Rebirth 07: Starting with Saving a Bankrupt Restaurant

Countless people walked past the store, but not a single one stopped, let alone came in to inquire.

This couldn't go on forever, so Zhou Wen decided to personally go outside the store to attract customers.

Even though he personally solicited customers, it was still to no avail. Most people didn't even bother to look at him, and a small number shook their heads in refusal.

Just when Zhou Wen was at his wit's end...

"Xiao Zhou, you've opened a shop?"

Zhou Wen naturally recognized the speaker; he was a worker at a nearby factory and a regular customer of the store, often bringing his coworkers to the store for a small gathering.

"Hey! Uncle Li, have you had lunch yet?" Zhou Wen greeted him and then approached him.

Li Lichun had just finished get off work and wanted to find a place to eat with his coworkers.

But as a regular customer, how could he not know what had happened at the restaurant? He didn't know how to bring it up.

"Uncle, it's getting late. How about we grab a bite to eat first? I've been researching the recipes these past few days. If you don't like it, you don't have to pay."

Seeing Zhou Wen's eager manner, Li Lichun hesitated for a moment, then exchanged a glance with his coworker next to him before agreeing.

Upon entering the store, Li Lichun glanced around and noticed it was unusually clean. Thinking it had been renovated, he asked, "Has your store been renovated?"

"It was just cleaned," Zhou Wen explained.

Li Lichun nodded and habitually glanced at the menu on the wall: "Then let's just stir-fry two dishes, the usual."

Zhou Wen gave an awkward smile: "Uncle, we only have fried rice on the menu right now."

Li Lichun was somewhat taken aback and didn't know what to say for a moment.

"Don't worry, the fried rice has been carefully prepared, and the portion is definitely generous."

"How much is a bowl?"

"Seven yuan."

This price was determined by Zhou Wen after careful consideration. The key now is not to make a profit, but to retain customers who will dine in the restaurant in the future by offering good prices and delicious food.

The price is reasonable. Since we're already here, we might as well make do with this meal, Li Lichun thought to himself.

"Then I'll have two bowls of fried rice."

"Uncle, please sit down and wait a while."

Before long, the aroma of food from the kitchen wafted into the front hall.

"Old Wang, you know what, it actually smells pretty good," Li Lichun said, sniffing the air as he spoke to his coworker sitting opposite him.

"It smells really good. Shops are different now. Look at this table, it's spotless, not a speck of oil." As he spoke, Old Wang wiped the table and rubbed his fingers.

"Instead of focusing on the ingredients, we should focus on these other things. All we do is fuss over these trivial matters, and now we don't have a single customer."

"Now, things are even worse; the shop only serves fried rice anymore."

After Old Wang finished speaking, he glanced around and shook his head like a rattle drum.

Inside the kitchen, Zhou Wen was focused on making fried rice.

After cutting the meat into strips, I marinated it, following the same steps as before.

It didn't take long for Zhou Wen to bring out the rice after eating two bowls of rice.

"Xiao Zhou, are you sure this bowl of fried rice is seven yuan?" Li Lichun asked, looking at the egg fried rice with eggs, meat, and ham, and the portion was quite generous.

Zhou Wen nodded and said, "It's seven yuan a bowl."

"You use such high-quality ingredients at our restaurant?"

Zhou Wen smiled and said, "No matter how good the ingredients are, they still have to taste good."

Without disturbing their meal too much, she served the food and then returned to the kitchen.

Li Lichun looked at the fried rice in front of him and nodded: "Old Wang, this rice is really good. There's a lot of food, and plenty of vegetables too. Just look at the aroma, the taste is definitely going to be good."

Old Wang shook his head and said, "Who knows how long this meat has been sitting there."

Upon hearing this, Li Lichun gave him a wink: "Let's eat first."

Actually, Li Lichun wasn't sure either, but he had to admit that the fried rice was flawless in terms of color and aroma.

He took a bite of rice with a skeptical attitude, then immediately raised his head, his eyes shining, and nodded repeatedly without saying a word.

Old Wang, who had just taken a bite of fried rice, did the same. He looked up at Li Lichun, eating his rice without saying a word.

After swallowing his food, Old Wang, who had been making sarcastic remarks, couldn't help but give a thumbs up.

Soon, Zhou Wen came out of the kitchen carrying two bowls of soup. As he placed the soup on the table, he explained, "Uncle, this soup is free. Buy a bowl of rice and get a bowl of soup free."

"Xiao Zhou, your fried rice is really good!" Li Lichun praised. "The fried rice outside is nowhere near as good as yours."

These are Li Lichun's heartfelt words: the taste, ingredients, and portion size are all impeccable.

"As long as the taste is to your liking, that's fine," Zhou Wen said with a smile. "Enjoy your meal."

"I didn't expect to get soup with my meal." Li Lichun said, taking a sip of soup, and then made a somewhat exaggerated expression, urging Lao Wang to try some as well.

Old Wang thought Li Lichun's exaggerated expression was a bit over the top, but looking at the bowl of fried rice in front of him, it didn't seem impossible.

After taking a sip of the soup, Old Wang nodded to himself, giving his own assessment:

"Fresh, not greasy, and the white radish is sweet enough!"

The two stopped talking and began to enjoy their lunch.

Soon, the fried rice and soup were devoured by the two of them. Li Lichun, still somewhat unsatisfied, exchanged a glance with Old Wang across from him and said:

"Xiao Zhou, two more bowls of fried rice, please!"

……

"Xiao Zhou, please pay the bill."

"Cash or scanning..." Realizing his slip of the tongue, Zhou Wen swallowed the rest of his sentence.

Li Lichun was taken aback, then laughed and said, "A few bowls of fried rice aren't enough to warrant running up a tab."

Despite his blunder, Zhou Wen smiled and accepted the cash from Li Lichun.

After everyone left, the first thing he did was clean the seat, and then he took the banknotes out of his pants pocket.

Fold them according to size, then flatten them, and finally bend them slightly before tucking them back into the pocket.

After that, Zhou Wen continued to try his best to attract customers outside the store. After some effort, he managed to attract two or three customers, all of whom gave positive reviews of the fried rice.

They were busy like this until 2 p.m., when there were hardly any people left on the street, and even those who were there had already eaten lunch.

Stepping out the door, I breathed a long sigh of relief looking at the four big characters "Zhou's Restaurant" hanging above the store. Although I only sold a few bowls of rice in the morning, at least I made some revenue.

This first step has finally been taken.

However, no matter how delicious fried rice is, there will always be a day when you get tired of it, so you have to quickly add more dishes.

If you have fried rice, you can naturally add fried noodles as well, since the two have quite different textures.

When Zhou Wen thought of noodles, he couldn't help but think of all sorts of different kinds of noodles.

Tomato and egg noodles, braised beef noodles, knife-cut noodles... perhaps we could put some effort into making noodles.