Chapter 868 - 749: Everything Is Negotiable

Fu Yu took the New Year gifts he’d received back to the dorm. On the way to the back kitchen, he suddenly realized he hadn’t prepared any New Year gifts to give out himself.

Leaving aside the distant ones, at the very least he had to pay New Year’s respects to his two masters and give them some presents.

One for Zhao Meng, one for Liu Yunong, and also for Yao Shi, who’d always been helping him out—he couldn’t leave him out.

Besides that, there was Zhang Zhen over at the music restaurant, and Wang Yulong and Liu Zhangpeng at Shangshi Private Kitchen.

They were all seniors who took great care of him in daily life; he had to show a bit of his appreciation.

For the New Year, even small in-and-out gift giving would cost at least a few thousand.

Just thinking about it made his heart ache!

On top of that, he didn’t have time to go shopping. The closer it got to the holidays, the busier restaurant work became. But New Year gifts really couldn’t be delivered after the New Year; that would just be wrong.

Fu Yu calculated in his head that the next afternoon he’d simply skip eating at the restaurant, use the spare time to rush through buying the gifts, then find time to go around and deliver them one by one.

It’d be easy enough with Zhao Meng; they lived close, so once he bought the stuff he could send it over anytime.

But with Liu Yunong, their schedules never matched, so he could only try his best to go over in the afternoon.

...

That evening after work, when Fu Yu called home, he switched straight to video so his parents could see the New Year gifts he’d received.

His intention was to show off a bit to the family and let his parents share in the fun.

But once the old couple saw so many gift boxes, and heard Fu Yu say he wanted to bring them back for the New Year, they hurriedly refused.

"These gift boxes look pretty nice, son. Just use them as gifts yourself."

"What’s there to buy for our own home? Your aunt and her whole family are going to your uncle’s place for New Year. We don’t need to visit relatives here this year."

Fu Yu thought about it and agreed. These gift boxes weren’t all that practical, and carrying them on the bus home would take up space. Better to buy things they actually wanted to eat or use and mail them home by courier—saves space and doesn’t weigh as much.

However, there really wasn’t anything particularly valuable in these few boxes. Looked like he’d still have to go to the mall and pick up some extra items, then swap things around later and deliver them to each household.

Fu Yu had originally planned to go shopping the next afternoon, but when Zhao Meng heard he wanted to buy New Year’s goods to mail home, he directly approved two hours off for him the next morning.

To outsiders he just said Fu Yu was going out to buy cigarettes. No one knew what he was actually doing; everyone was busy prepping ingredients and had no time to mind anything else.

Fu Yu took a taxi first to the tobacco company, got a few cartons of cigarettes, bought several bottles of liquor, then headed over to the Department Store.

New Year gifts are basically food and drink: for those who like tea you give tea leaves; for households with elderly living together you give nutritional supplements; for couples with a good relationship you give the wife a set of cosmetics...

Fu Yu picked things out one by one according to what he knew about each person, and by then time was almost up.

He rushed back by taxi, dropped the stuff off at the dorm first, then went over to the back kitchen to join in the work.

In the afternoon he didn’t eat with the others. After saying a quick word to Zhao Meng, he grabbed the gifts and headed straight for the music restaurant.

When Zhang Zhen got the call, he came out early to wait at the door. Fu Yu handed over the gifts, and the taxi stayed parked by the roadside.

The two of them exchanged a few polite words. It was obvious Zhang Zhen was very pleasantly surprised; he hadn’t expected Fu Yu would still remember to bring him New Year gifts.

No matter the time, it’s never wrong to be generous with courtesy.

Grinning from ear to ear, Zhang Zhen took the stuff, chatted a bit more, then personally watched as Fu Yu got back into the taxi and left.

...

Leaving the music restaurant, Fu Yu detoured straight to Shangshi Private Kitchen.

He called Liu Yunong directly, made sure she was already at the restaurant, and only then felt relieved.

Right as he was about to arrive, Liu Yuqing sent a message: [Where’d you run off to? Why aren’t you in the back kitchen?]

Fu Yu hurried to reply: [I’m at your family’s restaurant. I’m planning to deliver some New Year gifts to my sister-in-law and the chefs in the back kitchen.]

Liu Yuqing quickly sent another message: [We’re all family, what’s the formality, hehe! I want to eat garlic-flavored sausage. Don’t give that gift box to anyone else—just give it to my sister!]

Fu Yu was a bit embarrassed. Were women’s instincts really this sharp?

She’d actually guessed in one shot that he was mixing and matching the gifts he’d received to give them away.

But that counted as being on the same wavelength, too.

When Fu Yu was dividing things up earlier, he’d already thought of how Zhao Meng’s little Bao’Er loved drinking milk, so he’d given that carton to Zhao Meng. In the batch for Liu Yunong, he’d added a box of hotel-style red sausage, thinking of how Liu Yuqing loved eating it.

After more than half an hour on the road, Fu Yu finally arrived at Shangshi Private Kitchen.

He had originally thought Liu Yunong would definitely be busy in the back kitchen, but unexpectedly she’d come to wait for him in the front hall early.

Fu Yu felt a bit overwhelmed by the favor and silently sighed to himself. Being treated as family really was different; his "treatment" had clearly gone up.

He hauled the big and small boxes into the restaurant, first handed over the gifts for Liu Yunong, then greeted her and went to the back kitchen to give presents separately to Wang Yulong and Liu Zhangpeng. After a long round of chit-chat, he went back out to the front hall to find Liu Yunong.

Watching Fu Yu making the rounds with his gifts, Liu Yunong smiled and gave him a bit of guidance: "Next time you’re giving gifts, don’t just go for convenience. It’s better to deliver them to people’s homes than to their workplaces. If it’s someone you really want to get close to, this is an opportunity—once you’ve stepped into their home, had a chat, maybe stayed for a meal, the relationship instantly changes."

Fu Yu was taken aback for a moment, then reacted and quickly smiled, replying, "Got it, I’ll remember. It’s mainly that things are too busy right before the New Year, and it doesn’t feel right to deliver New Year gifts after the holiday..."

Liu Yunong nodded and said with a smile, "That’s true. But actually, you can also wait until around the Lantern Festival to give gifts; it works just as well."