Chapter 25  : Capital Problem!

“Hello, little Master Chef, there’s no need to be nervous. We’re from the city enforcement team.”

The man in the city enforcement uniform smiled and said.

Xu Le immediately felt shy when he heard the city enforcement officers call him “Little Master Chef”.

“You can just call me Xu Le.”

“Okay, little… Xu Le friend. We’re here to make some law enforcement suggestions based on the city management rules.”

This was also the first time the city enforcement officers were dealing with children at work, so they were slightly nervous.

“The business here is too good. There are many customers who don’t have seats and can only eat by the roadside with their bowls. The number of people queuing often exceeds a hundred. It’s too crowded for this food street, and it’s very easy for traffic problems to arise.”

Xu Le frowned after hearing the city enforcement officer’s suggestion.

The city enforcement officers were right.

His food stall only had one table and four stools, and the number of customers that came every day could exceed a thousand people at times. If all of them crowded on this street, it would indeed affect the operation of the entire food street.

“Buddy Xu Le, based on our suggestion, it’s best for you to open a proper store. It will be beneficial to your future development and reduce the pressure on the city management.”

Xu Le fell into deep thought.

The city enforcement officer’s words were very clear.

With his current business model, it was obviously not going to work. He had to rent a store.

But renting a storefront meant spending money…

He still needed to rent a venue and renovate it.

Even tens of thousand might not be enough.

After the city enforcement officer left, Xu Le sat alone on the chair and fell into deep thought.

When his parents left, they did not leave behind any savings.

There were only a few thousand dollars in the bank account.

Xu Le had been working hard for the past few days. His total income was about 40,000 yuan, but he still had to pay the rent at home.

If he wanted to rent a storefront… after Xu Le’s rough calculations, it would take at least 200,000 yuan.

Two hundred thousand…

Xu Le’s face was filled with bitterness.

Even if his business was booming now, it was still just a food stall after all. He was the only chef.

Being able to earn a few thousand dollars a day was already the limit.

If he wanted to save up 200,000, he would need a month or more.

He was just a child, and the bank could not provide him with a loan.

This time, the city enforcement officers had come here to give him some suggestions.

But that might not be the case next time.

What made Xu Le even more worried was that there would be hundreds and thousands of people crowding in front of his snack stall every day. What if there was a safety hazard?

As a vendor, he had to take responsibility.

“F*ck, will I go to jail?”

Xu Le suddenly felt nervous at this thought.

The opening of a store was imminent, but… how should he settle the issue of insufficient capital?

Xu Le could not think of any good ideas.

However, he could not waste any time. Xu Le sat in front of the food stall and immersed his consciousness into the system space to continue practicing his culinary skills.

Xu Le understood that cooking was his greatest asset.

As long as he had the culinary skills, he could never starve himself.

…

“Little Master Chef? Little Master Chef?”

Xu Le, who was practising his culinary skills in the system space, suddenly heard a voice from outside.

And that voice… sounded familiar?

Xu Le left the system space curiously and slowly opened his eyes.

What greeted his eyes was a slightly plump and honest-looking man in a white chef’s uniform standing in front of the food stall.

Wasn’t this the Heavenly Restaurant’s chef, Zhang Tong?

Xu Le was quite fond of Chef Zhang.

After all, after eating the Golden Egg Fried Rice cooked by him last time, he had written an article with several thousand words on Weibo. The whole article was praising Xu Le’s culinary skills.

The article was also forwarded by Cai Lan, the Hong Kong’s Food God, causing Xu Le to become popular even in other fields.

When Xu Le saw Zhang Tong at the snack stall, he thought that he was there to taste the new dish again.

“Great Chef Zhang, what would you like to eat this time?”

“Don’t… don’t.” Zhang Tong hastily waved his hand and smiled embarrassedly. “Little Master Chef, don’t call me Great Chef. I can’t afford to be called that.”

Zhang Tong said that from the bottom of his heart.

After eating the bowl of Egg Fried Rice, Zhang Tong deeply felt that his culinary skills were far inferior to Xu Le’s. He even had the thought of becoming his disciple.

“One serving for all the dishes.” Zhang Tong said expectantly.

To his surprise, Xu Le shook his head again.

“It’s not business time yet.”

“There’s still an hour.” Xu Le could not help but smile as he pointed at the signboard beside them.

It was written clearly.

Business hours—

Lunch: 10:30 – 13:30 PM

Dinner: 5:30 – 8:30 PM

It was only four in the afternoon and it was not time for the food stall to open for business yet.

Zhang Tong’s expression froze.

He was too unlucky. He had been to Xu Le’s snack stall twice, but he did not even get to eat the famous Oil Doused Noodles.

“But… I’ve got a little leftover dough, so I’ll reluctantly make you a bowl.”

Xu Le sighed and stood up reluctantly.

“Thank you, little Master Chef!”

Zhang Tong smiled.

For the past few days, he had been thinking about this bowl of oil doused noodles that he had not eaten.

It was a pity that the business hours of Xu Le’s food stall clashed with his working hours, so he had not tried it yet.

Zhang Tong liked to cook and eat.

In his opinion, the most important thing in life was to eat and enjoy good food.

For someone like him who loved delicious food, Xu Le’s oil doused noodles were extremely lethal.

A few minutes later, the noodles were served.

Xu Le sprinkled his secret sauce and then added a spoonful of boiling vegetable seed oil.

Whoosh—

As the oil splattered everywhere, Zhang Tong’s eyes glowed.

“Have a taste.” Xu Le pouted and placed the noodles in front of him.

Zhang Tong didn’t stand on ceremony. He picked up his bowl and started eating.

After two mouthfuls, he ate more than half a bowl.

While eating, Zhang Tong explained his purpose for coming here.

“Master Chef, the 12th Shanghai Food Exhibition is going to be held soon. There’s a cooking contest. Do you want to participate?”

“A cooking contest?”

Xu Le was stunned after hearing that.

However, he shook his head and said, “I’m just a kid. Why would I participate in a competition?”

Xu Le was speaking the truth.

All he wanted to do was to run his own food stall and cook well. As for competitions, so what if he won the championship? It was just a title.

“That’s true… with your great cooking skills, you may no longer care about these useless titles.”

As he said that, Zhang Tong had finished the oil doused noodles.

“But I need to work hard. The prize money for first place is 300,000 yuan, which is equivalent to half a year of my salary.”

Zhang Tong put down the bowl and turned around to leave.

“How much is the prize money?”

“300,000?”

Xu Le was stunned.

“Chef Zhang, come back!”