Song Ying understood what Mi Duo was saying. Unless it was a warehouse or a garage, all the houses here faced due south. But for a restaurant, it didn’t really matter.
A restaurant wasn’t for living in anyway.
Song Ying said, “That works, Sister Mi. With the restaurant facing east, wouldn’t the courtyard look a bit cleaner?”
Mi Duo replied, “Right, we’ll leave parking space at the east entrance, and build the courtyard wall a bit further back.”
Song Ying was opening a restaurant—the kind that hosted large events like wedding banquets and full-month celebrations. There would definitely be a lot of cars, so they needed to leave room for parking.
Mi Duo sketched out a simple design and said, “Take a look. I was thinking—if we build it this way, Grandma’s shop can be connected to the restaurant since they’d share the same courtyard for easy access. Then I plan to put the garage and storage in the backyard.”
“The front yard can have a vegetable patch or a small flower garden—or both.”
Song Ying said, “That works, Sister Mi. Let’s go with this.”
Mi Duo said, “Then we’ll finalize this draft. I’ll revise the drawings after lunch, and then we’ll go see Brother Zhang, the contractor.”
Otherwise, if they started digging the foundation tomorrow and got it wrong, they’d have to redo it, which would delay progress.
Song Ying said, “Okay.”
Since she had things to do, Mi Duo finished her meal quickly. Chen Shuqin said, “Mi Duo, are you full? There’s no rush—take your time.”
Mi Duo waved her hand. “Grandma, I’m full.” She’d eaten two bowls of rice.
She didn’t know why, but after two days in the north, her appetite had grown.
Mi Duo was quick. Within an hour, she’d revised the drawings and showed them to Song Ying. “Yingzi, we can put a pavilion in the front yard, over here, and dig a small fish pond on this side.”
“For Grandma’s vegetable garden, we’ll fence off a section, and we’ll lay gravel in front of the restaurant entrance.”
Song Ying said, “That works, Sister Mi. Let’s go with this drawing.”
Then the two of them went to talk to Zhang Shaoquan. Although the two places were close, Song Ying drove there—she needed the practice anyway.
In the afternoon, Song Guozheng went out to tend the sheep as usual. Chen Shuqin cleaned the fish—she’d bought five carp and knocked them unconscious, but hadn’t scaled them or gutted them yet.
They needed to be cleaned and put in the freezer.
Mi Duo was petting the cats. With three cats and three dogs, she could play emperor and have them all around her.
She said, “Yingzi, I’ll design a cat house and dog house for you later.”
“Sure, Sister Mi.”
Song Ying was scrolling through Little Red Book and browsing Taobao.
With five new members in the household, she needed to plan their future life carefully.
Like their food and vaccinations.
For vaccines, the dogs needed their core vaccines. According to Jiang Siyu, the Alaskan Malamute had already received two shots, with one more to go. The rabies vaccine hadn’t been given yet—they had to finish the core vaccines first before getting the rabies shot.
The Border Collie and German Shepherd had only received one core vaccine shot each, with two more remaining.
As for the cats, both had only been dewormed, not vaccinated. They were too young—kittens had to be at least two months old for vaccinations, and these two babies had just turned two months.
The tabby mother cat hadn’t had anything done at all—no deworming, no vaccines. Song Ying planned to wait until after she had her kittens.
For food, she’d looked at what Little Red Book bloggers shared and asked Taobao customer service. Generally, two-month-old puppies ate main food cans + milk-soaked kibble.
From three to five months, it was freeze-dried canned dog food.
For cats, kittens over two months old should have kitten food plus wet food and goat milk powder, similar to dogs.
For adult cats, no need to worry—they can eat anything.
Once she understood this, Song Ying started buying up a storm: dog food, cat food, goat milk powder, freeze-dried treats, canned food, dried fish, and cat sticks.
Dog beds, cat beds, cat trees, and scratching posts also needed to be purchased.
Song Ying sighed—it felt great to have money, being able to buy whatever she wanted.
The next day.
When Song Ying woke up, it was already past eight o’clock. She had stayed up until two in the morning playing on her phone and browsing Taobao, so she got up late today.
“Grandma!”
She called out but got no response.
Song Ying got up and looked around the house—no one was there. She figured they had gone to the building site. She washed up, put on some light makeup, and drove over to the site.
Sure enough, everyone was there.
The foundation had already been dug out. Song Ying walked over, and Zhang Shaoquan smiled, “Oh, Boss Song is here.”
Song Ying smiled, “Uncle Zhang.”
Zhang Shaoquan said, “We’ll finish the foundation today, and tomorrow we’ll start building upward.”
Song Ying smiled, “Great, thank you all for your hard work. I’ll make you something delicious for lunch.”
Zhang Shaoquan said to the group, “Great, we get to eat food cooked by a five-star hotel chef, hahaha.”
Everyone laughed too.
It was almost nine o’clock, and they would knock off at eleven-thirty. She needed to go back and cook. Chen Shuqin and Zhang Chunhua walked over, “Yingzi, we’ll ride back in your car—too lazy to walk.”
Song Ying said, “Hop in, hop in.”
“Aunt Chunhua, have you finished feeding your cows?”
Zhang Chunhua was the wife of the foreman Zhang Shaoquan—both of them shared the surname Zhang.
Zhang Chunhua said, “All fed. I fed them around six o’clock.”
“Alright then.”
“Sister Mi, are you coming back?” Song Ying called out.
Mi Duo waved her hand, “You all go ahead.” She needed to supervise the construction.
After arriving home, the three of them got busy. Chen Shuqin poured out the leftover rice from the rice cooker, “Yingzi, are you hungry? There’s some leftover breakfast.”
Song Ying waved her hand, “Grandma, I won’t eat now. I’ll eat with everyone at lunch.” She had eaten too many snacks yesterday and wasn’t hungry at the moment.
Zhang Chunhua called out to Chen Shuqin, “Auntie, two tables of people, right? How many dishes are we planning to make?”
Chen Shuqin said, “Ask Yingzi—she’s in charge.”
Song Ying said, “Ten dishes, cold and hot combined: roasted chicken, braised fish, spare ribs stewed with dried green beans, dry-pot shrimp, twice-cooked pork, shredded pork in fish-fragrant sauce, stir-fried pork tripe with hot peppers, stir-fried baby bok choy, mushrooms sautéed in olive oil, and a cold dressed salad.”
Zhang Chunhua laughed as she listened, “These are all fine dishes—this is like a banquet!”
Song Ying said, “When people eat well, they work with more energy!”
They would build her a good house, and since she wasn’t short on money now, it was only right to feed the workers well.
Zhang Chunhua said, “Alright, let’s get moving then.”
Stir-frying wasn’t the hard part—the prep work was. Song Ying was in charge of cooking, while Chen Shuqin and Zhang Chunhua handled the prep.
Among today’s dishes, the stewed ribs and braised fish needed the most time, so those two were started first.
The house had two stovetops, but she needed them for stir-frying, so Song Ying set up a portable stove outside to stew the ribs.
Watching Song Ying cook with such composure, Zhang Chunhua clicked her tongue in admiration, “A professional chef really is different—look at how she cooks.”
“Same method, same seasonings, but the flavor they make is just different from what we make.”
Chen Shuqin agreed, “Isn’t that the truth? Who knows how these chefs do it—whatever they make just tastes better than ours.”
Song Ying said, “Stir-fry over high heat, Grandma.” Food stir-fried over high heat tastes better.
Zhang Chunhua smiled, “If we stir-fry over high heat, we might burn the dish if we’re not careful.”