I Have a Countryside Gourmet Restaurant

Chapter 396: Chapter 353: Getting Fish from Taoyuan Village

”Well...”

Faced with the three men’s enthusiastic invitation, Li You said, ”Let me go ask her what she thinks.”

”Okay, okay.”

Li You went upstairs and explained the situation to Ling Xiaoru, asking if she wanted to go down and eat with them.

Ling Xiaoru nodded. ”Sure. It’s no big deal.”

Li You said, ”Then let’s go.”

”Okay.”

The two of them went downstairs together and walked over to the table where Liu Hong, Wang Zhongyu, and Cai Qingfeng were sitting.

When the three men saw Ling Xiaoru, they were all slightly taken aback.

’What a beautiful girl!’

’So the person the boss mentioned is such a beautiful girl.’

’She must be the boss’s girlfriend, right?’

’His girlfriend is so pretty. I’m so jealous!’

Li You knew the three men had definitely misunderstood his relationship with Ling Xiaoru. However, he didn’t explain.

Ling Xiaoru also knew they would misunderstand her relationship with Li You. She didn’t plan on explaining, either.

’A misunderstanding like this is actually kind of nice.’

Li You made simple introductions between Ling Xiaoru and the three men.

They all greeted each other and exchanged a few pleasantries.

Then, at the three men’s renewed invitation, Li You and Ling Xiaoru sat down.

When Liu Hong and his friends learned that Ling Xiaoru could also drink a little, they grew even more excited.

Drinking with such a beautiful woman made the alcohol taste better and feel more intoxicating.

They ate and drank.

Time slowly passed. By nine in the evening, they were about done.

Liu Hong paid the bill.

Li You called two motorcycle taxi drivers to come and take the three men to Wenxian Town.

The other customers in the restaurant had also finished eating and left.

Li You closed up the shop and went upstairs with Ling Xiaoru to rest.

...

The next morning, Liu Hong, Wang Zhongyu, and Cai Qingfeng arrived at the restaurant by motorcycle taxi.

They came for breakfast. They would leave after eating.

Yesterday, they’d overheard other customers saying the noodles here were exceptionally delicious.

So, they decided they would each have a large bowl of beef noodles that morning.

Soon, the noodles were ready and brought to their table.

All three of their eyes lit up. The noodles certainly looked delicious.

They quickly dug in.

After the first bite, they were once again in disbelief. The beef noodles were indeed unbelievably good.

’Boss Li You’s cooking skills are truly divine!’

After finishing all the noodles, the three of them once again showered Li You with praise.

Li You laughed and said, ”You three are welcome back anytime.”

”We definitely will,” all three of them said.

But for now, they had to leave.

The three men said their goodbyes to Li You. Then, Liu Hong added, ”I’ll have the mangosteen saplings delivered to you as soon as possible, Boss Li.”

Li You said, ”That’s too much trouble, Boss Liu!”

Liu Hong insisted it was nothing.

After that, the three men left. Li You returned to the kitchen to continue his prep work for the day.

At nine in the morning, Ling Xiaoru came downstairs. After eating a small bowl of Yangchun Noodles, she got ready to head back to work.

As she was leaving, she said to Li You, ”Boss, I have to go back to my hometown this afternoon. I’ll be staying the night there, so I won’t be coming over this evening.”

Li You nodded. ”Alright, be safe on the road.”

”Okay.”

Then, Ling Xiaoru left.

Li You remembered Ling Xiaoru had said she was from Taoyuan Village.

Taoyuan Village was also under the jurisdiction of Wenxian Town, located to the south. It was a 10-kilometer trip from the town’s main street.

It was quite far—twice as far as Li You’s own Changle Village.

Li You had never been to Taoyuan Village.

’I’ll have to find some time to go visit in the future.’

After finishing his prep work in the kitchen, Li You stepped out of the restaurant to take a stroll through his gardens.

After making a round, an idea struck him. ’Right, the fish pond should be ready for water by now, shouldn’t it? It’s been curing for so many days.’

’It’s about time to let the customers see those two Blood Red Dragon Fish, as well as the goldfish and koi.’

He walked over to the fish pond and circled it a few times. It felt fine; it was ready to be filled.

First, he’d let in some water to clean the pond.

Li You turned the water control switch, and water slowly began to fill the pond.

When the water level was high enough, he started cleaning the pond.

After cleaning it thoroughly and draining all the dirty water, he began to formally fill the pond.

At the same time, he activated the water circulation system.

By now, it was almost noon. Customers should be arriving for lunch soon.

Sure enough, it wasn’t long before the first wave of lunch customers arrived. They were all familiar faces, including Lu Xiangyun, who worked at the courier station in town and was the runner-up in the last *The King of Fighters ’97* tournament.

Everyone was pleasantly surprised to see that the fish pond was being filled with water.

’He’s finally going to start raising fish. I wonder what kind of fish the boss will keep? I’m really looking forward to it.’

”Boss, when are you going to put the fish in?” Lu Xiangyun asked Li You.

”You should be able to see fish in there when you come by tomorrow,” Li You replied.

’Oh, really? That’s great!’

The customers were all very happy and decided they would definitely have a good look tomorrow.

But first, it was time to eat.

...

In the afternoon, after the customers had left, Li You was resting in his rocking chair.

His phone rang. It was a call from Ling Xiaoru.

’Didn’t that girl have to go back to her hometown this afternoon? Why is she calling me now?’

He answered the call.

”Boss, someone at our village entrance is selling blunt-snout bream. There are two of them. Do you like to eat them? If you do, I’ll buy them and bring them to the restaurant tomorrow.”

’Blunt-snout bream?’

Li You’s eyes lit up. ’What a find!’

This was a type of fish, a species of bream. Its physical characteristics were very distinct—namely, its flat body.

Its entire body was completely flat, with a distinctly raised back that gave it a rhomboid shape, and its head and mouth were relatively small.

But it also had a more familiar name: Wuchang Fish.