Chapter 343: Unease

It can be seen that Cai Lao Ban has been busy with work recently, so he would say such things.

For Cai Lao Ban, he doesn't mind being busy, but with the same amount of time, he could stay in the kitchen for several days pondering dishes rather than deal with those textual business contracts; when he was in Nan Cheng, he had asked people for help, but now there are fewer helpers, so the work delegated to Cai Lao Ban here will be heavier, also taking up more of his time.

After the New Year, Cai Lao Ban didn't have much chance to find someone to complain to, so he couldn't help saying a few more words to Zheng Tan. Though not many words, they let Zheng Tan feel the boss's mood.

Cai Lao Ban originally planned to free up some time to ponder two more dishes; from the perspective of personal interest, pondering dishes could satisfy Cai Lao Ban's interest; from the perspective of shop performance, he must constantly launch new products to better attract and retain customers, just as the material he placed on the table said: "Customer satisfaction is significantly positively correlated with financial performance, employee satisfaction is significantly positively correlated with customer satisfaction, and customer satisfaction has a complete mediating effect on the relationship between employee satisfaction and financial performance."

Once the customers are taken care of, other things are not a problem.

The competition at Hengwu Guangchang is this fierce; everyone is racking their brains trying to figure out how to get the surrounding young people to spend more money from their pockets; as a shop owner, Cai Lao Ban is naturally the same, after all this directly reflects whether people are satisfied with the food here; even though Shi Wei's current popularity is already quite good, one cannot be careless, and must seize the opportunity to get the signboard out there.

Now some customers who can't find a seat or are in a hurry will pre-order takeout packages and come pick them up at the appointed time. After all, there is no delivery service here yet.

After lunch, Zheng Tan didn't leave immediately; he watched Cai Lao Ban drink some tea, then continued working, opening a file on the computer that listed the new dishes launched after the New Year; one of them was in Zheng Tan's lunch just now, and eating it felt pretty good, able to satisfy the appetites of people here.

Another document contains a list of restaurant names, spread across various districts of Chu Hua Shi. This is like Cai Lao Ban's diary. Some restaurants have related notes, such as: on a certain year, month, day, at xx restaurant he ate several dishes, with his impressions and his own scores, etc. This is one of Cai Lao Ban's hobbies; he has had this habit since long ago. He has a portable notebook for recording. After recording, he organizes and stores them together.

Besides tasting dishes everywhere, Cai Lao Ban also seems to plan to dig up a few chefs; in short, enough to keep him busy.

After staying a while in Cai Lao Ban's rest area, Zheng Tan planned to leave. He didn't take the stairs, after all this is a place to eat, and there are still many customers in the shop now; Zheng Tan felt it inappropriate to go toward the stairs, and besides, climbing out the window is more convenient and faster.

Watching the black cat, full and content, slip out through the window, Cai Lao Ban smiled and shook his head, then continued handling the several documents at hand. He knows that some people in the shop privately complain that giving such good food to a cat is too wasteful; moreover, this is not the boss's own cat, and it doesn't catch mice in the shop, basically it's a scam.

For this reason, Cai Lao Ban has never explained the cause; some things don't need to be told to others. Moreover, he thinks that black cat is also quite good, and he doesn't think that black cat, like the employees privately complain, cannot taste good or bad flavors. He is very sensitive to subtle facial expressions and eye changes when others eat, from which he can infer their satisfaction with the dish; and when that black cat eats food, it also shows some subtle expression changes, very human-like, while other cats do not.

Just as Ye Hao and them said, this black cat is different, cannot be judged by common sense.

While Cai Lao Ban was analyzing Zheng Tan's expression after eating that new dish just now, Zheng Tan climbed out the window downstairs, preparing to leave; he didn't expect that after just a few steps he would hear someone calling his name, and upon looking back, Feng Bai Jin was walking out of Shi Wei.

After school at noon, Feng Bai Jin came over to Shi Wei to eat; he really likes the dishes here, but his reservation time was too late, the order number was behind, so he came and waited a while before getting the food; anyway, there was no class in the afternoon, he could wait, and he didn't eat here because the seats were already full. He didn't expect that, upon walking out with the food, he would see a familiar cat silhouette, shout to confirm, and indeed it was.

Knowing that the black cat often runs over here and there are many acquaintances, Feng Bai Jin didn't think much, put the food in the electric car's trunk, prepared to go back, and upon looking up saw the black cat running toward him.

The first thing Feng Bai Jin thought of was that the food placed in the trunk would attract the cat's attention; however, seeing Zheng Tan jump onto the car seat without scratching the trunk, he said nothing more, realizing that the cat wanted a free ride.

Having eaten his fill, Zheng Tan felt a bit lazy and didn't want to walk; he had originally planned to leisurely sway back, but since he ran into Feng Bai Jin, he also didn't plan to continue walking, and decided to hitch a ride.

Feng Bai Jin rode the electric car into Chu Hua Da Xue; since the cat behind didn't get off, he took a detour to Dongqu Dayuan, and while passing a path, two cat calls came from the nearby woods.

Zheng Tan immediately knew which two they were upon hearing, and Feng Bai Jin obviously knew as well.

He stopped the electric car and Feng Bai Jin shouted toward the woods.

"Hu Zi——meal time——"

Why not shout "home"? Because Feng Bai Jin knows well that the appeal of "home" is absolutely no match for the three words "meal time"; as long as you shout "meal time", even if Hu Zi is in the middle of an exciting fight, he will immediately come over.

Indeed, as soon as Feng Bai Jin shouted, the aggressive-sounding cat calls from over there stopped.

Zheng Tan had already jumped down from the car; this place is not far from Dongqu Dayuan, so there's no need to occupy the ground any longer.

Whoosh——

A gray-black figure darted out quickly from the grass; compared to the appearance Hu Zi showed Zheng Tan this morning, now Hu Zi has two more scratches on his body.

Originally its attack power was already slightly inferior to Peanut Candy, its fur is short, giving it little defense, which is why this guy loses nine out of ten fights.

Feng Bai Jin looked at Hu Zi's wounds, feeling quite helpless; the wounds aren't deep, just let him rest at home for a few days, this guy has strong healing ability.

Feng Bai Jin is raising a cat for the first time; summarizing his cat-raising experience, it's all tears—scratching tables, doors, knocking things over has long become ordinary and unremarkable; as for the claim that cats bring gifts, Feng Bai Jin would definitely scoff 'hehe', can you imagine the feeling of waking up early in the morning to find a dead fat mouse placed beside your pillow, played to death?

That feeling is simply……fucked!

The mice at home?

The house is kept very clean, so it shouldn't attract so many mice; the Li Aunt who handles household chores for Feng Bai Jin's place was also puzzled, until one day she was strolling in the residential area and a resident saw her and still smiled and greeted her, saying, "Your cat might have become tolerant. It caught all of my mice, leaving none."

Feng Bai Jin was thinking about that. Hu Zi had already jumped onto the car seat, clinging to the electric car's trunk and calling.

"Go home and eat your cat food; that's not suitable for you to eat, the flavor is too strong." Feng Bai Jin lifted the cat clinging to the electric car's trunk and placed it in the front basket.

Hu Zi also cooperated. He squatted in the basket, chin resting on the edge, looking down at the Peanut Candy that had jumped out from the grass.

Peanut Candy stared at that side, its tail swinging vigorously.

The meaning of a cat wagging its tail differs from a dog's. A dog usually wags its tail when in a good mood, happy; a cat, however, is not so—cat tail wagging has many meanings, different amplitudes and forces reflecting different psychologies, possibly pondering small thoughts, or possibly being angry; for example, Peanut Candy now, its tail wagging is definitely the latter.

Feng Bai Jin was telling Zheng Tan and Hu Zi not to randomly eat dead mice and such, but upon seeing Peanut Candy, he didn't say another word and directly drove off.

Every time Feng Bai Jin sees Peanut Candy, he takes a detour; there's no way, his cat has accrued hatred, and he himself suffers as a result. Peanut Candy can chase the car for a long distance; the few claw marks on Feng Bai Jin's electric car are from Peanut Candy's scratches, and his family always thought they were from Hu Zi, otherwise they'd be even more worried. That Peanut Candy guy doesn't necessarily even buy Xiao Guo's account, let alone Feng Bai Jin, who has no relation to him; each time it makes Feng Bai Jin feel terrified.

However, probably because Zheng Tan is here, this time Peanut Candy didn't chase.

After Feng Bai Jin and them left, Peanut Candy was no longer that unapproachable stance, but turned into a harmless, well-behaved cat, walking up to Zheng Tan intending to rub against him; Zheng Tan ignored it, brushed off the long fur on Peanut Candy's body, and saw no sign of a wound.

As for Feng Bai Jin's warning not to eat dead mice, Peanut Candy really seems never to have touched that, having never done so since childhood; I don't know if it could also smell something off.

Talking about dead mice killed by rodenticide, in earlier years Jiao Ba, to prevent Zheng Tan from ending up like the two cats in the courtyard that died after eating poisoned mice, gave Zheng Tan some training, from several types of rodenticide to the dead mice killed by them; Zheng Tan understood a bit, and Jiao Ba even dissected several different mice killed by various rodenticides, with Zheng Tan observing the whole process, but also feeling nauseated enough to retch. Later, after learning that Zheng Tan never eats mice, Jiao Ba stopped worrying about that.

In the countryside, many people keep cats; cats, dogs, etc., are often let loose, and even children are in a semi-free-range state; to avoid some accidents, not many use rodenticide, but in the city usage is higher, given the already high population density and not-so-good relations, households don't use it themselves while others do, regardless of whether you keep cats. So, many households that let cats roam worry about poisoned mice.

However, the good thing is that in the compound, basically no one uses rodenticide; the poisoned cats are those that ran far away before showing symptoms.

That day, Zheng Tan again wandered to Shi Wei at noon, climbed through the window into Cai Lao Ban's rest area.

Cai Lao Ban was organizing a document, staring at the computer screen with his fingers tapping the keyboard; hearing the sound, he looked over.

"Yo, Hei Tan is here." Saying that, Cai Lao Ban tidied up some stacked printed documents on the desk, clearing space.

Zheng Tan originally intended to jump over to the desk, but just as he was about to leap, he suddenly paused, pulled back his foot, and snorted hard in the air, discerning the indoor smell.

Cai Lao Ban found this strange as well; previously, this cat would jump through the window and directly leap onto the chair or table; now what's going on?

Zheng Tan sniffed toward Cai Lao Ban's desk, then smelled other places, stepped back a bit, and squatted on the windowsill to think; no matter what Cai Lao Ban said, Zheng Tan simply would not go inside.

Cai Lao Ban was very puzzled, and moreover, from the eyes of that cat on the windowsill he saw a gaze that made him feel uneasy. (To be continued...)