Chef Hua
Chapter 314: Episode 181: Exhausted to the Extreme

Chapter 314: Episode 181: Exhausted to the Extreme

Every person who is in business, although they may speak lightly, generally long for their business to thrive and make a fortune. For those in the food industry, besides this, they have an additional aspiration—that the food sold in their own restaurant will garner widespread praise.

Hua Xiaomai had never concealed her expectations and wasn’t afraid to share her ambitions with others—if they could even be called ambitions. She just hadn’t anticipated that due to a humble-looking takeaway stand, the popularity of her small eatery would come so swiftly.

Since the day the takeaway stand was set up, the little restaurant in the eastern part of the village never had a moment’s worry about business. Every day, as noon and evening approached, a long queue would form at the door, a spectacular sight from afar. The bamboo food boxes, priced at six copper coins each, sold out in less than two days, and the restaurant’s purchase of vegetables, meat, and fish increased daily. Despite that, they would often run out by the time of the Dog hours.

Most people have a herd mentality. Even those who aren’t particularly interested in gourmet food would pass by the official road or village, see how bustling the small eatery was, and couldn’t resist joining the crowd to take a look. Once stimulated by the enticing aroma, saliva would well up in their mouths. Initially there just to spectate, in the end, they would leave happily with a food box in hand. In this way, several regulars were added after a few visits.

With the small restaurant doing so well, Hua Xiaomai, Chun Xi, La Mei, and Zhou Yunyun were naturally overjoyed, but after a few days, they still felt somewhat overwhelmed.

They began bustling about with all hands on deck from dawn in the eastern village, and by the time they returned home in the evening, they were so exhausted they couldn’t even straighten their backs. Zhou Yunyun was still doing okay, living in the restaurant and being an unpaid apprentice, which saved a lot of trouble. Chun Xi and La Mei, however, were both married, and over time, their husbands and mothers-in-law started to make some disgruntled remarks, suggesting behind their backs that although Hua Xiaomai was thriving with her business, granting only their wages every month, she was overworking them like mules.

Hua Xiaomai had pondered that, if things were to continue developing like this, she would need to consider raising the wages of Chun Xi and La Mei. Moreover, the shop was clearly understaffed, and hiring another worker seemed inevitable. It’s just that she had been so busy lately that she was somewhat scatterbrained, inevitably concentrating on one thing and neglecting another—because Sauce Garden’s various affairs were also gradually getting on track.

After the Lantern Festival, the renovations at Zhenwei Garden came to a halt. They cleared out the remaining scraps, gave the place a thorough cleaning, and the entire shop front looked brand new.

During the initial stages of putting the sauces in the vats, they needed to be placed in a cool and dark spot. A long stretch of wooden sheds was erected in the shady corner of the front yard to ensure complete blockage of sunlight; in the middle of the courtyard, seven or eight large sauce vats nearly the height of a person had already been properly placed, shiny and new, glistening under the sun; in the garden’s small brick building, the ground floor was converted into a particularly spacious warehouse, according to Hua Xiaomai’s request. It now stored some empty sauce jars—terracotta in color, looking simple and unadorned with not a single decorative pattern, save for the words "Zhenwei Garden" written in small, elegant, and beautiful script near the base of the jars, which were pleasing to the eye.

Observing the scene before her, Hua Xiaomai couldn’t help feeling sentimental. In just a year’s time, she hadn’t only opened a small restaurant but was also about to launch Sauce Garden. Although she couldn’t have done it without the help of influential people, at the same time, it was also the best affirmation of her culinary skills.

If she were still living in the previous era, achieving all this would likely have taken who knows how many years of hard effort! From this perspective, her luck could truly be considered quite good, right?

Wu Wenhong hadn’t shown up since he came last time to sign the contract with Hua Xiaomai, making it clear that he was just providing the funds and didn’t intend to meddle in the management of Sauce Garden. After the Lantern Festival, he sent two sauce-making masters, who had quite a reputation throughout Qingping County, saying that not only were the sauces they made rich in color, fragrance, and taste, but they also had a special technique that could keep the sauces preserved for an even longer time.

The two sauce-making masters were actually a married couple. The husband, named Lei An, was somewhere in his forties, with a large and robust physique, and a very honest and simple appearance. His wife was around the same age, a woman with a round face and a seemingly affable nature. Though she didn’t talk much, she wasn’t too silent, and in conversation, she seemed very measured.