pertwk Chapter 17 The Wang Family's Counterattack
Chapter 17 The Wang Family's Counterattack
"Has Xiao Jie gotten into trouble again?" Lu Changzhi's face darkened upon hearing Lu Yuan's words.
The two brothers from the eldest uncle's family, Lu Hua is a bit outgoing and can chat happily with anyone, but the older brother is more mature and relatively more steady in his actions.
Lu Jie appears composed to outsiders, but once you get to know him, he becomes a bit witty and occasionally likes to come up with clever ideas to cause trouble, which has earned him a lot of discipline from Lu Hua at home.
So the uncle was worried that Lu Jie and Lu Yuan were too familiar with each other, and that they would act without any method, which would affect the store's business.
Lu Ying was quite clever and immediately understood the meaning behind Lu Yuan's ambiguous smile, and promptly replied:
"Uncle, Brother Jie's vegetable-cutting skills are terrifying. We almost ate his fingers today."
The second aunt immediately understood that the younger generation was joking, and played along, saying:
"Xiao Jie is too reckless with a knife; he just cut his own hand."
Upon hearing everyone's teasing, Lu Jie immediately became anxious: "Practice makes perfect! Nobody knows how to do it the first time!"
Lu Ying: "You need to cut a little more; it's definitely overcooked!"
After listening for a while, Lu Changzhi roughly understood what was going on, and kicked Lu Jie in the buttocks.
"I told you to do more work, but all you do is slack off. Now you've made a fool of yourself. How can you be a cook like this?"
Lu Jie clutched his buttocks, howling and groaning. He thought to himself, "Dad really kicked me hard!" and nodded vigorously.
"I will definitely study and practice hard from now on, and I will never hold anyone back!"
Lu Yuan actually made this joke to get his uncle to give Lu Jie a warning, and his uncle understood what he meant.
When Lu Yuan was cooking, he appeared too relaxed and smooth, which was actually somewhat misleading for a newcomer who had never been in the kitchen before.
Lu Jie had been serving hand-pulled mutton all morning and was clearly getting a little cocky.
He felt these things were easy and told Lu Yuan several times that he wanted to try something else.
However, his plating was just the final step, neglecting the most important preliminary work—cooking the meat until it was tender but not falling apart, and cutting the meat into distinct pieces.
In his plan, Lu Jie would be considered a genius if he could stand on the stove within six months; it was too early for him to do so now.
When Lu Changzhi kicked him, Lu Jie immediately dropped his smug thoughts, afraid that his father would drag him back to do farm work.
Lu Changzhi was still not satisfied, so he grabbed Lu Jie's ear and pulled him in front of Lu Yuan, saying:
"Although Xiao Yuan is your younger brother, he taught you how to make a living, so he's your master. From now on, listen to your master properly, or I'll give you a good beating!"
After scolding Lu Jie, Lu Changzhi said to Lu Yuan, "Xiao Yuan, if this guy doesn't behave, come find me and Lu Hua. We'll beat him into submission!"
Lu Yuan thought to himself that the effect was amazing, but he still declined, saying, "Uncle, you've made it too serious. Brother Jie is fine."
With the combined efforts of the old man and the young man, Lu Jie was immediately transformed into a perfect apprentice.
. . .
The continued popularity of Xiao Lu's farm-style dishes has completely attracted the attention of other restaurants in Luwangtan Village.
There are a total of 6 restaurants along the Luwangtan Village section of National Highway 109.
The southernmost family is the Lu Yuan family, the northernmost family is another branch of the Lu family, and the four in the middle are all restaurants owned by the Wang family.
The Wang family are outsiders, with a relatively small number of members, and their relatives live close by.
The four shop owners are cousins from the same clan, with Wang Facai being the eldest. Today, he specially gathered his brothers together to discuss countermeasures.
Aside from a minor incident yesterday afternoon, his restaurant experienced extremely poor business during lunchtime yesterday and today.
As soon as Lu Yuan's house opened its door, it was as if his house had been possessed; no one even came in to ask what was going on.
What's most infuriating is Wei Yinghong's oil fryer; it's lured away several tables of customers from his restaurant these past two days.
He roughly calculated that the amount of food wasted in the past two days must have been over 100 yuan.
"Brother, business has indeed slowed down these past two days, but I didn't expect it to be because Lu Yuan's family has reopened."
The other families live quite far from Lu Yuan's place, so they aren't entirely clear on what exactly happened here.
After listening to Wang Facai's embellished version of the story, they finally understood the reason behind it.
"I see you still don't understand!" Wang Facai said, a growing anxiety creeping into his heart as he saw his brothers weren't too flustered.
"He's only been open for two days; he hasn't even made a name for himself yet. Once he's lured all your regular customers away, you'll be in for a surprise!"
"Is it really that exaggerated? Didn't Lu Yuan almost stop driving before?" Wang Faxi, who was the furthest away, said.
"He sold over 1500 yesterday afternoon alone. Have you ever made that much money?" Wang Facai sneered, cursing the little brat in his heart.
When he was eavesdropping yesterday, Lu Xue hit him hard with a tree branch. Luckily, everyone else was in the store, so he wasn't seen.
"What? 1500?" Upon hearing this number, the others were also taken aback.
"Why is he selling so many?"
They've been running the restaurant for several years, but even at its peak, business never exceeded four figures.
Restaurants in provincial capitals are nothing special, but restaurants along national highways are not so easy to find.
"Fried dough sticks!" Wang Facai uttered the two words heavily.
"Lu Yuan's family built an earthen stove at the entrance to fry dough cakes, and many people gather around to buy them every day."
Wang Faxi immediately added, "So you all rely on selling fried dough sticks?"
"That's right!" Wang Facai nodded. "Think about it, the national highway is full of truck drivers. They buy food and supplies for several people at once, how could they not make money?"
"Brother is right. Sometimes those truck drivers drive into remote mountains and wilderness where there's not much to eat."
"So if you see someone selling fried dough sticks, just buy a lot to take with you?"
After Wang Facai's guidance, the Wang brothers' thinking was completely opened up.
"Then let's sell fried dough sticks too. What's so difficult about that?"
Wang Facai clapped his hands excitedly and said, "That's exactly what I meant! If we all sell, who will still go to Lu Yuan's house for dinner! My problem is solved, and you can make more money too!"
"Big brother is right!"
"Shall we build the earthen stove this afternoon? And start selling fried dough cakes tomorrow!"
. . .
Around 3 PM, while Lu Yuan was instructing Lu Jie on how to cut potato shreds, Lu Xue rushed into the shop and shouted:
"Oh no! Wang Facai is building a house!"
"Xiaoxue, what does it mean to build a house?" Lu Ying pulled Lu Xue closer and wiped the sweat from her face.
"That's right, that's the same house as the one where Third Aunt fries dough sticks!" Lu Xue described what she saw eagerly.
"That son of a bitch Wang Facai is building an earthen stove too, I'll smash it!" Upon hearing this, Lu Jie immediately rushed out.
Lu Yuan immediately grabbed Lu Jie, who was rushing out, and pushed him back into the store:
"Eldest apprentice, don't be impulsive. They're building an earthen stove in front of their own house; what right do you have to smash it?"
Lu Jie's face flushed red, and he said angrily, "He copied us! That bastard Wang Facai is just jealous because he sees us making money!"
Lu Yuan shook his head and said, "You can't say that. I opened my restaurant because I saw other people making money, didn't I?"
"But...that's different..." Lu Jie thought about it and realized that this made sense, so he felt a little discouraged.
Lu Yuan chuckled and patted him on the shoulder, saying, "Let them sell fried dough sticks if they want to. We'll teach them a lesson with fried dough sticks!"
"Eldest apprentice, go and invite Brother Lu Tao over for me. Tell him it's something important," Lu Yuan said earnestly, his smile fading.
Lu Tao is a member of the Lu family who runs a restaurant in the northernmost part of the country; he is a cousin from the branch of the Second Master's family.