Chapter 172 Starting school late is the same; I'm afraid I won't have that chance...
Five days later, the person Jiang Manzhi introduced finally arrived.
She took her daughter and traveled overnight to Nanshi. They went to the hospital first, but at the big hospital, there were long queues for everything. By the time the whole process of consultation and examination was finished, it was already dark.
I rushed to the restaurant, arriving at around 9 p.m.
Little Star had already closed. Aunt Zhang, Aunt Li, and An Fusheng were busy wrapping up, while the others were watching Ji Fengnian and his classmates eat.
The classmate Ji Fengnian brought back was the new transfer student he had mentioned before, who was faster than him at running. His name was Li Tianle, and as his name suggested, he was always just grinning like an idiot.
Ji Fengnian was initially annoyed by Li Tianle because Li always outpaced him in running, but Li Tianle, perhaps because he was a new transfer student and didn't have many friends, stuck to Ji Fengnian like glue every day. Even after Ji Fengnian joined the weightlifting team, he still went to see him whenever he had free time.
Although Ji Fengnian spent an extra semester at school compared to Li Tianle, he didn't have many friends. His grades were poor, and his Mandarin had an accent, so his classmates would only laugh at him and wouldn't play with him at all. In addition, he was always thinking about going home to work as soon as school was over, so he didn't have any time to develop relationships with his classmates.
Li Tianle insisted on playing with Ji Fengnian, so Ji Fengnian reluctantly agreed to play with him for a while.
Ji Fengnian often brought food to school. After playing with Li Tianle, Ji Fengnian shared some food with him once. After that, Li Tianle kept saying he wanted to go home with Ji Fengnian every day. Li Tianle could eat more than Ji Fengnian, so if he took him home, his older brother would have to cook a lot more dishes. Ji Fengnian didn't want to take him home, but today Li Tianle said that his parents had a fight and had run away from home. He would have no food to eat if he went home alone, so Ji Fengnian had no choice but to take him home.
Li Tianle, for reasons unknown, had already grown to over 1.8 meters tall by the age of thirteen or fourteen, a full head taller than Ji Fengnian.
Ji Fengnian brought Li Tianle to the restaurant. As soon as they entered, Zhaolin mocked Ji Fengnian: "No wonder you can't run as fast as them. You have to take two steps for every one step they take. Even if you run with your short legs, you can't walk as fast as them."
Ji Fengnian: "..."
Even after they'd eaten for half the day, Zhaolin still hadn't let him off the hook, chattering on and on.
Ji Fengnian couldn't take it anymore and was about to call for his older brother when he looked up and saw one person standing at the entrance of the restaurant. No, there were two people. One was a woman who looked to be around forty years old, holding the hand of a little girl who looked about the same age as Wen Xinghe, probably around seven or eight years old.
The woman met Ji Fengnian's gaze and forced an awkward smile: "Hello?"
Everyone else looked at her when they heard her speak.
Ji Fengnian assumed they were there for a meal and kindly reminded them, "The restaurant is already closed."
The woman felt uncomfortable under the many gazes, and after a long pause, she stammered, "I'm not here for a meal, I'm here for a job interview."
Wen Yue and Ji Qingqing had both heard An Fusheng mention that someone had come to apply for the job, but they didn't expect it to be so late. Wen Yue got up to greet them, "Are you the chef that Director Jiang introduced?"
The woman nodded.
Wen Yue: "You sit and wait a while, I'll go call the boss."
After saying that, Wen Yue ran to the kitchen.
An Fusheng was tidying up his cooking tools in the kitchen. Although Aunt Zhang always offered to help him tidy up, he was used to tidying up his own things and putting them in their usual places so that they would be more convenient to use next time.
"Brother, the chef that Director Jiang recommended has arrived."
"So late?"
"Yes, they must have been delayed at the hospital."
"Okay, I understand."
An Fusheng put the knife away, wiped his hands, and went outside.
Just as Wen Yue said she was going to call the boss, the woman kept looking in the direction Wen Yue disappeared. A little while later, a young man came out.
The young man was tall and slender, wearing a black chef's hat meticulously. His face, which was not covered, had fair skin and prominent features. He was so clean that he didn't look like a real chef. He was also wearing a black chef's uniform with an apron tied around his waist, making him look exceptionally tall and long-legged, with a debonair air.
The woman, who often worked as a catering hostess, always thought men looked good in suits and slicked-back hair. But this was the first time she realized that some people actually looked even better in chef's uniforms.
An Fusheng approached the woman and her child, smiled, and said, "Hello, I am An Fusheng. You must be Sister Cui'e, the one Director Jiang mentioned?"
Meng Cuie snapped out of her daze and jumped up from her chair: "Hello, hello, I am Meng Cuie."
An Fusheng smiled and asked her to sit down, "Did you miss your doctor's appointment? Have you eaten yet?"
“I…I ate,” Meng Cuie said.
Although Meng Cuie worked as a banquet chef, her ex-husband was always in charge of taking orders and coordinating matters. She just focused on cooking. She was not good with words to begin with, and she didn't know what to say when she was with An Fusheng.
After hesitating for a while, Meng Cuie asked, "How...how do I start working?"
An Fusheng sat down opposite Meng Cuie and said, "How about tomorrow? The kitchen is all cleaned up now, and the ingredients have all been put away. Besides, you've been working hard all day, so you should get some rest."
It wasn't just a day of tossing and turning; the mother and daughter had only had a short rest on the high-speed train since they left home yesterday. They hadn't rested for two days and one night.
It's already late, and there are no more tickets home. Whether she tries the job or not, she'll have to stay here tonight, so she can try it tomorrow. Meng Cuie nodded: "Okay."
"How about tomorrow morning?" Meng Cuie asked again. If they tried in the morning, they could still catch their way home if they didn't succeed.
“Sure, I’ll be here after eight o’clock tomorrow morning. You can come anytime,” An Fusheng said.
"Okay, okay, then we'll be going now. We'll come back for a trial run tomorrow morning," Meng Cuie said.
"Have you booked a hotel? Is it far from here? Do you want me to take you there?" An Fusheng asked.
The woman waved her hands repeatedly: "No need, no need, it's nearby, we can just walk there."
...
On the sidewalk outside the restaurant:
Meng Cuie carried a faded, rose-red canvas bag in one hand and held her daughter's hand in the other, walking very slowly.
"Mom, we haven't had dinner yet, have we?" The daughter tilted her head to look at Meng Cuie.
Meng Cuie: "Mm."
"You just told your older brother you ate." She wasn't confused; she was afraid her mother had misremembered and wouldn't eat dinner.
Meng Cuie immediately saw what she was thinking: "I know we haven't had dinner yet. I only said that because they were just asking politely. If we said we hadn't eaten yet, it would be awkward if they invited us to dinner, but it would also be awkward if they didn't invite us. Let's go have dinner now."
The daughter asked expectantly, "Mom, what are we going to eat?"
"There's a beef noodle shop up ahead, let's go eat beef noodles."
"Um."
After walking a few steps, the daughter asked again, "So you're saying that we booked the hotel because we were lying to our older brother?"
As Meng Cuie walked, she said, "No, it's really booked. We'll go to the hotel after we finish our beef noodles."
"Mom, why are we staying in a hotel?"
"Are we supposed to sleep on the streets instead of staying in a hotel?"
"Isn't a hotel a place for drinking? What if those people get drunk and beat us up?"
"Hotels are not places to drink; they are places specifically for sleeping."
"Why?"
"I don't know either."
...
An Fusheng told Meng Cuie that they would meet at the restaurant after eight o'clock. He was afraid that Meng Cuie would really come to try out the job at eight o'clock, so he went to the restaurant at seven-thirty to prepare. Unexpectedly, Meng Cuie actually came at eight o'clock.
Meng Cuie was not good with words, and An Fusheng was not eloquent either. When he saw Meng Cuie arrive, he shared the breakfast he brought from home with Meng Cuie and her daughter, and then brought out the dishes for himself.
Meng Cuie wanted to go up and help, but An Fusheng stopped her: "You eat breakfast, I'll take care of it. What dishes would you like? I'll get the ingredients for you."
"I'll do anything you ask." She was there for a job, so of course the boss had the final say.
An Fusheng handed her a menu: "This is our menu. Would you like to pick a few dishes?"
Meng E'cui was not picky; she insisted on doing the assigned homework and asked An Fusheng to assign it.
An Fusheng had no choice but to pick one dish from each of the different cooking methods.
After selecting the dishes, Meng Cuie began preparing them without saying a word.
Meng Cuie, as expected of someone who prepares banquets, is quick and organized when preparing dishes. Instead of preparing the ingredients for each dish in a strict order, she prepares the ingredients for several dishes at the same time. She washes the meat and vegetables while washing the seasonings, and she chops the vegetables while stir-frying and blanching the meat. If you pay a little more attention, you will find that she arranges the ingredients for each dish according to the order in which they are used. It is clear that she is a person who cooks often and works efficiently.
Her cooking skills lived up to expectations. As soon as the fire was lit and the pot was placed on the stove, the aroma of the ingredients cooking soon filled An Fusheng's nostrils.
An Fusheng could tell from the smell of the food that the cook had a good grasp of the ingredients and the cooking temperature. Clearly, Meng Cuie had a good understanding of the ingredients and a very good grasp of the cooking temperature.
In less than an hour, Meng Cuie's dishes were ready.
An Fusheng tasted each dish one by one. The cooking time was just right, and the taste was good, but the flavor was a little too strong. However, this could be adjusted later. "It's very delicious."
Meng Cuie smiled slightly after receiving approval, waiting for An Fusheng to continue.
An Fusheng: "If you are willing, I sincerely invite you to be the chef of our restaurant."
Meng Cuie seemed to want to say something, but she opened her mouth and didn't say anything.
An Fusheng said, "Are you asking about salary and benefits? Chefs' salaries do vary and there is no fixed standard. I have also looked into restaurants similar to ours, and the head chef's monthly salary is around 7,000-10,000. I'll offer you a basic monthly salary of 10,000. If the restaurant performs well, there will be performance bonuses. We may need to discuss the performance bonuses further. What do you think?"
Meng Cuie's eyes widened. She hadn't expected An Fusheng to offer her such a high salary—it was even higher than a college graduate's salary! But…
An Fusheng: "Do you have any other concerns? You can tell me about them."
Meng Cuie mustered her courage and said, "Could I bring my daughter to work with me? Her eyesight isn't good, and I'm worried about leaving her alone at home. Don't worry, she won't interfere with my work. We can just find her somewhere to stay, okay?"
An Fusheng heard Jiang Manzhi say that Meng Cuie's daughter had an eye problem, and he knew that she had brought her daughter to Nancheng to have her eyes checked. However, An Fusheng couldn't keep staring at people's eyes, so he hadn't noticed anything wrong with the little girl's eyes from last night until today. He thought it wasn't a big problem. "There's nothing wrong with her eyes. But doesn't she have to go to school?"
Meng Cuie: "My eyesight is bad, and I often fall when I walk. How can I go to school? Besides, I can't even see the words clearly, so I won't learn anything at school. I might as well not go to school for now."
An Fusheng: "Safety is the most important thing. It's the same if I go to school later after my eyes are healed."
Meng Cuie sighed softly, "I'm afraid there won't be that opportunity..."
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