Courtyard House: New Life, New Silly Zhu

What dish should I make?

This is the first problem a chef needs to consider, but it's also easy to solve at this point.

First of all, there should be more meat dishes. At this time, those leaders didn't care about healthy eating or anything like that.

Secondly, we need to consider where those leaders come from.

Therefore, Hunan cuisine is a must, and Shandong cuisine from Beijing should be prepared even more.

What do leaders eat? They eat to save face. At this time, eating Shandong cuisine is the way to save face, as it's the top of the eight major cuisines. Therefore, He Yuzhu had to cook some Shandong dishes.

However, we must also consider that some leaders may not be used to the food, so Sichuan cuisine must also be included.

After ordering the eight dishes and one soup, He Yuzhu wrote a note and handed it to the canteen manager.

The canteen manager glanced at it casually, signed it, and told He Yuzhu to go to the small storeroom to find ingredients.

At this point, there were no workers left in the canteen.

He Yuzhu didn't keep anyone with him at that time, so now he has to handle the ingredients and prepare the dishes himself.

It was still early, and the leaders hadn't finished their meeting yet. He Yuzhu began to slowly process the ingredients.

The most important of these is Shandong cuisine, which emphasizes simmering broth. But there wasn't time to make broth at that moment, so we could only choose two simple dishes to save face for the leaders without causing them unnecessary trouble.

With Director Zhang's reminder, He Yuzhu began his culinary journey.

Turn on the heat, pour in the oil, and start stir-frying.

Finally, He Yuzhu, as the head chef, also had to act as a waiter, carrying dishes into the private rooms.

However, He Yuzhu also left two lunchboxes of food. Today, he was also planning to come up with an idea so that he could bring some food openly and legitimately.

After leaving the food, He Yuzhu, as usual, cooked a pot of hangover soup.

Sure enough, not long after, the cafeteria manager walked over, drunk again.

He Yuzhu didn't say anything, but ladled out a bowl of soup and handed it to the canteen director.

The cafeteria manager didn't stand on ceremony this time either, and took a big gulp of the drink.

"Zhu Zi, it's so good to have you in the cafeteria," the cafeteria manager couldn't help but praise.

"Director, I'm glad you're satisfied. By the way, Director, how's it inside? Are the leaders eating well?"

"Was it alright? It was absolutely fantastic. Especially the leader we entertained today, he ate so deliciously!"

"That's fine, as long as the leader is satisfied."

"Oh, right, Director." He Yuzhu pretended to remember something, ran into the kitchen, and took out two lunch boxes.

"Director, I was worried you'd had too much to drink and hadn't eaten much, so I prepared two lunchboxes."

The cafeteria manager looked at the two lunchboxes He Yuzhu took out, smiled, and waved his hand.

"Zhu Zi, no need, I've had enough to drink and can't eat anymore, you can take it with you."

The cafeteria manager paused for a moment, thought for a moment, and then spoke to He Yuzhu.

"Zhu Zi, today's situation is different from yesterday's. Today we're entertaining those leaders, so it doesn't count as overtime," the cafeteria manager said, glancing at He Yuzhu's expression and finding him still the same, before continuing.

"So, after thinking about it, Zhu Zi, if cooking for others doesn't count as overtime, then you can take two lunchboxes home as your overtime pay. What do you think?"

"Of course, thank you, Director." He Yuzhu originally just wanted the cafeteria director to keep one lunchbox for him.

Unexpectedly, there were some positive results, although it's not bad considering the overtime hours.

However, he also knew that this would be acceptable if it were for entertaining foreign guests. But entertaining high-ranking officials was a different story. So he was quite satisfied with having two lunchboxes.

"Okay, that's settled then. Zhu Zi, you can go home now, right? The leaders in the private room have almost finished eating. As for the tables, just leave them to clean up."

"Okay, thank you, Director. I'll head out now," He Yuzhu said, then packed his things and prepared to go home.

As for who would take care of the mess, He Yuzhu knew without even thinking that it would definitely be the secretaries of those leaders.

Of course, all the secretaries were male; female secretaries weren't popular at that time.

Walking down the street, He Yuzhu glanced at the sky, unsure of the time. Perhaps he should buy a watch sometime, otherwise he'd be living in a daze, losing track of time. However, it seemed that pocket watches were more popular among time travelers than wristwatches.

He Yuzhu, lost in thought, soon returned to the courtyard house.

When He Yuzhu opened the courtyard gate and didn't see Yan Bugui, he felt a little empty inside.

I feel like I'm really a bit pathetic.

"Brother, you're back? Are you working overtime again today?" He Yushui noticed that her brother had been staying to work overtime for two days in a row.

"The factory is treating us to a meal today, so your brother cooked a special meal for us again." After saying that, He Yuzhu shook the lunchbox he was holding.

This time, He Yushui didn't answer; she just looked at He Yuzhu with some concern.

"Don't worry, Rain Water. The cafeteria manager has already said that this lunchbox will be paid as overtime pay for me," He Yuzhu explained.

Seeing his younger sister like this, He Yuzhu sighed.

Perhaps it was the influence of the past few years that made this girl exceptionally sensitive, afraid of doing something wrong and causing her family's life to return to its previous state.

"Rain, don't worry. Our family won't be like that anymore. Life will only get better and better. Right now, all I want is for you to study hard and hopefully get into a vocational school." He Yuzhu said sincerely.

It wasn't just his inner thoughts, but also because he knew that He Yushui was a vocational school student in the TV series.

The reason for saying this again now is to reinforce He Yushui's inner thoughts.

It would be troublesome if He Yushui, who has her brother's help, suddenly decided to take the college entrance exam.

"Okay, brother, I understand. I promise you, I will definitely get into a vocational school." He Yushui looked at her brother with red eyes and made a promise to him.

He Yuzhu smiled and placed the lunchbox on the table.

"What did you eat for dinner?"

"I cooked some porridge, brother, I'll bring it over now." After saying that, He Yushui ran to bring the porridge over.

It was cornmeal porridge, yellow and very thick, but unfortunately He Yuzhu didn't like it.

After all, at this time, the corn noodles contained too many impurities and didn't taste very good.

"Come on, Yushui, eat more. Let's try to eat more and get back in shape. Look how thin you are now." He Yuzhu said, handing the porridge that had been served to him to He Yushui.

Seeing her brother's actions, He Yushui was deeply moved, and tears streamed down her face.

She fought back the urge to cry. She drank her porridge and ate the dishes her brother brought back, taking each bite slowly.

He Yuzhu was very satisfied. He decided to bring some steamed buns to the canteen next time and replace all the coarse grains at home with refined grains.