Chapter 120 Chapter 120 "Success."...
"Okay." Su Li nodded.
Then he followed the broker to the man's residence.
The weather in June has started to get hot. The cicadas in the trees have been making shrill calls since morning, and the sounds become louder as you go outside the city.
A quarter of an hour later,
"It'll be there soon." The agent smiled, afraid that Su Li would get impatient and not go.
Then he started talking about the man who had come today. "He used to live near the county school, but his son got into gambling and recently ran up a large debt. So he sold his house and moved here."
"Hey, my dear, life is so unpredictable. No one knows what will happen in the end."
"If you're lucky, your children and grandchildren are all successful, allowing you to enjoy your old age at home. If you're unlucky, your children and grandchildren can cause you trouble, and your second half of life will be ruined. Old Qu was lucky to have such an unpromising son, otherwise he wouldn't have ended up like this."
As he spoke, he turned into a cold, damp alley with sewage flowing in it. If Su Li had not told her family before leaving, and had not dealt with this broker several times before, she would have been really afraid of encountering some unexpected event.
"It's right in front, the second one with the jujube tree."
Su Li looked over and saw the short and thin jujube tree and the old and shabby house next to it.
"I'll go knock on the door, you wait here." The broker walked to the gate of the yard and asked Su Li to stand aside.
Su Li nodded.
The broker knocked on the door and asked, "Old Qutou, are you home?"
Bang bang bang, the palms hitting the wooden board made a strong dull sound.
"Are you there? Old Qutou!"
“Bang, bang, bang…”
"Squeak..." The door opened from the inside, and a thin old man with white hair and wearing coarse clothes poked his head out.
"What are you doing here?"
"It's you..."
"It's you..."
Chef Qu and Su Li were both stunned when they saw each other. They didn't expect to meet again.
Actually, the two of them had only met once, but both of them had deep memories of each other.
Old Man Qu still remembers the pot cakes that Su Li made last time, and Su Li also remembers the old man in front of her who asked them to have dinner together.
She hadn't expected to meet him again under such circumstances. However, Su Li looked at the old man in front of her. She remembered that he was the chef of Xiang Man Lou. Why didn't he work there? He had fallen to this state.
At this moment, Su Li suddenly remembered what the man had just said. Yes, the old man was kicked out of the restaurant because he offended someone?
"Do you two know each other?" The broker looked at the two of them and asked in confusion.
"We've met before." Chef Qu replied.
Su Li also nodded.
"Good to know you, good to know you."
"Since we all know each other, I won't waste any more time." Then, the broker told the skinny old man in front of him the purpose of his visit.
Chef Qu was stunned for a moment, then realized, "So, young lady, you are the owner of Su Ji Food Store?"
When he was in Xiangmanlou, he had heard that the braised dishes at Su Ji Food Store tasted very good. He had bought some and tried them himself, and they were indeed delicious.
He didn't expect that it was this young lady who did it, which surprised him.
"I'm not much of a boss, just a small business." Su Li replied.
"If Mr. Qu is willing to come to our restaurant, although the wages cannot be compared with your previous restaurant, but when the restaurant business is good in the future, I will definitely not let you down. I promise you."
Su Li said this shamelessly, but she actually didn't have much hope. After all, Mr. Qu used to earn about 40 taels a month in the restaurant, but she only offered him half of that. It was obvious that he would not agree.
But Su Li could only give this much at most. Any more would exceed her expectations.
"Could you please allow me some time to think about it?" Chef Qu did not agree immediately, but said that he would consider it.
Su Li naturally agreed, but she was already considering whether to look for someone else.
"Uncle Naqu, we won't bother you anymore."
"good."
"Take care."
After saying that, Su Li and the broker turned around and left.
Unexpectedly, when the two of them walked to the entrance of the alley, they met a drunk man who was staggering. The broker asked Su Li to walk inside while he walked outside, successfully avoiding a collision with the man.
"The man just now is Old Qutou's son." The broker whispered as they walked out of the alley, shaking his head in an apparent disapproval.
Su Li thought about it and realized that she had vaguely heard Chef Qu's roar behind her, as if asking why she went to drink again.
All I can say is that every family has its own problems, and Su Li doesn’t know how to comment on this.
"Thank you for today. It's hot, you can use these copper coins to buy tea." After returning to the bustling streets of the county, Su Li took out fifteen cents and handed it to the broker.
The broker didn't expect that he could get money for tea even though the job was not done. He was so happy that he almost lost his sight. He just felt that it was really comfortable to deal with this Miss Su.
"Don't worry, Miss Su. I will definitely keep an eye out for the right person for you."
Just these words were enough. Su Li smiled and said, "Thank you for your hard work, yaman."
After saying goodbye to the broker, Su Li went home.
.
The next day, Su Li met Chef Qu again at the door of the food store. Today, her family finally agreed to open the food store. Of course, in order to prevent her from getting tired, they only sold breakfast and lunch. There were other people there for breakfast, so she didn't need to knead the dough or anything like that, so Su Li could go there later.
She first had a good sleep at home, and then slowly went to the food store. When she arrived, she happened to meet Chef Qu wandering at the door.
She called out to Chef Qu, "Uncle Qu?"
Chef Qu froze, unable to leave even if he wanted to, so he could only bite the bullet and say hello, "Miss Su."
"Just call me Xiao Su."
Chef Qu said, "Xiao Su, I've thought about it. I agree to come to your restaurant to cook, but can you withdraw 100 taels of silver for me in advance?"
One hundred taels of silver? Su Li agreed without even thinking about it.
"Of course, I can, but if you're going to use this money to pay off your son's gambling debts, I cannot lend it to you, nor do I recommend you do so."
People who gamble are no longer the same as ordinary people, especially those who spend all their fortunes on gambling. It is a bottomless pit. From what she has heard, there are many people who have lost their fortunes and even their families because of gambling. So if Mr. Qu wants to pay off his son's gambling debts, she will not lend him money, and she will also persuade him not to pay him back.
"No, it's not to pay off his gambling debts." Chef Qu explained quickly.
"To get him a doctor."
"Huh?" Su Li was stunned.
At this time, Chef Qu began to explain the whole story. It turned out that yesterday, after seeing his son drunk, Chef Qu accidentally broke his head. The son bled a lot and needed money for treatment.
"Also, we're really struggling to make ends meet at home..." Chef Qu hasn't eaten meat for more than a month. He had never lived this kind of life before, but he never expected that he would have to live this kind of life when he got old.
"Okay, Mr. Qu, I can lend you this money." Su Li agreed. She would accept it as long as it wasn't to pay off gambling debts or something.
Then Su Li brought Chef Qu into the shop and took out one hundred taels of silver from the account and gave it to him.
Chef Qu took the silver and immediately wrote a promissory note to Su Li.
"Miss Su, consider this money as a loan from me. I will definitely return it in the future."
"Okay, Mr. Qu, aren't you going to the clinic? Go quickly."
"Thank you." Chef Qu turned and walked out. The morning glow reflected on the bluestone slabs, on the old man's back, and on the noisy crowd.
Su Li just watched the old man walk away before she looked away.
"Give it to him?" Chen asked as she passed by.
"I gave it to you." Su Li nodded. She had discussed the matter of borrowing money with her mother and grandmother. At first, when they heard about it, they actually did not agree and thought that Su Li was cheated by someone.
After all, no one knew Chef Qu's background, and Chef Qu was small and thin, and his clothes were tattered, so no one could connect him with Chef Xiangmanlou.
Fortunately, Chen and Su Li had met Chef Naqu when they went to the Cao family's banquet last time, so his identity could not be faked.
Then they heard that Su Li had agreed to pay the other party only half of the wages he had paid before, and their attitude softened a little, and they agreed to lend the money to the other party.
"Well, it's not easy." Chen said suddenly.
Poor parents in the world.
.
On the other side, after getting the silver, Chef Qu rushed to the clinic. His son had already woken up and the doctor was bandaging his injured head.
After Chef Qu paid the money, he came to his son and asked with concern, "Are you awake? Are you still in pain?"
However, the other party didn't buy it at all. He tilted his head and said, "There's no need for you to be so hypocritical."
Upon hearing this, Chef Qu suppressed the urge to punch someone and said, "What do you want to eat? I'll make it for you when I get home."
"I've already told you not to be so hypocritical. Can you please just leave? I'm really annoyed by you."
"I won't bother with you. Just take care of your injuries." Chef Qu couldn't bear it anymore and turned away.
He must have committed sins in this life, which is why he gave birth to such a son.
However, after he left, the man secretly looked at Chef Qu's departing back, a complex emotion flashed in his eyes, and quickly disappeared.
Chef Qu said he didn't care, but he still went back to cut a pound of meat, bought a pigeon, made a pigeon soup, and cooked a dish of sweet and sour cherry meat.
These are all the foods that my son loved to eat when he was a child, and Chef Qu remembers them all.
Sure enough, when the food was served to Qu Fu, he was stunned for a few seconds, as if he was surprised that his father would come again and still remember his favorite dishes.
This time, he didn't refuse, but picked up the chopsticks and started eating obediently.
It was still a familiar taste. Qufu seemed to have returned to the time when his mother was still alive and the three of them lived in a small house. Life was really poor at that time, but it was the happiest time in Qufu's life. His father was not so busy at that time, and he would bring him delicious food every time he came back. The relationship between the two was also very good.
But all this happiness came to an end as his father became increasingly busy. He was busy perfecting his cooking skills, working until midnight every day. It was as if he had forgotten his wife and son at home. Sometimes he didn't see them for several days. As far as he could remember, he was not even there on the day his mother died of illness...
"Eat slowly, I'm not trying to snatch the food from you." Chef Qu couldn't help but stop his son when he saw him wolfing down the food.
However, the man did not listen and stuffed the food into his mouth in big mouthfuls, as if this would make him feel better. He thought, he did nothing wrong, it was all the other party's fault, it was him who turned him into what he is now, this is his retribution.
.
At this time, in Xiangmanlou, the few people who had joined forces to drive Chef Qu away showed contemptuous expressions after learning that Chef Qu had actually gone to a snack shop.
"I was wondering where he went, but it's just a food shop. Let him go, it won't affect our restaurant business." Shopkeeper Wu said as he made a cup of tea and drank it.
"But..." Liu Laosan still couldn't help but worry. As for what he was worried about, only he knew.
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