Siheyuan's Journey Through the Ages

Chapter 13 The Helpful Stupid Pillar

On the way back, Ma Qing and Wu Guoren seemed to be thinking about something, and no one spoke. They came to the gate of the courtyard in a dull manner. Wu Guoren was about to speak, but Ma Qing imitated Chief Zhao's style and put his hand directly on Wu Guoren's shoulder: "Don't talk, listen to me, Uncle Wu, this is the last time I call you Uncle Wu, you are my father's biological brother, after so many years of personal exchanges, you teamed up with your gang to set a trap for me, your conscience has been eaten by dogs.

Don't think I'm young and don't know anything. I won't fall for this. Eating, drinking, playing cards, and having women accompany you are all ways to trap me. Go back and tell your brother Zhou that you and I are not the same kind of people. I don't want to live like you. If you bother me again, I will report it to the police. Also, if he dares to retaliate, I will take it. As long as he doesn't kill me, I will never let him go."

"I will tell my relatives, friends, classmates and teachers what happened today. If something happens to me, you will be the first one to be caught. Finally, I will give you a piece of advice. If you live like this, there will be no tomorrow. Think about it yourself."

Without waiting for Wu Guoren to explain, Ma Qing turned around and walked towards Niu Zhenhua's house. Wu Guoren stood there for a while, sighed helplessly, and could only turn around and go back to tell his dear Brother Zhou that things were ruined.

Regardless of how Brother Zhou reacted after hearing Wu Guoren's reply, Ma Qing was bragging to Niu Zhenhua and Yan Shengli at this time, telling his two childhood friends what happened this afternoon with exaggeration. Unexpectedly, Niu Zhenhua was particularly interested in the milk sandwich biscuits that Ma Qing was eating, and kept asking him whether the biscuits were big and whether the filling was soft, looking down on him.

As it was almost time for dinner, Ma Qing said goodbye to his friends and planned to solve the problem of meal tickets first.

Ma Qing came to a canteen, and didn't know who to look for for a moment, so he ran to the back kitchen to see if Sha Zhu was there. As a result, this kid was holding a cigarette and chatting with others in the back of the kitchen, so he walked up to him and said, "Brother Zhu, you are still working today."

"Ma Qing, you came early for dinner today."

"No, you need a meal ticket to eat. I haven't changed it yet. I came earlier to change it."

"That won't work. Today is Labor Day, and those guys in the logistics department are on holiday. We cooks have to cook for the working people on Labor Day. You can't exchange for meal tickets, so you can use mine first. Let me make it clear, you have to return it to me. Food is expensive now, and my family is short of food."

"Okay, just wait and see. As the saying goes, if you borrow, you must return. It won't be difficult to borrow again. But then again, do you still need meal tickets to eat in the kitchen? Otherwise, why would you exchange them for meal tickets?" Ma Qing said as he picked up a two-liang meal ticket and a vegetarian dish ticket from He Yuzhu's hand.

"You're talking nonsense. Do you think this is a few years ago? The head of the logistics department has already held a meeting with us and established a bunch of new rules. The loss is now controlled to single digits. I'm a fucking cook. Now I have to do math before cooking."

"Then I'll go get some food first and see you later."

"Okay, go ahead. I'll stay here for a while. This big pot of food needs a cook."

Ma Qing arrived at the dining area of ​​the cafeteria. There was a queue at the food window. Most of the people there were young workers. They were holding all kinds of lunch boxes, bowls and chopsticks, and lined up playfully, full of energy.

Ma Qing looked out the window and saw a small blackboard hanging above the food counter, which said today's offerings were three meat dishes and three vegetarian dishes. Some readers would surely say, "Haha, you are an ignorant boy. In this day and age, you still want three meat dishes and three vegetarian dishes. Why don't you write a full banquet?"

The person who said this is too young and has only a limited understanding of this era. Let me first give you some basic information about the canteen of the steel mill. As a large factory with 6 people, the steel mill has a total of 500 canteens, and each canteen provides breakfast, lunch, dinner and even overtime meals for workers on average. The staff in the canteen work in shifts. For example, today is May Day, and Sha Zhu still has to come to work.

Someone must have said that there are only 3000 people eating here. Isn't it a large factory with 2 employees? In fact, the reason is very simple. Red Star Factory has a -hour lunch break at noon. Most of the employees go home to eat. Excluding those who bring their own lunch boxes, the only people who eat in the cafeteria all year round are single employees who are not from BJ, dual-income families without parents to support them, and employees who live in BJ but are too far from the factory, etc., which account for about % of the total number of employees. These people eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the cafeteria.

In this way, it is not surprising that the daily menu consists of three meat dishes and three vegetarian dishes, because the employees who eat in the canteen will exchange their food coupons, oil coupons, and meat coupons for canteen meal coupons at the beginning of each month. Let's talk about meat and vegetables. At the beginning of the month, the factory logistics department receives meat coupons submitted by employees. For example, 500 people exchanged for 500 kilograms of meat and vegetable coupons. Then divide this 30 by 16.6 days, and make an average of kilograms of meat and vegetables every day, which is also convenient for purchasing from the meat company. Because meat coupons are valid for the current month, experienced kitchens will make more at the beginning and end of the month, and less in the middle of the month, but generally speaking, they will make an average.

This is why being a cook is said to be lucrative. If you eat vegetarian food every day, there is no profit at all in being a cook.

Many novels I have read say that people in a factory can only eat meat on one day. In fact, this is quite unreasonable and illogical. All the people in a factory go to the canteen to eat meat on a fixed day. How much meat must the canteen purchase at once and how does the meat processing plant arrange it?

What if someone from the factory happens to be on a business trip and misses it, or takes a leave and doesn't go to work, or happens to be sick at home? I can only eat meat once or twice a month, so I would be devastated.

It was Ma Qing's turn. Ma Qing looked into the window and saw three washbasins-sized meat dishes and three large bathtubs-sized vegetarian dishes. Ma Qing's mouth was full of oil from his lunch, so he just had two taels of rice and some stir-fried cabbage with peppers to get by.

Ma Qing sat in the noisy cafeteria, mostly surrounded by young workers who ate and boasted, talking about everything. Ma Qing had a sense of superiority as a prophet. Looking at the most miserable generation in China in a hundred years, his heart was full of emotion: he grew up in war as a child, lived in hunger as a teenager, developed in turmoil as a young adult, encountered reform and layoffs in middle age, and encountered the new coronavirus in old age.

This is not just a funny plot where you hear the principal say when you enter school as a freshman in junior high school that you will clean public health this year, and you will clean public health on the second day of next year, and you will clean public health on the third day of the year after that. It is a real story that happened to their generation. It is their generation's hard work that has created the glory of the Republic in the new century. It is because they have laid a solid foundation that China can break out of this cruel world.

After finishing his meal, Ma Qing planned to say hello to He Yuzhu and then go home. After all, someone had just helped him, so he should still show some courtesy and not fail to do the job.

When I got to the back door of the kitchen, I saw He Yuzhu and a group of colleagues holding their bowls and bragging, "Master He, you said that the Sichuan cuisine you cook has such a strong flavor. Is it because Sichuan is poor? The poor people cook with such a strong flavor to go with the rice. I heard from others that the food from poor places all has a strong flavor."

"Bullshit, which idiot is talking nonsense?" Sha Zhu, who is good at Sichuan cuisine, naturally couldn't stand it. Denigrating Sichuan cuisine is equivalent to denigrating his craftsmanship, which is equivalent to denigrating him as a person.

(End of this chapter)