Chapter 229 Street Shop
Yue Ning ran back from a trip early in the morning and saw people gathered at the gate of the He family again. The old woman of the Li family and her eldest daughter were squatting at the gate crying, and Fan Xiuqin was chasing them away with a cold face.
The eldest daughter of the Li family burst into tears: "Our family depends entirely on him. We have three children and three elderly people to support. His grandfather is over 80 years old and paralyzed in bed..."
Fan Xiuqin rolled her eyes, "Oh! You're anxious now that it's your turn? When you arrested me and my master, you kept saying that you were going to make us lose our jobs. Why didn't you think about the fact that my master's parents are old and he has a disabled brother? My master is 34 and still hasn't started a family. How difficult is it for his family? If you think about others, you won't listen to your mother and let your man bully us. You deserve it. Why are you crying? What's there to cry about?"
Yue Ning walked forward, and the eldest daughter of the Li family saw Yue Ning and called out tremblingly, "Boss Yue."
"You guys came here last night, and I told you that your wife broke the law and the unit is handling it. As a Hong Kong businessman, I have limited ability and cannot interfere in the internal affairs of the government. Besides, we don't have any friendship, so there's no need for me to speak for you." Yue Ning said to her, "Xiao Fan also has a point. Don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you. If you didn't hurt others, you wouldn't end up like this."
"Comrade, we really can't explain it clearly to the mother and daughter. Five colleagues from Gangcheng Baohua Building live in our house, including our boss. They are very tired from working from morning to night market every day, and yet they have to endure such noise from them." He Yunbang came over with people from the street and neighborhood committee.
"Li Damei, what are you still doing here?" The director of the neighborhood committee came over and grabbed Li Damei. Li Damei worked in the neighborhood committee.
The comrades on the street looked at Li Damei and said, "Your husband's matter is still under investigation by the higher-ups to see how to deal with it. Do you want to add more problems to your man?"
"Leader, you are absolutely right. Her husband used the police station and the street's name to force Fuyunlou to expel us, master and apprentice. I think he has done a lot of things to bully others. Why don't we investigate it thoroughly?" Fan Xiuqin walked to the street comrade.
Yue Ning smiled and said, "Go to Yuecheng Hotel quickly and don't keep your master waiting for too long."
He Yunbang came out pushing his bicycle: "Come on up quickly."
Fan Xiuqin jumped into the back seat.
Although Yuecheng Hotel is not far from here, Fan Xiuqin is not a local and does not know the way at all, so she can only ask the driver to take her here.
He Yunbang sent Fan Xiuqin to the entrance of Yuecheng Hotel. Fan Xiuqin jumped out of the car and saw Chef Lu smoking at the entrance of the hotel.
Having seen it all, He Yunbang couldn't just turn around and leave, so he pushed the cart over.
When Chef Lu saw him bringing Xiuqin over, he quickly came out to greet him: "Chef He, are you bringing this girl over?"
"Xiuqin doesn't know the way, so I'll take her here." He Yunbang turned to ask Fan Xiuqin, "Now you know how to get back to Fuyun Building, right?"
"I know, I know. I'll go there myself later." Fan Xiuqin said.
"Chef Lu, I'm leaving." He Yunbang said.
"Chef He, let's have breakfast together. We are in the same industry, so let's chat." Lu Yongding invited him.
"Master, you haven't had breakfast anyway, so take me back later so I don't have to walk again. Let's go together!"
"Stop the car and come in!" Lu Yongding invited again. He wanted to interact more with He Yunbang and see what kind of person he was.
Seeing Chef Lu’s enthusiastic invitation, He Yunbang thought that he was the host and they were the guests, so how could he let the guests treat him?
"Chef Lu, if you don't mind, let's go out and eat rice rolls together?" He Yunbang suggested.
Fan Xiuqin immediately shouted: "Oh! It's the little shop you took us to, right?"
"right."
Fan Xiuqin said to Lu Yongding happily: "Master, I have eaten it, it is delicious."
"And there's your Uncle Dong, Yude and Ding Sheng! It's not good to let your master spend money." Chef Lu added.
"It's okay, it's okay. I'll go call them wherever they are." Fan Xiuqin turned and was about to leave.
Lu Yongding couldn't do anything to her: "302, your two brothers stayed here last night."
"Oh!" When Fan Xiuqin heard that it was the third floor, she abandoned the elevator and ran up the stairs.
Looking at her jumping and running, Lu Yongding smiled and said, "Why are you still so childish?"
"Xiuqin is more lively and knows how to do things in moderation." He Yunbang was used to scolding Xiuqin occasionally and couldn't stand hearing others talking about his apprentice. As soon as he said it, he remembered that the person in front of him was the master who brought Xiuqin up, and he immediately lowered his head in embarrassment.
Lu Yongding smiled: "This girl is naughty, but everyone likes her."
"Yes!" He Yunbang took out a cigarette box from his pocket, handed a cigarette to Lu Yongding, and they both lit up.
Lu Yongding smoked a cigarette and said, "Yesterday Xiao Yue said that you took care of my Peide."
"Ade won the Chef King Award and entered Baohualou, and Ningning personally taught him. It's just that Lu's cuisine doesn't require skill in cooking, while Baohualou serves traditional Cantonese cuisine, which requires very particular skill in cooking. That's why Ningning asked me to teach Ade how to cook. Strictly speaking, it can't be considered that I was teaching him. Ade was originally going to teach Xiuqin himself, but she ate the dry fried beef noodles I made and came to learn from me."
He Yunbang remembered that Xiuqin had to come back with him. Lu Peide had said before that if she ran into his second uncle, he would be scolded if he knew that he was not the one who took care of her personally.
"This girl!" Lu Yongding smiled and took a puff of his cigarette. "I heard that my Peide suffered a lot in Hong Kong City. He couldn't even find a job at the beginning?"
"Language barriers and difficulty finding jobs are nothing. There are so many mainlanders like this in Hong Kong. The most terrifying thing is to meet someone who is unscrupulous and forces you to jump into the fire pit!" He Yunbang sighed, "Ade and I live in the dormitory next to each other. We have been together for a long time. We are both mainlanders in Hong Kong. When we encounter troubles, we sit together and complain."
He Yunbang had never understood why Lu Peide, the heir of a faction, would leave the golden rice bowl of the country and come to Hong Kong City rashly. Even if Lu Peide didn't want to talk about the bad things at home, he would still say a few words about the grievances he suffered to his true buddies.
"What forced him to jump into a fire pit?" Lu Yongding asked. Yesterday, Xiao Yue only said that Peide suffered, but did not mention jumping into a fire pit.
"In the first appearance of the "Master Chef Competition", A-De was a surprise. He defeated Uncle Hua's three apprentices and became famous overnight. As a result, he was noticed by a boss, but the boss was a nobody. A-De didn't want to get involved with him and rejected him. Do you know what he did?"
"How?"
"They asked gang members to follow Ah De and force him to give up the competition and become a chef in their restaurant..." He Yunbang told Lu Yongding about Lu Peide's distress. "Hong Kong is a mixed bag. If someone like Ah De, who has ability but no background, hadn't met Ning Ning, I don't know how many detours he would have to take. Ning Ning has the support of the Cai and Qiao families, and she has made a lot of friends and can protect those she wants to protect."
Lu Yongding felt more and more that his decision at that time was hasty. If something really happened to his nephew, how would he explain to his eldest brother?
When He Yunbang saw Fan Xiuqin coming with her people, he said to Lu Yongding, "Xiuqin is a girl who is already walking sideways in Mong Kok."
"What bad things are you saying about me?" Fan Xiuqin glared at He Yunbang.
"You are so capable." He Yunbang looked at Chef Dong with a smile and extended his hand, "Hello, Chef Dong."
Chef Dong shook his hand: "Hello, Chef He."
Lu Yongding came back to his senses and introduced: "This is my son Lu Yude, and this is Chef Dong's apprentice Ding Sheng. They are here to support Yuecheng Hotel this time."
After getting to know each other, He Yunbang led them out of Yuecheng Hotel, saying as they walked, "It's only a ten-minute walk. This is a friend who used to be a cook with me at Fuyunlou. He was later transferred to Guangxi and came back at the end of last year. Fuyunlou didn't have a vacancy and couldn't find a job. I came back for an exchange at the end of the year and happened to run into him and heard him talk about his difficulties. He also knew Ningning's father, so he wanted me to help him. So I took Ningning to his house for a meal. Ningning saw that the couple had no jobs and thought that he had good cooking skills, so she asked him if he wanted to go back to Fuyunlou and she would find a way. But she also had another way, which was to let the couple open a small shop so that both of them would have work to do. My brother was hesitant at first, but Ningning went to find Director Song of the Second Commercial Bureau and discussed with Director Song the resettlement of unemployed young people in the entire Second Commercial Bureau's subordinate units, asking me, his brother, to take the lead..."
"Xiao Yue still cares about these?" Chef Dong asked with interest.
"Too many people from the mainland go to Hong Kong, and new immigrants from the mainland have become a problem in Hong Kong. Ningning has been calling on Hong Kong businessmen to return to the mainland to invest. If the mainland develops, people will not keep running to Hong Kong. She herself came back to form a joint venture, and her partner also opened a factory in Pengcheng. In addition to foreign investment, self-reliance is also very important!" He Yunbang said with emotion, "So when my brother's small restaurant opened, the newspaper came to interview him."
As we were talking, we had already reached the entrance of the small restaurant. This street was deserted, with no shops along the way, except for this small restaurant, which had no sign at the door. The small restaurant was very simple, with a large stove at the door and a large iron pot on top. The aroma could be smelled through the high pot lid.
There were six tables inside, all filled with people. A man in his forties was busy.
He Yunbang asked: "Brother Jiang, is there any room left? There are six of us."
"Let's go to the patio. A table of people just left and your sister Fang is cleaning up."
He Yunbang led them through the front hall to the patio, where they happened to meet a chubby older sister.
"Abang is here."
"Bring some friends to try it. Mix the rice rolls with roast goose sauce and the barbecued pork with glutinous rice, one portion for each person. Also, give me one portion of spare ribs, chicken feet, whatever you have," said He Yunbang in Cantonese.
"You go sit down first."
Six people sat in the patio. Fan Xiuqin took the teapot and poured hot water, then poured tea for everyone.
The tea had just been poured when the fat lady came over with an enamel plate with small dishes on it. Shrimp dumplings, meatballs, chicken feet, and spare ribs were placed on the table one by one.
"Please wait a moment for the rice rolls, they are freshly made." The fat lady said in not very standard Mandarin.
Fan Xiuqin pointed at the black bean sauce chicken feet and said, "Master, try this chicken feet, it's really delicious."
Lu Yongding took a bite and found the skin and flesh so soft that they almost slipped off the bones.
Chef Dong picked up the shrimp dumplings. The dough was so thin that the pink shrimp inside could be seen. The moment he bit into it, the sweet juice mixed with the crispy and tender bamboo shoots had just the right texture.
"It's delicious, even better than what's served at Yuecheng Hotel." Chef Dong's apprentice Ding Sheng couldn't help but praise.
These are the regular dishes for breakfast at Yuecheng Hotel. The two chefs originally thought that the food at Yuecheng Hotel was not bad, but the products of this small shop made them realize that there is still a lot of room for improvement in the breakfast of Yuecheng Hotel.
Lu Yongding and Chef Dong took turns asking Fan Xiuqin about the situation in the port city.
He Yunbang watched Yue Ning expand rapidly step by step from Baohua Building to Ning Yan and then to Ning Xiaochu. He supplemented what his apprentice could not explain clearly.
Lu Yongding and Chef Dong were fascinated as the master and his apprentice described Ning Yan's management methods and food features.
Hearing that the monthly salary of a chef is at least 6,000 to 7,000 Hong Kong dollars, and some can be over 10,000, Lu Yude asked, "Then how much can my brother make in a month?"
"Twenty to thirty thousand, right?" Fan Xiuqin said, "Senior Brother is not only the head chef, but also a partner of Ningyan Lu Mansion. The head chef also gets bonuses, which are given according to the monthly profit of the store. We have calculated that, not counting the year-end dividends and bonuses, after Ningyan Lu Mansion opens, Senior Brother will have twenty to thirty thousand a month."
"So much! This money is too easy to make, right?" Ding Sheng exclaimed enviously.
"Senior brother is Ning Ning's confidant, which is unique in Ning Yan. Moreover, people in Gangcheng recognize him as the heir of the Lu family. Therefore, the second Ning Yan is called 'Ning Yan Lu Mansion'. Others do not have such good treatment."
Chef Dong looked at his apprentice and said, "There is a lot of money out there, but not everyone can make that much. Peide is not only a good cook, he is also the one who can take on the responsibilities of your generation."
The fat lady brought out rice rolls and glutinous rice.
Fan Xiuqin said: "Eat it while it's hot."
Chef Dong looked down and saw that the glutinous rice grains were distinct, the barbecued pork was the right thickness, the fat was shiny, the lean meat was dark brown with soy sauce, and the rice wrapper of the rice rolls on the other side was shaking. He tasted the glutinous rice, which was soft, sweet, and the barbecued pork was salty and sweet, with an authentic flavor.
"Xiuqin, I want to ask about your new chef Chen." said Chef Dong.
Fan Xiuqin chuckled: "I knew you would ask. When Sister Jinying sent her apprentice to Gangcheng to ask Ningning for help, I told Ningning that this was the biological sister of my three uncles from the Dong family. Everyone knows that Sister Jinying is your sister."
"Help?" Chef Dong choked on a mouthful of glutinous rice and started burping.
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