Chapter 24 A three-word reply

The market day in Qinglian County is 258, which means that every day with 258 in the date is a market day. So, a few days later, Su Taotao went to the county town again.

But this time she didn't bring dust with her.

To be precise, Chenchen didn't want to go with her. The little guy was really smart. He probably knew that if he went with her it would affect his mother's work, or he might have felt that the county town was not fun. So when Su Taotao asked for his opinion in the morning, this time he decisively chose to go to school with his uncle.

Su Taotao is very democratic in raising her children, so naturally she would not interfere with her choice.

Chef Xu was looking forward to it very much. He ran back and forth to the kitchen at the front door several times, as if he was afraid that Su Taotao would change her mind and not come.

He ran to the door for the nth time to wait for someone, and finally saw that beautiful figure: "Comrade Su, I finally got you here, hurry up, there's a problem with the brine in the kitchen."

It was just past seven in the morning, but the three floors outside the arcade were already packed with people.

"What's going on with these people?" Su Taotao asked.

Chef Xu couldn't suppress the smile on his lips. "It's because our salty flavor is so delicious and the supply is limited every day. These retired uncles and aunts are worried that they won't be able to buy it, so they come here early in the morning to line up."

Su Taotao's eyes twitched. "It doesn't have to be that early, does it? The halogen lunch supply won't be available until after 11 o'clock. What time is it now?"

Speaking of this, Chef Xu straightened his back a little more: "Who says it's not true? The reputation on the first day was so good that people lined up before 11 o'clock on the second day, and half of them couldn't buy it. On the third day, when we arrived earlier at 9 o'clock, two-thirds of the people couldn't buy it. Today is the fourth day, and people are lining up before 7 o'clock."

Chef Xu's mouth corners were raised as he spoke.

In the past, when he invited his relatives and friends to dinner, they would always refuse and some even asked if they could go to a restaurant.

Chef Xu almost vomited blood.

Now the situation has changed. In just a few days, the relatives who asked him to keep their family property have almost broken down the door of his house.

Who is he, Lao Xu? Is he one of those people who use chicken feathers as a token of authority? Would a chef as honest as me give anyone a backdoor? No! If you want to buy salty food, you can go to the hotel and queue up.

The feeling of being proud is simply indescribable.

Su Taotao didn't find it that surprising. The new toilet still smells good for three days. People in all eras seek freshness. After everyone has tried it once, there will definitely not be such a grand occasion again.

Su Taotao shared this view with Chef Xu, and finally added: "This is also the reason why I launch a new dish every month. It would be good if the popularity of the halogen flavor can last for a month and gradually become a regular signature dish. If we launch other new dishes, we will have repeat customers."

Chef Xu nodded: "I know."

Su Taotao added, "Let's ask the waiter to write some chips later. We expect to make 30 chips today, and give numbered chips to 30 people. The people behind us won't have to wait in line for nothing."

Chef Xu was stunned for a moment, then nodded: "Okay, I'll tell the minister later."

After a while, Chef Xu said, "How about we add more salt?"

Su Taotao shook her head: "No need. Scarcity makes things valuable. The less you can eat it, the more you want to eat it. If you can't buy it today, you can wait until the day after tomorrow. You will be able to eat it eventually."

Chef Xu had been to the battlefield and seen real guns and live bullets. He had experienced ups and downs over the past few decades and had seen the warmth and coldness of human nature as well as all kinds of evil spirits. However, this was the first time he had seen a female comrade of Su Taotao's age who had such experience.

Chef Xu sighed and said, "I really want to know what kind of family can raise a lady like you."

Su Taotao smiled but did not answer.

I thought that no matter what kind of family it was, it would be impossible to raise a daughter like me, but in the future of the 21st century, such daughters can be found everywhere.

It turned out that the brine was not completely boiled yesterday before the fire was turned off, and it had turned sour early this morning.

Su Taotao emphasized again: "In this kind of weather, the food must be boiled thoroughly before leaving get off work to sterilize it thoroughly so that it won't spoil easily. It's time to change this pot today. I must pay attention next time."

The second chef lowered his head and admitted his mistake, promising that there would not be a next time. Su Taotao didn't say anything more.

After Su Taotao prepared today's brine, Chef Xu took her to the lounge and gave her two contracts.

"Just sign it if you think it's okay. This is the best deal I've ever gotten."

Su Taotao took it and looked at it. The position was consultant, with a monthly salary of 40 yuan.

These days, an ordinary worker only gets 30 to 40 yuan for a full month's work. If people knew that Su Taotao only needs to come to work about ten days a month, no, to be precise, she only needs to work ten mornings, and she can get 40 yuan in salary, and all employee benefits, including various tickets, are the same as those of regular employees, I wonder how many people would be jealous.

She knew that this was indeed the best benefit Chef Xu had secured for her.

Without saying anything, Su Taotao signed on it and handed it to Chef Xu: "Thank you, Chef Xu. Don't worry, no matter how many months I work, I will definitely prepare the twelve dishes for the hotel."

There was no telling when Chenchen's cheap dad would come back to pick them up, and Su Taotao was not sure how long she could work in the hotel.

Therefore, there was a clause in the contract that Su Taotao added in order to protect the rights of the hotel. That is, if she voluntarily resigned within three months, she would unconditionally give the brine recipe to Chef Xu, and also give him twelve recipes.

This is one of the reasons why the leadership team was willing to keep Su Taotao after trying the brine platter. Chef Xu's original words were that buying a dish of this level would cost more than a year's salary.

What Chef Xu didn't tell Su Taotao was that the hotel originally offered her a maximum salary of twenty yuan. After all, she had only worked for about ten days and was not yet under discipline. Chef Xu tried his best to persuade her and signed a military warrant that the turnover must at least quadruple within a month, thus securing an extra ten yuan and all employee benefits for her. The other ten yuan was subsidized from his salary. He voluntarily took ten yuan less every month and gave ten yuan from his salary to Su Taotao, so she got this "huge" salary of forty yuan.

After Su Taotao finished taking care of the hotel's affairs, she helped Chef Xu taste the dishes, and then ate the staff meal before rushing to the photo studio.

The photos have been developed, and the photographer paid for an extra set of photos out of his own pocket. Even now, he still takes them out to admire them from time to time and can't let them go.

Seeing Su Taotao coming over with the list, he greeted her with a smile and said, "Comrade Su, you and your son were born for the camera. I have been using cameras for decades, but I have never seen anyone as good at taking pictures as you."

Su Taotao picked up the photo and looked at it, and was also very satisfied.

She actually knew in her heart that if the photographer didn't make any mistakes and as long as the person didn't accidentally close his eyes, the results of the photos would generally not be too bad. After all, both she and Chen Chen were very good-looking.

"I printed an extra set as a souvenir, I hope you don't mind," the photographer was worried that Su Taotao thought he had other ideas, so he quickly took out his personal collection of photo albums, "Please don't misunderstand me, I have always had a hobby of collecting photos, and when I come across good works, I want to keep them as a souvenir. After all, it's hard to come by chance. If you don't want to, you can take this set back and give it to you for free, just pretend I never said anything."

The photographer was a frank person. The film was in his hands. If he had not told Su Taotao about it, he would have secretly developed ten more sets for his collection and Su Taotao would have no idea. But he did not do that, and at the same time he challenged human nature. No normal person would agree to this. Even a fool would know how to choose such a good thing as getting an extra set of photos for free.

Su Taotao had no idea what the photographer was thinking. Perhaps artists’ thinking patterns were different from those of normal people.

Well, she's not normal either.

Because her choice is——

"You can keep the photos, but it's best not to show them to anyone else."

The photographer was overjoyed: "Don't worry, I have professional ethics and will not show it to others. It is purely a personal collection."

Su Taotao actually saw a photo with eyes and eyebrows somewhat similar to Chenchen in the private collection page he opened. It was a one-inch yellowed ID photo. The boy in the photo looked about ten years old, with delicate features that were impeccable. There was an aura between his eyebrows that seemed like someone who had failed in cultivating immortality and temporarily fell into the mortal world to survive. At just one glance, Su Taotao actually had a ridiculous thought that "Chenchen probably looked like that when he was ten years old."

However, she had just said that her privacy should not be disclosed. Now it would be embarrassing to want to see other people's collections or pry into the privacy of other photos, so I didn't ask any more questions.

Su Taotao was very satisfied with the photos, so she kept the negatives and asked the photographer to develop two more sets of them. Then she took the photos to the post office to write a letter to Fu Zhengtu.

She was not so petty as to not send the photos to Fu Zhengtu. Instead, she was very generous and put all four photos into the envelope at once.

As for replying, Su Taotao sneered. Aren’t people more ruthless and less talkative? Who doesn’t know how to reply?

So, a few days later, Fu Zhengtu, who was so busy at the base that he was smoking, received a three-word reply from his beloved wife at home:

My son

There is no punctuation.

Fu Zhengtu, who was drinking water, was choked by the water. He looked at the photo and those three words and coughed so hard that his lungs almost flew out of his throat.

What was even more surprising was his colleagues who had worked with him for many years. What kind of family letter could make Mr. Fu, who was as calm as a rock and could remain calm even when faced with a mountain collapsing, so excited?

When Fu Zhengtu slowed down, the handsome face of the goddess Nuwa turned from red to blue, and then from blue to three points darker than the bottom of the pot.

He had been away from home for only two years, but a grassland greener than the Hulunbuir grassland had grown above his head, and his good wife had even given birth to a son with another man!

…