Tiezi's mother swallowed hard twice, and her voice became much lower.
"My surname is Wan, and my name is Wan Daomi (Wan Rice)."
Manager Guan nodded. "From now on, I'll call you Sister-in-law Wan. And what about you?" Manager Wan looked at Madam Cheng behind Tiezi's mother, her face full of inquiry.
Ms. Cheng quickly stepped forward to introduce herself, "My surname is Cheng, and my name is Cheng..."
"Alright, then I'll call you Sister-in-law Cheng." Manager Guan impatiently interrupted what Madam Cheng was about to say.
He led the two into the kitchen. Wan Chun Lou's kitchen was very large, with seven or eight stoves alone. The firewood was neatly stacked, and there were two long cutting boards inside. One cutting board was full of vegetables, and the other cutting board was full of chicken, duck, fish, and meat.
The entire kitchen looked clean and tidy, and quite sophisticated.
Manager Guan showed the two around and explained, "The head chef is in charge of cooking, and the cooks are in charge of chopping and plating vegetables. What you two need to do is wash the dirty plates that are brought in earlier. Also, wash these vegetables and meats. The kitchen floor and stove must be kept spotless. I will come to check before and after work every day."
Tiezi's mother and Cheng Shi were stunned by what they heard; it seemed there was quite a bit of work to be done.
"Have you all remembered what I said?" Manager Guan asked coldly.
"I've got it."
"I've got it."
Cheng and Tiezi's mother quickly answered.
"Alright, in that case, let's start work today. The wages will also start today, one hundred coins a month. There's a small house at the far end of the courtyard, that's your lodging." Manager Guan walked to the door of the back kitchen and casually beckoned to a woman who was carrying plates in the front hall. "Sister Zhang, you come and help these two newcomers find their lodging."
Aunt Zhang was wiping the tables in the lobby when she heard this, so she quickly put down the rag and ran over with a smile.
"Alright, shopkeeper, you can go about your other business. I'll take care of this."
Manager Guan left without saying anything.
Sister-in-law Zhang glanced at Tiezi's mother and Cheng Shi, "You're new here, right? Where are you from?"
On my first day here, I definitely need to build good relationships with the people in the restaurant.
Mrs. Cheng quickly replied, "We're all from Changfeng Village, so we'll have to trouble you, Sister Zhang."
“No trouble at all, Changfeng Village… speaking of which, my nephew’s great-uncle’s ancestors were from there. Your place is just ahead, I’ll take you there.”
Zhang's wife walked in front, with Tiezi's mother and Cheng's wife following behind, both carrying bundles.
When we arrived at our lodging, it was a very dilapidated little house without even a window, completely unlike the magnificent restaurant we had just visited.
At least it's a brick house, and even at its worst, it's much better than the mud-brick houses in the village.
After four beds were placed in the small room, there wasn't even room to put your feet down. Aunt Zhang pointed to the two beds closer to the inner room.
"You can sleep in these two. This one is mine, and the other one is Sister Wang's. She works in the front hall cleaning, just like me."
The wooden bed was completely bare, and the room had no windows, making it dark even in broad daylight.
Cheng dragged her bundle and walked sideways to the innermost room, where she first chose a bed with two sides against the wall.
After putting her three bundles into the small bed, it was clear that there was no room left.
Mrs. Cheng frowned. "Sister-in-law Zhang, where do we put all these things?"
Aunt Zhang pointed to the corner of the wall, "If you have basins or buckets, put them here. If you can put anything else on the bed, then put it on the bed. Oh, and don't leave anything valuable lying around. The restaurant won't be responsible if anything gets lost."
This round trip had already wasted a lot of time, and Tiezi's mother and Cheng had to go to the kitchen to busy themselves before they even had time to make the bed.
They had to wash all the vegetables and meat first, and then start chopping them when the cook arrived.
Cleaning is a huge job. Just washing cabbages requires washing over a hundred, and cleaning pig heads, trotters, mutton, beef, and other meats is even more troublesome. Even the fine hairs have to be shaved off one by one.
You still need to fetch water yourself; there's a well in the backyard.
Tiezi's mother and Cheng worked diligently for almost the entire morning, without even having time to drink water, and finally finished washing all the ingredients for the day.
Just when the two women felt they could finally catch their breath, Aunt Zhang and Aunt Wang brought over a series of plates used by the guests from the front hall.
"Oh, Sister Wan and Sister Cheng, you two hurry up and wash all these plates, otherwise we won't have any to use later!" Sister Zhang brought over the plates and then quickly went back to continue her work.
Tiezi's mother and Cheng Shi didn't have time to think much and quickly went to wash the dishes.
It was noon, the busiest time of day for the restaurant, and all twenty tables in the main hall were full. The private rooms on each of the four floors were also occupied.
The three chefs were busy cooking in the kitchen, while the four cooks were chopping on the cutting board with a loud "thump thump".
Everyone was so engrossed in their work that they didn't even have time to say a word to each other.
Seeing this scene, Tiezi's mother and Cheng Shi naturally dared not speak, and the two kept their heads down and did their work.
This hectic activity continued until late afternoon before gradually subsiding.
After washing the last dish in the wooden basin, Cheng's hands turned white from being soaked in water for so long. She rubbed her stiff and aching back and legs.
"Oh my, I'm exhausted! This is more than I would wash a year's worth of dishes at home!"
Tiezi's mother was both hungry and tired. "That's right! When I was looking for work, the shopkeeper only said he wanted odd jobs. I didn't expect that odd jobs would involve so much work!"
"Sigh, earning one hundred coins is really not easy. These days, money is hard to earn and life is tough." Cheng Shi pouted.
As the two were talking, Sister Zhang brought over the food.
"This is what the guests left over from lunch, and it's also our food. Let's go back and eat."
Sister-in-law Wang followed behind, carrying several bowls in her hands.
Mr. Cheng glanced at it briefly, and wow, there was chicken and fish...
She hadn't eaten breakfast, and it was well past lunchtime. She was so hungry that her eyes were blurry, and she finally managed to eat something.
Cheng got up from the stool, licked her lips, and followed behind Wang's wife with shining eyes.
Upon entering the small house, the group placed two small stools at the entrance. The stools were used to hold the food, and the four of them had to squat or sit on the floor to eat together.
Although working in this restaurant is tiring, the food is indeed quite good.
White rice was something that people like Cheng and her family in the countryside couldn't even dream of, let alone having vegetables and meat... The vegetables were very oily, and even the soup was glistening.
Each person had a large bowl of white rice. Cheng couldn't wait to shovel two mouthfuls of rice into her mouth. It tasted sweet and was incredibly delicious.
She ate several more bites without thinking, and only when she looked up did she see that Sister Zhang and Sister Wang were eating in small bites, as if eating white rice was a normal thing for them.
Feeling embarrassed, Mr. Cheng also slowed down his eating pace, trying his best to restrain himself.
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