Chapter 288: Level Up
"That’s fine." Hearing the introduction as such, Wu Zhou let out a sigh of relief at once.
"Humm. Thank you, Brother Wu," Wang Nan said earnestly.
"Don’t mention it to him. You can treat him to a meal when you get your first salary." Zhao Yingjun understood Wang Nan to some extent as he had also been transferred to Jinling City to work.
"Yeah, he’s right. That would be the best reward for me." Wu Zhou was rather expectant.
"Alright." Wang Nan answered squarely.
"That’s good. No more problems now." Zhao Yingjun patted on the shoulders of Wang Nan.
"Let’s leave now." Wu Zhou dragged the other two persons away to offer their seats to others.
"A weird person." Wu Hai muttered to himself again.
"You don’t understand?" Yuan Zhou suddenly asked.
"Yes, I understand. I just don’t agree." Wu Hai shook his head.
"Ok." Yuan Zhou nodded the head and then went back again to cook.
Wu Hai was slightly dumbfounded while waiting. He thought of the previous call made from Zheng Jiawei.
"Hai, how are you getting on these two days?" The gentle voice of Zheng Jiawei passed from the other end of the phone.
He could even vaguely hear his sister complaining discontentedly, "Why do you talk to him so gently? He went back to enjoy life but left you here."
"Not bad. What’s the matter?" Taking the phone in the hand, Wu Hai enjoyed the good taste of the breakfast in retrospect lazily.
"The paintings have all been sold out, including the primary painting in the main exhibition and the second best painting." Zheng Jiawei kept silent for a while and then said tentatively.
"Are they all sold out?" Wu Hai sat up straight and revealed a serious expression.
"Yes. That painting of All Sentient Beings Passing sold for 1.05 million RMB higher than the other painting of Elegant Beauty." This time, Zheng Jiawei explained to him in details.
"Who bought it?" With a frown, Yuan Zhou felt a little unhappy, not knowing why.
"The one whom we are talking about several days ago. You have also seen him." At the other end of the phone, Zheng Jiawei described the details of the buyer.
"Ok, I got it." As soon as Wu Hai heard that, he hung off the phone directly.
"Did he hang up the phone?" Wu Lin took a look at Zheng Jiawei who appeared helpless.
"Humm. He doesn’t seem to be happy." While speaking, Zheng Jiawei even started to worry about Wu Hai.
"Forget it. It’s him who wants to sell it. That’s no business of yours." Wu Lin went to sit beside Zheng Jiawei and tried to comfort him while holding his hands.
"Actually, I can tell that Hai doesn’t want to sell it. Not knowing why, however, he still decided to sell it in the end." Zheng Jiawei sighed.
"He’s just capricious." Wu Lin didn’t really agreed with him. She was clear that if Wu Hai didn’t want to sell, he would have thought of whatever ways to stop it. Right now, she wanted to comfort her boyfriend more.
"Lin Lin, let’s go for a meal." Having been comforted by Wu Lin, Zheng Jiawei likewise got better. He dragged Wu Lin’s slender hand and stood up, saying that.
"Humm." Wu Lin stood up obediently and let Zheng Jiawei guide her freely.
When the lovers were behaving sweetly, Wu Hai was nevertheless fairly dissatisfied at the other side.
After hanging off the phone, Wu Hai began to stare blankly and remembered his paintings.
When the art exhibition was in the pipeline, Wu Hai didn’t have a clear theme at the beginning. Not until he stayed for long in Yuan Zhou’s restaurant did he create this theme painting.
It was quite interesting. By the way, Wu Hai studied oil painting.
In the painting, there was only a small store with no shop sign which was surrounded by many spots at first glance. If anybody checked carefully, however, he would find the spots were actually all people. Only by a more careful observation could he discover these seemingly shadowy figures actually had their own moods. They were just like real persons of complete emotions.
Inside of the small restaurant, Yuan Zhou was clearly seen. He was busying working in the kitchen and appeared to be an earnest and great master of superb culinary skills. At the curved long table was Mu Xiaoyun who had twin tails. A kind of happiness arose spontaneously upon seeing her.
Except Wu Hai, all the regular customers were there among other customers eating inside. Anybody who was familiar with them could recognize them very easily, even if Wu Hai didn’t draw their detailed expressions out.
At the entrance, there were the conspicuous wood board on which No Trash were written, the boxer that was walking into the restaurant with wounds all over his body, the grey-haired old granny, the weird man who walked for a redundant lap around Yuan Zhou’s restaurant, the customers that lined up waiting outside, and the four tall, short, fat and thin persons who maintained order.
Of course, there was also a pretty woman in the painting. She only had a side face, but nevertheless looked fairly gentle and elegant. She was right standing at the side quietly. This meaningful scene and the dark night simply made the best of each other.
These multiple elements formed this oil painting, which looked extraordinarily harmonious. Every viewer would take himself to be one of the figures subconsciously as it would give people a feeling of warmth, happiness or delight.
"Two months’ work is sold like that. Tsk." Wu Hai seemed to be complaining with a hint of unwillingness.
As for the other one, Wu Hai felt more dissatisfied when thinking of that.
In the other painting was a view of a woman’s back. Only by looking at the painting could one clearly tell it was a very pretty woman.
This woman was the purpose that made Zheng Jiawei specially call and tell Wu Hai about the sales.
"Forget it. Let me eat first." After the short moment of retrospect, it happened to be the business time at noon at Yuan Zhou’s restaurant. Then, Wu Hai stood up and entered Yuan Zhou’s restaurant.
Due to all these happenings, Wu Hai didn’t look good anymore, but he himself didn’t know it.
"What’s wrong with you? Did you eat the dyestuff?" Looking at Wu Hai’s expression, Yuan Zhou asked naturally.
"Eat the dyestuff?" Wu Hai didn’t get his meaning.
"You cooked colorful dishes again by yourself." Yuan Zhou said that with an inquiring tone, but the utterance was nevertheless quite firm.
"That’s art," Wu Hai stroked his small mustaches and declared solemnly.
"Performing arts?" Yuan Zhou was rather fashionable.
"Painter, the art of a painter. You don’t have any artistic sense," Wu Hai felt quite speechless.
"I see. But I still like cooking more," Yuan Zhou said lightly.
As they were chatting, Wu Hai looked better. Yuan Zhou didn’t answer Wu Hai every time as he was really very busy during the business hour at noon. And Wu Hai wasn’t a person who liked talking all the time, either.
"Here are your dishes." Only when Zhou Jia carried the dishes to him was their conversation terminated.
Compared with chatting, Wu Hai liked savoring the delicacies alone more, which was the best reward of his paintings.
Regarding every regular customer, Yuan Zhou basically remembered their characteristics, more importantly, their unique taste. Nevertheless, he never spoke of that to others.
In the following days, Yuan Zhou’s restaurant ran normally every day. Originally, Yuan Zhou was a little upset at the end of every month. He was naturally unhappy to go to the tax bureau and pay the tax even if the system would offer him the red packet to make up for a part of his loss. However, it was an exception today as the latest gourmet map was going to be released.
The regulated releasing time was quite accurate. As soon as the breakfast time ended, Yuan Zhou got seated in his chair and waited silently.
Of course, Yuan Zhou also made great efforts secretly in order to make sure his mission could succeed, for example, the non-personal publicity and enquiring about how to become the landmark restaurant of delicious foods.
That wasn’t really publicity. Yuan Zhou also asked Meng Meng about that through the microblog happily. Therefore, his intention had basically been known by all.
Luckily, Yuan Zhou’s efforts were rewarded in the end.
The system displayed, "Congratulations, host. The mission is completed."
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