Zheng Ya calmly observed Sha Zhu's cooking behavior, secretly thinking that Sha Zhu's sycophantic behavior had come online.
In fact, this is nothing new; anyone who knows Sha Zhu can easily figure out where the problem lies.
Sha Zhu's experiences these past few days have been bizarre.
First, Sha Zhu fawned over Qin Huairu and tried to recruit her into his family, which led to Xu Damao instigating him to be beaten and report Sha Zhu to the police, resulting in Sha Zhu's imprisonment.
In order to repay Sha Zhu for helping to track enemy agents, Wu Wei analyzed for Yu Shui how Sha Zhu's imprisonment would affect his entire life and Yu Shui's future, and advised Yu Shui to find Zheng Ya to rescue Sha Zhu.
Zheng Ya pitied Xiao Yushui for suffering an undeserved disaster, and took advantage of Xu Damao's urgency to treat his manhood, driving Xu Damao to rescue Sha Zhu.
But when Sha Zhu returned to the courtyard, Xu Damao demanded compensation from him. Sha Zhu felt that he had been tricked by Zheng Ya. He felt that he had not done a proper job of saving people and now he had to pay money. What kind of rescue was that? It was more like he was just fooling the rain. Sha Zhu hated him.
Secondly, Sha Zhu's act of taking in Qin Huairu and her son offended Jia Zhangshi and her son, as well as Yu Shui.
They also had to seize the single rooms that rained in and drive away the rainwater.
As a result, Yu Shui was taken in by Wu Wei. Yu Shui was furious at Sha Ge's obsequious attitude towards Qin Huairu. After failing to persuade Sha Ge, she brought up the issue of the siblings dividing the family property.
This made Sha Zhu mistakenly believe that Yu Shui was acting on Zheng Ya's orders to cause a family split, which fueled his hatred even more.
Finally, persuaded by Bang Geng's improved behavior, Qin Huairu decided to raise Bang Geng independently, hoping he would have someone to rely on.
Furthermore, a widow raising her only son would be more likely to gain the sympathy of Zheng Ya's family, allowing her to get a job at the plantation with Zheng Ya and prevent Sha Zhu from getting close to her.
But Qin Huairu has no place to live, so she stays at Sha Zhu's house. If she doesn't give Sha Zhu any hope, she will inevitably be kicked out by Sha Zhu and have nowhere to go.
Therefore, Qin Huairu kept praising Zheng Ya in front of Sha Zhu, which made Sha Zhu misunderstand that Zheng Ya was lusting after Qin Huairu's body, and made him hate Zheng Ya even more.
In order to win the heart of the beauty, Sha Zhu misunderstood Qin Huairu's hint. He thought that Qin Huairu's mention of Zheng Ya was meant to discourage him, but he misunderstood that being better than Zheng Ya would win Qin Huairu's heart.
Clearly, culinary skills are what Sha Zhu is most proud of.
Just in time for the commendation ceremony, Zheng Ya was in the limelight. Sha Zhu thought that if he could outshine Zheng Ya at this moment, he could not only stand out in the factory and steal the spotlight, but also win Qin Huairu's heart. It would be killing two birds with one stone, so why not?
Therefore, Sha Zhu deliberately picked a fight with Zheng Ya by flipping the wok, not out of stupidity or recklessness, but because he had planned it carefully.
Zheng Ya couldn't figure out what he was thinking, but she knew it was related to Qin Huairu. She smiled and teased him about having an epileptic seizure, accepted the way he served the food by flipping the wok, and turned to leave with the aluminum lunchbox.
There was no intention whatsoever to retaliate or get the factory leaders to punish Sha Zhu.
This made Sha Zhu feel like he was punching cotton, feeling very aggrieved: "Oh, you ungrateful wretch who eats meat every meal at home, but here you're eating cornbread and pretending to be pitiful, trying to fool people. You're really disgusting."
I feel ashamed to live in the same hospital as you…
"Shazhu, what's with your attitude?" The burly man behind Zheng Ya in line roared angrily.
The workers standing next to him began to criticize him: "Shazhu, you're publicly slandering Comrade Zheng Ya, are you saying that the factory leaders and higher-ups are all blind, and not as good as you?"
"You son of a bitch, if you're so capable, donate over two thousand tons of grain seeds and then come and brag to me again, I'll be impressed."
"You don't have the ability, yet you're full of envy, jealousy, and hatred, slandering Comrade Zheng Ya. What kind of trash are you?" The workers shouted at Sha Zhu, as if they would all rush up and beat him up if he dared to say a word against them.
The fool Zhu was numb; he made a mistake.
Fortunately, Sun Xiang, the canteen director, came to Sha Zhu to ask him about the slander against Liu Lan and prepared to call Sha Zhu to the logistics office to deal with the matter.
Just then, the incident of Sha Zhu slandering Zheng Ya occurred, and Sun Xiang raised his hand to suppress it: "Alright, fellow workers, don't get excited, everyone quiet down."
Regarding Sha Zhu's slander of Comrade Zheng Ya, our logistics department will give all the factory workers an explanation.
"Silly Zhu, hurry up and admit your mistake!"
“I’m not wrong. It’s a fact that Zheng Ya’s family eats meat every meal. Who is he trying to impress by eating cornbread here?” Sha Zhu went all out and loudly proclaimed the living conditions of Zheng Ya’s family.
It's ruining Zheng Ya's reputation; even a fool could tell.
This matter can be big or small.
Zheng Ya naturally couldn't pretend nothing had happened and let it slip by, giving people something to gossip about. Helplessly, he raised his hand and said, "Fellow workers, I admit that my family has been eating meat at every meal lately..."
“Listen to this, he admitted it himself. I, Sha Zhu, didn’t lie to slander him, did I?” Sha Zhu smugly said.
Sun Xiang glared at him angrily and scolded, "Silly Zhu, shut up! Can't you see that Comrade Zheng Ya hasn't finished speaking yet?"
That's taking things out of context. It's rude and ill-mannered. Is this how your parents taught you to be a person?
"Hmph, then let him continue."
"And don't think that just because you're the cafeteria manager you can lecture me. You think you're worthy?" Sha Zhu was so angry he didn't know what to do and confronted him head-on.
Sun Xiang laughed in exasperation, ignoring the fool's continued argument that would delay important matters. He turned to Zheng Ya and said, "Comrade Zheng Ya, please finish what you have to say. As for the issue of Sha Zhu, our logistics department will definitely handle it seriously. Please speak."
"Well, alright then, fellow workers, it's true that my family eats meat every meal, but that's because the higher-ups sent a battalion of soldiers to help build the planting base."
The soldiers are working hard and doing hard labor for the planting base. Our Zheng family has some savings, so we can't let the soldiers just work without eating, right?
At least let the soldiers have enough to eat; that's all we can do to show our appreciation.
Besides, the meat I eat is all from hunting in the mountains; I didn't gorge myself or waste it.
We hope all our fellow workers will monitor this matter.
"Well done, Comrade Zheng Ya!" the workers cheered, and applause erupted.
This subtly dampened Sha Zhu's arrogance. Sun Xiang coldly reprimanded Sha Zhu: "Sha Zhu, you heard everything. Do you have any other opinions?"
Or perhaps you envy, resent, and hate Comrade Zheng Ya, and are plotting revenge? How did someone like you end up in our logistics canteen?
"Director Sun, stop making sarcastic remarks to me. I just don't agree with people saying that his cooking skills are better than mine. So what if I take this opportunity to challenge him to a cooking competition?"
"Isn't all this to improve the workers' meals, promote harmonious competition, encourage mutual learning and progress?" Sha Zhu tried his best to cover up the lie, and managed to fool the workers in the canteen.
Who doesn't want to eat delicious food?
This really resonated with everyone, and they all acknowledged Sha Zhu's culinary skills. It would be wonderful if Sha Zhu's culinary skills could improve even further.
But when Sha Zhu's words reached Zheng Ya's ears, they took on a different meaning: "So he's been waiting for me here?"
Seeing that Sha Zhu had made it clear that he wanted to have a cooking competition with Zheng Ya, and with the workers on site looking on expectantly and finding it hard to refuse, Sun Xiang said to Zheng Ya, "Comrade Zheng Ya, Sha Zhu is just a simpleton, don't take it to heart, let's just let this matter go..."
"Haha, I see the workers are really looking forward to it, so I can't be a coward and back down at the last minute. I accept the challenge." Zheng Ya understood the implication that he was being sarcastic and decisively accepted the challenge...
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