Chapter 271 - 231: Target, Zhang Dezhen’s...

Chapter 271: Chapter 231: Target, Zhang Dezhen’s...

Wang Fulong accepted the assignment with a completely baffled look on his face. His mind was filled with giant question marks, and he was thoroughly perplexed by Xu An’s request.

But no matter how much he didn’t understand, the task Xu An had given him was still within his job description. He could only obediently accept it and prioritize planning it out.

After all, he didn’t want seven or eight people crammed into such a tiny office. He also longed for a bright, clean office with his very own desk...

Most importantly, after so many years of being on the vendor side, he could finally stand tall, transform, and become the client! What an exciting prospect!

Two days and two nights had passed since Xu’s Braised Shop on Taobao had shipped out its orders. Customers within Haiyang Province received their goods at almost the same time. The second batch of customers to receive and taste the Hellish Braised Flavor were from the provinces and cities neighboring Haiyang. By today, aside from customers in remote border regions, the vast majority of customers in other provinces and cities had received their products.

Gu Jiayi was leading a two-person team to handle after-sales service. It was hard to say whether it was because of Xu An’s careful packaging or the courier service’s reliability, but out of more than four thousand orders shipped, only a handful had issues with air leaks.

Since Xu An’s verbal promise of a full refund for any quality issues was honored, the Taobao Store had maintained a 100% positive rating to this day.

Furthermore, an analysis of the backend order data from the Taobao Store showed that many customers who had tried the braised food placed another order almost without hesitation. The quantity of these new orders not only matched their first but in some cases even exceeded it!

Unfortunately, Zhang Dezhen was only one man—a living, breathing person. Even if he worked from eight in the morning to six in the evening, producing 3,000 pounds of braised food was his absolute limit.

In other words, the sole limitation of Xu’s Braised Shop on Taobao at the moment was its production capacity, which couldn’t keep up with the orders.

Xu An wasn’t the only one who had this thought; Zhang Dezhen was also experiencing it profoundly.

The feeling was like standing in a downpour of money, but you only had two hands. In this torrential rain of money, you could only grab a handful at a time, forced to watch as the rest of it hit the ground and vanished...

If only he had a coat, a basin, a bucket, or even a net, all that money would be his for the taking...

This led Zhang Dezhen to have another idea. ’Should I find someone to help me? I could find someone from my hometown who knows how to make braised food to come and help me! That way, our daily production capacity could increase by at least half!’

’But wealth makes people greedy! If this person also has the skill to make this braised food, wouldn’t they suggest to the boss that they split the commission with me?’

After thinking it over and over, Zhang Dezhen came up with the perfect person who met all his requirements and wouldn’t cause him to worry about his commission being split: his own wife!

’We’re family; what’s mine is hers. Whether I earn it or my wife earns it, it’s all money for the family. And I’d still get my full commission, not a cent less!’

’Besides, my original plan was to bring my wife, child, and mother over to live in Hai City after I got established here. This would just be moving the plan up a little...’

’But how should I bring something like this up?’

’If I do mention it, would my wife be considered my assistant, or could she also get her own salary?’

"Master Zhang! Master Zhang! Master Zhang!" A kitchen hand at his side saw Zhang Dezhen standing motionless, holding a large spatula. The braising liquid in the pot was bubbling away, and if he didn’t stir it soon, the food would stick to the bottom. After hesitating for a few seconds, the assistant finally spoke up to remind him, "If you don’t stir the food, it’s going to burn!"

"Ah! Oh, right!"

Snapped back to his senses by the assistant’s reminder, Zhang Dezhen quickly gripped the spatula and began to stir vigorously. As he stirred, he could already feel a slight stickiness at the bottom of the pot. If he had zoned out for another minute or two, this whole pot of braised food would have been truly ruined.

For the rest of his shift, Zhang Dezhen didn’t dare let his mind wander again. He focused intently on the cooking process of each batch of braised food, ensuring there were no more near-"accidents" like the one that had just happened.

Xu An sat behind the cash register, a notebook and pen in hand, looking like he was deep in thought. But his peripheral vision was completely locked on Zhang Dezhen, who was busy in the kitchen.

’How can I convince Zhang Dezhen to recruit a new helper?’

’Not just an assistant like the current ones, who only help add ingredients, monitor the heat, and handle the subsequent cutting and packaging. I need someone who can be directly involved in preparing the marinade blend, someone who can participate in the entire process just like Zhang Dezhen.’

’Putting myself in his shoes... if I were Zhang Dezhen, I’d have a family-secret recipe and be working at a restaurant at the owner’s invitation. To repay the boss for recognizing my talent, I would work diligently and conscientiously, never daring to slack off.’

’Now, the restaurant is booming because of my skills. It’s one thing for the boss not to offer an additional reward, but now he wants to bring someone in to learn my craft!’

’Who could tolerate that! No one could tolerate that!’

’Even someone as simple and honest as Zhang Dezhen would become suspicious because of my suggestion. He might even start thinking that since his skills are so popular, he could probably open his own successful shop...’

’And I can forget about the naive idea of using the kitchen’s surveillance cameras to replicate Zhang Dezhen’s recipe and then just kicking him to the curb.’

’It’s simple, really. In the same family, a grandmother and a mother might use the exact same method to cook a dish, but the final results can be worlds apart.’

’Besides, with the cameras, I could only see which spices Zhang Dezhen uses. But when he adds them, how much he adds, and how he adds them... I’d know none of that.’

That plan was the worst of all options, one Xu An didn’t want to use unless it was his absolute last resort.

’So, what is the optimal solution to this problem?’

’I just solved one problem, and now another one pops up. What a headache!’

Zhang Dezhen wasn’t the type of person who could keep things bottled up. During work hours, he was busy enough to suppress his thoughts. But the moment he stepped out of the shop after his shift, the problem he’d been mulling over resurfaced in his mind.

’Should I tell the boss about this? Can I even bring it up with him? Would it be asking for too much?’

After thinking it over again and again with no solution, Zhang Dezhen decided not to torture himself anymore and simply called his wife.

"Hey, honey! Hehehe!"

"No, no, everything’s fine! Work is going great, and the commission is higher now... Not tired, not tired at all. I’m not working at the physical shop anymore. There are just too many orders from the Taobao Store; I can’t keep up at all. Once we’re caught up with the Taobao Store orders, I’ll think about whether to go back to working at the physical shop."

"Sigh, the reason I called is that I wanted to ask you something. We have so many orders now that I can’t finish them all even if I work all day and night. I was thinking of finding someone to help. But after thinking it over, the best person for the job is you... I just don’t know how to bring it up with the boss..."

"Huh? Just say it directly? But what if the boss thinks that just because business is good, I’m getting ahead of myself?"

"Alright, I’ll give it a try then! Worst case, you can just help me for free, and we’ll earn the commission money together!"

After getting a viable plan from his wife, Zhang Dezhen felt as if a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders, and his whole body felt light and at ease.

Back in the village, Xu An was also pondering how to convince Zhang Dezhen, but after much thought, he couldn’t come up with a good method. Finally, he thought, ’Second Grand-uncle has traveled far and wide for so many years and has experienced all sorts of things. Maybe he can give me some solid advice.’

And so, Xu An appeared in his Second Grand-uncle’s courtyard.

"So, you’re saying you want to find an apprentice for a master chef with a unique secret skill, but you’re afraid the master will think you have other motives and run off to start his own business?"

After listening to Xu An’s story, his Second Grand-uncle extracted the main point from his rambling explanation.

"Mhm!" Xu An nodded very sincerely.

"Does this master chef have any siblings? What’s their relationship like?"

"No siblings."

"Then how old are his parents?"

"His father has passed away, and his mother isn’t in good health and can’t do heavy labor."

"What about his wife?"

"His wife is in good health. I often hear him praise her, saying she’s a natural at everything and is even more efficient at work than he is."

"Well, there you have it!"

His Second Grand-uncle, in a Western mannerism he must have picked up from somewhere, spread his hands and shrugged at Xu An, indicating that the problem was perfectly solved.

"Huh?" Xu An let out a sound of confusion.

"Just have his wife become his apprentice! They’re family, so you don’t have to worry about the secret recipe leaking. Whether they earn more or less, it’s all money for their family, plus they’d get an extra salary. What’s not to love?"

With his Second Grand-uncle spelling it out so clearly, even a complete idiot would have understood.

’That’s right! How did I not think of it? Zhang Dezhen’s wife is the perfect candidate!’

’I remember hearing Zhang Dezhen say before that once he was settled in Hai City, he planned to bring his family over to live here. He wanted his child to go to school in Hai City, his mother to get better medical care, and his wife to have a more relaxed and comfortable life.’

’Isn’t this the perfect opportunity?!’