Food: Selling Boxed Meals at a Construction Site

Chapter 53: Chapter 53: I Can Make This Dish

The next morning at 4:57, Zhou Qi arrived right on time outside Xu An’s courtyard. The sight of Liang Dani squatting by the gate startled him so much that he nearly fell off his vehicle.

It took him a moment to remember that Xu An had mentioned another employee would be coming in the morning; he had forgotten in his rush to get there.

Liang Dani, on the other hand, didn’t know Xu An had hired more help. The moment she saw Zhou Qi, a surge of insecurity washed over her.

’Have I been slacking off recently? Is the boss unhappy with my work? Is he going to fire me?’

At this thought, Liang Dani’s gaze on Zhou Qi turned suspicious.

Meanwhile, Zhou Qi was still recovering from the shock and didn’t notice her expression. He was too caught up in his own first-day jitters.

The alarm went off and was silenced. A knock sounded at the door, and it was opened. A new, beautiful day began!

Xu An soon noticed that Liang Dani was working with unusual zeal today.

He was about to ask Xu Heping to bring in some firewood, but before the words even left his mouth, Liang Dani anticipated his need and scurried to carry two large bundles into the kitchen.

He had just called out Zhou Qi’s name, not yet having said why, when Liang Dani dashed over, her eyes fixed on him with fierce intensity.

...

Even someone as unobservant as Xu An could tell something was off.

When Liang Dani once again reacted before anyone else, Xu An finally couldn’t hold back any longer and called her over. "Da Ni, come here for a moment."

Liang Dani followed Xu An to a corner of the courtyard, her mind completely blank except for a looping reel of ’This is it’ and ’I’m so fired.’ For a moment, she couldn’t even think straight.

"Da Ni, is something on your mind?"

Still unable to think clearly, Liang Dani just shook her head numbly.

"Are you sure nothing’s wrong? You seem a little off today."

Hearing those three words—"a little off"—alarm bells went off in Liang Dani’s head, and her thoughts snapped into focus. "Boss, are you satisfied with my work or not?"

As her boss, Xu An’s first thought upon hearing this was that she was asking for a raise.

Without waiting for Xu An to answer, she continued, her voice thick with grievance, "Boss, if there’s anything you’re unhappy with, you can just tell me. I can change!"

’Unhappy with what?’

Xu An was a bit confused by her words. Then he noticed her gaze kept darting towards the kitchen.

Following her line of sight, he saw Zhou Qi.

’Ah, I get it now. Looks like Da Ni thinks Zhou Qi is here to take her job.’

Not sure whether to laugh or cry, Xu An explained the situation. It was only then that it dawned on Liang Dani that Xu An had leased a storefront and was planning to open a proper shop. A wave of excitement washed over her, quickly followed by anxiety. "Boss," she asked nervously, "when you open the shop... will you still need me?"

"Of course. As long as you want to work here, you’ll have a job," Xu An agreed without hesitation. After all, Liang Dani was a quick worker with a good attitude, and employees like that are hard to find.

"Will there be a contract?"

"We will!"

Finally satisfied by Xu An’s guarantee, Liang Dani went back to work in the kitchen.

This time, she stopped trying to do everyone else’s jobs and even started chatting and laughing with Zhou Qi.

Her sudden change of heart left Zhou Qi feeling both flattered and bewildered.

Even though Xu An knew Zhou Qi was destined to become the owner and head chef of a popular restaurant, he had no idea what his current skill level was. He couldn’t just hand over all the cooking to him right from the get-go.

Today, Zhou Qi’s main task was to cook a single vegetarian dish: stir-fried tomatoes and eggs.

Zhou Qi breathed a sigh of relief when he was given the task.

He had been helping everyone with prep work ever since he’d arrived, and as he did, he realized that some of the dishes were ones he’d never made before. A wave of anxiety hit him; he was terrified the boss would ask him to cook something he didn’t know how to.

’I applied for the position of chef! A chef who can’t even cook? How embarrassing would that be!’

Thankfully, the task assigned to him was stir-fried tomatoes and eggs—a dish he knew how to make.

Wiping a bead of nervous sweat from his brow, Zhou Qi stood before the gas stove Xu An had jury-rigged the previous afternoon, grabbed a spatula, and began to cook.

If Xu An’s cooking style was simple and unpretentious, Zhou Qi’s was a flurry of flamboyant motion.

Flames leaped three feet into the air. The heavy iron wok seemed to come alive in Zhou Qi’s hands, flipping and tumbling over the fire as his spatula moved in a blur, leaving afterimages in its wake.

Every so often, the tomatoes and eggs would be tossed high into the air, tracing a perfect arc before falling back into the wok.

If Zhou Qi was making one or two servings, Xu An would not have been surprised.

But Zhou Qi was making a batch for forty to fifty people. With the wok, the total weight was over twenty-five pounds, yet he handled it as if it were nothing, tossing it around with ease.

’It’s like watching something straight out of *Iron Chef*. His wok skills are truly outstanding!’

Although to Xu An and the others, Zhou Qi’s flashy moves looked effortless and impressive, the truth was that Zhou Qi was putting every ounce of his strength and skill into the performance.

When he saw everyone staring at him, their faces blank and unresponsive, Zhou Qi started to panic.

’Clap, you guys! Shouldn’t they be applauding and praising how amazing I am right now? Why are they all just standing there, completely stunned?’

Just then, Xu Kang and Xu Le snapped out of their shock. CLAP, CLAP, CLAP! They burst into thunderous applause.

Finally satisfied, Zhou Qi added the seasonings to the dish and plated it.

For the next two batches, he cooked much more conventionally, with only an occasional flip of the wok. He didn’t put on a show like he did with the first batch; he no longer had the energy for it anyway.

Once the dish was ready, Xu An was the first to taste it.

’Mm. As expected of a professional chef—and the future head chef of a hit restaurant, no less. His skills are excellent. About on par with my own.’

Xu An mentally gave Zhou Qi a thumbs-up.

Afterward, Zhou Qi helped everyone pack the meals into lunch boxes. After they ate their own lunch, he headed home for the day, while Xu An and the other two were heading out to start their shift.

Today’s order was thirty meals for Zijing Garden and one hundred fifty for the Hai City Library.

「In the conference room of the real estate company behind the Zijing Garden project.」

The logistics department was holding a meeting to discuss how to handle lunches and dinners for the Zijing Garden workers going forward.

"Let’s just bring in another cafeteria contractor. We’ll just have to increase our oversight this time to make sure there are no issues."

"Our oversight wasn’t lax before, and look what happened. It fell apart because of corruption from within. I still can’t believe they managed to pull that absurd A-B contract scheme on us."

"What if we find a cheaper hotel to supply daily boxed lunches? The arrangement we’ve had for the past two days hasn’t been bad. If a problem comes up, it’s immediately traceable."

"Our meal budget is only eight yuan per person. The cheapest boxed meal from a hotel is at least ten. The meals from the last two days have been way over budget."

"Besides, the foremen are reporting that the current boxed lunches aren’t filling enough for the workers. If we were providing them ourselves, we’d have to increase the portions."

The meeting fell into silence.

"What if..." someone suddenly suggested in a low voice, "we just give the meal subsidy directly to the workers? Let them decide what to eat. That way, if any problems come up, it’ll have nothing to do with us."

"Nonsense."

"Absolutely not."

...

The suggestion was immediately met with several sharp rebukes. The speaker silently shrank back into their seat and said no more.

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