Chapter 104: Perhaps the Other Side Is Too Ridiculous
Xu Guosheng finished his business for the day, went home, and took a shower. Seeing he still had about an hour until ten-thirty, he eagerly grabbed his fishing rod, went to the river for half an hour of fishing, and then drove Xu An’s small truck to Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant.
The aroma of the braised dishes was incredibly overpowering. The moment Xu Guosheng stepped out of the truck, he was completely captivated by the scent.
’What is that smell? What IS that smell? How can it be so fragrant!’
’I never smelled anything like this back in the village.’
Xu Guosheng followed the aroma, walking into the restaurant as if no one else was there. He headed straight for the source of the strongest scent, but was stopped at the kitchen door.
"Kitchen is a restricted area. No unauthorized personnel." Zhang Dezhen stood at the kitchen entrance, blocking Xu Guosheng’s path with his body. Only then did Xu Guosheng snap out of his daze and apologize profusely.
"Sorry, sorry. It smelled so good I couldn’t help myself." After speaking, he turned to leave. Halfway out, he suddenly realized something was wrong.
’I’m not unauthorized personnel! I’m the new truck driver for the restaurant!’
Just as he was about to turn back toward the kitchen, Xu Guosheng saw Granny Xu sitting behind the cash register, staring at him with a smile. "Guosheng, you’re a grown man now. How are you still such a glutton!"
The blow from that sentence was devastating. Xu Guosheng, a big, heavyset man, flushed beet red in an instant. He looked completely flustered, a far cry from the confident ease he’d displayed at the used car dealership the day before.
"It’s just... it just smelled so good," Xu Guosheng said, quickly changing the subject. "Where’s Anzi? Why isn’t he in the shop?"
"He took over another storefront a few days ago. It’s the one around the corner with no sign," Granny Xu explained, before adding, "Dinner’s at ten-thirty. Go park the truck over there and then come back to eat."
Xu Guosheng nodded and practically fled the restaurant. He didn’t breathe a sigh of relief until he was back in the driver’s seat.
’Good thing Anzi and the other youngsters weren’t here, or that would have been a major embarrassment.’
He started the truck and followed Granny Xu’s directions to the storefront with no sign. The roll-up door was open, and he could see his daughter at a glance, standing before a large table made of four smaller ones, packing lunch boxes.
Xu Guosheng got out of the truck and took a deep breath. He could smell the delicious food.
"Uncle Guosheng, perfect timing. Help us carry these dishes over to Xu’s Fast Food. This is for the delivery riders’ meal later," Xu An said, looking up and seeing Xu Guosheng standing outside. He immediately roped him into helping.
Xu Guosheng walked into the kitchen and took a look. ’Whoa!’
Shiny, glistening Dongpo pork; golden, sticky sweet-and-sour pork tenderloin; tender, bouncy, pale-yellow steamed eggs; vibrant red fish-fragrant shredded pork...
’Today’s menu is right up my alley!’
Xu Guosheng ate his lunch with immense satisfaction. By the end, he was too embarrassed to ask for more food, so he just soaked up the Dongpo pork’s sauce with another big bowl of rice.
After a full and satisfying meal, it was time to get to work!
Xu Guosheng walked over to the Delicious Restaurant and loaded the twenty-some lunch box containers stacked by the entrance onto the truck. Just as he was about to close the cargo door, Xu An called out to him, "Uncle Guosheng, there are another twenty-something boxes inside!"
?
’Given that one container can hold thirty lunch boxes, how many could forty-eight containers hold?’
’One thousand four hundred and forty!’
’Not counting drinks and braised items, at eight yuan per lunch box, that’s 11,520 yuan from lunch boxes alone!’
’I’d always heard that Xu An was making good money with his business, and I even went with him to buy a truck yesterday, but it all felt a bit unreal.’
’Now, looking at these forty-eight containers of lunch boxes, Xu Guosheng finally felt it for real. Xu An was genuinely making money—a lot of money!’
Xu Guosheng was still in a state of shock until the two of them arrived at the Hai City Library.
’Truly amazing!’
There were a total of 26 containers labeled for the Hai City Library, holding 761 lunch boxes.
After handing over the twenty-six containers to Xu Heping, Xu An and Xu Guosheng got back in the truck and set off for the Red Brick Creative Park.
The Hai City Library was just over three kilometers from the Red Brick Creative Park, so they arrived almost as soon as they set off.
The delivery for the Red Brick Creative Park station was 14 containers with 418 lunch boxes, which were received by Liang Dani.
After delivering the lunch boxes for the Red Brick Creative Park, only eight containers were left in the truck, all of them labeled for the Aisha Clothing Company.
Next up was the last stop of the day: the Aisha Clothing Company.
「Aisha Clothing Company.」
At 11:40, the alarm on Luo Min’s phone, which was sitting on her desk, went off. It rang only once before she silenced it.
Luo Min sighed. She could feel a headache coming on.
’This used to be the part of the day I looked forward to the most, happily waiting for lunch. Now, just thinking about Yipin Xiang Fast Food Restaurant gives me a headache. A really bad one.’
’For the first two days, Yipin Xiang Fast Food Restaurant was actually pretty good. But on the third day, a different person started making the deliveries, and that’s when the nightmare began.’
’Things like spilled soup or messed-up dishes were minor issues. Now it’s escalated to wrong orders and missing meals.’
’Every day after the delivery, I have colleagues complaining to me, "This isn’t what I ordered!" or "Where’s my lunch box?"’
’I have to calm down my colleagues and find a solution on one hand, while trying to communicate with the contact person at Yipin Xiang Fast Food Restaurant on the other. It’s giving me a massive headache. So annoying!’
Just as she reached the front desk, she saw a small truck parked at the company entrance, blocking half of the originally wide road.
Luo Min quickened her pace, walked up to the truck’s passenger-side window, and knocked. "Hello, sir. Could you please move your vehicle? This is a private company area; you can’t just park here."
The window slowly rolled down, and Xu An poked his head out. "Hey, it’s me. I’m here with your food delivery."
Seeing it was Xu An, Luo Min let out a sigh of relief and smiled. "Then hurry up and unload the lunch boxes. You guys have over two hundred orders today; it’ll take a while to count them all."
"I already counted them twice back at the restaurant. No problem," Xu An said as he and Xu Guosheng got out of the truck, opened the rear cargo door, and unloaded the eight containers of lunch boxes inside.
"It’s my job, so I have to be thorough. Otherwise, if I get back and find something’s missing, is it you ripping me off or me ripping you off?" Luo Min chattered as she squatted down and began to count the lunch boxes in the containers.
While Luo Min was counting the lunch boxes, Xu An saw a beat-up old van drive over and stop a short distance away from them.
A man got out of the van. Without so much as a greeting, he opened the back door, pulled out two bags of lunch boxes, and dropped them on the ground. "Hurry up, hurry up! Finish counting so you can give me the receipt. I’m busy!"
"Wait a minute!"
After saying that, Luo Min forgot what number she’d counted to. ’I don’t remember...’
’Oh well, I’ll just start counting from this container. The previous ones were fine.’
In the space of just over a minute, Xu An watched the man yawn four times, scratch his butt five times, run his hands through his hair six times, and even pick his nose once...
After counting the order from Xu’s Fast Food, Luo Min signed and stamped the receipt for Xu An. She then turned, amidst the man’s impatient urging, to count the lunch boxes from Yipin Xiang Fast Food Restaurant.
Xu An and Xu Guosheng got back in the truck, buckled their seatbelts, and were about to leave when they suddenly heard Luo Min arguing with the man.
"What do you mean, ’not a big deal’? Out of thirty-eight meals, six of them are wrong. How is that ’not a big deal’?"
"Aren’t spiced dried tofu and fried tofu puffs both soy products? And bitter melon with dace is pretty much the same as bitter melon with scrambled eggs. Just make do and eat it. What’s all the fuss about?" the man said dismissively. "It’s almost noon. Just eat what you’ve got. I’ll double-check properly tomorrow, alright?"
Hearing this, the string in Luo Min’s mind labeled "reason" finally snapped. "Shit and chocolate are pretty similar too, so why don’t you go eat shit!"
The other employees at Aisha Clothing Company finally noticed something was wrong and rushed out to mediate.
Xu An and Xu Guosheng exchanged a silent glance, started the truck, and drove away.
"That young lady seemed so gentle. How can she talk so fiercely?"
Xu An recalled the series of actions the man had taken after getting out of the van, and combining that with what Luo Min had just said, he replied slowly, "Maybe it’s not that the young lady is too fierce, but that the other guy is just too outrageous."