Chapter 134: A Lingering Ghost

Chapter 134: Chapter 134: A Lingering Ghost

Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant was as busy as ever. As usual, Xu An turned on the computer at eight o’clock, exported the back-end order data, and printed it out.

Today’s delivery orders totaled 1,963 meals, 657 cans of apple cider, and 94 jin of braised dishes.

’Looks like the Hai City Fast Food Association’s event didn’t affect me too much,’ he thought. ’I only lost about a fifth of my orders...’

After reassuring himself, Xu An sent a message to the Xu’s Fast Food rider group chat.

’Need 12 riders today. Type 1 to sign up.’

Before Xu An’s finger even left the send key, a stream of ’1’s flooded the screen.

He had to scroll up two full pages just to get back to the message he had just sent, then started counting down from the first reply.

The first was Zhu Yinghui, and the last was surprisingly Old Han. His roommate hadn’t managed to snag a spot, which was a bit ridiculous.

’@Zhu Yinghui, @..., the twelve people tagged above, please arrive on time.’

The people who weren’t tagged by Xu An all sent crying or raging emojis, two expressions that perfectly captured their current mood.

When Zhu Yinghui saw he was the first person tagged, he breathed a sigh of relief, changed his clothes, and went out to buy breakfast.

Yesterday, he had worked until 8 p.m., delivering fifty-three orders for a total of eighty-three boxed meals. Including his base pay, he had earned 61.5 yuan.

And that was from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.! Although there was a two-hour break at noon, that was barely enough time to catch his breath.

He had spent an entire day just to earn 61.5 yuan. At Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant, he could earn the same amount in just two hours!

Moreover, Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant also included lunch! Here, the most you could get was a drink of water!

「Hai City Fast Food Association」

Two staff members, responsible for assigning orders and contacting riders, were calling the riders who had worked yesterday one by one.

But after contacting more than ten people in a row, they hadn’t received a single firm commitment.

’What’s going on? Everything was fine yesterday, wasn’t it? Most of them earned a good forty or fifty yuan. That’s not a low wage!’

This situation continued until 8:05 a.m., when the riders who had just been vague all called back to confirm they were coming to deliver food today.

’As long as they’re coming, we’re good.’ The two staff members breathed a sigh of relief.

While registering the riders’ information, the two noticed that the few riders who had earned the most yesterday hadn’t shown up at all today.

「Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant」

At 10:30 a.m., when Zhu Yinghui arrived at Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant, he saw several familiar faces he had seen at the Hai City Fast Food Association yesterday. They looked at each other and smiled, everything understood without a word.

After lunch, Xu An began assigning tasks to everyone in the restaurant.

Xu Lili would be responsible for the nearest location: Hai City Library. Liang Dani would take Red Brick Creative Park, and Xu Heping would handle Xiuli Garden. Xu An himself would go to Ivy League University. Uncle Guosheng was in charge of boxed meal deliveries to Silver Star Building, while Zhang Dezhen was assigned the shopping center situated between several residential complexes.

The restaurant itself was left in the hands of Liu Daxi’s team, as well as Nanny He and her "sisters." To handle the potential surge in customers, all six of Nanny He’s "sisters" stayed behind to help, which meant they were just barely staffed enough.

After the tasks were assigned, Xu Heping, Zhang Dezhen, and Xu An set off on their electric tricycles, loaded with hundreds of boxed meals.

The others also headed to their assigned posts to wait for Uncle Guosheng to deliver their boxed meals so they could begin selling.

As the saying goes, enemies are bound to cross paths.

Xu An had just arrived at Ivy League University when he saw the huge sign for Yipin Xiang Fast Food Restaurant and Ren Peng standing at its entrance.

However, there were too many street stalls for Ren Peng to notice Xu An, nor did he imagine Xu An would come here to set up a stall. He stood at the entrance for a while, watching the vast stream of workers leaving the construction site, then turned and went back into his restaurant.

The news announced yesterday morning must have spread far and wide in just one afternoon. At the very least, a long line of stalls had already been set up at the entrance to the Ivy League University construction site.

There were twenty to thirty stalls in total, selling everything from stir-fried noodles and rice vermicelli, to fried skewers and barbecue, to all sorts of snacks and sweet soups. Xu An also saw a boxed meal stall not far from him, but it was too crowded, so he only gave it a passing glance before looking away.

He was late today; the spots near the entrance were already packed. Xu An had to pick a decent-enough empty spot and quickly set up his stall.

Xu An had seriously upgraded his setup now. His sign was no longer a whiteboard held up by bamboo poles, but a blackboard flashing with multicolored lights, making it extremely eye-catching.

The moment he held up the blackboard, several workers saw the words "Xu’s Fast Food, 8 Yuan for Three Dishes and a Soup" and started walking over.

"Boss, what dishes do you have? Is it really eight yuan per meal?"

"Yes, we have two different boxed meals. This one is the salt-baked chicken leg combo, and this one is the braised pork belly with preserved mustard greens combo."

Xu An took out two boxed meals from a styrofoam container and opened them for display. One contained a tender, yellow, and savory salt-baked chicken leg. The other held the braised pork belly with preserved mustard greens; the layers of pork belly were distinct, melt-in-your-mouth tender, and the meat jiggled slightly with Xu An’s movement.

"Xu’s Fast Food has three locations in Hai City, with daily sales of up to three thousand meals. Most of our customers are office workers."

’They have actual storefronts! Even those people enjoying the AC in their office buildings eat this food!’

Several workers exchanged a look, and each pulled out a ten-yuan bill to hand to Xu An.

As those few workers left, more workers poured out of the construction site, flowing toward the street stalls at the entrance and the various fast-food restaurants across the street.

The stalls with the most customers were generally the ones that could fill a stomach, like those selling stir-fried rice and noodles, malatang, noodle soup, and boxed meals. These places were swamped with people.

The cheap yet substantial boxed meals from Xu’s Fast Food naturally became a huge hit with the workers. For the first time in a while, Xu An experienced the feeling he used to have when he had his stall at the Zijing Garden construction site—he was so busy taking money that his hands went soft.

The Xu’s Fast Food sign was very eye-catching, and the stall had a lot of customers, so it quickly caught Ren Peng’s attention.

He stood at the entrance of his own restaurant, squinting in that direction.

’Xu’s Fast Food?’

’Is it the same restaurant, or just a coincidence?’

Driven by curiosity, Ren Peng crossed the street, pushed through the dense crowd, and arrived at the small stall with the "Xu’s Fast Food" sign held high. He immediately spotted Xu An busy behind the stall.

’Damn it! Why is this guy like a ghost I can’t shake? I run into him everywhere I go!’

Just then, Xu An also saw Ren Peng and flashed him a picture-perfect, eight-toothed smile. "Boss Ren, long time no see! Your fast-food association is doing great. My business has plummeted, so I had to come out here and set up a stall to make some money. Otherwise, I won’t even be able to pay my employees!"

A person doesn’t know themselves best; often, it’s their enemy who knows them best.

In less than half a month, Ren Peng had clashed with Xu An several times and had been defeated every single time.

Furthermore, by copying the business model of Xu’s Fast Food, he had actually achieved a major victory among more than thirty other restaurants. All this left him with a deep impression of Xu An and a surprisingly thorough understanding of him.

As for Xu An’s claim about not being able to pay salaries, he didn’t believe a single word of it.

For one thing, almost the entire staff of Aisha Clothing Company ordered from Xu’s Fast Food. That alone was nearly three hundred meals a day, to say nothing of all the others.

But Ren Peng had no intention of taking Xu An’s bait, nor did he plan to get into a real argument with him.

After the two exchanged a few barbs disguised as pleasantries, Ren Peng returned to Yipin Xiang Fast Food Restaurant, lost in thought.

’I feel like I’ve learned something new again,’ he thought. ’Young people really are full of ideas, so quick-witted!’

Not long after Ren Peng left, a black sedan slowly drove up to the entrance of the Ivy League University construction site. The window rolled down halfway, revealing a pair of narrow eyes.

These narrow eyes first looked at the huge sign of Yipin Xiang Fast Food Restaurant, studying it for three seconds before slowly turning away, their gaze searching the entrance of the construction site.

"Xu’s Fast Food... so they have a stall here, too!"

Then, his gaze shifted to another boxed meal stall further away. The stall was exquisitely set up, and even more exquisite was the logo printed on its tablecloth: Brocade Hotel.

「At the entrance of the large commercial district construction site owned by Xuguang Real Estate.」

Zhang Dezhen had left his mountain village in his teens to make his way in the world. He had worked in basically every trade imaginable, so he had no hang-ups about setting up a stall to sell boxed meals; it came to him as naturally as breathing.

The shopping center was still under construction, and the surrounding area was filled with either office buildings or expensive residential districts. There were very few places that were cheap, delicious, and offered large portions.

With the sudden cancellation of the construction site’s cafeteria, everyone was running around like headless chickens.

Luckily, the news spread quickly, and the entrance to the site was now filled with all kinds of food stalls, barely able to meet everyone’s lunch needs.

The eight-yuan meal from Xu’s Fast Food, with its three dishes and a soup, naturally became the most popular vendor of them all.

The one hundred boxed meals Zhang Dezhen was in charge of selling were sold out in less than an hour.

Just as Zhang Dezhen was packing up, planning to rest for a bit while waiting for Xu Guosheng to pick him up and take him back to the restaurant, he saw two familiar figures emerge from a small alley. They were wearing aprons with the words "Xingyue Restaurant" on them.

He recognized them as two of the men who had joined Xu’s Fast Food as riders at the same time he did.

The two of them were very surprised to see Zhang Dezhen here, and even more so that he was running a stall.

"Brother Zhang, aren’t you the braised-dish chef at Xu’s Fast Food? What are you doing running a stall out here? Did you quit to start your own business?"

"No, no." Zhang Dezhen waved his hands dismissively. "The restaurant is just short-staffed, so I came out to help by running a stall and selling some boxed meals."

"Running a stall to sell boxed meals?" the man said, glancing at the construction site behind Zhang Dezhen. He understood instantly. "So you’re working two jobs now. They’d better be giving you a raise for that, right?"

"Nah, it’s nothing. I don’t have that much to do anyway, so it’s no big deal to come out and help." Zhang Dezhen didn’t think much of it. He usually just prepared over a hundred pounds of braised dishes, and he would be completely done by around 10 a.m. after starting at 6 a.m. The rest of the time, he was just doing odd jobs, so bored he was going stir-crazy. He felt more at ease coming out to run a stall like this.

"Brother Zhang, you have to bring it up with the boss! With your family’s situation..."

The other man tugged at the one with the big mouth and said with an apologetic smile, "Brother Zhang, you’re busy. We’ve got things to do, so we’ll get going. Let’s talk next time."

With that, the two left, half-pulling, half-dragging each other away. Zhang Dezhen could overhear their hushed conversation.

"Why’d you pull me away? Wasn’t I telling the truth!"

"His salary is way higher than yours. He doesn’t need you sticking your nose in his business. Just worry about yourself."

"..."

Zhang Dezhen looked away and sat back down in the shade of a tree, taking off his straw hat to fan himself.

’Now isn’t a good time to ask for a raise,’ he thought. ’I’ll wait. I’ll just wait a bit longer.’