My hometown is far away in Moscow.

Chapter 95 What's the Plan?

Having not cooked properly for a long time, Lao Wei was itching to cook and casually whipped up six dishes.

The plastic bag he brought contained a braised pork knuckle and a piece of braised beef. Li Baoqing cut them up and plated them. Hu Yi and Zhou Dali cleared the table and bought beer. The four of them sat down, had a drink, picked up their chopsticks, and began to eat and drink heartily.

For the past few months, Hu Yi and his two friends had been eating at the school cafeteria for lunch and takeout prepared by Li Baoqing for dinner. It had been a long time since they had prepared such a lavish meal. Hu Yi ate while praising, "I have to say, Brother Wei's cooking is amazing. Baoqing, have you learned it all?"

Li Baoqing seemed very confident: "More or less. I'll try it a few times myself, it should be fine!"

"No problem at all, these are all simple home-style dishes. It's just a pity I'm not used to using an electric stove, so I didn't quite get the heat under control." Old Wei turned to Zhou Dali: "Brother, is this food alright?"

"Great! Absolutely fantastic!" Zhou Dali nodded repeatedly like a chick pecking at rice, pointing his chopsticks at the table: "Especially the braised beef and pork knuckle, they're so delicious! Full of flavor and with such a great texture!"

Old Wei grinned contentedly: "I made all of these at home. If you want to eat them in the future, just come to me for some. As long as you don't mind the distance."

"You made this yourself?!" Zhou Dali looked thoughtfully at Hu Yi and Li Baoqing. "If you two learned Brother Wei's technique, you'd definitely be a hit selling preserved meats in the dorm!"

"Yes!" Li Baoqing was taken aback, then said with great joy, "Brother Wei, please teach me!"

"Well—hehe." Old Wei's smile was somewhat forced: "This is a secret recipe passed down from my master, it's quite troublesome. And the sauce relies on a rich broth, which needs to be added regularly; some of the ingredients aren't easy to get in Moscow!"

"You don't need to teach us the secret recipe," Hu Yi interjected. "We can buy the meat you've prepared and sell it at the school. What do you think?"

"Of course, no problem," Old Wei readily agreed. "These things are meant to be sold anyway, so I won't make too much money off you, as long as I don't lose money."

"How about this, we'll try it out at the school first. If it sells well, you should still make the money. How can we let you work for nothing?" Hu Yi smiled slightly, then frowned again: "However—it is indeed a bit far. It's quite tiring to come to your place every day."

Old Wei nodded and said, "That's right, it would take at least two hours to go there and back."

The four of them exchanged glances, picked up their chopsticks, and silently ate a few bites of food. Zhou Dali suddenly said, "It would be great if you stayed with us; then we could see each other more often."

"Yeah, since you don't need to go to work now, why don't you come and live with us as neighbors!" Li Baoqing winked at Lao Wei.

The two had only mentioned it casually, but Old Wei seemed to pause for a moment, then said, "It's something I could consider."

Old Wei now lives near Mati, where Hu Yi and Li Baoqing studied when they first arrived in Moscow. It's a place where many Chinese businessmen and migrant workers gather. Rent is very expensive, and most people share a house. Three hundred dollars a month can only rent a bed in a two-bedroom apartment. For the same price, you can rent a spacious double room in Zhou Dali's apartment.

Because it was close to the Huanghai Hotel where he used to work, Lao Wei had never considered moving over the years. During the Spring Festival, a friend recommended him to work as a chef at a restaurant called China Dragon. Although the salary was decent, he hesitated to accept the offer because of the long distance.

"The Chinese dragon?! It's not far from here!" Li Baoqing excitedly slapped the table: "Old Hu, do you still remember it?"

"That's the restaurant where I applied for a job!"

Hu Yi was taken aback: "Oh! Scrambled eggs with tomatoes?" He then threw his head back and laughed, vividly telling Lao Wei the story of Li Baoqing's "big flipping" performance when he applied for a chef job.

Bringing up the old story again, the group was still overjoyed. Li Baoqing touched the scars on his face and laughed, "Brother Wei, this is fate! If you really do go to work for China Dragon, you might as well move in with us!"

"Yeah, right!" Hu Yi analyzed, counting on his fingers, "The living conditions here are good, the surrounding environment is nice, and there are quite a few Chinese people in the building. You can still sell preserved meats if you move in, and you'll also have the Youda dormitory as a customer base—well, quite a large one. What's more, it'll be convenient for commuting, and we brothers can get together more often, right?"

The topic came up so suddenly that Lao Wei hesitated at first, but after being persuaded by the three of them in turn, and after a few beers, he also thought moving here was a good idea: "Okay! I'll go back and look into it. If China Dragon offers me a job—or if their braised meat sells well at your school—then I'll move here! We don't have any valuables, it's no big deal!"

The three were overjoyed and chatted with Lao Wei over drinks until 3 p.m. before seeing him off. Hu Yi and Li Baoqing rested for a while before returning to their dormitory to prepare dinner for the day.

Han Shangyun was just about to leave when he saw Hu Yi and pointed to a large storage box on the table: "Xizhen brought kimchi for you."

"Great! When you see her, please say thank you for me. Oh, and by the way, give her the money for me too, I'll give it to you when I get back." Hu Yi eagerly opened the lid and smelled it, then turned back to Li Baoqing with satisfaction and instructed, "When you deliver the meals today, include a small portion of kimchi with each boxed meal. Remember to tell them it's a free gift and ask them to taste it and give us their feedback."

"Fine then." Li Baoqing said sullenly, "Sending kimchi? It's not like it's anything valuable. Do you think this trick will work?"

"We'll only know if it works or not by trying." Hu Yi took off his gloves and threw them forcefully onto the bed. "I've made up my mind. Tomorrow I'll go to Old Wei's house and buy some braised beef. We'll play GG again. Buy a boxed lunch and get a free serving of secret-recipe five-spice braised beef and authentic Korean kimchi."

"Give away braised beef?!" Li Baoqing was extremely reluctant: "This is too much—too much—too extravagant! Braised beef isn't cheap! Didn't we agree to sell it?"

11

"You think kimchi is too cheap, and you think braised beef is too expensive." Hu Yi laughed: "Wang Shen said you don't think things through, and you really don't."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"This is called a disguised price reduction," Hu Yi patiently explained. "The contents and price of our boxed meals remain the same—one meat dish and one vegetable dish—for 80 rubles. But we're also including a side of kimchi and a side of braised beef, so it's effectively two meat dishes and two vegetable dishes!"

"Oh!" Li Baoqing's small eyes widened. "Then it's the same as Sixth Brother and the others!"

"That's right! Although these two items were purchased, they're of excellent quality, which will bring good word-of-mouth and save us the trouble of figuring out side dishes all day." Hu Yi said confidently, "Since they're being given away for free, we can keep the portions a little smaller, so that they'll want more after they've tried them and will still be thinking about buying our boxed lunches the next day. This way, we'll also inadvertently promote Old Wei's braised meats, and people will definitely come specifically to buy other things in the future. It's just like the saying goes: 'A thousand calls to a person won't get them, but a good product will make them come running!'"

Li Baoqing was stunned for a moment before he came to his senses: "Okay, you're really something, let's do it that way!"

"That's settled then!" Hu Yi rubbed his hands together, eager to try. "Don't leave after you're done tonight. Let's discuss it properly. Damn it, I've been so pent up these past few days. It's time to have a good fight with Sixth Brother!"

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