Chapter 395: A Chef’s Test
Translator: Xiong_Guoqi Editor: DesTheSloth
"Business hours start now. Please come on in for your meals." Yuan Zhou checked the time and said to the customers that had lined up outside.
After that, he turned around and returned to the restaurant to prepare the food.
Master Cheng took two steps forward and then retreated back. Then he looked at the crowd that lined up outside and again, walked forward for two steps. After he stood there hesitating for quite a while, he said to the team of dragon and lion dance.
"Sorry to bother you, everybody. That's all for today. Thank you." Having said that, Master Cheng turned around and entered the restaurant.
The reason why he hesitated was quite simple. He wanted to eat Yuan Zhou's dishes. Since there were so many people outside, however, the business hours would have already ended when it was his turn. He would see nothing by then.
Nevertheless, Yuan Zhou received a new mission from the system.
The system displayed, "Here is a long-term mission with no time limit. Are you going to receive or not?"
"Receive." Yuan Zhou received the mission firmly on the way back to the kitchen. However, he didn't tap it open to check as the business hours had started again. Preparing dishes was now the most urgent thing.
"May I ask what you want to eat today?" Zhou Jia greeted the customers smilingly.
"A serving of Clear Broth Noodle Soup, please." Judging from the voice, it was a gentle girl.
"It's a total of 268 RMB. Here in our restaurant, we usually get paid first before serving the dishes." Zhou Jia reminded mildly.
"This is the money." The wallet of the girl was a little special. It appeared to be totally airtight. She took out the exact amount of money from it and handed to Zhou Jia.
"Ok. One moment, please." Zhou Jia put the money on the special tray and after that, she turned her head and reported the dishes.
The voice of the girl was quite melodious, but she looked around with a hesitant gaze. Seeing nobody notice her, she sat down with ease.
Customers seated around were either chatting with friends, looking at Yuan Zhou occasionally or tasting the dishes in front of them earnestly. All revealed a blissful and contented expression.
She had reasons to look around like that. Her name was Qi Lin and she came here for a meal for the first time. Of course, she was attracted here by the reputation of Yuan Zhou's restaurant, which was different from others.
She only decided to come over here when she saw such a comment on the forum.
The content was like that.
[Only Boss Yuan can cook those weird delicacies. One can't smell its fragrance from a distance, but when one gets closer, the dishes nevertheless emits the fragrance. The most peculiar thing is that even if someone is eating spicy and pungent food, you still can't smell it. It's a really great spectacle.] from Pig That Likes Observing.
The message instantly attracted Qi Lin as she didn't like scents. No matter if it was fragrant and smelly, she didn't like them.
Therefore, she would always wear a big face mask when she went out as she really didn't like smells. She wasn't good at cooking. Sometimes, she would rather eat some cold food or go to a restaurant for the food.
However, she was too sensitive to smells, which made her wear a face mask even when she went to restaurants. For example, she was wearing a big face mask right now. It wasn't the kind only for decoration, but used to thoroughly cover her face, leaving her eyes exposed only.
The appearance was a little exaggerated; therefore, she was checking if anybody noticed her. She didn't like to be noticed by others.
"It surprisingly has no scent at all. The flavor of the perfume on that man's body even disappeared." Sitting in her seat, Qi Lin muttered to herself with her brows stretched.
"I hope the noodles don't have any scent later." Looking at the spacious and visible kitchen, Qi Lin prayed silently.
Qi Lin's prayer was quite helpful. The dishes were served to her very quickly.
"Miss, here are your dishes." Zhou Jia set down the noodles lightly and said.
"Sorry to be a bother." There was some more mildness in the melodious voice of the girl that passed from the face mask.
"You are welcome." Zhou Jia answered politely.
Then the noodles were carried to her and the slight fragrance drifted into Qi Lin's nose along with the heat.
"It really is like that. Fortunately, it's within my tolerance." Qi Lin felt slightly relieved.
She took the chopsticks and intended to eat, but nevertheless didn't take the face mask off. She just pulled the face mask upward slightly and revealed her beautiful lips.
With a sound of "Slurp", she started eating like that.
That's right. Qi Lin hated the smells to such an extent that she didn't take off the face mask even while eating. Therefore, she was afraid of being surrounded and watched while she was eating.
After all, such matters had happened occasionally. It would naturally arouse much curiosity to eat while she was wearing such a big face mask.
The normal conjecture was that, "This person is definitely sick."
Qi Lin had also seen other malicious speculations. It was acceptable to wear a face mask in winter, but in summer, it was more eye-appealing. Even in summer, she was wearing the airtight type.
In some small restaurants, the boss would have already asked about that. After all, if she was sick and besides, appeared so conspicuous, it would definitely affect the business of the boss. That was her personal experience after she started to wear the face mask three years ago.
The tastiness of the noodles need not be mentioned. "Slurp Slurp". Only when Qi Lin ate halfway did she remember to look around her, which had been another habit of hers due to her occupational disease.
However, there was no difference from the moment when she had just started to eat. Well, a little bit. The middle-aged man beside her had been replaced by a pretty girl.
When Qi Lin looked at her, the girl happened to turn her head back. Conveniently, she smiled to Qi Lin.
Qi Lin also smiled subconsciously. Only after the smile did she find she was still wearing the face mask. Therefore, she touched it with embarrassment.
"The noodles are going to turn cold." The pretty girl suddenly reminded.
"Oh, yeah. Thank you for your kind reminder." Then, Qi Lin lowered her head and began to eat the noodles.
"It's so nice here." While eating the delicious noodles, she thought that with ease.
In fact, if the customers knew about Qi Lin's concern, they would probably tell her, "Don't think too much. We don't feel it strange at all. After all, even a customer full of blood on his face often comes here to eat."
Every time he came, Yuan Zhou handed a towel to him personally so that he could wipe himself clean before eating.
For that, Ling Hong even guessed that Yuan Zhou was so considerate because he didn't want the blood to drop into the bowl and affect the taste of the food.
Nevertheless, Qi Lin had no idea about that. But she was now relieved as no one even felt it strange with the way she had meals, which made her quite relieved.
"What a weird place! It makes people who usually don't feel strange feel strange. This place is also very nice. It makes people who usually feel strange don't feel that way." Qi Lin thought quietly.
The two hours of lunch time pass very soon. The presence of Qi Lin was only remembered by Zhou Jia.
It was Zhou Jia's habit to record the new customers every day.
"See you in the afternoon, Boss Yuan." Zhou Jia waved her hand and said goodbye.
"Um." Yuan Zhou nodded his head. Seeing Zhou Jia walk out of the door and disappear, Yuan Zhou started to tidy the azure stone countertop.
For a little while, there was only the sound of Yuan Zhou washing the dinnerware.
Not long after, however, Yuan Zhou broke the silence.
"Speaking of which, is that mission for the western-style food finished?" Yuan Zhou thought of the matter of one thousand foreigners.
The system displayed, "Not yet, Host."
[Mission completion status] 1000/799
"I notice there are occasionally some foreigners in my restaurant recently and thus thought it would be nearly completed." Yuan Zhou shrugged.
"Could you please show me that new mission?" Yuan Zhou thought of the interesting mission that he had just received and said that while cleaning.
The system displayed, "Ok."
[A chef's test]...