Chapter 277: A Call for Help

Nothing happened that night, and Li Yi got up early the next morning!

He then woke up Qiangzi, and after a quick wash, the two headed straight for Dong’an Market in the city center.

Running a restaurant may be profitable, but it’s also truly hard work.

Especially for someone like Li Yi, who runs a high-end restaurant, ingredients are crucial—he has to arrive at the market early to buy the freshest ones.

Even the slightest compromise in quality could affect customer reviews and create a negative impression.

Over the course of yesterday, Li Yi’s restaurant sold a total of two and a half 60-jin fat sheep, over 60 jin of beef, and over 30 jin of pork belly, as well as more than 20 jin of chicken.

Today, he not only needs to restock but also prepare extra supplies.

This isn’t to say that business today will necessarily be better than yesterday’s, but he must plan ahead—he can’t let customers come with high expectations only to leave disappointed.

At six in the morning, the capital was shrouded in mist, and the air was thick with the smell of smoke and soot—a result of every household lighting their coal stoves.

The staff at Dong’an Market were already hard at work; they had to have all the vegetables, eggs, meat, and other groceries ready by 8:00 a.m., before the public came to shop.

Of course, there are customers at this hour, but they are usually buyers from large restaurants.

Since their orders were large and they were quite particular, they usually arrived very early.

Li Yi and Qiangzi approached the meat stall they’d been visiting for the past couple of days and called out to the burly man who was deboning meat: “Old Yang!”

The burly man turned around, immediately recognized Li Yi, and said with a smile, “It’s you two again. Back for more meat?”

“Yeah, give me three young rams today—no older than a year—and a hundred pounds of beef, preferably steaks or eye of round!” Li Yi said.

“Three sheep? Your business must be booming!”

“Heh, we just opened yesterday—it’s going pretty well!”

“Alright then, same as always—should I debone them for you?”

“Yes, and make sure they’re thoroughly deboned!”

“Got it!”

Old Yang selected three carefully chosen rams for Li Yi to inspect. After confirming the meat was top-notch, Li Yi asked him to debone them.

Meanwhile, he took advantage of the downtime to take Qiangzi to a nearby vegetable stall, where he began a frenzied shopping spree based on the list he’d jotted down the night before.

By the time they finished shopping, Old Yang had finished deboning the lamb.

Li Yi then hired a pedicab to haul the goods back to his restaurant.

By the time they returned to the restaurant in Beiguan Village, the sun had risen, and Dongzi and the others had already arrived.

Everyone pitched in to carry all the meat, vegetables, and seasonings into the shop, and Li Yi personally took to the kitchen to cook a pot of hot noodle soup with meat for the young guys.

After the meal, Dongzi and the others busied themselves preparing the vegetables and meat for the midday service, while Li Yi went to the front desk to record all the morning’s expenses.

The worst thing in the restaurant business is having a tangled mess of accounts. That leads to a situation where even the owner doesn’t know if he’s making a profit or a loss, let alone the exact amount.

That’s why, ever since his previous life, no matter what business Li Yi ran, he always kept his books meticulously organized and clear.

The barbecue restaurant usually doesn’t open in the morning, as they’re busy making all sorts of preparations before noon.

Before long, the morning had flown by amid the bustling preparations!

Before noon, two cars pulled up in the open space in front of the Grassland Beef and Lamb Restaurant, and seven or eight young people got out.

Although Li Yi didn’t know their names, he recognized them as the friends Jiang Longcheng had called in yesterday.

As soon as they entered the restaurant, they greeted Li Yi and then requested a private room.

Shortly after, another table arrived—a few junior managers from the foundry down the street.

From then on, customers kept streaming in, and before long, there were over ten tables filled.

Although fifty or sixty customers might seem sparse for a large restaurant spanning five or six hundred square meters, Li Yi was already quite satisfied.

After all, this wasn’t your average ramen shop or a cheap Sichuan stir-fry joint—the prices were anything but low. If the place were packed to the brim, it would be a disaster!

It’s just like those expensive Western restaurants—as long as the prices aren’t cheap, there usually aren’t many diners.

And that’s precisely why Western restaurants give off a quiet, elegant vibe—not a bit noisy.

Add some soothing light music to the mix, and the dining atmosphere instantly feels different.

With yesterday’s experience under their belts, Dongzi and the others were handling things with ease today. Although they were just four teenagers in their mid-teens, they managed over a dozen tables with ease.

At 2:30 p.m., they saw off the last table of customers.

Li Yi immediately had Dongzi close the shop, then brought out a copper pot, and the five of them enjoyed a hearty meal of hot pot lamb.

After the meal, Li Yi told the boys to head back to their rented apartment to rest and come back after 4:30.

He, however, stayed behind to clean up the mess all by himself!

After all, Dongzi and the others had been working since the morning and were exhausted; they needed to rest for a while at noon, or they wouldn’t be able to make it through the night.

However, just as he had seen Dongzi and the others off and was about to lock up and head to the back to wash the dishes, he saw a jeep pull up arrogantly right in front of the shop.

Instantly, Li Yi’s brow furrowed!

Seeing Li Yi’s expression, Jiang Longcheng inside the car knew his behavior had upset the young man.

He didn’t know what had come over him, but he immediately backed the car up a dozen or so meters and parked it neatly in a parking space before getting out with Ye Jianhua.

Seeing that Jiang Longcheng had the good sense not to block the entrance with his beat-up Jeep, Li Yi let it slide.

“It’s past dinnertime. What are you two doing here?”

Jiang Longcheng said with a smile, “We knew you’d be busy if we came earlier, so we waited a bit!”

“Hmm, you’re right on time!” Li Yi said.

“What for?”

“Come on, let’s go wash the dishes!”

“Wash… wash dishes?”

Li Yi then led the two of them to the kitchen and set about washing pots and dishes with them.

Jiang Longcheng and Ye Jianhua were both dumbfounded. Both came from prominent families; while they weren’t exactly spoiled brats, they’d never done this kind of work in their lives.

But when they saw Li Yi squatting right there with them, washing the dishes, they knew they were in for a day of hard labor.

Fortunately, there weren’t many customers that afternoon. It took the three of them over an hour, but they finally managed to wash all the plates, bowls, copper pots, and steamer baskets, and then cleaned the kitchen thoroughly.

After finishing all that, Jiang Longcheng and Ye Jianhua felt their backs and legs aching; they seemed completely drained.

Seeing the two of them in such a sorry state, Li Yi smiled and said, “You two are way too out of shape—you need to exercise more!”

“How do we exercise?” Jiang Longcheng asked offhand.

“Come to my shop more often. In a year at most, I guarantee you’ll be able to climb six flights of stairs in one go without breaking a sweat!” Li Yi said.

Jiang Longcheng and Ye Jianhua exchanged a glance and shook their heads in unison.

“Don’t even think about trying to trick us into working as dishwashers for you!” Jiang Longcheng said.

“Haha, seriously, if you two washed dishes here for a year, you’d definitely be in better shape than you are now!”

“That’s nonsense. I’d be in even better shape if I spent a year hauling heavy bags at the docks!” Jiang Longcheng shot Li Yi a withering look.

“Alright, you two, what’s this all about? Why are you here?”

Jiang Longcheng glanced at Ye Jianhua, then said, “You go ahead and tell him!”

Ye Jianhua immediately replied, “Brother Li Yi, the main reason we’re here today is to ask for your help!”

“What kind of favor?”

“Help my aunt with a fortune-telling reading!” Ye Jianhua said.

“I don’t do that!”

“Um… Brother Li Yi, my aunt’s condition really isn’t good. It could happen at any moment. Please help us. No matter what the terms are, our Ye family…”

Before he could finish, Li Yi cut him off and said, “What exactly is wrong with your aunt? I may not know how to read fortunes, but I might still be able to help!”

“My aunt is Old Jiang’s sister-in-law. When she was young, she had an accident that caused her to lose the baby she was carrying. Ever since then, her mental state has been severely affected.”

Ye Jianhua continued, “Things were okay a few years back when my uncle was there to look after her. But for the past two years, my uncle’s been transferred to another province, and my aunt refused to go with him. Since then, her condition has been up and down—she often gets so depressed she thinks about taking her own life. Both our families have been through hell because of this.”

Li Yi thought for a moment and said, “Your aunt has classic symptoms of depression. Coming to me won’t help—you need to see a doctor!”

“De… depression?”

“Yeah, it’s a mental health condition. You can ask the doctor for more details!” Li Yi said.

“It’s no use. We’ve brought in the best doctors in the country, but they all say it’s a mental illness—there’s no cure!”

Just then, Li Yi suddenly thought of something and said, “Actually, I might be able to help with this!”

Upon hearing this, Jiang Longcheng and Ye Jianhua’s eyes lit up instantly, and they stared intently at Li Yi!