Chapter 4 Chapter 4 "The hospital called and said your old...
Pengcheng failed to enter winter again.
In late November, Shenzhen still doesn't look like winter at all.
It rained for half a month and finally stopped today.
The sun broke through the dark clouds, revealing a big round golden face, casting warm and brilliant sunshine, as if it were early summer.
However, people living in this southern coastal city were not very happy to see the sun after the continuous rain in winter, because it meant that the annoying return of the south wind had also arrived.
The sun evaporates the excess moisture in the city, and the humidity in the air is extremely high.
The floor, walls, doors, windows, cabinets... everywhere is wet and damp, and many things in the house are moldy.
Whether it is to remove mold or throw away the things and buy new ones, it is an extra expense.
When Ning Shaoming went out in the morning, as soon as he opened the door, a wave of humidity and heat hit him in the face, and every pore seemed to be soaked in moisture.
The rental house was only a few minutes' walk from the bus stop, but Ning Shaoming already felt his skin was a little sticky and uncomfortable.
In this kind of weather, the floor cannot be mopped dry.
Especially since he works in the hotel kitchen.
Cooking in the kitchen requires gas, so it is impossible to close all the doors and windows tightly. In addition, employees are coming in and out to deliver and serve dishes, so the kitchen becomes the hardest hit area during the return of the south wind.
Ning Shaoming arrived at the hotel, changed into his chef's uniform and put on his chef's hat. When he entered the kitchen, he walked in a hurry and didn't pay attention to his step. The tiles were too slippery and he almost fell.
He quickly grabbed the door frame to steady himself and avoided falling headfirst.
After standing still, Ning Shaoming patted his chest lightly. Just now, when he almost fell, his heart suddenly ached for a moment.
However, the heart abnormality disappeared too quickly. When he applied for a health certificate when he started working a few months ago, he had a physical examination and was found to have no heart problems, so Ning Shaoming did not take it seriously.
He reached out to stop a passing cleaner and said, "The floor here is too slippery. It's easy to fall when walking. We need to lay down non-slip mats. Otherwise, they will slip when they walk out with the dishes."
This hotel is a high-end hotel, and its main businesses are catering and accommodation. The catering is even better, and there are many guests who come to order expensive dishes.
If a waiter serving food falls because the floor is slippery, both the waiter and the cleaner will have their wages deducted.
The cleaner nodded and said, "I've already told our foreman, but he said that anything related to the kitchen must be asked by the supervisor first. Our foreman has already reported it to the supervisor and he should be back soon to deal with it."
Ning Shaoming expressed his understanding: "It's good enough that it has been reported."
The salaries of the hotel's employees are much higher than those of their local counterparts. Correspondingly, the requirements and management in all aspects are very strict.
Especially in important places like the kitchen, the requirements are more stringent. The cleaners and food waiters and service staff in this area are fixed people, and employees from other places are not allowed to come here casually.
When entering the kitchen, chefs must change into special work clothes and, except for the locker keys, other personal items including but not limited to watches, cigarettes, lighters, wallets, cordless phones, pagers, etc. are not allowed to be brought in. They can only leave their belongings in their respective lockers.
In order to come here to work and earn more money to pay off the debt he owed in his hometown, Ning Shaoming almost quit smoking.
I used to last me three or four days on a pack of cigarettes, but now I can’t finish a pack in half a month.
He walked more carefully next time and made it to the sink without any more accidents.
A colleague in charge of cutting and preparing food saw him coming early again and jokingly said, "Hey, Master Ning is here to help us again?"
Ning Shaoming is now one of the chefs in charge of cooking in the kitchen. Today he is on the lunch shift and his work time is 11:30 a.m., but he has already arrived at 9 a.m.
Ning Shaoming has been working in this hotel for less than a year, but he has already mastered all kinds of work in the kitchen.
In fact, he doesn't have to do other odd jobs now. Apart from himself, other chefs in the kitchen and his superiors all think that he has excellent skills, otherwise they would not have allowed him to cook in the kitchen so soon after joining the company.
Sometimes talent is something that cannot be explained. If you have talent and work hard, there is really nothing you can't accomplish.
Only he felt that he had learned cooking for too short a time, his basic skills were not solid enough, and he needed to practice more.
Therefore, I would come early to help almost every day and practice basic skills at the same time.
"Yeah," Ning Shaoming was used to his colleagues' innocent teasing and nodded good-naturedly, "It never hurts to practice more."
Another chef nearby turned around and said, "No wonder Master Ning was able to cook after only three months here!"
The master took the opportunity to teach his apprentice, who had been working as a waiter for a long time but was not qualified to touch the stove, "You guys, look at others and then look at yourself, learn more from them. If you can work so hard, why can't you only get the salary of a waiter after almost a year?"
Ning Shaoming felt awkward after hearing this. He didn't know what to say. He felt that nothing he said would be appropriate.
He doesn't like being used as a reference to teach others a lesson.
It would be fine if the person being taught a lesson is easy-going and broad-minded. But if he is the kind of person who easily feels resentful after being criticized, he will be blamed and resented.
It was Huang Wenfa, who was on the early shift today, who came over with a laugh and made jokes. In the process, he praised the stove master's apprentices one by one in different ways before changing the subject.
Huang Wenfa and he were childhood friends, growing up together like the same pants.
The two were born in the same year, got married in the same year, and even their first child was born in the same year, just in a different month.
The two men brought their wives out to work, and they rented a house together.
The house they rented had two floors, a brick and wooden structure, and the stairs were also old wooden stairs.
Huang Wenfa and his wife lived upstairs, while Ning Shaoming and Zhao Ruyue lived in the room downstairs, sharing the living room, kitchen and toilet.
After the topic was changed, Ning Shaoming breathed a sigh of relief and secretly gave his childhood friend a look to express his silent gratitude.
Then ask him: "What are you going to do today? I'll help you burn some energy."
Huang Wenfa is very good at dealing with people, but he has no talent when it comes to cooking. He only persevered in order to earn more money.
He was waiting for Ning Shaoming to come and help: "Someone ordered a group meal today and needs to cut a lot of potato and carrot shreds. The group meal has a big discount and low price, and the knife skills are not required to be high, so let me do it."
"Oh, by the way, Aqiang and his friends want to have boiled pork slices and mapo tofu for lunch. They said you cook these spicy dishes the best. I came to ask if I can let you cook today!"
Preparing employee meals is also one of Ning Shaoming's ways to gain experience. Regardless of whether it is his turn to be responsible, he will come to help.
In the past, if the chef in charge of employee meals did not plan to eat the employee meals himself, he would either do it perfunctorily or ask his apprentices to do it so that they could practice.
The dishes we made couldn’t be said to taste bad, but they were certainly not as delicious as those prepared with care.
Moreover, their hotel specializes in Cantonese cuisine, and the majority of chefs in the kitchen are Cantonese chefs. The meals they usually cook are light and authentic.
However, many of the hotel's grassroots employees are from Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Hunan and Jiangxi, and most of them prefer spicy food.
Ning Shaoming is willing to listen to the suggestions of his colleagues and learn various dishes from them from different regions. He prepares every employee meal as seriously as if he were cooking for hotel VIPs. He uses this opportunity to hone his skills and unexpectedly wins the favor of many colleagues.
Hearing the dishes ordered by his colleagues, Ning Shaoming did not refuse as usual, but asked with a smile: "Are you not afraid of getting irritated by the heat when eating spicy dishes in this weather?"
"It's okay," Huang Wenfa pointed to a thermos bucket next to him, "Master Wu made a big bucket of herbal tea this morning. Standing next to it and smelling it, the air is filled with bitterness. There won't be many customers willing to drink it. In the end, it will still be up to our employees to consume it. There are two other dishes in the staff meal. Can't you make something light and refreshing?"
"Okay, then let's make these dishes for lunch today." After promising to make boiled pork and mapo tofu for them at noon, Ning Shaoming began to work hard.
"Dong dong dong dong" the chopping board made a rhythmic sound of cutting vegetables. After a while, a potato was cut into evenly thin strips and soaked in clean water to remove the starch.
Ning Shaoming repeated this process, gradually becoming immersed in and enjoying it.
Not long after, someone suddenly asked, "Is Ning Shaoming here?"
"I'm here!" Ning Shaoming responded, raised his head and looked over. It turned out to be the hotel operator who answered the phone.
The hotel operator stood at the door of the kitchen, poked his head in and said, "Ning Shaoming, there's a phone call for you."
Then she urged him: "Come with me quickly, don't work for now, the hospital called and said your wife was injured and is receiving treatment in the hospital, and asked you to go there quickly!"
When Ning Shaoming heard this, he didn't care about anything else. He immediately put down the work in his hands and hurriedly followed the operator to the office to answer the phone. Huang Wenfa also ran out after him when he saw this.
Two minutes later, Huang Wenfa hurried back and found the head chef, Master Li, to ask for leave for Ning Shaoming.
Ning Shaoming had already run towards the compartment where employees kept their personal belongings. He ran too fast and the ground slipped, and he almost fell again.
He searched his pockets as he ran, his hands shaking.
Fortunately, he successfully opened his locker. Ning Shaoming didn't even bother to change out of his chef's uniform. He took out his wallet and rushed out of the hotel.
In order to maintain its high-end style, the hotel does not allow three-wheeled vehicles and motorcycles to park at the door to solicit customers. Only taxis are parked at the door.
In the past, Ning Shaoming was reluctant to spend money on taxis. He would either walk or take the bus when going out. Only occasionally when he went out to play with his wife would he be willing to take a three-wheeled motorcycle, and he would haggle with the rider for the price.
In this situation, he didn't care about saving money. He got into the nearest taxi directly. Without even catching his breath or sitting firmly, he hurriedly told the driver which hospital he wanted to go to and urged him to drive quickly.
When the driver saw the passenger's anxious look and heard that the address he said was a hospital, he guessed that his family must have encountered something serious and was admitted to the hospital.
There was no time to waste, so I stepped on the accelerator and the car sped away.
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