Miao Chu

Chapter 162 Temper
The man grinned and spoke in a sarcastic tone while staring intently at Song Miao's face, his gaze then drifting down to her waist.

Seeing how disgusting the other person's words and actions were, Song Miao was already extremely disgusted.

But she didn't show any anger. She acted as if the person didn't exist and turned to the next person. After checking the names and backgrounds of the remaining people, she said again, "This time, you have been assigned to the river work kitchen."

"The kitchen is different from other jobs. You don't have to dig dirt or be exposed to the sun and rain, but that doesn't mean it's an easy job. This job requires carefulness and attention to detail. The most important thing is cleanliness. If there is even the slightest mistake with a single grain of rice or a single vegetable, and the food that goes into people's mouths gets spoiled or causes illness, it will be too late to regret it."

She explained to everyone how to "clean" it.

While dismantling the well, he led twelve laborers to the kitchen. When they reached the well, he said that the water should be stored in separate vats, one for drinking and the other for washing. Well water was safe to drink, but river water, if used for drinking, had to be boiled.

It also says that the wastewater from washing pots and vegetables every day must be thoroughly cleaned of residue before being poured into the sewer, and that the bottom of the pot must be scraped clean after each use, etc.

Upon entering the kitchen, it was said that food storage must be at least two feet off the ground and at least one foot away from the beams. Rat cages must be placed on the beams and on the ground, and checked daily.

It is also said that people must tie their hair up and put on a turban. If they have a beard, they must also cover it. Every day when they enter the house, they must first wash their hands with soapberry water. When they leave the house, they must wash their hands again when they return. They must also wear a cooking garment, which must be changed and washed every day without delay.

In addition, cooks must trim their nails daily and examine their tongue, facial features, and skin. If they develop scabies or other unexplained illnesses, they must be transferred.

At this point, the previously nonchalant laborer interjected, "Young lady, why do you wash your hands after going out? It's not like you go to the outhouse every time you go out. Besides, we use leaves to defecate, so our hands don't get dirty. As for urinating, hehe, young lady, you're quite knowledgeable, knowing that we men use our hands to urinate!"

Big Pancake, following behind, had already changed color and was about to step forward to hurl insults.

Song Miao made a gesture to stop her.

She was standing at the kitchen counter in the back kitchen of the official post station. She was not in a hurry. First, she washed her hands in a basin of water. Then she took a cleaver from the knife rack, took a lamb bone from the meat basin next to her, placed it on the counter, pressed the bone with her left hand, and with her right hand, she used the knife to chop heavily into the center of the bone.

Lamb leg bones are extremely hard, but there's actually a trick to splitting them. If you choose the right spot and give it a gentle tap, they'll crack naturally.

Song Miao's strike was precise, hitting the exact spot. Sure enough, with a loud "clang," the bone snapped.

After chopping one, she didn't stop, and took another one. While chopping, she didn't even look at the others, but turned to the crowd and said, "If you are using knives and cutting boards, you must use two types: one for raw meat and one for cooked meat. Use a red-handled knife and a red-edged cutting board for raw meat, and use a regular wooden-handled knife and a regular wooden-edged cutting board for cooked meat and other vegetables. You cannot mix them."

The word "use" had barely been uttered when another loud "clang" rang out—the other lamb bone cracked.

After chopping up the lamb shank, Song Miao took out a whole pig hind leg from a large basin beside her.

She used a sharp knife to insert into the pigskin, and somehow managed to remove the bone very quickly.

The bones removed included fan-shaped bones and pork leg bones. Finally, the trotters and pig's feet were cut out.

In front of everyone, as if showing off her skills, she actually processed a whole pig's hind leg perfectly in just the time it took to speak, separating the meat from the bones and the tail, and arranging them neatly on the large cutting board.

Such amazing pig-disassembly skills left Da Bing feeling extremely shocked and full of admiration. He even wished he could have such skillful hands.

But to the other laborers, the way this young woman handled a whole, red pig's leg and two bloody sheep bones with such ease, smashing and picking at the bones, was quite frightening.

Holding a knife so easily...

The butchering of the pig is done with such ease...

if……

As if to deepen everyone's fear, Song Miao placed the knife on the table and said, "Knives must be washed immediately after use, and then hung back in their original place. They cannot be left lying around after use..."

As he spoke, he picked up the knife again and said, “There are thirteen rules in total, four for each, making a total of fifty-two. It sounds like a lot, but it’s actually easy to remember. As long as we listened carefully to what I was saying on the way in and saw the things along the way, we won’t forget them.”

After saying that, he raised his head and said to the big pancake beside him, "This is your master for today, Liu Bing. He knows all fifty-two rules by heart. It is now the beginning of Mao Shi (5-7 AM). You have two hours to do two things."

"First, memorize these rules so I can test you when I return."

"Secondly, we just bought some lettuce and a large earthenware jar this morning. We need to peel and wash them. Master Liu will teach you how to carry them and how to do it."

"Masters don't look at age, they only look at skill."

"If you fail the exam, or cause trouble, I'm just a cook, spending my days dealing with raw flesh and blood or knives and axes. I don't have a very good temper. Although you've come, you can still leave. My place is too small, so I'll have to send you back to the yamen!"

After saying that, she said to the flatbread, "I'm going out for a bit. Could you please wash the knife and cutting board for me?"

Then, with a "clang," the knife was flung away, and somehow the sharp end of the cleaver landed firmly on the cutting board.

After slamming the knife down, Song Miao took a step to leave, but after only two steps, she turned back and looked at the twenty-year-old laborer who had been relieving himself, asking, "What did you say about men just now?"

The man who was urinating subconsciously looked at the cutting board.

On the chopping board, because the back of the knife was deeply embedded in the wood, only the tip was visible. Looking at its sharp appearance, he felt a chill inexplicably creep into his heart. Not only that, but his groin also felt a chill.

He was a scoundrel, but he mostly frequented the streets and alleys, flirting with cats and dogs, stealing chickens and dogs, and attracting young women from all over the place.

Most respectable people would hide, but some hot-tempered ones would curse a few times, like today, and then directly draw a knife. They wielded the knife so skillfully, chopping bones and meat almost as well as a butcher, which frightened him. He inexplicably dared not say another word, and sweat broke out on his back. He hurriedly said, "No! No!"

Since he didn't have any, Song Miao naturally didn't bother with him anymore. She nodded at the pancake and walked away.

The big pancake straightened its small chest, stepped forward and forcefully pulled the kitchen knife that Song Miao had stuck in with both hands, then turned to the group of laborers and said: "You all watch how I wash the knife and the cutting board, and later I will wash the vegetables—these are all things you need to memorize and be tested on!"

He knew all along that he was young and easily overlooked, and Song Miao had just given him an opportunity to use that intimidation to teach people how to do things.

On the other side, Song Miao left the official post station and headed towards a vegetable market a street away.

The arrival of these twelve cooks today serves two purposes: firstly, they need to be kept busy after the supplies are finished; secondly, the young man who urinated earlier is no longer needed. However, it's best not to be too hasty in deciding whether to take the others, as I've already formed a prejudice based on preconceived notions.

Whether something is usable or not can be determined by observing a person's attitude after they perform a task.

He came to the vegetable market every day, partly to make purchases and partly to record and compare prices.

But even before getting close today, upon seeing the many small stalls set up outside, Song Miao felt that it was different from usual.

For some reason, there were many more vendors along the way, mostly selling vegetables, with lettuce being the most common.

She went up to a few stalls and asked around, only to find out that many of the vendors were from Weizhou. One of the vendors was particularly talkative, chatting away.

"I'm from Ji County. I heard that everyone is mobilizing boats to send grain and people to Huazhou. Only now do I realize that there is a small path that leads to Huazhou. Although it is far away and involves both boating and climbing mountains, I have no choice but to work hard on my two legs to make a living!"

"Young lady, buy more. The price is so cheap. If you miss this opportunity, you won't find another one like it."

Song Miao was surprised by how cheap the price was. She squatted down to examine the lettuce and said, "Your lettuce has absorbed too much water and developed many cracks. It will be less sweet."

The vendor said, "Young lady, you know what you're doing, but there's nothing we can do about it. You don't know, there was a lot of rain in Jixian County recently, and a lot of land was flooded. Right now it's lettuce season. With so much rain and the land being soaked for so long, the lettuce skin and flesh are prone to cracking and swelling. Although it doesn't really affect eating, it's still not as good as lettuce that hasn't cracked."

He then said, "How about this, I'll give the young lady a discount."

As Song Miao walked along, she noticed that almost every stall selling lettuce had cracks in their leaves, and she knew that such flaws were mostly unavoidable.

But the price is really cheap, so it's worth stocking up.

The weather in April, in particular, is like a child's face—it can cry one minute and laugh the next.

It hasn't rained in Huazhou for the past two days; instead, it's been sunny all day. In just one day, the water in many places has dried up.

She checked last night and it seems that for at least the next two weeks, it will be sunny and clear, without a single drop of rain.

Although lettuce doesn't keep well, this kind of weather is perfect for drying it.

This ingredient is quite unique. When you want to eat it, you can soak it in water, stir-fry it with lard or cured meat, add a little bit of dogwood mustard seeds, and it will be slightly spicy. It has a chewy and crunchy texture, and it's both spicy and fragrant, making it especially delicious.

However, drying lettuce is troublesome, as it requires peeling and slicing, which is very labor-intensive.

Right now, what she has no shortage of is manpower, so it's a good time to use them to test people out.

Thinking this, Song Miaolian bought lettuce from more than a dozen stalls, weighing nearly 800 jin (400 kg). There was a very large drying ground in the courtyard behind the official post station, and with the rain stopping these past two days, the drying ground would come in handy.

After settling the bill, Song Miao asked the stall owners to send the lettuce to the official post station and find a man named Liu Bing to collect it before continuing inside.

After walking for a while, she was looking at the vegetables and asking about the prices when she suddenly saw a few wooden buckets on a small stall ahead. Upon closer inspection, she saw that the rest of the fish were just ordinary river fish, but the bucket on the far right was full of small river shrimp, only the size of sunflower seeds. They were quite active, darting around and jumping, and occasionally many of them would jump high—but this "high" was relative to themselves; in reality, they were no more than the height of a hand standing upright—before falling back into the water.

The other fish were nothing special, they were quite common, but the bucket of river shrimp, though small, was incredibly fresh and sweet, a rare find. Song Miao hurriedly went up to ask the price.

Before I could even open my mouth, the stall owner said, "You must be Miss Song, right? Just give me two copper coins—these are all shrimp that my husband caught while fishing. They don't grow very big and don't fetch a good price. We saved up these two small buckets all night. I feel a little embarrassed to leave them here!"

Song Miao was somewhat surprised to hear the other person call her by name so readily. She looked up and indeed recognized the face.

She was always good at remembering people's faces, and immediately recognized her as the laundry woman who had helped carry the copper coins before and who had come to the Xie family's grain store to find Xiang Yuan.

"Auntie, why are you watching the stall here? Don't you have to go to work today?" Song Miao couldn't help but ask.

The aunt said, "Oh, don't even mention it. Lately, we often don't have any work. We do rough work, mostly sending dirty and filthy clothes that can't be washed out from the docks, shops, and restaurants. With the floods lasting so long, many places are not open, so where do we get dirty clothes? Even when we are open, business is bad, so we just wash them ourselves and don't want to send them out and spend that little money."

Song Miao understood immediately.

When business is good and people are busy making money, the owner or manager usually won't be stingy with a few coins.

But when times get tough, everyone starts clamoring for "increasing revenue and cutting costs".

In the end, the source definitely cannot be opened, and the flow must be conserved.

She sighed, offered a few words of comfort, and said, "It's better to set up a stall and do business when you have time than to sell all your fish to fish buyers. You can earn more money that way."

The aunt sighed, "Although I'll earn a little more money, it'll tie me to this place, and I can't find any other work!"

He then said to Song Miao, "It's good that you have a skill; you'll never go hungry!"

Song Miao chatted with her for a few minutes, intending to pay the market price, but the other party insisted on not taking that much, only half. So she had no choice but to say, "I'll leave these shrimp with you for a while, Auntie. I'll go buy some fresh chives..."

As soon as she finished speaking, the aunt pointed to a path on the right and said, "Last time we helped the young lady carry her load, there was a woman we usually call 'Dog Girl' who sells vegetables inside. She grows them with her husband and his wife. They have chives right now. I saw them this morning and praised them, saying that even though the leaves weren't very thick, you could smell their fragrance from afar!"

Upon hearing this, Song Miao went over to take a look and indeed found it to be a rare small-leafed leek, unlike the large leeks with thick leaves. It was extremely fragrant and had a very unique aroma.

***
While Song Miao was buying various ingredients, in the kitchen of the official post station, while Da Bing went out to greet the vendors, a dozen or so cooks who stayed in the kitchen all stopped what they were doing, some complaining and others cursing.

"Carry me, carry me, carry my ass! Where did this little bastard come from, acting all high and mighty here, daring to tell me what to do—never walk alone at night again, if you run into me, I'll cover your head with a blindfold, and you'll get a good beating before you know how to run away with your tail between your legs!"

"Come on, all you do is talk big. If you're so capable, slap him in the face and he won't dare to make false accusations!"

The one being criticized for his vulgar language was the young man who was urinating.

The man snorted and said, "Do you think I'm someone who's only good for talking!"

The group was washing the earthenware jars.

The jar was very large, and it was inconvenient to wash. It required two people to hold it up while one person reached in to apply force.

The man sneered, then spat twice into the earthenware jar.

Everyone in the kitchen burst into laughter.

The man who was urinating was still not satisfied and said, "It's a pity that everything is locked up, otherwise I would have given them a couple of mouthfuls of phlegm to add some flavor to their meat."

As he spoke, he instructed the men by the door, "Brothers, keep watch for me!"

As he spoke, he unzipped his pants and began to urinate into the earthenware jar, saying, "Jie, I'm calling you Jie!"

After finishing his business, the man lewdly chuckled, "This little lady is quite something, hehe... Though she has a bad temper, she's certainly got a beautiful face!"

Then he asked, "Is there anyone else who urgently needs to pee?"

(End of this chapter)