Chapter 83 Peach Garden Restaurant Mom's so old, how could she possibly go there...
Taoyuan Restaurant officially opened at the end of February.
The name is taken from Kapok Peach Garden, and Chen Mian also hopes that the peach garden will have a good harvest this year through this name.
Of course, there is another layer of meaning: most of the ingredients in the restaurant come from the Kapok Peach Garden, ensuring freshness, health, and all-natural additives.
For the first three days after opening, all dishes were 25% off; prices would return to normal after that. Fearing Lin Qiaofang wouldn't be able to handle everything alone, Chen Mian also hired a general helper to prepare and serve the dishes.
The restaurant's dishes are mainly convenient and quick. For example, it can prepare cold noodles and roujiamo (Chinese hamburger) in advance. After the customer orders, they only need to pour the dipping sauce on the cold noodles, heat the dough, and put the pre-braised pig's head meat in it.
Considering the still cold weather, Chen Mian specially cooked a pot of black rice porridge. In addition to black rice, she also added red dates and peanuts. Cold noodles with roujiamo (Chinese hamburger) and a bowl of sweet and soft black rice porridge were a great way to soothe the fatigue of pedestrians after a long day.
Steamed vegetables and potato cakes are also prepared before the restaurant opens in the morning, which saves time and increases table turnover.
In addition to these, the restaurant also offers some refreshing side dishes, such as pickled radishes, pickled cabbage, and pickled garlic.
There's a small blackboard at the entrance of the shop, which records the daily specials by week, so there's no repeat every day. For example, today's special is mutton stew with bread.
Do you have any raw garlic? If so, could you please give me a few cloves?
There were many customers at the opening, and Chen Mian also came to help serve the dishes. When she heard the customers calling out, she quickly took a bone of garlic from the kitchen.
"Uncle Yang, what are you doing here?" Chen Mian greeted him with delight upon seeing the guest sitting at the table.
Yang Yonghua smiled, feigning seriousness. "What, aren't you welcoming me?"
"How could that be? A warm welcome!" Chen Mian noticed that Yang Yonghua only had a bowl of mutton stew on his table. She then turned around and took out a plate of cold pig's ears and a vegetable platter from the glass cabinet by the door. "Please eat first. This meal is on me. Please forgive me if the hospitality is not up to par today."
Yang Yonghua waved his hand and lowered his head to carefully peel the garlic cloves in his hand. It had been quite a few years since he had eaten such authentic mutton stew.
Having been away from home for many years, I would go wherever my superiors told me to go, all alone, from the Northwest to Xinjiang, then from Xinjiang to Guangdong, and last year I was transferred back to Xinjiang.
Yang Yonghua's arrival did not cause any ripples until a few days later, when Taoyuan Restaurant received a large order.
Someone asked them if they would be willing to deliver boxed lunches to a certain unit every day at noon, five days a week, for about seventeen people, with three dishes and a soup. The restaurant decides on the dishes, mainly Northwest cuisine, and the daily meal allowance is ten yuan per person.
Chen Mian: "Is there really such a good thing?"
After accepting this unexpected order, Chen Mianmian suddenly saw another possibility for the small restaurant: selling boxed meals.
She contacted a plastic factory to order a batch of food containers and bought several insulated containers. She tried to distribute some of the food from the store to nearby construction sites to sell. After a few days of trying, she received her second order for boxed meals, enough for fifty people a day, with a meal standard of five yuan per person, and the requirement that the food be oily and juicy.
Considering working hours and labor costs, Chen Mian hired two part-time housewives. They only needed to come to work at four o'clock every morning, work until nine o'clock, go home to send their children to school, and then come back to clean the store until the children got out of school after sending their children to school again at three o'clock in the afternoon.
Ji Yu often brought his colleagues to the store to support the business, but this time he didn't say that it was his fiancée's store, for fear that if he did, some people who liked to take advantage would pester Chen Mian to pay for the meal for free.
.
In early March, the peach blossoms in Kapok Peach Garden bloomed.
Perhaps because she had already prepared herself to wait for years, Chen Mian always felt a sense of unreality as the peach blossoms in the garden bloomed ahead of schedule.
The pink and red peach blossoms stood crowded together on the branches, and the golden sunlight, like a continuous stream, gently kissed every pink hue.
The blooming of peach blossoms means that in a few months, the Kapok Peach Orchard may usher in a long-awaited, truly bountiful harvest.
Chen Mian suddenly felt flustered, worried that the peach trees wouldn't bear any peaches, or that the peaches wouldn't be sweet enough. But soon, she didn't have time to think about these worries.
The university acceptance letters arrived; both she and Ji Yu had been accepted.
The red cardboard sign reads "Umu City Agricultural University" in large characters, along with welcome messages for new students.
Lin Huijun touched Chen Mian's college admission notice with great care, her eyes filled with envy and emotion. How wonderful, another college student has joined the family.
She slowly raised her eyes to look out the window, thinking back to her school days. If only she had had the chance to go to university back then.
No one knows a mother better than her daughter. Chen Mian almost instinctively understood her mother's melancholy at that moment, and she tentatively asked, "Mom, have you ever thought about retaking the college entrance exam?"
Lin Huijun looked away, her tone flustered, "What? It's great that you're going to university, Mom is so happy for you."
Chen Mian repeated, "I'm asking if you want to go to university yourself? I remember you and Dad both have high school diplomas, so you should be able to take the adult college entrance examination like me."
"Then you will be able to fulfill your dream of going to university."
Lin Huijun: "You're talking nonsense again. Mom is so old, it's shameful for her to go to school with the children."
"What's wrong with that? We're going to study, not to steal. What's so shameful about it?" Chen Mian pouted indignantly.
"And now that you're designing clothes, you buy a lot of professional books to read, but figuring things out on your own isn't as fast as learning in class. Just think of it as taking courses to improve your skills so you can earn more money in the future."
Chen Mian knew exactly what her mother was struggling with, so she gave her a perfect reason in advance, waiting only for her mother to nod in approval.
Lin Huijun shook her head again, "There are so many things to do at home, how can I leave? Mom is getting old, and I'm already very content to have raised three outstanding children like you. I don't want to think about anything else."
"You're getting married soon, and Mom is looking forward to holding her grandson. With the peach tree blooming, you getting into university, and now the engagement banquet, our family is celebrating three happy events at once," Lin Huijun said with a smile.
Upon hearing her mother mention the engagement banquet, Chen Mian became melancholy.
Lin Huijun personally made a red cheongsam for Chen Mianmian, intending for her to wear it at her engagement banquet, and also made a Zhongshan suit for Ji Yu.
The cinched-waist cheongsam accentuated her elegant demeanor and highlighted Chen Mian's slender waist, making her look stunning.
But that was half a month ago.
For the past two weeks, Chen Mian has been spending every day in the restaurant's kitchen, eating a little bit while chopping vegetables, tasting a little bit after cooking, and wrapping up any leftovers. She has gained several pounds.
When I wore the cheongsam again yesterday, my belly was already visible.
"Aaaaaah!" Chen Mian screamed in fury, grabbing her hair and collapsing back onto the bed. "Are you a pig?! How can you eat so much?!"
The day before the engagement banquet, Ji Yu arrived again in that truck, but this time, a large red flower was tied to the front of the truck.
"My mom said it was a festive occasion, and I can't disobey my mother's orders." Ji Yu smiled helplessly and unloaded the items from the carriage one by one.
The washing machine, television, and fan, along with the previous refrigerator, make up exactly what Ji Yu had mentioned: "three turns and one sound."
The parents were rehearsing their speeches inside the house, even more nervous than Chen Mian, the main character.
Engagement banquet.
Since neither family's hometown is in Xinjiang, there were almost no relatives among the guests present; they were all longtime friends.
Ji Feng and Ji Yu's comrades-in-arms, Yu Xiaoyue's military wife friends, and even Chen Mubai's comrades-in-arms from the military academy came to join in the fun.
It was only at this time that Chen Mian learned that Yang Yonghua was originally Ji Feng's comrade-in-arms, but had transferred back to his hometown many years ago and had risen through the ranks in politics to reach this position.
Chen Mianmian wore the red cheongsam her mother had made, her long black hair was tied back with a white jade hairpin, and she wore a snow-white shawl that just covered her lower abdomen.
This was the first time Ji Yu had worn a Zhongshan suit, but the uniform-like attire suited his temperament perfectly, giving him an air of righteousness, with a hint of arrogance and smugness between his brows.
Ji Yu curled his lips into a smile, his joy clearly visible. After today, everyone would know that Chen Mian was his.
Li Hongmei also came, heavily pregnant. Her hair had finally grown to her waist, and her eyes were full of the tenderness of a new mother.
Wu Wei carefully supported the pregnant woman, letting out a barely audible sigh, "I couldn't persuade her otherwise; she insisted on coming."
Li Hongmei glanced at her nagging husband and said sweetly, "My best friend is getting engaged. It's such a joyous occasion, of course I have to come."
"Alright, alright, I didn't mean to stop you from coming. Watch your step."
"knew."
Delidar also arrived dressed smartly, carrying her child.
Chen Mian asked in surprise, "Why are you here too? Aren't you afraid of running into that person?"
"Tch..." Dilidar rolled her eyes dismissively. "That guy got married again a long time ago, didn't you know? The woman sitting next to him is her."
Chen Mian followed Dilidar's gaze and saw a woman with a seductive back view, big wavy hair, and a tight dress. "Does he like this style?"
“Men, they all like to be wild.” Dilidar pouted, threatening her son in her arms, “If you ever dare to be like your father, you’re dead.”
Chen Mian chuckled, "The child is still too young to understand these things."
“It’s important to educate them well from a young age so they won’t go out and mess with other women when they grow up,” Dilidar said. “By the way, I heard you also got into agricultural university?”
Chen Mian nodded, and when she heard Dilidar say that she had also been admitted, she said that she had applied for accounting, "I want to make a lot of money in the future and save up for my son's future wife."
“But he’s still young, so it won’t cost him much. Let me enjoy it for him first.” Dilidar smiled slyly, and before leaving, she made a promise with Chen Mianmian that they would attend classes together when school started.
In a private room at the hotel, the two main characters of their engagement banquet were enjoying a peaceful moment.
Ji Yu hugged Chen Mian's waist from behind, lowered his head and affectionately nibbled on her small, round earlobe, "Mianmian, when are we going to get our marriage certificate?"
Chen Mian: "We just got engaged, what's the rush?"
"How can I not be anxious? Batur already has two children, and I still haven't found a wife," Ji Yu blurted out.
Chen Mian: "?"
Ji Yu: "That's not the point. The point is that I really want to improve..."
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Author's Note: Finally squeezed it out. I'm in a coma, writing down whatever line comes to mind in my dream. [emoji]
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