She Only Cares About Cultivation
Chapter 225: [224] Tasty and Pretty Fisherman 75 (Eighteenth Update)

Chapter 225: [224] Tasty and Pretty Fisherman 75 (Eighteenth Update)

There were many small diners here, catering to those at the bottom of society, such as the tugmen, porters, fishermen who came to sell fish, and so on. The so-called "small profit, high turnover" was the reason for their good business.

The staple food was coarse grain steamed buns; better ones would include millet and millet rice. As for vegetables, stir-fried dishes were scarce, mostly a hodgepodge stew—not particularly tasty, but just enough to fill one’s stomach.

As for noodles and rice, they were almost never seen except in specialty dessert shops and restaurants. Otherwise, you’d be hard-pressed to find them.

Hence, these grains weren’t cheap to sell here. If nearby towns and villages grew them, they could fetch a good price. However, the fishermen had little land to begin with, and after paying taxes on what they harvested, there was scarcely enough left to scrape by, let alone to sell.

Approaching noon, the town was bustling with people, after all, it was the only one within miles around.

The local fishermen couldn’t venture much farther, so they had no choice but to sell their sea harvest here, which meant there were quite a few patrons at the dining spots.

Of course, they only dared to linger in the roadside eateries infested with flies. No one dared to venture into the larger diners or inns like a restaurant.

"Look, that’s the only big restaurant in our town, no branches anywhere else. It’s said that a meal costs almost one tael of silver. Dad has no other desires in life but to see you all make something of yourselves and to have a meal in there one day; that would leave me with no regrets!"

Xiao Yu and Yaya happen to come across a father and his sons who had just finished selling their fish, walking past the Yingbin Building. The father looked at the three big characters on the sign with longing, whether he recognized them or not. Then, he lowered his head and said something to his sons.

"Dad, don’t worry, we’ll work hard so you can enjoy the fine food and drinks of the restaurant soon..."

The sons, with filial piety, huddled around their father and gradually walked off into the distance. Unsurprisingly, their destination was one of the small diners nearby.

Xiao Yu watched their figures disappearing and involuntarily turned to look at the three traditional characters of the Yingbin Building.

Over time, the sign had weathered somewhat and seemed slightly dilapidated. Yet, it was this sign that the local fishermen from surrounding villages yearned for, stirring in them a mix of emotions as though a pot of all sorts of flavors had been overturned; indescribable.

Logically, as the only restaurant in town, the place should have been doing well, especially considering there were wealthy individuals traveling through—the town was, after all, a major port where large ships bought seafood to transport to the county. Among them, there were certainly no shortage of rich folk.

Yet there she stood, half the day gone by, and the number of patrons entering the restaurant was few and far between, even less than the small roadside eateries.

Moreover, the waiter appeared anything but enthusiastic, looking utterly listless, a clear indication of poor business.

Initially, Xiao Yu and Yaya had planned to offer their "first bucket of gold" to these small eateries. After all, the Yingbin Building was the only restaurant, lacking competition; they might not care for her door-to-door sales pitch.

Monopolies aren’t known for their quality, are they? But that goes without saying.

Yet looking at the current state of the restaurant, which didn’t seem at all like a grand place and even appeared to be on the verge of being pushed out by the surrounding small eateries.

Ah, that was awkward.

She pondered over it again and again and finally resolutely stepped into the Yingbin Building.

Her curiosity was strong; since the restaurant was doing so poorly, there must be a reason, and she decided she’d find out why.

Coincidentally, she and Yaya were feeling hungry, so they boldly walked in, only to find that Yaya was too scared to follow, especially since the waiter gave them a disdainful sideways glance.

But perhaps because the business was indeed not doing well, with only a few people scattered in the large hall, they weren’t promptly kicked out. Still, the attitude they received was far from commendable.