Chapter 29: Chapter 29: The Feeling of a Green Onion Running Wild in Your Mouth

Waiting for the end of the workday is always torture. Waiting to eat a delicious meal after the workday is even greater torture!

The moment Wang Rui’s phone countdown ended.

Everyone from the General Affairs Office and the Human Resources Department stood up at almost the same time.

"Wang Rui, is the canteen at that company you mentioned really that good? But will their company canteen even serve us?"

"Of course it’s good. If you don’t believe me, ask the people from my office. We had a group dinner there yesterday. Their boss is good friends with our Director Li. Don’t worry, we can definitely go. I’ve already paid." Wang Rui was very confident.

When he went to get takeout in the morning, the boss of Delicious had clearly told him that they would be open for lunch. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Plus, he also had the WeChat of that chubby guy.

"Their product manager is a good friend of mine, too. We’re even WeChat friends!" Wang Rui added.

"It doesn’t have to be amazing. As long as it’s at the level of a normal home-cooked meal, that’s good enough. The food in our canteen is barely fit for human consumption."

"Our canteen’s boss has no shame. He’s completely shameless just for the company subsidy. If the place across the street is actually good, I’ll go eat there every day from now on!"

"It’s just a shame you can’t order from a menu. I heard from Wang Rui that you just send them your needs, and you eat whatever they make."

"Pfft! For two hundred yuan, I eat whatever the restaurant serves? Heh, now that you mention it, you could totally make a video about something like that."

The group laughed and joked as they clocked out, chatting while heading straight for the building across the street.

Li Mingtao stood at the entrance of the new company’s canteen. "Director Zhou, how come no one from our office came to eat today?"

Zhou Kai gave a bitter smile. "Isn’t that normal? The only ones who eat here every day are from the Technical and Engineering departments. The office staff, finance, HR... none of them really come."

"Oh." Li Mingtao went inside and walked around, but looking at the dishes, he had absolutely no appetite.

The ingredients were all decent enough, but the canteen somehow managed to turn them into a completely unappetizing lunch. It was truly bizarre.

If Delicious hadn’t closed down, at least he could have had three decent meals a day.

"Forget it, Director Zhou. Let’s just go back to the office and make do with something," Li Mingtao sighed.

"Let’s go. I’ve got a private stash of snacks back at my desk." Zhou Kai was long used to this.

As the two passed by the main office area, Zhou Kai made a point to glance inside, wanting to see what everyone was secretly eating instead of going to the canteen.

But to his surprise, he didn’t see a single person.

"Where is everyone?" Zhou Kai was a little dumbfounded.

"Yeah, where is everyone?" Li Mingtao was also a bit baffled.

It was the middle of the day, they weren’t in the canteen, and they weren’t secretly eating in the office. So where were they?

As for where they were...

「Meiweilai Company.」

A bustling group of fifteen people streamed out of two elevators.

"Whoa! Is this company for real? The sign is falling off. Did the boss skip town with his sister-in-law or something?"

"Don’t talk nonsense! Their boss is a really handsome young guy, and he’s the one who personally cooked for us." Wang Rui subconsciously defended Boss Su.

"Really? A young, handsome guy who can cook?"

Wang Rui shot his office’s accountant a contemptuous look. "Forget it. The waitress at that company is as gorgeous as a movie star, and even she gets ordered around by the boss. What are you even thinking!"

The warehouse clerk, Liu Xia, was walking at the back, her face full of disdain for Wang Rui’s words.

’So all the girls in his own class are dinosaurs, but all the upperclassmen and underclassmen are beautiful babes, huh?’

’You’ll regret this someday!’

The General Affairs staff, who had been to Delicious the day before, confidently strode through the office area and straight into the canteen, with the others following close behind.

The moment they stepped into the canteen.

Liu Xia’s eyes instantly lit up. "Oh my god! What is that smell? Scallions? Don’t tell me they’re making us Stir-fried Pork with Scallions?"

She had to admit, although she was initially skeptical about Delicious’s strange service model, now that she was actually inside the canteen, she felt a strange sense of anticipation.

Liu Xia was a local too.

The most annoying part of going home every day was her mom’s question: "What do you want to eat tonight?"

She found it annoying, but her mom found it even more annoying, because her answer was always, "Anything’s fine."

The Delicious model perfectly solved this problem!

You just state your needs, and as for what to make, I’ll take care of it for you!

"In your dreams. You think they’re making you Stir-fried Pork with Scallions for twenty yuan? Boss Su~ We’re here!" Wang Rui called out to the young man at the canteen entrance.

"Mm." Su Chen gave a slight nod and left the canteen without another word.

He could use this time to go back to his office and catch up on some sleep. Besides that, Su Chen also had to rethink something.

Based on the current business model, his employees’ work hours clearly exceeded eight hours, and the extra time would require overtime pay.

But the overtime hours were actually the busiest, while regular work hours were a bit slow. He needed to change Meiweilai Company’s attendance policy.

’Hmm... How did I start thinking like a capitalist all of a sudden? That’s not good, not good at all!’

Meanwhile, Wang Rui’s group sat expectantly at a round table. It was a bit of a squeeze for fifteen people, so four of them sat at a small square table to the side, which worked out perfectly.

Once everyone was seated, Bai Xiaobo, Xiaobin, Aunt Fang, He Shuting, and Liu Shengnan—all five of them—began bringing bowls of noodles out from the kitchen.

Two bowls of noodles per tray.

Before the noodles were even placed on the table, Wang Rui had already stood up eagerly to get a look.

It was a large, wide bowl containing a slightly thick-looking broth. A light, soy-sauce color coated the noodles; you could almost taste it just by looking.

"Uh... it’s a bowl of noodles."

"My expectations were too high, so now I’m a little let down. But it’s understandable, it’s only twenty yuan."

"Aromatic oil noodles aren’t bad, and the portion size is generous. Oh well, as long as it’s better than our canteen, it’s fine."

A few of the employees who hadn’t been here before murmured among themselves.

Before coming, they had even discussed it. This company made its business model sound so elaborate—could it be that someone really analyzed the customers’ needs in detail before cooking?

Some had even put themselves in the shoes of the "product manager," fantasizing about what kind of lunch they would get.

Until a bowl of noodles appeared before them, the disappointment on a few of their faces was obvious.

A twenty-yuan bowl of noodles...

It wasn’t expensive, but it wasn’t exactly cheap either. And there was that two-yuan mystery service fee.

But as consumers, people always have that mindset: they hope to get more service and product than what they paid for, to get more bang for their buck.

Among everyone there, only Wang Rui was full of anticipation for this plain-looking bowl of aromatic oil noodles. He was the last one to get his.

Wang Rui couldn’t wait. He gave the noodles a quick stir and picked up a huge mouthful with his chopsticks.

"SLUUURP~~"

Two chews!

Wang Rui only chewed twice before the huge helping of noodles went down, accompanied by a single exclamation: "Holy shit!"

"Did you burn your mouth?" the accountant asked considerately.

"No!"

Wang Rui’s eyes were wide. "It’s delicious! This feeling..."

He thought for a long time. His four years of studying Chinese language and literature didn’t seem to be helping him now. He found it difficult to describe this wonderful taste with any literary flair, but he still tried his best to describe the exquisite flavor.

"It’s like Liu Xia ran a lap inside my mouth carrying a bundle of giant scallions!"

The warehouse clerk, Liu Xia, clenched her fists, snapping the noodles on her chopsticks in half. She couldn’t help but picture the scene in her head.

She glared at Wang Rui, grinding her teeth.

’Aren’t you supposed to be a poet? Aren’t you the sophisticated, literary type?’

’Go on, compose a poem!’

’Is that how your language arts teacher taught you to make metaphors?’

’If you don’t know how to describe it, then just shut the hell up...’

A mouthful of noodles entered her mouth.

’Holy crap!’ Liu Xia didn’t say a word, but she was stunned.

’I really am running a lap with a bundle of scallions!’