At 7:55, Zhang Dezhen arrived at the gate of Xu's Catering headquarters. After checking in at the front desk, he went straight into the braised food cooking room.
Unlike Zhang Dezhen's working hours, the kitchen staff work in shifts. The first shift is from 6:00 AM to 2:00 PM, and the second shift is from 2:00 PM to 10:00 PM.
Therefore, before 8 o'clock, the braising room had already completed the cooking of several batches of braised food and sent them to the cooling room to cool.
After inspecting the cooking area to ensure everyone's work was proceeding smoothly, Zhang Dezhen put on gloves, took a small knife, and went into the cooling room. He then selected a lucky braised dish to taste.
I sliced off a paper-thin piece of beef and put it in my mouth, chewing slowly—the flavor was acceptable. The pig's trotters were acceptable. The wakame seaweed was acceptable.
After walking from one end of the cooling room to the other and tasting more than twenty kinds of scraps cut from different ingredients, Zhang Dezhen nodded slightly and strode out of the cooling room.
The braised dishes I cooked today were as good as ever, both in terms of quality and taste!
After reiterating the key points of today's work and the amount of cooking to be completed, Zhang Dezhen walked straight to a separate room with only one door. Under the surveillance camera, he took out all the miscellaneous items from his clothes and put them in a basket. He then grasped the doorknob with his right hand, turned the doorknob, and entered the room.
The first space upon entering is a small room of only three square meters. On each of the two walls hangs a set of heavy and complicated protective suits. In the corner stand two cabinets containing various odds and ends such as shoe covers, masks, and hairnets.
Shoe covers, head coverings, protective suits, masks, gas masks
After putting on all the complicated equipment, Zhang Dezhen opened another door in the room. Behind the door was a huge, flat wok with a diameter of two meters. The spices used to make the braising spice packets were neatly arranged next to the wok.
After checking that the spices were in good condition, Zhang Dezhen pressed the power button on the spice wok. A loud hum filled the room, and the robotic arm above the wok slowly began to rotate. As the machine started, the temperature in the room gradually rose, neutralizing the chilling cold that made people shiver.
Just as Zhang Dezhen was diligently working on the stir-frying, the screen of his cell phone, which was placed in a basket outside the room, suddenly lit up. A call had come in, and the ringing sound echoed throughout the room.
But despite being separated by two doors, the room was still filled with the deafening hum of machinery. Zhang Dezhen, completely oblivious to this, continued working diligently.
Ring ring—ring ring ring ring ring—
"Did you hear anything?" A braised food chef near the small room couldn't help but pat the chef next to him, describing with difficulty, "It sounds like a bell. It's been ringing on and off for almost five minutes, haven't you heard it?"
"Is there?" The worker next door stopped what he was doing and listened intently. Sure enough, he heard a faint ringing. He then replied uncertainly, "Is it Manager Zhang's phone ringing? It's been ringing for so long, does it mean he needs to talk to him about something important?"
As they spoke, the two exchanged a glance, turned around, and walked together to the door of the small room. In the basket, they saw the constantly vibrating cell phone, with the caller ID showing it was the first-grade homeroom teacher.
Upon seeing that it was a call from a school teacher, the two immediately became agitated, grabbed their phones, pulled the doorknob, and entered the room.
As everyone knows, Manager Zhang's child isn't in good health and just returned from the hospital a few days ago. Now that the school teachers are making so many calls at once, could it be that something has happened to the child again?
After hesitating for two seconds, one of them picked up the phone, pressed the answer button, and turned on the speakerphone. The teacher's flustered and loud voice came into their ears.
"Parents of Zhang Lanlan, please go to Haishi People's Hospital immediately. Your daughter is currently undergoing emergency treatment."
"What...what do we do! This door is a password door, we can't get in without the password!"
"I'll wait here. Go find General Manager Lu and Supervisor Lu; they definitely know the password. Hurry!"
Upon hearing this, another person dashed out of the braising room and headed towards the stairs leading to the second floor; the person left behind pounded on the door and shouted inside, "Supervisor! Supervisor Zhang! The phone's on! The school teacher is calling! Supervisor!"
Whether it was the soundproofing of the door or the hum of the machine inside that was too loud, the person's hands were swollen from pounding and their voice was about to go hoarse, but the door remained tightly locked.
Fortunately, the departing colleague brought Supervisor Lu with him, and the hurried 'pat-pat' of their footsteps brought a sense of reassurance.
"Zhang Lanlan's parents, the time interval between relapses is getting shorter and shorter. It has been less than three days since the last hospitalization. As the child grows and develops, the burden on the heart is increasing."
Surgery is recommended as soon as possible. Delaying it will likely have irreparable damage to the child's physical development, even if he recovers. This time he was lucky; he collapsed in the classroom, and the teacher knew first aid. But what about next time?
"Uh-huh. Let's discuss it some more. Thank you, doctor, thank you, doctor."
After leaving the doctor's office and seeing off the homeroom teacher and other helpful people, Mr. and Mrs. Zhang Dezhen sat on the long bench outside the hospital bed, looking at each other in bewilderment.
After an unknown amount of time, Zhang Dezhen's wife sighed softly and murmured:
“Last month we received 26,000 yuan in wages, and adding your wages from the previous two months, we have a total of 36,000 yuan. This month's commission is higher, so it should be 50,000 yuan, making a total of 90,000 yuan. But this surgery, the surgery fee alone will be 500,000 yuan.”
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