1984: Starting from a bankrupt Sichuan restaurant

Chapter 362 Two Kinds of People Can't Sleep in the Same Bed (Combined)

"You must have taken a lot of photos today, right? I could hear you snapping away so many times the shutter was practically smoking," Lin Zhiqiang said, hanging his bag on the rack by the door as he watched Meng Anhe fiddling with her camera as she entered.

"Yes, all the film has been shot. There should be quite a few good photos. I'll go to Chengdu in a couple of days to develop the photos and buy a few more rolls of film while I'm at it." Meng Anhe nodded with a smile. "That's great. I'll take a few photos back to my sister so she can see how our Yaoyao is making her way in the world."

"Take a photo of Zhou Yan receiving the award back to Lao Xia," Lin Zhiqiang said with a mischievous grin.

“I’ll definitely wash that one.” Meng Anhe grinned mischievously.

"Brother, why are Mom and Dad laughing so mischievously?" Lin Bingwen asked in a low voice.

"My deskmate said that you can't have two kinds of people sleeping in the same bed," Lin Jingxing said calmly.

"Huh? Why would your deskmate say that to you?" Lin Bingwen asked, puzzled.

Lin Jingxing said with a serious expression, "Because our math teacher and the dean of the academic affairs office slept in the same bed, they were really ruthless towards us. They would hit our palms with bamboo sticks, and it hurt a lot."

"You're talking about your mother behind her back? Go do your homework!" Meng Anhe walked over and scolded with a smile.

"Okay!" the two replied and ran to get their schoolbags.

"Your factory is really generous this year; the prize for best program is a tape recorder," Meng Anhe said with a smile as she changed out of her pajamas.

"This tape recorder was originally intended for the model team, as they would use it during their training. But unexpectedly, Yao Yao snatched the Best Performance award with her rendition of 'The Moon Represents My Heart.'" Lin Zhiqiang laughed heartily. "There's nothing we can do. She really sang well, and the stage effects were top-notch. The workers have discerning eyes. If we don't award the Best Performance award to Yao Yao today, we won't be able to hold any more cultural performances in the future."

"Well, there's nothing we can do about it. Our Yaoyao is beautiful and talented. She's been the arts and culture representative since she was little. Drawing on the blackboard and singing are a piece of cake for her," Meng Anhe said proudly.

"Tell me, do you have some skills you don't know about behind my back?" Lin Zhiqiang asked with a smile after washing up and changing his clothes.

“Come on, I do have another skill you haven’t seen yet.” Meng Anhe pulled him toward the bedroom.

"Hey, wait a minute, I suddenly remembered I still have a work report to write." Lin Zhiqiang quickly grabbed the door frame.

"Come on, you've already told the factory manager you're resigning, what work report do you have left to write?" Meng Anhe dragged him into the bedroom and slammed the door shut.

"Hmm?" Lin Bingwen and Lin Jingxing turned around at the same time, looking in the direction of the bedroom with a puzzled expression.

The door reopened, and Meng Anhe came out, looking at the two of them with a serious expression. She said, "Lin Jingxing, after you finish your homework, check your brother's homework, then take him to wash up and go to bed, understand?"

"Oh." Lin Jingxing nodded, then looked up at Meng Anhe: "Mom, what about my homework?"

Meng Anhe said, "Take your homework to school tomorrow and let the teacher check it. I'm not a teacher, I don't want to check your homework."

Lin Jingxing shook his head: "Mom~~ please help me check it, our math teacher is really ruthless, I'm scared!"

“If you’re scared, then write more carefully. You didn’t even read the question and just wrote whatever came to mind. I feel like punching you too. Your dad and I are tired, so let’s get some rest early tonight and don’t bother us.” After saying that, Meng Anhe turned and went into the bedroom.

Ten minutes later, Lin Zhiqiang came out.

"Huh? Dad, weren't you asleep?" Lin Jingxing looked at him in confusion.

Lin Zhiqiang, with his hands behind his back, coughed twice: "Ahem, your mom asked me to come and supervise your homework. She said she's worried you'll be cold at night, so she asked me to sleep with you tonight."

"Really?" Both children tilted their heads and looked at him.

"Stop talking nonsense! Otherwise I'll beat you up too!" Lin Zhiqiang said seriously.

"Dad, what are we having for dinner tomorrow?"

"Beef with Pork Knuckles".

"what?"

"Porridge with pickled radish!"

……

"Teacher Zhou, I'll get up at 4:30 tomorrow morning to help you. I want to learn how to make steamed buns," Zeng Anrong said to Zhou Yan as she put down her book and walked over.

“Okay, as long as you can get up, you can come directly to the kitchen.” Zhou Yan nodded.

He quite liked Zeng Anrong's personality; she was very open about wanting to learn. Since he had decided to take her on as a disciple, he would definitely teach her well.

"Awei, do you want to learn?" Zhou Yan asked, looking at Awei who was playing chess with Old Zhou.

"It's too cold, I'll wait until summer to learn!" Awei said without turning his head.

Zhou Yan shook his head with a smile, thinking that this guy really didn't want to suffer at all.

"Brother, what's a radio cassette player?" Zhou Momo asked curiously as she ate the sunflower seeds Zhou Yan had peeled for her.

“It’s a square box that can sing,” Zhou Yan said.

"Wow! That's amazing!" Zhou Momo's eyes widened. "Then... can we keep one as a pet?"

"Buying a radio cassette player is not as good as buying a TV," Aunt Zhao said as she changed her clothes and came downstairs.

"A TV is fine too!" the little guy nodded.

Zhou Yan nodded: "Okay, when I have some free time, I'll go to the department store to look at TVs and buy one for our home so we can watch the Spring Festival Gala during the New Year."

Electrical appliances are the most expensive things in this era.

It's quite common these days for a family to save up for two years to buy a television.

If any family in the village bought a TV, it would be like a movie theater every night. The area in front of the TV would always be packed with people, who would watch the news broadcast with great interest.

A 14-inch black and white TV costs over 400 yuan, while imported color TVs can cost over 1,000 yuan.

Zhou Yan was planning to buy a TV, but he hadn't decided whether to buy a black and white TV first or just go straight for a color TV to make it more comfortable to watch.

Having been cleansed by 4K ultra-high resolution, my eyes simply can't accept the noise-filled black and white TV.

But when it came to repairing the house, the thought of buying an imported large-screen TV made me hesitate, so the matter was put on hold for the time being.

"Zhou Yan, do we still take on catering services regularly? I think we still do. The guests today all said it was good and were quite satisfied," Aunt Zhao asked, looking at him.

Zhou Yan thought for a moment and said, "You can still make reservations on weekdays, but we don't accept reservations on Sundays. On weekdays, we can only take a maximum of five tables, and we mainly cater to individual customers."

“Okay.” Aunt Zhao nodded.

“Master Zhou, if there’s overtime pay, I can work on Sundays too.” Awei turned around and looked at Zhou Yan seriously, saying, “Normally, Sunday is the peak season for banquet bookings! Given how popular our restaurant is right now, we can probably take in 10 to 20 tables on Sundays.”

“I can do that too,” Zeng Anrong said.

Aunt Zhao and Comrade Zhou also looked at Zhou Yan with the same opinion. If they could sell 10 to 20 tables a day and also sell more braised meat, that would be a profit of two to three hundred.

“I can’t. I need to rest one day a week.” Zhou Yan shook his head decisively and said with a smile, “You can never earn all the money in the world. You have to leave some for others to earn.”

"Are you afraid of ruining the state-run restaurants?" Awei asked.

"I'm going to be a groomsman this Sunday! I need to have some time for life outside of work," Zhou Yan said helplessly.

"Damn, who's so crazy as to ask you to be their best man? Aren't they afraid the bride will change her mind?" Awei said, somewhat incredulously.

"Ah Wei, although I feel a little good hearing you say that, it's still a bit too much," Zhou Yan laughed. Lu Chuan's bride doesn't need to worry, she's already pregnant.

"Why don't you go buy some new clothes when you have some free time these next couple of days? It's a classmate's wedding, and a lot of old classmates will be there, so dress presentably," Aunt Zhao said, looking at him.

"I'm fine like this. I'm the best man, not the groom. I can't exactly wear a suit, can I?" Zhou Yan patted his corduroy jacket, quite satisfied.

Aunt Zhao smiled and said, "When the New Year comes, I'll buy you and your son each a leather jacket to wear."

Zhou Yan waved his hand: "Mom, I'm only twenty, not old enough to wear a leather jacket."

“You don’t understand. Wearing a leather jacket makes you look smart and respectable,” Aunt Zhao laughed. “Look how stylish Yao Yao is. Every outfit she wears is so well coordinated. It’s not appropriate for you to wear this to every important occasion.”

"Hey bro, do you want to borrow my little leather jacket?" Zhou Momo asked him, pointing to the little leather jacket she was wearing.

"Come on, change your clothes to wash your feet, don't get them dirty." The next second, her little leather jacket had been replaced by Aunt Zhao's floral jacket that had been taken downstairs.

Zhou Yan admitted that a high-quality leather jacket does look good, but it doesn't quite match the old-fashioned leather jackets hanging in department stores.

However, Aunt Zhao's words made sense; one should respect clothes before respecting the person, a principle he understood. He could go to the department store sometime and pick out another outfit for himself, like a coat, so he would look more presentable standing next to Xia Yao.

……

The next morning at 4:40, Zhou Yan got up and came downstairs. Zeng Anrong was already leaning against the counter with a book, quietly reading aloud.

"Teacher Zhou, you're up." Hearing footsteps, Zeng Anrong put down her book and smiled.

"Xiao Zeng, what time did you get up? Did you get up specifically for early reading?" Zhou Yan looked at her with some surprise. In the middle of winter, every minute she could stay in her warm bed was precious.

"I woke up at 4:20, and I've only been up for a little while. I had nothing to do, so I thought I'd read through the key points and important information in the book. My mind is clear and my memory is good in the morning." Zeng Anrong was a little embarrassed: "Did I disturb Professor Zhou?"

"Your reading voice is softer than a mosquito's buzz, how could it possibly disturb anything?" Zhou Yan smiled. "You do so much work during the day, and it's so cold in the morning, you're quite something, getting up at four o'clock."

Zeng Anrong said confidently, "I do much less work than Zhou Shi. If you can get up, so can I. Women can hold up half the sky."

“That makes sense. I was just being naive.” Zhou Yan took off his apron from the wall and turned to walk into the kitchen. “Weigh the flour first. We need forty catties of flour to make six hundred buns today. Then boil a pot of water. I’m going to brush my teeth and wash my face.”

"Okay." Zeng Anrong replied, tied on her apron, and followed her into the kitchen.

When Zhou Yan finished washing up and came in, Zeng Anrong had already weighed out the flour into four enamel basins, each weighing ten jin (5 kg), and the water in the pot was starting to steam.

Zhou Yan nodded slightly. This was the advantage of being a skilled cook; they could execute anything perfectly.

"Now that the flour is weighed, let's start kneading it. The standard ratio of flour to water is two to one, which means ten pounds of flour to five pounds of water. This water container is a standard one-liter size; I usually use it as a measuring cup. In winter, the weather is cold, and fermentation is too slow, so we use warm water to knead the dough. The water temperature should be warm but not hot to the touch; if it exceeds forty degrees Celsius, the yeast will be killed..."

As Zhou Yan explained, he demonstrated it to Zeng Anrong.

Zeng Anrong listened attentively and took careful notes, especially the water ratio and temperature, recording everything in detail.

"After mastering the water ratio and temperature, kneading the dough is both physically demanding and technically challenging. Whether the dough is kneaded well and whether the resulting buns are soft and fluffy depends heavily on this step. The standard is simple: a clean bowl, clean hands, and a clean dough indicate it's ready..."

After demonstrating three pots, Zhou Yan wiped his hands and stood aside, looking at Zeng Anrong and saying, "Little Zeng, you do the last pot."

"Me?" Zeng Anrong was somewhat shocked. This was her first time kneading dough, and Master Zhou trusted her so much.

Zhou Yan nodded: "Yes, just follow what I just said step by step. I will watch from the side. Learning by doing is the fastest way to improve."

“Okay!” Zeng Anrong did not refuse. She put the notebook and pen aside, washed her hands, and started by adjusting the water temperature and mixing the yeast.

Zhou Yan watched the whole process, and even reached out to check the water temperature when testing it.

During the kneading and mixing of the dough, Zhou Yan only offered a few pointers.

Soon, a smooth and round dough appeared in the enamel basin, the basin, the hands, and the dough were all shiny, meeting the standards.

Zeng Anrong took a half step back, waiting nervously for Zhou Yan's judgment.

Zhou Yan nodded slightly and said, "The final product is not bad. It was not bad for the first time. However, you still need to practice kneading dough. You need to learn to use skillful force instead of brute force. You need to coordinate your waist and body movements to better apply your strength to the dough instead of struggling against the enamel basin and the table."

"I understand." Zeng Anrong nodded and breathed a sigh of relief.

Chef Zhou has such a good temper; he didn't utter a single swear word throughout the entire process, which is almost unbelievable in the kitchen.

In the restaurant where she used to work, the head chefs were lenient with their insults; if anything displeased her, they would come at her with a ladle.

"It's too cold in winter, and I don't want to get up in the middle of the night to knead dough, so I set up a fermentation cabinet with stoves on both sides. By controlling the temperature, I can keep the temperature of the fermentation cabinet at around 35 degrees Celsius. This way, the dough can ferment completely in just one and a half hours." Zhou Yan picked up the enamel basin and walked towards the warming cabinet next to him, explaining to Zeng Anrong as he did so.

"So this is a warming cabinet! Teacher Zhou, you're a genius!" Zeng Anrong exclaimed in surprise.

Her previous restaurant also made steamed buns. In winter, the chef had to come to work at 3 a.m. to knead the dough, which was undoubtedly hard work.

Zhou Yan said, "The warming cabinet is useful, but the temperature needs to be controlled well. If it gets too hot, exceeding 40 degrees Celsius, it will kill the yeast and ruin the dough. I'll go to the department store in a couple of days to see if they have a suitable thermometer, which will make temperature control more intuitive."

“Okay.” Zeng Anrong nodded and took out her notebook to jot down a couple of notes.

As soon as the dough was ready, there was a knock at the door. Zhou Yan walked toward the door and said to Zeng Anrong, "At five o'clock, the knife maker, Zhang Laosan, will bring the pork we need for today to the shop. First, stir-fry the bean sprout and pork filling and let it cool, then start chopping the fresh pork filling."

After peeking through the crack in the door, Zhou Yan opened it. Zhang Laosan and his son had already pulled the oil cloth off the tricycle.

"Uncle Zhang, Auntie didn't come today," Zhou Yan said with a smile, glancing at Zhang Laosan's eldest son.

He looked to be in his early twenties, and resembled Zhang Laosan a lot. He was in good shape, and the knife maker's family was well-off.

“Yes, starting today, Zhang Shun will be running around with me.” Zhang Laosan said with a smile, “Shunzi, call out to your brother Yan.”

“Zhou Yan is three months younger than me.” Zhang Shun muttered softly, though he couldn’t quite bring himself to say it.

Zhang Laosan kicked his foot, "Just call me brother, stop talking so much nonsense!"

"Brother Yan..." Zhang Shun immediately forgot about those three months and called out to him smoothly.

"Hey, Shunzi." Zhou Yan nodded with a smile.

Zhang Shun: "..."

"Or you can just call me Zhang Shun."

“Sure, Zhang Shun.” Zhou Yan nodded. “Give me a hand. Put the pig’s head in these two buckets by the door, and move the pork to the kitchen. There are a few basins over by the sink.”

"Okay," Zhang Shun replied, and began to move the meat.

"Is Uncle Zhang preparing to train a successor?" Zhou Yan said with a smile.

“What’s the point of having a knife maker as a successor? Let him learn a trade so he can have something to eat in the future.” Old Zhang smiled and said, “Shunzi doesn’t have your ability or eloquence, but as long as he can do something practical, I’ll be satisfied.”

He took out a cigarette, lit it, and leaned against the tricycle handlebars, watching Zhang Shun move the meat. Behind the drifting smoke, a smile of satisfaction appeared on his face, which already had wrinkles at the corners of his eyes.

Zhou Yan handed the money to Zhang Laosan, who counted it, wrote a receipt for Zhou Yan, and looked at Zeng Anrong standing to the side, saying, "Is this the new chef?"

“Yes, the chef is new, a head chef from Qingshen Restaurant.” Zhou Yan nodded.

Zhang Laosan's gaze towards Zeng Anrong immediately changed: "Wow! Your restaurant is full of hidden talents."

Zeng Anrong's mouth moved, but she held back from speaking, though she straightened her back a bit, and felt even warmer inside.

A head chef, not an apprentice! This was the respect Master Zhou showed her in front of outsiders.

"Old man, all done moving." Zhang Shun came out, a thin layer of sweat on his forehead, and said with a smile.

"Alright, Mr. Zhou, we'll head back now," said Zhang Laosan, getting into the back of the tricycle.

"Okay, take care." Zhou Yan nodded, watching Zhang Shun pedal the tricycle, pulling Zhang Laosan away into the distance.

"Slow down! I'm about to shake it all off!"

"Don't worry, old man, my skills are excellent!"

Zhou Yan smiled, turned around, and went into the shop.

Chopping meat is a piece of cake for Zeng Anrong; she wields double knives even better than Zhou Yan.

Zhou Yan calmly chopped the bean sprouts, immediately halving the workload.

This disciple is acceptable!

"To make the stir-fried minced pork with pickled mustard greens fragrant, you first need to stir-fry the pickled mustard greens to remove their moisture. This way, the oil from the stir-fried pork can penetrate the pickled mustard greens, resulting in a moist, crisp, and tender texture that tastes delicious." Zhou Yan didn't hold back, and he directly taught Zeng Anrong how to make the filling for the stir-fried minced pork with pickled mustard greens. How much she could learn and when she could master the skill depended on Zeng Anrong's comprehension and ability.

Once she has mastered the skill, Zhou Yan can get up at six o'clock.

What a simple wish.

After stir-frying the bean sprouts and minced meat, Zhou Yan started mixing the dough for the noodles and began stir-frying the noodle toppings and meat sauce.

"Sister Zeng, you're really up and kneading dough? You're way too early!" Awei appeared at the kitchen door and said to Zeng Anrong, who was kneading dough.

"Yes, I've learned a lot from Master Zhou." Zeng Anrong nodded with a smile, feeling that she had gained a lot this morning.

"Sigh, it's so cold, you've really something." Ah Wei went into the kitchen and took out his two knives. "Where's my minced meat?"

(End of this chapter)