Evening self-study
Of course he'd love to! He'd love to! Back when he lived in the mountains, he could chat and joke around with the old folks in the village. But ever since that brat Li Jin tricked him into moving to the county, he's been bored out of his mind every day. He can only sit at home in front of the TV, and he feels like his bones are going to freeze.
If he could come here every day to keep busy, listen to the people eating and chatting, even if he didn't participate much, he would be very happy.
Old Li nodded frantically in his heart, but remained calm on the surface. "If you need my help, I'll come."
Liu Xiangmei said, "Of course it will be useful. If you can come, it will be a great help to us. For now, you can stay at the same salary as Xiuer, four hundred yuan a month, including meals. Is that alright with you?"
Old Li was overjoyed. He never expected to receive a salary in his old age. "Alright, I'll officially start working tomorrow."
After listening to her mother and Grandpa Li finish talking, Wang Yao said, "Grandpa Li, you will be in charge of collecting money and keeping accounts from now on. Sister Xiu, you will be in charge of serving food to the guests at noon. Mom, you will be in charge of the kitchen. Whoever has time can clean up the dishes after the guests finish eating. Then let's talk about the barbecue stuff."
Wang Yao planned out the types of barbecue she would sell at night, mainly dividing them into two categories.
One type is grilled, which includes various kinds of kebabs, flatbreads, etc. Wang Yao plans to have Chen Xiu in charge of it.
The other type is stir-fried, such as fried noodles, fried rice, etc. Wang Yao plans to have Liu Xiangmei in charge of it.
After hearing this, Chen Xiu was a little worried, "I... I don't know how to make barbecue."
Wang Yao reassured her, "It's okay. The night of the 2nd is Saturday. There's no evening self-study at the No. 1 Middle School in the county on Saturday nights. I'll grill it then, and you can learn from me. It's very simple. The most important thing about grilling is the sauce. I'll prepare the sauce in advance. You just need to follow me and learn how to control the heat."
Then she turned to Liu Xiangmei and said, "Mom, we have some leftover rice from lunch. Tonight I'll teach you how to make fried rice. We'll just learn one kind each night."
After assigning tasks to everyone and finishing their meal, the group dispersed to attend to their respective tasks.
Wang Yao returned to her bedroom upstairs and began to organize her studies from the past few days.
Although she has been busy with various things these past few days, her efforts to study in between have yielded some results. She has already gone through the first-year junior high school textbooks once, and the remaining knowledge for the second and third years can only be left for after the start of the new school year.
Tonight, the school requires students to attend evening self-study sessions. Wang Yao packed her eighth-grade math and history textbooks into her schoolbag, planning to study them during the evening self-study session.
She didn't waste her afternoon either, and started studying eighth-grade physics.
As she watched, she sensed something was wrong. Although she had never been to high school, she had at least seen pigs run, even if she hadn't eaten pork.
In her past life, she often saw high school students complaining online that physics was too difficult. What was that saying again? Physics taught me that energy is conserved, but my confidence and hair aren't; after studying physics, I'm certain I'm just a filler NPC…
Looking at the physics book in her hand, Wang Yao thought that physics wasn't too difficult. The concepts and formulas were easy to understand. How could this be? Was she a physics genius?
As Wang Yao continued learning, she gradually fell into unrealistic fantasies!
Around 5 o'clock, Wang Yao closed her book, called Liu Xiangmei to the kitchen, and began teaching how to make fried rice.
"Actually, there are many kinds of fried rice. Take the ingredients we have at home, for example: egg fried rice, black bean fried rice, pickled cabbage fried rice, etc. Although the ingredients vary, the most important thing is the rice. It's best to use leftover rice or clean leftover rice. In short, it's best not to use freshly cooked rice because it has a high water content and doesn't taste good when fried..."
Starting with heating the pan and cooling the oil before cooking the rice, Wang Yao explained the key points to Liu Xiangmei at each step, and Liu Xiangmei carefully noted them down.
Looking at her notes filled with notes, Liu Xiangmei thought to herself, "How can my daughter speak so eloquently about just a simple egg fried rice? And this is all she learned on her own after reading a book. She seems to be even better than some master chefs outside. Could my daughter be the legendary genius?"
Liu Xiangmei chuckled; unrealistic fantasies had also invaded her mind.
After Wang Yao finished making one serving, she ate while watching Liu Xiangmei make another. Finally, she pointed out the problems with Liu Xiangmei before carrying her schoolbag and heading towards the county's No. 1 Middle School.
Although it was only the beginning of the school year, the county's No. 1 Middle School was already bustling with activity. Some people were arm in arm, while others were chasing each other and almost bumped into Wang Yao.
As Wang Yao walked towards the classroom, listening and watching, her pace quickened. She felt so happy; she had finally stepped into the school gates again. The youthful and free atmosphere of the school made her feel like she was about to float away.
As Wang Yao entered the classroom, she saw classmates she knew and those she didn't chatting in small groups. She didn't know anyone, and just as she chose a seat in a corner, her homeroom teacher appeared at the door.
Wang Yao sat obediently in her seat. Everything was new and exciting to her, even her homeroom teacher Fei Nan's welcoming speech sounded interesting.
However, Wang Yao's happy mood did not last long, because the homeroom teacher started to arrange the seats, and according to their grades.
Everyone stood in the corridor, and starting with the first person, the homeroom teacher called people in turn to enter the classroom and choose their seats.
As the number of people around her decreased, Wang Yao's initial curiosity and observation gradually disappeared, and she only hoped that her homeroom teacher would call her name quickly.
Unfortunately, Wang Yao was the second to last to enter the classroom to choose a seat; it was a choice between two options.
At least I still have a choice, that's good, that's good, Wang Yao silently comforted herself.
But just as she was about to choose, a boy behind her walked past her into the classroom and sat in the last row.
Hey, wait, friend, don't you understand the concept of first come, first served? Don't you understand the concept of ladies first? Don't you understand what it means to let the best people choose first?
Although only one person was selected as excellent, it was still considered excellent. Wang Yao was furious at losing the right to choose.
Fei Nan didn't care where the last and second-to-last students sat; he simply gestured to Wang Yao with his eyes to quickly sit down in the remaining seat.
Wang Yao had no choice but to walk to the only empty seat in the third-to-last row. Her deskmate seemed to be, well, a girl in a bad mood.
Before Wang Yao even walked over, she was inexplicably glared at.
As soon as I sat down, I heard the girl at the table say, "You should have chosen the faster one."
Um?
The girl added, "It's because you were too slow in choosing that Cheng Hao got impatient and chose first. If you had chosen that seat first, I could have sat next to Cheng Hao."
After saying that, she glanced resentfully at Cheng Hao, who was not far away.
Is there no justice in this world? Did she not want to choose? It was that person with the multiplication sign who beat her to it!
The small theater went unnoticed by others as Fei Nan stood on the podium, selecting class officers on his own.
Her method of selecting class officers was very simple and straightforward: the first-ranked person was the class monitor, the second-ranked person was the academic representative, the third to eleventh-ranked person were the subject representatives, and all other positions were held concurrently by the class monitor and academic representative.
It is clear that Fernando believes in letting results speak for themselves.
As Fei Nan led several strong boys to move the books, a buzzing sound gradually filled the classroom.
Wang Yao then took out her eighth-grade math textbook and started reading quietly.
The girl sitting next to him laughed, "What are you doing? You only know to come for milk when your baby dies, and you only start studying after passing the high school entrance exam, hahaha!"
Wang Yao really didn't want to talk to her, but then she felt her arm being nudged and she heard her say, "Hey, my name is Niu Ling. If there's anything you don't know, I'll teach you."
Wang Yao didn't say anything.
Niu Ling said, "If you're not good at studying, you should ask others for help more often. Don't be shy."
Wang Yao didn't say anything.
But the girl sitting in front of Niu Ling spoke up. She scoffed and said, "Niu Ling, you got into the top class by sheer luck. You dare to teach others? Don't embarrass yourself. Just shut up."
Niu Ling: "What's it to you? You're so great, but I've never seen you get first place. You're just a lackey of the first-place student!"
"You..." The girl at the front of the table was furious. She glanced at Cheng Ting, who was reading a book next to her, and stopped talking to Niu Ling.
Niu Ling stuck out her tongue and made a "nee-nee-nee-nee" sound at the girl in front of her. She then turned to Wang Yao and said, "Remember this person. Her name is Guan Qian. She's been Cheng Ting's lackey since she was a child. She's mentally unstable. Stay away from her. By the way, what's your name?"
Wang Yao had just heard Fei Nan mention Cheng Ting; she was the girl sitting in front of her, ranked first in the class, and the newly appointed class monitor.
"My name is Wang Yao."
"That sounds nice. My mom's surname is also Wang. Sigh, I didn't even get enough of the braised pig's trotters my mom made today before I came to this lousy school. I wonder if there will be any left when I go back tonight. Hey, are you going home tonight?"
Wang Yao nodded, "Yes, my home is right behind the school. My mom owns a restaurant called Hao Zai Lai Restaurant. Her cooking is delicious, and many people love to eat there."
They don't miss any opportunity to promote their restaurant.
Cheng Ting didn't believe it. "How delicious can it be? I ate at every restaurant on Dingyuan Road during junior high, and they were all just so-so. I've never heard of your restaurant before."
After saying that, he turned to the students behind him and asked them, but they all said they had never heard of it.
Wang Yao turned her head and continued advertising: "My family's restaurant is newly opened. It's a buffet. Every day at noon, you can eat as much rice as you want, and there are ten dishes to choose from. For example, today at noon, one of the meat dishes was braised pork. I watched my mom make it in the kitchen."
The fat on the pork belly slowly turned translucent with a bubbling sound, while the lean meat remained a deep reddish-brown, coated in a honey-like broth. Can you imagine? Layer upon layer of fat and lean meat—you're almost afraid to use your chopsticks to pick it up, lest it crumble before your eyes. A gentle press in your mouth, and the fattiest parts melt away like snowflakes, leaving only the collagen that has stood the test of time.
"Slurp~"
"Gulp~"
"Of course, my mother can cook more than just braised pork. She can cook all kinds of Sichuan and Shandong dishes, like Mapo Tofu..."
"Wang Yao, stop talking now. Where is your restaurant located? I'll go try it tomorrow at noon and see if what you're saying is true." Cheng Ting was already seduced.
Wang Yao secretly revealed a triumphant smile, gave the location of her shop, and then glanced at the others out of the corner of her eye. Hmm, very good, someone was already silently taking notes. It was worth it for her to deliberately raise her voice and say such a long thing; her mouth was dry by now.
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