Courtyard House: The Chef's Intelligence System

After chatting for a few minutes, Yi Zhonghai headed towards the Intermediate People's Court, while his wife went to pick up the money.

At this moment, the deaf old woman waved to Li Jiuzhou and said:

"Grandpa, help me back to my room, I have something to tell you."

Despite his doubts, Li Jiuzhou happily agreed.

"Okay, let's go, take it easy, old man."

Li Jiuzhou helped the deaf old woman back to the backyard.

Actually, this old lady doesn't need anyone to help her. She doesn't look old at all, but she has a very pretentious posture.

After entering the house, the old lady poured Li Jiuzhou a glass of water.

"Grandma, please tell me what's on your mind." Li Jiuzhou was also straightforward and spoke his mind directly when he had questions.

"What's the rush? Wait a minute." The old lady glared at him, then turned and took a wooden box from the bedside table.

After opening it, he took out ten silver dollars and handed them to Li Jiuzhou, saying:

"Hey kid, could you run an errand for me and give this ten silver dollars to your master? Tell him to cook me a dish every day and bring it back to me tonight."

"I won't prepare the dishes, but they must be meat dishes, and they must be made by your chef himself."

"Don't worry, you'll get your share of the benefits; we'll talk about it later."

"Hahaha, you are this one!" Li Jiuzhou laughed and gave the old lady a thumbs up.

The deaf old woman also smiled:

"My legs are weak and I can't run, and I'm not in good spirits either."

"At my age, I don't have much to gain, I just want to eat something good."

"No problem, I'll take care of it for you." Li Jiuzhou agreed; it was just a small favor.

As for why he contacted himself instead of He Yuzhu, he didn't think much about it.

He took the old lady's money and went back to his room.

The next morning, as usual, I went to work at Fengzeyuan with He Yuzhu.

As He Yuzhu was leaving, he was very happy and smiled at Li Jiuzhou while pushing the cart:

"Senior brother, today is payday, are you happy?"

"My fellow apprentice and I joined Fengzeyuan around the same time. You were five days short and I was seven days short of completing a month's work, but Manager Luan said he would pay us a month's salary."

"Manager Luan is a generous and open-minded man. He truly deserves to be the manager of Fengzeyuan Restaurant."

Upon hearing this, Li Jiuzhou smiled; he was naturally happy on payday.

This is my first time getting paid since I came into this world, it's something to look forward to!

This money is all hard-earned, and it has a different meaning from windfall gains.

He patted He Yuzhu on the shoulder and laughed, "Here's what we'll do. After I get my salary, I'll ask the purchasing manager at the garden to see what meat and vegetables they have, and we'll buy some to take home and treat ourselves."

"This is great, I love it, hahaha." He Yuzhu was very happy, and he rode off on his bike.

Little did they know that Jia Dongxu, who was about to leave, overheard their conversation.

The kid was incredibly envious. He spat in the direction the two had left, muttering curses as he did so.

However, Jia Dongxu had a wicked idea in mind; he wanted to get some money from He Yuzhu to spend.

Jia Dongxu thought that He Yuzhu, that stupid idiot, could be easily fooled by a few words.

Having made up his mind, Jia Dongxu sauntered out the door.

When Li Jiuzhou and He Yuzhu arrived at Fengzeyuan, they saw a group of apprentices in the kitchen, all looking energetic and smiling. It was obvious that they all knew they would be getting paid today.

These apprentices can be said to be very lucky.

According to the rules, restaurants pay wages to the apprentices trained by the head chef because they actually did work, and the work they did was not simple.

For restaurants, you get paid for the work you do.

However, the rules within the Qinxing branch are different.

The master collects the apprentices' wages and saves them for them, then gives them all to the apprentices once they graduate.

Or it could be used as an emergency measure when the apprentice's family is struggling financially.

This is also because they are afraid their apprentices won't be able to control their spending and will squander money.

Being a master isn't easy either; they worry themselves sick over their apprentices.

There's no way around it; an apprentice is like half a son. You have to treat him well when it's time to treat him well. It's a two-way street.

But times have changed. It's still a chaotic era, and many people can't get enough to eat.

Apprentices like them, aged fourteen or fifteen, were already capable of being the main servants in poor families.

I didn't get a penny when I came to work as an apprentice at the restaurant. My family might not say anything, but they would inevitably complain in their hearts.

So Li Tielong and the others simply stopped taking their apprentices' wages and collected them themselves, since they had their own household expenses.

When it was 10:30, after all the chefs had come to work, Li Jiuzhou went to find his master.

He recounted the matter entrusted to him by the deaf old woman.

Li Tielong said with a smile:

"Hehe, this old lady is still just as greedy as ever."

"No problem, I'll cook a meat dish before I leave work tonight, you can just take it home with you."

"Master, what was this old lady's status before? She looks different from us." Li Jiuzhou asked the question that had been bothering him.

Li Tielong didn't hide it either:

"I used to be a concubine in wealthy families. My husband and I often went to their houses to cook, so we were quite familiar with her."

"Later, the old lady's husband passed away, and the family separated."

"The old lady moved to the current courtyard."

"The old lady doesn't have any children, and no one to take care of her or anything?" Li Jiuzhou continued to ask.

Li Tielong rolled his eyes at him:

"Why not? She has two daughters, who got married early and I heard they went to the south."

"And what about the Jia family in your courtyard, and the Yi family too?"

"I used to be the one serving the old lady."

"As for the current situation, I don't know either."

"Oh..." Li Jiuzhou nodded meaningfully, indicating that he understood somewhat.

Li Tielong patted his apprentice on the shoulder:

"Don't overthink it. The old lady isn't a bad person, she's just a bit greedy. You'll get some benefits if you run errands for her, hehe."

"Okay, Master, I'll get back to work now."

Back in the kitchen chopping vegetables, Li Jiuzhou thought to himself, "The courtyard house I transmigrated into seems pretty normal, doesn't it?"

The deaf old woman wasn't some kind of bad element, the Jia family seemed normal, and the Yi family was normal except for not having children.

The Ho family seems to be living a very happy life now!

The Liu family in the backyard didn't really discipline their child, probably because Liu Guangtian was too young and not mischievous enough.

The Xu family is very happy, eating fish and meat every day. All the neighbors in the courtyard know that they are wealthy.

There's still no news from the Yan family.

Li Jiuzhou thought this was fine; it was perfectly normal for neighbors to bicker occasionally.

This is the essence of everyday life in the countryside.

The kitchen was so busy at noon that they didn't have time to eat lunch until 2 p.m., when they took a break.

The happiest thing after lunch is getting paid.

Li Jiuzhou was as happy as a child, holding the 12 silver dollars.

He Yuzhu held the eight silver dollars in his hand and shed tears.

"Brother, I've never seen so much money in my life," He Yuzhu said to Li Jiuzhou with a smile.

Li Jiuzhou looked at him suspiciously and said:

"No way, your father, my uncle, never let you see money?"

Upon hearing this, He Yuzhu's smiling face turned into one of anger:

"Don't mention that old man, my dad. When I was a kid, I stole a silver dollar from him to buy some snacks for my sister."

"Good heavens, he beat me up so badly, I still remember it to this day. He hid the money in the house very well, never letting me see it, afraid that I would steal his money."

Li Jiuzhou's face showed disdain:

"You're such a good brother and son. I don't think Rainwater just wants some snacks, do you?"

"How much rain did it get a few years ago? Just admit you're greedy. Making your sister take the blame isn't manly at all. I don't even want to talk to you about it."

Seeing that his lie had been exposed by his senior brother, He Yuzhu looked ashamed and quickly tried to explain:

"I...I'm just young, I have a sweet tooth, is that not allowed..."

"Ugh, I'm not talking to you anymore, senior brother. You're too talkative. We just don't get along."

After finishing his sentence, He Yuzhu turned and left.

you...

Li Jiuzhou was both amused and exasperated. "Damn it, I'm a chatterbox?"

Aren't you the one who's more stubborn?