Courtyard House: The Chef's Intelligence System

Someone of the old man's status wouldn't lack meat at home, but he wouldn't dare to have lavish meals of fish, meat, and delicacies every day.

You shouldn't do things without awareness. It's perfectly fine for someone like Li Huaide to occasionally treat himself to something nice to eat at home.

What problems could there be? My nephew is a top chef. Why not make use of him?

No matter what kind of family it is, they can always find some good ingredients every year or two. If they can't cook it themselves, they can ask someone else to cook it, let alone their own nephew.

You know, someone of the old man's level can afford to hire a chef. He would even want to take someone like Li Jiuzhou home and raise him.

Chefs are easy to hire in Beijing because there are many top-notch chefs.

However, hiring a top chef as a private chef is basically impossible. Those chefs admire and respect their superiors, but they would never be willing to work as private chefs.

If you hear something you shouldn't, you could be silenced.

Such things happened even before liberation. Even chefs who weren't private chefs could be silenced if they accidentally overheard something they shouldn't have.

For example, Li Tielong's senior brother is also the senior brother of Li Jiuzhou and Shazhu.

He once worked as a private chef for a warlord, but he was silenced for listening to things he shouldn't have.

According to Li Tielong, he died a horrible death.

These days, the cooking skills of a personal chef for a leader are just average. They're edible, and the food is pretty good, mainly because the ingredients are good.

However, these chefs' culinary skills are hardly up to par when it comes to using precious ingredients; they are far inferior to those of chefs with established lineages.

In the past, when Li Jiuzhou was chatting with the old man, he jokingly mentioned that he wanted Li Jiuzhou to come to his house and be his cook.

Even after the public-private partnership was established, the old man mentioned that he should work as a cook in the Ministry of Industry.

Why did the old man do that?

I just want to eat something good.

It doesn't have to be something that flies in the sky, swims in the sea, or runs in the mountains.

What he needs is someone who can turn ordinary ingredients into delicious food!

However, Li Jiuzhou refused. The Ministry of Industry was full of bigwigs, and the situation was too complicated for him to handle.

The steel rolling mill is doing quite well; it hasn't expanded yet, and the highest-ranking Party Secretary and Factory Director are only at the deputy provincial level.

Only after expansion will they be able to take the stage and go further.

After winter sets in, the people of Beiping will start stockpiling supplies again.

Coal, firewood, winter-stored Chinese cabbage, etc.

Every day on his way to work, Li Jiuzhou would see a family pushing a cart full of cabbages.

Since Li Jiuzhou transmigrated here, the wicked woman has never bought any cabbages for winter storage.

We used to get our vegetables from Fengzeyuan. Although they were a bit more expensive, we didn't eat vegetables every day.

Given the means, it would be better to eat meat, so Li Jiuzhou's family ate very little cabbage and mostly meat.

Now that Li Jiuzhou no longer works at Fengzeyuan, he bought some vegetables and grains that are relatively easy to store, such as Chinese cabbage, potatoes, sweet potatoes, purple sweet potatoes, and radishes.

Three large flatbed carts were loaded with goods, all brought back by hired help.

The cellar in Li Jiuzhou's house was big enough that even with all these things inside, it only took up half the space.

Li Jiuzhou even took the time to make a large ice tank to freeze meat, because this winter in Beiping was just too cold, with temperatures dropping to minus ten degrees Celsius.

It's only been 20-odd days since winter started, and seven or eight elderly people in Nanluoguxiang have already passed away.

They weren't old, only in their 60s, and all of them passed away before they turned 70.

Holding a funeral in this cold weather can make people feel dizzy from the cold.

Several families had their children buried the day after they were born.

The snow was falling so heavily that even delivering the news of the death was troublesome and dangerous.

The best part of No. 95 Courtyard is that every household has a kang (heated brick bed).

Sleeping in temperatures below -10 degrees Celsius is absolutely wonderful!

No need to worry about carbon monoxide poisoning from burning a stove like before, and no need to make a gap for ventilation.

Now that we have a kang (heated brick bed), the whole house is warm, and I sleep incredibly soundly.

The only downside is that it consumes a lot of wood, which you have to buy.

In the entire courtyard, only Li Jiuzhou and Sha Zhu's family had separate kang beds in each room.

For the others, they just need to go over a long kang (heated brick bed) and put up a wall in the middle to separate them.

That's how it was in the Jia family; the place to burn firewood was right next to the kang (heated brick bed) in the main room, where Jia Zhangshi lived.

Li Jiuzhou's family consumes the most wood. Of the three kang beds, only two are currently in use, as his younger sister Fengjiao only comes back to stay occasionally.

The Celestial Master's wife rarely lets her come back to live in such a cold place.

After winter set in, the factory started to have more supplies, and several trucks would drive to the logistics warehouse every day to unload goods.

Li Jiuzhou knew that the factory was purchasing New Year's benefits in advance, so that they could get things done early and feel at ease. The factory leaders were also thinking ahead.

The day before the winter solstice, many workers complained that they wanted to eat dumplings.

Because in most parts of northern China, the custom is to eat dumplings on the winter solstice.

As a result, many lower-level leaders reported this matter to the factory director, hoping to gain some merit and political achievements.

When Director Yang heard this, he thought it was a good idea. After all, we eat dumplings on the Winter Solstice. He remembered that his wife had told him to make dumplings for us the next day when he left for work.

And these past few days, a lot of flour has been delivered to the factory. Are all the main ingredients in place? Making dumplings is as easy as pinching a handful of dough.

I originally wanted to arrange for someone to talk to Li Jiuzhou and change tomorrow's dishes to dumplings.

But Director Yang happened to be free, so he decided to go to the kitchen and talk to Li Jiuzhou about it directly.

When Director Yang arrived at the kitchen, he saw Li Jiuzhou instructing others on their tasks, so he greeted him:

"Director Li, come here for a moment."

"Director Yang, what brings you here? Is there something you need me to do?" Li Jiuzhou stepped forward with a smile.

Yang Ligong said, "Isn't tomorrow the Winter Solstice? How about we make dumplings for the workers?"

Yang Ligong's voice was quite loud, and everyone in the kitchen of the First Canteen heard it and looked at him with strange expressions.

Li Jiuzhou's eyes darted around: "You mean the workers will have a day off tomorrow for the Winter Solstice, and we can all make dumplings together?"

Yang Ligong frowned upon hearing this:

"Director Li, when did I say that the workers were taking a break to make dumplings? They have to go to work tomorrow."

"It's your kitchen staff who are responsible for making the dumplings for the workers."

Li Jiuzhou frowned, not immediately refuting Yang Ligong, but instead asked again:

"Director Yang, should we let the workers have a few dumplings as a treat, or should we let them eat as many as they want?"

Hearing this, Yang Ligong was already starting to feel dissatisfied with Li Jiuzhou. Regardless of whether it was related to him or not, his tone immediately became harsh:

"Director Li, what are you saying? Since it's the Winter Solstice, we should naturally eat dumplings all we want."

"Can this be done? Are you capable of doing it well?"

Li Jiuzhou smiled slightly at Yang Ligong.

Yang Ligong's expression softened as he thought Li Jiuzhou was about to agree, but Li Jiuzhou's words immediately echoed throughout the entire kitchen:

"This is really something I can't handle..."

"What did you say?" Factory Director Yang looked at Li Jiuzhou with disbelief.

"Director Li, do you know what you're saying?"

Li Jiuzhou simply shrugged and said, "If I can't do it, I can't do it. Why force me to do something I don't understand?"