Chapter 39

Chapter 39 Although it’s a KTV, it seems...

Today at White Swan KTV was the best business day in quite some time. Although only four private rooms had customers, compared to the usual daily emptiness, it was a big improvement.

However... it was still somewhat quiet. In the hall, one could only faintly hear music; there was no sound of guests proudly showing off their singing skills.

After all, most people came because of An Ji Shan’s promotion of the fried chicken.

Fried chicken, once cooked, was at most reheated before being served. Before a song was even finished, the fried chicken would arrive.

Faced with such deliciously crispy-on-the-outside, tender-on-the-inside fried chicken, who could resist!

When Shunzi carried out a plate of crispy fried crucian carp, he also felt this strange sense of dissonance.

He looked at the front desk somewhat puzzled, seeing Wang Jinghan still organizing the takeout boxes, making the feeling even stranger.

“So many disposable gloves too?”

Wang Jinghan nodded, “Yes, since most of what we sell are fried foods, we have to sort out disposable gloves and chopsticks.”

She looked at Shunzi, who was about to serve the food, and couldn’t help but laugh, “Why does it feel so strange? It’s the first time I’ve seen KTV waitstaff wearing these transparent sanitary masks...”

Yes, to prevent contamination of the food when waitstaff speak while serving, Gao Shuxian bought many professional-looking food-grade masks and instructed every waiter to wear one.

Shunzi sighed, “Might as well just wear ordinary medical masks; these smell so strong...”

Compared to the aroma of fried chicken, the fragrance of crispy fried small crucian carp was all-pervasive.

The freshly cooked crispy fried small crucian carp gave off a crispiness that seemed to penetrate to the bone just by smelling it.

Moreover, there were many fried chicken shops around town, but very few places sold fried fish. To buy small fried fish, people often had to go to more traditional deli shops, where the fish was often coated with a layer of soft batter.

When An Ji Shan received the gifted crispy fried crucian carp, her first thought was, how long had it been since she last ate fried fish?

“I feel like the last time I ate fried fish was during last year’s New Year. My family was making braised ribbonfish, and I ate a piece of semi-finished product.”

“I haven’t eaten it for quite a long time either. Usually, when I eat fried snacks, it’s either fried chicken or fried skewers; at most sometimes ribs or something like that.”

Shunzi placed a plate of crispy fried crucian carp on the table in the private room. As soon as it was set down, An Ji Shan immediately reached out and grabbed one.

The small crucian carp was no bigger than her index finger. Before eating, she carefully looked it over. The fish was very cleanly prepared.

Not only was the head removed, but the back was also cut open, revealing the empty belly inside, making it very reassuring to eat.

Only then did she put the small fish into her mouth and took a bite.

“Wow, it’s so crispy!”

The fish was so crispy that she had the illusion she barely bit down; just the teeth touching the surface made the small crucian carp shatter completely inside her mouth.

Even the thickest main bone was crispy without any presence at all!

“Too fragrant...”

The taste of crucian carp definitely had a stronger presence than fried chicken drumsticks.

Not a trace of any fishy smell, only layers of fresh umami aroma that filled every corner of her mouth, urging her to take another bite.

“Fried fish really is the best!”Li Yao also put a small crucian carp in her mouth and chewed it heartily, nodding as she said, “Indeed, my grandfather always orders small fried fish when he goes to the tavern. I didn’t understand before, but now I do.”

This stuff is really delicious!

“But why are there so few places outside that sell fried fish?”

Shunzi had just handed disposable gloves to two customers and heard this, so he smiled and explained a bit.

“Cleaning these small crucian carp is troublesome, they easily lose their crispness if left too long, and they can’t be made into pre-made dishes... Think about it—supermarket freezers have many battered frozen fried chicken products, but where are the frozen old-fashioned fried chicken or fried fish products?”

An Ji Shan thought about it and realized that was really the case.

Unexpectedly, the treatment they sometimes can’t get even at small restaurants outside, they actually got to enjoy here in this KTV.

This small crucian carp, and the chicken leg that obviously tasted like it was first braised then fried—neither could possibly be pre-made dishes.

She took another small crucian carp, enjoyed biting a big chunk, savoring the rich flavor filling her mouth, and nodded.

Indeed, the crispiness clearly showed it was freshly fried!

Remembering Gao Shuxian’s instructions from today, Shunzi took the opportunity to say, “The boss said if you post on Moments for promotion and get 50 likes, you can get one snack free.”

Li Yao quickly took a photo.

Yesterday after eating the lion’s head meatball, she realized she hadn’t posted anything on Moments at all. An Ji Shan posted a picture of the eaten chicken bones—what could she post? An empty rice bowl wiped clean?

The soup from yesterday’s lion’s head was so delicious that after eating, the bowl and chopsticks didn’t even show an oil spot.

“Turn on all the lights,” Li Yao took two photos but felt the effect wasn’t good. While the waiter was nearby, she quickly instructed, “No need for such dim lighting, anyway we’re just eating, not singing.”

Shunzi paused, thought the customer’s request was reasonable, then turned to turn off the ambient lighting in the room and turned on the brightest incandescent lights.

Now Li Yao took a very satisfying photo and happily posted it to Moments, also mentioning the likes-collection in several groups.

“Your photo is better than mine, give it to me so I can post one too.”

An Ji Shan’s Moments post yesterday was a plate of chicken bones, which did attract some attention, but also a few good-natured jokes.

Today, before eating, she was going to redeem herself!

“Really didn’t expect to eat freshly fried small fish that I usually can’t get anywhere, and that too at a KTV!”

She even attached a live photo.

A small fried fish that clearly looked flavorful was gently broken in half by two hands, and the moment it broke, bits of fish meat splattered everywhere.

No need to eat—just from this live photo, you could tell how thrillingly crispy it was!

An Ji Shan proudly admired her GIF, confident the likes were secured. She casually replied to a few comments and was about to continue eating when suddenly her WeChat rang.

It was the client!

“No way, I just told you the client was on board this time, why are they contacting me at quitting time today...”

An Ji Shan clicked open the chat with a finger raised, felt relieved at the message, but also a bit amused.

“Sorry to bother you, may I ask where you bought that fried fish you ate today? Could you please give me the contact info of the shop?”

She replied quickly: “It’s at White Swan KTV, you know, that street next to Lakeside Park, the one full of KTVs.”The person on the other side paused for a moment. An Ji Shan thought they might be silent, which made her feel a bit amused.

This client she had dealt with a few times—always polite, always wearing a crisp suit, looking like he could perfectly handle any situation.

Thinking of the other’s speechless expression, An Ji Shan continued to promote with a bit of mischievous delight: “Their Chinese-style fried chicken is also super delicious! And the braised lion’s head meatballs are exceptional too, even better than what I’ve had in restaurants before!”

The “typing…” indicator on the other side showed for a while before finally a message popped up:

“…Thank you, I got it.”

Seeing the ellipsis, An Ji Shan couldn’t help but laugh and added, “Too bad, the KTV doesn’t do delivery, otherwise I would have just sent it your way.”

After sending that, she didn’t bother teasing the client further and reached out to eat some small fried fish.

“Li Yao! Can you keep an eye on this? I’ve only replied a few messages and half the food is already gone!”

She was happily eating, but on the other side of the phone, Liang Xingzhao wasn’t sure whether to believe it.

By logic, he was the client, and the other party shouldn’t be playing tricks over something like this.

But really, he found it hard to imagine a KTV serving food like this.

This kind of deeply skilled crispy fried crucian carp obviously should be from some old restaurant in a small alley, a bunch of old neighbors ordering a dish and warming a pot of wine, drinking from morning till night. Maybe the owner was a bit gruff and closed the shop suddenly to go home and rest.

KTV fried food shouldn’t all be just frozen products taken straight from the freezer and dropped into the fryer, right?

Liang Xingzhao reopened the GIF on Moments, watching the fish break apart, then stood up from the sofa.

No way, he had to try this!

He hadn’t eaten such snacks in a long time. Western-style fried chicken and burger shops were everywhere, but small fried fish was hard to find.

He turned on navigation and headed straight to White Swan KTV. On entering, Liang Xingzhao’s first glance caught the front-desk girl packing chicken legs.

“No worries, rest assured, our takeout boxes have holes on top. Just put them in the fridge at home; no need to worry about losing crispiness.”

“Sorry, really no delivery... we’re a KTV, how would we be on Meituan?”

“No... not on Ele.me either, sorry. Enjoy your meal and come again next time!”

A front-desk girl at a KTV saying “Enjoy your meal and come again next time” sounded strange but made Liang Xingzhao relax a bit.

Looks like it’s not a prank.

“I want one portion of crispy fried small crucian carp, and one portion of fried chicken.”

He was already the second straightforward customer to come in and order right away.

Wang Jinghan understood but insisted on introducing the option: “Customer, we’re a KTV. How about checking our group deals and choosing a private room?”

Liang Xingzhao hesitated, a bit embarrassed: “Sorry, I forgot.”

He usually had some OCD tendencies, whether towards others or himself. Coming straight to a KTV and ordering food like this… something felt a little off.

“No worries, no worries,” Wang Jinghan smiled warmly, “That’s normal. Have you chosen? Please this way. Just tell the waiter your order.”

Shunzi came over to attend to Liang Xingzhao. Familiar with the routine, he guided Liang Xingzhao into a private room, introduced some of the hottest snacks, and finally added: “If you want rice, we can get you a box. But we haven’t prepared that yet. The boxed rice is ordered from the restaurant next door. Would that be okay?”

“No rice needed,” Liang Xingzhao still preferred fried food with drinks. Before coming in, he’d already grabbed two bottles of his favorite craft beer at the bar. “Just one portion of crispy fried crucian carp and one portion of old-fashioned fried chicken.”“All right, please wait a moment. While you wait, you can sing some songs.”

…While waiting, you can sing some songs, Liang Xingzhao nodded.

But actually, he didn’t have to wait long. Within a few minutes, the fried food he ordered was served. Shunzi, learning from the experience in An Ji Shan’s room earlier, tactfully asked, “Would you like me to brighten the lights a bit?”

“…Okay.”

Once the lights came on, the two snacks looked even more tempting!

Even Liang Xingzhao, who usually didn’t talk much to waitstaff, couldn’t help but say, “Your snacks here are really good. It’s hard to find this kind of old-fashioned fried chicken nowadays.”

As a lover of Chinese-style fried foods, he immediately recognized that this fried chicken was braised first then fried!

It had been his favorite taste since childhood, but now it was getting harder to find. The fried chicken all over the streets was either Western fast food style or various Korean styles.

No choice—braising first then frying, with no semi-prepared products, such labor- and time-intensive snacks would naturally be phased out over time.

“Indeed hard to find, and ours are freshly fried. Don’t worry, definitely not leftovers from the day before.”

Shunzi opened a beer for Liang Xingzhao, then politely left. He could tell this customer probably didn’t frequent places like this much and should be given a free dining space.

Just as he stepped out, he ran into Gao Shuxian.

“How is it?”

“Hey, how else? I just couldn’t help but start eating.”

Thanks to the promotion on Moments for collecting likes, White Swan had already served a full ten orders today!

Gao Shuxian had imagined various ways to break the deadlock but never expected that fried chicken and fried fish would be what revived White Swan’s business.

“Wait, don’t go yet,” she called out to Shunzi, who was about to leave, and asked seriously, “Do you think we have a chance to keep these customers?”

“Don’t ask me that. You have to keep the kitchen’s ‘god of wealth’.”

Although Shunzi hadn’t yet tried the newest crispy fried small crucian carp, he had eaten the previous Chinese-style fried chicken legs and lion’s head meatballs. Not to mention these customers, even he would be tempted to come often if he knew a KTV had such delicious food!

“Definitely, definitely. I’m already hiring new cleaning ladies, both for fish cleaning and dishwashing,” Gao Shuxian was asking about other aspects. “Look at our dining experience… can we improve it a bit?”

After all, this place was still a KTV.

Shunzi’s sense of discomfort had accumulated quite a bit. Having worked in this industry for a long time, he was used to handling various unexpected problems for customers every day but had never before been this busy just serving dishes daily.

“I think one thing is the lighting,” Shunzi shared his feelings from today. “Dimmer lights are better for singing, but when customers are eating, it should be brighter.”

Gao Shuxian nodded. That was indeed true. “What else?”

“Also, I think maybe we should change the tables?”

Shunzi was a bit cautious suggesting this. Looking at Gao Shuxian’s expression, he slowly continued, “For singing, a sofa with a tea table is pretty normal. But when eating, customers all have to lean forward, which isn’t very comfortable.”

It’s fine just eating fried snacks, but seeing that the kitchen had already bought a rice steamer and was about to start steaming rice…

“You’re right!”

Gao Shuxian didn’t hesitate at all. She knew that capturing the business brought by Chen Ran was her last chance.

Although it was a KTV now, if most customers came to eat, then it had to change.“The Moments like-collecting campaign will continue. You should promote it more to the customers.”

“All right, boss, got it.”

Shunzi happily ran back to the kitchen again. Maybe because he saw dish after dish coming out, his mouth watered painfully. Just now, Chef Chen had even put out a small plate of small crucian carp!

He had to take this chance to eat one!

As soon as he entered the kitchen, he saw Chen Ran frying a new batch of crucian carp.

There were four deep fryers in total: two for frying chicken legs and two for frying crucian carp. Nearby, a large pot was bubbling away, simmering the soup for the braised lion’s head meatballs.

The auntie behind Chen Ran was working hard washing fish...

What a lively KTV this was!

The oil was already hot. Chen Ran used long chopsticks to quickly put the small crucian carps into the oil.

The first round was high-temperature shaping—fast, precise, and fierce!

Frying fish is different from frying chicken; the first round must be high heat to set the shape quickly, then take it out. Otherwise, the fish skin would get damaged and look sloppy.

Shunzi watched and realized for the first time how much technique went into cooking.

He grabbed one of the crucian carps that Chen Ran left for the staff and started eating.

Shunzi had seen these small fish so crispy that they shattered with a tap, and when really eating them, his understanding of “crispy” was elevated to a new level.

But such crispy small fish, during Chen Ran’s stirring and lifting out from the oil, had not a single bit broken.

He couldn’t help but ask, “Chef Chen, how old are you this year?”

“22.”

Shunzi clicked his tongue. Seeing how skilled Chef Chen was, he had thought Chen Ran looked like a baby-faced girl—these days it was hard to guess girls’ ages.

But unexpectedly, so young and already so good! It was like she’d been frying fish since the womb...

Another batch of crispy fried crucian carp came out. Chen Ran carefully plated them. Seeing Shunzi carry away several plates, she couldn’t help but interrupt him.

“Looks like the occupancy today is pretty good?”

White Swan was originally a boutique-style KTV, not too many rooms—only 25 rooms total upstairs and downstairs.

Shunzi quietly calculated and was suddenly a bit shocked to find that more than half were already seated!

At this rate tonight, the rooms would be full soon!

“Definitely, in a while it’ll be full.”

Chen Ran nodded. By that calculation, the turnover should have already reached a thousand.

However, judging from the system’s task settlement scene yesterday, it should only settle after checkout.

“All right, go quickly. I’ve prepared the staff meal. Later you find someone to take over so you can eat.”

Shunzi nodded, carrying a tray in each hand as he left.

Although he wasn’t very hungry, that small crucian carp he just ate had completely stirred up his appetite!After serving two customers the crispy fried crucian carp, Shunzi walked toward the front desk, glancing around to find someone free to swap shifts with so he could have time to eat.

However, as he passed the front desk, he was surprised.

Rarely, there was a queue at the front desk!

“Sorry, we’re full right now…” Wang Jinghan at the front desk looked a bit troubled.

Since she started working at White Swan KTV, this was the first time it was fully booked. Therefore, there was no ticketing system or anything like that. She was considering whether to manually write some waiting numbers for the customers.

“I don’t mind waiting,” a customer said politely.

Shunzi glanced over and felt that this customer’s style was similar to the solo suited man he had just served.

Both left a deep impression on him.

After all, in a place like a KTV, most people usually come in groups. It was rare for someone to come alone.

But in the past few days, he had served several customers who came alone to eat. That suited man just now was one, and these groups gathered at the front desk now were also.

“I came because I saw it on someone’s Moments,” the familiar-looking customer smiled politely, “It’s been years since I had this kind of Chinese fried snack. There used to be an old shop in our city called Yiwei Tavern, especially good at these. But since it closed, I haven’t found anywhere else.”

The girl behind him nodded vigorously: “Exactly, these days all the fried chicken on the streets is either Korean style or KFC or McDonald’s. Oh, and some Japanese fried chicken nuggets… but the old-fashioned Chinese fried chicken? Nowhere to be found!”

Wang Jinghan, forgetting her front desk role, nodded deeply along.

She hadn’t had this kind of fried chicken taste for many years! The fried chicken made by Chef Chen instantly reminded her of similar food she ate in childhood.

“Yes, and the small fried fish — where do you buy that now? Except ordering at restaurants, and it has to be a big fancy restaurant for it to taste good! But if I go to a restaurant alone and order a plate of small fried fish? I might as well come to the KTV, right? I can have a little drink, and if I get happy, I can even sing a couple of songs!”

This middle-aged man at the end of the line spoke rhythmically, asking as he talked: “Hey little miss, see, just for this, if it’s full, I can wait. But how long would I be waiting, you gotta tell me that, right?”

This kind of Chinese fried snack was perfect with alcohol! As long as he didn’t have to wait two or three hours, he was willing to wait!

Wang Jinghan felt troubled…

According to the KTV’s schedule, most customers bought group packages, so theoretically most would sing for about two hours before leaving.

But what about those coming just to eat?

Gao Shuxian saw the situation too. She had just gone to the kitchen to wipe Chen Ran’s sweat and bought milk tea. Seeing trouble at the front desk, she hurried over to help.

But this was the first time she had dealt with this kind of situation.

Since she took over White Swan, other KTVs in the family kept causing her various troubles, but she had never experienced a KTV so busy that there was a queue.

Just as she was feeling troubled, Shunzi leaned close and whispered an idea to her.

At first, Gao Shuxian felt it was a bit off, but after thinking, it seemed possible.

After all, White Swan nowadays could no longer be considered just a KTV.

She tentatively made a suggestion quietly to several customers.

“You see, everyone comes to White Swan mainly to taste our exclusive Chinese fried snacks, and some of you even come alone.”

“How about... you try sharing a private room?”Since restaurants can share tables, maybe KTVs can share tables too?