Records of the Cattle and Horses of Chang'an

When it comes to recruiting disciples, Jiang Shangxian and Manager Wang each have their own plans.

Cooking requires talent. You can't make truly delicious dishes by rote memorization. With the development of the modern Internet, there are countless tutorials on your phone, including text, picture, and video versions. There are even cooking machines.

Chain restaurants use fixed ingredient packages for quality control and labor efficiency reasons.

But Jiang Shangxian still felt that the dishes made in this way were soulless, and they always tasted perfunctory and had a sense of lingering on.

Whether a dish is truly delicious must depend on the spirituality of the person who makes it.

But she was not really here to take in a disciple. For her, taking in a disciple was just a condition for employment, so she only required three things: willingness to endure hardships, a down-to-earth person, and a kind heart.

There are many apprentices in Lexianlou, and most of them do odd jobs. The master chefs will not easily accept apprentices. Cooking is always a craftsman's job. It is not uncommon for the master to starve to death after teaching his apprentice. Generally, everyone will pass on this skill that can make a living to their sons.

In an agricultural society, sons are the family's labor force, while daughters are married off and bear children for other families.

But Jiang Shangxian had agreed with Manager Wang that he would take an apprentice, so she was prepared. If there was no suitable one, she would just pick someone who was honest and worked hard to learn the craft.

Shopkeeper Wang had a lot to think about. The first and foremost point was that the apprentice Jiang Shangxian accepted had to be his own person, and would not be poached by others with high salaries in the future.

Talent and hard work come second. Otherwise, if he worked so hard to train a chef, only to have him taken away by his rival, he would be furious. However, the matter of taking in disciples still depended on Jiang Shangxian's subjective will, so he asked with a hint of inquiry: "I wonder how many disciples Aunt Jiang plans to take in?"

Jiang Shangxian understood what he meant and continued, "I saw quite a few apprentices yesterday, but I wonder if they've all become my disciples?"

"No, none of the four chefs have accepted any apprentices in this building." Shopkeeper Wang was heartbroken when he mentioned this matter. These guys are too strict about their skills! No matter how he hinted or said it, those four scoundrels just refused to accept any apprentices.

In their words, none of their apprentices are smart, but it's not that they don't teach them at all. They do teach some simple and common things. As for those unique skills, although they don't mind the apprentices to learn them by themselves, if you ask any more questions, they will ignore them.

"Oh?" Jiang Shangxian didn't say much about this. It's human nature to cherish what you have, but she didn't. "I'm not familiar with those apprentices, and I don't know which one is smart. I'll take a look and if they're suitable, I'll take them in. If Shopkeeper Wang has any recommendations, you can tell me."

This remark hit the mark for Shopkeeper Wang, who immediately clapped his hands and smiled, "Aunt Jiang is truly generous. I have a nephew who is twelve years old and is also learning from us, but he's quite clumsy."

The ancients attached great importance to kinship. As long as they had relatives who could be counted, even if they had never met each other, they would still have some affection for each other. Nephews and nephews had a very close relationship, not much different from their own sons.

Jiang Shangxian raised an eyebrow. She understood that Shopkeeper Wang wanted her to take in his nephew, a relative of his direct superior, and immediately agreed: "Shopkeeper Wang's nephew must be a smart child. I'm afraid I can drink tea with Master today."

She spoke in a mature manner. She was obviously only fourteen years old, but she called a twelve-year-old a child. Shopkeeper Wang turned his head and looked at her, finding it a little funny.

However, the fourteen-year-old girl understood what he said as soon as he hinted at it. But interpersonal relationships, especially in the workplace, are just about you doing me a favor and I returning the favor, and everyone is good to me, right?

"Haha, then I would like to thank Aunt Jiang first."

Both of them walked into the kitchen with smiles on their faces. It was still early and the four chefs were not there. Only the apprentices were cleaning and tidying up, moving all kinds of ingredients in and out, and doing the preparations.

There are a total of twelve apprentices in Lexianlou. Manager Wang has a great idea. There are four master chefs, and each of them will be assigned three tasks. It won't be tiring. As long as they can learn all the skills, if the master chefs are poached in the future, he can also appeal to their emotions and offer money to keep the apprentices.

After all, apprentices are different from chefs. They have to sign a contract when entering a restaurant, and they can't get out before the term expires!

But these four master chefs are more difficult to deal with than each other. Otherwise, he would not have agreed to let Jiang Shangxian work only during the day.

"Stop what you are doing and come meet Aunt Jiang." Shopkeeper Wang raised his hand and called all twelve apprentices to him. A plump young apprentice came over first. He had a pair of clever eyes and only a slit in his eye when he smiled.

Shopkeeper Wang patted him on the shoulder and introduced him to Jiang Shangxian: "This guy is Wang Wan, the son of a certain big brother. Wulang, this is Master Jiang."

"Hello, Master Jiang. The dishes you cooked yesterday were really delicious. I scraped all the soup with a pancake and ate it!" As soon as Wang Wan opened his mouth, his voice was just like his personality, and he seemed to be full of energy.

Jiang Shangxian smiled and nodded, thinking that the fat boy might bump into the stove with his butt. "Manager Wang, is this your nephew?"

"Yes, this kid is the youngest son of an eldest brother. There are many brothers in the family and it is difficult to have enough food. His father wanted to give him the character 'bowl', hoping that he can eat a big bowl of rice every day in the future." Shopkeeper Wang obviously liked this nephew very much, and his words were very intimate.

Jiang Shangxian was also straightforward and said, "This child looks smart. If Shopkeeper Wang is willing to let him suffer, I would like to take him in as an apprentice."

"Greetings, Master!" Wang Wan, this kid, looked chubby like a steamed bun, but his brain was as smart as his eyes. He thought that Manager Wang had already told him about it, and when he heard it, he immediately knelt on the ground and kowtowed.

Jiang Shangxian was so frightened that his breathing stopped. It took great strength for him not to move his feet. He was slightly stiff for three seconds before he reacted and returned to normal.

It’s not that she is timid, but mainly because this 12-year-old boy is a bit broad and kowtows very sincerely. Every time he kowtows, he raises dust, which floats and falls on her clean pink shoes.

She resisted the urge to pull her feet back, and waited until he finished three kowtows before smiling at Shopkeeper Wang: "Then I am so arrogant as to accept this apprentice."

Shopkeeper Wang stroked his beard with a smile, and without asking him to get up, he began to lecture him: "Since Aunt Jiang is willing to take you in, you should learn from her in the future. Don't look at her young age, she is very capable. If I find out that you are disrespecting her, I will beat you up first without your father having to do anything!"

Wang Wan's broad forehead was now red, stained with a layer of black ash, but the corners of his mouth were wide open. "Boss, I know that once a teacher, always a father. Since Master has accepted me as his disciple, I will serve him well from now on and will never dare to neglect him in any way!"

Jiang Shangxian raised his eyebrows slightly when he heard this. It's not bad. The people with connections still know that they have to distinguish clearly between superiors and subordinates at work. That's fine.

The remaining eleven apprentices also gathered around, and Shopkeeper Wang said to them, "I explained everything to you last night. Once you've considered it, please speak up."

Normally, when accepting a disciple, one must first check the disciple's basic skills. After all, some disciples are too stupid and it would be embarrassing to accept them as disciples.

Fortunately, her son's approach to accepting disciples is a little different now. He doesn't expect the disciples to serve him for a long time. He just wants them to be obedient, well-behaved and able to serve him in Lexian Tower.

The apprentices all hung their heads and no one moved for a long time. Jiang Shangxian didn't show it on her face, but she was wondering in her heart, this shouldn't be right, is it possible that on her first day, no one took the initiative to look at her?

Then, her friendly and cordial workplace interaction with Shopkeeper Wang just now was originally meant to do Shopkeeper Wang a favor, but now, doesn't she have to turn around and thank Shopkeeper Wang for not letting her get away with it?

Shopkeeper Wang's smile faded little by little. He stared at their faces one by one and was about to open his mouth to scold them when he heard someone speak.

"Master Jiang, I, I want to be your disciple!"