The aroma of cooking filled the house: I sent my eldest brother to become the Grand Secretary.

The next morning, Wei Siyu woke up without the usual headache. He shook his head, wondering if it was the wontons or hangover soup from Shen Cao that had worked, but this time he didn't have a headache at all.

As soon as I stepped out of the room, I saw Butler Wei walking over, covering his head.

"Headache?"

"Hmm, how are you, young master? You drank much more than I did yesterday."

Wei Siyu smiled and skipped away, "Maybe your hangover soup didn't work. My head doesn't hurt at all."

He needed to hurry and tell Shen Yu'an that he was going to Xiao Cao's for dinner tonight.

There's been an unusually large amount of cargo at the dock lately, with several batches arriving ahead of schedule. Li Yong noticed there was still half a boatload of goods left; if they were all unloaded, it would definitely be past lunchtime.

He had originally planned to go to Shen's Restaurant early for dinner today, and he had even decided what he wanted to eat. But now he felt a little desperate.

His coworkers shared his despair, fearing they wouldn't get their boxed lunches today.

When they finally finished moving the goods and arrived at Shen's Restaurant, they found that all the dishes in the boxed lunch area were sold out. They were all a little disappointed, realizing they were too late.

Shen Cao looked at the group of men dressed as boatmen in front of her and saw the disappointed look on their faces as they looked at the boxed lunches. She knew that these men were probably guests who had come yesterday.

She quickly stepped forward, invited them to sit down, poured each of them a cup of barley water, and then said, "You're late, everyone. We've already sold out of boxed meals for today."

"We also have noodles in the shop, would you like to try some?"

Knowing he needed to get back to work soon, and assuming the food at this restaurant was good, Li Yong asked, "What kind of noodles do you have?"

"For now, we'll have oil-splashed noodles. It's a huge bowl, enough to keep the brothers from getting hungry all afternoon. Plus, it's delicious and inexpensive, only eight coins a bowl."

"If you all feel you're not full, you can add noodles. I see you've all arrived late today, so you must have been working hard on the boat. How about each of you add a fried egg to make up for it? A fried egg costs four coins. It's not a grand opening promotion right now, so everything is half price."

"Okay, then give us four bowls of oil-splashed noodles, and an extra fried egg for each of us." Li Yong and his group readily placed their order.

Oh well, if I can't get a boxed meal, I'll just eat something else to fill my stomach.

There's a lot of work at the docks lately, so I'm taking advantage of this time to earn some extra money so I can buy myself some good food later. I just don't know if this restaurant sells their stir-fry dishes.

Shen Cao hurried down to the kitchen. Her father was sitting behind the counter, greeting a few people. It was past lunchtime, so there weren't many people around.

Shen Cao first took out the dough that had been rested in oil in advance from the plate, placed it on the cutting board, flattened the dough with her fingertips, and then pulled it hard, stretching it into a long strip. Finally, she shook the dough hard, and the noodles made a biangbiang sound when they hit the cutting board. After the noodles were stretched, she quickly threw them into the pot of boiling water next to her.

Shen Cao worked quickly and efficiently, tearing out sixteen noodles in no time. She then grabbed two handfuls of greens and bean sprouts and threw them into the pot.

While waiting for the noodles to cool, she added seasoning to the bottom of the bowl.

Just as she finished preparing four bowls, she saw steam rising from the pot, the water boiling, and the noodles were cooked.

She first scooped out the greens and bean sprouts and placed them at the bottom of the bowl. Then she scooped out four noodles from each bowl, drained them, and put them into the bowl.

Then add the pre-cooked tomato and egg mixture (yes, she actually found tomatoes here), meat sauce, side dishes (carrots, diced potatoes, stir-fried chives), minced garlic, and chili powder to the bowl.

Shen Cao looked at the meat sauce in the bowl. These people were all manual laborers. She then scooped a spoonful of meat sauce into each of their bowls.

Finally, hot oil was poured over the bowl. With a sizzle, the hot oil released the aroma of garlic and chili, and the pungent fragrance immediately filled Shen Cao's nostrils, making her mouth water.

Add the fried egg you just made to each bowl, and the oil-splashed noodles are ready.

Li Yong and his colleagues were discussing where to eat something good in the afternoon. They had been busy all day and hadn't had a proper lunch, so they decided to wait until after work to have a good meal so as not to waste their hard work.

When they first heard about oil-splashed noodles, they thought it was similar to plain noodles, just filling and not very tasty.

They were stunned when they saw the noodles Shen Cao served. This was oil-splashed noodles?

It looks colorful with a golden-brown fried egg on top, which makes it very appealing.

I never expected this young business owner to make even a bowl of noodles look so beautiful.

Li Yong picked up the fried egg and put it aside. Unexpectedly, he saw meat. He was shocked when he saw the meat, even though he thought it was just vegetarian noodles.

Such cheap noodles, yet they contain meat.

Everyone else shared the same idea as Li Yong.

Seeing that they hadn't mixed the noodles, Shen Cao anxiously reminded them, "Brothers, you need to mix these noodles quickly, or they'll clump together."

Upon hearing this, Li Yong quickly picked up his chopsticks and stirred vigorously. After the noodles were mixed, he looked at the bright red noodles with some green in them.

He could smell the aroma of the noodles as soon as he started mixing them. He even swallowed a little while mixing, because the smell was so appetizing.

After mixing the noodles, he couldn't wait to pick up a piece with his chopsticks and start eating.

The first bite is an aroma of various toppings blended together, fresh and slightly sour, with the fragrance of chili, garlic, and sauces—it's incredibly delicious.

The wide noodles were surprisingly chewy.

It tasted better than any noodles he had ever eaten.

He had eaten chili peppers before, and seeing them so red, he thought they must be very spicy, but to his surprise, they weren't spicy at all, only fragrant.

The group was also hungry, so they buried their heads in their noodles and ate. There was no other sound in the hall except for the sound of them slurping their noodles.

"good to eat."

"really not bad."

Shen Cao went to the kitchen and brought everyone a bowl of noodle soup.

"The original soup helps digest the original food. After eating a bowl of noodles, you can drink a bowl of noodle soup. It's very comforting."

After thanking Shen Cao, Li Yong buried his head in his noodles and continued eating.

The shop owner was right; the portion of noodles was indeed huge. The bowl was more than twice the size of a regular rice bowl, and even bigger than his head.

The group was extremely hungry, but they managed to finish the noodles.

I ate a bowl of noodles and drank a sip of the soup. Just as the owner had said, it was very comforting.

The group rubbed their round bellies and stretched comfortably.

Surprisingly, this noodle dish tastes just as good as the boxed lunch.

"Boss, check out."

Shen Cao stepped forward and said, "A bowl of noodles costs eight coins, and a fried egg costs four coins. Originally it cost twelve coins, but now it only costs six coins a bowl."

Each person gave Shen Cao six coins.

Shen Cao took out a small plate of raw peanuts.

"Brothers, there's garlic in today's noodles. Chew on some raw peanuts to get rid of the smell in your mouth."

Li Yong was once again amazed by the young boss's meticulousness; he hadn't expected the young boss to be so attentive in doing business.

As he walked out, he looked back at the signboard above the door: Shen Family Restaurant. This place was sure to be a success.