1988: Back to the human world for a few years

Chapter 328: Something to Request (1)

Yang Mo knew that at any time, there would always be a few secret and unknown high-end places in a city, where one could enjoy the bright lights and wine, or eat real top-notch food; this was especially true in old industrial cities in the north where industries were solidified and a lot of interpersonal relationships were required.

But Yang Mo really didn't expect that behind the Dezhou Dizhi Auditorium, there was actually such a place hidden quietly, which did not look particularly eye-catching.

………………

A red and white brick building with only three floors.

In a private room covered with red carpet, which was three parts luxurious and three parts serious, Yang Mo sat on a chair that was deliberately made to look a little old, feeling a little uncomfortable.

Although the shape of this chair is the same as the four-legged chairs in ordinary workers' families in the 1960s and 1970s, ordinary four-legged chairs are usually made of wood, or covered with a layer of hard artificial leather, but the chair in front of you is made of real leather, and the touch from your butt tells you that this is a chair made of extremely exquisite materials and extremely fine workmanship.

The reddish-brown chairs, the low-key yet elegant wool carpets, the vase of silk flowers placed on a red rosewood stand in the corner, the grand yet private study-style layout, and the huge crystal chandelier on the ceiling...a strong executive style exudes.

Song Wenxuan thanked the waiter who had just pulled out the chair for him very gentlemanly, then pointed to the cold dishes that had just been served on the round table and introduced them: "Yang Mo, although the decoration here is not very eye-catching, the food is really excellent, and it imitates a state banquet, the taste will definitely not disappoint you and Xiaoya... Here, according to the procedure, the cold dishes must be served before the hot dishes. What is served now are the six cold dishes for welcoming guests. Eat some first to whet your appetite."

Song Wenxuan smiled apologetically and said, "The serving speed here is a bit slow. It's normal for a meal to take two or three hours... So I'm sorry, you may not be able to eat barbecue after you go back today."

Yang Mo smiled, looking at the six plates of braised beef in soy sauce, fried shrimp, smoked fish, shaved meat, cucumber strips, and orchid-shaped tofu served on exquisite porcelain plates, and nodded, "Thank you, Director Song, for the expense."

Having said that, he picked up the chopsticks without hesitation, picked up a piece of neatly cut orchid tofu, put it in his mouth, chewed it for a few times, and then praised it generously.

As we all know, in China, the simpler a dish looks, the more elaborate its preparation is. Therefore, at first glance, the orchid-flavored dried tofu looks like an ordinary dish of braised dried tofu, and there is not much surprise in the first bite. However, as long as you chew it a few times, the indescribable complex aroma will explode in your taste buds layer by layer. Therefore, Yang Mo's praise is not exaggerated.

Hearing Yang Mo's praise, Song Wenxuan just smiled reservedly, then turned the glass and passed the plate of shaved meat to Miss Mu: "Xiaoya, try this shaved meat that is improved from Zhenjiang shaved meat... The authentic Zhenjiang shaved meat uses big meat, but here we also have shaved meat made from beef hind legs in consideration of dietary taboos. Try it, it tastes good."

Mu Liya looked at Yang Mo a little uneasily, hesitated for a moment, and nodded: "Thank you, Brother Song."

As he spoke, he picked up a piece of meat with chopsticks and put it in his mouth to chew, then passed the plate of shaved meat to Yang Mo: "Yang Mo, this shaved meat tastes good, the fish gelatin powder used in the sauce is also very good, and the cowhide underneath is cut very finely. I'm sure you like it... try it?"

Yang Mo looked at Miss Mu, whose eyes were clearly filled with flattery, and smiled slightly: "Okay!"

As he said that, he didn't care about being polite and just picked up a large chopstick and chewed the salty and fresh beef and the cowhide which was still very tough even after being boiled for a long time with a little difficulty. He gave a thumbs up with satisfaction: "This thing is chewy, it is definitely a first-class snack to go with wine!"

Seeing Yang Mo's rough chopstick skills, Song Wenxuan couldn't help but frowning even though he kept smiling.

Country bumpkin!

Song Wenxuan subconsciously popped these four words into his mind, and a hint of contempt flashed in his eyes.

Yang Mo caught the other party's fleeting contempt, but he didn't care at all.

He had eaten a similar "small state banquet" at the Imperial Capital Hotel in his later life, so he naturally knew that this thing was more about form than content. Although there were many hot dishes at the end, the portions were really speechless. To be honest, it was the six cold dishes at the beginning that had the most portion... At a banquet like this that lasted two and a half hours, if you don't fill your stomach first, you're just asking for trouble!
And to be honest, although state banquet dishes have a great reputation, except for a few dishes that pursue extreme freshness, most of them actually pay more attention to the "moderation and peace" of Kung Fu dishes.

To put it bluntly, it is to cater to everyone's taste. In addition to pursuing the ultimate ingredients as much as possible, the chef's intervention in the taste in terms of numbness, spiciness, saltiness and fragrance is reduced as much as possible. So if you are really a gourmet, when you eat these small state banquets, most of the dishes will always make you feel that they are just a taste of the cuisine... They are a bit interesting, but also a bit lacking.

So for someone like Yang Mo who has no particular pursuit in food and is tired of all kinds of catering, this thing is just a formality. It's good enough that he didn't laugh at Song Wenxuan for being an idiot who only cares about face and not substance... This is a private banquet, not a business banquet. To put up such a fancy show full of ritual and distance, isn't that a sign of mental illness!
........................

"Come, Yang Mo, try this golden soup with four treasures. The fish maw, abalone and abalone are okay... but don't worry about you laughing at me. I stayed in the UK for a year the year before last, and stayed there for half a year last year. I have been craving this old hen soup and quail eggs for a long time!"

Somewhat different from Yang Mo's impression, Song Wenxuan, who was quite at odds with him at work, did not hide his disdain for him like the Eggplant Girl in such a private occasion... Of course, it could also be because Miss Mu was present and he wanted to maintain his demeanor.

In short, Song Wenxuan shared his experiences in the UK in a humorous way. When the waiter brought three bowls of exquisite soup, he couldn't wait to lift the lids of the bowls, greedily inhaled the aroma, and then started to joke with himself.

Miss Mu asked curiously, "Isn't Britain quite developed? How come we can't even have a bowl of chicken soup?"

Song Wenxuan smiled bitterly and shook his head: "Don't mention it. I was in the UK for about a year and a half, and I almost starved to death."

As he spoke, he picked up a spoon and scooped a mouthful of the golden soup into his mouth. He closed his eyes in enjoyment and opened them for a long while. "Xiao Ya, Yang Mo, you don't know. Although someone told me before I went there that Britain is a food desert, only when you actually go there will you know how bad the food there is."

Song Wenxuan shrugged with a bitter face and said, "When we were little and were learning English, the books were all about fish and chips. At that time, I thought that the food in the UK was pretty good, with meat and fried food, which was much better than our life here."

"I ended up going there, and when I really found out what it was, I completely regretted it!"

Song Wenxuan gestured and said, "We Qilu people eat Spanish mackerel a lot, and we are not unfamiliar with marine fish... The fried fish sold over there looks similar to Spanish mackerel, so it shouldn't be bad to eat."

"But you know, the fried fish sold there are not fried on the iron plate like we do here, but are directly coated with flour and thrown into the pan... God has pity, the fish are not even skinned or scraped, they are just put into the oil pan directly, the fishy and bitter taste will make your scalp numb after one bite, and this thing is very expensive, sold with potatoes for 1 pound, you can't bear to throw it away, so you can only swallow it."

"As for the fried potatoes, whether you can find some you can barely swallow depends entirely on luck... If you're lucky, you'll find a store that's been closed for a while and you can eat a few bites of soft fried potatoes. If you're unlucky, they'll only have freshly fried potatoes, which are so hard that they'll push your gums off."

With a somewhat unbearable sigh, Song Wenxuan explained: "The potatoes over there in the UK are not as good as ours. I don't know what kind they are, but they are much harder than ours. If they are not fried long enough, they can really be used as rocks to hit people!"

"The worst part is that the UK is a well-known developed country with plenty of money, but they can't be bothered to find a proper bag to put your fish and chips in. They just randomly wrap it in a piece of waste newspaper and hand it to you... You can't even ask. If you ask, it's their British tradition. Being picky is disrespectful to their tradition."

"God has mercy on me. Every time I eat this stuff, I am terrified, afraid that I might get lead poisoning if I am not careful... You have never seen a few English letters on a potato cube... After a year in the UK, I feel that I have learned less than the letters I have eaten!"

Mu Liya found it so interesting that she couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Seeing this, Song Wenxuan continued, "That's not all. There are only so many things we can eat in the UK. In the morning, we have a glass of milk and a piece of salty and hard bread, at noon, we have fish and chips, and in the evening, unless you are willing to spend money on barbecue, you can only go to the supermarket to buy a fried whole chicken, and then buy a portion of cooked macaroni to eat with it... There is no way, the landlord over there does not allow us to cook."

Sighing with a sad face, Song Wenxuan looked at Mu Liya and said, "You don't know, although chicken in the UK is cheap, you can buy a big one for less than two pounds...but those fried chickens don't have any fragrance at all, and they also have an indescribable fishy smell."

"You said you wanted to improve your food on the weekends, so while the landlord was out for fun, you bought a chicken and secretly used the rice cooker to make soup... How much do you think a chicken costs over there?"

Mu Liya asked curiously: "How much?"

Song Wenxuan had a look of despair on his face: "The fried broiler chicken in the supermarket is only 1.99 pounds, but a free-range chicken that is only half the size of the others is 9.9 pounds, and it's still raw... How can I bear to buy it!?"

Muliya was shocked: "Almost 10 pounds!? So expensive!?"

Song Wenxuan nodded: "Yes, it is that expensive. With this money, I can buy seven or eight kilograms of beef. Otherwise, why would I be so craving for chicken soup after returning to China? It's completely because of hunger... And quail eggs, there is no such thing over there."

As if stimulated by the tragic experience that he could not bear to recall, Song Wenxuan quickly scooped another quail egg from the cup and put it into his mouth, chewing it slowly with a look of enjoyment. His look mixed with sadness was really indescribably interesting.

Yang Mo looked at Song Wenxuan with some amusement. Although he knew that he was mainly trying to make Miss Mu happy, as a person with dietary taboos, he had very few options in the food desert of Britain where he couldn't cook.

Ok……

I just wonder if this guy has ever eaten the famous leader in the dark cuisine world?
Thinking of this, Yang Mo looked at Song Wenxuan curiously: "Director Song, according to your family conditions, even if the prices in the UK are high, you shouldn't live such a hard life, right?" "Every day, you either eat bread or fish and chips, and you rent an apartment where you can't cook... I'm afraid you're an ordinary international student, so you shouldn't be so tight on money, right?"

This is the truth. In fact, quite a few people went abroad in the 1980s. Although the number of people who went abroad to study through various channels was far from comparable to that of later generations, it was still on a certain scale. Generally speaking, these people came from good families. Therefore, even though the prices in the UK were scary enough for people in China at that time, these people could still live very well.

It is no exaggeration to say that even though the family backgrounds of those who can go abroad are very good, with the family background of Song Wenxuan, the eldest son of the Song family, he is firmly ranked in the first sequence among these people. It is good enough that he does not spend money recklessly on wine and women all day long. Why does he need to live such a miserable life?
But as a reborn person who has a basic understanding of Britain, Yang Mo is very sure that what this guy said is basically true. In other words, although there is a suspicion that this guy is deliberately playing misery to make Miss Mu happy, at least these things are what he has experienced.

So, this is very difficult to understand.

Song Wenxuan heard this and smiled at Yang Mo: "I know that in the eyes of many people, people like us who are from wealthy families are useless people who don't want to make progress, sleep on a mountain of gold, and only know how to walk chickens, fight dogs, and cause trouble all day long..."

Song Wenxuan dragged out the words slightly, and a strange kind of reserve appeared on his face: "But I want to say that there are also differences between the second generation and the second generation!"

As he spoke, Song Wenxuan glanced at Mu Liya, then turned to look at Yang Mo, and gracefully put down the spoon in his hand: "Indeed, no matter what system it is, there are many useless second-generations, even those with powerful backgrounds."

Song Wenxuan shook his head slightly: "Yang Mo, you may not know the true impact of that incident... In fact, the impact of this incident on our families is much greater than you think."

"To put it simply, after this incident, if the family feels that their children are unpromising, they will discipline them as much as possible and then just leave them to eat and wait for death. They will find a random job to put them in and supervise them nearby... In a word, as long as you don't cause trouble for the family, you can lie down however you want, even if your family supports you for the rest of your life."

"For those children who have certain potential but are only average, their families will send them to places not far from their sight and let them start from the grassroots level... As the saying goes, there is always trouble without trouble. As long as you are busy, you will not easily cause trouble to your family. Maybe after training, you can achieve a little success and provide a little help to your family;"

"Even if you accidentally cause some trouble, don't be afraid... Even if you have risen from the grassroots to the middle level, as long as it is not a key department, the power in your hands is at most that little, even if you cause trouble, it won't be big... Lin Luosu is in this situation."

Yang Mo's eyes twitched.

After all, Eggplant Girl was the director of Qingdao Tertiary Industry Office before, and now she has become the director of the Asset Protection Department of Dahua Company. But in your eyes, she is just "a person who is only worthy of being polished from the grassroots level"?
Well, I can't understand a family like yours.

Glancing at Yang Mo, Song Wenxuan continued, "As for the last type, they are those children who are considered to have great potential by their families. After their character is recognized by their families, they will also be placed in the grassroots of core departments to train step by step. Before they climb to a certain position with their own abilities, their families will closely observe them but will not give them any support; and after that, they will only provide more opportunities for them to grow... As for unconditional and strong support, it does not exist!"

She smiled modestly: "Unfortunately, I barely fall into the last category... People like us actually have a much harder time than you think. Before we start to get formal support from our families, we are actually no different from ordinary people;"

"After making some achievements in Laiyang in the first half of last year, I had to go back to the UK to complete my studies. I didn't have any extra money to squander."

"In fact, people like us can't afford to squander money. The country is already short of foreign exchange. After paying high tuition fees, squandering foreign exchange will not only cause trouble to our families, but it will also greatly reduce our family's evaluation of us... So, when I told you that I couldn't even have a bowl of chicken soup in the UK, I was not lying to you!"

Yang Mo frowned.

You can certainly see Song Wenxuan's words as showing off how much his family values ​​him, but they also implicitly point out some information.

1. He is different from Miss Eggplant and Miss Mu. He is an elite who is trained as an heir.

As for why Yang Mo could hear this even though no one mentioned Miss Mu... It's very simple. You can tell by looking at the work trajectories of Eggplant Girl and Miss Mu and the level of support they get from their families.

2. Now that this guy has been transferred to Dahua Company to serve as the director of such an important department as the Board Office, it is obvious that he has been recognized by his family, and they want to give him more opportunities and some help.

3. He had made achievements in Laiyang before, and the results were very good, otherwise he would not have been able to spare half a year to go to the UK to complete his studies... In other words, if his family really did not support him secretly, this guy who claimed to have climbed up step by step from the grassroots must have good abilities.

but……

Judging from his performance at the last mid-level and senior-level meeting, he doesn't seem to be really capable!

At the very least, the position of director of the Dahua Company's board office is somewhat beyond his capabilities.

Song Wenxuan looked at Yang Mo who was deep in thought and smiled softly: "Yang Mo, I know what you are thinking. You think I am just flattering myself. Judging from my previous performance, especially my performance in the last high-level meeting, I am not qualified to be trained by my family... right?"

Yang Mo laughed: "Director Song, you are joking. I don't think so... In fact, Director Song is a rare talent. Compared with his peers, he is much better than anyone else."

This statement is half perfunctory and half true.

Indeed, although Yang Mo looked down on Song Wenxuan's performance last time, he did not make any mistakes in his daily work. Compared with his peers, he was already very impressive... In his previous life, when he was 26 or 27 years old, he was still working in the general office, taking the blame for others. He was even wavering about whether to resign and go into business.

But on the other hand, a family like Song Wenxuan's may have many shortcomings in professional ability due to the limitations of the times, but in terms of the means of power struggle, they should be much stronger than most people. Therefore, those childish and rash words and deeds at the last meeting cannot be called the second generation of elites.

Song Wenxuan listened to Yang Mo's comments, which were very much like those of a senior, but he was not angry at all. He just pursed his lips slightly and said, "I know you don't think highly of me because of what happened at the last meeting, but what if I tell you... I did it on purpose?"

? ? ? ?
on purpose?
Yang Mo was stunned.

Mu Liya explained in a low voice: "In fact, Brother Song really helped you a lot. Later, I learned from Luo Luo that someone really intended to take advantage of the employees' grievances... It was also thanks to Brother Song that he persuaded Director Tian to expose this matter in advance. Otherwise, once the real employees were instigated and a mass incident occurred, you would really be in big trouble!"

Yang Mo frowned and glanced at Miss Mu. After making sure that the other party was not lying to him, he really wanted to ask, since you already knew it afterwards, why didn't you tell me?

However, when he saw Miss Mu's slightly uneasy expression, he knew why she didn't tell him about this.

It's very simple. Song Wenxuan likes Miss Mu and has never given up his pursuit of Mu Liya. Yang Mo knows this. The young lady is afraid that Yang Mo will misunderstand that she is speaking for Song Wenxuan after she tells him about this, so naturally she didn't tell him about this.

Moreover, in Miss Mu's eyes, Yang Mo is actually a very arrogant person in his bones. She was afraid that after this matter was made public, he would feel uncomfortable, so she didn't want Yang Mo to swallow this fly. This consideration was also true... After all, Yang Mo and Song Wenxuan were "rivals in love" in a factual sense. Any man who was saved by his rival in love could imagine how that felt.

Yang Mo did not ask who wanted to take advantage of the employees' dissatisfaction. Since it was already said that it was not Song Wenxuan and Director Tian, ​​and Ding Youxiang obviously did not get involved, it was obvious who it was.

After a moment of silence, Yang Mo looked at Song Wenxuan who was drinking the golden soup with four treasures in a very elegant manner, and suddenly laughed: "It seems that Director Song did not meet us by chance today... I don't know why Director Song invited us to this meal, you might as well tell me directly... You also know that I am a rough man and I can't play those roundabout ways."

Song Wenxuan raised his head and laughed: "Big rough guy... Minister Yang is joking."

After a pause, Song Wenxuan put down the soup bowl, the smile on his face remained unchanged, but his eyes became serious: "Since Minister Yang has said so much, I will not hide it from you... That's right, when you give a gift to someone, you must ask for something."

Oh?
The smile on Yang Mo's lips became a little playful.

Seeing this, Song Wenxuan shook his head slightly and said, "But don't get me wrong. Although I am asking Minister Yang for help with this meal today, I am also saving Minister Yang. So it is more appropriate to say that we both get what we need."

Ok?
help me?

This is interesting.

The smile on Yang Mo's face became more intense...

(End of this chapter)