Chapter 220: Work More and Work Less
Translator: Xiong Guoqi Editor: DesTheSloth
People were hurrying to and fro at noon in Yuan Zhou's bustling restaurant.
"Wu Hai, I heard you are going to hold an art exhibition?" Ling Hong had some common topics with Wu Hai sometimes.
"After a week." Wu Hai drank a gulp of the seaweed soup.
"Then why are you still here?" Ling Hong showed an expression of contempt.
"It's none of your business," Wu Hai said seriously while stroking his small mustache.
"If you are gone, I can come every day," Ling Hong also said primly.
"Ok," Wu Hai answered with a nod, but still didn't mention when he would leave.
However, Zheng Jiawei who set out beforehand last night had already urged him.
The reason why Wu Hai still stayed was very simple. He hadn't learned how to cook well. Naturally, the standard was measured according to Yuan Zhou's criteria.
"Boss Yuan, you still owe me half a day." After gulping down the remaining dishes, Wu Hai looked at Yuan Zhou earnestly.
"Got it. Let's continue this afternoon. You just buy the ingredients and get them prepared," Yuan Zhou thought for a while and then accepted.
"Is it still the vegetable dish?" Wu Hai frowned.
"Do you still expect to learn cooking a meat dish?" Yuan Zhou questioned him back immodestly.
"Alright," Yuan Zhou shrugged, indicating that he understood.
When they had barely finished talking, some customers finished their meals and left. Then, another few customers entered the main hall. Two of them were considered regular customers. One was the salesman Ma Wei, who worked under Wu Anlu. And the other was likewise a young man with a good-looking face. They were talking happily.
"Pang Chao, the dishes here are truly appetizing. It’s just that the price is a little expensive. You have to pay by yourself," Ma Wei pointed at the price list and then said.
"I really can’t tell that such a small restaurant surprisingly serves such expensive dishes," the young man called Pang Chao had a lingering fear when he looked at the price list.
"No better choice. The dishes are super delicious," Ma Wei dragged Pang Chao to sit down and asked him what he wanted to eat after he himself ordered a serving of Egg Fried Rice.
"Me, too. The Egg Fried Rice," Pang Chao said to Mu Xiaoyun politely.
Having finished ordering the dishes, the two of them began to chat. Ma Wei didn’t seem to be happy. As soon as he opened his mouth, he complained.
"You are new, so you don’t know. That old tortoise is fairly troublesome. You had better be careful," Ma Wei said to Pang Chao in a seemingly serious manner.
"What's the matter?" Pang Chao tilted his head and listened to Ma Wei earnestly. As a newcomer, it would be better to follow the experience and instructions of his senior co-worker.
"We are just a salesman whose job is to get orders of decoration projects for the company. It's totally unnecessary for us to know about the materials. But the old tortoise lets us learn the materials by heart and, moreover, takes that into our performance measurement. His ridiculous excuse is to save money for the customers," once he started uttering, he couldn't just stop it, like a Gatling gun firing continuously.
"I guess we might get repeat orders if we endeavor to save money for the customers," having hesitated for a while, Pang Chao still spoke that out.
"I don't believe in repeat orders. Formerly when I accepted an order from others, those decoration companies all fawned on me. But right now, they complain that I don't help them and hate me as if I were their enemy." While waving his hand, Ma Wei revealed an expression of "You don't understand".
"But when the achievement of the company is better, our salary also increases, doesn't it?" Pang Chao disagreed with Ma Wei, but it was not good to retort him face to face. Therefore, he.had only to utter some advantages to smooth things over.
"I totally attribute it to the old tortoise looking for trouble. Now I can even recite much information about the decorative materials. As soon as I see the materials like wallpaper or floor tiles, I began to calculate the prices subconsciously. How funny it is," instead of appreciating the kindness of his superiors, he complained indignantly.
"Such a salesman as you might as well retire earlier. After you have learned the knowledge from your teacher, you unexpectedly blame him," Wu Hai suddenly said to Ma Wei with a frown.
"Well..." Ma Wei was a little embarrassed. After all, he not only back bit his superior but also gave him an awkward nickname.
"I'm sorry but I'm just saying it casually. It has nothing to do with you and of course I am not talking to you," Wu Hai took a look at Ma Wei quite discontentedly and then said straightforwardly.
After saying that, he directly walked out of the restaurant, giving Ma Wei no time to retort.
Wu Hai had drunk liquor together with Wu Anlu for quite a few times. His thought was to cultivate his own staff and enable them to undertake the tasks alone as a chief in the future.
The slang of "regarding a goodwill as a malice" well applied to Wu Anlu, who was cursed by one of his staff behind his back.
Many people looked down upon seniors as they thought they were old-fashioned and inflexible. However, if the principles included gratitude in return, the young really should learn from the seniors.
Passing by the door, Wu Hai saw the only rule hanging outside the restaurant by chance. This sign was nevertheless the voiceless communication between two persons that had never talked with each other.
Wu Hai looked at the sign and then at Ma Wei who was talking ceaselessly in the restaurant and headed back to his art studio after a smile of contempt.
Because his versatile broker Zheng Jiawei had left, Wu Hai had only to buy the vegetables personally. However, as an artist, he naturally didn't find any difficulty in doing such trifles such as buying vegetables.
Therefore, Yuan Zhou saw some strange raw dishes that were packed together when he went to his room in the afternoon.
"What are you going to do by buying the asparagus and broccoli and putting them together?" Yuan Zhou pointed at the two different vegetables and then asked him curiously.
Yuan Zhou indicated that he was really just curious. It definitely wasn’t because he wanted to choke this mentally retarded guy to death.
"Asparagus Soup and Stir-Fried Broccoli," Wu Hai answered wittily.
"Alright. Then what do you say about this?" Yuan Zhou asked him while pointing at a big bunch of coriander.
"It’s very fresh. See, there’s even the soil on the root," Wu Hai stroked his small mustache and said earnestly.
"It’s indeed fresh. You can just eat it raw tonight then," Yuan Zhou also said with a quite earnest tone.
"No, not necessary. Isn’t it used to season the dishes?" Wu Hai indicated that he knew about it.
"Ho Ho. Let me teach you the last two dishes. You learn attentively," Yuan Zhou was too lazy to talk nonsense to Wu Hai, therefore he pointed at the coriander and said.
"Are you making the soup with the asparagus?" Wu Hai said with curiosity.
"Humm," Yuan Zhou nodded the head.
"That’s good," Wu Hai nodded with relief. Actually, he really didn’t know it was called asparagus when he bought it. He just felt the vegetable looked good and was fresh, hence bought it.
Freshness mattered the most to the vegetables. That was apparently known by Wu Hai.
As a grandmaster of culinary skills, Yuan Zhou was definitely adhering to the principle of "never demonstrating by hand if oral instructions could solve the problem" when he instructed Wu Hai.
It was good that Yuan Zhou had used artful methods to correct Wu Hai’s awareness of colors; therefore he needn’t worry that Wu Hai would add the dyestuff to adjust the colors impulsively when he cooked a single vegetable dish.
"What’s edible in the asparagus are only the 1cm part on the top and the 1.5cm part in the middle. Get rid of all the remaining parts," Yuan Zhou started to instruct Wu Hai to process the vegetables.
"Add some garlic to sauce the dish. You can only crush the garlic with the knife, but not to cut it. Otherwise, the taste will be affected," Yuan Zhou told him some tips every time he instructed Wu Hai to cook something. It was only Wu Hai who didn’t care about these tips because he was a painter. If it were another chef, he would surely bring some notebook with him to take notes.
While Yuan Zhou was teaching Wu Hai to cook over here, Jiang Changxi was making a call on the other side.
"Master Bai, aren’t you working today?" Jiang Changxi didn’t see the cab that she took usually when she got out of the restaurant.
"Hey, it’s Little Jiang. I drank some wine today and hence didn’t go to work." From the other end of the phone came the voice of Master Bai, which showed that he was quite happy.
"You are so happy." Jiang Chang asked curiously.
"Yeah, absolutely. My wife allowed me to go to Fang Family Pub to drink some wine with the old friends. The taste of the wine was so marvelous," Master Bai said while continuously recollecting the aftertaste.
"How can the wine of Fang Family Pub compare with Boss Yuan’s liquor? Let me treat you to a cup some other day," Jiang Changxi said smilingly.
"Next time," Master Bai answered smilingly.
"What? Are you afraid of your wife blaming you?" Jiang Changxi joked.
"Aha. Let’s talk about it when it’s available." Just by smelling the liquor, he understood how good the one served in Yuan Zhou’s restaurant was. Of course, he wanted to have a try.
"Ok, talk to you later," after saying that, Jiang Changxi hung off the phone.
"This drunkard doesn’t even earn money in order to drink," Jiang Changxi shook her head with a smile and then took another cab without thinking of anything.
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