Beiguan Village. Hot Pot Restaurant!
At the counter, Long Zhanjun was busy greeting new customers while also ringing up the bills for those who had finished eating—he was having a blast!
The restaurant was short-staffed, yet the place was packed with customers!
So much so that Long Zhanjun, the store manager, was running around like a general helper… no, to be precise, more like a firefighter—wherever he was needed, there he went!
Just as he was busy, a group of people suddenly walked in through the door, led by a young man with quite a presence.
Jiang Longcheng instinctively called out, “Welcome to Grassland Beef and Lamb Grill & Hot Pot…”
Before he could finish, he suddenly spotted Li Yi and Jiang Xue behind the young man. He immediately exclaimed happily, “When did you guys get back? Why didn’t you give me a call?”
“We just wanted to surprise you!”
Li Yi certainly couldn’t admit that he’d been so busy calling Jiang Xue yesterday before coming back that he’d completely forgotten about the others.
“How’s business? Is the place busy?” Li Yi asked again.
“You can see for yourself—I feel like I’ve turned into a spinning top!” Long Zhanjun said with a wry smile.
Li Yi glanced toward the dining hall and saw that most of the tables were already occupied.
Knowing the place as he did, he realized that when the main dining area was nearly full, it meant all the private rooms were packed!
“Looks like business is booming today!” Li Yi said with a smile.
“It’s not just today—ever since the start of the dog days of summer, business here has been booming. We have to stay open until eleven or twelve every night, and everyone’s so exhausted they can barely keep going!!” Long Zhanjun said.
“We can’t keep this up. You can’t make money forever—we’ve got to close when it’s time to close and take a break when we need to!”
“We’d love to close early, but the customers aren’t having any of it!”
Then Long Zhanjun added, “Especially the customers who come to drink—they bring over a whole group of friends and buddies to support us. We can’t just kick them out the moment closing time hits. That wouldn’t be right, would it?”
“We’ll talk about this later. Are there any private rooms left?”
“We’re completely booked. Why don’t you wait a bit?” Long Zhanjun suggested.
“No need. If there are no private rooms, we’ll just eat in the main dining area…”
Just as they were speaking, a customer came over to settle the bill.
Li Yi told Long Zhanjun to attend to the other customer first, while he led Jiang Xue, Zhang Ziqiang, Juanzi, and the others to a vacant table in the main dining area.
After settling everyone in, Li Yi immediately headed toward the kitchen!
Just as he was about to enter, he heard Third Sister Li Na’s voice coming from the kitchen: “Table 7: two pounds of lamb, one pot of spare ribs, two pounds of beef, one pound of pork belly… Private Room 6: four pounds of sliced lamb, five pounds of sliced beef, three pounds of pork belly… Remember, the guests also ordered 50 liters of beer…”
Hearing his third sister’s nonstop calls, Li Yi knew just how busy the restaurant was.
Without hesitation, he pulled back the curtain and walked in.
Dongzi, who was slicing meat and plating dishes, spotted Li Yi first and immediately exclaimed happily, “Brother Yi, you’re back?”
Dongzi’s voice drew everyone’s attention. The others also spotted Li Yi and quickly put down their work to gather around him, instantly livening up the atmosphere in the kitchen.
Although Third Sister Li Na was also excited, she said, “Everyone, calm down. The customers can’t wait any longer. Let’s get back to preparing the dishes!”
Dongzi and the others were aware of the situation outside, so they immediately returned to their stations and got back to work.
Li Yi walked over to Third Sister, looked at the stack of orders in her hands, then glanced at Dongzi and the others working like machines, and couldn’t help but shake his head.
It was obvious without even thinking about it: they were definitely short-staffed.
A restaurant this size would normally require at least 15 employees, if not more.
But now that Zhang Xinyao was pregnant, Jiang Longcheng certainly wouldn’t let her work here.
Li Yeqiao had been assigned to the Second State-Owned Cotton Mill, and with only his third sister on hand, there were currently only eight people available to work in the restaurant—staff was definitely in short supply.
It seemed they’d have to figure something out, or else these few people would be worked to the bone sooner or later!
Right then, Li Yi took the order slip from Li Na’s hand and said, “Sis, I’ll handle this. You take a break!”
“I’m not tired. Besides, how could I let you, the big boss, do this?”
“What ‘big boss’? Xiaoxue and the kids are here. Go sit with them for a bit—I’ve got this covered!” Li Yi said.
This time, Li Na didn’t refuse; she immediately handed all the orders over to Li Yi.
At the same time, she added, “Just make sure you work quickly and don’t let the customers get impatient—some of them have pretty bad tempers!”
“Got it…”
………..
Late at night, all was quiet!
At Li Yi’s insistence, the barbecue and hot pot restaurant finally closed before 10 o’clock!
After seeing off the last table of customers and locking the door, Li Yi immediately called everyone over to the largest private room.
Since they hadn’t had time to eat all evening, everyone was starving.
Li Yi immediately had Dongzi slice up some meat and vegetables, grabbed some braised lamb ribs, and brought them into the private room, where they all began to wolf down their food.
After they were full, Li Yi personally went out to the car and brought in a large suitcase.
Then, under the puzzled yet eager gazes of the group, he opened the suitcase.
The moment the suitcase opened, everyone was stunned by what was inside.
Inside the trunk were all sorts of small, exquisite items, each wrapped in exquisite packaging.
Judging by the patterns on them, they could make out watches and cameras, though they weren’t quite sure what that small, square object that looked like a brick was.
“Xiao Yi, what on earth did you buy all this for?” Third Sister asked, cradling Yunrui in her arms.
“Digital watches, cameras, and a radio!”
“You mean that tiny thing is a radio?”
“Right, it’s the same radio we know, but over in Hong Kong, they made it smaller for portability, so you can carry it with you anytime!” Li Yi explained.
“That’s amazing… By the way, why did you buy so many of them?”
“Hehe, these are gifts I brought back for everyone from Hong Kong!”
“You mean all these are for us?” Third Sister asked in surprise.
“Yep, I brought them all back just for you guys!”
With that, Li Yi took out the dozens of digital watches and over a dozen radios from his suitcase and laid them all out on the table.
“One watch and one radio for each of you—pick your favorite colors!”
Liu San’er said excitedly, “I’ve seen these digital watches before at the Friendship Store. They cost 42 yuan with foreign exchange coupons, and that radio costs 120 yuan!”
Hearing this, everyone in the room was stunned!
Doing the math, the two items together cost over 160 yuan—enough to cover half a year’s salary for an ordinary worker.
In fact, Li Yi was also taken aback by Liu San’s words. When he had bought these digital watches, they had cost no more than 12 Hong Kong dollars—the equivalent of 4 yuan—yet here they were selling for over 40 yuan, a tenfold markup!
In comparison, the price of the radio was actually quite reasonable.
They sold for 48 Hong Kong dollars each on Hong Kong Island—equivalent to 16 yuan—while here they were 120 yuan, just a sevenfold markup.
“Brother Yi, are these really gifts for me?” Dongzi asked cautiously.
“Of course they are!”
With that, Li Yi shoved a watch and a radio into Dongzi’s hands, then began handing out gifts to the others!
Before long, everyone in the room had received a gift, including Zhang Ziqiang—after all, Li Yi wasn’t exactly short on a few pennies!
Besides, these were his bodyguards—they could save his life in a pinch, so naturally he had to keep them on his side.
Although Zhang Ziqiang wanted to refuse, he was no match for Li Yi’s eloquence, and after just a few words, he had no choice but to obediently accept the items.
After that, Li Yi gave a camera each to Third Sister and Long Zhanjun, and set one aside for Li Yeqiao—only then was the gift-giving complete!
Next, Li Yi immediately told Dongzi and the others to clean up the shop.
He, however, kept Third Sister and Long Zhanjun behind, intending to discuss shop matters with them!
PS: I’ve seen quite a few readers in the reviews section pointing out that Lao Cang’s exchange rates are incorrect, particularly noting that the exchange rate between the Hong Kong dollar and the Renminbi isn’t 3:1, but rather 100:120.
Lao Cang would like to clarify here: there is definitely no issue with the exchange rates. You must understand that the RMB was very valuable in the 1980s. In 1980, the exchange rate between the RMB and the US dollar was 1.5:1, while the Hong Kong dollar to US dollar exchange rate was 5.56:1 during the same period.
As for 100 Hong Kong dollars exchanging for 120 Renminbi, that didn’t happen until after the 1990s.
Some also claim that the Hong Kong dollar has always been pegged at 7:1 against the US dollar, but this is incorrect. That fixed exchange rate wasn’t implemented until the mid-1980s; prior to that, it was a floating rate.
Lao Cang will elaborate on this in the upcoming plot in a few days; Li Yi’s second investment in Hong Kong Island is directly related to these exchange rate fluctuations.