Qin Huairu arrived at the kitchen and was immediately assigned to Liu Lan for supervision.
However, Liu Lan, who had been promoted to mentor, did not have the awareness of being a mentor. She quickly gave Qin Huairu her first lesson in her work.
Before Qin Huairu could adjust, a job was arranged for her.
They carried more than 300 cabbages from the warehouse to the base of the kitchen wall and stacked them neatly.
Qin Huairu was stunned. She had never met Liu Lan before, let alone had any grudge between them. Helpless, she could only turn to Sha Zhu for help.
However, Sha Zhu's words were ineffective; Liu Lan's simple statement, "That's how I got here," effectively shut down anything Sha Zhu wanted to say.
Although Liu Lan was also a kitchen helper, Sha Zhu wasn't the team leader and couldn't supervise her.
In other words, Sha Zhu was in charge of serving the leaders and cooking the dishes for the small canteen, which is why he had some status in the kitchen.
Sha Zhu had to coax and persuade Liu Lan to reduce her workload by a third, but she still had to bring over two hundred cabbages.
If there weren't so many people in the kitchen, Qin Huairu would definitely have grabbed Sha Zhu's arm and given him a good shake.
If all else fails, they might resort to a tear attack.
Two hundred cabbages may not seem like a lot, but the warehouse was quite far from the kitchen. At first, Qin Huairu could carry three cabbages at a time, but later she felt her legs were shaking and had to reduce it to carrying two.
This is completely different from her doing housework and washing clothes at home. Although she grew up in the countryside, she rarely had to do so much work by herself.
Qin Huairu worked until noon, feeling like she was about to fall apart, but she still hadn't managed to carry all two hundred cabbages.
Sha Zhu helped her with the food for a while after he finished shaking the spoon and eating.
After stacking the two hundred cabbages, Qin Huairu felt like crying as she looked at the neatly arranged pile of cabbages. No one had told her that working was so hard!
And then, the worst was yet to come.
Although the kitchen staff didn't have a holiday, the necessary procedures still had to be followed, and a thorough cleaning was a must on the first day back at work.
As a result, Qin Huairu was in a daze when she got off work, feeling like she had lost all hope in life.
No need for much more, just have her help out in the kitchen for a month, and she'll be exhausted.
When she got home, Qin Huairu didn't eat or take off her clothes before collapsing onto the kang (a heated brick bed) and falling asleep.
Jia Zhangshi, who was standing nearby, was dumbfounded and didn't dare to utter a single word. She made some cornmeal porridge for the three children on the stove and steamed some cornbread. That was how they managed to have dinner.
That evening, Yi Zhonghai strolled around the yard twice with a bag of mixed noodles, but he didn't see Qin Huairu come out. He couldn't just go to her door to deliver the noodles; how could he spend time alone with her then?
After finishing his cigarette, Yi Zhonghai had no choice but to take the bag and go home.
The next day, Qin Huairu forced herself to go to work despite her exhaustion.
She secretly vowed to herself that she would adapt to this job as soon as possible.
However, once she arrived at the kitchen, Liu Lan assigned her a task, but she didn't deliberately make things difficult for her; it was simply washing and peeling potatoes.
Even so, by noon, Qin Huairu's hands were shaking while serving food; anyone who didn't know better would think she was doing it on purpose.
In the afternoon, Qin Huairu took the opportunity of going to the toilet to go find Yi Zhonghai.
Still at the corner outside the workshop, Qin Huairu was crying her eyes out.
In short, she had only one goal: to get Yi Zhonghai to transfer her to the workshop as soon as possible, as she didn't want to stay in the kitchen for even a day longer.
Seeing Qin Huairu crying so sadly, Yi Zhonghai quickly reached out to wipe her face. The touch of his hand on Qin Huairu's cheeks moved Yi Zhonghai deeply and strengthened his resolve.
"Huai Ru, there's Zhu in the kitchen, how can we let you get tired?"
Yi Zhonghai had seen Qin Huairu shed tears before, but his feelings were completely different from now; he now felt a pang of heartache.
"The workload in the workshop is too heavy, so it's definitely not feasible to have you come over now. No team is willing to take on an apprentice. Don't think that just because I have some prestige, this is related to pay, and I don't have that much power."
"How about this, I'll go to Zhuzi's place tonight and we'll discuss it and try to think of a solution for you."
After much persuasion, Yi Zhonghai finally managed to coax Qin Huairu away. As soon as he sat down back in the workshop, someone approached him.
"Hey Lao Yi, I just saw you talking to a woman outside, and she was crying and sobbing. What's going on?"
Sun Guofu, a master fitter of the seventh grade in the workshop, sat down next to Yi Zhonghai with a gossipy look on his face and began to speak.
These words startled Yi Zhonghai. It seemed he could no longer go there in the future.
"Hey, what woman? That's Dongxu's wife. Dongxu left, and his wife came to fill in. She went to the kitchen, but as a newcomer, she was being bullied, so she came to me."
Yi Zhonghai spoke naturally, "Dongxu was my apprentice, practically my son. He just left like that, how can I not take care of his family!"
Sun Guofu took two big gulps of tea while holding the large tea mug: "That's true. It's not easy being a master. Even after your apprentice is gone, you still have to take care of your apprentice's wife."
"There's no other way; we can't just watch her family go hungry."
Yi Zhonghai gave a casual reply.
Qin Huairu felt like she was living through an eternity in the kitchen. She finally made it to the end of her shift, only to be told by Liu Lan that she had to clean the floor before she could go home.
Sha Zhu couldn't stand it and said a few words in Qin Huairu's defense.
This, however, displeased Liu Lan.
“Master He, you are the chef, so cooking is your job. I am the kitchen helper, and I will make sure to prepare the ingredients properly and keep the kitchen tidy so as not to delay your cooking. We each have our own responsibilities.”
Since Qin Huairu is my apprentice, she's under my supervision. I did the same thing under my master, and I'm doing this so she can graduate quickly. If you have any objections, you can go talk to the headmaster.
Sha Zhu was immediately rendered speechless by Liu Lan's retort.
Qin Huairu almost burst into tears. Sha Zhu had been boasting so much before, but when it came down to it, he was completely unreliable!
In the end, Qin Huairu had no choice but to grit her teeth and clean up herself.
Feeling guilty, Sha Zhu took the initiative to help tidy up.
After dinner, Yi Zhonghai went to Sha Zhu's house.
While greeting him, Sha Zhu complained that Liu Lan was too cold-hearted.
Yi Zhonghai pondered for a moment and said, "Zhuzi, we need to think of a comprehensive solution. Huairu is indeed working hard in the kitchen. I'm thinking about whether we can give her an easier job."
Sha Zhu scratched his head and said, "Oh my, Uncle Yi, just tell me what you think."
Yi Zhonghai lowered his voice: "I heard that the factory warehouse might be short-staffed. How about we ask Wang Dabao for help to transfer Huai Ru there?"
Sha Zhu's eyes lit up: "That's a good idea, but I don't know what Da Bao says. Maybe I'll go to the backyard for a walk later."
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