Chapter 184 - 183: Angry, Are You Kidding Me?
As soon as the oysters were placed on the table, their aroma immediately wafted over.
"Sir, here are the twenty charcoal-grilled oysters you ordered. They come in three different flavors. Please enjoy."
"Thank you."
After the waitress left, his gaze fell upon the twenty palm-sized oysters before him.
The oysters sold at this restaurant looked quite similar to those on Blue Star, though perhaps a bit larger.
The smooth, plump oyster meat, seared over a charcoal fire, released a sweet and savory juice.
Although the meat had shrunk considerably after being cooked, it was still a decent size.
Oysters this large costing only Five Copper Coins each could be considered an incredible bargain.
Original, garlic, and mildly spicy. Looking at the three flavors of charcoal-grilled oysters before him, Lin Li thought for a moment and decided to start with his favorite: garlic.
He took off his bamboo hat and set it aside, picked up a garlic oyster, blew on it, then used his chopsticks to slide it into his mouth and bit down.
CRUNCH.
Lin Li had just bitten down, ready to savor the taste of the garlic oyster, when his teeth hit something hard. He immediately spat the oyster back into its shell.
’How could there be something inside the oyster?!’
Confused, Lin Li used his chopsticks to pry open the oyster’s belly.
’A pearl?!!!’
A perfectly round, flawless white pearl appeared before Lin Li.
Looking at the pearl resting in the oyster meat, Lin Li finally understood where the pearls on the other diners’ tables had come from.
’Don’t tell me the other oysters have them too?’ Lin Li wondered, then used his chopsticks to probe the bellies of the other oysters.
As it turned out, he found a pearl of roughly the same size inside every single one.
Sure, oysters on Blue Star could also have pearls, but that was a rare occurrence.
Some people could go to oyster bars dozens, even hundreds of times, and never find a single pearl.
But here was Lin Li, eating oysters in Dongwu City, and after ordering twenty of them, every single one had a pearl—and large ones at that.
A situation like this could only mean one thing: in this world, it was common for oysters to contain pearls.
Each pearl was twelve to thirteen millimeters in diameter, perfectly round, and immaculately white. Pearls of this quality, if sold on Blue Star, would go for at least two hundred dollars apiece.
’Tsk, twenty pearls from one meal of oysters... that’s four thousand dollars!!!’ Lin Li thought to himself as he picked the pearls out of the oysters. ’This is a business opportunity! I’m really going to make a fortune this time.’
...
The oysters were smooth and rich in flavor. The girl handing out flyers who had beckoned Lin Li here hadn’t been lying; the oysters were exceptionally fresh. He’d give them a nine out of ten.
Lin Li quickly finished all twenty oysters he had ordered, giving this restaurant specializing in charcoal-grilled oysters a very high rating.
Then, he raised his hand, and a waitress soon came to his table.
"Sir, would you like to pay the bill? Or would you like to order something else?" the waitress asked, glancing at the empty oyster shells on Lin Li’s table.
Lin Li smiled and said, "The bill, please."
"Twenty oysters comes to a total of 100 coppers. We’re having a grand opening special, so with a purchase of 100 coppers or more, you get a 50% discount. Sir, you only need to pay fifty coppers..." the waitress said.
Lin Li pulled a fifty-copper bill from his pocket and handed it to the waitress.
She took the money and was about to leave when Lin Li called out to her.
"Miss, please wait a moment."
"Hm? Sir, is there anything else I can help you with?"
The waitress, who had been about to leave, looked at the young customer before her with confusion.
"Miss, I’d like to ask, can I take these pearls with me?" Lin Li asked.
"Huh?" The waitress was stunned for a moment after hearing Lin Li’s question.
’Why would a customer ask a question like that?’ To her, the pearls from the oysters were just like the shells—worthless trash. If he wanted them, he could just take them.
"Sir, you ordered the oysters, so the pearls are yours as well. If you’d like to take them, I can get you a bag," the waitress replied with a smile.
After confirming that the pearls from the oysters belonged to him, a smile appeared on Lin Li’s face that the waitress found baffling.
’Calm down. Keep your cool. Don’t act too weird,’ Lin Li told himself.
’This customer is so strange!’ the waitress thought, seeing the corners of Lin Li’s mouth lift into a brilliant smile.
"Miss, I was wondering if your shopkeeper is in? I’d like to discuss a business proposition with him," Lin Li said to the waitress.
"Uh..." Hearing that Lin Li wanted to speak with her shopkeeper about business, the waitress nodded and said, "Our shopkeeper is here. Please wait a moment, sir, I’ll go get him."
"Alright."
Lin Li watched the waitress leave, then turned his gaze back to the twenty large, flawless white pearls on the table, his mind racing with possibilities.
...
TAP, TAP, TAP...
The waitress returned, accompanied by a slightly heavyset, middle-aged man about five-foot-nine, who wore a white chef’s uniform and had a very friendly face. They stopped beside Lin Li’s table.
"Hello, my name is Wang Gui, and I am the shopkeeper of this restaurant."
Looking at the friendly-faced man in the chef’s uniform before him, Lin Li stood up and said with a smile,
"Hello, Shopkeeper Wang. My name is Lin Li. I just tried your charcoal-grilled oysters, and they are excellent. I’m sure your restaurant will have a prosperous future, Shopkeeper Wang."
"I appreciate the praise, Mr. Lin. My employee mentioned you had some business to discuss with me?" Because the kitchen was busy, Wang Gui didn’t beat around the bush and got straight to the point.
"Yes," Lin Li nodded.
"And what business might that be, Mr. Lin?"
"I would like to purchase pearls from you, Shopkeeper Wang."
When Wang Gui heard Lin Li say he wanted to purchase pearls from him, a look of confusion filled his eyes.
The pearls from the oysters were just like the shells—they had no value at all. They were trash, meant to be thrown away.
’Is he making fun of me?’
Wang Gui mulled it over. Convinced that Lin Li was joking with him, the smile on his face instantly vanished, replaced by a cold expression.
The restaurant was so busy right now, and the kitchen was swamped!
He had put his work aside to meet a customer who wanted to talk business, only for the man to make a fool of him. Anyone, no matter how good-tempered, would be upset by that.
...