Courtyard House: My Wife is Xu Huizhen

During his workdays, He Yuzhu observed the kitchen and learned that his mentor, Hong Henian, did not hold a high position in the kitchen.

You have to understand that wherever there are people, there are factions and cliques, even in a kitchen.

Head chef Zhang Zusheng specializes in Beijing and Shandong cuisine and has trained several apprentices. It can be said that most of the kitchen staff are his apprentices.

The remaining two are Hong Henian, who is skilled in Sichuan cuisine, and Miao Qishan, who is skilled in Huaiyang cuisine.

The two men each had an apprentice who served as the second cook, and they shared a single cooking stove.

Zhang Yong is a relative of the head chef Zhang Zusheng. His cooking skills are not good, far inferior to the other apprentices, so he was not appointed as the second chef. However, his knife skills are good, so he has been working as a knife chef ever since.

He Yuzhu knew that his side was weak and that he would not benefit from arguing with Zhang Yong in the end.

If you accept someone's meal, you're bound to be subject to their control. Besides, I'm just an apprentice who's only been working here for a few days. It wouldn't be wise to offend Zhang Yong.

Seeing that He Yuzhu's attitude had softened, Zhang Yong was somewhat smug: "As an apprentice, you have to be serious and not take shortcuts. Taifeng Restaurant doesn't need those kinds of opportunistic scoundrels."

"You...you're going too far." He Yuzhu originally wanted to settle things peacefully, but what the other party said was a bit excessive.

What I could easily clean by simply using chopsticks to trim the cucumber was transformed into a derogatory term in his mouth.

"What do you mean 'what ...

At this moment, Zhang Jing'an came over and said, "What's all the noise about?"

Zhang Jing'an is Zhang Zusheng's son. He has already completed his apprenticeship and is a kitchen worker.

Zhang Yong quickly complained, "Brother An, look at him, he even cheated by using chopsticks to cut a cucumber. I told him a couple of times, but he wouldn't listen."

"How did they cheat?" Zhang Jing'an hadn't been paying attention to what was happening here.

Zhang Yong embellished the story, thinking that Zhang Jing'an would help him criticize He Yuzhu for cheating.

But Zhang Jing'an said, "Alright, it's not a big deal. But if you want to improve your knife skills in the future, you can't take shortcuts like this."

The last sentence was said to He Yuzhu, which shows that Zhang Jing'an is quite reasonable.

This was just a minor incident, but Zhang Yong kept this in mind and assigned some difficult-to-cut parts to He Yuzhu, and even ordered He Yuzhu to do some dirty and tiring work.

Even Xu Huizhen noticed it and said at noon, "How did you offend Zhang Yong?"

He Yuzhu recounted what had happened that morning, and then said, "Who knew he would be so petty and dislike me?"

Xu Huizhen smiled first, then said, "Serves you right. Who told you to bully me before? Now it's your turn to bully you."

He Yuzhu took out a piece of candy, shook it, and said, "You still remember this even now? Looks like I'll have to eat this candy myself."

Xu Huizhen snorted, reached out and grabbed the candy, then stuffed it directly into her mouth, her eyes narrowing into crescent moons.

"I will remember it for the rest of my life if you bully me."

Although her words were somewhat harsh, they didn't come out of heartlessness coming from Xu Huizhen's mouth. He Yuzhu knew she was just joking.

After saying that, Xu Huizhen offered a few words of comfort, telling He Yuzhu to learn to swallow his anger, since one has to bow one's head when under someone else's roof.

Moreover, the other party's knife skills were also very good, better than He Yuzhu's.

"Alright, you're not trying to comfort me, you're just trying to hurt me."

He Yuzhu also had his own thoughts. If Zhang Yong continued to target him in this ambiguous way, then he shouldn't blame her for being impolite.

Yesterday, when Yi Zhonghai was cooking, I added salt to his dish, which suddenly made He Yuzhu see the light.

Although 10 meters is not a long distance, it allows you to do more things.

Without having to lift a finger, you can just add some seasonings to someone else's pot—it's such a convenient and covert way to get revenge on those who bully you.

Unfortunately, Zhang Yong, like himself, was just a knife skill and couldn't retaliate in this way, so he had to think of another method.

The restaurant is exceptionally busy in the morning, preparing all the necessary ingredients for the day. By two or three o'clock in the afternoon, the kitchen is much less busy.

Hong Henian would also give He Yuzhu a few pointers in the afternoon, fulfilling his responsibility as a mentor.

Today was the same. He taught me the techniques of cutting half a cucumber and personally demonstrated how to cut a cucumber into a thin, crisp shape. He said, "Don't worry about what happened this morning. Right now, you need to practice more. Come on, cut one and let me see."

Of course, He Yuzhu couldn't tell his master that he was planning to take revenge, so he obediently agreed.

Then I took a cucumber and tried to cut it without using chopsticks as a guide, but unfortunately it broke off when I cut about 1/3 of the way through.

"It's alright, I just need to practice for a while longer."

Hong Henian nodded. Although He Yuzhu had cut it, he was a little impatient and his rhythm was a bit chaotic. If he had slowed down after a few cuts, it would have been much better.

Then point out the problems and ask He Yuzhu to continue practicing.

After watching for a while, he confirmed that He Yuzhu's skill level had improved significantly since he first arrived, and nodded secretly, acknowledging this apprentice.

Wang Song, who was standing nearby, said, "Master Hong, can you teach me too?"

"You? You're always chopping vegetables, slacking off and not putting in any effort. You still can't even cut the vegetables evenly. Get the vegetables cut evenly first, then we can talk about other things."

Wang Song followed someone else's path and didn't apprentice under any chef. He was just an ordinary helper, and the vegetables he cut were only so-so, so there was no way to teach him.

Hong Henian watched for a while, then said to He Yuzhu, "You've made great progress. I'll teach you how to stir-fry later."

He Yuzhu was overjoyed and said with a smile, "Thank you, Master."

Chapter 23 Rent a House

Knife skills are fundamental, but no matter how well you practice, you're still just a chopping board chef.

The most important thing for a chef is skill on the stove; the most direct result is that the food they cook is fragrant and delicious.

Moreover, for He Yuzhu, Hong Henian's willingness to teach him stir-fry techniques also indicates that he has accepted this apprentice and is beginning the next stage of teaching.

Before liberation, there was a tradition of three years of learning and two years of service for apprentices. Generally, the first year of an apprenticeship was spent doing manual labor at the master's house. After assessing their character, they would start to be taught some skills in the second year.

Hong Henian originally wanted to conduct further investigations, but plans can't keep up with changes.

After He Daqing ran away, He Yuzhu took on the responsibility of supporting the family and taking care of his younger sister.

An ordinary person might have been discouraged and given up, but He Yuzhu worked hard and saw technological progress every day, while also taking good care of his younger sister.

Based on this, it seems there's no problem with his character or his basic cooking skills. So Hong Henian decided to teach him some cooking techniques in advance, so he could learn the skills of a chef a day earlier and transition from an apprentice to a full-fledged chef in the kitchen.

When it was time to cook again, Hong Henian would call He Yuzhu to the stove. He Yuzhu would first do the prep work, helping to put the vegetables on plates and place them aside.

Then Hong Henian started cooking, and incidentally taught the key points of stir-frying.

What He Yuzhu didn't notice was that Zhang Yong, who was not far away, was casting a resentful glance at him.

Zhang Yong had wanted to become a chef specializing in stir-fries, but he lacked talent in this area. His dishes were only average in taste. They might be acceptable in a small, ordinary restaurant, but Taifenglou is one of the eight famous restaurants in Beijing, where every dish must be excellent in color, aroma, and taste.

Zhang Yong's skills were not up to par, so he could only work as a knife-making master for a long time.

Having just reprimanded He Yuzhu that morning, she was immediately summoned by Hong Henian to learn how to cook. A sense of resentment welled up inside her.

Before he knew it, it was time to leave work. He Yuzhu bought a few candied hawthorns on his way home.

Upon entering the Intermediate People's Court, He Yushui saw the skewer and ran over immediately. He Yuzhu then handed her a string of candied hawthorns.

He Yushui, who was initially angry, suddenly smiled and happily took the food.

"Has anyone been bullying you?"

He Yushui shook her head without replying; her little mouth was already stuffed with hawthorns.

He Yuzhu asked a couple more questions to confirm that no one was bullying him before he let it go.

She had offended Xu Damao and Jia Dongxu, and was always afraid that they would take the opportunity to bully Xiaoyushui. Fortunately, that did not happen.

Just as he was about to lead He Yushui into the house, he saw three people coming out of the west wing. Besides Yi Zhonghai and Jia Dongxu, two familiar faces, there was another person he didn't recognize.

After the three of them came out, they stood in the middle courtyard pointing at the house, clearly indicating that something was about to happen.

He Yuzhu let the rainwater go inside and play by itself, while he stayed outside to listen to their conversation.

After listening to a few words, I understood. It turned out that he was a bricklayer, and the three of them were discussing the renovation of Jia Dongxu's house.

Before leaving, Tian Xiu clearly told Jia Dongxu that she was not satisfied with the house. Jia Dongxu went back to his mother and, since it was a big deal about his marriage, Jia Zhangshi gritted her teeth and nodded in agreement, willing to pay for the renovation of the house.

To make amends, Yi Zhonghai contacted the construction team and invited them over today to see how to fix the house.

Jia Dongxu's eyes lit up, and suddenly an idea struck him. He called out, "He Yuzhu, come here for a moment. I have something to tell you."

He Yuzhu was a little surprised that Jia Dongxu was being so polite, but he still took a few more steps to come up to him and ask, "What is it?"

Jia Dongxu said, "I want to discuss something with you. You see, I'm about to start repairing my house, and I need to move all my things out."

"Stop, don't say anymore. I won't lend you these three rooms."

If you listen carefully to what he says, you'll know that he's up to borrowing the house again.

Given the nature of this fake decoration, I knew that once I lent it out, there was absolutely no chance of it being returned, so I simply refused.

Jia Dongxu replied, "I don't want to borrow your three rooms."

"So what do you want to do?"

Jia Dongxu said, "Look, you two siblings have four rooms. Could you vacate the east wing room so I can put some furniture there? I'll move back in once the house is repaired."

It turned out that Jia Dongxu had this idea: since they were unwilling to lend the three main rooms, he would ask to borrow the one on the east side.

Currently, He Yuzhu and He Yushui are both living in the main house, leaving the east room empty. Jia Dongxu wants to borrow it for now, even if the broken furniture takes up space in the house once it's repaired.

Jia Dongxu had already planned it all out: he would not show up himself, but would have his mother deal with He Yuzhu.