Chapter 169 Hiring Aunt Fat Should Enable a Successful Escape After the New Year
Aunt Pang read the contract word by word and signed her name without hesitation. She and Yao Xiaoyu had already discussed the terms beforehand, so this was just a formality.
Yao Xiaoyu did not intend to disrupt the labor market, but she also did not intend to let Aunt Pang change jobs and maintain her original treatment. After much deliberation, she chose a compromise.
When Aunt Pang worked for the Yao family, her wages remained the same, still twelve yuan a month, but the gifts for the three festivals a year would be more generous than they are now. Also, Aunt Pang could find two apprentices to run errands for her, help with the fire, or perhaps cook? Yao Xiaoyu didn't know how to define it, but in any case, Yao Xiaoyu would give five silver dollars a month for these two positions, along with room and board.
She gave the five yuan directly to Aunt Pang. As for whether Aunt Pang wanted to hire someone, and how much to pay if she did, that was her own business. If she thought she could feed everyone in the house by herself, she could refuse to give out any spots. If she wanted to take on apprentices through her place, as long as they didn't deliberately waste food, it was all up to Aunt Pang's wishes.
Nowadays, chefs are all about cooking skills. A master chef who can pay an apprentice a monthly stipend of two cents is already considered excellent. Yao Xiaoyu has no intention of challenging tradition; the choice is entirely up to Aunt Pang. She only emphasizes one point:
"Don't hit people randomly, and if you're going to curse, don't use foul language."
Although the Zuan sayings have been constantly updated in modern times, they have always retained the excellent tradition of describing reproductive organs. You can't control Yao Xiaoyu outside, but you have to keep your own servants' mouths in check, at least don't let her hear them.
"OK."
Hua Pang readily agreed. Her childhood education was not bad, and she didn't like to say such things. However, when she was struggling to make a living at the bottom of society, being too polite sometimes made her a target for bullying. Her new employer didn't like her, but for the sake of money, she could keep her mouth shut.
...The exception is when you're haggling with vegetable vendors and butchers. Those lousy bastards, you sometimes won't even know what "a reasonable price" means until you get yelled at!
Two and a half yuan a month sounds less than what a factory worker earns, but it's by no means stingy. Nowadays, the average price for a full-time maid in Shanghai is only two to three yuan a month. Yao Xiaoyu is only responsible for the kitchen. There are other people to take care of the laundry and cleaning. She doesn't even have to do the chopping of firewood herself. Seven or eight-year-old girls can do it perfectly. If you're not too particular, even five or six-year-old girls can do it.
In the 21st century, with abundant resources and relatively sound social security, employing child labor is illegal. But in this era... during the time Yao Xiaoyu went to provide free medical services, more than one person wanted to entrust their child to them, not caring about wages or treatment, just wanting food to survive.
If Aunt Pang really takes poor children as apprentices, it's no different from changing their fate—don't be fooled by how much tears the apprentices used to shed, if they didn't have this kind of connection, they wouldn't be taught even if they wanted to. Selling hooks isn't a recent invention, and the saying "the apprentice learns and the master starves" isn't a new proverb either.
The two didn't linger long after signing the contract. Yao Xiaoyu rushed to catch the last bus to the movie, while Aunt Pang hurriedly returned home and put the contract into a hidden compartment in her box before she was completely at ease.
The next client has finally been decided.
"Auntie Pang, Bai Shu, who serves the young master, is calling for you."
Just as Aunt Hua locked the box, the little girl hurriedly knocked on the door. Aunt Hua sighed and hurriedly went out to the kitchen. The little girl ran alongside her, quickly explaining the situation.
There's really nothing to say. It's just that the young master wanted to host a banquet for his friends who had returned from abroad, and asked her, a chef who had lived abroad, to prepare some dishes that suited their tastes. This reason seemed reasonable to others, but Hua Pang felt helpless—with so many countries, who knows if he had been to the same ones she had been to?
"Did the young master mention which country that person studied in?"
The plump aunt asked, clinging to a sliver of hope, but unsurprisingly saw the little girl shake her head. She could only sigh and try another approach:
"Where is that person from?"
Aunt Pang didn't mean to make things difficult for the little girl. The girl had only been sold here for a short time and didn't even know how to read. She probably thought that foreign countries were just the names of foreign countries. It would be pointless to make her know France or England.
Besides, this vague information might be deliberately ambiguous to embarrass her. The little girl was just randomly chosen as an unlucky one. Rather than asking again with the possibility of not getting an answer, it's better to gather some other information first. Maybe the key to passing the test is in this.
"What I mean is, where is that person's hometown? Sichuan? Guangzhou? Or Shanghai?"
Although it's often said that the moon is rounder in foreign countries, Aunt Fat has traveled from China to abroad and back to China, and she hasn't seen many people who are well-fed and clothed. Students who grew up in China and went abroad especially like white food. On the other hand, she has seen quite a few gluttons who returned to China. The one who impressed her the most was the guy who got off the ship around the same time as her. He hadn't even left the dock yet, but he had already eaten thirteen bowls of wontons. The stall owner was afraid that he would eat himself to death at his stall.
As long as it's not marinated in foreign flavors, Aunt Pang thinks a table full of local hometown dishes won't cause any trouble—if they really think everyone in China is inferior, even the most authentic foreign dishes will feel that using domestic ingredients doesn't suit their taste.
"They didn't say..."
The little girl belatedly realized she was in trouble, her face turning deathly pale. She deeply regretted her decision that morning to take the money and shoulder this hot potato—they weren't her kind older sister who wanted her to save money for her ransom; she had been used as a pawn by those people!
"They seem to have said it, they've said it..."
The little girl didn't want to sit idly by and wait for her fate. She tried hard to recall the conversation she had overheard as she passed by, and her eyes suddenly lit up when she was almost at the kitchen.
"The man seemed to say something like, 'It's been a long time since I've been back to Yuzhang to see my mother.'"
The little girl didn't know if her words would be of any use, but she really tried her best. She just happened to pass by and overheard a few words... Why didn't she stop and listen more at the time!
"Yuzhang...I understand!"
Aunt Pang's eyes lit up. When she was still called Xiang Nan, she had learned a lot, including the famous Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng, the old prefecture of Yuzhang, and the new prefecture of Hongdu. This place is Nanchang. Visiting her mother means that it is the place where her mother usually lives. Young children can be separated from their fathers but not their mothers. Even if that person did not grow up in this place, she must have a deep impression of it.
"Go ask again and see if you can find out exactly which country that person is from. Not just any country or foreign country, but the specific country name."
Auntie Pang mentally ticked off the Jiangxi cuisine, then asked the little girl to inquire about it. The little girl nodded and hurried off. Auntie Pang straightened her clothes, walked into the kitchen, ignored the sudden silence, and efficiently began to prepare the ingredients.
High-class families value appearances, and even their ostracism is handled with great decorum. Ever since Aunt Fat lost the master's favor, her treatment has grown colder day by day. There are no beatings or scoldings, of course, but all sorts of trivial matters are like annoying ice needles. The key is that there are also a few blood-drawn steel needles stuck in them from time to time, which is really annoying.
Auntie Pang chose to be a cook because she didn't want to engage in backstabbing and intrigue, but now she has to use her brain every day. They say you can't guard against a thief for a thousand days, but this place is like a worm's nest. If you don't climb up, you'll be pulled down. Auntie Pang, who has always relied on her cooking skills to make a living, is really fed up with this.
Fortunately, she left after the New Year.
Thinking of the contract in her box, Auntie Pang cut the beef and couldn't help but smile, which made everyone wonder: How can the cook still smile after being so difficult?
The little girl walked quickly and came even faster. While Aunt Pang was searching for millet peppers, the little girl hurriedly came in and whispered something in her ear. Everyone saw that the smile on Aunt Pang's face vanished without a trace, like an ice cube in the sunlight, and they immediately felt normal again.
That's more like it. Auntie Pang probably didn't hear the rumors today. Now that the bad news has arrived, let's see if she can manage another smile.
Aunt Pang was indeed in a bad mood. The little girl hadn't brought any good news, so she could only try her luck with Jiangxi cuisine. If it suited that person's taste, everything would be fine. If she lost the gamble... it didn't seem like a bad idea for her to move into Yao Xiaoyu's house to work beforehand.
Even if we take a step back and Yao Xiaoyu doesn't accept her until the time is right, she can rent a place for the New Year, or simply rent a hotel on a monthly basis and start working in a new place after the New Year. She has no ties and is not short of money, so she can make a living anywhere for a while!
After Aunt Pang opened the door to a new world, she became much bolder with her hands. Before anyone in the kitchen could even comment on the chili peppers, they were all choked and forced to leave. When the people who had planned to make things difficult for her came over, they were met with a chorus of coughs.
A malicious person: ? ? ?
In the end, Aunt Fat still managed to cook a table full of Jiangxi dishes and managed to get through the ordeal by sheer luck. The young master treated her with great respect and even rewarded her with a gold ingot. Aunt Fat, who had regained the favor of her master, was riding high for a time... Three days later, she was framed and successfully returned to the sidelines.
However, this time it was Aunt Pang's own doing. In this kind of family, the more valued someone is, the less likely they are to be released easily. In their eyes, a contract with a fixed term is no different from a piece of waste paper. Aunt Pang had carefully selected this family back then, intending to take them in for her retirement, but she was wrong.
Fortunately, her skills were not fully displayed for various reasons, and she was not indispensable to any master. It shouldn't be difficult for her to run away after the New Year.
Aunt Pang counted her savings over and over, imagining life in the Yao family. The Yao family's daughter was a kind person, and as long as everyone around her could understand her, her life probably wouldn't be too bad. There was also the assistant they kept saying they'd match her with, but who hadn't actually arrived yet...
While Aunt Pang was looking forward to starting a new life, Yao Xiaoyu was having her second employee sign a contract.
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