pjbooks Chapter 58: [The Boss Has Arrived]
Chapter 58: [The Boss Has Arrived]
"Wow, so many people! Is this that steakhouse?"
"How many steakhouses are there in the whole city? This is the only one, it has to be here."
"Excuse me, is this Mr. Liu's street-side steak stand?"
……
The night market was like a huge pot boiling over, bubbling and gurgling.
The shop signs lit up one after another, with red signs for "spicy hot pot," green signs for "freshly squeezed juice," and yellow signs for "grilled oysters," creating a dazzling display of light that cast patches of shadow on people's faces.
The air was so thick you could wring oil out of it; the smells of cumin, cooking oil, the sweet aroma of roasted chestnuts, and the hot, sweaty smell of people all mingled together.
The line in front of Liu Zhuohao's stall was denser than usual, with quite a few unfamiliar faces mixed in.
There were students who had just finished school and hadn't even taken their backpacks off yet, who deliberately took a long detour to sneak over; there were also office workers wearing shirts and ties, who looked like they were rushing over after get off work, who tiptoed to look at the stall, and every now and then someone would whisper to the crowd, clearly having heard about it from elsewhere and come here specifically to try this "street steak".
The oil on the hot plate never cooled down, sizzling incessantly, with plumes of white smoke rising into the air.
Liu Zhuohao's shovel flew through the air; the reputation of this stall, like spilled water, could not be taken back.
Customers no longer just pick up something while strolling through the night market; many come specifically because of his "Liu's" brand.
His stall no longer needed to rely on the night market's reputation in the city to do business, as Huang Weixiong had previously described as his "rags-to-riches story."
"Congratulations, Mr. Liu! Business is booming!"
A cheerful voice came from in front of the stall; it was quite loud.
Liu Zhuohao looked up and saw a middle-aged man and woman with red armbands on their arms standing there, smiling at him through the cooking fumes.
The man had a round, slightly chubby face, like a steamed bun.
The woman wore glasses and looked rather refined.
Both of them spoke Mandarin, but their local accents were unmistakable. They were probably over forty, but no more than fifty.
—The people from the street office or community service center are in charge of this night market.
Although they are not part of the administrative staff, for these street vendors, they are considered minor leaders.
Liu Zhuohao's mind raced, his hands didn't stop, and a smile had already spread across his face: "You two leaders are too kind! Come, come, you've been standing here for so long, how about trying something? It's on me!"
"No way, it's not easy for you to run a small business." The man waved his hand, still smiling, but his eyes glanced at the action camera with the red light on Liu Zhuohao's head, and then exchanged a look with the woman next to him.
The woman replied, "Give us two servings of tomato sauce, medium-rare is fine."
Liu Zhuohao lightly paused the tip of his spatula on the hot plate, then smoothly replied, "Oh, sorry, boss, all the steaks here are well-done, we don't have to pick and choose how rare they are."
"Fully cooked?"
The woman's brows furrowed immediately, her eyes behind her glasses scrutinizing her. "Won't that meat be too tough to chew?"
This person knows their stuff.
At the very least, they eat steak regularly.
"Won't."
Liu Zhuohao answered confidently, as if chatting casually, "We use the common cooking techniques available on the market now, which guarantee that even when fully cooked, the food will still be tender and smooth. That's just how the process is set."
His stall used to have regular customers who ate steak.
"Boss, this steak is perfect! No problem!"
"Boss Liu kept saying he had all the necessary documents and even posted a video online, so we came to eat here because he wouldn't dare to lie to us!"
"What exactly is this 'cooking process' that those two waiters keep talking about?"
Some regular customers nearby, enjoying the spectacle, joined in the commotion.
The commotion quieted down the stall, and many people turned to look at them, their eyes lingering on the two red armbands.
The woman opened her mouth as if to say something, but the man next to her nudged her with his elbow without making a sound.
The two exchanged glances but didn't ask any further questions, though their gazes kept drifting towards the camera that was recording the video.
The owners of the nearby stalls had already perked up their ears, and their movements of tossing the wok and wiping the table became much more disciplined.
Even the regulars lowered their voices, and the atmosphere became inexplicably tense.
Liu Zhuohao's expression remained unchanged, but he was already pondering something in his heart.
Are they here to inspect hygiene? Are they worried about an accident because of the large crowds? Or... did someone say something?
But whatever it is, he had already prepared for many things.
"Rest assured, both leaders—"
Liu Zhuohao spoke first, his voice low but clear, "Regarding food safety, all the meat we use has proper quarantine certificates, and the cold chain can be traced all the way back to its source. It's clear where the cattle were raised, slaughtered, and processed."
"If any officials from the Market Supervision Bureau come over, I'm ready to cooperate at any time, and the meat can be sent for testing immediately."
He paused, glancing at the food cart: "It's not just about what we eat; we've paid our stall fees transparently, and we've also taken proper fire safety measures."
"The fire extinguisher next to it, and... they were all properly obtained from the fire station."
After he said that, there was a moment of silence in front of the stall.
The two men wearing red armbands were clearly taken aback.
The man's smile froze, and the woman's scrutinizing gaze also stopped.
The two people stared blankly at him, glancing every now and then at the shovel he was constantly twirling in his hands and the camera with its red light shining above his head.
A few seconds later, the man recovered first, and a smile returned to his round face, this time with genuine sincerity: "Good, good! It's good that you know what you're doing! It's rare to see someone so young, Boss Liu, so upright in his work!"
The woman nodded, her tense expression relaxing: "We're just doing a routine stroll. It's good that your business is good, but you also need to be careful to maintain order and prevent the queue from blocking the way."
The two exchanged a few more polite words, then turned and sat down at the table and chairs behind them.
Huang Weixiong then crouched down and leaned closer, lowering his voice: "Boss, are you alright?"
"What could possibly be wrong?"
Liu Zhuohao placed another piece of raw beef on the hot plate. "We have everything we need, what's there to be afraid of? Go and take it to those two leaders."
His tone was very flat.
No matter what the wind blows, we just have to deal with it as it comes.
He knew this routine by heart from his past life.
It's just that now they're not doing business in big cities, but in their hometown, in a small city, so they don't do things so obviously, they do them in a more secretive way.
The stall became lively again, and the arrival and seating of the two people seemed to confirm Liu Zhuohao's words.
If they really wanted something bad, would the leaders be eating here? They'd value their lives!
When the food is cooked on the hot plate for a long time, sometimes your hands will move on their own, and your mouth will start to move on its own. Liu Zhuohao's mind has already wandered off.
Of course, this didn't apply to these two people in the office.
He was thinking about videos.
The video of that "randomly selecting lucky customers" segment has already been edited and sent over by Zhuang Zicong and Liu Honghao.
Before setting up his stall in the afternoon, Liu Zhuohao had already uploaded the video to Bilibili, and it should have been approved by now.
Did it explode or not? What are the data? What are the comments saying?
He was itching to reach for his phone, but he couldn't free his hands.
With these two guys on board, they could make a decent breakfast stall selling scallion pancakes, but we haven't dared to fully entrust them with the responsibilities of the steak stall yet.
The winding, seemingly endless queue kept Liu Zhuohao pinned down, leaving him no time to even glance at the data.
The shovel scraped across the iron plate, making another sound.