Courtyard House: My Wife is Xu Huizhen

Page 5

Besides people, various livestock also defecate and urinate wherever they want. Because there are few vehicles, there are many camels carrying goods on the road, as well as donkeys and mules pulling various carts. Everyone is used to it.

He Yuzhu looked at the row of white buttocks by the roadside, men and women, young and old, really... never mind, I'd better not look, or I'll get a sty.

Soon the bus arrived at Qianmen Street, and we got off and walked to the alley behind Taifenglou.

From a distance, I could see a mule cart parked at the back gate.

Only when you get closer can you see that the truck is carrying a full load of wine jars, and a man is carrying them into the yard.

There was a tall young girl standing guard next to the car, with a piece of luggage beside her. She must have been rather petite to be able to lift the heavy wine jar.

He Yuzhu walked up to her, and just then the little girl looked up and made eye contact with him.

He Yuzhu was stunned for a moment. Why did this pretty face look so familiar? It looked like some female celebrity.

He Yuzhu didn't immediately recognize who it was, but he didn't dwell on it. Instead, he stopped and said, "Let me help you carry it."

"Are you from the restaurant?" the young girl asked, her voice clear and bright, like a lark singing.

He Yuzhu laughed and said, "Yes, I'm a kitchen helper."

"Oh, I see. Thank you very much." The little girl quickly thanked her.

"You're welcome."

He Yuzhu picked up a wine jar and felt it was extremely heavy. He estimated that it contained at least 50 jin (25 catties) of wine. Fortunately, it was still within his capacity. He looked at the figures in the yard and followed behind, still carrying the wine jar.

After the wine jars were placed in the storeroom, the young man in front of him smiled and said, "Thank you, young man. Are you new here? I can carry this wine myself."

He Yuzhu laughed and said, "It's alright, I'm quite strong."

Actually, He Yuzhu didn't want to move either, but it was his first day on the job, and he didn't know if the staff had helped him move the wine when he delivered it before.

Therefore, it's better to do more than less, and you can't leave your boss with the impression that you're slacking off on the first day.

Fortunately, He Yuzhu arrived relatively late and finished after three trips. The young man thanked He Yuzhu again, and the young girl smiled and nodded, following the young man to the office.

He Yuzhu then crossed the courtyard and went to the kitchen, where three master chefs were gathered together drinking tea and chatting, including his own master, Hong Henian.

Several apprentice workers had already started cleaning and picking vegetables; they were all busy.

He Yuzhu suddenly realized that he had done a good deed. None of the kitchen helpers had gone to help the young man move the wine, which explained why the young man was so polite to him.

However, he didn't explicitly state that he didn't need to move, which was somewhat unfair of him.

Hong Henian spotted He Yuzhu looking somewhat bewildered and called out, "Zhuzi, come here."

He Yuzhu walked up and said, "Greetings, Master. I'm late."

"It's alright, it's not time to start work yet. Come, let me introduce you. This is Master Song Mingguang, and this is your senior apprentice, Ye Xuequn."

He Yuzhu quickly greeted the two of them. Master Song Mingguang was probably a chef in the kitchen, but Ye Xuequn was different. He was Hong Henian's apprentice, which meant he was He Yuzhu's senior brother.

It was evident from their reactions that Song Mingguang merely nodded, his attitude neither warm nor cold.

Ye Xuequn seemed more approachable and exchanged a few words with He Yuzhu.

He Yuzhu said, "Master, there's something I'd like to tell you beforehand."

Hong Henian thought something was wrong, so he brought He Yuzhu out and then asked, "What is it?"

He Yuzhu said, "My dad ran away this morning."

"Ran away? What do you mean by that?" Hong Henian couldn't understand for a moment.

He Yuzhu told the story of how He Daqing found a widow and then ran away with his luggage that morning.

Chapter 7 I didn't offend her.

Hong Henian was very surprised, and then said angrily, "Your father is so old, how can he still be so unreliable? No wonder he asked me to take good care of you before, it turns out he already had this plan back then."

He Yuzhu was embarrassed and didn't know what to say. This matter was really disgraceful, but in order to leave early that night to go back and take care of his sister, he had to make things clear with Hong Henian.

Hong Henian and He Daqing were, after all, brothers-in-arms, so he could hurl insults at them, vent his anger, and then look at He Yuzhu and say:

“Child, your father is determined to live with a widow, so let him be. You are already 16 years old, and you can start your own family and career by now. Work hard in the future, and your master will pass on his skills to you so that you will have a skill in the future.”

"Yes, I understand, thank you, Master." He Yuzhu had long since let it go and wasn't angry at all.

They're not your family, what's there to be angry about? Besides, you're the one who drove them away.

He Yuzhu then said, "But I have a younger sister at home who is only 7 years old. I have to go home early tonight to take care of her."

"this..."

Hong Henian hesitated for a moment. Normally, the kitchen helpers would work until after 10 o'clock, and only after the kitchen was cleaned up would they go back together.

However, He Yuzhu's family situation is different. He only has a 7-year-old sister, and if he goes back too late, he won't be able to take care of her.

After thinking for a moment, I said, "Then you should go back early. I'll pay you for half a day's work, but the wages will be much less."

"It's alright. He Daqing left me some money when he left, so I won't have any problems making a living."

He Yuzhu didn't care about the amount of wages, as long as he had a place to study.

"Tell me if you encounter any difficulties in the future, don't keep them to yourself."

"Well, thank you, Master."

Hong Henian brought He Yuzhu back into the kitchen, gave him a cleaver, led him to a chopping board, and assigned him to chop scallions.

Then he hurriedly went out, found the head chef and explained the situation. When he came back, he said, "You only need to work half a day. You can go home at five o'clock in the afternoon. The monthly salary is five yuan."

(Some readers felt uncomfortable with the use of banknotes, so from now on all banknotes will be the second series of RMB.)

He Yuzhu had expected this result. He didn't care about the amount of money; what he needed to do now was to seize the time to train more so that he could improve his chef level as soon as possible.

Although he knew that He Yuzhu had some basic skills, Hong Henian still started teaching him from scratch, first demonstrating how to use a kitchen knife correctly.

Three footwork techniques were demonstrated: the figure-eight step, the bow step, and the rest step.

When chopping vegetables, lean your upper body slightly forward and tilt your chest forward slightly. Do not bend over or hunch your back. Place the chopping block at a suitable height and distance for easy operation.

When operating, you must concentrate and keep your eyes on the parts of the cutting board that your hands are working on. You must always pay attention to the coordination of your left and right hands, and at the very least, avoid cutting your fingers.

As Hong Henian chopped, he said, "As the saying goes, 'three parts skill with a spoon and seven parts skill with a knife.' When chopping vegetables, your movements should be natural and standardized, and they should look beautiful. In particular, the rhythm of chopping should vary, sometimes fast and sometimes slow. Come on, give it a try."

As Hong Henian was explaining, a system message popped up in He Yuzhu's mind.

[Knife skills experience increased by 5]

At the same time, they also mastered the key points of knife skills and posture.

At the beginning, the requirements weren't too high. Expecting the thickness to be uniform and neat would be too much for an apprentice.

He first gave a demonstration before handing the chopping block to He Yuzhu.

As He Daqing mentioned before, He Yuzhu had been practicing at home since he was a child and had a certain foundation. So after explaining some basic operations and key points, he wanted to see He Yuzhu's basic skills.

He Yuzhu took the kitchen knife and stood up according to the method Hong Henian had just taught him, leaning his body slightly forward and then assuming a chopping posture.

He Yuzhu also had related memories, but he had always performed the movements incorrectly. After standing up, he felt something was wrong with his body, and after making a slight adjustment, he felt much more comfortable.

When I started cutting, I was a little nervous. After all, I didn't have any background as a chef in my previous life, and I didn't know how good I was. I could only bite the bullet and get started.

However, he quickly adapted and was able to do the same things as Hong Henian had just mentioned.

Hong Henian nodded. It seemed that He Yuzhu had grasped the concept well and was able to assume the correct posture so quickly.

Then look at the cut scallion segments; the lengths are exactly the same as the ones I demonstrated.

Then he took a washed potato from the side and placed it on the cutting board: "Cut some potato shreds."

He Yuzhu first put the scallion segments in a bowl, then picked up the potatoes and arranged them, took a deep breath, and began to chop them.

"Chop, chop, chop!"

He Yuzhu soon discovered that he was becoming more and more adept at chopping vegetables, and the initial awkwardness had gradually disappeared.

The cleaver became as familiar as my own hand, and I could wield it with ease. I didn't consciously measure each cut, yet the potato slices I made were all the same thickness and looked identical.

Hong Henian was already satisfied when he saw that He Yuzhu had cut the potato slices to a uniform thickness. After all the slices were cut, he looked at the potato shreds on the chopping block and found that they were all neat, uniform in size, thickness and shape, with no connected slices.

It can be said that the knife skills have met the requirements of neatness, evenness and crispness. Many chefs in small restaurants cannot cut as well as this.

Hong Henian was extremely surprised: "Your knife skills are already very good. I didn't quite believe it when your father told me that you had a good foundation. I didn't expect you to be this good. You are even better than many chefs in restaurants."

Hong Henian felt a little annoyed and blamed himself. He hadn't made it clear earlier that He Yuzhu's knife skills were already good enough to be a master chef, and it would be unfair to him to accept a helper's salary.

Hearing Hong Henian's praise, one of the helpers leaned over to take a look and exclaimed in surprise, "This is even better than what I cut?"

Hong Henian turned around and scolded, "Songzi, you're always so lazy and don't practice seriously. You've been cutting vegetables for half a year and you're still the same old you. Look at others and then look at yourself. You're really good for nothing."

After hearing the reprimand, Wang Song grimaced, shrank back, returned to his seat, and slowly began to chop with his head drooping.

Whether someone has good knife skills or not can be determined by looking at the vegetables they've cut, so Wang Song didn't get angry when he was scolded.

He Yuzhu smiled awkwardly. It was his first day at work, and he had already outshone Wang Song. He wondered if Wang Song would be angry.

The panel shows that my best skill is knife work; my other cooking skills are just average, which is decent for a home kitchen, but not good enough for a professional kitchen.

Hong Henian said, "However, if you want to work in the kitchen, you have to do it for three months. You can start now, and we'll talk about the rest later."

If you're not a renowned chef, you'll start as an assistant. Only after you're familiar with all the basic tasks in the kitchen can your skills be assessed and you'll be assigned a suitable position.

He Yuzhu understood what was going on in the kitchen. He had explained everything to his master early in the morning, thanked him, and then started chopping vegetables. Every morning when he arrived, he would first chop the scallions, ginger, garlic, and vegetables in advance so that the kitchen staff could use them.