Siheyuan: He Yuzhu since 1958

"Zhuzi!" The next morning, He Yuzhu had just stepped into the canteen kitchen door when Sister Hu called him. He Yuzhu asked, "Sister Hu, is there anything wrong?!"

Sister Hu hesitated for a moment and said, "Zhu Zi, I want to discuss something with you. Can you lend me some food coupons?!"

He Yuzhu didn't even think about it and asked, "How much do you want to borrow?!"

Sister Hu gritted her teeth and said, "Ten kilograms! Just coarse grain coupons will do!"

Without thinking, He Yuzhu reached into his pocket and took out a stack of tickets. He found a ten-jin coarse grain ticket and handed it to Sister Hu, saying, "Sister Hu, take it! Don't be in a hurry to return it! If it's not enough, I have more here."

Sister Hu took the ticket and asked curiously, "Zhu Zi, where did you get so many tickets?!"

He Yuzhu replied, "Where else can it come from? Of course I earned it. I took some private jobs during my break. According to the rules, in addition to paying me, they also had to bring me four dishes, two of which were meat dishes. Now that everyone is having a hard time, I don't want the dishes. I asked them for some tickets. If they gave me cigarette tickets, wine bottles or snack tickets, I wouldn't take their money."

Master Yang heard what He Yuzhu said and asked, "Zhuzi, do you have a bicycle ticket?!"

He Yuzhu replied, "Yes! I cooked for a few leaders some time ago. They gave me two." Then he asked, "Lao Yang, do you want one?!"

Master Yang said, "My eldest son has a girlfriend."

"Okay! That's easy!" He Yuzhu took out two bicycle tickets and asked, "Do you want Fei Ge or Yongjiu?!"

Master Yang replied, "Flying pigeon."

He Yuzhu handed the Fei Ge bicycle ticket to Master Yang. Master Yang asked, "Zhuzi, how much is it? I'll give it to you."

He Yuzhu replied: "How vulgar is it to ask for money?! If you have any extra bills at home, just give me two. But I have to tell you, if your son gets married, there must be wedding candy and cigarettes!"

Master Yang said, "Zhu Zi, don't use the ticket to exchange. I have a jar of old Fenjiu at home. I'll trade it with you. What do you think?!"

"Okay!" He Yuzhu responded, and asked with a smile: "Are you willing to give it up?!"

Master Yang said, "You, He Yuzhu, are so straightforward, why should I be reluctant?! I'll bring the wine to you tomorrow!"

"Okay!" He Yuzhu stuffed the ticket directly into Master Yang's hand and reminded him, "Master Yang, the ticket is only valid for two months. If you want to buy it, buy it as soon as possible!"

"Zhu Zi!" Just then Gao Yao walked in from outside.

He Yuzhu asked: "Director, what is the task today?!"

Gao Yao smiled and said, "Zhu Zi, our factory has no tasks today. But who made you famous?! The leaders of the printing factory and the auto repair shop next door came to inspect today. Their canteens are too small and the chefs' skills are not good. So they thought of our factory."

He Yuzhu said: "Director, I'll take this job. But they have to provide their own ingredients."

Gao Yao smiled and said, "Okay! I'll go talk to the factory manager right away."

"Wait!" He Yuzhu called out to Gao Yao.

Gao Yao asked: "Zhu Zi, what else?!"

He Yuzhu replied: "Director, please find a few people to clean up the room at the back. Let our factory leaders eat there at noon!"

Gao Yao instantly understood what He Yuzhu meant. He gave He Yuzhu a thumbs up and said, "Okay! I'll ask someone to arrange it later." After that, Gao Yao happily left the kitchen.

After Gao Yao left, Master Yang said, "Zhu Zi, isn't this a bad idea?!"

He Yuzhu replied, "There's nothing wrong with it! They must have brought a lot of food. They can't finish it, and neither can our leaders. We can eat the rest ourselves. If anything goes wrong, the factory leaders will take the blame. We can rest assured. But the food the workers eat can't have any problems. Otherwise, we'll be in trouble."

A little after ten o'clock in the morning, Gao Yao led his men into the kitchen with two large sacks of things. After they put the things down and left, Gao Yao said, "Zhu Zi, the things are all here. Including us, there are three tables in total. Do you think these things are enough?!"

He Yuzhu opened the sack and looked at it, then said, "That's enough!" Then he asked, "Do they have any dietary restrictions?!"

Gao Yao replied: "There is nothing to avoid! I heard that the head of the printing factory is from Huizhou, and the head of the auto repair shop is from Shandong Province."

He Yuzhu looked at the dishes in the sack carefully again and said, "Let's do this. I'll cook Anhui cuisine at the printing factory and Shandong cuisine at the auto repair shop. We have fewer dishes here, so we'll eat whatever the two families eat."

Gao Yao asked worriedly, "Zhu Zi, will this work?!"

He Yuzhu replied: "Don't worry! I promise to do it beautifully."

"Okay! It's up to you! I don't care. I'll ask someone to clean up the back room now." After saying that, Gao Yao left.

He Yuzhu opened the sack, sorted the ingredients inside, and then began to process the ingredients in order.

A little after eleven o'clock in the afternoon, Gao Yao walked into the kitchen again. He glanced at the dishes on the table next to him, and then walked to He Yuzhu's side. He Yuzhu, who was flipping the pot, glanced at Gao Yao and asked, "They are here?!"

Gao Yao replied: "Coming!"

He Yuzhu said, "Since you're here, let's serve the dishes! The square plates are for the printing factory, the round plates are for the auto repair shop. The enamel basin belongs to our factory leader. The other dishes will be ready in 20 minutes at most."

"Okay! I'll have someone deliver the dishes right away!" After that, Gao Yao called three kitchen helpers to deliver the dishes in order to the restaurant in the back which was specially used to entertain guests.

"Zhuzi!" It was a little after 11:30 in the afternoon, and all the dishes were out of the pot and delivered. He Yuzhu had just found a place to sit down, and before he had time to catch his breath, Gao Yao came again.

He Yuzhu heard the call and asked, "Director, why don't you go to eat?!"

Gao Yao said excitedly: "Zhu Zi, you have done a great job!"

He Yuzhu was slightly stunned and said, "What kind of achievement can I make as a cook?!"

Gao Yao said: "More than half of the cars in our factory fleet are broken down. We asked the repair shop to come and fix them, but they couldn't fix them. Today, the director of the auto repair shop asked our factory fleet to send all the cars over to work overtime to help our factory repair and maintain them."

He Yuzhu said: "This is a good thing! But what does it have to do with me?!"

Gao Yao said: "If it wasn't for the dishes you cooked, and they enjoyed the meal, would they agree?! But from now on, you will be busy!"

He Yuzhu said, "It's okay to be busy. But Director, they brought a lot of food. What should we do with it?!"

Gao Yao thought for a moment and said, "Send the ones that can be stored to the small warehouse. As for the ones that can't be stored, cook them and eat them!"

He Yuzhu rolled his eyes and said, "Director, please bring two lunch boxes over later. Also, I'll take two hours off this afternoon to run something."

Gao Yao understood what He Yuzhu meant when he asked him to bring the lunch box. As for He Yuzhu's request for leave, Gao Yao approved it straightforwardly.

After Gao Yao left, He Yuzhu said, "Did everyone hear what the director said just now?!"

"I heard it!" Everyone responded in unison. He Yuzhu said, "Since you heard it, why are you still standing there? Send the live chickens and ducks and dry goods to the small warehouse. Everyone, help clean up the rest, I'll do it later."

Master Han opened the sack, took out the remaining live chickens, ducks and dried goods, and said, "Zhu Zi, there is still so much meat. What are you going to do?!"

He Yuzhu walked over and looked at the remaining meat, and said, "This amount of meat is not enough for everyone to eat if we make braised pork. How about this! Cut it all into shredded meat, and I'll make a pure meat dish of shredded pork with fish flavor. For the rest, I'll make a vegetable version of a hotpot."

After hearing what He Yuzhu said, everyone in the cafeteria smiled brightly. No matter what, their families would be able to eat meat today.

After the people from the printing factory and the auto repair shop left, He Yuzhu started cooking. He stir-fried the shredded pork first. After taking out the shredded pork, he stewed the vegetables with the remaining oil in the pot. After the stew was done, He Yuzhu took out the vegetables and stir-fried the shredded pork with fish flavor. After packing the two lunch boxes of the canteen director, He Yuzhu took some shredded pork with fish flavor and vegetables, took two steamed buns and went to the side to eat. As for the others, he didn't care. Let Master Yang and Master Han help them divide the dishes!