The first thing I did was to find out

Chapter 271 Carpenter Zhang

"The Four Happiness Dumplings are out of the pot again. Bowls, are there any more bowls? There are no more bowls in the kitchen."

"Two more gnocchi servings."

"The third brother's family, tell your daughter and son to wash the dishes quickly, they are waiting to be used!"

"Luoluo, don't just sit there and stop listening to gossip. Go to your ninth uncle's house at the end of the village and ask if they have any bowls left. If they do, bring them all over and have them come over to eat in the evening."

"Luoluo's uncle, you're not in a hurry to leave, are you? No hurry to help in the kitchen. We're short of people. Is there anyone who can cut vegetables? Not someone who specializes in chopping meat, but someone who can use a knife to chop nuts and preserved fruits. And a few strong people who can chop wood. You have all of them, right? Come into the kitchen!"

"I remember there was a girl who was quite good at making fire a few days ago. She helped Huai Huai make fire in the kitchen. Why didn't she come today? Did she not come back for Chinese New Year? She came back but stayed at home. It would be too much trouble to call her over now. Isn't it troublesome? If it's not troublesome, call her over quickly. We are short of people, really short of people."

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Grandma Qin was just holding a small notebook to count the New Year's goods sent by distant relatives. On the second day of the Lunar New Year, she became a foreman, shouting at the top of her voice to get real relatives to do work.

It's not that we don't trust strangers, but that real relatives are easy to use and reliable, and there is no chance that they will cheat and slack off after working for a while.

If I get caught on the spot, how will I be able to visit relatives and friends and get snacks next year?

Qin Huai's uncle was stunned.

As Qin Huai's legitimate uncle, he must have a name. His uncle is called Zhao Siqiang, and he is two years older than Grandma Qin. The Zhao family names people according to their generation. All of Qin Huai's uncles and aunts are named Zhao Siqiang, except for Zhao Rong.

It is said that because Zhao Rong was a posthumous child, the family was extremely poor when she was born, and they were not sure whether to raise this little girl or not, so they simply did not even give her a name. When they decided to raise her later, they also casually named her Rong.

Of course, this is Zhao Rong's version.

My uncle Zhao Siqiang would definitely not acknowledge her. In his words, their Zhao family values ​​their little girl. It is very difficult to name a girl with the word "Si" in its name, so it would be better to just give her the word "Rong".

That’s right. The Zhao family has been caring about my younger sister for so many years, so during the Chinese New Year, they were reluctant to let my younger sister’s family go to pay New Year’s greetings, and they would take the initiative to go to my younger sister’s house.

Even though Zhao Siqiang is already seventy years old, with grey hair and walking with crutches, he has four generations living under one roof and they have to set up several tables for the New Year's Eve dinner at home.

But his love for his younger sister has remained unchanged over the years! Every Chinese New Year, as the eldest brother, he would bring his own bowls and chopsticks to his younger sister's house, bringing his son, daughter, grandson, and granddaughter who had successfully competed that year to pay New Year's greetings.

The one who is good at making fire that Grandma Qin just mentioned is Zhao Siqiang’s third granddaughter. She failed to win the competition this year, but it doesn’t matter. Zhao Siqiang’s village and Qinjia Village are in the same county. She can just let her daughter and son-in-law drive her third granddaughter over.

His parents can also take advantage of their daughter's presence and come over to have some dumplings.

Zhao Siqiang said before entering the kitchen: "I have two daughters-in-law who are very good at washing dishes. They wash dishes cleanly and quickly."

"Call them over, call them all over!" Grandma Qin said that we are short of people today and anyone with skills can come.

Zhao Siqiang waved happily.

Compared to the chaos outside the kitchen, the kitchen is very organized.

As long as they enter the kitchen, they are all Qin Huai's soldiers.

After the practical operation on the first day of the Lunar New Year, Qin Huai found that he had underestimated the villagers and himself.

The number of distant relatives in their family is far less than what appeared in previous years. As long as you think about it, people from the same town, hometown, county, or city can all be distant relatives.

In fact, in previous years, distant relatives were not as enthusiastic as they are this year. It’s not that Qin Huai’s craftsmanship was not good in previous years. Although the game system had not been activated at that time, Qin Huai’s white pastry skills were already well-known in the surrounding area.

Sanding buns, Wuding buns, and Sixi dumplings are all Qinhuai's signature dishes during the New Year. These delicious snacks are usually only available to close relatives. Ordinary relatives can just have meat buns, while those with more distant relatives cannot even have meat buns and can only have vegetable buns.

It can be said that everyone knew that Qinhuai’s craftsmanship was good at that time, but they couldn’t taste the really good ones.

The reason why I came to pay New Year's greetings on the first day of the Lunar New Year is mainly because Qinhuai's house is lively and crowded. I have nothing to do on the first day of the Lunar New Year, and Qinhuai's house can be said to be the gathering place for all the gossips in Qinjia Village. It's the same wherever I go to pay New Year's greetings.
Why not bring two pounds of apples to Qin Huai's house to wish him a happy new year, listen to some gossip, and if you're lucky you might even get two buns.

It can be said that although the Qinhuai family was crowded and lively in previous years, there were sometimes situations where there were not enough bowls and they had to borrow from other families, but it was not as exaggerated as this year.

This year, those who knew the inside story knew that so many people came to Qin Huai's house to pay New Year's greetings, while those who didn't know thought that this was a brand new fraud crime den, using many means such as distributing free eggs, rice, flour, grain and oil to lure villagers from miles around to come and attend lectures.

On the afternoon of the first day of the New Year, the police officers were dispatched. The plainclothes officers came to learn about the situation. After eating a bowl of four-happiness dumplings, they instantly understood the situation. They went home and got two bags of dry goods as New Year gifts, and ended up getting another small bag of four-happiness dumplings.

Then this plainclothes officer became a distant relative of the Qin family because they lived nearby in the next village. His daughter is still washing dishes at the Qinhuai neighbor's house.

The charm of Four-Happiness Glutinous Rice Balls is not on the same level as ordinary vegetable or meat dumplings.

During the New Year, when people visit the Qin family to pay New Year's greetings and eat a bite of the delicious meat buns, they will only exclaim, "Wow, this meat bun is so delicious, I wish I could have another one."

But if I visit the Qin family during the Chinese New Year and eat a bowl of Four Happiness Tangtuan...

What the hell! What the hell! What the hell! What the hell!

New Year!
However, this joy of the New Year may only be felt by people outside the kitchen.

The children were running around happily, with pockets full of change and candies that seemed to be endless. As long as they didn't make a fuss and insist on playing with mobile phones and tablets, adults would not easily beat or scold children during the New Year.

The children were happy and the adults were excited. Everyone was either eating dumplings from their bowls or walking around chatting and listening to gossip. In order to appear to be more than just people coming in to eat, they would do any work they could find that they could do.

With so many people coming and going in the Qin family's yard, it is hard to even see fallen candy wrappers on the ground. The broom is right next to the wall, and anyone who sees it can just sweep it, and the yard will be as clean as new.

This is the visible work, there is much more invisible and hidden work.

If there are not enough bowls, go home and get some.

There are not enough people to wash dishes, so I actively signed up to wash dishes.

There were too many people coming and there was not enough hot water for drinking tea. The small kitchen had a stove for boiling water and anyone could come in.

As for the big kitchen, not everyone can enter. You need some connections to enter.

Zhao Siqiang is undoubtedly the one with connections.

As Qin Huai's eldest uncle, Zhao Siqiang treated his nephew very well before Qin Huai showed off his outstanding talent for white case in front of his relatives. Zhao Siqiang was right in saying something to the public: he really loved his younger sister.

Zhao Rong was childless after getting married for many years and adopted a boy from an orphanage. In order to prevent his sister from being gossiped about, Zhao Siqiang gave Qin Huai the most generous red envelopes every year. In an environment where children were given red envelopes of 5 or 10 yuan, Zhao Siqiang made a decision that went against his ancestors.

Give Qinhuai a red envelope of 200.

The same is true for Qin Luo.

It is precisely because of the deep friendship over the years that Zhao Siqiang can stand out in the annual New Year's greetings. He and Qin Huai's third uncle Zhao Sizhuang are in line to pay New Year's greetings on the second day of the New Year and get to eat first.

Even after eating, you can come back and keep eating.

By the way, Qin Huai's third uncle was the one who took the initiative to say that he had a way to send Qin Huai to Zhiweiju as an apprentice when Qin Huai was in high school. Although the third uncle had no ability and liked to brag, he still had good intentions.

Zhao Siqiang was stunned the moment he stepped into the kitchen.

The kitchen and outside the kitchen are like two different worlds.

It’s not that the kitchen is filled with white mist and it feels like a fairyland, but the overall feeling is completely different.

The kitchen was neither quiet nor lively. Zhao Siqiang felt that he had not walked into a country kitchen, but had mistakenly entered the back kitchen of a big hotel.

Everyone here is conscientiously completing their work. Everyone is in an orderly manner, cooperating well, and only revolving around one person. That person is his good nephew, Master Qin!

Qin Huai is making red bean paste filling.

The red bean paste and sesame candy fillings he sent from Suzhou were almost used up. Qin Huai had originally planned to use them for 3 to 5 days, but in the end, these fillings barely lasted for two days.

The folks are so enthusiastic!
And it’s really fun to brush up on your proficiency.

At the beginning, Qin Huai was still worried that the helpers were not professional enough, unskilled, and lacked cooperation, which might affect his proficiency in making the four-happiness dumplings. Now Qin Huai realized that he was worrying too much.

The villagers are definitely not as skilled as the people in Huang’s kitchen, and they are not as cooperative as professional chefs, but the villagers want to be helpers!

The most important thing is a lot of people.

Although there are few professionals like Aunt Wang, there are too many people who can make fire, chop wood, mince meat, and cook.

The biggest feature of Mr. Qin’s kitchen is that it is big enough.

It can accommodate a lot of people.

Huang's kitchen was built to maintain the normal operation of the restaurant. It is divided into many areas and there are many professional chefs. The portion actually allocated to the white case is not particularly large.

The Qin family's kitchen is comparable in size to the Huang family's kitchen, and is only responsible for white dishes. As long as they want to cram in people, it is definitely not a problem to cram in twenty or thirty helpers.

If it were last year's Chinese New Year, Qin Huai might not have been able to command so many helpers who had unskilled skills and problems with coordination. The more people there were, the more chaos there would be, and the more help there would be, the more trouble there would be.

But this year, Qinhuai returned for further studies.

As a professional chef, every time a new person enters the kitchen, Chef Qin knows what job to assign to him.

While Qin Huai was cooking the red bean paste, he looked up and saw that his uncle had come. He was overjoyed.

"Uncle, you came at the right time. There are so many people here, and the processing of many ingredients cannot be coordinated. Did you bring a notebook? If not, ask my grandma to give you one."

"A new batch of Four Happiness Glutinous Rice Balls will be out soon. Please help count how many bowls are needed. Ask the dishwasher to control the time of washing and delivering the bowls. Don't mess it up. It was a mess just now. A little girl fell down in a hurry when delivering the bowls, and all the bowls fell."

Zhao Siqiang was in the production team counting the number of farm tools in his early years, and he was very professional at this.

Hearing Qin Huai say this, Zhao Siqiang instantly regained the feeling of his youth and immediately said, "Huai Huai, don't worry, this kind of thing is left to my uncle. There will definitely be no mistakes or messy deliveries, or bowls being dropped."

"Uncle, has Chengcheng come?" Qin Huai asked again.

Cheng Cheng is the one who is particularly good at making fire.

"Just set out, still on the way."

"When Chengcheng comes, please tell me. Someone was originally in charge of the fire. Sister He did a good job yesterday. But just now, a bowl fell due to a mess. Sister He was anxious when she heard that the bowl fell. When she went out to check, she tripped and broke her leg. She is now in the health room to get it bandaged."

"He Cheng, please remember to leave ten bags of glutinous rice balls for Sister He later. When I'm free in the evening, I'll make some three-piece buns and four-happiness dumplings, and you and Luo Luo can help me deliver them over then." Qin Huai said.

He Cheng's notebook was already full of notes. After hearing what Qin Huai said, he hurriedly wrote down some more. After he finished writing, he asked the person next to him in confusion:
"Why was Sister He so anxious when she heard the bowl fall?"

The aunt next to her whispered back, "She must be very anxious, because all the bowls that were broken were from her family."

Zhao Siqiang instantly realized the importance of his work and went out to ask Grandma Qin for the notebook.

Qin Huai then cooked the red bean paste filling.

Seeing Qin Huai start to work, the old secretary took a sip of tea slowly, sat on the chair and continued:
"Where were we talking about?"

"The educated youth returned to the city. Many of them who had connections returned to the city. Carpenter Zhang and his wife didn't find any connections, so they stayed in the village the whole time." He Cheng answered quickly.

"Oh, yes. Actually, Xiao Zhang is a pretty good guy. He's a good carpenter, and his wife's cooking skills are even better. It's a pity for them to stay in our countryside. At that time, he and his wife couldn't go back to the city. The young couple was not anxious, but the party secretary and village head of their production team were very worried."

"I asked around and used connections. Later, I heard from my nephew who worked at a lumber mill in the county that the mill wanted to recruit experienced carpenters. I told the team leader of Xiao Zhang's production team about this news, and then Xiao Zhang participated in the recruitment and was selected. That's when the whole family moved to Qiu County."

"Why do I say that Xiao Zhang is a good person? Actually, I just helped to inquire about the recruitment and didn't contribute much. The team leader and party secretary were the ones who took care of most of the work."

"But every Chinese New Year, Xiao Zhang would bring his son to my house to wish me a happy new year. He would come on the sixth day of the first lunar month every year. This year he called me and asked me to arrive before 11 a.m. on the sixth day."

"By the way, Huaihuai, on the morning of the sixth day of the New Year, I..."

"I can't come because of something." Qin Huai said with a smile, "It's okay if I can't come for a while."

The old branch secretary didn't originally come to the Qin family to work full-time. Although he had worked as a butcher when he was young, he was old after all and was not as good as young people. He got tired after chopping meat a few times.

It mainly plays a guiding role.

And gossip.

When it comes to gossip reserves, no one in the entire Qinjia Village can compare to the old branch secretary.

He was not only well-versed in the gossips of Qinjia Village, but also in the gossips of several nearby villages, and even in the township and county. The most important thing was that he was eloquent and could tell stories in a leisurely manner, with clear causes and consequences, unlike some people who talked a lot of nonsense when gossiping, and had to extract key information when listening to gossip.

The old branch secretary came to the Qin family at 7 o'clock in the morning on the second day of the New Year. He spent 10 minutes chopping meat and the rest of the time talking about gossip.

They were all unemployed because of Qin Luogan and could only chop firewood outside.

Qin Huai loves to listen.

"That's not it." The old Party secretary waved his hand. "It's like this. Didn't I just say it? Xiao Zhang is a great carpenter, and his wife Xiao Cao is an even better cook. Every year during the Spring Festival, when his wife comes home to pay New Year's greetings, she will go to the village chief's house to cook a meal. The taste is delicious."

"I only had it once, and they wouldn't let me in the second time."

"When Xiao Zhang called me to wish me a happy new year, I was eating the four-happiness dumplings you sent me. I couldn't help but brag to him a little bit."

"The most important thing is that I promised him that I would let him eat when he comes."

"This year, not only he came, but also his son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren."

"I don't know whether Xiao Cao will come or not. Every year when she goes to the countryside, she shows off her skills, either at the village head's house or the party secretary's house."

"I only have two bags of dumplings a day, which is not enough for my family. Look at this..."

Qin Huai:......

Old branch secretary, you are really amazing.

"Bring them here together." Qin Huai said, "Actually, I roughly know who the carpenter Zhang you just mentioned is. My father bought molds from Carpenter Zhang before he opened the breakfast shop."

"It's just that my dad's contact information has long been lost. Actually, I also want to ask Carpenter Zhang to help me make a mold."

"Eat. The dumplings will keep you full. I'll make some other snacks later."

(End of this chapter)