Cheng Su and Chunhua were pulling Hualing forcefully, while persuading her, "Let’s talk this out, don’t be like this."
There, in front of everyone, Hualing had latched onto him, tearing and hitting. Chen Shouwang, red-faced and ears burning with shame, dragged Hualing into the room and slammed the door shut.
Cheng Su and Chunhua exchanged a glance and shook their heads, saying, "I have to get busy, still need to go to the restaurant."
After cooking breakfast in the kitchen and passing by Hualing’s room, they could still hear her crying, along with the muffled sound of an argument.
No one knew what they were arguing about, but since Chen Shouwang hadn’t come home all night, he was at a disadvantage. After all, he was the man who had caused someone to worry and be scared all night.
Returning to the restaurant after breakfast, Old Song and his son were already waiting. Once He Yue arrived, Cheng Su introduced them and gave a motivational speech about how colleagues should help one another and how unity is strength, before everyone went off to their tasks.
"Old Song, we are only serving lunch now because we’re short-staffed. If we have enough hands, I’m planning to add a dinner service later on to build up our restaurant’s popularity and increase our reputation. What do you think of this proposal?" Cheng Su shared her idea with Old Song.
Old Song nodded, saying, "If the business is good, why not? However, I think for lunch, most of our customers are from nearby factories or schools, and there probably won’t be many wanting fast food after work in the afternoon. We can focus on stir-fry dishes instead, and make less of the fast food to save on costs."
As soon as Cheng Su heard this, she knew she had truly found the right person, and smiled, "Great minds think alike, that’s exactly what I thought."
Old Song smiled, putting on his white chef’s coat and hat, "In that case, let’s start preparing for lunch."
"Not so fast, let them wash and chop the vegetables first. Shall we finalize the menu first?" Cheng Su called over Qiulan and had her take Song Xiaojang to do prep work in the kitchen.
"Here, you are a blank slate, and everyone is your senior. You should learn well and learn with your heart," Old Song patted his son’s shoulder.
Song Xiaojang nodded somewhat dejectedly.
Sitting in the yard on chairs, Cheng Su pulled out the menu, "This is the menu I’ve settled on. To keep things fresh, we basically change it every day in a rotation. The à la carte will also have special dishes set daily. Take a look, is there anything you’d like to change or any fresh dishes you want to add?"
Old Song took the menu and looked over it carefully. Indeed, as Cheng Su had said, there was a variety of dishes and they didn’t repeat daily, rotating through all the dishes before restarting the cycle. The complimentary soup was somewhat monotonous, always stock-based, either winter melon soup, seaweed egg drop soup, tomato and egg, or various kinds of sweet soups, etc.
However, since it was complimentary, simplicity was not a major issue, so Old Song overlooked this aspect.
"The menu is quite populist. How about I add a few of Old Song’s specialty dishes to the made-to-order section?" Old Song suggested.
Cheng Su’s eyes lit up—this was exactly what she had been waiting to hear, and she laughed, "That would be great. Just mind that, since I used to be the sole chef, after they get used to your specialties, they are going to want only you in the kitchen!"
Old Song chuckled, "I’m here to work, no matter how hard it is. I just hope people will appreciate it."
"A gem will always shine, and a good horse will find its Bole. Rest assured," Cheng Su said with a smile.
"I hope so!"