CHAPTER 531: CHAPTER 289: FRUIT TEA PAIRS BEST WITH FOUR HAPPINESS GLUTINOUS RICE

The staff at Yunzhong Restaurant are almost going crazy with how busy they are.

Everyone in the kitchen, no matter who, is helping Qin Huai. Apart from Chen An, who is still steadfastly fulfilling his duties as a breakfast chef wrapping buns, shaomai, and frying dough sticks, even the two snack masters Pei Xing and Li Hua have turned into excellent helpers, competing to be Master Qin’s most capable assistants.

The servers in the dining area also can’t afford to be idle; there are so many people dining that some are even standing outside with their bowls to eat, making table turnover speed the key to success.

Basically, whenever a customer finishes eating and stands up, a server will swiftly rush over to start clearing bowls and wiping tables, and then the customers standing nearby will seamlessly sit down, experiencing the joy of a game of musical chairs while eating Four Happiness glutinous rice balls.

Servers who are slow to clean up or can’t help in other ways have alternative duties—heading to the kitchen to wash dishes and serve the rice balls.

Four Happiness glutinous rice balls are selling so well that the dishware is running out. While the dishwasher is good, it’s not as fast as washing by hand.

Everyone is so busy that their feet barely touch the ground.

But the veteran employees aren’t feeling tired.

Many of Yunzhong Restaurant’s veteran employees just feel they’re reliving the work vibe from a few months ago: this level of customer flow, this degree of busyness, this feeling of wishing for four extra hands and eight extra legs.

Exactly, this is the familiar breakfast business during Yunzhong Restaurant’s operating hours!

Master Qin, welcome back!

The employees at Yunzhong Restaurant are continuously bustling, unaware that right across from them, in Xiao Ou’s Handmade Lemon Tea Store, someone is already shaking milk tea so vigorously it’s nearly creating sparks.

Indeed, that someone is Ouyang.

Let’s turn back time to 7 o’clock.

On the first day of opening, Ouyang wasn’t as excited as he had anticipated.

This was because he felt he had already opened yesterday.

Ouyang really didn’t want to recall what happened yesterday.

He vaguely remembered that he initially went to the airport to pick up Qin Huai, who then told him he had four great fruit tea recipes. Coincidentally, Xiao Ou Handmade Lemon Tea Store had the ingredients and equipment, so Ouyang opened the store and entered with Qin Huai to try the fruit tea recipes.

With Xu Tuqiang’s arrival, things started getting interesting.

Ouyang barely remembers what happened in the middle; he just recalls that the store ended up missing 337 cups by day’s end.

He had originally intended to try making fruit tea in the store and ended up trying until 8 PM.

A total of 337 cups, and Qin Huai made only 37 from start to finish!

The remaining 300 cups were all made by Ouyang, a full 300 cups, 300 cups!

But, he did make a lot of money.

Customers came too suddenly, each waving cash and eagerly waiting for milk tea. Ouyang hadn’t decided on names or prices, so when Xu Tuqiang asked what the coconut drink was called and its price, Ouyang blurted out:

Coconut No. 1, 30 per cup.

The other three fruit teas are named Strawberry No. 1, Mango No. 1, and Blueberry No. 1, all priced at 30 per cup.

If the price wasn’t too steep, deterring many people, Ouyang suspected he would have been making fruit tea until 11 PM.

Due to being too exhausted the previous day and having the opening hours delayed from the first day of the New Year to several days afterward, Xiao Ou Handmade Lemon Tea had a very low-key opening with no banner, no flower baskets, just quietly launching a buy-one-get-one deal on handmade lemon tea.

Oh right, Ouyang wasn’t completely idle yesterday; he urgently contacted Huang Xi and asked him to find someone to make new menus, adding Coconut No. 1, Strawberry No. 1, Mango No. 1, and Blueberry No. 1.

What? You ask why Ouyang didn’t contact the store manager himself?

Xiao Ou Handmade Lemon Tea Store has only one full-time worker; the other four are all student workers, and Ouyang is the store manager.

Having previously lost 6.6 million yuan running a fish hotpot business, Ouyang deeply understands the importance of recipes in the food and beverage industry. He knows the reality of harsh business competition and that employees’ resolve can be weak.

Often, stealing someone else’s recipe doesn’t require spending a fortune; you just need to spend 2,000 yuan to buy off their temporary worker.

So, Ouyang decided to have the other employees at the store handle handmade lemon tea while he, as the store manager, would handle the four fruit teas.

Sorry to Xiao Ou Handmade Lemon Tea, but starting today I, Ouyang, won’t be making handmade lemon tea anymore.

With this mindset, Ouyang entered the store at 6:30 and quietly prepared the fruits and various drinks, waiting for the first official customer to arrive.

The customer was Xiao Zhang.

Xiao Zhang had eaten two bowls of Four Happiness glutinous rice balls at Yunzhong Restaurant, packed Three Meat Buns and tea eggs for lunch, and sat in Yunzhong Restaurant until 7 o’clock. During that time, he had quite a chat with several elderly people, who enthusiastically recommended the place when Xiao Zhang mentioned Xiao Ou Handmade Lemon Tea Store across the street.

This milk tea store is delicious; the Coconut No. 1, Blueberry No. 1, Strawberry No. 1, and Mango No. 1 inside are all particularly tasty!

Although he didn’t understand why a handmade lemon tea store’s signature wasn’t handmade lemon tea, Xiao Zhang chose to trust the grandpas and grandmas also chose to trust Master Qin.

So, at the moment Xiao Ou Handmade Lemon Tea Store officially opened at 7 o’clock, Xiao Zhang, who happened to be walking past the store’s entrance, pushed open the door and said loudly, "Boss, how much is a cup of Blueberry No. 1 from your store?"

"Thirty," Ouyang replied.

Xiao Zhang: ?

Thirty? A cup of mysteriously named milk tea selling for thirty? What a rip-off!

Xiao Zhang really wanted to turn around and leave, but then recalled Master Qin’s special instructions from yesterday. After two seconds of thought, Xiao Zhang decided to splurge a bit; having already spent over a hundred on breakfast, an extra thirty for milk tea wouldn’t make much difference.