Free Web NovelChapter 33: Chapter 33: Dinner, Su Chen’s Confidence
Bai Xiaobo was no longer at the company.
Following the new work schedule Su Chen had announced, Delicious adjusted its employee hours to better suit its business operations.
Morning: 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM
Afternoon: 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM
This schedule change received unanimous praise from all employees.
Living in a relatively underdeveloped second-tier city, having a job that didn’t start until ten in the morning was a kind of bliss that only night owls could truly appreciate!
After careful consideration, Su Chen had also decided to temporarily focus their services on lunch and dinner. For now, breakfast would only consist of large pork knuckle buns and plain millet congee.
The employees could prepare the pork knuckle, onions, and other ingredients the day before. Su Chen just needed to wake up an hour earlier to make a large batch of buns.
As for lunch and dinner, the customized nature of the service also allowed for ample preparation time.
Having temporarily dealt with the company’s most urgent matters, Su Chen returned to a more leisurely pace.
He wasn’t satisfied with the six hundred and sixty yuan in revenue from lunch. At this rate, he wouldn’t even make enough to cover rent by the end of the month.
But some things couldn’t be rushed.
Su Chen leaned back in his lounge chair, basking in the sun with his eyes half-closed as he reviewed his player panel in his mind.
Player Name: Su Chen
Level: 1 (899/1000)
Skills: Stir-fry (Max Level), Steam (Max Level)
Items: None
Main Quest: Repay a Debt with Dishes (Progress 10.8%)
Side Quest: Bring Back the Dying (Progress 0.01%)
Hidden Quest: None
System Function: Gourmet Practice Room (Limited Time)
’What I thought would be an easy quest now has an infuriatingly slow progress bar.’ The repayment quest would have been far behind its current progress if not for Li Mingtao bringing people to eat.
It felt like everything was stuck in the mud again.
Su Chen pinched the bridge of his nose, preparing to enter the Gourmet Practice Room to practice his knife skills some more.
"Wumeng Mountain connects to mountains beyond, moonlight spills on Xiangshui Beach, is there anyone who can..."
His phone rang.
"Xiaobai?"
After the schedule change, the employees all chose to go home during their two-hour afternoon break.
Su Chen hadn’t expected a call at this time. ƒrēewebnovel.com
"Boss! Boss!" Bai Xiaobo’s voice was urgent. "Something’s happened!"
"Slow down," Su Chen said, sitting up from his lounge chair.
"I don’t know what’s going on, but suddenly we have tons and tons of customers!"
Even over the phone, Su Chen could feel Bai Xiaobo’s shock. "Isn’t that a good thing?"
"It is a good thing, but there are so many of them, and I’m frantically trying to reply to them all!"
Su Chen was suddenly a little confused by Xiaobai’s reaction. "Getting a lot of customers is a good thing. What are you panicking about? Just organize their requests in an orderly fashion and send me a proposal."
Bai Xiaobo sat in front of his computer at home, completely bewildered.
’Yeah, what am I panicking about?’
’Getting customers is a good thing. Why am I in such a rush?’
"Boss, I’d better head to the company now!"
Su Chen grunted in agreement and hung up.
Traffic was light in the afternoon, so Bai Xiaobo arrived at the company in just fifteen minutes. Liu Shengnan and He Shuting showed up at the same time.
"How many customers?" Su Chen was already waiting in the office area.
Bai Xiaobo caught his breath. "Right now, we have 24 confirmed customers for dinner tonight, 51 for tomorrow morning, and 76 for lunch tomorrow!"
These were the numbers he had tallied on the bus.
"Oh my god, why are so many people suddenly showing up? Shuting, did you post about our company online?" Liu Shengnan jumped up in excitement.
"No," He Shuting said, equally confused. She had rushed to the company as soon as she saw Bai Xiaobo’s private message, wondering the whole way what was going on. "I thought you guys were the ones who found the customers."
Su Chen knocked on the table. "Let Xiaobai speak first."
Bai Xiaobo nodded. "I organized the information and found that these customers all have something in common! Their meal requests are almost identical to the group that came for lunch. To sum it up, they want food that’s a good value—delicious and inexpensive!"
"Almost all of them?" Su Chen asked.
"Yep." Xiaobai opened his computer as he spoke. "I put all the customers into a spreadsheet. The similarities are obvious, and their budgets are basically in the same range."
"Go on," Su Chen prompted.
Normally, Su Chen would just need to hear Xiaobai’s proposal, but the sudden influx of so many customers was unusual. It was necessary to get more details.
"First, their mealtimes are very specific. They want to pick up their breakfast takeout before 7:50 AM. For dinner, almost all of them want to eat around 6:00 PM. Same for lunch—they want to eat right at 12:00 PM."
"Have you guys noticed something?" He Shuting said, resting her chin in her hands. "These times are just like a typical office worker’s schedule."
Liu Shengnan nodded. "Weren’t those people who ate here at lunch friends of Director Li? I watched them when they left, and they all went into the building across the street."
"Oh?" Su Chen considered a possibility. "Could it be that these people are all employees from the companies in the building across the street? If that’s the case, it actually makes a lot of sense."
Bai Xiaobo, however, wasn’t concerned about that. "Boss, here are my two proposals. Since breakfast and lunch are for tomorrow, I don’t have a proposal for them yet..."
Su Chen nodded and turned his gaze to Xiaobai’s computer.
[Average Dinner Budget: 50 yuan.]
[Proposal 1: Pickled Cabbage Fish + Eggplant and Potato Stew + Rice. The Pickled Cabbage Fish is priced at 48 yuan, half a serving of Eggplant and Potato Stew is 10 yuan per person, and rice is all-you-can-eat for 1 yuan per person. Average cost per person: 59 yuan.]
[Proposal 2: For vegetables, we can use corn kernels, shiitake mushrooms, winter melon, and eggplant. For meat, use frozen pork belly. Make one meat dish and one vegetable dish.]
Although the second proposal was a bit rough, Su Chen understood.
Xiaobai’s job was to select ingredients that fit the budget; it was up to Su Chen to decide what to cook.
Still, the first proposal was decent. It combined dishes they were already good at making into a small combo meal. With meat, vegetables, and a soup component, it wasn’t bad.
Bai Xiaobo looked at Su Chen expectantly.
"Hmm..." Su Chen thought for a moment. "How much of these ingredients do we have in stock?"
Liu Shengnan immediately chimed in. "Boss, we have 518 bags of fish fillets, about 200 jin of eggplant, 500 jin of potatoes, 300 cans of corn kernels, 400 jin of pork belly, shiitake mushrooms..."
"That’s enough," Su Chen said, waving his hand.
He already had a good idea of their inventory.
Basically, they were low on fresh produce but had plenty of dried and frozen goods. The most urgent task now was to use up the fish and fresh produce!
With every passing day, the texture and flavor of these two types of ingredients would diminish.
Su Chen paused. "The Pickled Cabbage Fish is a go. For now, take out the eggplant and potatoes."
Potatoes would keep just fine.
"Get rid of the potatoes, just use the eggplant. Rice as the staple. We’ll go with Xiaobai’s first proposal! However, prepare double the portion of all the dishes!"
Even though one dish was changed, getting the boss’s approval made Bai Xiaobo feel a surge of energy. That feeling of being useless he’d had earlier was completely swept away.
"Double?" Liu Shengnan hesitated. "Boss, won’t that be too much? I don’t mean they can’t finish it, I mean, double the portion is way over the customers’ budget. If there are leftovers..."
A competent accountant also had to know how to control costs.
But Su Chen just shook his head. "Do as I say."
Seeing everyone still sitting, Su Chen clapped his hands. "Alright, alright! You all know the procedure for the Pickled Cabbage Fish. Get the rice steaming, and start prepping the pickled cabbage and fish fillets! Get moving, everyone!"
Liu Shengnan and He Shuting were now quite skilled at preparing the pickled cabbage, their movements much quicker and more efficient than the first time.
As for Bai Xiaobo...
jin of black fish fillets were divided among eight huge stainless steel basins.
’Some things, even if you like them, can be overwhelming when you have to do too much of them!!!’
The slippery, soft, and tender feel of the fish made Bai Xiaobo take a deep breath.
’For the company, charge!’
As for Su Chen, his decision to prepare double the ingredients wasn’t made on a whim.
This time, he let his employees get busy in the kitchen while he returned to the office and settled into a comfortable reclining position.
A flash of light.
[Gourmet Practice Room Time Remaining: 7:08:33]
