1984: Starting from a bankrupt Sichuan restaurant

Chapter 300 Mom, is this really that hard? (Bonus chapter for 1385 monthly votes)

Zhou Yan played a game of chess with Comrade Lao Zhou before taking a shower.

After taking a shower, Zhou Momo was kneeling there tutoring Aunt Zhao in writing, with a soft cushion under her knees, a testament to Old Zhou's fatherly love.

Of course, when tutoring homework, Comrade Zhou didn't dare to get close. He took a book and sat in the corner, reading it with great interest.

Speaking of which, although the workload of Lao Zhou working at the restaurant is not low, his schedule is much better than before. He no longer has to get up at two o'clock to slaughter cattle.

In the evening, I can play a couple of games of chess with my son, read a book for a while, and then go to bed and cuddle with my wife.

Zhou Yan pulled a notebook out of the cabinet, found a table, sat down, and began writing the lecture outline he would need for the day after tomorrow.

He has a thick skin and doesn't get nervous when speaking in front of people.

However, lecturing was a completely unfamiliar field for him. As an apprentice who had been practicing for two and a half years, he really had no teaching experience.

These past two days he has been thinking about what to say. Although his grandmaster told him to relax and share, he couldn't be too sloppy and lose face for the Confucian school.

We've already talked about stir-fried pig liver before, so it would seem unprofessional to talk about it again. He's going to talk about twice-cooked pork, a common home-style dish and an indispensable cornerstone of Sichuan cuisine in restaurants of all sizes.

With a copy of "Sichuan Cuisine Recipes" at hand, Zhou Yan quickly sketched out an outline by referring to the recipes, and then wrote a presentation based on the outline.

Zhou Yan has top-notch experience, but how to teach and explain it to others still requires careful consideration, which is much more difficult than directly starting out.

Of course, chefs don't just sit in a classroom when they take classes.

There is also a stove on site, which can be used for drills.

He spent over an hour working on the presentation slides, while Aunt Zhao and the others had already taken Zhou Momo upstairs to sleep.

"Dear students, today I'm going to show you a classic Sichuan dish: twice-cooked pork..."

"emmm..."

Zhou Yan practiced in front of the mirror several times, then scratched his head in frustration. The courseware was well-written, the explanations were clear and easy to understand, and with the live demonstration, everyone should be able to understand it.

But looking at myself in the mirror, I felt that it wasn't quite convincing.

Well, he's too handsome and fair-skinned, lacking a bit of a teacher's authority and even less persuasiveness.

Sometimes being handsome is a problem. If you were slightly chubby like Senior Brother Zheng and had a receding hairline, you would look more authoritative.

Zhou Yan sighed, hung the mirror back up, turned off the light, and went upstairs to sleep.

Lying in bed, a thought struck him, and he brought up the control panel:
[Player: Zhou Yan]

Occupation: Chef

[Wealth Points: 33221.42]

[Professional Skills]:
Knife skills (advanced): 12600/100000
Cooking temperature (advanced): 10488/100000
Seasoning (Premium): 10688/100000
Eloquence (Advanced): 89999/100000 (Striving for even greater heights!)

Mastering the Dishes:

……

Mapo Tofu (Premium): 99999/100000
Dry-fried Rock Carp (Premium): 99999/100000
Snowflake Chicken Noodles (Premium): 99999/100000
……

task:

Side Quest: Zhao Shulan's Troubles! Progress 35%

Side Quest: Training Course Instructor Experience! Incomplete

……

He's been too busy lately to pay much attention to the panel data. Following his knife skills, his seasoning and cooking techniques have also reached an advanced level.

This is probably one of the reasons why his cooking skills have improved significantly recently. The improvement in seasoning and cooking techniques has been of great help in mastering new dishes.

After scanning it carefully, his gaze lingered on the two tasks for a while.

Huang Ying has successfully lost 21 pounds!
This surprised Zhou Yan.

I see her every day, and I only noticed that her face had gotten a little smaller; I never imagined she had lost so much weight.

Twenty-one jin (approximately 40 kg) is no small amount.

He cuts so much pork every day; twenty pounds is a huge piece.

This girl has good perseverance.

Huang Bing, on the other hand, had visibly become much stronger. Drinking a bowl of braised beef every day had definitely paid off, and he was no longer the weak-kidneyed man he used to be.

Zhou Yan's gaze fell on the lower left corner; the icon for the Wealth Mall had been untouched for so long that it was almost covered in dust.

The main problem was that the things inside mostly seemed like "pretty but useless things," so Zhou Yan hadn't opened them for a long time.

Now he wants to rummage through it to see if he can find anything that will make him look more convincing, such as a pair of gold-rimmed glasses.

100 Ways to Cut a Cucumber - 800
[Ten Tips for Bargaining at Groceries] — 1000
【Kitchenware Maintenance Methods and Techniques】—1200 (Mastered)

[Ten Secret Recipes for Advanced Hot Pot Dipping Sauces] — 2000
100 Practical Tips for Quickly Winning Over a Rich Woman's Heart - 8888
Ten ways to remove oil from clothes - 666
[Fancy Fruit Peeling Techniques] - 888
……

After clicking on it, the first few pages are still just some useless little tips for everyday life.

After swiping halfway through, Zhou Yan swiped back, stared at the "100 Practical Tips for Quickly Winning Over a Rich Woman's Heart" for a while, and then chose to buy it.

It wasn't that I really wanted to win the heart of a rich woman; I was just hoping to gain some useful knowledge from it and apply it to other situations.

After clicking on it, my anxiety quickly died.

Chapter 1, Section 1: The Flower Language of Steel Wool – Forbearance and Wealth
Zhou Yan: "..."

擀！

Let's just say there's something wrong with this dog-themed online store!

Is Xia Yao that kind of person?
Is he that kind of person?

Cross it out.

It's just that there's no internet, otherwise I would have transferred it to his three useless roommates. After calming down from being scammed out of 8888 wealth points and cursing the damn system a hundred times, Zhou Yan patiently continued scrolling down.

Title: [Exemplary Teacher] - 18888
Zhou Yan's gaze froze as he looked at the exorbitantly priced title, his expression grave.

I don't dare to click easily, because clicking in this store means you've already made a purchase, and there's no undo button.

After searching through all the items available in the store, this is the only one that seems somewhat useful.

After hesitating for a moment, Zhou Yan decided to click.

[Ding! The title "Exemplary Teacher" has been successfully purchased!]

[Title Effect: When worn, you gain a buff: You become more persuasive when explaining principles and knowledge, just like the most respected teacher in the other person's heart.]

【Whether to wear: Yes/No】

[Reusable]

Zhou Yan's eyes lit up immediately.

Depend on!
I got an SSR!

Zhou Yan sat up abruptly. Wasn't this the persuasive power he had been dreaming of?!

Sorry, Tongzi!
I spoke a little too loudly just now.

Without hesitation, Zhou Yan decisively chose to wear it.

I sat for a while, but didn't feel anything.

After getting up and going downstairs to get a mirror, Zhou Yan looked at himself in the mirror but still couldn't see any obvious changes.

"Wow, you're so handsome," Zhou Yan said.

The reflection in the mirror nodded.

Indeed, it was very convincing.

Zhou Yan put the mirror back and went upstairs to sleep.

No, I'll have someone else test it tomorrow.

Convincing yourself is so easy.

The next morning, Zhou Yan and the others were making steamed buns. Aunt Zhao also got up early and was reading a book.

Sichuan people have a unique way of speaking Mandarin: even the fiercest tyrannosaurus rex will unconsciously pick up some slurs when speaking Mandarin.

It's like... having a Mandarin-speaking stigma.

For example, Aunt Zhao now.

He was reciting "Sympathy for the Peasants" in a strangely gentle tone.

It was that half-baked, half-sophisticated Sichuan dialect version of "Sympathy for the Peasants" that made Zhou Yan's eyebrows dance wildly, and he almost couldn't help but laugh out loud several times.

"Fourth Aunt, why did you suddenly start learning Mandarin?" Zhao Hong put the buns in her hand into the steamer, turned around and looked at Aunt Zhao next to her, and said, "You should throw away the clip in your throat."

Zhou Yan turned her face away: Ku ku ku...

I never expected my sister-in-law to be such a great artist.

"Get out of my sight!" Aunt Zhao glared at her and said with a laugh.

"Ah, this feels so much better." Zhao Hong smiled even more happily.

“You don’t understand. Learning Mandarin is about keeping up with the times. When our restaurant moves to Jiaozhou Wharf, there will be many tourists from other places coming and going. If they speak Mandarin and I can’t understand them, and I speak Sichuan dialect and they can’t understand them, how will we do business?” Aunt Zhao said earnestly. “That’s why I still have to learn Mandarin. I can’t let any business slip away!”

Zhao Hong and Li Lihua were filled with respect and gave each other a thumbs up.

Looking at Aunt Zhao, Zhou Yan felt a little moved. His mother was forty years old, and her courage to start learning Mandarin, literacy, and writing from scratch was truly admirable.

"Mom, that's not how you pronounce it. You'll get scolded by your teacher at school if you do that tonight," Zhou Yan said with a smile. "Do you want me to teach you?"

"That's how the teacher read it," Aunt Zhao said, somewhat unconvinced.

“Uh…” Zhou Yan suddenly remembered that day when he passed by the factory-run primary school and heard the principal’s fluent Sichuan dialect on the radio.

Suddenly I realized that his mother might not have been arguing for the sake of arguing, but rather that the teacher really taught it that way.

“This teacher’s accent is a bit heavy. Let me read it aloud.” Zhou Yan looked at Aunt Zhao, his expression becoming more serious.

Aunt Zhao put down her book. She wanted to emphasize that the teacher was definitely right, but seeing Zhou Yan's serious expression, she swallowed her words and nodded, saying, "You read it, I'll listen."

“Sympathy for the Farmers, Part Two: Hoeing the Rice at Noon…” Zhou Yan recited “Sympathy for the Farmers” in perfect pronunciation.

Aunt Zhao was stunned, and looked hesitantly at Zhao Hong and Li Lihua: "Is this right?"

“Fourth Aunt, I think it sounds right. That’s the same tone the announcer on the radio uses, it’s different from how you read it,” Zhao Hong said.

“When I was in Jiaozhou, I heard tourists talking in the same tone,” Li Lihua nodded.

“That’s how our Chinese teacher read it,” Zhou Lihui added.

Aunt Zhao believed her now and looked at Zhou Yan, saying, "Okay, then I'll learn from you."

Zhou Yan began to read the poem to Zhao Niangniang line by line, just like teaching a toddler to recite ancient poems. They couldn't even recognize all the characters yet, but they were already memorizing the poem.

Aunt Zhao stumbled and stammered throughout the entire morning reciting the poem "Sympathy for the Peasants."

Zhou Momo, who woke up naturally, came downstairs and, in the time it took to tie her hair, was able to recite fluently.

And he was speaking Mandarin in a childish, almost childlike voice, but surprisingly, it was quite standard.

"Sympathy for the farmers, hoeing the fields at midday..."

Zhou Momo recited it again, then looked up at Aunt Zhao with a puzzled expression: "Mom, is this difficult?"

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(End of this chapter)