Chapter 740: After being driven away, Master Chen handed over another "confidential" task to Xiao Wang.
Organize and label the medicinal materials in the medicine library.
"For our medicinal food, the herbs are all rooted, so there can't be any mistakes. The labels on these herbs are a bit old, so please check them again and write down the names and approximate effects. The handwriting must be neat."
Master Chen pointed to the overflowing medicine cabinets and said seriously, "Some of the herbs here look similar, but their properties are very different. Don't get them mixed up!"
Looking at the densely packed medicinal herbs of various shapes, Xiao Wang felt his scalp tingling.
This job not only required great patience, but also a certain knowledge of Chinese medicine. As a layman, he could only guess based on the worn-out "Herbal Atlas" given by Lu Qingyang.
An entire afternoon passed, and I had only sorted out less than one-tenth of it. I almost mistakenly labeled "꺱芙凝" as "粉萆薢", but fortunately Liu Dong who passed by discovered and corrected it.
After a few days, Xiao Wang was exhausted by all this work.
He did get a few fake secret recipes, but the process was much more difficult than he had imagined.
Under cover of darkness, Xiao Wang, like a thief, told Mr. Jin, the boss of Yangboju, several key steps and secret recipes that he had stolen from Master Chen.
He focused on describing how Master Chen stressed that "the astragalus must be roasted to a crispy aroma," as well as some mysterious-sounding tips on the timing of the roast.
Boss Jin took these hard-earned "true teachings" as if they were treasures, and his little eyes were shining with the hope of making a fortune.
He patted Xiao Wang on the shoulder and lowered his voice: "Well done, well done. When we succeed, you will get some benefits."
The next day, Yangboju put up a sign that read "New Product Promotion," featuring its "Secretly Prepared Astragalus Yangbo Soup."
Boss Jin was ready to go and instructed the chef to strictly follow the "secret recipe" provided by Xiao Wang.
In the kitchen, the chef looked at the astragalus root that had been roasted to a faint burnt smell, frowned, and asked hesitantly, "Boss, this... this astragalus root seems to be overcooked, right?"
Boss Jin waved his hand confidently, "What do you know? This is a secret recipe passed down by Master Chen of Xinweiju to stimulate the medicinal properties. Just follow it."
The chef had no choice but to bite the bullet and boil the burnt and bitter astragalus root with other ingredients.
A few hours later, the soup was finally ready. The color looked rich, but the smell...how to put it, an indescribable burnt smell mixed with the bitterness of medicinal herbs filled the entire Yangbuju kitchen, and it didn't smell very appetizing.
Boss Jin tasted it himself. As soon as the soup touched his tongue, his face wrinkled up and his facial features almost shifted.
The taste was bitter with a strange smoky smell. Not only was it not nourishing, it was almost like drinking boiled water with the residue of medicine.
"Poof—" He couldn't help but spit it all out, almost jumping up and down in anger, "What the hell is this? Why is it so hard to drink?"
His first reaction was that Xiao Wang had tricked him.
Boss Jin was so angry that he walked around the office in circles, complaining to his stomach:
"What a jerk, Xiao Wang! He's trying to trick me with this crappy recipe? I think he's been bribed by Xinweiju and is deliberately trying to trick us. Even pigs wouldn't drink this stuff."
At the same time, at Xinweiju, Ma Hongxia happened to pass by the door of Yangju while buying vegetables. She smelled that strange smell and came back to tell everyone about it as a joke.
Master Chen was straining the soup slowly. He didn't even look up when he heard this. He just smiled knowingly and said slowly:
"If the fire isn't hot enough, you can't eat hot tofu in a hurry. This is not the right way to learn the craft. Even the Kitchen God won't help you."
Lu Qingyang, who was listening, couldn't help laughing and said to Master Chen:
"It seems that our 'burnt-fragrant version' of astragalus has an immediate effect."
Xiao Wang doesn't know that his neighbor has already treated him as a swindler. He still endures the boredom of sorting herbs in Xinweiju, while looking forward to the "benefits" promised by Boss Jin.
It wasn't until he noticed that the waiter at the farm who had occasionally exchanged glances with him before was now walking around him with contempt in his eyes that he vaguely felt that something was amiss.
Seeing that Yangboju was in a mess because of the fake formula, and Xiao Wang was still scratching his head in the pile of medicinal materials at Xinweiju, Lu Qingyang felt that it was time to draw an end to this drama.
After closing the shop that day, Lu Qingyang took Xiao Wang to the backyard.
Xiao Wang was still thinking about the invisible benefit, so he was a little nervous when he saw this scene. He forced himself to be calm and asked, "What do you want to talk to me about?"
"Xiao Wang, you've been here for a while now. We think you might not be suited to the work pace and requirements of Xinweiju. Here's your salary for this month. Once it's settled, you don't have to come tomorrow."
When Xiao Wang heard this, he was stunned, and then a feeling of being looked down upon surged up in his head.
He felt that he had been watching the fire and sorting the herbs these days. Even if he had no credit, he had worked hard. He immediately stiffened his neck:
"Why should I leave? What have I done wrong? I get up early and stay up late every day. My eyes are sore from watching the fire, and my hands are numb from sorting herbs. Aren't you bullying an honest person and exploiting your employees?"
The more he spoke, the more wronged he felt, and his voice grew louder and louder, almost as if he was about to cause trouble.
"You have to explain it to me clearly, otherwise I will go to the street office and talk to them!"
Ma Hongxia pouted as she listened, while Master Chen crossed his arms with an expression that said, "I wonder what else you can say."
Lu Qingyang was not in a hurry. He waited until he finished yelling before he slowly started talking: "Watch the fire, you dozed off three times, and it was Sister Ma who watched over you. When sorting the herbs, you made seven mistakes in marking, and Liu Dong corrected five for you. The other two were discovered by Master Chen."
Xiao Wang's momentum suddenly dropped. He opened his mouth but no words came out.
"As for you saying we're exploiting you... well, I'd like to ask, did Mr. Jin from Yangboju exploit you? For example, did he ask you to secretly memorize how to use our roasted astragalus?"
These words were like a needle, lightly bursting Xiao Wang's inflated balloon.
His face turned pale, his eyes darted around in panic, his lips trembled, he wanted to explain, but he couldn't utter a word.
It turns out that his self-righteous cleverness had already been seen through by others.
"Young man, you need to focus on the right path. Relying on such opportunistic and treacherous methods will never allow you to gain a foothold anywhere. Let's go, part ways amicably and leave some dignity for yourself."
Xiao Wang held the banknotes in his hands, his face turning red and white. Finally, he walked away dejectedly with his head hung like a punctured ball, not daring to say even a polite word.
Watching his back disappearing at the door, Ma Hongxia snorted:
"Finally, we got rid of this crooked god."
Master Chen shook his head and sighed, "If your thoughts are not right, you will never achieve great things."
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