Chapter 232 The Gu family just doesn't care much about their own men.

"This is my younger sister's wedding banquet, let's go help in the kitchen!" Xiao Ye said righteously, leading her husband Jiang Changtian into the kitchen of the Feiyan Textile Factory canteen.

As soon as they entered, they were greeted by the aroma of braised meat. The air was filled with an irresistible meaty fragrance. Fortunately, it was morning and they had just eaten breakfast, so the overwhelming smell of meat didn't overwhelm their appetites.

Xiao Ye asked doubtfully, "Is this braised meat? The taste seems a bit off..."

"This is braised abalone and pig's trotters in red sauce! It's the main dish for today!"

Xiao Ye and Jiang Changtian looked at each other in surprise. Jiang Changtian touched his nose and said, "It smells so good! No wonder it smells so good. It turns out they added abalone to it."

Xiao Ye's lips twitched: "Master, is this the first time you've cooked this? Or have you cooked it at banquets before?"

"This dish is a regular part of our cafeteria's meals, served once or twice a week. Please check the menu for details."

Xiao Ye exclaimed in disbelief, "Supply every week?!"

"Yes! This is called enriching the canteen's menu! Our factory manager said that, unless absolutely necessary... like when there's too much pumpkin and potatoes, we should try not to have the same dishes for three days in a row, especially meat dishes, we should make more variety!"

"These are pigs raised on our own farm! They smell amazing!"

"Besides braised pork, we also have braised squid, which is already braised. Please try it."

"They're going to fry peanuts over there later to have as a snack with their drinks today. We've made some improvements to the seaweed peanuts!"

Seaweed peanuts are also a specialty snack on the island, with a unique island flavor. Seaweed, as the name suggests, is a type of seaweed product. There is no nori seaweed in China, but there is "seaweed strips". It is dark green and looks more like dried bean curd sticks. After buying it, it needs to be cooked separately, unlike the flavored nori seaweed that can be eaten directly.

When hosting banquets on the island, one of the dishes served with drinks is seaweed peanuts. First, the peanuts are stir-fried in a pan, and then the remaining oil is used to fry the seaweed until it is crushed. The seaweed and peanuts are then mixed together, which becomes the dish served with drinks on the island at that time. This dish is always served at banquets.

Now that the factory has the technology to make seaweed, this "seaweed peanut" dish has also been improved accordingly, using seaweed seasoning, making it especially good with alcohol.

Many male workers would buy some seaweed peanuts to take home as a snack with their drinks.

"Have you had breakfast yet? Here's some pork floss and seaweed bread from our factory... and some freshly made rice crackers! Come and try them, you outsiders have never tasted anything like this before!"

"These are all new gadgets that our factory came up with ourselves."

Xiao Ye said, "I don't like bread! My husband says nobody likes bread. They're on the ship, and they'd rather eat steamed buns with pickled cucumbers."

"Well, everyone has different tastes."

Jiang Changtian said, "What kind of pork floss bread? I want to try it!"

"Alright, you outsiders don't get a chance to eat this!" The chef, wearing a white apron, placed a plate of fragrant pork floss bread in front of Jiang Changtian, opened the cover, and gestured for him to take one.

Jiang Changtian took it out and took a bite: "This is... there's meat in this! It's salty! It's salty and sweet, it's really delicious."

"Isn't it delicious? All the kids in our factory love it! This is homemade, and only our factory makes it!" The chef puffed out his chest even more, as if to say, "You outsiders have never seen anything like it."

Jiang Changtian ate one in a few bites, becoming more and more addicted: "Was this specially made for today's wedding banquet?"

The chef tilted his chin up and said, "Our factory supplies this regularly! It's pork floss bread, just like steamed buns and dumplings, very easy to make!"

"Can I have another one?"

"Alright, have a taste. We made a lot today, thanks to Xiao Zhi'er. This couple really went to great lengths!"

"This couple even had us make a buttercream decorated cake!"

Jiang Changtian was astonished: "Cream cake...is it delicious?"

"It's delicious! If it's not delicious, wouldn't that be embarrassing for our factory director? It doesn't matter if we embarrass ourselves, the important thing is that we absolutely cannot let our factory director lose face!"

"It's just some bread, nothing special." Xiao Ye's nose twitched, and seeing Jiang Changtian continue eating the meat floss bread, she couldn't help but swallow.

"Let me try this crispy rice crust."

Xiao Ye took a bowl of crispy rice crust slices. The crispy slices felt hard to the touch, and when you ate them, they were crunchy and fragrant, with a fresh and delicious shrimp flavor spreading in your mouth.

You can bite into it directly, or you can hold it in your mouth and moisten it with saliva. The crispy chips will turn into a fragrant rice paste that is slightly sticky to your teeth.

While enjoying a delicious meal, Xiao Ye's expression was grim: "How often do your factory workers get to eat pork?"

"What? The factory supplies meat dishes every day. Whether you buy them or not is up to you. A regular meat dish only costs two cents... Our factory's braised meat is always in short supply!"

"And these crispy rice crust slices, people from other organizations asked our factory to buy them!"

"This is our factory's own specialty food! Other steel mills have homemade soda and homemade ice cream, but we have homemade seaweed and these homemade rice crackers! We also have pork floss bread... Oh, and pork jerky. These are only available in our factory's grocery store. It's really something!" the chef said proudly.

"You know Zhuang Xiaoman, right? She's the farm manager and also a female military family member in your compound. She eats midnight snacks and can still finish such a huge braised pig's trotter!"

Xiao Ye: "???!!!"

Jiang Changtian: "???!!"

Xiao Ye: "Impossible! Isn't Zhuang Xiaoman supposed to be eating meager meals at home? Their family's food is notoriously bad in our compound!"

The cook exclaimed in surprise, "How is that possible! Zhuang Xiaoman is known throughout our factory for her huge appetite! She spends most of her salary on food, like braised meat, rice crust slices, and cream cakes—she buys them for herself all the time, we've seen it with our own eyes. She can eat five meat floss buns in one go!"

"She can even eat two big pig's trotters! Last time our factory made kidney bean and pig's trotter soup, she ordered two pig's trotters by herself. She is very generous with her food. It's only because her husband has a high salary and she also has a salary that she can eat like that."

Jiang Changtian's jaw dropped to the ground: "This..."

Xiao Ye's face turned green. She knew that Zhuang Xiaoman was often the negative example in her eyes. She and her husband ate coarse food at home. Even after she became a deputy section chief, she was still eating coarse food. She said that this kind of woman could not take care of her family at all.

...Who knew that she was eating and drinking well, but just didn't care much about her own man.

"The food at our textile factory is famously good. Even the cultural troupe envies us when they came last time... That's right! Our factory cooks can't let our factory manager down!"

"Our factory might host foreign guests, so we can't afford to lose face in front of them!" The chef said, puffing out his chest even more vigorously.

Xiao Ye was filled with mixed feelings. Even though her own sister didn't get married, she could still live such a good life!

Actually, Xiao Zhier had brought them braised meat before, but Xiao Ye just thought it was something new to try. The factory's canteen food must not be very good... But Xiao Zhier's salary increased, and even the braised meat in their factory became more and more delicious!

There are even more delicious foods inside the textile factory!

"This Xiao Zhi'er, and this Zhuang Xiaoman... they actually ate so well behind my back."

Jiang Changtian: "They didn't do it behind my back. I heard it's because the affiliated farm is doing well, and they've recently produced some fresh and good stuff."

"No wonder steel mills and textile factories are the state-owned factories with the best benefits. I heard that in the army, officers and soldiers are scrambling to go to textile factories after they are discharged."

"Don't worry about your sister. She's a full-time employee at the textile factory, and she'll have a good life ahead of her!"

Jiang Changtian: "From now on, we can only envy your sister for living a good life!"

Xiao Ye felt dizzy. She couldn't accept this reality, couldn't accept that her younger sister was doing better than her, couldn't accept being surpassed... Yes, her sister was definitely going to be in big trouble!

"Xiao Zhier definitely won't be able to take good care of the family, which will affect the promotion of the men in the family. Jiang Changtian, you need to get promoted as soon as possible!"

Jiang Changtian turned his face away, completely ignoring Xiao Ye's words.

The wedding banquet was held in the factory canteen, and Xu Guangming brought some "rare items", such as canned caviar, canned fruit, salted pineapple... and Coca-Cola.

These items, arranged in advance on the dining table, certainly attracted a lot of attention, especially the dark caviar and the dark cola.

The factory workers were curious, but dared not try it easily.

Next came the factory's dishes. First, four cold dishes: crystal pork jelly, braised squid, honey-glazed pumpkin, and salted duck egg yolk pastry. Then came braised abalone and pig's trotters, crab roe tofu, glutinous rice with blue crab, braised pork belly with shredded pork, shrimp in tomato sauce, stir-fried seasonal vegetables, shrimp shumai, and fish ball and seaweed soup…

The drinks are a secret-recipe "sour plum juice" and Donghai Baiyun tea, which are served in unlimited quantities at each table and the children fight over them.

What was most shocking was Xiao Zhier's table, where there was a two-tiered decorated cream cake, while the other tables each had a small cream cake costing two cents...

Xu Guangming brought over a dozen comrades-in-arms, who were completely impressed by the food at the textile factory. They all gave him a thumbs up: "Director Qin, you're really something! You've managed this factory so well! It's simply paradise!"

"A good cook is a rare find in the mess hall!"

"Where did your textile factory find so many good cooks?!"

Xiao Zhi'er quickly replied, "That's all thanks to our factory director! He wanted us workers to eat well, so he personally led the chefs to improve the food! Our canteen cooks so well that not a single bite is wasted!"

Qin Xiangxiang said, "It's all thanks to everyone in the factory! Thanks to everyone's hard work, our canteen is getting better and better... and it will only get better in the future!"

Qin Xiangxiang felt refreshed!

She used to look down on the cooks at the 316 Textile Factory, but now it's her turn to take charge of the canteen!

With this experience, you'll be more than qualified to open a hotel in the future!