Chapter 962: Opening (Thanks to the tip from book friend "Becky")
The Zhou family hung up the plaque and covered it with a red cloth. On the 20th, they prepared all the ingredients and drinks. Zhou Liulang also brought his two nephews and a niece to stew a lot of things, knead a lot of steamed buns, and simmer a big pot of broth.
Early in the morning on the 21st, the aroma of the broth wafted out, and the fragrance of their ingredients wafted through three or four surrounding shops.
Zhou Lijun had prepared pen, ink and abacus at the counter early on. This was a job she snatched from her brothers. Even Zhou Wulang himself couldn't snatch it away from her. In the end, she was decided to be the accountant.
Then, according to the order of seniority, Zhou Wulang became the shopkeeper, and Zhou Liulang naturally became the head chef. Zhou Lizhong and Zhou Liwei could only serve as waiters, and part-time kitchen helpers.
Zhou Liulang felt that Zhou Liwei and Zhou Lijun were like members of the old Zhou family in other aspects, except that they all resembled his second sister-in-law in terms of their talent for cooking. Unfortunately, Zhou Lizhong was not like his eldest sister-in-law in this respect.
But Zhou Liulang had to choose the tallest one among the short ones, and after much deliberation, he finally chose Zhou Lizhong to stay in the kitchen and help him more.
After knowing this, Manbao volunteered, rolled up his sleeves and said, "Sixth Brother, I'm busy that day, I can also help in the kitchen."
Zhou Liulang looked at her for a while and said, "Forget about what you said. You only know how to light a fire."
"What's wrong with making a fire? Do you look down on people who make fire? You should know that cooking requires a good fire."
Bai Erlang said, "I can also make a fire."
"Will you help me then?"
Bai Erlang immediately came back to his senses and shook his head, "Forget it, I'll just help you greet the guests in the front, but I can help you serve the dishes, I'm good at that."
That being said, the Zhou family wouldn't really ask the guests to serve food and water. In fact, with so many people in their family, they are already busy enough, so it doesn't matter if the speed is a little slower.
On the morning of July 21st, the backyard of Zhouji Restaurant was bustling with activity. Manbao and the other two jumped off the carriage, waved to Daji, and rushed into the backyard like calves. After taking a deep breath, they exclaimed, "What a nice smell!"
Zhou Liulang smiled, opened a steamer and said, "I made some big meat buns. Do you want some?"
Although they had already eaten breakfast, the three of them still swallowed their saliva and nodded.
Zhou Liulang served them a bowl of soup and picked up six big meat buns and placed them on the table.
The buns were still hot. When I took a bite, the juice overflowed slightly. The minced meat and the soft and fragrant white flour mixed together, which was extremely delicious.
Manbao exhaled a satisfied breath and asked, "Sixth Brother, don't we sell breakfast?"
"It's too late today. We'll sell them tomorrow. Today's big meat buns are for our guests. How do you like them?"
Manbao nodded vigorously, "It's delicious."
Zhou Liulang didn't pay much attention to Manbao's opinion, as she always said everything was delicious. He looked at Bai Shan and Bai Erlang.
Bai Shan and Bai Erlang also nodded repeatedly, "It's really delicious."
Zhou Liulang gained some confidence and said happily, "That's great. We'll use this to send off customers today, and start selling breakfast tomorrow."
Mr. Zhuang calculated the auspicious time and arrived earlier with Liu Gui and others. As soon as they sat down on the second floor, Manager Zheng came with a group of people, including Doctor Gu and Doctor Tao.
Only Doctor Ding was left on duty in the pharmacy, and even the shopkeeper Xiao Zheng came.
In addition to them, Manager Zheng also invited several of his friends to help them warm up the place.
Manbao was very happy and invited them to go upstairs.
Mr. Zhuang has never met Manager Zheng, so this is a good opportunity to meet him.
Manager Zheng had long known from Doctor Ji that Manbao had a teacher who listened to him very much, so he had wanted to meet him for a long time. This was indeed one of the purposes of his coming to warm the bed this time.
The two of them smiled and bowed to each other, getting to know each other, and then sat down to talk together.
Manbao had just greeted them when new guests came downstairs. She looked down and saw Bai Erlang leading his classmates in.
I was still invited to the second floor...
Bai Shan only invited Feng Zongping and three others, as well as Peng Zhiru and Lu Xiaofo. They arrived a little later, but also at an auspicious time.
The distinguished guests were invited to sit on the second floor. Manager Zheng did not expect that they had also invited students from the Imperial College. After politely greeting them, he saw Zhou Wulang downstairs constantly ushering guests into the lobby.
There were the vegetable farmers he had met over the past few days, butchers who specialized in slaughtering pigs and selling meat, and the owner of the shop on the same street...
As the auspicious time arrived, firecrackers rang out and a group of people stood under the door to watch the excitement. Manbao was so happy that his palms turned red, and he shouted "oh oh" along with the onlookers.
Zhou Wulang was about to look for her, but he turned around and couldn't find her. He found her when he heard the voice, and pulled her forward and said, "Manbao, you are lucky. You are about to pull the red cloth."
Manbao reached out, grabbed the red cloth, and yanked it downwards, revealing the plaque. Everyone cheered. Zhou Wulang stepped forward with a bow and said to the onlookers, "Today we are opening our Zhouji Restaurant. Everyone who comes to eat here will receive a large plate of meat buns..."
The onlookers bowed in return. Those who wanted to eat went into the store, while those who didn’t want to eat turned around and left.
Many people like to eat at newly opened shops because they will deliver food on the same day, which is cheap and affordable.
But there are also many people who are not so confident about the newly opened shops.
Zhou Wulang brought in some guests who were willing to eat and guided them to their seats. Zhou Liwei then ran to serve them, announced the dishes, and took a pen to write down the menu.
There was no way, his memory was not that good, so he could only write down the serial number.
Manbao ran to the kitchen to help. Zhou Liulang prepared the food and put it on the table. Zhou Lizhong brought it out one by one, and his serving speed was pretty good.
After all, Zhou Liulang had worked in Zhiwei Restaurant and was very familiar with the kitchen affairs. He quickly got used to this kind of busy work. Zhou Lizhong and the others were a little slower, but they always remembered what Zhou Liulang said, that it is better to be safe than to be hasty, so nothing went wrong along the way.
Food was also delivered to the second floor. Mr. Zhuang greeted the shopkeeper Zheng and others on behalf of Manbao, Bai Shan greeted his friends, and Bai Erlang also greeted his classmates.
But since we were all students of the Imperial College and were divided into two tables, we might as well just get together and talk.
Feng Zongping and the other three were seniors, and the topic soon revolved around them.
Feng Zongping was a very outgoing person. When someone started talking to him, he talked even more and soon became familiar with everyone at the two tables.
Peng Zhiru and Lu Xiaofo are both somewhat introverted. They themselves did not expect Bai Shan to invite them, mainly because Bai Shan seemed even more introverted than them and did not like to talk to others in class.
But the three of them were together after all, and had the same circumstances when entering the Imperial College, so even if they were not familiar with Bai Shan, they came as soon as he invited them.
It was only when they arrived that they discovered that, apart from Feng Zongping and three other seniors, they were actually the only classmates invited by Bai Shan. They didn't show it on their faces, but they were actually a little happy in their hearts.
I became a little closer to Bai Shan.
(End of this chapter)
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