Daddy's Gourmet Shop

Chapter 654 - 638: Look What I’ve Found?

The next morning.Huang Tao woke up to the crisp and melodious "chirp chirp" of little birds on the tree outside the window.

That sleep was so damn comfortable~

It felt like all the fatigue and weakness in his body had been swept away.

He was full of energy!

As soon as he opened his eyes, Huang Tao saw Xuanxuan lying beside him, still fast asleep.

The extra‑large Peppa Pig plush toy that Yang Huiru had given her last night was sitting at the edge of the bed, and at some point, Xuanxuan’s little head had ended up resting on one of Peppa Pig’s arms, with a sweet little smile hanging at the corner of her mouth.

Seeing his precious girl sleeping so soundly, Huang Tao carefully leaned over and planted a light, dragonfly‑touching‑water kiss on her cheek, without waking her up.

Last night, after the birthday party, Xuanxuan and Qianqian had a blast at Happy Ha Le Children’s Park. They played until eleven‑thirty before they were done, so they got back late, and after dropping Ye Wen off, Xuanxuan fell asleep on the way home.

So she went to bed really late.

Let her sleep a bit more then!

Anyway, with his parents at home helping to watch her, he was at ease, and Xuanxuan could sleep in comfortably.

So then...

He quietly climbed out of bed, got dressed, and tiptoed out of the bedroom.

Seeing his mom coming out of the bathroom with a bucket of dirty laundry in her arms, he said softly, "Mom, I’m going to the restaurant first in a bit. When Xuanxuan wakes up, you and Dad take her over to Old Street for some breakfast, and then after you’re done, come over to the new place together."

"Son, just go to the restaurant with peace of mind. I’ll take good care of Xuanxuan." Song Cailian shot Huang Tao a reassuring look.

With his mom handling things, of course Huang Tao was at ease.

After washing up, he headed out, driving over to the restaurant on Old Street first.

As the owner of Delicious Restaurant, he had the duty and responsibility to do a daily routine check on the old shop.

Of course.

He could also grab breakfast there and bring some back for the staff at the new restaurant, fill their little five‑organ temples so they’d have the strength to work.

That way he and the helper chef wouldn’t have to rack their brains and wear themselves out making breakfast.

At this hour, the storefront on Old Street hadn’t fallen into a slump just because he’d left. Business was still booming, just like before.

The neighbors who were already starving in the early morning had all come to line up early, and the line was as long as ever.

With Huang Tao’s technical backing, even though the food didn’t taste quite as amazing as when he cooked it himself, relying on the secret seasoning recipes and tips he’d passed on, Jiang Chao and Xu Hao and the others were already turning out breakfasts and various marinated‑meat rice bowls that were better than most restaurants out there by more than just a little bit.

For the neighbors nearby, this was an unexpected pleasant surprise!

After all, the taste that Xu Hao and the others made was already over ninety percent similar to Huang Tao’s.

They were satisfied!

Before, when it was Huang Tao cooking, you couldn’t even get a turn in line. Now that there was a substitute version, life suddenly felt like it had something to look forward to again!

As long as it was before closing time, you could buy some.

And you could eat as much as you wanted!

It pretty much made up for the regret of not being able to get any even after lining up in the past!

When the neighbors saw Huang Tao come over, surprise lit up all their faces.

"Holy crap, look what I found? A live Boss Huang."

"Aiya, it really is Boss Huang..."

A pot‑bellied middle‑aged man joked, "Boss Huang, instead of bustling around at your new place, what’re you doing here at the old shop? Don’t tell me business wasn’t that great at the new restaurant on opening day yesterday, so you’re already missing the good days on Old Street? Boss Huang, I’m telling you, the downtown area may be nice, but it doesn’t necessarily bring you luck. Old Street might not have the best location, but it does bring you luck! So! You’d better come back to Old Street and cook here again..."

He was clearly hoping Huang Tao would come back to the Old Street shop to take charge of the wok!

What can you do~

It wasn’t like his wallet was fat enough to buy an apartment downtown, and he couldn’t bear to sell his place on Old Street either...

The husky squatting beside him echoed him with a few plaintive "woof woof woof"s at Huang Tao, as if it too was hoping Huang Tao would come back here to cook.

Before Huang Tao could answer—

Jiangling, who’d come to buy breakfast, laughed and doused his hopes with a bucket of cold water: "Boss Huang’s new place? The moment it opened yesterday, business was already booming. The whole restaurant was packed with customers, and there were plenty of people lining up outside too. When they closed at 8 p.m. last night, there were still customers who hadn’t gotten to eat, begging on their knees for Boss Huang to extend the business hours! Look, these are the photos I took at Boss Huang’s new restaurant yesterday!"

As he spoke, Jiangling picked up his phone and pulled up the photos he’d taken at Huang Tao’s new place yesterday, showing them to the neighbors.

The neighbors all crowded around and craned their necks to look.

One look and their eyes all lit up with surprise.

Although everyone had a lot of confidence in Huang Tao’s cooking skills, and by extension had decent confidence in his new restaurant too, feeling that business should be pretty good after it opened...

That was about as far as it went—pretty good.

After all, it was a brand‑new shop. In all sorts of ways, it couldn’t compare with the old one yet.

But they hadn’t expected...

It’d be a little beyond their imagination!

The moment the downtown restaurant opened, business was already that hot.

Tsk tsk tsk, you had to hand it to him!

For a while, the neighbors all started talking at once, voicing their surprise.

"Wow~ it’s true... For the first day of opening to have business this good, that’s really impressive!"

"’Pretty good’ my ass! This is fantastic, okay? To have that kind of traffic on day one, that’s really something rare!"

"Looks like it won’t be long before Boss Huang gains a firm foothold downtown. Congrats, Boss Huang."

While they were all happy for Huang Tao, they also knew that the little bit of hope they’d been secretly holding onto had fallen through. They had to face the fact that it was basically impossible for Huang Tao to come back and man the stove on Old Street in the future.

All they could do was hope that Huang Tao would quickly pass on his other skills to chefs like Xu Hao and Jiang Chao, so they could roll out more substitute versions and at least scratch their itch.

After all, running to the downtown area every time they wanted to eat wasn’t realistic.

Especially for the college students in Linjiang—those from out of town had all gone home when winter break started, and from that moment until school started again, all they could do was scroll through Weibo and watch other people show off food. No matter how much they drooled, there was nothing they could do.

They’d finally, after waiting forever, gotten to the point where school was about to start, so they came back a few days early, thinking they could run over to Delicious Restaurant and try the new dishes.

Who could’ve known—

In just one winter break, Boss Huang had gone off to open a branch downtown, and he himself was going to be stationed there long term. A bunch of the dishes from the old shop had disappeared along with him...

At the time, they really felt like crying!