Courtyard House: The Chef's Intelligence System

Yan Bugui was unwilling because the hospital had developed too rapidly in recent years, and a group of young men had joined forces.

Li Jiuzhou was just a cook before, and at most he became famous and participated in state banquets.

Yan Bugui didn't think Li Jiuzhou was that great; he had previously predicted Li Jiuzhou's future.

No matter how good your cooking skills are, at most you'll be a top chef in Fengzeyuan, that's about it. No matter how you move around, you'll still be in that same circle.

Because a cook is a cook after all, but things changed afterward. Li Jiuzhou made a spectacular turn and went to work at a steel rolling mill.

Once they're on the job, they're officially on the cadre payroll; now they're all section chiefs!

This shattered Yan Bugui's worldview.

After all, he was educated and a teacher. In his mind, all other pursuits were inferior, only studying was superior.

He believed that to become an official, one had to be a scholar, like Yang Ligong.

Out of the blue, a cook became a leader. If it were anyone else, that would be one thing, but this person happened to be his neighbor in the same courtyard.

What made him even more upset was Sha Zhu.

Yan Bugui had already accepted Li Jiuzhou's leadership position, after all, Li Jiuzhou had an uncle who was an official.

But what is your silly Zhu?

A physically strong but mentally challenged cook actually became a cadre?

This made Yan Bugui question the meaning of life...

Yan Bugui could confidently say that he had seen right through Sha Zhu.

It was pure luck that I had a good senior brother to protect me; otherwise, it would have taken another 10 years for me to make a name for myself.

Then there's Jia Dongxu, who claims to be the leader of the younger generation. Yan Bugui thinks Jia Dongxu is the most normal young man in the compound.

After his father passed away, he took over the factory business and became an apprentice of Yi Zhonghai. With Yi Zhonghai's support, he got married and had children, and now he is living a prosperous life.

That's more like it, isn't it? That's normal for Jia Dongxu. There aren't that many cadres and leaders for you to be.

Next up is Xu Damao, who's not much of a person; all he has is a high school diploma.

Oh, and I'm even more fortunate to have a godfather, being the only child in my family.

In Yan Bugui's eyes, Da Hu was a capable young man.

Among the others, Liu Guangqi also caught Yan Bugui's eye. At least Liu Guangqi became a cadre after graduating from vocational school, and he might do better than Yan Bugui in the future.

Looking at his peers, Yi Zhonghai is now worth three times as much as Yan Bugui.

A level 7 fitter? That's brutal!

This isn't something that can be achieved through practice and hand dexterity alone; it requires real skill and a certain level of cultural refinement.

Yi Zhonghai now spends his free time reading at home, with a clear goal: to achieve the level eight fitter certification!

If this succeeds, it will be even more incredible.

Furthermore, Liu Haizhong, a level six fitter, is also working hard to learn, and in time he may become a level seven fitter.

Looking at Yan Bugui, all these years apart from a slight increase in salary, he hasn't managed to get any official position.

Yan Bugui felt he needed to take immediate action, otherwise he would feel terrible if he were truly outmatched by Yi Zhonghai and Liu Haizhong.

We're all men, who wants to be inferior?

He came up with a good idea. The school was a tough place to deal with; the principal was upright and incorruptible, so any underhanded tactics wouldn't work.

He decided to take a roundabout route.

The next day, I went directly to the director of the neighborhood office, adopting an attitude of "I care about the people" and saying I wanted to report the literacy class for free.

This made Director Wang very happy; it was a good thing, and it was even better if it didn't cost any money.

Previously, teachers had to be paid a fee for their hard work when running literacy classes, but now that's no longer necessary; the neighborhood committee only needs to provide the venue.

Director Wang is a woman of action and a decisive, strong woman who gets things done as soon as she says she will.

They set up a classroom directly in the neighborhood office for Yan Bugui to teach.

The time was set for 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

He even notified residents in the area that anyone who was illiterate could come to the class, thus promoting Yan Bugui's selfless and altruistic character.

Yan Bugui's efforts paid off; after only a few days of teaching, he had already gained a certain level of prestige.

Residents on the street would respectfully call him Teacher Yan whenever they saw him.

Upon hearing the news, Yi Zhonghai chuckled. His opponents often knew best what he was doing.

Yi Zhonghai saw through Yan Bugui at a glance and didn't take him seriously at all.

He continued to study quietly. Yi Zhonghai understood very well that once he became an eighth-level fitter, all sorts of monsters and demons would have to step aside, and he would be the one to call the shots in this institute.

Five days before the Lunar New Year, this is the last day off, and it's still snowing in Beiping.

Unless there's an emergency, nobody wants to go out in this kind of weather.

Many people say that northerners don't like to take baths, and that's definitely true. It's not even convenient to get water, so why would they want to take a bath?

However, I would normally change out of my underwear and wash myself with hot water every night.

Most of the neighbors in the courtyard go to the public bathhouse for a scrub every two weeks or once a month.

In the morning, only the little kids were bundled up and building snowmen. It was impossible to keep them indoors all day; they couldn't stay still. So, we simply let them out, as long as they didn't leave the courtyard.

Just then, two people arrived at the courtyard gate. They were dressed rather strangely, with white linen wrapped around their waists. Yan Bugui guessed from their appearance that they had come to announce the death.

So he asked:

"Comrades, who are you looking for?"

The older, middle-aged man nodded to Yan Bugui:

"I'm here to deliver the news of a death. Liu Haizhong from your courtyard is my cousin. His mother has passed away."

Yan Bugui nodded:

"Oh... then you wait here, I'll go tell him."

The young people who came with him were somewhat unhappy:

"Wait, Comrade, why won't you let us in?"

Yan Bugui smiled after hearing this: "I'm sorry, you two, but we have a rule that strangers cannot be brought into the courtyard."

"But don't worry, as long as your identities are clear, Lao Liu will take you inside in a bit."

Yan Bugui was quite patient. After explaining to the two of them, he shouted into his house:

"Jiecheng, go to the backyard and call your Uncle Liu and his family out. Remember, they must be the whole family."

After hearing this, Yan Jiecheng walked over and glanced at the scene. He immediately understood why his father had called Liu Haizhong's whole family out. He muttered to himself, "They've come to announce the death..."

Without stopping, he turned and quickly headed towards the backyard.

The Liu family's gate was tightly shut. Yan Jiecheng went over and started smashing it repeatedly, making rapid and loud noises.

The people inside the room frowned upon hearing the sound.

Liu Haizhong's fiery temper flared up instantly. He got up and went to open the door, cursing. He wanted to see who was so bold as to bang on his door like that.

Upon opening the door and seeing Yan Bucheng, Liu Haizhong immediately began to curse:

"Jiecheng, have you no manners? Who knocks on the door like that? Are you announcing a death?"

Yan Jiecheng did it on purpose. He really wanted to laugh, but he held it in. After all, this kind of thing was very serious and not something to joke about.

So he pretended to be embarrassed and said, "Uncle Liu, I really came to report the death. Two people came to the door just now, claiming to be your cousins, and they were wearing white cloths around their waists."

"My dad just found out that the man said your mother passed away. That's why my dad sent me to tell you and to tell your whole family to go out and greet her."