Free Web NovelChapter 6: Chapter 3: It Will Definitely Work This Time
Beef is currently 1.2 yuan a pound if you use meat coupons, but it’s incredibly hard to find. You might get lucky and find some brisket, but you can forget about getting top blade with coupons. Meanwhile, beef on the open market starts at more than double that price, at least 2.5 yuan a pound. Ribs are a similar story; you need a connection to set some aside for you.
But a sixty-cent bowl of noodles... even he would have to think twice before ordering that. A bowl of bone broth noodles from an outdoor stall only costs thirty cents. This was double the price.
But the noodles from the stalls were nowhere near as good as Zhou Yan’s. The meat was pitifully scarce—you’d be lucky to find a few specks of ground meat. Zhou Yan, on the other hand, planned to put a generous two ounces of meat in every bowl. Once they’ve tasted Zhou Yan’s noodles, any customer who loves noodles would absolutely be willing to pay a little extra.
"You’ve really got this all figured out, haven’t you?" Zhou Miao smiled, gratified. "You don’t need to go asking favors for just two pounds of beef. I’ll set it aside for you. When I head back, I’ll go have a word with Zhang the Third by the bridge and tell him to save you a pound of spare ribs every day. You can just pick them up when you get the beef."
"Deal!" Zhou Yan beamed. This was a family connection he could count on. He quickly added, "Dad, let’s be clear about this. I’m buying the beef from you, so you have to take my money."
"It’s just a few pounds of beef, between father and son..."
"No way. If you don’t, I’ll buy from someone else." Zhou Yan’s expression was resolute. If his dad gave him two pounds of beef for free every day, he wouldn’t just be working for nothing—he’d be losing money by the end of the month. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm
’Now that the beef supply was secured, he finally felt some peace of mind.’
’Zhou Yan had been a food blogger for three years and had spent another year preparing to open his own place. Opening a restaurant was the one thing he was best at.’
’The hardest part of any new venture is earning that first pot of gold. Getting from zero to one is much harder than getting from one to ten.’
’The original Zhou had managed to borrow the startup capital on his own merits and had even left him with a stable supplier. This was so much better than starting from scratch.’
"Fine, I’ll just charge you for the cost. What kind of father profits off his own son?" Zhou Miao pulled his hand from his pocket and stuffed a few crumpled one-yuan bills into Zhou Yan’s hand, lowering his voice. "Don’t let your mom know about this."
"Dad..." Zhou Yan stared at the money in his hand, his heart fluttering. In his past life, he had fought tooth and nail for every penny he earned. He’d never experienced anything like someone just pressing money into his hand.
"Brother, I have money too! You can have all of it." Zhou Momo scurried closer, her little hand fumbling in her pocket for a good while before she pulled out a crumpled five-cent coin. She handed it to Zhou Yan with great solemnity. "I want to eat noodles again next time!"
"You got it," Zhou Yan said, smiling as he closed his hand over the coin and ruffled her hair. freёwebnovel.com
Zhao Tieying came out from cleaning the kitchen, still holding the half-full bowl of minced beef topping. "Zhou Yan, what should I do with this?"
"Momo loves it. Take it home for her to eat with rice. I’ll make a fresh batch of topping tomorrow morning," Zhou Yan said.
"But it’s such good topping," Zhao Tieying said, hesitating.
"Yay! Yay!" Zhou Momo jumped up and down, overjoyed. She absolutely loved this beef.
Zhao Tieying smiled and stroked her head. "Alright, I’ll pack it up for you, you little glutton."
After handing the basket with the topping to Zhou Miao, Zhao Tieying pulled a folded handkerchief from an inner pocket of her clothes. She unfolded it to reveal a stack of bills and pressed them into Zhou Yan’s hand.
"Mom, what’s this...?" Zhou Yan was stunned.
"This is what your dad and I saved up last month. It’s thirteen yuan and forty cents in total. You take it for now for the shop’s expenses." Zhao Tieying clutched the handkerchief, a look of gratified pride on her face as she smiled at him. "Mom believes in you. I know you can make it work this time!"
