novelbin Chapter 442 - 354: Hungry Crew at the Seaside Dock
Chapter 442 - 354: Hungry Crew at the Seaside Dock
Sunday morning.
The warm sunshine glimmers with golden ripples on the surface of the sea.
The waves crash against the shore with a salty sea breeze.
Dozens of ships, varying in size, dock at the pier, bobbing with the waves.
Not far from the tranquil seaside pier, a red restaurant truck slowly drives over.
"It’s finally here!"
Over twenty uniformed men and women gather around, all wearing bright smiles as they see the restaurant truck arrive.
"What the heck?"
Lin Chen is a bit confused seeing the pier employees from afar and checks the time; it’s just past five.
Do these people never sleep? How are they here earlier than me?
The pier isn’t far from the hotel, just over a ten-minute drive away, perfectly blocked from view by the cliff where the kite festival was previously held.
"Welcome, Chef!"
A man with short brown hair approaches with a smile.
"My name is Rovena, I’m the manager of Radison Pier. All ships and staff fall under my responsibility. If you need anything, please feel free to contact me. Here’s my business card."
"Hello, Mr. Rovena, just call me Lin."
"Rovena?"
Having just gotten out of Lucas’s car, Zhao Shun hears the name, looking at Lucas in confusion.
"Isn’t that a dog breed?"
"...Pfft."
Lucas didn’t expect the remark, couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
"What? What happened?"
"Old Chen, don’t you know? The man chatting with the Head Chef is named Rovena, which is a dog breed, probably from Europe."
"Shh!! Are you crazy? Anyone talking to the Head Chef must be one of our leaders, and you dare say the leader is a dog?!"
"What’s to fear? He doesn’t understand it anyway; you didn’t know that Chinese is an encrypted language?"
Zhao Shun shows no signs of fear, even intentionally raising his voice to prove the manager doesn’t understand.
Old Chen looks around awkwardly, finding no one is paying attention. Even the beautiful waitresses nearby just watch curiously.
"Are these members of the Head Chef’s team?"
Rovena chats a bit more with Lin Chen, looking past him at the group.
Today, everyone is here: Dais Elsa with the interns Su and Nicole, Lucas with Old Chen and Xiao Zhao, and Lin Chen himself, making eight people total.
"Yes."
Out of courtesy, Rovena shakes hands with everyone.
"Good morning, ladies."
"This one looks like they might be from Northern Europe?"
"Ah, you must be Lucas! I’ve seen you in videos!"
"These two..."
Lucas quickly interjects, "They’re new here, just flew over from Great Xia a couple of days ago. They don’t understand French or English, so don’t worry about them."
Rovena smiles broadly, suddenly speaking a familiar language that surprises several of them.
"No problem, let’s just use Chinese then. I’m Rovena, the manager of the pier. It’s the same name as the Rovena dog breed; people often joke about it, haha. Don’t worry, I’m used to it."
"????"
"What the heck!?"
"This is your encrypted language?"
Rovena’s Chinese is almost as fluent as Lucas’s, though a few pronunciations carry a noticeable accent.
Zhao Shun’s face turns bright red, promptly offering his apologies.
"Sorry, I didn’t mean to..."
"I told you not to worry; a joke can help bring people closer, right?"
The ones who understood broke into cold sweat, while the four women who didn’t just exchanged looks, suddenly feeling inspired to learn Chinese.
Being understood while they couldn’t understand others felt terrible.
Lin Chen had heard Zhao Shun’s joke earlier but didn’t take it to heart because he thought the same.
Who would have thought the manager could speak fluent Chinese? Well, what can you do but accept the misfortune?
"Mr. Rovena, your Chinese is impressive! Have you been to Great Xia before?"
"Yes, I went specifically to learn the language for a year. Living in Great Xia during that time was an unforgettable experience!"
Speaking of this, Rovena’s eyes sparkled.
"If I have the chance, I’d definitely go again; maybe even settle there! Although, I’ve heard getting a green card in Great Xia is incredibly difficult, one of the hardest in the world?"
"Good taste!"
It’s rare to meet a foreigner who speaks Chinese, so Lucas enthusiastically started chatting as if he saw a relative.
Seeing the two of them having a lively conversation, Lin Chen didn’t interrupt them. He called Old Chen and Xiao Zhao to start preparing breakfast.
In addition to meat sandwiches and biangbiang noodles, due to the increase in manpower, Lin Chen added two more dishes.
Peanut sauce noodles, which sold well yesterday, and Sichuan-style shredded chicken cold noodles with a sweet, sour, and spicy flavor.
Lin Chen and Zhao Shun simultaneously began making the dough for the meat sandwiches, while Old Chen wore gloves to shred the chicken. The three of them divided the work clearly and moved swiftly, creating the impression of a professional kitchen team from a video.
The pier employees gathered around early to watch the entire work process up close.
The unique dough-making process was a magical method they had never seen before, and their faces were full of amazement.
"Dais, hang the menu outside; let’s start business immediately, no need to wait."
Lin Chen sent another batch of buns into the oven, glanced at the ten or so piled in the warmer, and called out to the outside.
"Got it, chef!"
Seeing them ready to start business, Lucas quickly interrupted the conversation.
"I must get to work too; you’re here for breakfast, right? Come on, line up while there are no customers yet."
Instead of heading to the food truck, he unloaded two warmers and a pile of fruit from his pickup truck.
The four women didn’t sit idle either, running over to help him handle the fruit.
"Old Chen, you can start chopping the meat. You can make meat sandwiches, right?"
"I can, I can. Just slit open the middle and shove in some meat, pour some sauce—very simple."
"Okay, then I’ll leave it to you."
After giving these instructions, Lin Chen also began making noodles, while covering the table with meal boxes and preparing sauces in advance for the two different flavors.
Rovena glanced at the menu, then carefully watched their actions for a while, getting a general understanding.
"Chef, can these two flavors of noodles be mixed in one portion? If possible, we won’t have to order each one separately, just give us one of each."
"Yes, they can be mixed, of course. But one is peanut sauce, the other is sesame sauce. If any allergies, let me know ahead of time."
"I’m allergic to peanuts, I can eat the sesame one."
"Me too."
"Only these two, right? Got it. Su, go settle the bill."
"Okay, got it!"
Suddenly hearing her name, Su froze, quickly put down what she was holding and ran to wash her hands, then started calculating against the menu.
Today was her first official day at work, originally thinking she’d just assist with minor tasks. Unexpectedly, she was asked to settle bills for customers from the start, feeling definitely nervous.
Even though usually mingling among customers didn’t feel anything, just switching identities made her so nervous her hands trembled.
"Meat sandwiches eight euros, peanut noodles four euros, chicken noodles six euros... total thirty?"
After the calculator gave the same result twice, she finally breathed a sigh of relief, knowing her mental calculation wasn’t wrong.
If it were an odd number like 29 or 31, she might calculate again.
"No, you calculated wrong."
When Dais suddenly appeared next to her, glanced at the number on her phone’s calculator, and shook her head.
"You calculated for two full portions of noodles, but they ordered half-and-half which is 4 plus 6 divided by 2, so 5 euros. Except for the two ordering just chicken noodles at 26 euros, the rest is 25 euros."
"!!!"
Su was first stunned, then suddenly realized and turned red with embarrassment, bowing her head slightly.
"Sorry, my mistake."
"Don’t take it to heart, everyone is nervous facing customers at the start of work, just believe in yourself."
Dais didn’t blame her, instead smiled and patted her shoulder with a few comforting words before returning to help Lucas with the fruit.
The peanut noodles and cold chicken noodles use different noodles; one is thin noodles, the other is alkaline noodles, round ones, plus the handmade biangbiang noodles, totaling three flavors of noodles.
Anticipating the mixed flavor scenario while planning the menu, today’s biangbiang noodles were made in small portions with only two noodles per bowl.
After making thirty or so buns, Zhao Shun didn’t stop, immediately began pulling noodles.
The dough in his hands seemed like a magic prop, instantly lengthened, and slapped onto the table with a loud noise.
"Oh my God!"
"Is this the handmade noodles from the video?"
"I thought only the chef could do such high-difficulty technique, didn’t expect others could too."
"These noodles look so magical, I wonder how they taste."
While Lin Chen and Zhao Shun were busy making noodles and sauces, Old Chen had already grabbed a stack of freshly made hot buns and piled them beside the cutting board, horizontally cutting them in one swift motion.
"Crack"
The crispy sound immediately caught the employees’ attention.
Old Chen opened five buns, then picked a piece of marinated pork held in the broth and tossed it onto the cutting board. The Chinese cleaver lightly pressed, and the thoroughly stewed pork instantly turned into meat paste.
The knife danced up and down, forming trailing shadows, making rhythmic sounds of ’da da da’.
After chopping a dozen times, he poured in a ladle of hot broth and kept chopping a dozen more times, the enticing aroma of marinated meat thoroughly filled the air.