Chapter 92: Carved Dishes
Translator: Xiong Guoqi Editor: Meh / DesTheSloth
“Whether or not it’s actually delicious is yet to be known. It was cooked fairly fast.” while saying that, the man began to pick up the vegetable dish, the Jin’ling Grass, with the chopsticks, to eat. His dining etiquette was both refined and reserved.
“Please take your time and savour the dishes.” Yuan Zhou said quite calmly, not swayed by the man.
The man didn’t pay much attention on Yuan Zhou’s words. Without noticing anything else, he simply began to eat, but with only a bite for each dish.
A dozen delicate dishes. The man only gave each one a single simple bite, even though the blissful expression on his face was clearly seen by others.
He set down the chopsticks and gently opened his mouth, “Indeed, these dishes deserve to be called superb delicacies.”
“Thanks for you praising.” Yuan Zhou stayed calmly, with a quite indifferent manner.
“Please provide me with another serving of each dish. I will take them with me.” the suited man would never touch the dishes that he had reviewed again, even if they were much too delicious and to his utmost satisfaction.
However, the man spoke a little faster this time compared to just before.
“I’m sorry, I don’t provide take-out.” Yuan Zhou refused squarely.
“You don’t have any containers? I can provide them.” the man said with a relaxed manner while looking at Yuan Zhou.
“I don’t provide take-out.” Yuan Zhou directly repeated his words and then spoke nothing more.
“Then let’s do this. You serve another serving of the dishes, all of them.” thinking for a while, the man’s tone wasn’t as tough as just now.
“Please, check behind you.” this time, Yuan Zhou matter-of-factly pointed to the wall and then said.
The man had known that Yuan Zhou had lots of rules. As for what exactly they were, he didn’t have any interest in learning them. Though there were many things that money couldn’t buy in this world, there nevertheless wasn’t too many.
“No need. Rules are set by humans, and the rules here are set by you alone. I would like to offer three times the price.” the man likewise refused pointedly and then told him the money he could offer.
In the world, businesses were all like that, with one offering and the other bargaining.
“May I ask if you are going to continue to eat them or not? The store hours are almost over.” Yuan Zhou ignored the man straightforward. He just looked at all the slightly eaten dishes and asked.
“I won’t eat them anymore.” the man was rather honest and frank, hence plainly said.
“Perfect. I hereby inform you that you have been blacklisted from my restaurant. Further visits are no longer welcomed.” Yuan Zhou declared solemnly.
“Boss, are you serious?” although carrying a proud expression, the man revealed some incredulity in his voice.
“I’m sorry. The business hours are up now. Watch your step.” Yuan Zhou said politely, not intending to speak more at all.
To the kind of person who postured and wasted food, Yuan Zhou showed no friendship.
“I was introduced here by Ling Hong. I am his business partner.” lost in silence for a second, the man then said.
“Ok. Watch your step.” Yuan Zhou nodded, indicating he had known that. Of course, he still needed to see this customer off.
“Good. Boss, you are truly a person of principles. No wonder they all call you Compass.” the man didn’t begin to curse. His cultured background wouldn’t allow him to do that. He simply decided he didn’t want to come to this restaurant again.
Yuan Zhou didn’t answer and still showed a solemn look, preparing to see him off.
Having picked up the briefcase from beside his leg, the man turned around and left the restaurant in big strides, with his breath becoming faster and a discontented expression growing on his face.
The man opened the door of his car heavily and fumbled out his cellphone to call Ling Hong upon sitting in the driver’s seat. Shortly, the call connected. It was noisy at the other end of the call. Ling Hong seemed to be in a rowdy place.
After several seconds of silence, the man talked, “I just came out from the restaurant and I was blacklisted.”
“Huh, what did you do?” Ling Hong had to shout loudly in order to be heard.
“Nothing special. I just did what I usually did.” there was great discontent present in the man’s tone.
“Sorry, I can’t help. Master Yuan is a special chef. So you don’t go there anymore. Just go to the usual places for meals next time.” Ling Hong said calmly.
“Alright,” the man then hung up.
He turned his head and looked at Yuan Zhou’s restaurant again before driving away directly.
On the other side, Ling Hong was quite speechless after taking the call. The man who called him was first a friend of his parents and then later had some business connections with him. He heard the man was also fond of eating, and therefore recommended Yuan Zhou’s restaurant to him.
To his surprise, even in such clean surroundings as Yuan Zhou’s restaurant, this man could savour and comment on all the dishes before re-ordering. Ling Hong was astounded by this man who stuck to cleanliness to such unbearable extent. It was really troublesome.
After sending Mu Xiaoyun off, Yuan Zhou immediately tapped open the mission eagerly.
[Temporary Mission] Selling ten Herbal Tea Eggs at its original price within two days
(Only by selling out the Herbal Tea Eggs at its original price can one show one’s genuine abilities.)
[Reward] Sculpting Skills, Middle Part
[Mission Status] 10 / 10
He directly tapped to receive the reward. A thread-bound book changed into numerous luminous sparkles and then spread into the depths of his brain.
Quietly, Yuan Zhou looked through the book for the carving skills, many of which were for vegetable dishes. At that time, Yuan Zhou suddenly felt he had an impulse to try those skills.
Yuan Zhou opened his eyes and began to search in the kitchen immediately. As was expected, on one of the cabinets was written “Carving, Vegetable Dishes”, which appeared to be for just carving use specifically.
There were not too many vegetables in the cabinet, only a few for decoration of the Phoenix-Tail Prawns dish.
Yuan Zhou simply chose a long daikon from among them and weighed it with his hand, about 1.5kg.
He washed the daikon in the sink and then took out a special carving knife. After that, Yuan Zhou sat in his own habitual position and started the carving.
“duo duo”
He cut the daikon into a cylinder 15cm tall. As the daikon blocks were required to be the same size, he only took the middle part.
Yuan Zhou chose a carving knife, which weighed 24g, with the blade 1.0mm thick, 90mm long, the max width 18mm and the handle 95mm long. Taking it in his hand, he first held the wooden handle, to familiarize himself with its feeling.
He then began to carve. This time, Yuan Zhou chose to carve a water lotus out of the daikon. The requirement was that the lotus petals must be crystal clear and thin enough to be translucent; petals should be blooming and exquisitely connected together; even the lotus pith had to be carved delicately into a real water lotus.
The carving knife swung around in Yuan Zhou’s hand. At the very beginning, Yuan Zhou’s actions appeared obviously unfamiliar. With further carving, however, the actions of his hands became increasingly adroit, the working speed likewise becoming much faster.
In a little while, a water lotus was carved. Nonetheless, there were some tiny scratches on several lotus petals, which seemed to result from hesitation while carving. In addition, the other two lotus petals looked thicker than the remaining one.
“Seems I need to practice more.” looking at the water lotus on the table, Yuan Zhou said silently.
Despite that, the water lotus wasn’t inferior at all to those used as a decorative vegetables in Three-Star restaurants. Of course, it was far from enough for Yuan Zhou, who had received the pinnacle of carving skills.
After stretching a little, Yuan Zhou put the water lotus into a refrigerator to retain the freshness and then cleared away his kitchen before cooking noodle soup for himself.
Having opened the cabinet and taken a look at the eggs, Yuan Zhou decided to add some nutrition into his meals by boiling a plain egg.
When Yuan Zhou picked up the egg, the system reacted with silence. As a matter of fact, it didn’t display anything at all until the egg was cooked and Yuan Zhou had already peeled off the eggshell and carefully eaten it, upon which the price of 456 RMB was shown.
“System, do you charge me according to the price of the Egg Fried Rice?” looking at the price payable, Yuan Zhou felt stymied and then asked.
The system displayed, “Host, you can eat whatever edible in the restaurant and any matched dishes, as long as you pay the price of the set meal.”
“Is this a benefit or scam?” Yuan Zhou said nothing more.