Chapter 54 Agreeing to the farce in the state-owned hotel
Zhang Wenxin turned his back to the door and winked at his three brothers.
"Master, we didn't hide our side business from you—"
Zhang Sanshui was halfway through his defense when Zhang Dajin covered his mouth.
Zhang Wenxin held his forehead helplessly and slowly turned to look towards the door.
"Xinni, come out with me." The old secretary knocked the pipe in his hand on the door frame.
Zhang Wenxin followed him resignedly, and suddenly turned back while walking, with a ferocious expression.
The grandfather and grandson walked to the backyard.
"Why do you want to join the sideline group?" The old branch secretary took a small puff of his cigarette.
Zhang Wenxin looked down at the tip of her shoe, feeling anxious: "Le Le said that if we want to improve everyone's spiritual life, we need to first ensure that everyone has enough food to eat. Vigorously developing the sideline group is a viable solution."
"What are your plans?" The old branch secretary's face was completely covered by smoke.
Speaking of this, Zhang Wenxin suddenly became energetic and calmly began to talk about their side business plans.
From setting up stalls at the market to selling shredded squid and canning food, they gradually mapped out the development blueprint in their minds.
After the last word was spoken, the atmosphere fell into an unusual silence.
Zhang Wenxin raised her eyes to look at her grandfather's expression, but couldn't see it clearly, and her heart began to feel uneasy again.
"Zhang Wenxin." The old branch secretary spoke in a very formal tone.
Zhang Wenxin subconsciously stopped turning her head and looked at him.
"Work hard, make sure everyone has enough food and water, and have hope for the future." After saying this, the old branch secretary took another long puff of his cigarette.
Zhang Wenxin was pleasantly surprised and said, "Master, you agree? You agree."
"Well, when the voting meeting comes, I will vote in favor." The old branch secretary patted her hands with satisfaction.
Zhang Wenxin was full of confidence: "Master, don't worry, we will do our best and I will never let you down."
When she returned to the front yard, she saw her three brothers clinging to the door frame and staring towards the backyard.
"Sister, how is it?" the three asked hurriedly.
Zhang Wenxin snorted, which made them nervous, especially Zhang Sanshui, whose heart almost jumped into his throat.
"Master agrees." She couldn't help but curl up the corners of her mouth.
"That's great, Master agreed, this will definitely work!" The three of them applauded.
Zhang Wenxin suddenly frowned: "You must keep this secret and don't tell anyone else."
They all spontaneously made the gesture of having stitches on their mouths.
When the old branch secretary saw the interaction between the brothers and sisters, he shook his head and laughed.
Zhang Wenxin closed the door and jumped up excitedly. After a while, she took a deep breath and took out a notebook to proofread the details.
After lunch break, the air was stuffy.
Yu Zhile boiled a pot of hawthorn water, put it on the table to cool, and then turned the wild pepper.
There was no moisture on the surface of all the peppers. She put the peppers, ginger and garlic slices into the small jar according to the previous steps, then poured in the cooking water and sealed the jar with wine.
At that time, Zhou Yuesheng and Yu Yue came out of the house, and both looked towards the corner at the same time.
As they expected, the flowers and plants sent by Du Nanzhi had disappeared, but they said nothing.
Zhou Yuesheng consciously moved the small jar to a cool place for storage.
The few of them were doing their own things as usual, and soon waited for Chen Zhao to get off work.
Chen Zhao brought back a basket of young ginger from the vegetable garden in the cowshed, just enough to fill a jar of tea.
Tonight's dinner is simple, rice porridge with mud snails and grilled squid shreds.
In the following days, the three side job groups were busy with their own tasks. Yu Zhile listed the items needed and calculated the costs to measure the pricing.
It was a new day, and just as the sky was getting light, Yu Zhile got up early to go to the beach.
Today was the day she and Chen Zhao had agreed to go to the state-owned restaurant to meet Hu Laosan. Chen Zhao had asked for leave, so she specially borrowed a bicycle from the brigade one day in advance.
According to Chen Zhao, this meal must be prepared today, so she plans to bring some seafood over.
After a simple breakfast, the two picked up their backpacks and headed to the beach.
The situation today is rather special. Yu Zhile didn't plan to go fishing for too long, so he didn't turn on the live broadcast.
During high tide, the sea water recedes quickly and far, and seafood is stranded on the beach or reefs.
Yu Zhile went to the reef, and she asked Chen Zhao to pick up some shellfish on the beach.
Chen Zhao brought a watch, and the two agreed to finish today's beach hunting in an hour.
Fortunately, as soon as she stepped into the reef area, she saw several lively shrimps and immediately put them in her pocket.
Then she searched carefully at the bottom of the reef and found several large, live abalone.
During this time, when she encountered lone conchs, sea urchins, starfish, etc., she simply put them into the small warehouse and ignored the oysters attached to the surface of the reef.
Yu Zhile also wanted to find some dog-clawed snails, but after walking around, he didn't even see any shadows, so he had to give up.
At this time, the mark on her wrist was slightly hot. It was almost the time they agreed on, so she started to walk back by another route.
Unexpectedly, I caught a yellow croaker in a small puddle on the edge of the reef area.
Chen Zhao had a good harvest. Various shellfish filled half of the basket, and the shellfish made a clanging sound when he walked.
When they met, he caught a long-legged octopus that had half of its leg pecked off by a seabird, and said proudly, "Sister, look, I got it from a seabird's mouth."
"Awesome." Yu Zhile couldn't help laughing.
After learning that there were still a few small octopuses in his bamboo basket, she decided to go up the mountain to pick lemons and make a seafood dish with juice.
At exactly eight o'clock, Chen Zhao rode his bike and took Yu Zhile into the city.
The two arrived at the state-owned hotel around nine o'clock.
At this time, the morning rush hour had passed and there were only a few people in the store.
"Today's menu, order at the counter and pick up your food at the window." The waiter at the counter didn't even raise his head, pointing at the small blackboard on the wall with the fly swatter in his hand.
Today's breakfast options are written on the small blackboard, and they are quite rich.
"I'm looking for Chef Hu, this is my sister." Chen Zhao said.
The waiter knew that Chen Zhao was Hu Laosan's friend. He looked up at him lazily and tilted his chin towards the kitchen.
"Brother Hu San, I'm here." Chen Zhao greeted loudly.
No one answered from the kitchen, which he found a little strange, because usually Hu Laosan would come out to greet him when he heard the voice.
Walking into the kitchen filled with the aroma of braised food, I saw a tall and thin man standing in front of the stove cooking noodles.
"Brother Li, where is Brother Hu San?" Chen Zhao put down what he was holding and greeted the man.
Xiao Li glanced back at him and said, "Master went to the slaughterhouse to pick meat."
The moment he turned his head, he muttered something else, but Yu Zhile and the others didn't hear it clearly.
"Then I'll sit and wait for him." Chen Zhao was very familiar with the place and pulled over two chairs.
Xiao Li stirred the noodles in the pot and chatted with him: "Didn't you come here not long ago? Why are you here again?"
"Third brother wants to see my sister." Chen Zhao answered truthfully.
"Her?" Xiao Li turned around and pointed at Yu Zhile, his voice rising. "She's the one who cooks the best food in the world?"
"Yeah, my sister's cooking is the best in the world." Chen Zhao raised his head proudly.
Xiao Li looked Yu Zhile up and down with an unfriendly look in his eyes, and said, "With someone like this, can you cook?"
"Why not? My sister's cooking is much more delicious than yours." Chen Zhao heard the contempt in his tone and responded loudly.
The bowl of braised pork that was used to show his friendship to him and Hu Laosan was made by Xiao Li. At that time, Hu Laosan accidentally brought the wrong dish.
"What do you mean?" Xiao Li threw down his chopsticks.
Chen Zhao snorted: "What do you mean?"
The waiter knocked on the small window that led to the kitchen. "What are you arguing about? Xiao Li, is the customer's braised pork ribs noodles ready?"
At that time, the foam from the cooking noodles overflowed from the pot and poured onto the stove, making a hissing sound.
Xiao Li was furious, but he had to turn around and deal with it.
He wiped the stove roughly with a rag, put the noodles into a large bowl, scooped out two ribs from the pot beside, and chopped them on the chopping board.
Place the ribs on the noodles and pour a spoonful of braised soup on them.
Xiao Li turned to another window and rang the bell impatiently.
"The noodles are still raw." Yu Zhile suddenly spoke.
Xiao Li said impatiently: "What do you know? Nonsense!"
Soon, an old man in simple clothes came over and took the bowl of noodles.
Yu Zhile was not angry and shrugged.
"You guys get out. Strangers are not allowed in the kitchen." Xiao Li was annoyed by her look of watching a play, and kicked the bamboo basket they brought to the side. "You are still daydreaming about exchanging these rotten fish and shrimp for pork."
"Xiao Zhao, let's go out first." Yu Zhile bent down and picked up the bamboo basket.
Chen Zhao looked somewhat unhappy, but he still followed her obediently.
The two walked to an empty table in the corner and sat down, then saw the old man holding up the bowl of noodles and going to the counter to seek explanation.
The old man said in a calm tone: "Why are you serving me this bowl of noodles when it's not cooked yet? I want to change it."
The waiter was dozing off, but was scared away by this and picked up the chopsticks to stir the noodles in the bowl.
More than one-third of the noodles were still white in some places, and a small bunch of them were stuck together, appearing straight.
"Xiao Li, what's wrong with you? Half of the bowl of noodles is not cooked through." The waiter shouted angrily towards the small window.
The small window is square, with a side length of only one and a half strokes, so you can see Xiao Li's face clearly as he approaches.
Seeing that the other person was simply dressed, Xiao Li simply took out his anger on him, angrily saying, "What do you mean uncooked? You look so shabby, this must be your first time eating at a state-owned restaurant. This is a modified version of the braised short rib noodles, do you know how to appreciate it?"
"You are making excuses. It is obvious that it is not cooked!" the old man scolded.
Xiao Li sighed and said irritably, "Eat it if you want, forget it. If you want to change it, no way!"
“You, how can you have such an attitude?” The old man was a little out of breath and his body was shaking.
Yu Zhile and Chen Zhao quickly stepped forward to support him and help him keep his steps.
"Li Yang, don't ruin Brother Hu San's reputation!" Chen Zhao shouted.
As soon as these words were spoken, the waiter looked at Li Yang with contempt.
Everyone within a ten-mile radius knew that Li Yang was the manager's younger brother, and he was deliberately forced to be Hu Laosan's apprentice, obviously for Hu Laosan's position.
Li Yang's mind was suddenly filled with anger. He continued to move forward, his entire face seeming to overflow from the small window.
The next second, he caught a glimpse of a tall figure at the door, deflated like a popped balloon.
Hu Laosan threw half a piece of pork onto the table with a loud bang.
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