The story of a cook

Chapter 8 With Li Yanhua
The departure of Yingzi was a blow to me. The impulse of love for the first time in adolescence was ruthlessly strangled in the bud, and the heart-wrenching pain tormented a young man's heart.I became taciturn and began to work desperately without telling myself to stop. Only by working non-stop can I temporarily forget my thoughts and Yingzi's face will not appear in front of my eyes.

The kitchen staff saw that something was wrong with me, and avoided me intentionally or unintentionally, for fear of getting into trouble.Master Chen would ask me to drink after get off work every day. We went to the snack bar, ordered two dishes, a bottle of white wine, and drank slowly.He didn't ask me why, and I didn't say anything. Sometimes I chatted a few words about cooking.Most of the time, no one would finish the wine without talking, and then go back to the dormitory to sleep.

Every day when I finish my work, I come out of the kitchen, light a cigarette, and stare at the sky in a daze.Sometimes I feel bitterness in my mouth, and sometimes there is a hint of sweetness in memory.More loss, pain, hesitation, and not knowing what to do.

Half a month passed, my mood gradually calmed down, my face returned to its former color, and I carefully buried a pain called longing deep in my heart and protected it well.

After experiencing emotional pain, I feel that I have matured all of a sudden, I can understand some things that I don’t understand, and some entangled things are no longer entangled, my heart is much more relaxed, and I am more indifferent.

There were five tables of birthday banquets in the evening, and a large table was needed. Li Yanhua asked me to go to the warehouse to help get it.Pull out a desktop from the warehouse to the corridor, and shout to the hall: "Xiaohua, the front or the back."

Li Yanhua ran over and said, "The back, next to the stage."

Move the table top to the stage in the hall, the waiter has already arranged the legs of the table, and together with Li Yanhua, he lifts the table top and puts it on the table leg, and then goes to get the second one. After 15 minutes, I finished taking the five desktops and helped them buckle them up.

The proprietress said, "You still need a young man to do this job."

Li Yanhua said: "Hmph, I went to the kitchen and yelled for a long time and no one moved. It had to be me, Brother Tan."

"It's fine if you have brother Tan alone. Those are all free to eat, and I don't like to do any work if I'm too lazy." The proprietress laughed.

I smiled and walked to the kitchen, Li Yanhua followed from behind and said, "Brother Tan, you look so good, you have to be like this, be cheerful, don't be so sad all day."

"Okay, listen to you." I said casually.

"Hehe, Brother Tan, I'm hungry for hot pot."

"Okay, don't eat at night, eat hot pot."

"You can agree as soon as I think about it. It's agreed, and I will have hot pot in the evening."

Her last sentence was quite loud, I'm afraid I forgot it.Coincidentally, when Li Jianhan heard it, he was a little envious and jealous, and muttered indifferently: "It's better to have fellow villagers, someone invites you to eat hot pot."

Glancing at him, he smiled involuntarily, and said to him, "Are you envious? Who told you not to help Gulu with the desk just now."

"I want to go, I'm afraid she will push me back."

"You know people are sticking with you even if you don't go?"

"I've been pushed out by her a lot."

Li Jianhan was dejected, and the scene of being ruthlessly rejected by Li Yanhua appeared in front of his eyes, and his self-confidence was a little frustrated.Thinking about going out to eat hot pot with Li Yanhua at night, I feel a little bit uncomfortable and sour.So he asked, "Tan Zi, are you dating Li Yanhua?"

"No." I said directly.

"Would you like to have hotpot together if you don't have a partner?"

"Have you forgotten about our hometown?"

"Hey, Tan Zi, why do you think Li Yanhua can't see me? I really like her."

"You have to ask her about this, where will I know?"

Looking at his expression of bitterness and hatred, he was also speechless. He liked Li Yanhua purely because he was beautiful. If he wasn't beautiful, he wouldn't be like this.There's nothing wrong with that either, who doesn't like pretty girls?It’s just that I don’t know what’s behind the liking. People who are serious will love deeply, and people who are not serious are just for fun and looking for feelings.

"I think she likes you and is always with you." Li Jianhan said in a jealous tone.

"Do you know why?" I asked.

"What?"

"I just think of her as a fellow villager and don't think about anything else, and she just treats me as a fellow villager and don't think about anything else. Not as much as you think, you know."

He looked at me wistfully, with disbelief all over his face.

"Make friends with the mentality of not being the target, and you may become the target in the end. Think about it, this may be the case."

After finishing speaking, he ignored him and went to arrange the five-table birthday banquet in the evening.

What I like most is the packaged dishes, which saves time and effort, unlike the a la carte, which has to be served with each dish.The packaged dishes are prepared for several tables at once, and they are all booked in advance, so don’t worry, prepare them in advance, and just take the dishes when the guests come.

The restaurant makes money by making private seats, which saves trouble in the kitchen. One dish is stir-fried, and ten dishes are also fried. Stir-frying ten dishes at once saves gas than frying one dish.In addition, if the table is reserved, the guests will not choose, and everyone will do things in a happy, auspicious and smooth manner.As long as you are ready and put the dishes on the table, you will be fine.

Shengmei is an in-factory hotel, and there are often reserved seats, such as workshop group meals, office meals, branch factory meals, month-end meals, quarterly meals, award meals, etc. Most of them are reserved seats. Three, five tables to twenty tables, up to 25 tables at a time, all the private rooms in the hall are full.

There are also a la carte, but not many.When the leaders of the factory come to eat, most of them also arrange set meals, ranging from 380 680 to [-] [-].If it is entertaining, such as entertaining military representatives in the factory, the grade is higher, and a table of meals costs more than [-] yuan.

The meals in the factory and the leaders’ meals are all IOUs. At the end of each month, the boss will bring a handful of IOUs to the factory to ask for accounts.It's very hard to get. Sometimes the whole boss is impatient, but you can't be too impatient. If you are too impatient, people won't come to eat. There are several hotels in the factory, and the competition is fierce.After a month, you can't see much cash. If you want to see cash, you have to let the people around you come in and spend more.

The birthday banquet tonight is in cash. The boss specifically ordered the dishes to be larger and taste better, and try to get more main dishes so that the common people know that Shengmei’s dishes are large, delicious, and economical. , take some cash.

It's not easy to do anything. Contracting hotels seems to be making money, but you have to cash out the IOUs in your hand. If you don't cash in, it's just a piece of paper.In order to build a good relationship with the factory, every month the boss invites several leaders in charge to the hotel for a meal, and they have to take two good cigarettes when they leave, otherwise it will be really difficult to go to the factory to ask for bill .

In the evening, the five tables of birthday party guests came early, and after the dishes were finished, several tables of a la carte came.The business was hot and full overnight.

After I finished my work, I was cleaning up. The boss came to me in a hurry and told me to go out to find Li Yanhua. He said that a customer had drunk too much, and dragged Li Yanhua to drink, which made Li Yanhua cry and ran out.

I was startled, thinking what to do if something happened, so I ran out to look for it.I came to the road and looked around. Fortunately, she didn't run far, and was walking along Songshan Road.She ran two steps forward and grabbed her. Seeing that I was lying on my shoulder, she cried aggrievedly, crying and cursing: "Rogue! Rogue! They are all hooligans!"

"Okay, okay, it's okay, it's okay." Patting her on the back to comfort her, she was very angry and wanted to go back to find that customer and beat her up.

After a while she stopped crying, moved her head away from my shoulder, and twisted her nose with her hands.The snot from crying came out, and the image of a lady was gone, so I wiped it with my hands directly. After I wiped it, I asked for toilet paper. How can I prepare such a thing as a man.Seeing that I didn't rub my clothes directly, this girl doesn't care about anything.

The person who dragged her to drink was Director Wang of the real estate department in the factory. He was a soldier, had a loud voice, and looked as unpopular as me.I'm better than him, his face is full of big pimples, and he's still flushed after drinking, it's really scary to look at.But he is very nice, he always comes to eat, he is familiar with the waiter, and sometimes he jokes with the waiter.

The alcohol capacity is quite large, and when you drink a lot, you rarely drink.I remember drinking too much in a private room once, and my boss and I sent him back. He and the boss live in the same complex.Every time he sees me, he will greet me with his loud voice, come up and pat me on the shoulder affectionately.It gave me a good impression, not the kind of person who teases the waiter.

"Aren't you usually very courageous, why are you timid today." I asked with a smile.

"You don't know, that gangster drank too much, his eyes were red, he was scary, and he pulled me." Li Yanhua held my hand in hers, "Just pull me like this, what a gangster you say."

"Why did he let go?"

"Seeing that I was crying, he let go."

I couldn't help laughing, I can imagine the scene at that time, a big man in his thirties, thirties and forties, with red eyes and red eyes, holding a beautiful little girl with big hands like cattail leaf fans, the little girl cried out in fright .It feels a bit like the wolf and the little sheep.

Seeing the makeup on her face, although she stopped crying, she still twitched. She couldn't go back to work like this, and she couldn't eat hot pot, so she said to her: "Go back to the dormitory, I'll see you off." .”

"It must be sent to me, and now I am still afraid."

"There are times when you are afraid."

"I'm a woman, of course I'm afraid. Besides, did I just pull my hand casually?"

She rubbed her head and said, "I was scared to death. I was afraid that something would happen to you, so I came out to find you."

She dragged my arm and walked forward, she sniffed her nose and shivered while crying.She was wearing work clothes, and it was cold at night, more than ten degrees below zero.Take off the coat and put it on for her. Fortunately, the dormitory is not far away and will be there soon.

When she got to the dormitory and stood at the door of the women's dormitory, she whispered that the key was in her coat pocket and that the coat was in the hotel.So I opened the door to the men's dormitory and told her to wait in the men's dormitory while I went back to get the key.When she left, she urged: "Brother, hurry up, I'm afraid."

When I got back to the hotel, I first reported to the boss that I found it, and told him not to worry, then took Li Yanhua's clothes back to the dormitory, and opened the door to the female dormitory.

Li Yanhua sat down on the bed, utterly lost in thought.

He smiled and asked her, "Are you really scared?"

"I'm not scared stupid."

"Then why are you in a daze?"

"I'm angry."

"You'd better wash your face quickly, it's all stained."

"is it?"

She quickly took a small mirror to take a look, and when she saw the motley face in the mirror, she immediately exclaimed: "Oh, it's too ugly." Then she ran to the water room in embarrassment with a washbasin in her face blushing.When I went to the water room, I quickly turned on the faucet and splashed the water on my face.At this time, she felt her face was so hot, and her heart was beating violently.

It's over, the big face made Tan Ge look at it, it's so ugly, will he laugh at me?It's a joke, just a joke, anyway, after watching it, what is it called?This is called plain face, this is what Miss Ben is like, besides, Brother Tan will not laugh at me.

Li Yanhua thought to herself, returned to the dormitory after washing her face, took a stool and put it in front of the bed, and told me to sit on the stool, she sat on the bed and said to me face to face: "I don't like to be a waiter, and I will quit after the New Year. "

"Yes, being a waiter is not a long-term solution. It is best to learn a craft."

"I don't want to go into the kitchen to learn pasta, I don't like cooking at all, I just like to eat ready-made dishes."

"Women can't cook and cook."

"Find a chef to be your husband, save yourself the trouble of cooking, and eat ready-made ones every day."

"It's a good idea."

She giggled and said, "Brother Tan, you were quite fierce at first, but after a long time, you are quite pleasing to the eye."

"I thought so too." I joked.

She looked me up and down very seriously, and asked with a smile: "Brother Tan, what do you think of my sister? Be my brother-in-law."

Her sister's face with heavy makeup and dark circles appeared in front of her eyes, and she felt uncomfortable for a while, and said to her, "I don't have that blessing, and I can't be your brother-in-law."

"Why, don't you like my sister?" She narrowed her eyes.

"No, it's not good enough for your sister."

"You can do it. My brother-in-law is just right, and she needs someone like you to take care of her."

I didn't want to continue this topic with her, so I said to her: "Aren't you afraid? I'm going back, and Miss Ma will be back in a while."

"You don't know. Sister Ma is in a relationship. She is with her partner every day. She doesn't come back very often. She hasn't come back for several days."

"Really? I really don't know."

I don't care much about who is dating whom in the hotel.

There were a total of more than ten people in total, except for me and Li Jianhan in the kitchen. Master Chen’s partner was the bartender in the nightclub of the Union Building, and the cold dish partner was a waiter in another restaurant.Of the five waiters at the front desk, Li Yanhua had no match, and two of them were married women nearby, laid-off workers.There is also a little girl who lives in a relative's house and is said to have been engaged in her hometown.The rest of Miss Xiaoma has no match, and now she has one too.

After experiencing Yingzi's incident, I didn't pay much attention to the matter of dating, and I had Yingzi's shadow in my heart, so I couldn't get over it for a while.In Li Jianhan's eyes, I was dating Li Yanhua, but I didn't know it anywhere.Although Li Yanhua is beautiful and exciting, but when she is with her, she doesn't feel that exciting.

Being pretty is pretty, and having sex with someone is two different things.

Li Yanhua smiled and asked, "Brother Tan, you don't seem to be in a hurry, are you already engaged at home?"

After asking, he stared at me, lest I might lie.

"No, the family is poor and no one can afford it, so I can't marry a wife." I said.

"I don't believe it. You're such a nice person. It's impossible that no one will give you anything. Don't be afraid of being poor. Just take your time." She said it very reasonable.

Looking at her with an innocent face, she said: "You don't know what's going on in our house. Who is willing to marry a girl to a poor family? Even if the girl wants to, my parents won't let me."

She thought for a while and said, "That's right, I want to find a good husband's family for the girl, one with better conditions, rich family, so that life will be easier in the future without suffering."

"It's incredible."

"Brother Tan, is your family really that poor?"

"Why lie to you? Poor is poor. My mother and I are the only ones in my family. We have no money and a lot of debt. If we are not poor, can we come out to work? My mother is over 60, so I can't put that big The elderly lady left the house alone, and I came out to hide my heart."

I chatted with her about the family affairs for a while, she asked her before, but I didn't tell her much, this time it was nothing, and I didn't treat her as an outsider, so I just talked to her.After listening to it, she said Brother Tan, your life is really hard, if you continue to study, you will be admitted to university.Tell her that she can't afford to go to school after passing the exam, how can she have money to study, and she has borrowed all her relatives for the fifth sister alone, so where can she borrow money?
"Brother Tan, do you regret it?" She asked seriously.

"There is nothing to regret. If you are in a family like mine, you won't regret it. The reason why people regret is that they can't do things they can do, so they regret it. I worked hard, but the reality really doesn't allow it, so I don't regret it." What a shame." I said.

"I admire you, Brother Tan."

"Don't admire me, let me tell you, girl, when people say what they say, I'm not forced to do so. I don't want to live alone in my teens, and I want to eat and not be hungry every day and don't think about anything. No matter what happens, go to school when the time comes, leave school when the time comes, finish your studies and take the university entrance exam. But no, conditions don’t allow it, people have to live, when survival becomes the top priority, everything else is trivial, you have to let yourself survive first go down."

She looked at me quietly and wanted to say something, but she opened her mouth and didn't say anything.At this time, I heard footsteps and voices in the corridor outside. It was Master Chen and the others who came back from get off work.

I stood up and said to her: "I'm off work, I'm going back."

"Don't go, stay a little longer." She grabbed me.

"It's okay to stay for a while, but it's not good for you. This is a women's dormitory. It doesn't matter if I stay here for a long time."

She didn't want me to leave, so she dragged me and said, "Why isn't that the case? What are you guys afraid of? I'm not afraid of you, so who dares to say anything?"

It’s because no one dares to say anything. If you don’t say anything, it doesn’t mean you don’t want to. It’s okay to be in a relationship with her. It’s okay to stay here. Nice thing.Although I am a fellow villager, the environment is different. I am fine as a man, but she is still a little girl, so it does not have a good influence on her.

She smiled and said to her: "Silly girl, do you know what people say to be afraid of? Brother Tan can't stay with you for too long."

She got angry, pushed me back on the stool, then turned around and took out a knife from the bed and said to me: "Look, I don't have a knife. If you dare to leave, I will stab you with a knife."

Looking at the penknife in her hand, she smiled.

She held a knife in one hand and pressed my shoulder with the other, and said in a loud voice: "Sit down, I will trim your eyebrows, your eyebrows will be connected together."

It turned out to be an eyebrow trimming knife. I thought why the knife was so small.

"I'm lying silkworm eyebrows, eyebrows again and again, lonely, such eyebrows are destined to be alone." I said.

"Crouching silkworm eyebrows? It's the first time I've heard of them. Look at my eyebrows."

She sent her face over curiously.There are some small spots on her face, which are concentrated on the nose and eyelids.Although the eyebrows have been trimmed, it can be seen that the head is thick and the tail is thin, and it is a bit short.Such eyebrows growing on a woman's face belong to the kind that will not go well in the second half of life.This is a superstitious statement, not credible, like my crouching silkworm eyebrows, I don't believe it.

"Your eyebrows are pretty good, and you can find a good husband." I said.

She knew that I was fooling her, so she didn't care, she followed me and said, "Fix your crouching silkworm eyebrows, and I like to shave other people's eyebrows. After the new year, I plan to learn cosmetology, and I like cosmetology."

After finishing speaking, my left hand held my head, and my right hand began to slash my eyebrows.

It was a bit awkward to have my eyebrows trimmed for the first time, and it was a bit embarrassing to sit so close in front of a beautiful woman.He raised his eyes and saw her face, but he didn't dare to lower his head, because lowering his head was her turbulent waves.I didn't know where to put my eyes, so I had to close them.

Seeing me close my eyes in front of me, Li Yanhua smiled, thinking that Brother Tan has such a small face, he is so shy, he can't be told to close his eyes, he has to be told to open them.So it stopped.

"Why not fix it?" I asked.

"What are you doing with your eyes closed, am I ugly?"

"nice."

"Then you still close your eyes?"

"It's too close, it's uncomfortable."

She giggled.

"If you're shy, say you're shy, and you're uncomfortable. If I were Xiaoyingzi, you'd be at ease." Then he gestured with a knife and asked, "To be honest, do you really, really like Xiaoyingzi?"

Without answering her, she continued to close her eyes, and Yingzi's face appeared in front of her eyes.I don't know how she is now, is she already at work?The words she said before getting into the car rang in her ears again, and her heart ached.

Li Yanhua saw that I closed my eyes, and realized that I shouldn't mention Xiaoyingzi at this time, thinking that I said it by accident, and I really didn't want to mention it.Wanting to say I'm sorry, I closed my eyes with a calm face, let out a light breath, and began to seriously trim my eyebrows.

Persisted until she finished trimming her eyebrows, stood up and was about to go back, she pulled me back to the stool, and said pitifully: "Half an hour, just half an hour, good Brother Tan, stay for another half hour. Don't you see me falling asleep again I’m really scared today, Miss Ma won’t come back, so you can stay with me for half an hour.”

Then he went on to say: "Ms. Ma said that someone died in this room before, she was an old lady, and the workers in the factory didn't like it, so she gave it to us as a dormitory. After she said that day, we were both scared, and we were so scared that we lay on the same bed. Sleeping in my arms."

When she said that, goosebumps came up on her body, and she felt that the old lady was floating in the room, looking at her with bloodshot eyes, and subconsciously grabbed the corner of my clothes.

I thought she was joking, and asked, "How did you sleep without Miss Ma these few days?"

"Don't talk about it, I was scared to death. I didn't dare to turn off the light when I got under the bed. As soon as I closed my eyes, I felt like someone was there. I was scared to death." After speaking, a look of horror flashed in his eyes.

Seeing that she didn't look like she was joking, she rubbed her head and said, "It's okay, don't be afraid, the men's bedroom is so close, if you are afraid, call out, and come here when I hear."

"Hmph! When you come here, I will be caught by the ghost." When she mentioned the ghost, she trembled all over, and looked out of the window, as if the old lady was standing outside the window.After glancing at her, she quickly retracted her gaze, and said in a trembling voice: "Stop talking, stop talking, the more I talk, the more afraid I am, and I dare not sleep anymore." Then he pulled me towards her side hard, and whispered, "I'm going to beat the kid." I don’t dare to sleep alone, I’m timid, so stay with me for a while.”

It seemed that she was really scared.

"Go to bed, get into the bed, and I'll leave when you fall asleep." I said.

"It's almost there."

She spread out the quilt, stood up the pillow, got into the bed and half leaned on the head of the bed, afraid that I would leave, and kept looking at me.I moved the stool to the head of the bed and sat on it to watch over her.

She looked at me a little embarrassed, and said to sit on the bed when the ground is cold.I said what happened to going to bed?The nature of going to bed changes.She blushed and said she was afraid that you would be cold, knowing that even if you were asked to come up, you would not come up.When she said this, the 19-year-old girl's heart was bouncing like kicking a rabbit, and she thought what was wrong with her, why did she say such a thing?Tell him to sit on the bed, what if he really comes up?if he-
I didn't dare to think about it anymore, I touched my hot face, thinking that it would be flushed red, I was so ashamed.He sneaked a glance at Brother Tang who was sitting on the stool, to see that he wasn't paying attention to himself, and was looking elsewhere.The girl's shy heart relaxed a little, but she became a little sad again, and she didn't even look at him when she was beside him. If it was Xiaoyingzi, he would definitely look hard.

What does that little Yingzi look like?
Hey, how did you come up with this idea? What does it have to do with me? I want to look like I want.It's better to chat with him, or he should leave soon, and once he leaves, I will be left in this room, and I blame Miss Ma, if there is nothing to say, I will die——
Can't think about it, the more I think about it, the more afraid I am, chatting with Brother Tan.Thinking of this, she said, "Brother Tan, you give people the impression that you have a lot of things on your heart. You are nice to everyone and everyone likes to be with you, but sometimes you make people not approachable. What a mess!" I don't know what kind of person you are."

I said: "Don't do it if you don't understand it. What are you doing thinking about it? It's a waste of time."

"Don't you know that people are curious, the more they don't understand, the more they want to understand?"

"You are just a child."

In this period, I still can't fully understand the girl's mind, and I don't know the weird things in the girl's heart. The understanding of feelings is very simple. If you like it, you like it, and if you don't like it, you don't like it.Without human beings, there is no expansion of desire in the body, just feel very mysterious and curious, even the first kiss is passive and clumsy.

"I'm not a child."

Of course she didn't want to be called a child, and she pursed her lips in protest.Smiling back at her protest, he took out his cigarette, lit one and smoked.

Li Yanhua looked at Brother Tan, who was smoking beside him, and saw herself standing on the street, lying on his shoulder and crying in grievance.At that time, I was so wronged that I wanted to hug someone and cry.It’s better to have Brother Tan, come out and look for me when you know him, and the moment you see him, you can’t hold back the tears in your eyes anymore, and run out all of a sudden—it’s nice to have a brother.

Thinking of the scene of lying on Brother Tan's shoulder and crying wantonly, this beautiful girl smiled sweetly, and bent the corners of her mouth into a crescent moon, thinking how good it would be if she could lean on his shoulder again, it would feel like she had something to rely on , Warm, safe, rest assured.Thinking of this, the girl suddenly became bold, moved the pillow to the side of the bed, dragged me to my side, then leaned her little head on Brother Tan's shoulder again, and closed her eyes beautifully.

Startled by her actions, when she leaned her head on her shoulders and closed her eyes, she felt the soft hair rubbing against her cheeks, and suddenly a word that made people blush and heart beat popped out of her head-ears and temples rubbing each other.

"Brother, you came out to look for me today. When I saw you, I wanted to lean on your shoulder like this, to feel safe." She closed her eyes and murmured.

"Don't you rely on it now." I said.

"You'll be gone in a minute—you'll have to wait until I'm asleep."

"Can you always talk and fall asleep? Shut up and fall asleep in a while."

"I'm not sleepy, I can't sleep."

"Do not talk."

She stopped talking, gradually heard her even breathing, and felt that she was falling asleep.

Li Yanhua didn't fall asleep. A 19-year-old girl leaned her head on a boy's shoulder. Their faces were almost touching. Could they fall asleep?Although her eyes were closed, her heart beat faster and faster.

Feeling her change, her even breathing was disordered, and the face next to her was getting hotter and hotter.

Fortunately, there was the sound of high-heeled shoes in the corridor——Miss Xiaoma came back.

(End of this chapter)