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

“Coming.” Amy stood up immediately and walked up to Mag. She climbed onto a chair and stared at the steaming roujiamo in Mag’s hand. She thought she saw something in the white bread. The pleasant aroma made her swallow some saliva in spite of herself. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the bread.

Mag put the plate in front of her first, and then he placed the roujiamo open side up and handed it to her. “Be careful. It’s hot. Eat this side first; there is some gravy inside,” Mag said as he smiled.

Amy nodded. “Okay.” She grabbed two edges with both hands and her attention was totally captured by it. Her eyes brightened as she saw the beautiful little circles of burn marks on the white surface. “It’s beautiful.”

The bread was stuffed with stewed meat. The pleasant aroma that Amy had smelled was coming from the meat, and it made her hungrier. She brought the roujiamo to her mouth and took a bite.

“Crack …”

The crispy surface made a soft sound. All of a sudden, Amy’s eyes lit up as she bit into the crunchy bai ji bread and tasty meat.

This white bread is so soft and easy to chew—unlike the pancakes, which always make my teeth hurt—and it’s so sweet and tastes a lot better than the pancakes,Amy thought.

And the best part is the meat, which releases tasty juice as I chew on it. The sweet bread is made better by it. It’s very delicious.

“Do you like it?” Mag asked expectantly.

Amy nodded vigorously. “Yes, it’s very good. It’s a hundred times better than pancakes. No, a thousand times better; no, ten thousand times better than pancakes.” She took another large bite and chewed merrily, her face full of happy smile.

Mag nodded. “That’s great. There’re more.” He smiled and felt pride as he looked at Amy holding the roujiamo in her hands like a little squirrel, chewing happily and making soft little sounds all the while.

He had spent thirty days in the test field without any sleep or rest, he had had to marinate the pork in the middle of the night, and he had woken up at five to make roujiamo. Nonetheless, it was all worth it.

Because he wanted to protect that smile.

Mag watched Amy eat more than half, and then he went into the kitchen, took out a loaf of bread, and made a roujiamo for himself. He took a bite. The sweet, soft bai ji bread and the juicy meat mixed in his mouth. The meat was streaky pork, but it was not oily at all.

The delicious gravy and the taste of the sweet bai ji bread tickled Mag’s taste buds incessantly. He felt so good to stuff his mouth with meat, and the aftertaste of the meat remained in his mouth after he swallowed.

Mag’s eyes brightened. Perfect! As expected of me! It is my requirements that have led to this authentic la zhi roujiamo! He took another huge bite. This gourmet food was so different from Yangzhou fried rice, whose ingredients were chopped very finely. He really needed this for a change.

“Father, Amy wants one more,” Amy said as she opened her hands after she finished her roujiamo, her face excited and anticipating.

Mag nodded with a smile. “All right. I’ll make you another one.” Then he put the half roujiamo in his hand to the side. As he made the second roujiamo for Amy, he asked in his mind, “System, what’s the cost of ingredients for one roujiamo? And, can you make me some small kraft paper bags so that customers may take their roujiamos out when necessary? It would be very convenient. Add the name of the restaurant onto the bags and use Amy’s picture as our trademark; her back will be fine. And don’t worry. I’ll pay.”

“This meat is five-layered streaky pork with skin from under the ribs of the shadow boar, which only exist in forest trolls’ land…” The system started to roll out the origins of those ingredients. It even tried to tell Mag where the salt came from.

Mag interrupted. “Stop. I don’t want to hear it. I know these are all good stuff. You just want to sell them at a higher price. Just give me a number.” He had to open his restaurant in a moment, and didn’t have time to listen to the system’s lengthy spiel.

“…” An ellipsis went across Mag’s head. After a while, the system said, “The cost of one roujiamo is 80 copper coins. If you want a large quantity of customized bags, I’ll charge you 10 copper coins for a high-quality bag.”

Mag’s mouth curled downwards. “10? You must be joking. I’ll give you five.” The ingredients were worth the money, or worth more, but he wouldn’t pay 10 copper coins for a bag.

“What about eight?” the system asked tentatively.

“Four,” Mag replied calmly.

“Okay, five! Deal!” the system said quickly this time. Then, it continued, “Bags are being made right now and will be ready in five minutes.”

“Right.” Mag raised an eyebrow. I may not be a great haggler, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know how to haggle. The ingredients of one roujiamo cost 85 copper coins, so maybe I’ll sell it at 300 each. It’s more acceptable than the Yangzhou fried rice.

Naturally, he made a round number not to inconvenience Amy.

One roujiamo could earn him 215 copper coins, and he could make 16 loaves of bread at a time, so that came to a total of 3,440 copper coins. He was able to make at least 64 bread loaves out of those two large chunks of dough he had just kneaded. Even if he could only sell 64 roujiamos in the morning, he would earn 13,760 copper coins. That was a much faster way to make money than the Yangzhou fried rice.

Mag handed the roujiamo he had just made to Amy who, was waiting longingly. Then he went back into the kitchen, switched around the bread in the oven, and regulated the temperature. It was almost half past seven, so these bread loaves would not go to waste, since his restaurant would open in a little while.

Now he only needed to wait for his bags and check their quality.

…

Outside, Luna was staring at the restaurant, wondering. She was wearing a light gray linen-cotton dress and a white silky scarf, on which a golden lily flower was embroidered, covering her shoulders. She had long straight black hair. All this made her look intelligent as well as beautiful.

Maybe I’ve remembered wrong? Doesn’t Amy live here? Luna looked around and got a little confused. This was the last house on the Aden Square, and she still remembered the signboard hanging outside the forge.

However, as far as she could remember, here should stand a rickety two-storied wooden house like the one she had seen when she’d last walked Amy home six or seven days ago. Instead, before her eyes was a grand restaurant, with a wall of crystal glass, perfectly aligned tables and chairs, and crystal chandeliers. When did such a fancy restaurant open in Chaos City? she wondered.

“Mamy Restaurant… Could it be…?” Luna muttered. Then her eyes brightened, and she walked towards the restaurant immediately.