Chapter 40 - The Flourishing Business

Xiao Bing received a phone call from Zhang Yizhi as soon as he walked out of the compound. After the phone was connected, Zhang Yizhi said on the other side, “Come to me tonight at Apartment 123, Pingxing Road, North District. Come after work. I will return to the capital tomorrow morning.”

Xiao Bing hurriedly agreed. It seemed that tonight he wouldn’t be able to go home for dinner on time again.

Xiao Bing called Su Xiaoxiao on his way to the noodle restaurant. Su Xiaoxiao understood that Zhang Yizhi wanted to meet Xiao Bing before he left. She also asked Xiao Bing to express her thanks to Zhang Yizhi.

The noodle shop’s business today was flourishing. If it was as per usual, there wouldn’t have been so many customers at this time. After all, it was 9 o’clock in the morning and it was not the time for lunch yet. However, Xiao Bing got a fright when he walked in today. “What the fuck. What day is it today? The noodle restaurant is almost full.”

On second thought, did everyone know that the campus belle of the normal university came to the restaurant every weekend to help? Yesterday afternoon there were more customers than usual. Many boys came to see Yezi.

Xiao Bing felt people looking at him when he walked into the restaurant, followed by voices of discussion, “Look, he is the kung fu chef.”

“Oh, this is the kung fu chef you were talking about. He is very handsome.”

“You two are really crazy.”

“Bah, aren’t you here to see the kung fu chef too?”

“I’m not a girl, I’m here to see my angel… That’s the campus belle of our school. Look, how beautiful she is. How pure, how lovely, how charming… All the boys in the school love her.”

Some shameless boys, in order to be able to talk more with Yezi, finished eating one bowl, followed by a second bowl, followed by a third bowl, which was more than what they ate at a buffet. After they could not eat anymore, they asked for a fourth bowl to take away and finally walked out of the restaurant leaning against the wall.

Xiao Bing saw that and secretly scolded, “Losers, how could there be so many crazy boys?” Then he looked at those girls and praised in his heart, “They really have good taste. But they’re too shy. Why don’t they come and touch me…”

In fact, Xiao Bing was a famous playboy when he was in Beijing, always surrounded by beautiful women every day. However, he always distinguished that kind of love from the real love between men and women until he met Yezi.

After arriving at Jiang City, on one hand, troubles came one after another. On the other hand, Su Peiya’s death had haunted Xiao Bing’s heart, so he stopped being dissolute. Now, the knot was unraveled. Even though he had to keep a pure image in front of Yezi, his heart began to stir gradually.

Yezi just sent a bowl of noodles to a boy and rejected his request for her phone number. She glanced at Xiao Bing and said with a smile, “Not bad, so many girls have come for you.”

“Aren’t you the same…” Xiao Bing smiled and said, “Are you jealous?”

“If I get jealous, do you know what’s the price you have to pay?” Yezi chuckled.

Seeing the sly look on Yezi’s face, Xiao Bing shuddered and shook his head at once. He said wryly, “I’m kidding. Just kidding. Yezi, you know that I only have you in my heart, which is as clear as the moon…”

Zhang Jing, the cashier, giggled while giving people change. She couldn’t help laughing, “Brother Bing, I didn’t know you had such a glib tongue. You can say sweet words without thinking. How many girls have you flattered before?”

Xiao Bing said with a serious face, “You didn’t notice it before, because my sweet words are usually said to the women I love, and I have never said such words to anyone in my life until I met Yezi…”

Yezi’s face turned slightly red and her heart was filled with sweetness. She shyly complained, “Don’t just stand there and talk. Many people have come for your noodles. You’ll be busy.”

“It’s okay. It’s okay. With you by my side, I’m willing to do anything.”

Xiao Bing went to the kitchen and brought out flour, and then began to make noodles. Many girls leaned on their chins and looked over. Their eyes were attracted by Xiao Bing. For Xiao Bing, it was work. But for them, it was a performance.

A pot of noodles could fill six or seven bowls, enough for six or seven people to eat. Even so, it was still in short supply. It was busy all morning, and by noon there would be even more people. Looking at the long queue outside, Xiao Bing was horrified. “Shit. When can I have a break?”

Yezi was also very busy. She finally had some time to rest. She wiped her sweat with a handkerchief and passed it to Xiao Bing. She said with pity, “Brother Bing, why don’t you take a break and tell them that they can’t eat your noodles until two hours later. All these customers can eat something else.”

Xiao Bing shook his head and smiled, “I’m fine. It’s a good thing that business is so good… It’s lunchtime right now. Even if I want to rest, I need to wait until this time period is over. You take a rest first. Don’t get too tired.”

“I can also wait.” Yezi smiled sweetly. Just then, there was another person who wanted to order, so Yezi hurriedly walked over.

After lunchtime, there was a slight decrease in the number of people in the restaurant. The long line outside disappeared, but the restaurant was still almost full. Xiao Bing took Yezi to the back to eat.

Wang Guifang set two dishes on the table and smiled, “Lil Bin, Yezi, you must be exhausted.”

Xiao Bing wolfed down the food while mumbling, “It’s okay, everyone was busy.”

Yezi was also very hungry, but she ate gracefully. She smiled and said, “Everyone is hungry. When I finish eating, I’ll replace Sister Hong and Sister Jing and let Brother Bing replace you.”

Wang Guifang smiled, “It’s okay, I can wait. Alas, the Xiaoxiao Noodle House is always in trouble recently, so business is not as good as it used to be. I didn’t expect that after you two came, the noodle shop’s business would start to perform so well. It was not as busy as this even at its peak… If Sister Li knew, she would be happy even if she were lying in the hospital. This noodle house is everything for Sister Li and Brother Su. They put so much effort into it… I have heard that Brother Su’s dream since childhood was to run a noodle shop of his own. It is only after those two people worked so hard for half of their lives that this dream can be realized.”

Xiao Bing could understand, perhaps this was also the place where Su Xiaoxiao was dissatisfied. Father Su devoted all his life to survive. His dream was to open a noodle shop of his own in his life. Li Chunlan must love her husband very much, so she has also been fighting for it, in order to fulfill her husband’s dream, so Su Xiaoxiao felt that her parents had ignored her.

However, Su Xiaoxiao was still a very sensible child. She was still very filial and understood all these things.

After Xiao Bing finished eating, it was Wang Guifang’s turn. Then Xiao Bing began to cook. Looking at Xiao Bing’s cooking skills, Wang Guifang could not help but praise him, “Xiao Bing, if any girl marries you in the future, she’ll be really lucky. I can’t believe your talent.”

After that, Wang Guifang looked at Yezi and smiled, “You two are really a talented man and beautiful woman. You are a perfect match.”

Yezi stuck out her tongue mischievously, put down her chopsticks and said, “Aunt Wang, I’ve finished eating, I’ll go and swap with the other two for lunch.”

After lunch, it was another busy afternoon. After closing the shop at night, Wang Guifang and Zhang Jing worked out today’s turnover together and reported the bill to Xiao Bing. Wang Guifang sighed with emotion, “I was here on the noodle house’s first day of opening. Never before has business been so busy. Today’s business is equivalent to three days of the previous peak.”

Li Hong laughed, “We have this despite our house being too small to hold so many people. You didn’t see the many people queuing outside. Many people really couldn’t make it and had to leave. Oh, my back really hurts today. I didn’t take a break for a single minute. ”

Xiao Bing laughed, “Thank you. Thank you, guys. Everyone go back and have a good rest today. Tomorrow the students will start school, and Yezi won’t be here. I guess it will be much easier than today.”

Wang Guifang laughed, “Yes, many people came for Yezi, but… I’m not so sure. Many people didn’t know how good our noodles were before. After eating this time, I believe we’ll be popular because of our reputation.”

Zhang Jing laughed, “What’s more, many people came for the kung fu chef Brother Bing today. You didn’t see how crazy those girls were. Ah, we should all have had a chance with Brother Bing, but Yezi was faster in getting him.”

Everyone laughed, and Ye Zi went to fight with her.

“If that is the case.” Xiao Bing laughed, “I’ll be in charge. I’ll give you an extra 20% of your salary this month.”

Yezi stopped fighting and laughed, “If business is so good every day, 20% is not enough, we’ll need 30%.”

“Okay.” Xiao Bing said happily without hesitation, “As long as the turnover exceeds 30% compared to the past, I will pay you an extra 30% this month.”

Li Hong’s eyes glistened and bowed, “Thank you, Brother Bing!”

She took another bow, “Thank you, sister-in-law!”

Hearing the phrase ‘sister-in-law’, Yezi felt a sweet feeling in her heart and accepted it happily.

Xiao Bing glanced at everyone and finally said to Yezi, “Yezi, let’s go. I’ll take you back first, and then I’ll go to Mr. Zhang’s place.”

“Oh, okay. Say hi for me to Mr. Zhang. My dad is slowly getting better and he is ready to get out of bed. He said he would invite you to dinner at my house in two days and thank you personally. Is that okay with you?” Yezi looked at Xiao Bing expectantly.

Xiao Bing laughed, “The invitation of my future father-in-law. Of course I will go!”

Yezi chuckled, “You wish.”

As always, there was a car waiting for Yezi outside the restaurant. But this time Xiao Bing was also dragged to the car by Yezi, and then she took Xiao Bing to the apartment where Zhang Yizhi lived and dropped Xiao Bing off.

“Brother Bing, good night.”

“Good night.”

Xiao Bing walked to the door of the apartment and knocked on the door. A lady in her fifties opened the door. She looked at Xiao Bing and asked, “Are you Mr. Xiao Bing?”

“Oh, hello, I am.”

“I am the nanny here. Master Zhang has just bought this apartment. Let me be in charge of cleaning and cooking here… Just now Master Zhang said you were coming. Come on in.”

Xiao Bing thought to himself, “This old guy really lives in luxury. He bought an apartment in Jiang City even though he is just living here for a few days. He also hired a nanny to come over to do the cleaning.” He changed into slippers while thinking.

Zhang Yizhi came out of a room on the second floor. He looked at Xiao Bing downstairs with a serious face and said, “Lil Bing, come to my room.”