Courtyard House: The Chef's Intelligence System

After Li Jiuzhou personally started the hospitality event at the factory before the Lunar New Year, it wasn't going to stop so easily.

The leaders wanted to eat, no problem; Li Jiuzhou also had his own plans.

His apprentices and nephews need practical skills, so he has to spend time and effort with them.

If a chef wants to improve, he needs to practice more and eat more. Fengzeyuan can't have so many people at once, so the best way to avoid owing favors is to do it himself.

Nan Yi is a good chef, but he's still a long way from being a top-notch chef.

He can cook all the dishes, but he cooks them very rarely. If he doesn't have the opportunity, he will never be able to cook all the recipes passed down from his master in his lifetime.

Because they were too poor, even the most skilled cook cannot cook without rice.

Now, whenever the factory needs to entertain guests, it's Nan Yi and You Fulai who do the work.

They were already qualified, with Sha Zhu offering guidance from the sidelines.

Nan Yi has only been in the kitchen for ten days, but his culinary skills are improving rapidly.

Although the factory still provides hospitality, the dishes have become quite ordinary.

It's normal for a large company to host banquets; sometimes they invite partners to dinner, and when leaders come to inspect, they also invite them to stay for a meal.

So the hospitality didn't stop, but the standard of hospitality dropped.

Because the rationing has been reduced again, there is not enough food, and even fresh pork is very difficult to buy on the market.

At this point, money truly becomes useless; only tickets matter, not money.

Not only is meat unavailable, but even vegetables are hard to find.

Every morning, groups of women would go out of town to dig for wild vegetables.

The more sensible children are already fishing in Shichahai or wild rivers with a bamboo stick.

At this time, the black market was rampant, and the government was cracking down on it, but it was to no avail, as demand exceeded the crackdown efforts.

If caught, it's considered speculation and profiteering, the goods will be confiscated, and the person will be criticized; in serious cases, they may even go to jail.

Even so, it's impossible to completely eliminate it.

The neighbors in the courtyard were also at a loss; they couldn't do anything about it.

This is not something that can be changed by individual ability; when faced with it, all you can do is keep trying to live.

Currently, only the food rations for heavy manual laborers in factories have not been reduced; in fact, they have increased slightly.

Some even receive higher grain rations than government officials, which is to be expected.

It would be a big problem if these physically demanding workers didn't get enough to eat.

But this is just a drop in the ocean. They really should eat more, but some people don't dare to eat as much as they want and will save the food for the elderly and children in their families.

Few people in the courtyard dared to eat their fill, and the Jia family was already facing the risk of running out of food.

The rations for Jia Zhangshi and her two children were reduced again and again, and there was simply not enough food for them.

Jia Dongxu's monthly grain ration is 43 jin. If he were to eat alone, he could only eat until he was half full, because there was no oil or fat in the food.

If there is oil and fat in the food, 28 to 30 jin (14-15 catties) is enough for him to eat by himself.

The key issue is the lack of oil and water, which means the 43-jin (approximately 26.5 catties) quota is completely insufficient.

Moreover, he also had to prepare food for his mother, son, and daughter.

It wasn't just Jia Dongxu; almost everyone was in the same state, in a state of semi-starvation.

You feel full right now, but you get hungry again quickly.

Many people don't wake up naturally in the morning, but are woken up by hunger.

Many children in the yard complained of being hungry.

There's nothing you can do if you're hungry; you have to wait until it's mealtime.

In 20 days, the Jia family had finished all their food rations, leaving them with 10 jin of grain. How were they going to survive for the remaining 11 days?

There's not even enough food here to fill a gap between my teeth.

Jia Dongxu's face was deathly pale; he was terrified and panicked.

Tong Jie was trembling with fear. She never expected that, with the whole family having a food ration, there would be a food shortage.

If she doesn't have a job and doesn't have an urban household registration, wouldn't the Jia family be doomed?

At that time, her husband Jia Dongxu's income was enough to support four people, which was far from sufficient.

The salary wasn't low, but the money was useless; you couldn't buy food with it, you needed ration coupons.

You can buy them on the black market, but can you really eat sweet potatoes that cost more than a dollar a pound?

Sometimes the larger sweet potatoes weigh a pound, and I get hungry again in less than an hour after eating them.

Who can afford to buy food on the black market? Nobody would dare to do so unless absolutely necessary.

It's expensive, and you also have to bear the risk of getting arrested. Honest people really wouldn't dare to go unless they're so desperate they can't afford to live anymore.

The reason the Jia family didn't have enough food was because they didn't save it, which led to the food shortage.

The three members of the Jia family sat at the octagonal table to discuss what to do next.

Tong Jie said quietly:

"Mom, we've run out of food. We can't go on like this."

Jia Zhang curled her lips:

"Then what do you suggest we do? Let me go hungry, let my grandchildren go hungry?"

Tong Jie said:

"Mom, there are only eleven days left. How are we going to survive? Are we supposed to buy food on the black market? Can you afford it?"

"Whether we can actually buy it is another matter, but if we get caught, we'll lose our jobs. We can't afford that risk."

Jia Zhangshi nodded:

"Are you all stupid? Go find Old Yi! If he doesn't act now, when will he?"

Upon hearing this, the couple exchanged a glance and were immediately tempted.

Jia Dongxu stood up and sighed:

"Then I'll go ask my master first."

Soon Jia Dongxu arrived at Yi Zhonghai's house. At that moment, Yi Zhonghai was listening to the radio with his eyes half-closed. When he saw his apprentice coming over, he stopped listening.

He inquired:

"Dongxu, you look so worried, what happened?"

Jia Dongxu gave a wry smile:

"Master, we're running out of food at home..."

"What?" Yi Zhonghai jumped to his feet, his face ashen.

"What did you say? We're out of food at home, Dongxu? You're not joking with your master, are you?"

Jia Dongxu looked extremely upset.

"Master, how could I joke about something so important? We only have ten catties of grain left at home, and we'll really run out of food in two days."

After hearing this, Yi Zhonghai sat back down in his chair, wondering what the Jia family's monthly ration was.

The apprentice Jia Dongxu was given a monthly ration of 43 jin, Tong Jie 28 jin, and Jia Zhangshi 24 jin.

The stalk weighs 18 jin (approximately 9 catties), and the small stalk weighs 10 jin (approximately 5 catties).

43+28+24+18+10=123

The Jia family receives 123 jin of food rations each month. No matter how Yi Zhonghai calculated it, he could never have predicted that the Jia family would run out of food. Are you kidding me?

123 jin of food rations, with a daily consumption of 4 jin, is definitely enough, especially since there are only three adults in their family.

Moreover, Jia Dongxu and Tong Jie ate lunch at the factory, yet they still managed to eat more than 100 kilograms of grain and run out of food.

Yi Zhonghai really wanted to say, "Are all of you Jia family members pigs? How can you eat so much?"

Eating a month's worth of food in 20 days is equivalent to consuming more than 6 kilograms of food per day.

No wonder they ran out of food; with this kind of diet, it would be strange if they didn't run out of food.

Having figured it out, Yi Zhonghai looked at his apprentice with annoyance, his tone becoming very serious:

"Dongxu, I'm not trying to lecture you, but under normal circumstances, a family like yours shouldn't be going hungry."

"You even have a surplus? I didn't know that until you told me. I never imagined your family was so bad at managing money."

"What do you suggest we do next?"

Jia Dongxu was a little scared and whispered:

"I was thinking of asking you to spare some money for me, so we can get through this difficult time."

"Sigh..." Yi Zhonghai let out a long sigh:

"Have your teacher's wife pack 50 jin of cornmeal."

Jia Dongxu was a little confused when he heard this:

"Huh? Cornmeal? That stuff gets stuck in your throat!!!"

"Bang!" Yi Zhonghai slammed his hand on the table and stood up abruptly.

"Fine, don't eat then, get out of here right now! Damn it, I'd rather your whole family starve to death, fuck you!!!"

Jia Dongxu shrank his neck:

"Yes, yes, Master, I want it, please..."