readbooksol Chapter 116 is practically a money-printing machine!
Chapter 116 is practically a money-printing machine!
The benches made heavy scraping sounds as they were dragged across the bluestone pavement. In just half an hour, the once empty passageway in the middle of the old street was filled with wooden tables and folding chairs of all sizes.
"Hey Wang, can I borrow two more square tables? Oh, and four long benches too! I'll go to the shop and get you some good wood ear mushrooms later!"
Liu Cheng slammed his hand on the workbench, and with his hoarse, broken voice, he frantically swung a large ladle at the grocery store across the street.
His clothes were soaked with sweat and clung stickily to his back.
But he was like a volcano that had been completely ignited, moving his feet more nimbly than those seventeen or eighteen-year-old boys.
"Alright, Brother Liu! The table's at the door, come and move it yourself! You're really like an old tree sprouting new buds, you're going to make a fortune!"
Aunt Wang responded loudly from across the way, her eyes filled with undisguised amazement.
The queue outside had stretched along the wall of the old street, winding its way to the alley entrance a hundred meters away.
It was a little past four in the afternoon, and the sun overhead was scorching, baking the air in the old street until it was practically steaming.
But none of the diners in line complained. They craned their necks to look into the noodle shop and kept swallowing.
"Boss! Is there enough braised pork inside?! We've been queuing for half an hour, please don't have a purchase limit like at lunchtime!!"
A middle-aged man in a suit with his tie askew was fanning himself with his hand while shouting at the top of his lungs.
"Enough! Plenty of meat and noodles today! Don't worry, everyone, even if I, Liu Cheng, break these two arms, I guarantee everyone will have a hot meal today!!"
Liu Cheng responded loudly, his right arm suddenly swung up, and the three-pound ball of dough in his hand shook in the air, creating a white wave, before slamming it heavily onto the cutting board with a "smack".
He was completely immersed in a kind of frenzied excitement, his hands flying as he twisted, pulled, tugged and dragged the dough. In just over ten seconds, several evenly thick and extremely resilient wide noodles fell like silver threads into the pot of boiling water that was bubbling and foaming.
"Uncle Liu, get the caramelized sugar! The second batch of meat is ready!"
The curtain in the kitchen was lifted, and Su Chen, with a thick towel under his hands, huffed and puffed as he carried out a smaller casserole dish.
Before the pot lid was even fully lifted, the aroma of braised pork, a blend of caramelized rock sugar and rich, fatty fat, swept through the street with overwhelming force, carried by the wind.
"Can you smell it?! That's the smell! That's the smell I smelled at the entrance of 'Human Fireworks' at noon!!"
"No doubt about it! It's truly Boss Chen's handmade skill! From now on, I'll come and queue up every day at noon. If 'Human Fireworks' is full, I'll just stay at Uncle Liu's place!!"
The sounds of praise and exclamations from outside rose and fell like waves of heat, directly turning Liu Cheng's wrinkled old face red.
His mouth hadn't closed since the first customer entered, and now he was grinning so hard that his back teeth were showing, and the strainer in his hand was waving around with a whooshing sound.
Su Chen and Xing Ruo weaved through the crowd like two spinning tops.
Su Chen bent down and deftly placed two large bowls of noodles, freshly drizzled with bright red sauce, onto the folding table outside. "Enjoy your meal! Our handmade noodles are very chewy, remember to mix them well before eating! The rice is inside, help yourself if you want!"
Xingruo and Mengmeng stood by the cashier, watching this exaggerated performance, and Mengmeng laughed in her childish voice.
"Sister Xingruo, Uncle Liu's shop is so lively now, it's as beautiful as Dad's shop."
Xingruo gently patted Mengmeng's back, turned her head to look at Liu Cheng, who was standing behind the kneading table with his arms covered in white flour, working enthusiastically, and then looked at Chen Feng, who was so busy that he couldn't even lift his head.
"Yes, Mengmeng." Xingruo's eyes were slightly warm, and her voice was very soft. "Now, Grandpa Liu's grandma can be saved."
Su Chen walked over, casually grabbed the kettle on the counter, took a big gulp, gave Chen Feng a thumbs up, and his eyes were full of indescribable admiration.
"Brother Chen, the title 'Humanity' is truly well-deserved. I was worried the old man might not be able to breathe properly at noon, but look at him now, he's as energetic as a twenty-year-old."
Chen Feng smiled faintly without looking up.
"Those who run restaurants will naturally be in high spirits when business is good."
This culinary feast, a blend of the internet and pure, exquisite flavors, clashed relentlessly from 4 PM until 8 PM.
As night fell completely, the streetlights snapped on with a "snap," and the last customer, patting his round belly and burping contentedly, paid his bill and left. Only then did "Old Liu's Noodle Shop" finally become empty.
"call……"
Liu Cheng's body went limp, and he collapsed onto the bench next to the stove.
His arms were shaking so badly that he didn't even have the strength to hold a strainer. Two large blisters had formed on his right palm from pulling noodles for so long.
But he doesn't care.
His eyes were fixed on the plastic box that Su Chen had temporarily used to collect money on the counter. Inside, besides stacks of somewhat scattered hundred-yuan bills, was a cell phone that was getting hot from the loud payment notification sound.
"Uncle Liu, let's go over the accounts!"
Su Chen rubbed his slightly sore wrists, walked over excitedly, poured all the cash onto the counter, and then opened the merchant ledger on his phone.
"Come on, let me do the math... The WeChat payment totaled 5,420 yuan, the Alipay payment was 3,110 yuan, plus these loose cash... Holy crap!!"
Su Chen's voice suddenly rose a pitch, and he jumped up from the stool, his eyes wide open.
"Nine thousand six hundred and eighty dollars?! That's almost ten thousand dollars!!"
Su Chen looked at the calculator in his hand in disbelief, then turned to Liu Cheng: "Uncle Liu! This speed is practically like a money printing machine!"
Xingruo, standing behind, heard the number and excitedly clasped her hands together, nodding repeatedly.
It's close to ten thousand yuan. Everyone in the store knows exactly what that means.
"Uncle Liu, with this money, the hospital's outstanding fees..." Su Chen turned around, about to stuff the stack of banknotes on the table into Liu Cheng's hand.
However, Liu Cheng, who was sitting on the bench, suddenly trembled violently.
On that old face covered in sweat and flour, all the excitement and joy vanished in an instant.
He didn't reach for the life-saving banknotes, nor did he glance at the still-glowing cell phone.
Two streams of murky tears welled up from his bloodshot eyes without warning, cascading down the crisscrossing wrinkles on his face and falling heavily onto the flour-covered surface of his shoes.
Liu Cheng clutched the old blue cloth bag tightly to his chest, buried his head low, and hunched over, letting out an extremely suppressed whimper, like that of a wounded old beast.