Siheyuan: A Cook in the 60s

"Go and see for yourself."

"Then... I'll go take a look." Cao Leyao did not hesitate.

"Oh, by the way." Wei Wei called out to Cao Leyao.

"how?"

"If you really want to see how ordinary people make their living from scratch, don't look at it on this street. Look somewhere else."

"why?"

"You'll know once you go there."

"Then I'll go to another street first."

Cao Leyao has more or less inherited Qin Jingru's personality. Qin Jingru is the type of person who does things as soon as she thinks of them and won't worry about whether they work or not later.

After walking out of the food street, I headed east.

But as she walked, she felt a little confused. Where should she go?

Looking around, I saw restaurants everywhere on the street.

She was a little dazed. Why were there so many restaurants on this street?

With doubts, she walked around first, and finally found that there were indeed too many of them.

Finally, she randomly picked a dumpling restaurant and walked in.

"Comrade, what would you like to eat? We have dumplings with various fillings. They are delicious and inexpensive."

Cao Leyao took a look at the prices on the wall and found that they were indeed not expensive. With her appetite, if she ate meat, a meal would only cost about 30 to 50 cents.

"I'd like to have the pork and cabbage dish."

"Okay, you make it, one serving of cabbage and pork!"

It's not dinner time now, so there aren't many people in the restaurant.

After serving the pork and cabbage dumplings, the boss also served a bowl of dumpling soup and said to Cao Leyao with a smile: "The original soup and the original food."

"Thank you."

"Eat, eat."

Cao Leyao picked up the chopsticks, picked up a piece, dipped it in vinegar, and put it in her mouth.

The taste is not that good, the proportion of meat is slightly too much, it is less refreshing and a bit more greasy.

You need to add more vinegar.

The Cao family also likes to eat dumplings. Dumplings, as a food, have a special meaning for northerners. In those difficult times, what they looked forward to all year round was actually eating a portion of dumplings stuffed with cabbage and pork at the end of the year. Qin Huairu likes it, and so does Qin Jingru. So, their family often makes dumplings. Cao Wei prepares the stuffing, and the two mothers are responsible for making them.

Needless to say, Cao Wei's method of preparing dumpling fillings was superb.

Not to say that he is the best in the world, but he is also the best.

As the daughter of a chef, she subconsciously developed a problem with eating dumplings.

But then she shook her head, shaking these absurd thoughts out of her head. She came to investigate.

"Hey, boss." Cao Leyao shouted.

"What's wrong, young comrade?" The shop was opened by a middle-aged man, and there was a middle-aged woman in the kitchen, who seemed to be making dumplings.

"I want to ask you something, but I wonder if it's convenient for you to tell me." Cao Leyao felt a little embarrassed.

"Hey, if you have something to say, just tell me. Is this inconvenient?"

"That's right. I want to ask, how is our business?"

Cao Leyao's words stunned the middle-aged man for a moment, then he waved his hand and said cheerfully: "Hey, I thought it was something else. It's good, why not? My dumplings are delicious, right? Thin skin and big stuffing, with oil and water. People nearby said they are good after eating. Well, I'm not exaggerating, it's just that you didn't come at mealtime. If it was mealtime, this place would be full."

Cao Leyao took a quick look at the shop's furnishings. There were about ten tables, all large round tables, each of which could seat about six to eight people.

At one meal time, we can serve about 200 to 300 people. If the average person is 50 cents, and we work during the lunch and afternoon, the daily turnover is about 200 to 300 yuan. There is a saying that the boss is right, there is profit, but this price also means that the profit is not much. But even so, after a month, there are still several thousand yuan in gross profit.

I went over it briefly in my mind.

With a gross profit of several thousand yuan a month, it is impossible for any factory to pay several thousand yuan in wages. There should be five to eight people in the kitchen, and the wages of the staff are only a few hundred yuan.

Cao Leyao suddenly understood what Lou Xiaoe said. As long as you go out to do business, you will definitely succeed if you are not too bad.

"Comrade, what's wrong with you?" Seeing Cao Leyao didn't speak, the boss was a little surprised.

"Oh, nothing, I just want to ask, your business is so good, how do you solve these dishes every day?"

"Hey, little comrade, what on earth do you do? Why are you asking this?"

"That's right." Cao Leyao scratched her head a little embarrassedly: "My family always said how difficult it is to open a restaurant, and that I couldn't even buy vegetables properly. I didn't accept that, so I thought about giving it a try. Then I found that I couldn't find a place to buy vegetables."

"Is that so?" The boss breathed a sigh of relief. "Your parents are really careless, letting a little girl like you go out there and make your own living? If you want to buy vegetables, you have to go early. The pigeon market in the east sells them around 5 a.m. I'm afraid there won't be any at this time."

"Can't we just go to the slaughterhouse? Aren't there supports?" Cao Leyao frowned.

After hearing this, the boss laughed out loud: "That's true, but they said they were sold out, what can you do? Let me tell you, the meat in the east market comes from the slaughterhouse. The price will be slightly higher than the market price, but not much higher, so it's very conscientious."

"Then...I'll go check it out tomorrow."

"Hey, young comrade, listen to my advice. Don't mess around. There are a lot of troubles here."

"Well...well, thank you, comrade." Cao Leyao said a few perfunctorily, paid the bill and walked back.

I visited a few more restaurants and filled my stomach to a full state. Finally, I came to the conclusion that I had to go to the market early in the morning, otherwise, I wouldn't be able to buy anything.

Cao Leyao didn't quite understand this phenomenon, so she had to ask Lou Xiaoe for help.

From a very young age, Cao Leyao understood one thing: when encountering something he didn't understand, he had to ask.

If you have doubts, you need to clarify them.

"Sister E, Sister E."

Looking at Cao Leyao, whose head was covered with sweat, and then at the gradually darkening sky outside, Lou Xiao'e covered her face and said, "My eldest lady, what's wrong again?"

“Why is it so troublesome for them to buy groceries?”

"Them? Who?"

"It's those restaurants outside. Oh, not only them, even Uncle Wei said that it's troublesome for us to buy vegetables. That's why Dad wanted to start a farm. It wasn't like this when I was in Hong Kong." Cao Leyao was puzzled.

In fact, there is nothing wrong with saying that Cao Leyao doesn't understand the sufferings of the world.

She had never been interested in other things since she was a child, and it was not her turn to cook and buy groceries at home. Qin Jingru was almost bored all day, and she was the one who did the shopping. When Cao Wei was on vacation, he was willing to go out with Qin Jingru. The couple happily treated this as a date, and occasionally brought Qin Huairu along.