Chapter 6: Hey, Egg Fried Rice — This must be the fanciest egg fried rice she had seen.
Tian Xia Restaurant was a famous, fine dining Chinese restaurant in A City with a good environment and several frequent celebrity customers. Despite the many years Xia Wei came to A City, she could count the number of times she came to Tian Xia Restaurant on both hands. It wasn’t because the food didn’t taste good; instead, it was because it was expensive.
The type of expensive where eating once would cause a heartache for half a year.
Now that Xia We was going to Tian Xia Restaurant for dinner again, she intentionally dressed in high-class attire, her heels higher than normal by two centimeters. Arriving at the doorway of Tian Xia Restaurant, a tall hostess with a beautiful and sweet voice asked her if she had a reservation. She stated Tian Tian’s name and the last four digits of Tian Tian’s phone number. The hostess then led her to the elevator.
The average, small private rooms were all on the third floor. The first floor was the lobby and relaxation area, while the second floor was the banquet hall. Although Tian Xia Restaurant had a banquet hall, Xia Wei wondered, who would even come here to host banquet? Rather than food, they were eating shining silver.
A new hostess guided her straight to the doorway of the private room before leaving after she arrived at the third floor. Xia Wei pushed open the door and caught sight of Tian Tian sitting inside and playing on her cell phone.
Tian Tian was Invincible Little Sweetie in the group chat. Their best friends group chat had four people; their going-to-the-bathroom-together friendship started from senior high school. Although they didn’t study at the same universities, they all went to ones in A City—mn, beside Twiggy who studied abroad. Although, because the three of them stayed in A city after graduating, Twiggy let her family purchase an apartment in A City for her and said that it would later be considered their stronghold—which was Xia Wei’s current residence.
Tian Tian saw Xia Wei at last and immediately put away her cell phone, telling her to place an order after greeting her.
“In the end let’s just AA today, okay?”1 Xia Wei scanned over the deranged prices on the menu; she didn’t have the heart to make Tian Tian bleed so heavily.2
Contrarily, Tian Tian paid her decision no mind. “We already agreed that it’s my treat; just think of it as soothing the harm your heart suffered because of that Mr. Jiang downstairs.”
When she mentioned ‘that Mr. Jiang downstairs,’ Xia Wei felt a stab of pain pierce through her heart. “You mentioning him to me right now—do you intend to make me lose my appetite so you can thus eat more?”
Tian Tian giggled. “Pfft. Okay, then we won’t mention him. How about we talk about that adorable boy, Ye Kai?”
“Tian Tian, when did you become so gossipy?” Xia Wei slanted her lips to the side for a moment before calling out to a waiter. “I want to have your signature egg fried rice.”
“Okay.”
Tian Tian teased her. “I seldomly treat you to eat at Tian Xia Restaurant, yet you order egg fried rice?”
“You should look at the price of egg fried rice first before speaking.” Xia Wei handed over the menu. This signature egg fried rice was something that she had wanted to order the very first time she came here. It was just that…the price made her flinch.
The price for this restaurant’s egg fried rice was enough for her to eat a month’s worth of egg fried rice at a small stir-fry store on a sidestreet.
But the more expensive it was, the more curious she became. How could a plate of egg fried rice be sold at such a high price? Today, she finally had someone to pay the price for her, so she naturally wanted to order this dish to taste test!
Once the two of them finished ordering, the waiter left to pass on their orders. Xia Wei drank a mouthful of tea and then asked Tian Tian, “Did your pay increase this month? You actually are willing to treat me to a meal at Tian Xia Restaurant.”
Mentioning this brought bile up from Tian Tian’s stomach to her mouth. “I had already been working overtime constantly without rest for half a year—half a year! Can you imagine that?! I felt that I was going to die at my work post! There was rarely a day where I didn’t need to work overtime, so I naturally wanted to reward myself with food and drink.”
“Ah, then the next time you want to reward yourself with food and drink, remember to call me again.”
Tian Tian: “…”
The two of them sat together and chatted about their most recent purchases until the waiter began serving them. Xia Wei’s egg fried rice was the first dish delivered. Truthfully speaking, this must be the fanciest egg fried rice she had seen.
There wasn’t a lot of the egg fried rice—Tian Xia Restaurant’s dishes had the characteristic of being few in quantity but high in quality—but this dish was truly breathtaking. Not only did this plate of egg fried rice resemble Western-style food, its arrangement on the plate…
This was definitely the Snow White of egg fried rice.
Of course, if this kind of attractiveness was not enough to give rise to its prominence, then the colour and luster of this plate of egg fried rice evoked the grandest of golden appetites. Every grain of rice was smooth, round, and plump, all of them appearing to be the same large size.
Xia Wei tasted a bite with a worshipful manner. It was so delicious she nearly cried a whirlwind of tears! “This! So delicious!” She didn’t know how she would describe her current storm of emotions. If she definitely wanted to describe it, then she would say that it was so delicious, she wanted to marry the chef who stir-fried this plate!
“Isn’t that too extreme?” Tian Tian skeptically picked up a spoon and tried a small bite as well. “Oh! Really delicious. It really has a reason to be expensive.”
“Right!? This rice is also particularly tasty!”
The waiter standing to the side smiled and said, “The rice we use are carefully chosen from the highest quality rice available, with stringent requirements for the source’s water quality, soil, and illumination. The chickens that lay the eggs are also given the utmost care, its feed carefully selected for quality. Most importantly, this plate of egg fried rice is personally stir-fried by our boss.”
The boss of Tian Xia Restaurant’s culinary skills was better than any head chef at Tian Xia Restaurant, but he only cooked one dish a day. Which dish he made completely depended on his mood. This rumor had long circulated widely amongst the diners, so much so that people would intentionally come here to try their luck. If one’s dish was made by the boss, it indicated that the person must have good luck.
Xia Wei had always turned her nose up at this rumor. She felt that this absolutely was a marketing plan set up by Tian Xia Restaurant’s boss. Yet after finding out that her egg fried rice had been the boss’ favor, she couldn’t help but feel that she must have good luck!
“Tian Tian, when we head back, let’s buy a lottery ticket!”
“Buybuybuy!”
“I want to post this egg fried rice personally made by the boss on Moments,3 as koi4!” Xia Wei snapped a picture of her egg fried rice that was missing two bites. She first sent it to their best friends group before uploading it to Moments.
Tian Tian gave her a like, and, feeling moved, she commented as well.
「I heard that Tian Xia Restaurant had previously cooked for the emperor relatives or nouveau riche, so their dishes cannot be eaten by the average person.」
“There’s also this rumor?”
“I also heard this from other people; I don’t know if it’s true or not.” Tian Tian set down her phone and ravenously stared at Xia Wei’s egg fried rice. “The accompanying soup seems to be fish soup and smells very delectable.”
“Mhmm, the flavor should be pretty good too. So little though; I can finish drinking it in one gulp.” Xia Wei looked at the medium-sized bowl in the palm of her hand, mentally complaining that the boss of Tian Xia Restaurant must really be a miser-class.
Jiang Zhi Zhou suddenly had an urge to sneeze just as he shed his chef uniform. His nose twitched, but he ultimately restrained himself. Changing into the suit he ordinarily wore, Jiang Zhi Zhou pondered over whether he should take cold medicine when he returned home.
“Hello, CEO Jiang.”
“CEO Jiang!”
All the staff he met along the entire walk greeted him with enthusiasm. Jiang Zhi Zhou would nod back in return as he headed to the parking lot to fetch his car.
“Ah, CEO Jiang is still so handsome even now!” A waitress stared in the direction Jiang Zhi Zhou left in with starry eyes. “Oh, that’s right. Which dish did he choose as his signature?”
“Egg fried rice! I bet you didn’t think of that!” Another waitress commented, “Still, I personally delivered it and nearly couldn’t prevent myself from tasting a bite on the way. Too aromatic!”
“Aaahhh, I envy the customer who ordered this dish! I also want to eat a dish personally made by CEO Jiang!”
“You’ll achieve this faster in your dreams!”
“……”
Having been fortunate to eat egg fried rice personally made by the boss of Tian Xia Restaurant, Xia Wei had actually bought a lottery ticket on the way home. If she won five million yuan, then she could leave Twiggy’s home and buy her own apartment. This way, she no longer had to see that horrid Mr. Jiang!
The lottery ticket winners would be announced late into the evening tomorrow night, so she intentionally set an alarm for herself. With this, she could go to bed with a calm mind. She was on the holiday roster tomorrow, so she didn’t need to go to the salon to work. Xia Wei woke up from her sleep with a lethargic air, later intending to wash the week’s worth of dirty clothes accumulated in the afternoon.
Possibly because the egg fried rice she ate last night was constantly on her mind, Xia Wei deliberately stir-fried a bowl of egg fried rice for herself in the afternoon, though its flavor was very distant from matching Tian Xia Restaurant’s.
Agonizing.
She took a photo of her stir-fried meal and send it to the best friends chat.
「I stir-fried my own egg fried rice. Not comparing will not cause an injury. :(」
Eight Treasures Congee Female Hero: 「Be content that you have egg fried rice to eat. Day after day, I eat dust at the construction site with the looming fear of a steel plate crushing me to death at any time. I’m the one in agony.」
Eight Treasures Congee Female Hero: 「『image』」
Seeing the photo she sent, and immediately laughed. In the photo Eight Treasures was wearing a helmet and a mask as she stood in front of ruins, dust flying up everywhere.
Asking For Suicide At Eighteen This Year: 「Hahahaha feels sorry for you」
Not Losing 5kg Not Changing Name: 「Whoever can still recognize you like this is your true love」
Eight Treasures Congee Female Hero: 「I stopped bothering to change clothes; I just wash my hair every day. Even if I change into other clothes, they will get dirty anyway :)」
Invincible Little Sweetie: 「How much longer will you be on this engineering project?」
Eight Treasures Congee Female Hero: 「…Don’t know, but I miss that time when we were renovating 『Dessert Heaven』. That project only took two months—very quick!」
Invincible Little Sweetie: 「… Are you talking about 『Dessert Heaven』 under Starlight General Merchandise? How come I feel like it took forever to renovate『sweatdrop』 Don’t numb yourself like this」
Asking For Suicide At Eighteen This Year: 「Don’t numb yourself like this」
Not Losing 5kg Not Changing Name: 「Don’t numb yourself like this」
Eight Treasures Congee Female Hero: 「Can’t go on without paralyzing myself like this『sheds tears』 I want to go back to A City. I want to eat at Tian Xia Restaurant too 『bawls』」
Invincible Little Sweetie: 「At least you’re also a part of that huge company He Zhi. Think of me, a recently established small business. I’m busy to death orz」
Not Losing 5kg Not Changing Name: 「Xia Wei still has it best, being her own boss」
Asking For Suicide At Eighteen This Year: 「You, a student—what qualifications do you have to speak up :)」
Asking For Suicide At Eighteen This Year: 「Have to stop chatting with all of you. I still need to do the laundry after I finish eating」
Gathering all the clothes she needed to wash over the past week was also very troublesome. The bulky clothes she could throw into the washer. However, she had no choice but to wash the undergarments by hand. The first thing Xia Wei would do after she finished washing them was to bring them outside to the balcony to air-dry in the sunlight.
First up was the dress which she had worn last time when she went to go eat hotpot with Ye Kai. She held up the dress and shook it. What she didn’t expect was for bra hooks to fly out of the dress’ lace. She shook it again, and her undergarments flew out.
Xia Wei ducked down to look at it. Her bar had landed perfectly on the green plants downstairs.
……
Fuck.
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