Siheyuan: Cooking journey

He Yuzhu thanked him politely.

If a red Chinese could speak the local language fluently in Japan, it would not be difficult for him to find a good job and he would not be reduced to living in such a slum. Therefore, language became a flaw.

He remembered this principle deeply and decided to pretend that he could not understand or speak Japanese from tomorrow. "You are not from Japan, right? Are you from the Red Country or Korea?" The person in charge frowned and looked at him. At this moment, He Yuzhu was completely stunned and a little confused.

what on earth is this kind of happenings?

I thought he was a local just now, but how come I suddenly realized his identity? It's really strange.

"My ancestors came here a long time ago. I am actually of Chinese descent..."

He Yuzhu made up a story and then curiously asked the other party how he discovered that he was not Japanese.

After listening to the explanation of the person in charge, He Yuzhu was speechless.

For 1500 yuan, you can rent a private room with a key. The room is equipped with a TV and a private bathroom.

However, he had to solve the problem of bedding and other things by himself. But for He Yuzhu, this was not a problem, as he had no shortage of such items in the space he carried with him. He looked around and thought carefully about what the person in charge had just said, feeling very puzzled.

It is said that it is very easy to distinguish whether someone is a local or not. The man said with pride that in Japan, no matter how difficult the situation is, people will always use honorific language and behave respectfully towards their elders.

Well, does that mean you have to bow whenever you talk to someone? Or even three times to send someone off?

However, as a red countryman, He Yuzhu said that he could not understand such traditional customs at all. In the red country, these old etiquettes have been abandoned during the Cultural Revolution. The so-called "etiquette" is nothing more than maintaining a strict social hierarchy.

The fact that the Red Country does not have these things does not mean that it lacks civilization. The fact that these rules are still preserved in Japan only shows that the upper class still controls the general public in some form. These seemingly solemn forms actually solidify the strict social stratification system.

Etiquette should never be a form that exists only on the outside, but rather a manifestation of the entire social hierarchy. When this kind of etiquette still prevails, personal will becomes insignificant; everyone is forced to comply, and in fact accepts a kind of self-enslavement at the ideological level. The most alarming thing is that although people live in inequality under this system, they often show satisfaction and pride in their status.

What’s even more frightening is that almost everyone upholds this set of ideas unconsciously.

Why does this happen? Because everyone wants to be a part of it and be a beneficiary.

When they were young, they were subject to various restrictions. As they grew up, they needed to maintain a respectful attitude no matter who they met or what their character was. When they got older, they expected others to give them the same respect, so as to gain a superficial sense of vanity. Once they found someone breaking the rules, they would immediately stand up and criticize. They would stand on the moral high ground and point fingers, as if others had committed an unforgivable mistake.

This is just the way ordinary people interact with each other.

In a wider network of interpersonal relationships, people of each class will do their best to protect the current structure that is beneficial to themselves. This is just like the different identity groups such as emperors and nobles in ancient society. They are all human members, but why can the former enjoy a higher status? This is the result of long-term thought control.

Ten years of ups and downs have changed all the old habits.

Giving people equal opportunities, but if they don't know how to cherish them and instead want to restrict themselves, it's a bit hard to understand.

It is precisely because of Japan's special social system that certain specific ideas have the opportunity to take root.

It is lamentable that in this social environment, people actually take pride in self-oppression and regard ideological liberation as dangerous, which makes that kind of specific thought quickly eliminated without making any splash. The key to its failure does not lie in the diplomatic changes between major powers, but in the influence of these old habits and social systems that are deeply rooted in people's hearts.

Many people are satisfied with a little benefit from the upper class, and even show a dependent attitude. As long as they have food to eat, they are content to maintain their original life.

Not everyone is brave enough to spend a long decade breaking these old customs and giving people real freedom.

Japan can't do it, and neither can other capitalist countries.

I deeply felt the huge difference between Japan and the Red Country.

After He Yuzhu tidied up, he went to rest.

The next morning, he got up around five o'clock and rushed to the labor office.

At this time, there were already quite a few small vans parked there.

He Yuzhu easily found a temporary job - weeding in green spaces in the city.

Since the task was relatively easy, the salary was naturally not high, only 8,000 yen a day (equivalent to about 30 to 40 red yuan).

This is just the price agreed upon in advance. After the intermediary agency takes its commission, the actual amount you receive may be less.

After confirming the job, he went to the van and waited for departure.

Looking out of the car window, he found that although the slums had a large population, there were not many job seekers.

Moreover, there are almost no young faces among these people. Most of them are middle-aged men and there is not a single woman.

When the hands passed a quarter past six.

He Yuzhu then realized the problem. It was not that there were too few people looking for jobs here, but that he arrived too early.

Until this moment, more and more talents have gradually emerged.

Many people had expressionless faces, pale complexions, and were not dressed properly.

When looking for a job, I only choose easy job opportunities. If there is no suitable one, I will just turn around and leave.

Some friends who arrived late did not seem to regret missing the opportunity. They still looked as if it had nothing to do with them and would leave the same way they came.

Looking at this scene,

He Yuzhu suddenly remembered an old term: Sanhe God - those who can play for three days and then work for one day are considered very motivated in comparison.

The people here are not only unwilling to work, but also don't care about their living conditions. This is simply a challenge to the limits of their vitality.

Because the process was relatively simple, the minibus was quickly filled with people and left the place.

As the car slowly started to drive away,

The people gathered in the labor market not only did not disperse but became more crowded. They sat or lay down, lazing around in the morning sun.

Until the end of my sight, I watched their backs gradually fade out of my sight.

He Yuzhu couldn't help but wonder: How do these people make a living if they don't work?

Clearing weeds is actually a relatively simple task.

After arriving at the scene,

The person in charge directly arranged the respective areas and explained the responsibilities clearly: each person must finish cleaning a section of the road on the same day. In addition to weeds, they also need to pick up various sundries.

It was He Yuzhu's turn to be assigned a task about five meters long.

No gloves available only a trash bag provided.

After observing the land for a while,

I thought the morning would be enough to finish everything - after all, there aren't many weeds and dirt here, and cleaning it up would only take a few minutes.

Lunch is a free box lunch, and after eating, you wait for the next instructions.

After waiting for a long time, all that came out was empty air, and even the team leader was nowhere to be seen.

Only then did I realize that this was just the workload for the whole day.

He was very puzzled by this situation.

Then he noticed that many people were not working seriously at all. Some were lying alone in the shade of the trees taking an afternoon nap, while others were chatting together.

No one supervises, and no one cares, as if this is called "work"...

Five p.m.

The temporary workers gathered together and the minibus took everyone back to the slums again.

I provide round-trip transportation, lunch, and earn 8,000 yuan a day.

However, the agent was supposed to take three thousand, but actually only got five thousand.

Even so, the job was decent.

Compared with the average monthly salary of 1.6 million yen in Japan, it is indeed not high.

But for people living in the slums, three days of work and one day of play is more than enough to live on.

As long as you are quick with your hands and feet, you will never starve to death.

But what is surprising is that no one is fighting for such money, and people looking for jobs don’t really care whether there are vacancies. If there are vacancies, they will take them, and if not, forget it.

Is this a sign of becoming numb to life?

He Yuzhu did not pay special attention to this phenomenon.

He felt that what the Japanese did had nothing to do with him, and as a foreigner from the Red Country, there was no need for him to meddle in other people's affairs.

Most of the time, he was observing whether there were Chinese faces among the same group of people doing odd jobs.

It's hard to tell just by looking at their appearance, unless they speak.

He looked around but didn't find a clear target.

I did think of one thing.

The original intention of coming to the slums was to find people related to the Shanhai Gang. If there were other Chinese people here, the Shanhai Gang would definitely come to collect "protection fees", so there would be no need to personally serve as bait to lure them to show up.

Whenever a Chinese among these temporary workers was blackmailed, he would pretend to be an indignant young man and teach the thugs a lesson.

When the small shrimps move, the big fish will definitely show up. This is common sense in the gang circles.

After several consecutive actions, the core figure will appear sooner or later.

Then we can catch him and ask him about Huang Ruo’s whereabouts.

This is the plan that He Yuzhu has formulated.

The plan sounds simple and feasible.

But unexpectedly, when the bus stopped at the entrance of the labor office, people got off one by one. Although there were many people on the steps looking at this side, no one took the initiative to cause trouble.

Does this mean that there may be no Chinese people around?

He Yuzhu frowned, thinking about countermeasures with some reluctance.

He decided not to go to the bungalow but to stay here and bide his time.

In the morning, there are many buses transporting workers back and forth, and in the evening, those who have finished a day's hard work will return one after another.

He firmly believed that there must be someone among them who met his search criteria.

Time goes by.

As we watched buses full of returnees arrive one after another, the expected situation did not happen.

Is it true that there are no eligible people in these cars?