Chapter 387: The Eighty-Flavor Food System (25)

Xie Yang did not know what to say.

Xue Lihua might just be a "love-brain."

Unless a love-brain wakes up on their own, others cannot talk them into sense.

She abandoned her husband and children for her first love and disregarded everything; on the surface, it looked like she was bravely pursuing love, but in reality, wasn't it just a manifestation of selfishness?

Now that her first love has dealt her a heavy blow, she has fallen into a state of wanting to die, but in the end, she is still only thinking of herself.

If she has the ability, she should go find that man after getting out of prison to take back everything she lost, and take it back to compensate those she once hurt.

If she did that, Xie Yang would actually think a little higher of her.

"Dani, you're right!" Liu Shen gave her a thumbs-up upon hearing this, "You're the one who sees things clearly!"

Xie Yang: "..."

There was no need to praise her for this, right?

Perhaps her philosophy was too fresh for this era, so much so that after Liu Shen went back, whenever others mentioned Xue Lihua and lamented that she wasn't worth it, she would throw out this idea of Xie Yang's, even adding her own insights:

"Although Xue Lihua brought this upon herself, she shouldn't just give up like this. If she wants to die, she should wait until she finishes her prison sentence and finds that man to take back everything that belongs to her! It wouldn't be too late to die after compensating the two children!"

"Oh my! Sister-in-law Liu, what you said makes sense! Why let that man have it easy? Xue Lihua let many people down, but she never let him down, yet in the end, she was abandoned by him; it's truly frustrating!"

"If I were Xue Lihua, I would grit my teeth and live on, live until the day I get out of prison, teach that man a lesson, and then take back my own things to compensate my son, before talking about dying or not."

"Exactly, that's just what she should do!"

One passed it to ten, ten to a hundred.

The Xue family also heard similar talk.

When Xue Lihua's maternal family went to visit her in prison again, seeing her in a state of listless despair as if she were already dead, they scolded her with this line of reasoning, hating that she wouldn't improve.

Whether Xue Lihua was spurred into action by this, served her time well in prison, and truly reformed, Xie Yang did not know.

She had been busy as a spinning top lately.

Under her pursuit of perfection, the snack bar was finally renovated and looked brand new.

After picking an auspicious date, the "Chunhe Lane Red Flag Snack Department" that she and Xiao Rong partnered on finally opened.

Why pick such a rustic name?

Don't ask! If you ask, it's because Xiao Rong picked it!

He originally picked "Red Flag Fluttering Snack Department," but later heard that the canteen restructured by the Mechanical Factory was also called that, so he added the address—"Chunhe Lane."

But because of that, the name was too long, and after much deliberation, he reluctantly removed the two characters "Fluttering."

"Sister Xie, it took me a whole ten days to come up with this name! I almost didn't have time to order the sign."

Xie Yang: "..."

She was truly speechless.

But since it was something he had racked his brains to come up with, she didn't change it.

Let it be; anyway, to truly make a name for oneself, one relies on strength, not the shop name.

Two days before the opening, the employees and their families at the Gad Steel Factory saw a small blackboard set up at the entrance of the Da Shitang.

The blackboard was written with the official opening date and also mentioned a grand opening promotion, saying that the first twenty customers to spend in the shop would get a 12% discount, and those after the twentieth would get a 2% discount. Furthermore, as long as they made a purchase, they would receive a gift.

There was such a good thing?

"If that's the case, if I go in and buy a steamed bun, will they give me something too?"

"That's what it says."

"Which day is the opening? Two days from now? Isn't that just Sunday? No need to work, let's go take a look."

The Master Chefs who contracted the windows at the Third Canteen also heard about it and clicked their tongues in disapproval:

"Why pick Sunday to open? The old Workshop Workers aren't working, can there be any business? Looks like they're still too young."

"A young widow and an underage lad, what kind of decent canteen can these two types open together!"

Master Lou held a grudge over the commotion Xie Yang caused during the week he took leave, and he seized every opportunity to mock her.

Master Fan glanced at him with a cold sneer: "No matter how bad it is, it's still better than some people. I, for one, am very optimistic about Chef Xie's stir-frying skills, especially that Stir-fried Kidney and Liver and Stir-fried Pork Liver with Chili; in any case, I, Lao Fan, have to admit I'm not as good."

"Lao Fan, have you eaten the dishes stir-fried by Chef Xiao Xie?"

"I have! Staying in the same canteen, I couldn't stand the smell, so I had my apprentice snatch two portions. Don't say, the taste is really good! The key is that I can tell roughly which seasonings she used, but I just can't stir-fry with her level of heat control."

"Is it really that delicious? Then shall we go show our support on the opening day?"

"..."

Everyone present was a shrewd person; how could they not know that this was wanting to go and steal techniques.

But no one pointed it out.

Anyway, not many employees came to the Third Canteen to eat on Sundays, so it was better to do Xie Yang a favor; maybe if she was happy, she would tell them the secret to making offal taste so good.

Thus, on the day of the opening, the Master Chefs of the Third Canteen, except for Master Lou, agreed to go to the Da Shitang to show their support.

However, upon arriving at the scene, they were dumbfounded:

"This is the Da Shitang?"

"How... did it become like this?"

"Where are the walls? How did they all become glass?"

Xie Yang had chiseled away more than half of the walls on both sides of the main entrance of the canteen, leaving only a half-person-high section, and changed the upper part into transparent glass.

She actually wanted to replace the entire wall with floor-to-ceiling windows, but in this day and age, one needed an approval slip to buy glass, and the factory wouldn't approve that much glass, so she had to give up.

"But don't say, replacing the brick walls with glass windows makes the interior much brighter!"

Master Fan stood outside the glass window and peered inside, clicking his tongue in admiration.

The other chefs were examining the interior decor of the canteen, wondering why there were so many arrangements they didn't recognize.

"Why is there a glass wall enclosed inside too? What is this for?"

"And why is this table rectangular? One table only comes with four chairs? What a waste! Long benches are better; you can squeeze in quite a few more people."

"I remember the Da Shitang wasn't this small, right? How come the front hall only fits a dozen or so tables?"

At this moment, Xiao Rong saw them and came over to greet them, taking the opportunity to answer their questions one by one:

"That area enclosed by the glass wall is the deli section, specifically for selling pre-made deli items and side dishes. You can order whenever you'd like to eat."

"The main hall has four-person tables. For groups larger than four, we have private rooms: small ones for six, medium ones for ten, and large ones for sixteen."

"Private rooms?"

The group was stunned upon hearing this.

Of course they knew what private rooms were; whether it was the private restaurants of the past or the current State-run Restaurant, they would all set aside one or two rooms for VIP use.

But this is a Canteen!

Even though it has been restructured and employees are allowed to contract it out, it is still a Canteen in essence! It is a place for employees to dine! How could it have private rooms?

What was even more unexpected for them was yet to come—

After the Da Shitang was renovated, they actually chiseled a doorway into the back kitchen wall and installed a sliding glass window, selling deli products to residents passing through the alley.

"..."

This kind of operation is possible?

Several Master Chefs fell silent.

Why didn't they think of opening a back door—no, a back window—for the stalls they contracted back then?

On second thought, even if the Third Canteen opened windows along the entire back wall, it would be useless.

There is no residential area behind it, so who would they sell the food to? Sell it to the steel in the factory?