"Hello, welcome!"
Shen Jiayue had just walked into Lin Ji's Food.
Che Zai, standing at the kitchen door, immediately greeted her.
"Hi, I'd like a bowl of..."
Shen Jiayue had just started speaking.
Lin Xu, who was cooking noodles, looked up curiously.
"Shen Jiayue?"
After all, they had spent four years together as classmates.
The moment Shen Jiayue opened her mouth,
Lin Xu recognized her voice.
Last night, all the classmates sent messages to ask about the restaurant, including Shen Jiayue.
At the time, this female classmate congratulated Lin Xu non-stop for becoming a boss.
Lin Xu also told her to come by for a meal when she had time.
It was just something people say out of politeness.
He never expected Shen Jiayue would actually show up.
Lin Xu asked her,
"Alright, tell me—what do you want to eat? It's on me."
Shen Jiayue smiled sweetly:
"Back in class, you ate so many of my snacks, you really should treat me."
The moment she saw Lin Xu,
Shen Jiayue couldn't help remembering the posts she saw last night under Lin Ji's Food's topic.
Those customers actually described this guy as a Demon King.
Hmph!
Are Demon Kings ever this handsome?
But, looking at the reviews,
She'd gotten to see another side of Lin Xu.
Back in school, Lin Xu was like the carefree boy next door—into basketball, video games, loved sitting in the back row, playing on his phone or dozing off.
But Lin Xu the restaurant owner,
was focused and passionate, dedicated to every customer.
A guy like that.
Who wouldn't like him?
Watching the two of them chatting and laughing,
Panda nudged Che Zai lightly:
"What are you standing there for? Go get her a drink!"
This pretty lady clearly knows Boss Lin really well.
She might even end up being Lin Ji's co-owner one day.
As an employee, if you don't seize the moment,
are you even paying attention?
Che Zai quickly walked over and asked,
"What would you like to drink? I'll get it for you."
Shen Jiayue said,
"Just mineral water is fine."
Then she turned to Lin Xu and asked,
"Which noodle here is the best? I want to try everything, but my appetite is tiny—I probably can't even finish a small bowl..."
You want to try everything?
Lin Xu thought for a moment and said,
"Then just sit and wait a bit, I'll make you a Three-in-One Hand-pulled Noodle... Che Zai, go grab a few chicken feet for Miss Xiao Yue to taste."
Three-in-One hand-pulled noodle?
Panda and Grandpa Gao, who were eating noodles, both perked up their ears.
They were dying to know how this Three-in-One was combined.
God, I really want to try it... But alas, I'm no beautiful woman... Panda sighed and kept eating noodles with chicken feet.
The friend who had just complained it was expensive was now head down, slurping noodles, not even looking at his phone.
As for the five chicken feet per person,
this guy had already finished them all.
He barely even spat out any bones.
While eating his noodles, his eyes kept darting to Panda's plate, clearly not satisfied yet.
Panda chuckled softly.
Not calling it a luxury now, are you?
With Boss Lin's cooking skills,
you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone like him in all of Beijing.
Meanwhile,
after Shen Jiayue sat down,
she was just about to say she didn't eat braised food,
when Che Zai walked over with the chicken feet.
When she saw the Tiger Skin Chicken Feet on the plate, Shen Jiayue's eyes went wide.
How are these chicken feet so huge?
They're almost the size of goose feet, aren't they?
To be polite, she tried a tiny bite—and then got hooked.
That mild numbing spice mixed with rich flavor, every bite bursts with delicious juices in your mouth.
Heavenly!
No wonder those customers were all loving it.
My old classmate's got mad skills!
"Sizzle..."
Lin Xu ladled half a spoonful of hot oil onto the chili flakes covering the noodles, and that fragrant heat filled the air at once.
Then he added a small half-spoon of tomato and egg topping, and another half-spoon of braised eggplant and pork sauce.
This was how the Three-in-One Hand-pulled Noodles were made.
When he brought the bowl over to Shen Jiayue,
this pretty classmate was totally unladylike, gnawing on a chicken foot with both hands.
For this surprise-visit female classmate,
Lin Xu remembered her as pretty, with a great figure, always carrying a bag stuffed with snacks—but she didn't eat much, since she was the captain of the school's aerobics team and had to watch her figure.
Back then,
Lin Xu was always hungry from playing basketball so much,
would get starving in class,
and Shen Jiayue would pull out some snacks like magic and share with him.
Imported blueberries, premium dried fruit, fancy French mini-cookies, and all kinds of snacks with English written all over the packaging—she was like Doraemon!
"Ate so many of her snacks, now's the time to pay the debt."
Lin Xu sighed softly,
and put the bowl in front of Shen Jiayue.
He was just about to speak,
when a group of more than ten customers bustled in at the door.
"Nope, didn't guess right—the signature was actually Tiger Skin Chicken Feet!"
"Same, saw Panda's prediction post, nobody got it right."
"Yeah, who would've thought it'd be Tiger Skin Chicken Feet?"
"Boss, four chicken feet each, a bottle of beer, and a big bowl of oil-poured noodles for every one of us."
"Finally, the perfect bar snack—gotta have a couple of drinks tonight."
"..."
Lin Xu agreed,
told them to eat slower, and turned back into the kitchen.
Shen Jiayue, halfway through her chicken foot: "..."
Ahhhhhh my image is ruined!
Why was I gnawing away with my hands?
Even both hands are covered in grease.
He must have seen it all, start to finish.
Meanwhile, I was only focused on fighting the chicken foot tendons.
Didn't even notice anything else.
Shen-the-beauty was yelling at herself inside,
feeling seriously regretful about her actions.
Shen Jiayue, oh Shen Jiayue, you're already twenty-two—how could you... Huh? What's that great smell?
She looked down,
and saw a bowl in front of her.
On the left was a heap of fragrant tomato and egg, on the right a rich-smelling braised eggplant and pork sauce, and right in the middle, a heap of aromatic, spicy oil-poured chili.
This... is the Three-in-One Hand-pulled Noodle?
For a moment, Shen Jiayue completely forgot to reflect or feel embarrassed.
She absentmindedly slurped the last chicken foot bone, tossed the bone aside, wiped her hands hastily with a tissue, then grabbed her chopsticks off the table.
According to the Lin Ji's Food how-to posts,
first, give it a good mix.
Mix the noodles and toppings thoroughly.
Make sure every strand is coated in that luscious sauce before you take a bite.
The flavor will be even better that way.
"These noodles really are..."
She suppressed her craving, mixed up the noodles, then tried a mouthful.
And was instantly lost in the aroma of the noodles.
Every strand was coated in that savory tomato-and-egg sauce and rich eggplant-and-pork, plus that spicy, mouthwatering oil-poured chili.
Three flavors blended together.
The chewiness of the noodles tied it all together.
Just perfect!
Last night, when she was browsing all those Lin Ji's Food topic posts,
she thought everyone was probably exaggerating things.
Like, come on—Lin Xu just makes noodles, why all the crazy hype?
But now she'd tasted Lin Xu's hand-pulled noodles.
She not only wanted to hype him herself—
She wanted to scream about it from the rooftops!
"Oh my god, this is SO good! The more I eat, the better it gets!"
Lin Xu has treated her to this amazing Three-in-One Noodle and chicken feet, so how should she pay him back?
While eating her noodles,
all kinds of ideas swirled in Shen Jiayue's mind.
Suddenly, she remembered her cousin had recently started an MCN company and planned to get into livestreaming.
Maybe...
She could ask her cousin to invite some influencers to come livestream a restaurant review here?