A Stay-at-home Dad’s Restaurant In An Alternate World

Mag was a little surprised. It looked like his trial sale yesterday was pretty successful—customers had lined up outside his restaurant in the early morning. Mag smiled and nodded. He turned over his “Open” sign and turned sideways to let them in.

Mobai came in first. “Mag, seems like I have to come here earlier from now on. Maybe the line will reach the other end of the square someday,” he said, smiling. “I’ll have two plates of Yangzhou fried rice. Roujiamo is more for violent young men.”

Mag nodded. “Okay. Please wait a sec.”

“Mag, I’d like one plate of the new dish. What’s it called again?” asked the small-eyed man that followed Mobai in. He took a seat.

“It’s called la zhi roujiamo. You can find it on the menu,” Mag replied with a smile. The system had added the new dish and its price onto the menu and saved Mag a lot of trouble.

In addition to that, on the back of the menu, Mag had asked the system to put down two rules in gold letters: A, no yelling in the restaurant; B, cash only, no credit allowed!

As for other rules, he decided to add them later. After all, he didn’t know what he would encounter running a restaurant in this world. He decided to make new rules when new problems appeared.

A comfortable dining environment was a basic rule; nobody liked to be disturbed when enjoying their meal.

He only accepted cash because he didn’t want to collect debts. He was running this restaurant to make money and give Amy and himself a better life; his restaurant was not a charitable organization.

Only people who were good to them—like Luna—didn’t have to pay once in a while; surely others had to pay. The ingredients cost a lot, and Mag was in an urgent need of money, so he wouldn’t provide meals free.

“I’d like one roujiamo, no, two. I have wanted to try it when I walked past here and watched them eat last night,” a fat man said, and seated himself.

They all walked in and some looked at the menu. Since roujiamo only cost half as much as Yangzhou fried rice, they all ordered roujiamo first.

After Mag took everyone’s orders, he turned around and went into the kitchen.

The loaves of bai ji bread were lying ready inside the oven, and the stewed meat was well-cooked, so he only needed to stuff the meat into the bread to make a roujiamo.

“Good morning, dwarf grandpa Mobai,” Amy said as she sat on a long-legged chair, holding Ugly Duckling in her arms. She also exchanged greetings with other customers that she had met these days, but she referred to them by odd nicknames.

For instance, she called the small-eyed man “Squint-eyed Man”, and the fat one “Big Squint-eyed Man” because his eyes were narrowed by his fat to a squint, but he was bigger, so she called him “Big Squint-eyed man” to distinguish him from the small-eyed man.

With regard to Amy’s strange way of nicknaming them, customers had no choice but to accept their nicknames with a smile.

After all, Mag’s cooking was so good, and the little girl was so adorable—they were unable to get mad at all.

Mobai nodded, smiling. “Morning, little owner.” Then he noticed Ugly Duckling’s little head in Amy’s arms. “What’s that? A cat?” he asked curiously.

The other customers also looked at the little bundle in Amy’s arms with curiosity. It was fluffy, like a cat, and had orange and white hair, very cute. They had only seen solid-colored cats before, and most of them were white or black; they had never seen such a strange-colored cat in their life.

Ugly Duckling looked over the customers with its sapphire eyes out of curiosity. It had almost slept a whole day yesterday, so it was seeing that many people for the first time. Seeing that they were all staring at it, it bared its teeth and growled by instinct.

Amy shook her head. “No, it’s an ugly duckling.” She gave the Ugly Duckling’s head a press. “Stop, Ugly Duckling. Don’t disturb the customers,” she said.

“Meow…” Ugly Duckling stopped obediently and lay comfortably in Amy’s arms again. It yawned, cast a glance at them from the corner of its eye, and closed its eyes to sleep again, ignoring them all.

They felt they had been disdained by a cat, and the looks on their faces became a little strange, but they couldn’t get mad at a little girl, let alone at a cat.

“An ugly duckling?”

They were a little confused when they heard Amy’s words; they didn’t have the slightest clue why this cute kitten was an ugly duckling.

However, on second thought, they found it quite reasonable since it was Amy who had named it, and Amy nicknamed people at random and had a vicious tongue. Maybe it was its fate to have that name because its master was Amy.

Mag walked out with their roujiamos while they were waiting expectantly. It was much faster to cook. Then he went back into the kitchen to make Yangzhou fried rice.

Mobai didn’t mind. He had come here first, but he was willing to wait a little longer for good food.

The small-eyed man took a sniff of the roujiamo and took a bite. The tasty food raged in his mouth. After he swallowed, it seemed like something inside his blood was trying to get out. Despite himself, he closed his eyes and let out a long, satisfied sound, happiness written all over his face.

The fat man, Harrison, glanced at the small-eyed man. He is too easily impressed. He cast a disdainful look at him. I’m pretty expectant about this roujiamo too, but I won’t react so exaggeratedly like him.

He opened his mouth and took a large bite. His eyes widened in an instant.

The tasty grave seeped out as he bit into the well-cooked meat, and blended with the soft, sweet bai ji bread. The food was so delicious that he felt the fat all over his body was shaking as if it were cheering and dancing in excitement.

One could tell from his body shape that he was very fond of eating. His family owned three banks, so he never worried about money.

He once had had a huge spread that was worth hundreds of gold coins in the capital of the Roth Empire. Various precious ingredients had been cooked into tasty dishes, and he had thought those were the most delicious things in this world.

Now it seemed those were almost inedible compared to this bite of roujiamo. Their taste had been so heavily dependent on spices and seasonings that they were no match for such delicious gravy. Even the white bread outside was so sweet and tasty.

More surprisingly, after he swallowed, he felt as if he had drunk some strong liquor; the taste wasn’t strong, though. His blood was beginning to pump as if it became violent all of a sudden. He felt his fat was burning and shaking slightly. A sheen of sweat covered his brow.

“Ah…” The fat man couldn’t refrain from letting out a satisfied sound, and his was much louder than the small-eyed man’s. He opened his eyes immediately. “How can something be this good in this world! Mag, you must be a genius!” he said to Mag as he walked out with a plate of Yangzhou fried rice.