At the same time when he was feeling emotional, the phone rang, and it was Gao Yuan. The moment the call was connected he started scolding. "I paid you so much money, you son of a bitch. And yet you have not even made a single meal for Ding Ding. Do you want me to kill you? Go get some groceries and cook for her this instant."
Bai Lu scolded him back. "You are the son of a bitch. Could it be that it was actually a pig that was eating at my house last night?"
There was only silence on the other side, then the call was ended.
Bai Lu had just finish catching his breath, but the phone rang again, and it was still Gao Yuan. "Takeaway tonight. My grandpa has developed a craving."
Bai Lu really wanted to inform him that the restaurant was closed so no one would be served. However, since it was his grandpa that wanted to eat a nice meal, he had no choice but to agree to his request.
...
The time flowed by like water, and the days kept repeating itself. Every morning, Bai Lu would send Sha Sha to school. In the afternoon, he would supervise the renovations of the restaurant and prepare lunch. Then he would pick up Sha Sha from school, and they would have lunch with Ding Ding. Later in the afternoon, he would return to the restaurant to oversee the renovations. When night falls, he would cook dinner and eat.
After ten days, the restaurant was completely revamped. Although it was just a tiny restaurant, it ended up costing a whopping $130k in renovation fees, which did not even include the restaurant amenities that were purchased afterward.
In the following days, a shopping spree ensued. Bai Lu bought a brand new stove, utensils and more.
When all the endeavors were completed, it was already the end of September. Bai Lu has decided to reopen the restaurant for business on the 1st of October, which was the National Day.
In the past few days, Gao Yuan came over occasionally to visit Ding Ding. He San Qing also went over a couple of times to look for Bai Lu, because he wanted to bring him out for some fun, but he refused.
As for Yu Shan Yang, because of the opening day of Huan Entertainment on the 10th of October, he was pre-occupied with many issues during that period. Therefore, he temporarily put aside any evil thoughts of meddling with Bai Lu. As a result, everyone had a peaceful and tranquil time for a while.
In those few days, Bai Lu had also successfully completed the Chef Grading Examination. He received a tiny green booklet, which certified him as a Junior Chef that was one out of the five national levels. Even though the small restaurant did not have such a requirement, but it would be handy in the event of another audit by the government agencies.
Moreover, there had also been a disturbing development: Bao Zi. This kid just could not put aside his worries about Sha Sha and Bai Lu living together in the same apartment. No matter what happened, he decided to camp in the living room and refused to budge. In the end, Bai Lu had no choice but to let him sleep on the sofa.
Afterward, Bao Zi's mom had come into the city to give his son a good scolding. But when she saw the newly renovated restaurant that belonged to Bai Lu, she decided to negotiate with him. "That son of mine really hates studying, and he loves to create mischief. He did not have a father, and I could not control him, so how about this? Let him work for you, and just pay him a meager salary of about $300-500 a month. The main purpose is to keep him in check. As long as he stays out of trouble, that would alleviate most of my concerns. When the kid has grown up and becomes more mature, then we would no longer need to impose upon you. If he is mischievous, feel free to trash his ass. I give you the permission so it would be totally fine. However, if he gets himself into trouble, you have to inform me, and I would take him home right away."
Bai Lu did not have a mother. When he saw Bao Zi's mom pleading with him in such a humble and lowly manner, it really sent a wave of heartache through his chest. Thus, he agreed to her conditions right away. Besides, all along Bai Lu had no bad emotions toward Bao Zi. Therefore, this new arrangement was affirmed.
Bao Zi's mom first brought him back home to settle the formal withdrawal from the school. There was also a need for additional preparations. After all, this was still considered relocation to a faraway place.
What Bai Lu had considered initially was simply to assign Bao Zi to the Eighteen High School, so that he and Sha Sha would be classmates. To him, herding a single sheep or two sheep were the same thing. The only problem was that Bao Zi's academic grades were horrendously bad. Even after adding the scores of five different subjects together, he would have only accumulated more than 90 marks. Because the full marks for a single subject were already 150, it was natural that the Eighteen High-school would not be willing to accept such a student.
Bao Zi was 17 years old, two years older than Sha Sha and only three years younger than Bai Lu. However, based on his facial appearance, it would seem like he was at least seven years younger than Bai Lu. It couldn't be helped. The environmental conditions in the desert were too 'nourishing,' which was particularly effective in boosting early-ripening. This was the reason why Bai Lu looked more mature than other people who were around his actual age. As a result, Bao Zi's mom was convinced of his seniority and firmly demanded Bao Zi to address Bai Lu as 'Uncle.'
Bai Lu, who was emotionally hurt by this, had no choice but to flee in distress.
With the sudden intrusion of Bao Zi, Bai Lu had to seriously consider the possibility of buying a new house. It ignited the desire within himself to retrieve a couple more gold bricks.
In the midst of his wild imagination, the day of National Celebrations has begun.
Early in the morning, the newly renovated Great 5-Star Restaurant was re-opened for business. Aside from the apparent cleanliness and beautiful design, the simple yet elegant decor directly elevated the level of the restaurant by a few grades. The open style kitchen gave the assurance of food safety and hygiene to the customers. It also inspired a welcoming feeling that resembled the open bar counter concept in Japanese restaurants. However, it was quickly apparent that this place served food which was much more impressive compared to Japanese cuisine.
As soon as the front door was opened, there was a stream of people who came to deliver flower baskets, which ended up being messily squished together. Gao Yuan, He San Qing, Si Ma Zhi, Duckie, Lin Zi, Ding Ding, Grandpa Gao each delivered a pair of baskets. While Tong An Quan, Huang Feng, and friends pooled their money together to share a basket. As for Le Miao Miao and her beautiful girlfriends, they all were wearing the same short Qi Pao dress and volunteered as temporary waitresses. Thus, Bao Zi and Sha Sha had nothing else to do.
Witnessing the joyous occasion, the few shop owners who rented the apartments from Wang Mou Dun also came over to express their congratulations. This included the boss of the dumpling store, Li Huang, and even the woman who had an unknown relationship with Wang Mou Dun, Wang Ruo Mei.
Seizing the opportunity, Wang Ruo Mei pulled Bai Lu to a corner and interrogated him. "When is your Uncle coming back?"
Bai Lu obviously had no clue at all.
After the grand renovations of the restaurant, the master bedroom and the counter was removed. It made the place look much more spacious. However, due to Bai Lu's unconventional style of renovations, the number of tables and seats remained more or less the same. That was why, at this moment, the entire restaurant was already filled up with customers.
Bai Lu was touched by this. As he had just arrived in the Northern City just a few days ago, he never would have expected to meet so many people in less than a month. Furthermore, each one of them really supported him by taking the initiative to show up for the grand opening. Therefore, he jubilantly went into the kitchen to prepare the food for lunch service.
Gao Yuan spoked to Bai Lu through the enormous glass window. "Dude, I am warning you in advance. I came here today with the intention to take advantage of you. If you are capable, then you can choose not to do it."
Bai Lu did not want to respond. He thought, "Against such a person with split personalities, it really makes one feel helpless to do anything."
As midday approached, He San Qing and Duckie brought a dozen or more strings of firecrackers, along with more than 20 fireworks. They launched them chaotically and noisily which triggered many car alarms; It had successfully drawn the attention of cops.
Sun Min, who was assigned the duty to work during this National Holidays, was being a little bit emotional. As soon as she heard that the Great 5-Star Restaurant was causing trouble again, she angrily rushed to the scene immediately.
The moment that she saw the grand opening of the restaurant, Sun Min suppressed her temper. As the tradition goes, during the prosperous celebration of opening a business, one must pay careful attention to maintain the good luck for others. Not even a police officer should be forcefully breaking taboos and stirring up bad omens right?
When she was in the police academy, the instructor always emphasized that the law should not disregard social relationships. This was very relevant to her as she was a police officer that was in charge of security in a local community. How could there be no family disputes in these places? Even an honest and upright official will have difficulty in resolving such family disputes. As long as the problem was not a big deal or a severe case of a vile nature, and if it can be successfully resolved, then the usual standard procedure would be to use a gentler approach to solve the issue. Like for example, settling the dispute privately in the case of a car accident.
That was why, even though Sun Min could not see eye to eye with Bai Lu, under this joyous occasion, she restrained herself from rushing into the restaurant to stop the commotion. All she did was to urge the few young masters to stop causing a rowdy mess outside the restaurant.
As expected, this bunch of young masters would not heed the warning of a low ranking police officer. One by one, they advanced towards her with mischievous smiles, intending to take liberties with this attractive policewoman. Luckily, Gao Yuan saw what was about to happen, and he chucked two brooms over. "Sweep the floor."
Then he coaxed Sun Min politely and assured her that they would not release any more firecrackers. She left the place with a satisfied feeling.
There were indeed quite a number of guests that came here today. The bunch of young masters, each bringing a couple of their own friends to support the restaurant. With so many men and women tightly packed together on both the interior and exterior of the restaurant, it had attracted the attention of the passing pedestrians.
Their arrival naturally signaled the presence of luxurious cars blocking the middle of the road. Witnessing such a grandiose scene with all sorts of different magnificent sports cars, the residents in the area started to speculate about the owner of the restaurant that had such a cheesy and old-fashioned name. They were contemplating about the level of connections and the amount of solid backing that the owner had.
Such a commotion persisted all the way into the night because the bunch of rich fellows inside the restaurant refused to leave.
After lunch, He San Qing and friends had decided to not go anywhere else. Instead, they occupied the tables and started playing Mahjong. They followed Gao Yuan's plan: "We have to recoup our losses on the flower baskets." They stayed in the restaurant all day so that they could eat dinner again. Le Miao Miao and her beautiful friends just wanted to have fun, and they were reluctant to go back to school. Plus He San Qing also mentioned that they would go out to party at night. Thus the group of fun-loving school girls was more than willing to stay behind.
Only Grandpa Gao had decided to go back home early, but he also did not forget to remind Gao Yuan. "Bring back dinner tonight."
Seeing how this bunch of people refused to leave, Bai Lu chose to ignore them altogether. He brought Sha Sha and Bao Zi back home to rest. Since Ding Ding was a celebrity, she was concerned about her public image; thus she followed them back.
When they returned back to the restaurant at night, it was full of people as usual. It was only the first day of re-opening for the business, and yet there were already people queueing outside the door for a meal.
As soon as Bai Lu saw the crowd, he thought, "Damn it! Am I supposed to work all the way until midnight today?"
Nonetheless, it was the first day of business so he could not chase away the customers. Bai Lu went into the restaurant and started working begrudgingly. He worked all the way past 9pm until all the food were gone which signaled the end of dinner service for the customers.
After the restaurant doors were closed, He San Qing led the group to go out dancing and singing. The group of beautiful ladies and handsome men, along with the impressive line up of cars, made He San Qing looked very imposing indeed. Having worked the entire day, Bai Lu was a little exhausted, so he gave an excuse to return home earlier.
While eating breakfast the next day morning, he suddenly remembered an event, which was the Top Chef Contest that he had registered in the middle of last month. The preliminary rounds for the contest will be held on the 8th of October this month, which was just six days away. He was afraid that he would forget so he took a pen and made a marking on the calendar. After all, he did spend a sizeable sum of money for the registration. If he did not give it a go, it would be a real waste of money.
The preliminary rounds were held on the 8th of October. Two days later, the list of final contestants will be released. Then the finals for the Top Chef Contest will be held in the Chef Culinary School on the 20th of October.
Therefore, he also made a marking on the 20th as he believed that he would make it past the preliminary rounds easily.
Seeing how cautiously Bai Lu was marking the calendar, Sha Sha asked, "Your birthday?"
Bai Lu had bought her many gifts and also took good care of her, so Sha Sha wanted to repay him as much as she can.
Bai Lu said, "Nope."
Ding Ding, who was eating breakfast together with them, casually asked him, "What is that?"
Bai Lu did not answer, he just looked at Bao Zi who was silent the whole time. He thought, "Bao Zi's mom had entrusted him to me. She had mentioned that it would be enough to give Bao Zi a measly salary of around $300-500 a month. However, in the Northern City, with a sum of $300-500? As a 17-year-old guy, even if he had $1k, it would still not be enough to spend, what good would $300-500 do?"
After pondering for a while, he asked Bao Zi, "What do you want to do in the future?"
Bao Zi looked up at him. After pausing for a moment, he said, "Are you chasing me away already?"
Bai Lu became depressed. "How could you be harder to deal with than Gao Yuan?"
Ding Ding laughed, and she asked, "Is Gao Yuan really that hard to please? Doesn't seem like that to me. I think he is rather easy to live with."
Zhang Sha Sha looked up at Bai Lu, with a face full of doubt. She wanted to know if he really wanted to chase Bao Zi away.
Bai Lu angrily said, "I already chased you away more than 10 days ago, but have you ever left?"
Bao Zi thought about it, "Oh yes. If he tries to chase me away, I could just choose not to leave. What could he do about it?" Therefore, he asked Bai Lu, "So why did you ask me about what I wanted to do in the future?"
"It is really tiring to talk to you! What I meant was whether you are serious about working as a waiter for the rest of your life?"
"NO! Definitely not! I want to make big money, and to start a business—"
"Hold it, that's enough. I am not asking you anymore. During this period of holidays for Sha Sha, you and Sha Sha shall work together as the service crew; When Sha Sha goes back to school, you will stay behind and continue to work alone. I will get some training manuals for a chef. If you are interested, then you can learn, if you are not then just drop it. And also, be more diligent every day and wash your dirty feet and socks! Since you are sleeping in the living room, do you wish to stink Sha Sha to death?" Bai Lu was getting angrier the more he spoke. He included an impromptu lesson to educate him on his bad hygiene practices.
However, for a single man like Bao Zi, it was completely normal to be unhygienic. Mainly since he was just a 17-year-old guy. Who would be willing to wash their own socks at that age?