Rebirth: Starting from the Cafeteria

Chapter 10 The Best Excuse
Du Shaojie opened the spice bag and took a look. The various spices inside were tightly packed into different categories.

There are star anise, cinnamon, fennel, grass fruit, angelica, white cardamom, galangal, cloves, bay leaves, powdered thirteen spices, etc., basically covering all the commonly used spices.

These are good things, and they may be of great use someday.

"There will be more and more rewards in the future, I hope it won't cause any trouble."

Du Shaojie hung the pork outside the rear window to freeze it. He planned to make dumplings the day after tomorrow.

The day after tomorrow is Sunday, so I have a day off and can take this opportunity to improve the meals at home.

Then he stuffed sugar, spices, flour and oil under the bed and fell asleep.

To be honest, when there are more reward items in the future, there won’t be enough space under his bed.

The next day, Du Shaojie got up before dawn.

He first went to fetch two buckets of water, then lit the stove in the kitchen and boiled a few salt duck eggs. After the eggs were cooked, he took two and stuffed them into his yellow schoolbag, and put the rest on the table.

After thinking about it, he wrapped the kitchen knife in old newspaper and stuffed it in.

Du Shaojie thought that it would be better for him to use a fixed kitchen knife when practicing knife skills in the future.

After finishing their morning work, the canteen staff started to eat breakfast.

Seeing Liao Yongxin sitting alone in the corner, Du Shaojie walked over with a tray of food.

"Is something wrong?"

Liao Yongxin looked up at him and asked indifferently.

Du Shaojie didn't care, knowing that the other person was a cold-faced but warm-hearted person. He immediately put the plate on the table and sat opposite him.

"Nothing, it's quiet here."

Liao Yongxin was stunned for a moment. Few people would approach him in the cafeteria. On the one hand, he had a bad temper, and on the other hand, he was not nice to anyone.

After a few interactions, others will naturally stop embarrassing themselves.

Du Shaojie didn't even look at Liao Yongxin. Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, he took out two salted duck eggs from his pocket, kept one for himself, and gently rolled the other to the other's hand.

"Wow, you actually have some good stuff hidden!"

Liao Yongxin likes to eat salted duck eggs, but this is not easy to get and you have to rely on luck.

He was not going to be polite with Du Shaojie. He reached out, grabbed the salted duck egg, cracked the eggshell, and started eating it happily.

Du Shaojie didn't waste any words and also ate with big mouthfuls.

After dinner, they washed the dishes together. In those days, no one served, so they washed their own dishes, and everyone had a fixed set of dishes.

At noon and in the afternoon, Du Shaojie didn't have the chance to cook. But he didn't feel disappointed, and took the opportunity to consciously practice his knife skills while cutting vegetables.

The new kitchen knife is very easy to use, as if it was tailor-made for him, and it becomes more and more convenient to use the more he uses it.

Dai Jianguo looked at Du Shaojie's busy figure, and he was so angry that his teeth itched. He planned to pick up some things after get off work in the afternoon and then go to find Li Heizi. He had to get rid of the anger in his heart.

"Hey, Dai Jianguo, you're deliberately slacking off, aren't you? Xiao Du has already finished chopping the vegetables, but you haven't washed a few cabbages yet? Hurry up, or I'll beat you up if you delay the meal."

Du Shaojie gradually got into the state and finished cutting the vegetables in the basket beside him without realizing it.

Dai Jianguo was distracted and his hands became slower and slower, and he was still unable to take over the cabbages.

When Liao Yongxin saw this situation, he became furious and pointed at Dai Jianguo's nose and cursed.

"Right away, right away."

Dai Jianguo didn't dare to argue with Liao Yongxin. If he dared to argue, the other party would hit him with a big spoon.

Not to mention him, even his uncle Dai Tong didn't dare to provoke this old guy.

Du Shaojie laughed secretly. Although he was concentrating on cutting vegetables, he could still sense Dai Jianguo's malicious gaze sweeping over him.

As a result, before Du Shaojie could say anything, Master Liao taught the guy a lesson on his behalf.

Served him right! After get off work in the afternoon, Dai Jianguo didn't even have dinner. He just said hello to Dai Tong and ran away.

Du Shaojie sat peacefully in a corner of the cafeteria and ate his meal. Over the past two years, he had developed a habit of saving as much food as possible for his family, after all, he had a big appetite.

After he had taken a few bites, Liao Yongxin came over with a tray and sat opposite him.

"Are you free for lunch tomorrow? There are three tables of food to be prepared at the woolen mill. How about you help me out?"

The next day was Sunday, the only day of rest in a week.

But Liao Yongxin is often restless. These days he basically never goes to state-owned restaurants to socialize with others, but usually stays at home.

Especially when encountering something important, people usually ask someone to cook.

This is the situation at the woolen mill.

"Ok."

When Du Shaojie heard this, he naturally agreed.

He didn't want to eat and drink for free, but he wanted to take advantage of the rare opportunity to learn some skills from Master Liao.

"Meet at the gate of the woolen mill's staff quarters at nine o'clock tomorrow morning. Don't be late."

Liao Yongxin nodded and said no more.

After dinner, Du Shaojie rode his bike back home. It was dark at home and there was a power outage.

Power outages are common nowadays. Candles were lit in the house. Wang Yuxiu, Xiaomei and Xiaoya sat around the fire, chatting intermittently.

Du Shaojie came into the room and joined them. Before ten o'clock, everyone washed up and went to bed.

When he got up at about seven in the morning, the phone had already rung. He first went to fetch a few buckets of water, and then began to wash the pork that had been thawed in a basin last night.

After cleaning, he started to chop the meat.

He originally planned to make dumplings for his family today, but because of something urgent, he prepared the meat filling in advance and would just add the cabbage and stir it later.

After chopping the meat, he began to season it and then covered the stuffing in the kitchen.

Seeing that it was still early, he kneaded the dough, and then Wang Yuxiu came out of the house to prepare breakfast.

"Mom, let's make dumplings today. I've already prepared the meat filling and kneaded the dough."

Du Shaojie said last night that he had to go out for something today and would probably not be back until the afternoon.

Wang Yuxiu frowned and said, "If you have something to do, just go do it. It's not a festival, why are you thinking of making dumplings? Xiaojie, I never asked you before, where did these things come from?"

Mothers all hope that their children will have a bright future. It is certainly a good thing for sons to take care of the family, but the things they bring back cannot be unclear.

During this period, there has been mutton, chicken, and salted duck eggs. Today, she has to make dumplings, so she had to ask where the pork and white flour came from.

"Mom, don't you understand? My cooking skills have improved a lot now, and the people who ask me for help have lined up until after the New Year. Don't worry, we eat based on our own abilities, we don't steal or rob, these things are all thank you gifts given to us in advance."

Du Shaojie had long thought that if this continued, Wang Yuxiu would definitely become suspicious.

This explanation just happened to coincide with what happened today, and logically there was nothing wrong with it.

"Really? You didn't lie to mom?"

Wang Yuxiu had a hunch that her son was not lying, but she still asked him a follow-up question.

"Really, I didn't lie to you."

Du Shaojie nodded affirmatively, and Wang Yuxiu finally put her worries aside.

At present, being a chef is an enviable profession. The "eight major members" that people often talk about are those who can make some money, and it is normal to be able to provide some benefits for the family.

Later, Du Shaojie ate a steamed bun with a salted duck egg and rode his bike straight to the woolen mill.

After waiting for about ten minutes at the destination, Liao Yongxin also arrived.

(End of this chapter)