Seeing that she was enjoying the meal, Xia Lingqing picked up two pieces of food with chopsticks and naturally tasted it.
"Well, it's his craft. Mr. Zhu hasn't been to the kitchen for three days. Why didn't the company fire him?"
She cursed, but her tone was joking.
After taking a few more bites of food, Xia Lingqing suddenly waved his hand, motioning her to come closer. It was obvious that he wanted to listen to some gossip.
"Chef Zhu has taken a leave, did you know that?"
He Ruixue shook her head. "I haven't heard about it. I thought he went to the small kitchen. What's going on? Did something happen at home?"
"Well, his wife has been taking the medicine you prescribed, and she's indeed gotten much better. She can occasionally help with laundry and cooking.
His mother started making a fuss again, saying all the time that he had forgotten his mother after getting married. He spent a lot of money to buy expensive medicinal herbs for his wife, but ignored his sick mother.
Master Zhu explained to her that the prescription had been changed and the medicine was not very expensive, but the old lady refused to believe it and said that the whole family had colluded to cheat her and must have been hoping for her death.
Does Zhu Haihui dare to admit this? He was afraid that it would become a big deal, so he hurried back to deal with it.
He Ruixue was shocked, "Is this my biological mother?"
Every word she said could ruin the reputation of her son and daughter-in-law. Was she afraid that his position as chef was too secure and was putting pressure on him?
It is human nature to be afraid of illness. Originally, both the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law were patients. Now that her fellow patient has improved, she is stuck in the same place. It is normal to feel uncomfortable and suspicious.
But she couldn't just overturn the table. If she really ruined Zhu Haihui's job, she wouldn't even be able to maintain the status quo.
"Someone in our unit lives in the same courtyard with him. I heard that Zhu Haihui's younger brother came over recently and probably whispered a lot of bad things about him in her ear.
This guy is interesting. When my mother was sick, she just left her at my brother's place without even a glance. But when my brother's life got better, she came over to make things worse. Who doesn't know what he's thinking? "
"Chef Zhu's brother, does he have a job?"
"Yes, I worked as a kitchen helper in a county-owned restaurant. I never became a chef, so I couldn't cook, chop vegetables or meat.
He himself is not doing well, so he has to keep a close eye on his elder brother, fearing that he will surpass him."
Xia Lingqing snorted and quickly finished the dish in front of him. "But Chef Zhu is used to this kind of thing. He must have taken care of it. Otherwise, he wouldn't have come to work today. I'll go talk to him later. Do you want to come with me?"
"Okay, wait for me for a moment."
The two of them washed their lunch boxes by the sink and came in while the kitchen was on break.
Several kitchen helpers were washing pots. Zhu Haihui, with a white towel hanging around his neck, was sitting on a chair smoking an economy cigarette without a filter.
There were oil stains on his collar, a crack in his leather shoes, and he looked a little unhappy.
"Master Zhu, don't smoke too much. It's bad for your health."
Xia Lingqing familiarly moved two stools and invited He Ruixue to sit down. "How have you been lately? I heard things aren't going well at home. In my opinion, your brother should be kicked out. He always comes back to ask for money. He's a cook after all. He can't go without food or drink."
If this were said in later generations, people might think that the person had no sense of boundaries and asked too many questions, but people nowadays just like to meddle in other people's affairs and want to take control of everyone's affairs.
The temperature in the kitchen was high and Zhu Haihui had just finished cooking. The sweat on his forehead kept dripping down, and his clothes were wet in front and back.
He wiped his face with a towel and said listlessly, "Don't I know my brother's character? He can't spit out ivory from a dog's mouth. But he can't do anything to me. He can only instigate me to make things difficult for me."
As he spoke, his eyes reddened. "My mother is simple-minded and can't judge right from wrong. She's easily instigated. I just need to explain things to her in a gentle manner afterwards. I'm worried about my wife. Why didn't I realize before that she's even more clueless than my mother?"
So what exactly happened that made this middle-aged man, who was always strong and capable of handling things, almost cry?
Xia Lingqing frowned, "What's wrong with her?"
It turns out that Zhu Haihui's wife is called Xu Xiaohua, an ordinary name, but what she does is not ordinary at all.
As soon as she recovered from her illness, she took good care of her mother. After being suspected of taking good medicine, she not only had no complaints, but also took the initiative to stop taking the medicine to prove her "innocence".
She continued to take the medicine only after Zhu Haihui strongly opposed it. Later, he found an old Chinese doctor to prove that the prescription did contain some common and cheap medicines. Only then did his mother finally believe it and apologized to her son and daughter-in-law.
Things should have ended perfectly here, but his sister-in-law came over to complain and talk about how difficult her family's life was.
Xu Xiaohua couldn't bear it, so she gave away all the nourishing food and meat in his house, and also used her own children's tuition to support her brother and sister-in-law's children's education.
When Zhu Haihui was confronted by the teacher about the tuition, she actually said that she would work odd jobs for the next six months to help pay for the children's tuition. As for the children, who usually had good grades, it was okay to delay for a year or two; they would catch up with more effort.
He Ruixue's blood pressure was already rising after hearing this. Who knew there would be something even more outrageous.
When her younger brother's children bullied her own children, Xu Xiaohua not only did not stop them, but also taught them to be more tolerant, saying that they were all relatives and would need help in the future, and if others hit you, you must have done something wrong.
She even advised Zhu Haihui to help his younger brother become a formal chef, after all, they both learned the craft from their father since childhood.
My father-in-law passed away early, so my husband spent a few more years learning the craft, which was equivalent to taking advantage of him for a few more years. In the final analysis, he owed his younger brother's family, so he had to pay it back.
"Actually, I can tolerate all of this."
Zhu Haihui's expression can be described as grief and indignation. "My sister-in-law was cheating on my brother, and she accidentally saw it. The shameless man almost strangled her to death for fear that she would tell on him. Fortunately, someone passed by and let her go, allowing my wife to escape.
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