Chapter 80: Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant is Top-Notch
「1:00 PM.」
Xu An returned to the restaurant from the Hai City Library and started organizing the next day’s orders. When he opened QQ, he suddenly saw a message that was a bit different.
’Regarding the request for a restaurant web page design, what’s your price?’
Xu An raised an eyebrow. ’QQ Space really is amazing,’ he thought. ’My customers are a bunch of hidden dragons and crouching tigers. It hasn’t even been a day since I posted the request, and someone’s already answered the call.’
’That’s right. It needs to have functions for uploading a menu, allowing customers to select dishes, fill in their address and phone number, and export data from the backend. The total payment is 2,500. Can you accept that?’
After sending the requirements and the payment offer, Xu An stared at his phone, waiting for a reply.
’When do you need it by?’
’As soon as possible.’
’The fastest I can do is three days. If you want it rushed, it’ll cost extra.’
Three days wasn’t too long; that was acceptable. Xu An replied with a single word, "Okay." Just as he was about to ask if the other party would provide a contract or if they should draft one together, another message came through.
’Send me the link to the fast-food restaurant’s current webpage.’
?
A question mark appeared over Xu An’s head. ’Current webpage? There isn’t one. If there were, I wouldn’t need to hire someone to make it.’
’There is no webpage.’
This time, it was Ye Ning’s turn to have a giant question mark appear over his head. He suddenly had a bad feeling.
’Is the domain name registered?’
’No.’
’Server?’
’Nope.’
’...’
The ellipsis was Ye Ning’s way of saving Xu An’s last shred of dignity. He had thought he was just adding new features to a thatched hut, but it turned out he had to start from digging the ground and laying the foundation. The level of trouble had just increased by more than a little.
’You’re starting from scratch. I’ll also need to register a domain name and find a server for you. 2,500 isn’t going to cut it.’
Xu An fell silent as he read Ye Ning’s reply. ’Making a webpage is this much trouble? Isn’t it something anyone with hands can do?’
’3,000?’ Xu An asked tentatively.
’5,000 for a full-package service. I can build you a webpage that can handle one thousand concurrent visitors. Any more than that will cost extra,’ Ye Ning calculated in his head and gave Xu An a direct price.
Five thousand yuan! For one webpage!
Xu An winced and sucked in a breath. But then he thought about the missed orders, the damaged reputation, and how this order page was crucial for the future...
Though his thumb trembled, he finally pressed the send button, sending two letters to Ye Ning.
’OK’
「2:30 PM.」
After washing the last plate, Nanny He took off her apron, said goodbye to Xu An and the others, and rode her electric scooter back to Qingya District.
As soon as she entered the residential complex, she was called over by the group of grandpas and grandmas under the banyan tree.
"Nanny He, why have you been running off at noon these past couple of days? We can never find you when we want to play cards."
Nanny He got off her electric scooter, pushed it over to them, and said smugly, "I found a job. I work for three hours at noon every day, make five hundred yuan a month, and they even cover lunch."
Her words caused an uproar. Everyone crowded around Nanny He, asking what the job was, if it was hard work, if they were still hiring...
She pressed her hands down in the air, and once the crowd quieted down, Nanny He slowly answered their questions.
She ended by giving them a detailed description of the food she ate for lunch that day: the savory and slightly sweet braised pork with pickled vegetables, the crispy-on-the-outside, tender-on-the-inside, and delicious braised pork meatballs...
Nanny He’s description was so vivid that everyone was practically drooling.
Suddenly, someone caught the key point. Did Nanny He just say she works at Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant?
"Isn’t that the same shop that young Ye orders from every day?"
As this person spoke up, the others also realized it and started firing off questions again.
"How big is that Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant?"
"Is the shop clean?"
"What’s the quality of the ingredients like?"
"..."
At this, Nanny He became even more enthusiastic and began to praise it endlessly.
She praised how fresh the vegetables were and how good they tasted; she praised the chef, Zhou Qi, for his masterful, almost magical cooking skills; she praised the restaurant’s daily order volume, which was in the high hundreds...
She praised Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant to the high heavens, claiming it was one of a kind, leaving everyone stunned and dumbfounded.
’There’s actually a shop with such a conscience!’
By the time Nanny He finished her praises, the crowd was getting tempted.
’Even if Nanny He was exaggerating, if you cut what she said in half, the shop still sounds pretty good. Clean, cheap, convenient, fast, and nutritionally balanced...’
’Maybe we should give it a try?’
’Where did I put that flyer I got on the street? I remember it said you can order by phone!’
One by one, the crowd made excuses to go home, where they rummaged through their drawers and cabinets to find the flyer for Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant and dial the number on it.
Back in the shop, Xu An was registering orders when his phone began to ring nonstop. The callers were men and women, but they all had one thing in common: they were quite old.
After recording the orders, Xu An suddenly noticed that the delivery addresses were almost all identical—they were all from Qingya District.
A spark of insight flashed in Xu An’s mind, but it vanished without a trace in the next instant.
After getting off work, Zhou Qi returned to his rented room, turned on the fan, and lay on his bed, happily playing on his phone.
Suddenly, a notification popped up at the top of his phone. He tapped it and saw it was a message from someone from his hometown.
’xxxxx, Hai City hometown folks group.’
’Oh, there’s a Hai City group for people from my hometown? I definitely have to join the organization!’
He copied the ID, unhesitatingly pasted it into the "add group" field, sent a request to join, and was successfully added.
After joining the group, Zhou Qi didn’t say anything. He just silently observed for a while and found that everyone was discussing work.
He watched them complain about how their bosses were inhuman, how unreasonable their work hours were, and how pitiful their salaries were...
’My boss is a proper boss, the shop is a proper business, I only have to work eight hours a day, and the salary isn’t bad at all...’
The more he thought about it, the better it seemed. His fingers began to tap on the screen of their own accord, delivering a critical hit to most of the people in the group.
Just as he was basking in the envy of others, a message popped up at the top of his screen. It was a private message from a group member.
’Is the restaurant you work at still hiring?’
Zhou Qi thought for a moment. ’Xu An has been muttering about wanting to hire more delivery drivers lately, so they should be hiring, right?’
’Yes.’
’Do you need chefs? A kitchen hand would be fine too.’
’Chefs? Kitchen hands? But what the shop needs right now are delivery drivers!’
’The shop needs delivery drivers. We’re not hiring for any other positions at the moment.’
’What do delivery drivers do?’
’They deliver lunch boxes. When a customer orders a meal, the driver delivers it to them.’
The man on the other end of the screen was sitting under the shade of a tree by the street, rubbing his face hard with his hands.
This was his tenth day of job hunting. In those ten days, he had tried many hotels, restaurants, and fast-food places. Either he didn’t meet the qualifications, the job requirements were too harsh, they weren’t hiring at all, or some even looked down on him for being too old...
’Being a kitchen hand in your thirties is a bit shameful, but looking down on someone for their age is just too much!’
Most of the others from the hotel had already found new jobs. Only he and three others of a similar age were still struggling to find work.
’Maybe I should just give up and go work as a laborer on a construction site.’
Just then, his phone chimed with a notification. A new message had arrived from Zhou Qi.
’There’s no base salary. The hours are from 11 AM to 2 PM, and lunch is included. Commission is 0.5 yuan per lunch box, and the shop currently gets over six hundred orders a day.’
Seeing this message, the man’s breath caught in his throat, and his eyes stared blankly.
’Over six hundred orders... Even if I only deliver thirty to fifty a day, that would be enough to cover rent for a month.’
’The restaurant even provides food, so I can save money on one meal a day. The hours are right around noon, so it won’t interfere with looking for other jobs. Why not give it a try?’
At that moment, he thought of the two others who were also looking for work and sent a message to Zhou Qi.
’How many drivers is the restaurant hiring? There are three of us here. Can we all come?’
A full five minutes passed after he sent the message before he got a reply.
’Yes, you can. Come to the Zijing Road South Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant at 10:30 AM tomorrow with your ID. Bring your own bicycle.’
Yeah!
The man made a victory sign and quickly opened his chat window to tell the other two the good news.