Chapter 28: Beggars Can’t Be Choosers
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“What do you think he’s doing?”
A cashier at Prosperous Flavor leaned against the window and pointed at Jiang Yi.
“I don’t know. Maybe he’s pulling in customers.”
The other cashier glanced up and said casually.
“Tsk.”
There was a chuckle.
“Go and work hard!”
Head Waiter Wang walked over and patted the table. Then, he followed their gaze and looked over. “What are you looking so seriously at?”
“Head Waiter, look. The Hedilao employees are pulling people in.”
“Oh?”
Head Waiter Wang looked in the direction where the cashier was pointing and also found it amusing.
“Who eats hotpot so early in the morning? Are you a fool?” After pausing for a while, Head Waiter Wang looked at the cashiers’ strange gaze and quickly added, “They’re not coming to Prosperous Flavor either!”
“However…”
When Head Waiter Wang remembered what the manager had said about paying more attention to the movements at Hedilao, he decided to report this news to his higher-ups.
As they watched Head Waiter Wang leave, the two cashiers started whispering again.
“Do you think he can pull anyone over?”
“I bet 50 cents. No, I… F*ck!”
“What’s wrong?”
The cashier who had spoken rubbed her eyes, as if she had seen something unbelievable. “That couple… really left with him?”
…
In the kitchen, Ye Feng turned on his phone.
It was already 11.30pm. He seemed to be waiting for something to appear and did not even blink.
However, it did not appear in the end.
Ye Feng sighed. His heart felt a little empty. He couldn’t tell if he was feeling disappointed, or if it was something else.
Ye Feng looked up at the situation in the shop and rubbed his eyes.
It felt like there was something wrong with the number of people…
Logically speaking, it was not yet time for hotpot restaurants to really serve customers. Usually, customers would only come in an endless stream after 12 noon or 6pm.
Only a fool would believe that the number of people queuing at Prosperous Flavor from morning to night was real!
According to Ye Feng’s estimations, even if there were opening benefits, only half of the number of seats at Hedilao would be occupied. But now, almost 70% of the seats were taken.
“Qi Yun, Qi Yun?”
After walking out of the kitchen, Ye Feng waved at Qi Yun, who was entertaining the guests.
“Did you ask these people to do this?”
When Qi Yun walked over, Ye Feng asked.
“Asked them? No.”
Qi Yun shook his head in a frenzy. “Isn’t this what you ordered, Boss? Hedilao will never ask anyone to help us when we do business.”
“Then, in the shop…”
Ye Feng glanced at the situation in the shop.
“It’s like this.”
Qi Yun held back his laughter and said, “Boss, look at our employees. How many of them are missing?”
“Oh?”
Ye Feng took a closer look. As expected, two or three of the employees in the store were missing.
“Where are they?”
Seeing that Ye Feng was slightly puzzled, Qi Yun explained, “They’ve all gone out to invite customers.”
Ye Feng’s gaze was slightly hostile when he heard this.
Qi Yun immediately raised his hands and said, “They took the initiative to go. I didn’t force them to do so.”
“I see…”
When he heard Qi Yun say this, Ye Feng put away his hostile gaze.
From the first day since he opened the shop, he had said that Hedilao would never bully their employees.
“Who are they? Write down their names first…” Ye Feng pondered for a moment before he said, “Then, take them out to buy some snacks and mineral water.”
“Oh yes, prepare another 20 stools.”
“Stools?”
Qi Yun was puzzled.
“It’s for customers in line. You can’t expect them to stand around, right?.”
Ye Feng explained.
Although he didn’t know where his boss got his confidence from, Qi Yun didn’t ask too much and started to carry out the plan after hearing it clearly.
…
“Are you stupid?”
Manager Wu clicked his tongue and looked at Head Waiter Wang as if he was looking at a fool. Then, he rubbed Head Waiter Wang’s head angrily.
“Didn’t you see how busy the shop is? Why did you even let the staff go out to recruit customers?”
“It’s not because I saw Hedilao inviting customers.” In order to prove that he was not stupid, Head Waiter Wang hurriedly explained, “Furthermore, isn’t the shop relatively…”
“Shut up!”
Manager Wu was so anxious that he wanted to beat someone up. He raised his hand halfway, but looked at the customers who were eating beside him. Then, he lowered his voice and said, “You can’t say this in front of others. Do you understand?!”
“Also, Little Wang, use the afternoon break to gather all the staff for a meeting.”
The lunch meeting was a tradition of Prosperous Flavor. It was said that this would increase the cohesiveness of the employees, and Prosperity Favor Tianda Branch had perfectly inherited this tradition.
“Aye, alright.”
Head Waiter Wang nodded quickly.
…
At 1pm…
Since there were always customers in the restaurant, the lunch break at Prosperous Flavor was held in shifts. In other words, the second batch of staff could only rest after the first batch had finished resting.
As a result, everyone didn’t have enough time to rest, but there was nothing they could do about it.
Although Hedilao used a rotation system, there were three shifts. In other words, the first batch of staff who went on break could rest for two shifts before going back to work. This way, their rest time would double.
The reason why Prosperous Flavour couldn’t use the three-shift system was because they had fewer waiters than Hedilao. The number of waiters in Prosperous Flavour was generally between 5 to 7 people. As the Tianda Branch had just opened for business, there were only 5 waiters, which was the minimum number of waiters.
Meanwhile, in the Prosperous Flavor kitchen…
Manager Wu was giving a long speech to the six people in front of him — two waiters, a supervisor, a cashier, a chef and a handyman.
Having a meeting during break time was already annoying, not to mention having to listen to Manager Wu’s nonsense. Hence, no one was listening.
It was clear that this excellent tradition of Prosperous Flavor was largely useless.
“So, as employees, we have to thank the company for giving us this job…”
Manager Wu was engrossed in his conversation when his phone suddenly rang.
Who was such a spoilsport?
He turned on his phone impatiently and took a glance at the phone number. Then, his expression changed and he bent over subconsciously.
“Meeting dismissed, meeting dismissed.”
After hurriedly saying this, Manager Wu hurriedly ran out.
“Hello… President Li, it’s me.”
He found a quiet place. Then, Manager Wu spoke softly into his phone, afraid that his voice would disturb the person on the other end.
Li Xin was also paying attention to the opening of Hedilao. Thus, after holding a meeting for the employees at the Prosperous Flavor headquarters, he immediately gave a call to the frontlines.
“How’s the situation?”
General Manager Liu Yan saw that Li Xin was in a good mood and asked.
“Everything is under control.” Li Xin put down the phone and smiled smugly. “Continue with your topic.”
“About the establishment of our market in Ji City…”
…
At 4pm…
Not only did the number of people in Hedilao not increase, on the contrary, as Ye Feng sent Jiang Yi and two other people out to buy snacks and stools, the number of people decreased.
At a glance, less than half of the seats in this newly opened shop were occupied. It was really miserable and cold.
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