The Grandmother in the Siheyuan

Chapter 364 Eating hot pot

Liu Hua smiled, took out a large plastic box from the big bag he always carried, and asked Yuan Lao, "Yuan Lao, I don't know who told me, but it seems that you really like spicy hot pot."

"Yes, I like spicy hot pot." Old Yuan nodded. "Wait a minute, what will you call me? Will you call me Old Yuan? How old are you this year? What year were you born?"

I was born in the Taihang Mountains in 1944.

Mr. Yuan smiled and said, "I'm only fourteen years older than you. I was born in 1930. How can you call me Mr. Yuan? You can call me Lao Yuan."

"Isn't this out of respect for you?"

Yuan Lao joked, "You respect me, so you call me Yuan Lao, but I also respect you, so shouldn't I call you Liu Lao?"

"Please just call me Granny Liu."

"Just call him Lao Yuan," Lao Yuan said with a smile. "However, I do really love spicy hot pot."

Liu Hua waved the box in his hand: "I know a master chef of Sichuan cuisine. My son came to visit you this time, so I specially asked the master chef to make some of the best hot pot base for me as a gift for my son to become an apprentice. We won't bring celery or salted meat."

"really?"

When I opened the box, there were several lunchboxes inside, and ice next to them, freezing the hot pot broth. When I brought my nose close to smell it, it smelled wonderful.

Mr. Yuan said decisively, "It's mouthwatering! It's settled then. We'll have hot pot here today. I'll have the canteen prepare the ingredients."

"No wonder you were freezing ice cubes in the fridge last night," Liu Guodong said with a smile. "So you were freezing these treasures. Did my Uncle Zhu make them?"

"Of course, I know him. He's a master Sichuan chef. I asked him to make my hot pot base with the best ingredients."

Right in Mr. Yuan's rest room, seven or eight people were sitting around a table with a steaming hot pot, and there was beef and mutton, as well as tripe, beef aorta, and various kinds of vegetables.

Yuan Lao's students ate until they were sweating profusely, and Yuan Lao himself exclaimed how delicious it was. Liu Hua's family, however, didn't have such an exciting experience. They ate so much that they would often go to Sha Zhu's hot pot restaurant for a meal, and they never charged them.

An ordinary person wouldn't go, but Liu Hua isn't an ordinary person. Even if he doesn't want to go, Sha Zhu will sometimes ask him to go.

After they had eaten and drunk their fill, the students made tea for the two of them, and Liu Hua and Yuan Lao chatted casually about their recent research.

When Yuan mentioned his dream of enjoying the cool shade under the rice plants, Liu Hua smiled and said, "Compared to you, I feel that I am not a person with firm beliefs. In the past few years of research, I have been doing things haphazardly, without a consistent direction."

"So what have you been researching lately?"

"Recently, there are four projects: LNG carriers, which are natural gas carriers; our country's next-generation supercomputer project; and research on a new engine for Volkswagen in Germany and Volkswagen in Shanghai."

Liu Hua said with a smile, "There's another project that just finished, which is the Xiaolingtong (a type of mobile phone service) that Beijing Post just launched."

Yuan praised him, saying, "You're not just doing things haphazardly; you're doing more work because you're capable. I don't have any other abilities, so I can only focus on hybrid rice. If I had other skills, I would definitely use them more."

The whole family returned from Hunan with great satisfaction. Liu Hua inquired around but found no good news; there were no guaranteed spots for Mr. Yuan's postgraduate studies this year. "It seems you can only take the postgraduate entrance exam. I estimate there will never be a guaranteed spot for Mr. Yuan. For such a pillar of the nation, his postgraduate students will naturally be selected from the best of the best."

Liu Guodong said nonchalantly, "So what if I take the exam? What am I afraid of?"

Liu Guodong is indeed not afraid of exams, so Liu Hua and Liu Feifei don't need to worry about him.

After finishing his family affairs, Liu Hua still had company matters to attend to. He first went to find Xu Damao, who was now the sales manager of his group company.

"Da Mao, I need to hire a sales director now." Liu Hua said apologetically, "You should have been promoted to this position, but your abilities are limited. I want to expand the business to Europe and the United States."

Xu Damao said indifferently, "Whatever. Your company has grown bigger and bigger in the past two years. I'm already struggling to keep up with the engines alone. You want me to come to the head office to manage these sales staff? To be honest, I don't have the energy. I'm almost retired. I've made quite a bit of money these past few years. You should hurry up and find a sales director. I'd rather go back to the engine factory and be the sales section chief."

Very good. After all, Xu Damao manages so many sales staff. If he had a conflict with Liu Hua, although it wouldn't cause any major trouble, it would still take up a lot of Liu Hua's energy to reorganize the company's sales channels.

The position of sales director is crucial. The domestic business is just starting out. There are people in this field, but they are mostly in large state-owned enterprises. It is virtually impossible to poach someone from Taiyi Group.

Liu Hua could only approach Pu Wei: "My company needs a sales director right now."

“I don’t have that ability. If you asked me to be the head of the legal department, I would be willing to help, but I know nothing about sales.”

"I want you to find me someone knowledgeable in Hong Kong. Ideally, this person should be patriotic and not discriminate against people from the mainland."

Park Wei shook his head: "That's not easy to find. Not everyone is like me, able to see the immense potential in the mainland. How much salary are you offering?"

"It won't be any worse than Hong Kong."

Park Wei nodded: "That makes things simple. As the saying goes, money makes the world go round. If you have the money but can't find the conditions you want, I'll find someone similar. Money can make him support you."

"If it's based on money, it's not very pure."

Park Wei said with difficulty, "That's the situation right now, so please don't make things difficult for me. It's already quite an achievement that I was able to find a neutral party for you."

"Alright, hurry up and find them." Liu Hua had no choice but to compromise: "The nickel-metal hydride batteries I'm producing urgently need to be sold, but my company doesn't have any experience selling to foreign companies yet."

Park Wei's business has been booming in recent years, especially in helping some wealthy people in China send their children to universities abroad. They don't even need to go to good schools; those diploma mills are enough, and they still make a lot of money.

Therefore, he regarded Liu Hua as his benefactor, and naturally he had to carry out his benefactor's orders immediately and unconditionally.

That same day, Park Wei flew back to Hong Kong. Liu Hua gave him 500,000 in activity funds, and if successful, he would receive an additional 500,000 as a reward.

Therefore, even if it's just for the money, Park Wei has to handle this matter well.

(End of this chapter)