Free Web NovelChapter 5: Chapter 5: There’s a Noodle Shop in 9 Dragons Gorge?
’I should get some business today, too.’
’Time to catch some fish. Once I’m done, I can go back and open the restaurant.’
Taking his winnowing basket, he waded barefoot into the stream.
There were lots of stream stone-striped fish here.
The scientific name for the stream stone-striped fish is *Acrossocheilus fasciatus*. They aren’t large, but they’re delicious.
A winnowing basket is a very useful tool for catching fish in a stream like this.
You sink the basket into the water and slowly move it toward the fish. Once it’s underneath them, you quickly lift it out of the water.
And just like that, the fish are in the basket.
Li You got to work.
Soon, the first stream stone-striped fish was flopping around in his basket.
This type of fish had beautiful, zebra-like stripes on its body.
Li You grabbed it and put it in his bucket.
"Ingredient: Stream Stone-Striped Fish.
Quality: Medium."
’Medium quality, same as those two crucian carp from last time.’
’Most of the fish in this gorge are probably medium quality.’
He continued.
After a while, he had caught over a dozen.
Just then, the group of tourists walked over.
It was two men and three women, all young.
They must have seen him catching fish and been drawn over by the sight.
"Wow, you can catch fish like that? It looks so interesting," one of the women said.
"What kind of fish are those? They’re so small," said another.
"I think those are stream stone-striped fish. They’re small, but really tasty. I’ve seen them online. Hey man, are these stream stone-striped fish?" a tall guy asked.
Li You nodded. "They are."
The tall guy secretly glanced at the two women who had just spoken. Seeing the looks of realization on their faces, he was thrilled and added, "Man, you even brought fishing gear with you on your trip?"
Li You smiled. "I came here specifically to fish. I live here. Did you see a restaurant at the entrance to the gorge? I’m the owner."
Hearing this, the group was quite surprised.
"You mean the Mountain Restaurant? We saw it! Is it open for business?" the tall guy asked.
Li You said, "It is! If you get hungry around noon, you’re welcome to stop by. I’m only selling Yangchun Noodles for now, but they’re delicious."
"Alright. We’ll see. We brought our own packed food," the tall guy replied.
Li You nodded. He knew the guy was just being polite, so he didn’t press the issue.
He went back to fishing. Another ten or so would be enough.
The group watched for a little while longer before moving on.
Before long, Li You had caught another ten or so stream stone-striped fish.
That was enough.
Time to pack up and head back to the restaurant.
Back at the restaurant, Li You started cleaning the fish.
He had to remove all the roe.
This was because the roe of the stream stone-striped fish is poisonous. In severe cases, eating it could be fatal.
’Good food is great, but you have to know the proper way to cook it.’
After cleaning them, he rinsed them off and set them aside to cook for lunch.
After that, Li You started making noodles again.
Business was slow, and he still had plenty of noodles left from yesterday. But it was precisely because business was slow that he needed to make more noodles to have on hand.
He had the Storage Pavilion, where noodles would stay perfectly fresh, just as if they were newly made.
This meant he could stockpile a large amount of them.
He began kneading the dough.
It was physical work, but there was something satisfying about repeatedly kneading the soft dough in his hands.
...
By the time he finished making the noodles, it was already noon.
Li You walked out the door and lay back in his rocking chair, waiting for the young people to come for noodles.
Even though the tall guy had just been making polite conversation earlier and hadn’t really intended to come eat, he had most likely changed his mind by now.
No matter how good packed food was, it couldn’t compare to a steaming hot bowl of noodles.
If there weren’t any noodles for sale, that would be one thing.
But since there were, there was no reason not to come eat.
A short while later, he indeed saw the figures of the young people approaching.
Li You’s eyes lit up. ’I was right.’
...
Li You was, in fact, right.
The group of young people hadn’t originally planned on getting noodles.
But as noon approached, they started to think, ’Since there are noodles for sale here, why should we eat our packed food?’
The noodles the young owner was selling might not be anything special, but they probably wouldn’t be bad either.
It would definitely be better than eating their dry rations.
"Oh, right, didn’t the owner say he was selling Yangchun Noodles?" said the tall guy.
"I think so. But aren’t Yangchun Noodles mainly popular in the Jiangnan region? They aren’t really a thing here," said the other guy, who had a crew cut.
The tall guy said, "I had Yangchun Noodles once in Zhejiang Province, and they were pretty good. I just wonder if this young owner’s version is authentic."
"Who cares if it’s authentic? As long as it doesn’t taste too bad, it’s fine," one of the women said.
"That’s true," the tall guy nodded.
"Why do you think the owner opened a restaurant all the way out here? Can he even get any business?"
"Who knows? Maybe it’s just to sell to tourists like us."
"But not many people come here, right? The scenery is gorgeous, but it’s just too far from the county seat. How much money could he possibly make from this?"
"No idea. It’s hard to understand, that’s for sure."
"..."
The group were all colleagues from a trading company in the county seat.
It was the weekend, so they had come out here together for fun.
The tall guy was named Liu Xu, and the guy with the crew cut was Xie Yunfei.
The three women were Xiao Yue, Zhang Rui’Er, and Ning Wan.
The group chatted about Li You’s restaurant all the way to the entrance.
Liu Xu smiled. "Boss, we’re here."
Li You had already gotten up from his rocking chair and smiled back. "Welcome! Please, have a seat inside."
Just then, they all saw the "Today’s Special" sign.
A large bowl was 12 yuan, and a small one was 9. The prices were quite normal.
’This owner is decent, not overcharging.’
They entered the restaurant and found a place to sit.
The two men ordered large bowls, and the three women ordered small ones.
Li You told them it would be just a moment and went into the kitchen. freeweɓnovel.cѳm
A short time later, five bowls of Yangchun Noodles were ready.
He served them to his customers.
As they looked at the noodles before them, their eyes widened in disbelief.
’It looks so delicious!’
It smelled amazing, too.
This was something they had never expected.
’Could what the owner said before be true? Are his noodles really that good?’
’We have to try it.’
The five of them couldn’t wait to dig in.
After the first bite, their faces were filled with even more astonishment.
It was unbelievably delicious.
Even better than they had imagined.
They had only hoped it wouldn’t be too bad. They never thought it would be this good.
’Are Yangchun Noodles supposed to be this delicious?’
"Were the Yangchun Noodles you had in Zhejiang Province this good?" Xie Yunfei asked Liu Xu.
Liu Xu replied, "Not even close. These are way better."
Xie Yunfei said, "And here I thought all Yangchun Noodles were this good. So, does that mean this owner is just an amazing cook?"
Liu Xu nodded. Then he stopped talking and focused on his noodles.
Xie Yunfei fell silent as well, also focusing on his food.
It was the same for the three women.
They normally weren’t huge fans of noodles.
But today was an exception. freewebnσvel.cѳm
If they had eaten noodles this delicious sooner, they would have fallen in love with them long ago.
None of them had ever had noodles so incredibly tasty.
Soon, they had all finished their noodles, drinking even the last drop of broth.
They were completely satisfied.
The three women even took out their phones, snapped a picture of their empty noodle bowls, and posted it to their WeChat Moments.
They should have taken a picture from the start. But at the time, they were only thinking about how good it might taste and completely forgot about taking a photo for their feed.
Now, they had to make do with a picture of the empty bowls.
They added a caption: "Noodle time. Didn’t expect the noodles here to be so good. I’ve never had anything this delicious before."
They had already posted several times to their Moments that morning.
The scenery was so beautiful. Since they had made the trip all the way out here, they were definitely going to post a lot about it.
Because of this, their WeChat friends all knew they were at Jiulong Gorge today.
Many of them were waiting for updates.
Everyone wanted to see more of the beautiful scenery at Jiulong Gorge.
And then they got this post.
It was a surprise.
The surprise wasn’t that the women were raving about how good the noodles were, but that a place like Jiulong Gorge even had noodles for sale.
Their friends didn’t pay much attention to their claim of never having had such delicious noodles.
When you’re tired and hungry from a day out, everything tastes good.
But a noodle shop in Jiulong Gorge of all places?
...
