Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 54 Sister Jin

It was lunchtime, and the kitchen was quite busy.

This is considered the main entrance to the kitchen. Inside the kitchen, there is a sloping passageway leading directly to the ground for carrying goods. However, at noon, the sunlight can barely shine in, and even that little bit of sunlight makes the kitchen less gloomy.

The kitchen was large, nearly a hundred square meters. Along the street-facing wall was a row of stoves, which were now belching flames. Five or six people were busy around the stoves, frying, boiling, stewing, and stir-frying. Each person was wearing a white chef's uniform and had a blackened white towel draped over their shoulder, which was used from time to time to wipe the sweat off their faces.

Two meters away from the stove, there was a row of steel counters with six or seven wooden stools on them. Three or four girls stood beside the stools, constantly chopping with knives. Next to the stools was a row of plates. The girls arranged the chopped food on the plates, and a handyman immediately brought them to the stove. The chef neatly flipped the cooked dishes onto an empty plate on the other side of the steel counter. The handyman picked it up and ran to the far end of the kitchen, where there was a small lift. The food was placed in the lift, a bell was pressed, and the server lifted the food up and delivered it to the table.

There were five or six chefs, three or four kitchen helpers, and the most numerous were the general helpers, numbering as many as seven or eight. They were also the busiest, washing vegetables, mincing garlic, chopping ginger, cutting scallions, scrubbing pots and pans, serving dishes, moving goods, collecting garbage, and cleaning up the site. They were constantly being called upon by the chefs and kitchen helpers and had to run around.

There was a screen at the back of the kitchen. Xiao Wei was looking for Li Na, so he asked a handyman. The handyman pointed to the screen and ran away.

Xiao Wei and Xia Maosheng watched the busy chefs carefully navigating the clutter as they walked along the slippery floor. Passing the screen, they found the interior quite clean. Against the wall stood a folding bed, and next to the screen was an old desk. A clean-cut, chubby man in his early thirties, dressed in a neat chef's uniform, sat there with a smug expression.

Li Na stood by the desk, her hips resting on it, holding a notebook in her hand, talking to the man.

Xiao Wei and Xia Maosheng walked over, and Li Na turned around and saw Xiao Wei, saying, "Why are you two coming down here? This is our head chef, Brother Liu. Chef Liu, this is a student from the culinary training class, this is Zhang Wei, a local, and this is Xia Maosheng from Beipiao. What brings you two here?"

Xiao Wei and Xia Maosheng called out to Brother Liu. Xiao Wei said to Li Na, "I need you to get some brooms, trash cans, mops, and ashtrays. That room looks like a pigsty now. It's getting colder and colder. If we close the doors and windows, I'm afraid something might happen. It wouldn't be good if someone got sick."

Li Na said, "You two beat someone up last night, didn't you? I went upstairs this morning and there was blood everywhere. You two are too ruthless. What's the big deal?"

Xiao Wei was a little embarrassed. He scratched his head and said, "He started it by swearing. I just told him not to smoke indoors and not to throw cigarette butts on the floor. He started swearing again and even tried to hit me. What's the point of keeping him around if I don't teach him a lesson? There were so many people watching. If I don't intimidate him this time, how will I manage things in the future?"

Brother Liu stood up and said, "You guys keep chatting, I'll go take a look."

Li Na said, "I've told you what happened, don't mess up tonight." Brother Liu waved his hand nonchalantly (pretentiously), then walked towards the stove with his hands behind his back, his rubber boots making a splashing sound as he stepped on the puddles.

The kitchen is bigger, so it's much quieter inside.

Li Na closed her notebook, straightened up, turned and sat down in a chair, asking Xiao Wei, "Is this all you wanted to talk to me about?"

Xiao Wei nodded, exclaimed "Ah!", and looked at Li Na.

Li Na said, "Everything's here, I'll get it for you in a bit. Oh, by the way, you two are just coming down. You'll start your internships next week, where do you two want to go?"

Xiao Wei looked at Xia Maosheng and said to Li Na, "I don't know either. Where should I go? What kind of internships are there?"

Xia Maosheng said, "Let's just stay here. It's close, except for chopping vegetables. Watching the lessons is quite far from the stove."

Li Na nodded and said, "Yeah, chopping vegetables and meat, but I think Zhang Wei, you should chop some scallions first, hahaha." Xia Maosheng also laughed. He was the only person in the chef class who had never chopped any vegetables, and his reputation was extraordinary.

Xiao Wei turned his head and looked at the busy laborers over there, who were working themselves to the bone. After a few glances, he sighed and said, "Let them cut it. What difference does it make what they cut? I don't believe it. Just you wait and see."

Xia Maosheng held up two fingers and said, "Two months, right? I'm waiting. A bet's a bet."

Li Na asked, "What two months?"

Xia Maosheng then recounted the bet, and Li Na covered her mouth with her notebook, laughing so hard she almost fell over. After laughing for a while, she said, "Come on, Zhang Wei, I'll bet too. I bet a hot pot meal, are you in?"

Xiao Wei licked his lips and said, "Of course I'll take it! I've never tried it before, I want to see it for myself."

Li Na tilted her head mischievously and looked at Xiao Wei, asking, "Where are you from? I don't think you're from Fengtian."

Xiao Wei said, "That's not true. I'm from Beixi, a small town. I'm from the countryside and used to be a farmer."

Li Na put down her notebook, her bright black eyes shining, and leaned over the table to ask, "Is the countryside fun? I've never been there before. Is the scenery beautiful? What do you grow at your house?"

Xiao Wei glanced at Xia Maosheng and said to Li Na, "I already have a wife. Besides, you're too small; you can't do any work. What would I need you for?"

Xia Maosheng burst into laughter, squatting on the ground. Li Na's face turned red, and she gritted her teeth, slapping Xiao Wei hard with her notebook a few times before laughing along.

"What are you all doing here? What are you laughing at in my house?" A clear voice rang out beside the three. It was the vegetable preparer who had been busy at the chopping block. She wasn't tall, about 1.5 meters, and was rather thin. Her hair was permed and tied up, with her bangs sticking up high—clearly, she had used hairspray. She had red lips and white teeth, and a small mole tattooed between her eyebrows—a popular look these days, with many girls sporting it.

Li Na, clutching her notebook in one hand and rubbing her stomach with the other, said to the girl, "Sister Jin, are you done?"

Sister Jin hummed in agreement and said, "What are you all chatting about? Your laughter is so loud it could be heard over there."

Li Na took a few breaths to calm herself down and said to Xiao Wei and Xia Maosheng, "This is Sister Jin, she helps with the side dishes. You'll be working with her during your internship in a couple of days, she's a really nice person. By the way, Sister Jin lives here, this corner is considered her home, we're in her room right now."

Xiao Wei and Xia Maosheng called her "sister" again. Sister Jin is twenty-five this year, much older than both of them.

Xiao Wei glanced at the folding bed to the side, then at the damp floor, and smelled the musty air. He asked, "Sister Jin? You live here? Can your body handle it?"

Sister Jin smoothed her hair, untied it, shook her head, and said, "It's nothing, I'm used to it. Living outside costs money, and we're from the countryside, how could we bear to spend that kind of money?"

Xia Maosheng asked, "Sister Jin, where are you from?"