Liu Liangzhong had built a temporary stove out of bricks in his courtyard.

He had four tables of guests today. While not a huge number, preparing food for all of them was still going to be a mad rush.

He needed an extra stove in the courtyard just to keep up.

The head chef for the day was Liu Liangzhong’s nephew, Lin Quan, who was thirty-two years old.

Lin Quan wasn’t a professional chef, but he was a decent cook.

”Uncle, my steamed sea bass is delicious too. Why are you spending 100 yuan to have it prepared elsewhere?” Lin Quan asked Liu Liangzhong.

Lin Quan was not from Changle Village, nor even Wenxian Town. He was from the City Center District of Xingshui City and currently worked in Xingshui City.

He was here today as a guest and was also helping out with the cooking. He wasn’t getting paid; he was just doing it as a favor.

To be precise, he had actually arrived yesterday afternoon.

Lin Quan had visited Changle Village quite a few times, but he didn’t know much about the village itself, and he certainly knew nothing about Li You Restaurant.

Lin Quan didn’t quite understand why Liu Liangzhong was taking the sea bass elsewhere to be prepared.

Steamed sea bass wasn’t a particularly technical dish. He was good at it and could make it taste great. Wasn’t it a waste of money to have it done somewhere else?

He wasn’t upset or felt that Liu Liangzhong didn’t trust him. He just thought his uncle was wasting money unnecessarily.

yuan was a lot; you could buy two more sea bass with that money.

Liu Liangzhong said, ”Lin Quan, I know your steamed sea bass is delicious. But compared to the one Xiaoyou makes, there’s definitely a difference. If you don’t believe me, you can try it when I get back.”

Lin Quan was skeptical. ”Uncle, what level of chef is he?”

”What level?” Liu Liangzhong replied, ”I’m not sure about that. But his food is incredible. You don’t know this, but his restaurant is at the mouth of Jiulong Gorge. That spot is several kilometers from town. But even there, his business is booming. If his food wasn’t good, would he have any customers at all?”

Lin Quan had no idea what kind of place the mouth of Jiulong Gorge was.

However, he wasn’t particularly interested. Since Liu Liangzhong was insistent on taking the sea bass there to be cooked, then so be it.

It saved him some work, anyway.

As for the taste, Lin Quan reserved judgment. He didn’t know this Xiaoyou his uncle was talking about or how good a cook he was, so there was no way for him to make a call.

Still, he was curious. He would have to give it a proper taste when Liu Liangzhong brought the fish back.

He got back to work. With four tables of guests to cook for, time was tight.

Of course, he wasn’t cooking alone. Liu Liangzhong and several others were helping with the prep work.

The time slowly ticked past 9:30 AM. Liu Liangzhong said to Lin Quan, ”Lin Quan, I’m taking the sea bass over now. I’ll leave things to you here.”

Lin Quan nodded. ”Go ahead, Uncle. I’ve got it covered here. Be careful on the road.”

”Okay.”

He lifted the four sea bass from the water tank and placed them in a special fish bucket.

Then he loaded the fish bucket onto an electric tricycle.

Liu Liangzhong set off on the tricycle.

...

Half an hour later, Liu Liangzhong arrived outside Li You’s restaurant, carrying the fish bucket.

Li You was resting in his rocking chair.

When he saw Liu Liangzhong arrive with the fish bucket, he stood up and went to greet him. ”Uncle Liu, you’re here.”

Liu Liangzhong said, ”I am. Will this disrupt your business?”

Li You smiled. ”Of course not. Uncle Liu, you’re overthinking it. Let me take a look at the fish first.”

Liu Liangzhong nodded. ”Okay, okay.”

Li You unzipped the lid of the fish bucket. Inside were four sea bass, very fresh and beautiful.

”Ingredient: Sea Bass.

Quality: Inferior.”

Li You wasn’t surprised by the ’Inferior’ quality rating.

Most sea bass bought from the market were farm-raised, so they were very likely to be of inferior quality.

But it didn’t matter. As long as it was prepared well, even inferior-quality ingredients could be delicious.

Then, Li You called over Da Bai and Xiaohai and had them kill the four sea bass first.

Da Bai and Xiaohai acknowledged the order, picked up the fish bucket, and headed into the restaurant.

Seeing this, Liu Liangzhong remarked with emotion, ”Xiaoyou, these two robots of yours are incredible.”

Li You smiled. ”They’re my good helpers. By the way, Uncle Liu, how much did you pay per jin for this sea bass?”

Liu Liangzhong replied, ”25 yuan per jin.”

Li You nodded. That price was about right. Then he added, ”Also, Uncle Liu, do you have many ripe peaches at home now? Do you want to sell them?”

”What’s this, Xiaoyou? You want to buy some?” Liu Liangzhong said. ”No need to buy. I can just bring you some more. Don’t talk about buying.”

Li You shook his head. ”Uncle Liu, it’s not for me. I have customers here who want to buy them.”

Then, Li You explained how he had given the peaches to his customers yesterday, and they had found them so delicious that they wanted to buy some.

So that was how it was.

Liu Liangzhong said, ”I don’t have a huge amount. Maybe a few hundred jin, around a thousand jin at most. I can sell them. If I don’t, we can’t eat them all ourselves anyway.”

Li You nodded. ”Then I’ll tell them they’re for sale. We’ll see if they want to go to the village to buy from you directly, or what.”

Liu Liangzhong said, ”If they don’t want to make the trip, I can deliver the peaches here directly.”

Li You said, ”Okay, I’ll ask them first.”

Liu Liangzhong said, ”Thank you, Xiaoyou. But, Xiaoyou, what do you think would be a fair price per jin?”

Li You pondered for a moment. ”There are basically no peaches on the market right now. They’re a scarce resource, and they taste great. I think you should sell them for at least 10 yuan per jin.”

”10 yuan?” Liu Liangzhong said. ”Isn’t that a bit too expensive? I’m afraid not many people would be willing to buy them at that price!”

Li You said, ”It is a bit pricey, but they’re definitely worth it. Uncle Liu, don’t worry about no one buying them. Look at cherries—they sell for thirty, forty, or even fifty yuan a jin, and plenty of people still buy them, right?”

Liu Liangzhong nodded. ”Alright then, I’ll take your advice. If they really sell, Xiaoyou, then I’ll make a huge profit on those peaches.”

Li You smiled. ”Your peaches ripen early and taste delicious. You deserve to make money from them.”

Liu Liangzhong was overjoyed. He laughed and said, ”It looks like coming to you to prepare the sea bass was the right decision after all.”

Li You waved his hand. ”Even if you hadn’t come to me, you could have taken the peaches directly to the market and sold them for a good price.”

Liu Liangzhong shook his head. ”I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”

Li You smiled and said, ”Da Bai and Xiaohai should have finished preparing the fish by now. Uncle Liu, I’m going in to cook them. Please, make yourself at home.”

Liu Liangzhong nodded repeatedly. ”Okay, okay. Xiaoyou, I’ll have to trouble you then.”

Li You said, ”Uncle Liu, you’re being too polite. I’m charging a processing fee, so this is what I’m supposed to do.”

After that, Li You went into the kitchen and started cooking.

He steamed all four fish at once.

Fifteen minutes later, the four orders of steamed sea bass were ready.

He packed each one into a separate takeout container.

The fish weren’t too big and fit perfectly into the largest size of takeout containers.

Once they were packed, he brought them to Liu Liangzhong and said, ”Uncle Liu, they’re ready.”

Liu Liangzhong smiled. ”Xiaoyou, you’re really fast.”

He then took out 100 yuan in cash and handed it to Li You. ”Here’s the processing fee.”

Li You took the money and said, ”Thank you, Uncle Liu.”

Liu Liangzhong said, ”I should be the one thanking you. I’ll be heading off now.”

Li You said, ”I’ll walk you to the parking lot.”

Liu Liangzhong’s tricycle was parked in the lot.

Liu Liangzhong nodded. ”Then I’ll have to trouble you.”

The two of them then walked to the parking lot, each carrying two takeout containers.

They placed the takeout containers in the tricycle’s cargo bed.

Liu Liangzhong got on the tricycle and said, ”I’m off then, Xiaoyou. Thank you.”

Li You said, ”You’re too kind, Uncle Liu. I’ll call you about the peaches.”

Li You hadn’t had Liu Liangzhong’s phone number before. But just now, they had exchanged numbers.

Liu Liangzhong nodded, thanked him again, and drove away on his tricycle.

...