Chapter 399 - 159: A King Player in the Silver League?

Chapter 399: Chapter 159: A King Player in the Silver League?

Liu Shengnan excitedly opened the insulated container, then froze for a few seconds. "Boss, did you get it wrong?"

"Get what wrong?" Su Chen was chatting with two of the chefs about the athletes’ dinner arrangements.

"The new dish you mentioned. Did you get it wrong? There’s nothing in the insulated container."

"Huh?" Su Chen emerged from the group, strode over, and leaned down next to Liu Shengnan to look into the container. "Where’s my fried rice?"

Fried rice?

Zhang the Second asked, "Is your new dish Yangzhou Fried Rice?"

In his eyes, only a famous delicacy like Yangzhou Fried Rice was worthy of being made by Boss Su!

"Yangzhou Fried Rice is the good stuff. I had a 128-yuan plate when I was in Yangzhou, and it really hit the spot!" Shi Qi chimed in.

Su Chen scratched his head. ’Is this really a question of *what kind* of fried rice it was?’

’The problem now is, where’s my egg fried rice?’

He’d brought so many people up here to eat, only to find the kitchen completely empty. It was squeaky clean, which was more than a little embarrassing.

Straightening up, Su Chen looked around the sink area.

"Looks like our suspect is an amateur. Who steals a meal and then washes the bowl?"

"Not only the bowl, they washed the wok, too. If I’m not mistaken..."

Su Chen sighed, looked up, and scanned the large group of people standing by the door. "Where’s Zhang Li?"

He Shuting said, "I sent Zhang Li up to find you a little while ago, but the thing is..."

"That’s right!" Liu Shengnan also realized something was off. "Zhang Li came up to find you, and you came down not long after. Then we came up and didn’t run into her, and now the food’s gone. It must have been her!"

Su Chen was speechless. "Forget it. If that’s the case, I’ll just have to try again tonight. But I’m genuinely curious, did Zhang Li really eat that entire wok of fried rice by herself?"

"Let’s go! I’m going to go ask her how that fried rice tasted!" He Shuting said indignantly.

’I can’t believe Zhang Li would do something like this!’

’She found something delicious and didn’t even call me? Are we still the Crab-Slaying Sisters or not?’

The group trooped back down from the nineteenth floor to the second. After entering the cafeteria, they found her at a table near the kitchen.

Zhang Li was fast asleep, leaning against the back of her chair. Her little short legs, unable to reach the floor, were dangling and swinging slowly back and forth.

"Ah... forget it. Aunt Fang, please cook some extra rice at noon. Leave some leftovers, and I’ll make another batch for everyone tonight."

Only after Su Chen said this did the others suppress the urge to go over and give Xiaozhangli a good thrashing.

...

「A few days passed in a flash.」

He had thought they would be busy during the sports meet, but just before the opening ceremony, they received a notice from the higher-ups.

The catering services for this sports meet would be handled entirely by a culinary team appointed by the Capital City’s organizing committee.

This included jobs like servers and volunteers as well.

Su Chen was happy to have the free time. In any case, he had already reaped considerable benefits from the sports meet being held here.

After all, Delicious wasn’t the star of this event; the government was.

According to the previously signed contract.

Su Chen now owned an entire floor of standard rooms on the 32nd floor for accommodation, as well as the already successfully operating home-style cooking department on the 3rd floor.

The price he paid was taking on a 4.8 million yuan bank loan.

It came with a five-year interest-free period.

In other words, Su Chen wouldn’t have to worry about the loan for five years. Even after that, it would still be a low-interest loan. For a growing company, it was a very good deal.

The third floor was already generating no less than 150,000 yuan in net profit each month. That floor alone would be enough to pay off the loan within five years.

It was like getting an entire floor of the hotel for free.

August, a whole month of non-stop work, finally came to an end with the closing whistle of the sports meet.

All the employees of Delicious gathered in the nineteenth-floor meeting room for their monthly summary meeting.

This past month hadn’t just been busy; Delicious’s roster had expanded once again.

There were two new chefs, Zhang Heping—also known as Old Er—and Wang Jianhua—also known as Shi Qi—and a new driver, Zhang Jiayi.

As was tradition.

"Shengnan, let’s start with salaries and bonuses."

Hearing this, He Shuting shot to her feet. "Don’t announce mine! I’ll sign for it myself later!"

Last month, not only had she not received a salary, she’d actually ended up paying out of her own pocket. Thankfully, Su Chen had generously given them all large bonuses, otherwise she really would have been paying to come to work.

"Don’t say mine either..."

"Mine too!"

Seeing their reactions, Su Chen said decisively, "Alright, let’s just cancel this part. You can all check your pay with Liu Shengnan later."

Next up was the work plan for September.

"Everyone has experienced how busy this past month was. For September, there’s no new work for now. I’m planning to restart the custom-order business on the 19th floor, aiming for a pace of one order per day. Of course, we’ll arrange things based on the specific situation. Bai Xiaobo, what’s the latest on the orders?"

’The company had grown too quickly this month,’ Su Chen felt it was necessary to stabilize their current achievements first. ’Taking strides that were too large rarely ended well.’

Xiaobai had also gotten a major upgrade recently. He’d bought himself a laptop for work. Looking at a spreadsheet he’d made on it, he said, "Our orders with advance payments are already booked solid for a month, with an average price over 10,000 yuan."

"These are all clients who can come in whenever you’re available to take their order. I haven’t accepted any other orders with specific time requirements for now."