The story of a cook

Chapter 394 Chatting with Zhang Li

You should be full of love for life, only those who love life will understand life.

People have to be full of hope for life when they live. People live in reality and in hope.

The life we ​​talk about is the life of ordinary people. My mother often said that life has to be good or bad, as long as you are alive, think about the good, God will not starve to death.

What do we all want life to give us, what can life give us?
The power of life, the beauty of living.

Knowing that I have no way out, I can only move forward without thinking about anything.Without any support, relying only on your own hands.There is no capital, the biggest capital is your own head.

Zheng Jiaqi knows that I am back, and Zhang Li will know that I am back.

The day after drinking with Zheng Jiaqi, Zhang Li called.

"What's the matter, Lao Tan, he didn't say anything when he came back." She said with a complaining tone.

"I just came back a few days ago, I'm sick, and I'm recuperating at home." I said.

"Don't say it's useless, being sick is two different things from not telling me, even if you're sick, why don't you have time to tell me?" She asked scoldingly.

"Don't you know that?" I smiled.

"If Jiaqi didn't tell me, I wouldn't know. You didn't take me as an ironclad at all." She still had a bad tone.

I said, "What's the matter, I invite you to dinner tonight."

"That's what you said, I didn't force you to ask for it." She said, her tone began to soften.

"Call me after get off work in the evening, we will meet for a bite, I will wait for you there." I said.

"Okay, I'll go back early today."

After answering Zhang Li's call, I received the good news that my brother-in-law Zhiye was admitted to university.Zhiye was admitted to Bohai University in Jinzhou. This is good news and a joyful thing.

Lin Yan said that she would come back in two days and go to Zhiye's school entrance banquet with me.For Zhiye to be admitted to university is a wish fulfilled for his mother-in-law. Although going to university requires money, at least he is a college student and will have a good job in the future, which can be regarded as leaving the countryside.It is money to spend money to go to college, but it is not a one-time payment. For four years, it is easier to pay in installments.

When Zhiye was admitted to university, he couldn't help but think of Qiuping. If Qiuping hadn't come out to work and continued her studies, would she have been admitted to university now?
It is a deep regret that Qiuping did not go to university.

How should I put it, I didn't study, I really couldn't afford it, and I didn't have the money to study.At that time, Qiuping's second sister's family was in a difficult situation, but everyone could afford to pay for Qiuping's education, but Qiuping knew the situation at home, so she didn't want to study anymore.Now it's okay to work part-time, and I have also gained love.But in my heart, I always felt that it was a pity that she didn't study at the beginning, and I also felt powerless because of my inability to make my niece continue to study.

What kind of feeling is it?I just feel that if I am good, I will not let Qiuping go out to work, and I can get money for her to study. It doesn't matter if I don't get into college, at least I tried my best as an uncle.

Everything I say now is a sigh, and when I say it, it doesn't help the matter except guilt. What I can do is to let Qiuping live a good life in the provincial capital, help if there is anything that can be done, and be a good uncle.

Now the two children of the eldest sister's family are married and have children, and Qiuping of the second sister's family is starting.Qiuping came out to work for me, so I have to take good care of her.

Now Qiuping is working very well in the clubhouse, and it's okay to have a date with her partner. If there is no accident, she will be able to get married in two years, which is a very good thing.

The family is also very good, the mother has a grandson, and the spirit is better.It was not easy for my mother to pull our six sisters together, and it was time to enjoy the family happiness.

I feel relieved when I think about the family affairs, and I am very happy when I think about my son. What I have to do now is to find a job, go to work to earn money, and support the family.

After returning from Binhai, I haven’t taken good care of my head, my hair has grown out, and I haven’t looked in the mirror for the past few days. I met Zhang Li at night and planned to take care of my hair.I have always been bald, cut my hair instead of going to the barber, and shaved my head with a razor.One is to save money, and the other is that the current barbershops are not willing to shave their heads, so it is not easy to charge.

He came to the kitchen sink, ready to shave himself.

Looking carefully at himself in the mirror, he suddenly found that his temples were completely white.I used to shave my head all the time, but I didn't notice that my hair was short. Now I haven't shaved my head for several days, and I didn't notice it until the hair grew a little.Not only the sideburns, but also the hair on the back of the head turned white, so suddenly.Before, I only knew that my hair was a little gray, but it was not that serious, and I couldn’t tell if I didn’t look carefully, but now why is it so gray all of a sudden?

Seems to be completely white overnight.

Is it true that there is a night of gray hair?
I also shaved my head when I went to Binhai, but I didn’t notice that my sideburns had turned white, nor had I noticed that the back of my head had also turned white. Why is it all white in just a few days?
It seems that it was not white when I went to the old Chinese doctor for treatment?
Just 31 years old, why is more than half of his hair gray?

Standing in front of the mirror and looking at the half-white-haired self in the mirror, he was in a daze.

Maybe I was worried when I couldn't lift my arm a few days ago.

In those few days, I was really worried, thinking that if I couldn’t go out to work, what would I do, and how would I support my child and wife?The baby was just born, and I couldn't move my arms. I couldn't make money. How can I support my family?So I got angry, maybe because of this, my hair turned gray.

Let it be white if it is white, anyway, it will be white sooner or later, and it will not be white sooner or later.

Smiling, scrape off all the white and non-white, and you have another big bald head.Looking at myself in the mirror, I look a bit like Maitreya Buddha with a big belly.

Zhang Li called at ten o'clock and said that she had started to take a taxi from West Tower to Santaizi. I came out of the house and went to Pinyikou.When I arrived, I ordered a few skewers and Malatang, and a bottle of white wine.After the skewers were served, Zhang Li arrived.

After sitting down, she asked me: "You said you were sick and came back from Binhai, what's the matter?"

I said, "Frozen shoulder, I can't lift my arm, I can't do my job and I'm back."

I told her about my illness and the treatment after I came back.

"How do you feel now? Can it work?" she asked.

I moved my arms and said to her, "It's fine now, it's all right."

"Then you also have to pay attention, rest at home for a while, and then look for work after you are completely recovered." She said.

I said, "I don't need to rest for a long time. It's almost the same now. If I have a suitable job, I can go to work. I can't stay at home all the time."

She said: "Frozen shoulder is not a trivial matter. If you get it, you don't like it. If you don't work, it's nothing to worry about. You will have to do it when you get hurt after doing work. You'd better rest at home."

"I also want to take a good rest, but how can I support my family if I don't earn money?" I said.

"You haven't earned less all these years. I didn't see how you spent your money, so you should save some money." She said, "Don't cry poor in front of me, don't worry, I won't borrow money from you."

I smiled. I have to say that I have earned a lot of money these years, but I don’t know each other in my life, and no one knows what kind of family is like. Every family has its own hard-to-read scriptures.

I know what my family is like, so there is no need to tell her, as if I was really crying poor.

I asked, "How are you doing there now?"

She said: "It's okay, average, not as good as before." She raised a glass and had a drink with me, and then said: "It's so hard to earn money now, and no one spends as much as before. Everyone Most of them come to our place to sing songs after drinking outside, and sometimes they don’t even find the lady, sing nursery rhymes and leave. We make money from drinks, and customers don’t drink much, so we can’t make money.”

"It's not easy to do that now, but yours is pretty good." I said.

"Now the consumption of customers is becoming more and more rational. They don't dare to spend money like before, and they don't take money seriously." She went on to say, "When I was working there in the first two years, let's not talk about girls, even the waiters can do it every day. Tips of one or two hundred dollars are not enough now, customers almost don’t give tips, and they give them slaps and slaps, ten or twenty yuan, and at most fifty, it’s not bad to meet once a week.”

I said: "Rational consumption is now."

She said: "Yes, customers can spend rationally now. They should spend what should be spent, and what should not be spent will be resolutely avoided."

"The main reason is that money is hard to earn." I said.

"That's not true, money is hard to earn." She said: "The bosses who came to my house used to spend three or four thousand, sometimes tens of thousands, but now it's not good. If you can spend 2000 yuan, it's not bad. Looking for a lady is not the same as before, sometimes I just find someone who can order songs, and I don’t look for other ladies.”

I asked, "Why do you go to your house without looking for Miss?"

She said: "Singing. Now it's not that much money for a lady to sit on the stage. In the past, it only cost at least [-] yuan to sit on the stage. When I was busy all night, I could sit on three or four stages. Now I sit on stage for [-], and I can do two in one night." The stage is not bad, if the lady wants to make money, she can only stage it."

"It's hard to do either now," I said.

"It's not easy to do." She said: "Now I think that formal catering is okay, but it needs to be standardized. Whoever can achieve standardization will win."

"This is also a reform. The traditional management in the past can't keep up, and it can't work anymore. It has to be changed." I said.

"By the way, you go back to Binhai, how about Binhai?" she asked.

"It's okay, the catering industry is more developed than our provincial capital." I said.

"How can it be seen that it is more developed than our provincial capital?" she asked.

I said: "Take the kitchen stalls as an example. Almost every restaurant over there has stalls, and there are very few recipes. Our provincial capital still has more recipes and fewer stalls."

"It's a waste to set up a stall. If it can't be sold, it will be broken." She said.

"This is a management issue. If you manage well, you can't go bad, and you can't cause waste. If you don't manage well, you will waste it." I said.

"I also heard that every restaurant in Binhai has food stalls. Customers order directly from the food stalls. They look at the dishes for what they want to eat. It's not as troublesome as our menu ordering. You have to introduce it to the guests. You don't need to look at the food stalls to order. How to introduce, the dishes are all made there, and it is clear at a glance, at most, it is to introduce to the guests how to cook and what tastes." She said.

I said: "It can't be as simple as you said. It is quite straightforward for customers to order food at the food stall, which also requires high requirements for the order staff. There is no food stall where customers can order food at their seats. Now there are The customers at the vegetable stalls order at the vegetable stalls, and the orderers have to follow the order, and at the same time, the orderers have to introduce the dishes to the guests. The requirements for the orderers are quite high, not to mention reaching the level of half-la-er chefs. You also need to know how the dishes are made, what tastes they have, what characteristics they have, whether they are stir-fried or stewed, boiled or souped, and how to recommend their own special dishes to customers, as well as their marketing skills.”

"Wouldn't the waiter be brisk with a full-time orderer?" she asked.

"It's not lighthearted, it should be said that the service work of the waiters is more specific and meticulous." I continued: "There is no need for the waiters to order, so their service work must be done properly, especially in terms of details, better than before. Now restaurants are competing for food and services, and whoever has good service and high customer satisfaction will have more guests."

"That is, when customers spend money on consumption, they will spend money on whoever they go to. If the service is good, they will go to that house. It is inevitable."

"To put it bluntly, it's all a matter of management. If the management is in place, the business is good, but if the management is not in place, the business is not good."

"If we don't talk about management now, if we don't talk about management, there will be no layoffs. It would be great if we all eat from the big pot." She said: "It's not that the big pot can't produce benefits, so we start to strengthen management. Those who should be laid off will be laid off, and the benefits will increase. .”

I said: "It's not like that saying now, look for the market, not the mayor. The market economy forces people to move forward, and the laid-off people started to go to sea to find their own way out, and they all survived. all good."

"We don't need to be laid off to work. We didn't have a job in the first place. We have to rely on ourselves to do everything. We don't have old insurance when we are old. We have nothing. We can only earn more money while we are young, or we will starve to death when we are old." ."she says.

"That's not enough. In this society, people can't starve to death, and people with hands and feet can live. I'm afraid people are lazy." I said.

"You are not lazy, you are also sick." She smiled.

I said, "I'm tired, it's fine if I don't get so tired in the future."

"You have to have a good physique at any time. What is your own in this life? Nothing is your own, only your body."

"Better is right."

"That's what happened." She looked at me and said, "At first I thought you should be mine, but now it seems that you are yours. No matter how hard I try, I can only watch."

(End of this chapter)