Returning to '97, creating a new life

"Xiao Kai, that table is from the hospital, you need to go and entertain them."

"Xiao Kai, that table belongs to the institute. Shouldn't you go over there?"

"Xiao Kai, those people said they are from Xuri Trading and want to order a sheep here to take away."

"Xiao Kai, you're from the same high school, shouldn't you go over there?"

If that night at the "Emperor's Palace" made Sun Bo and the others experience the different lifestyles of different social classes, then helping out at "Ke Zai Lai" truly allowed them to witness Xu Kai's connections. It also made them realize that Xu Kai's influence and prestige were not as easy as he claimed; they all stemmed from the network of relationships he built at such a young age.

Fang Jinyao's parents expanded their network of contacts.

Yun Sheng and Yun Shang, whose lawyer father and doctor mother had built up their networks, didn't formally meet Xu Kai, but that didn't stop them from recommending the restaurant to their colleagues.

Given the unique nature of the restaurant, it's impossible for Xu Kai not to get to know many people, like Niu Dongyang who came with a group of friends.

After the meal, Xu Kai went to offer a toast, and Niu Dongyang introduced them. Xu Kai then handled interpersonal relationships very well, and through the interactions, he got to know many of the CEOs.

These so-called relationships may not be of much use in practice, but it depends on how you look at it. If Xu Kai demonstrates the ability or strength that they can recognize, fair-weather friends can turn into business partners. It all depends on whether Xu Kai is a good person and whether he is worth turning from a restaurant owner into a friend.

Before his uncles came, he always thought that the arcade with gambling machines was the most profitable place. But he learned from Xu Kai's uncle Sun Mingcheng that the restaurant was the real money-maker. If it weren't for the limited space, the daily revenue would be even higher.

Xu Kai can guarantee the quality and an affordable price for a whole roasted lamb. How many people in this era can afford such a meal and not drink alcohol?

Family gatherings? That's for the future. Right now, almost all the spending here is for business banquets, and a large portion of it is for high-end restaurants. Drinking is a standard feature. In any era, alcohol sales are actually the most profitable item for restaurants.

The arcade craze has made a fortune for everyone in my family.

Looking at "Ke Zai Lai" now, everyone has their own thoughts. If Xiao Kai could introduce them to the source of ingredients, the investment in such a restaurant wouldn't be too large. Does that mean we can do it too?

With this in mind, and after learning that Xu Kai didn't mind competition from his peers, the uncles shifted their focus from the arcade to this place, and began to actively come here to help and learn about its operations.

If the restaurant is too close, it won't work. How about we locate it in another district? That way, we won't be stealing our nephew's business.

Xu Kai was not opposed to such thoughts. What difference did it make who did it? It was perfectly normal for a business without technological barriers to be imitated and followed by others. Moreover, Xu Kai never thought that "Ke Zai Lai" could last for many years or become his true core business.

His relatives were willing to help, working for free, and he was happy to let them see all the operational methods. With help from others, he was able to have enough time to take a break and focus on the strategic operation of the restaurant, instead of just standing there managing his small plot of land every day.

Once again, I sat with the leaders of the railway station system without needing any introductions.

Originally, the plan was just to expand the business premises, but the person who contracted the guesthouse is now planning to give up.

Xu Kaiyi learned that after the three parties agreed to sublet the property, he would need to discuss the specific rental matters with the station, including the promised lease term, the level of renovation, and details such as the subsequent rent. His uncle, Sun Mingren, felt that he was helping his nephew by coming along, as he was young and might not understand some things.

As a result, those who sat there and listened knew everything clearly, and their gazes toward their nephews were quite complicated.

Xu Kai's promise that he would accept all the guesthouse staff after they had been trained, thus avoiding any difficulties for the station, was a huge gesture of respect for the station.

These waiters, including the cleaners, were almost all relatives of the station's staff. They were there when the guesthouse was still under the station's jurisdiction, and they were there when it was contracted out. It was a very difficult situation, but Xu Kai was able to take it all in. That night, after the business was settled, his uncles, including his fifth uncle who worked in the station's maintenance department, all accompanied him and drank quite a bit.

Xu Kai's establishment of this restaurant has brought intangible benefits to his fifth uncle, Sun Mingxin. At work, he is no longer a nobody railway maintenance worker. Although it doesn't bring him direct benefits now, he has already paved the way for some minor leaders. At least in the future, if he wants to give gifts for work, he will be able to find the right people to do it.

After the subletting, the entire restaurant became busy again, requiring everyone to get moving.

The signboard facing the main street needs to be replaced to match the restaurant's bright lights and bustling atmosphere.

In the courtyard, starting from the sunroom in the corner, more sunrooms will be built, extending along the original canteen area to the main building of the guesthouse. This way, after roasting the lamb, it can be transported directly to the main building through this passage without having to go through the original restaurant.

The first and second floors were completely renovated. Fortunately, the old-style guesthouse rooms were quite large. All the beds, cabinets, and other items were sold as secondhand goods. Wallpaper is quite expensive now, so Xu Kai replaced all the walls with new wallpaper, bought tables and chairs, and arranged them to create a dazzling restaurant private room with an ensuite bathroom.

The room is large enough that after the tables and chairs are set up, a sofa and coffee table can be placed on one side for customers to rest and chat before sitting down.

Inside the restroom, after securing a promise from the original guesthouse cleaning staff, the job was contracted to them, so they wouldn't be working for free as employees. They were paid extra, and the hygiene standards were high; Xu Kai had them clean one room first, personally inspecting it with high expectations.

Xu Kai also renovated the third floor, keeping two rooms as staff dormitories, one as his own room, and adding mahjong machines to the rest, turning it into entertainment rooms for both rest and leisure. He also specially reserved two rooms, decorating them as private rooms, not open to the public.

It's better to leave the place empty than to receive regular guests.

Xu Kai has truly grasped the characteristics of this era. When guests arrive unexpectedly and he has to entertain them, leaving these two rooms is a real solution for emergencies, allowing him to maintain appearances and do favors for his "distinguished" guests.

At that time, money was still very "real" and had strong purchasing power. Even so, tens of thousands of yuan were put into the expansion of the hotel in a short period of time. The subsequent construction costs would have to be covered by the game hall's dividends during the Lunar New Year month and the hotel's continued revenue.

If it weren't for the fact that the customers these days aren't so fussy, Xu Kai would have considered forcing himself to install an elevator attached to the building. But after asking around, he found out that everyone had no problem going up to the second or third floor for a meal, so what was the point of all this talk and wasting money?

We kept an eye on it until the start of the semester, and now the first and second floors are in use. Compared to the previous noisy cubicles in the large cafeteria, it's much better now with private rooms.

The old red brick building was of excellent quality. Compared to later commercial buildings, its sound insulation was far superior. Not to mention the upstairs and downstairs neighbors, even if the neighbors next door weren't too noisy, the solid brick walls were almost twice as thick, enough to block the sound from entering your own room.

The suite features a separate ensuite bathroom, a double-layered dining table with a central rotating mechanism, solid wood chairs, and brand-new wallpaper on the walls. These features are the most eye-catching, instantly elevating the overall class of the private room.

As for whole roasted lamb, Xu Kai has also started disassembling half a lamb. Recently, roasted lamb chops and roasted lamb legs have also been selling well. You can roast them yourself in a small oven downstairs, or in a private room upstairs. Once cooked, they are disassembled and brought upstairs.

For drinking parties, lamb offal soup and lamb rib soup are very popular.

We're hiring chefs and kitchen staff...

In the period leading up to the start of the semester, Xu Kai was extremely busy. Besides overseeing the renovations, he also had to interview and train employees, and personally taste-test the dishes. As the business expanded, he had to develop some new dishes. The main focus was on a new dish to pair with drinks: spicy stir-fried lamb offal, grilled lamb and beef kidneys, and charcoal-grilled lamb chops and beef steaks.

Instead of heeding others' advice to diversify their business, they still focus on the strategy of prioritizing ingredients, developing new dishes around those ingredients, at most adding a Northeastern-style dipping sauce.

Ordinary people come to eat here to satisfy their cravings for meat. But the people in the private rooms in the main building are not short of oil and fat. They drink to entertain their guests. Xu Kai requires a large platter of vegetables with dipping sauce that must be presented well. The sauce is 100% freshly made egg sauce and authentic rural soybean paste. In the drinking arena, this stuff gets more and more important as the drinking continues. Maybe no one will eat the meat on the table anymore. Taking a big gulp of wine and dipping the vegetables in the sauce is the ultimate way to be a king.

He could only attend basketball team training in his spare time.

School has started, and to ensure the school's training time, he still skips evening self-study sessions and drives to "Ke Zai Lai" to handle problems that only his boss can solve.

His homeroom teacher, Ms. Huang, and basketball team coach, Mr. Park, both had opinions about him and offered him some advice, urging him not to put the cart before the horse and to understand what he should be focusing on at his age.

As a result, after Park In-ji went to "Ke Zai Lai" once, she stopped trying to persuade Xu Kai and just stared at him with a pleading look in her eyes, as if to say, "The basketball team needs you. You can't abandon us."

Huang Jian, who had no scheduled evening self-study sessions, was also able to leave work early, a rare occurrence for a homeroom teacher.

"This place is very popular; I booked a private room two days in advance."

With thick eyebrows and big eyes, Zhao Xusheng led his parents, father-in-law and mother-in-law, brother-in-law's family and sister-in-law's family into the "Ke Zai Lai" restaurant through the main entrance on the main street.

There was a proper foyer, with two greeters at the door who opened it for us, then gave us a standard slight bow and said, "Welcome!"

Zhao Xusheng raised an eyebrow at his wife Huang Jian, who was standing beside him: "How about it? Not bad, right? It used to be a guesthouse, now it's been turned into a restaurant."

Without him needing to explain further, the coming and going of waiters, the opening of doors to deliver dishes, and the sounds of guests coming from the private rooms all contributed to the transformation of the once quiet guesthouse into a bustling hub of activity.

As everyone sat down in the private room on the second floor, Zhao Xusheng poured tea for them: "I came here once before with my colleagues. Back then, it was still in the back canteen. It's only been a few months, and they've taken over the whole building, you know? The restaurant owner is a young guy, I think he's not even twenty yet, and he's already built such a big business. And look at these cars in the backyard, there are cars from various units, including government departments..."