Courtyard House: Starting as a mediocre engineer

"Director Jin, I noticed a problem during last week's chef exam..."

Taking the opportunity, Zhuang Zhongchen reported on the matter. In the workplace, it's best to avoid playing clever tricks. Seeking instructions and reporting frequently is always a good practice.

After listening, Director Jin nodded: "Xiao Zhuang, you did very well. For this kind of exam, as long as your ability is just average, that's fine. Let's solve the problem of whether you have the skills or not first. Our principle is to serve the people. We must never make things difficult for the children of the working class."

"Director Jin, there's one more thing: our vocational education textbooks have mostly come from the north, and some technical schools even copy them entirely. But we don't have textbooks for Chinese cuisine chefs, nor can we possibly have them; we need to write our own. Otherwise, it will affect our subsequent teaching work."

"Okay. Please submit a report to me as soon as possible. It will likely require the cooperation of the Education Bureau's textbook department and approval from higher authorities."

"Yes, Director Jin."

"..."

In his previous work, the original owner had actually been slacking off. Or rather, it wasn't intentional slacking off; he simply didn't know how to carry out the work. Because of this, he was gradually marginalized. Even Gu Qiming was parachuted in, and the superiors were already considering replacing him with Gu Qiming as section chief.

Therefore, even if you want to slack off, you still need to do your job well. As a result, Zhuang Zhongchen gradually began to change his attitude during the meeting.

As expected, Director Jin readily agreed to Zhuang Zhongchen's assigned duties.

After all, the safety supervision department has far too many tasks, and with so many safety accidents in Beijing, they're constantly busy. As for the miscellaneous affairs of the vocational skills section, it's already a miracle they're not causing trouble...

……

Back in his office, Zhuang Zhongchen spent over an hour writing the application report. After carefully checking it several times, he meticulously copied it over again.

For a seasoned veteran like Zhuang Zhongchen, creating a visually appealing and eye-catching PPT is just basic stuff, isn't it?

Holding the report, Zhuang Zhongchen approached Director Jin's secretary, Xiao Liu: "Brother Liu, could you please take a look? Please point out any errors."

As they were talking, Zhuang Zhongchen secretly took out a pack of Peony cigarettes and quietly slipped it into Secretary Jin's pocket: "These are the cigarettes I borrowed for work during the exam."

Secretary Liu smiled. He quickly skimmed through the report, and the more he read, the more surprised he became: "Xiao Zhuang, you wrote quite well! And you even have the idea of ​​a 'Home-Style Recipes' book? What were your thoughts on that?"

"Brother Liu, isn't it necessary to fund the compilation of new teaching materials? Since we've already found so many chefs, let them also compile a 'Home-Style Cookbook.' Our bureau has an internal printing plant, and the ministry has a publishing house. Let's keep the profits in the family and sell it in Xinhua Bookstore."

"Hey! You little punk. Leave it with me, I'll hand it over to Director Jin."

"Thanks."

Interestingly, bookstores in those days were relatively upscale and generally didn't carry many cookbooks. However, the demand from the general public was incredibly high; the people of this food-loving nation had a real passion for cookbooks. By the 80s, cookbook magazines even ranked among the top 50 best-selling magazines nationwide. Even in the later era of short videos, cooking vloggers remained a popular genre.

As the two men smoked, Secretary Liu casually remarked, "Xiao Zhuang, you've really impressed me this time. You truly deserve to be called a college graduate."

"No, not at all. Haha." Zhuang Zhongchen said politely, "I'm good at theoretical discussions, but my paperwork is so-so. On the contrary, I still need to learn a lot from the older comrades in many practical aspects."

"I want to too! The medical expenses at home used to be too much of a hole. So now I only have two things to do: bury myself in work and study; and try to pay off as much money as possible! Of course, if my father-in-law's family has money to help, I will never object. I'd even give them a fat girl if I closed my eyes."

"Hahaha!"

"..."

Back in his office, Zhuang Zhongchen found Huang Ya: "Old Huang, do I owe you two jin of meal tickets? Do you want noodle tickets or meal tickets?"

"I'm not in a hurry to use manipulated stocks. Hehe."

"If you have something, you have to pay it back. I don't have the food coupons or the borrowed money right now. But didn't I just get the food coupons?"

"Okay. Give me the ticket!"

"..."

In addition to grain coupons, meal tickets at the company canteen cost 5 cents per pound. Vegetable coupons were for whatever price was required. Government canteens usually provided subsidies.

However, rice coupons were more popular, since they allowed people to purchase whole wheat flour. Therefore, more people chose them.

After running around, Zhuang Zhongchen paid off all the meal tickets he owed. The amount wasn't much, only 9 jin (approximately 6 catties). He used canteen meal tickets for the rest, except for 5 jin (approximately 4 kg) of flour coupons.

However, this also brought news to Zhuang Zhongchen's colleagues that he was trying to repay the money. At least for the time being, these colleagues were temporarily calmed down.

After having lunch in the cafeteria, Zhuang Zhongchen made up an excuse and left the office to "go on fieldwork".

Since there's not much going on in the vocational and technical education sector anyway, it's relatively easy to find excuses. Things like surveys of technical and vocational schools, the vocational training status of employees, factory inquiries and surveys…

For government employees, as long as they have something on their mind, why should they be afraid of not finding a job?

Of course, Zhuang Zhongchen wouldn't go to work at this time. He simply followed the list given to him by Mi Cuicui and found a family.

"Excuse me, is Mr. Liu here?"

"That's me. And you are?"

"I'm Big Shovel's friend. Does he owe you 32 yuan?"

"Yes, yes, that's true."

"The Da Chan family has come to me for help; they're just women who don't know what else to do. So, this debt has been transferred to me. This is the IOU that Da Chan's wife wrote for me. I wonder if you'd be willing to accept it?"

"Of course I'm willing, as long as I pay back the money."

"This bag contains the mixed flour, which costs 1 yuan per jin (500g). Consider it the initial payment. I'll leave you an IOU for the rest, guaranteeing you'll pay it back within six months."

"Huh? It still owes for another six months?"

"Please forgive me, sir. Dachan has far too much debt. Who could possibly come up with that much money all at once? This is my work ID; I work for the government. You should be relieved now, right?"

"Well... alright! Big Shovel is lucky to have a friend like you!"

"Sigh! That kid got into trouble because of Lei Zi. His wife is crying and begging for his baby. As a man, what can I do?"

"Hehehe. You're out of luck. But you're pretty loyal."

"Why--!"

The debt transfer went very smoothly, and everyone was happy to see Zhuang Zhongchen getting even worse off...