Chapter 164 Why are there so many orders? A lot of people have arrived outside...

Around 6 p.m., during the peak dining period, a number of customers gradually came in, and the restaurant slowly became lively. Several groups of customers with pets also came in. Upon asking, we found out that the first girl to come in and eat had helped them promote the restaurant.

Zhaolin said proudly, "I knew it! Our pet boarding house can become a traffic magnet. Only we pet owners understand how rare it is for a restaurant to have a pet boarding house."

There weren't many customers today, and An Fusheng could meet the demand by cooking alone. With Wen Yue, who was particularly enthusiastic about cooking, helping An Fusheng, there was no room for Ji Qingqing to shine in the kitchen, so Ji Qingqing came to the front of the house to help.

Listening to Zhao Lin's boasting, Ji Qingqing couldn't help but retort, "You talk as if this pet boarding house is your idea."

Zhaolin: "So what? Although the pet boarding house was requested by Fourteen, Fourteen is my brother. My brother is outstanding, and I am proud of him."

Ji Qingqing gave him a disdainful look.

Speak of the devil and he appears.

"Brother Zhaolin!" An Shisi ran in from outside the gate, panting, carrying Afu in his arms.

Afu is already an adult cat. Although he has lost weight recently from taking care of the kittens, he is still tall. An Shisi wrapped his arms around Afu's chest. Afu's lower body plus his two legs are longer than An Shisi's lower body. So rather than saying that An Shisi is carrying Afu, it is more accurate to say that Afu is being dragged by him. So, although it looks like An Shisi is carrying Afu and running, in reality, Afu is kicking with his own two legs.

Seeing Afu's utterly dejected and helpless expression, Zhaolin quickly grabbed an umbrella and went out to greet him. "Why are you here? And why did you bring Afu with you? Why aren't you wearing your raincoat in this rain?"

To protect the children's privacy, the children's identity information and photos are generally not made public. Director Wen pays special attention to the protection of the children's privacy. Apart from normal social interactions, the children are not allowed to show their faces in the welfare home's publicity or activities. The relationship between Xingchen Canteen and the welfare home is public, so the children are not allowed to come to the canteen to play during the canteen's business hours.

“Let’s eat! Everyone, come and eat!” An Shisi said.

Zhao Lin looked up and saw a group of people walking towards the restaurant. In front of them were Bai Mangmang and Wen Xinglin, each holding a kitten, chatting as they walked. Behind them were Ji Fengnian carrying Wen Xingrui on his back, Lou Mama carrying Wen Xinglan, and Dean Wen and Bai Miaomiao each holding one of Wen Xinghe's hands and walking at the very back.

"Why are you here?" Zhaolin asked in surprise.

“Of course we’re here to eat,” Wen Min said with a smile.

Zhao Lin thought to himself, "Do you guys really need to come to a restaurant just for a meal? Dean Wen probably came to support the restaurant because he knows it's not doing well today."

However, as a professional lobby manager, Zhaolin still welcomed them into the store in a very professional and enthusiastic manner, arranged seats for them, and then took the children to check their pets.

Everyone was pleasantly surprised to see the orphanage staff coming to eat. After Wen Min greeted them, they treated them like ordinary guests.

Whether it was because the rainy day made it longer for people to travel, or because the group from the orphanage brought a lot of customers to the restaurant, as customers gradually entered the restaurant while the food was being served to the orphanage staff, the restaurant was almost full before we knew it.

As Wen Yue was preparing the dishes, she finally sensed something was wrong. Looking at A Yao, who had brought over three more menus, she asked, "Why are there so many orders?"

“There are a lot of guests outside right now,” Ayao said.

"Are they all bringing pets?" The first girl who brought her pet to eat told them about it, and she had also heard about it.

Ah Yao: "Some brought it, some didn't."

Actually, apart from the orphanage staff who brought a few pets, the later guests didn't bring any pets. However, Ah Yao is a meticulous person, and the group from the orphanage brought three cats, so they had to be considered 'some'.

"Why are there so many customers all of them suddenly? Are they all by appointment?"

"Not entirely. I don't know why there were suddenly so many people."

With more people around, Wen Yue became increasingly busy. It was a good thing that there were more people, so when she couldn't find out the reason, she stopped asking and focused on her work.

Around seven o'clock, the Lin Wuyang family, the Xu Sannian family, the He Zhi family, the Fang Wangxi family, and Shen Yuqiu and Zhuang Changfeng with their students also arrived. Everyone knew each other, and they chatted while eating. More and more other guests arrived. Outside, a light rain was falling, and the aroma of food filled the air. Everyone was discussing which dish was delicious and which was even better. Some tables with fewer people couldn't order many dishes, so they exchanged dishes with other tables to try. The restaurant was filled with a harmonious and joyful atmosphere.

However, this kept the restaurant staff very busy. An Fusheng was already overwhelmed with cooking by himself, so Wen Yue started to help out with some of the dishes she could make, while Ji Qingqing was responsible for preparing the ingredients for them according to the menu.

The other staff members were busy arranging seats, serving tea, taking orders, serving food, clearing tables, and settling accounts. They were so busy that they were constantly rushing around the restaurant. They were in a chaotic state, sometimes serving the wrong dishes to a table, sometimes forgetting to order from a table and making the guests wait for ages before apologizing, and sometimes forgetting to indicate that a guest didn't eat spicy food when taking their order, so they had to hurriedly change the dishes. It was a complete mess.

Fortunately, around 8 p.m., the guests gradually stopped coming in and started leaving. By 9 p.m., all the guests had finally left.

As soon as the customers left, some people lay on the cashier's counter, some hung on the back of the chairs, and some clung to the wall like boneless creatures. They were scattered all over the place, and none of them were standing properly.

"I'm exhausted! The catering industry is definitely not for humans," Ji Qingqing wailed, beginning to miss the leisurely lunchtime.

The guests have left, but the restaurant hasn't been cleaned up yet, the kitchen isn't organized, there's still a huge pile of unwashed dishes and chopsticks, and the remaining food needs to be processed and stored.

"Aaaaaah! Let's get this done! The sooner we finish, the sooner we're done!"

After slumping for a few minutes, everyone resignedly began to finish up.

It was already 10:30 when the finishing work was completed. This was more tiring than I had ever been in the food delivery business before. The original plan was to have a small meeting every day after work during the trial operation period to summarize the day's work and learn from the experience to adjust the work for the next day. However, An Fusheng had to cancel the meeting because he saw how exhausted everyone was.

After everyone left, An Fusheng carefully reviewed today's accounting records. By the time he got home from get off work and finished washing up, it was already midnight.

From the first day Wen Xinglan arrived at the orphanage, he always slept with An Fusheng. Sometimes when An Fusheng was busy, Lou Lan was afraid that it would be unsafe for him to sleep alone, so she coaxed him to sleep with her. As soon as he got to her bed, he would crawl down as if there were thorns on it, kicking his hands and feet. After landing, he would quickly crawl back to An Fusheng's room, and Lou Lan could not catch up with him.

Later, Lou Lan had no choice but to install railings on An Fusheng's bed and then call An Shisi, who longed to sleep with An Fusheng, to accompany Wen Xinglan.

There are many children in the orphanage, and Lou Lan needs to take care of them 24 hours a day. She has to maintain a basic amount of rest time, so the children in the orphanage have to learn to sleep alone by the age of three at most. Even Wen Xingrui is no exception. Wen Xingmou started sleeping in a bed with her older sisters when she was two and a half years old. The children in the orphanage sleep very properly, so Lou Lan is not too worried about letting An Shisi take Wen Xinglan to sleep.

To make it easier to hear the children's voices and react quickly if anything happens, Lou Lan usually leaves An Fusheng's door open when he's not around. An Fusheng walks into the room and gently closes the door.

An Fusheng did not go to the bed, but instead went to the desk, turned on the lamp, and sat down.

An Fusheng took the black leather notebook from his desk and opened it. He had already used up nearly half of the notebook. It contained notes he had made about the restaurant since he opened it. Although he could type very fast now, he still preferred to write by hand.

Today was the first day of our dine-in business, and we encountered quite a few problems. An Fusheng listed the problems one by one and then thought of solutions to them.

He used to think he was stupid, always giving up at the slightest difficulty. Back then, he was young, and his first instinct when faced with a problem was to run to his grandmother. Later, his older sister Chunyi told him that was wrong. Anyone encountering a problem should first think about how to solve it. Many problems are actually bluffing, giving the illusion of being insurmountable, but in reality, identifying the problem is already half the battle won. After that, just list it out and find solutions one by one, and you'll find it's not an insurmountable problem at all. An Fusheng had tested this principle many times and found it to be true.

Opening such a large restaurant was something An Fusheng had never dreamed of before, but so what? Coming here from Fushan Village was also something he could never have imagined, yet he still managed to live a peaceful life. An Fusheng kept telling himself that these problems in running the restaurant were just minor issues that could definitely be resolved.

An Fusheng wrote down solutions to each of the problems he listed, and from time to time he would search online for similar cases to learn from other people's solutions. After filling a long page with dense notes, An Fusheng looked at the time and it was already 2 a.m. He closed the notebook and turned off the light.

The next day, Saturday.

Perhaps because he had played for too long during the summer vacation, An Shisi, who used to be unable to get up early for kindergarten, now gets up very early every day. Not long after dawn, An Shisi shook Wen Xinglan awake, and then the two of them carried the two kittens onto the bed. The four kittens chased each other on the bed, and An Fusheng had no choice but to wake up.

An Fusheng had to go to the market early to buy groceries, so he didn't have time to help An Shisi and Wen Xinglan wash up. He quickly washed up himself, carried Wen Xinglan, and led An Shisi down the second floor. Wen Xinglan's belly was pressed against An Fusheng's shoulder, and she cried out "Ah ah ah oh oh oh oh uh uh uh" as An Fusheng went downstairs. An Shisi laughed loudly behind them.

Ji Fengnian was cleaning on the second floor.

It was still very hot in August. The cats, probably seeking coolness, lay motionless on the floor early in the morning. Ji Fengnian, holding a shovel in one hand and a broom in the other, swept the cats one by one into the shovel like garbage. Then, he shoveled the cats into a small wicker basket, and finally kicked it. The basket slid smoothly to the wall, and the cats in the basket looked at Ji Fengnian with their big, watery eyes and meowed.

An Shisi and Wen Xinglan were immediately intrigued. An Fusheng handed them over to Ji Fengnian, telling him to help them wash up when Lou Mama got up, and then went to buy groceries.

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Author's note: Happy National Day! [Sprinkling flowers]