Siheyuan: A Cook in the 60s

"How about two Chinese pears?"

"Get lost! Do you want love or not? Give me back Huazi. I still want Huazi."

"Tsk." Cao Wei made a "tsk" sound, but still put it back.

This cigarette is hard to buy even if you have money.

"You really opened my eyes the day before yesterday. Your cooking skills are impeccable. From now on, if I have any entertaining here, it should be in the third cafeteria. Is there anything wrong with you?"

"No problem, but there are some particularities in cooking this dish."

"Basically, there's nothing special about it. Nowadays, having fish and meat is good enough. Yours is called chicken."

““Mushroom Fat Chicken”.”

"Yes, mushroom chicken, tofu, and finally the sweet and sour fish. By the way, do you have any other specialties?"

"There are so many. Shandong cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, they're all good. How many dishes should we prepare for a reception? Is there any particular requirement?"

"Normally, there are four dishes and one soup. If there are many people, you should try to make the portions bigger."

"That's fine." Cao Wei nodded. As long as he understood the rules clearly, there wouldn't be any big problems.

"Also, if Director Yang asks you to cook..." Having said that, Li Huaide deliberately paused and looked at Cao Wei's expression.

Cao Wei was confused, then frowned: "What? Uncle, are you trying to embarrass a cook?"

"Why is it difficult? I haven't said anything yet."

"Aren't you asking me to help Director Yang?"

"Oh, what are you talking about? Do you think I am him?" Li Huaide sneered: "As long as he tells you to do it, you should do it for him. You don't have to do it badly. Just do it as you should."

"Phew, you scared me to death, uncle. I thought I had to look for a job again."

"Why do we have to look for a job again?" Li Huaide was a little confused.

"My master said that those who are willing to make things difficult for the cook are very narrow-minded. If you meet them, run away if you can. Don't stay with them. It will disgust you."

Hearing Cao Wei say this.

Li Huaide laughed heartily: "Hahahaha! Well said! Your master is right!"

Seeing Li Huaide smile, Cao Wei also smiled awkwardly: "Just don't blame me for wanting to run away."

"What's so strange about this? You're right. It's not a big deal to embarrass a cook. Okay, let's leave it at that for now. If there are any problems later, I'll come back to you. Go and do your thing."

High-end flattery often uses more alternative methods...

----

Lou Xiao'e thought she might be crazy.

Life was going well, but Cao Wei was like a wild boar, rushing into his own garden without a care, then eating the flowers he had carefully planted and sleeping on his stomach. He ran over to say a few words to him, but he said he didn't understand love and told me to give him a chance, otherwise he would leave.

Who the hell cares about you, a wild boar!

Get out of my garden now!

She lifted the lid of the pot without giving up, and inside the lid, two big white steamed buns were lying quietly.

She took a deep breath, put it down, and opened it again.

"What a nuisance!"

Lou Xiao'e put the pot lid aside, picked up the steamed bun, and ate it bite by bite with the dish Cao Wei brought over.

While eating, he slapped the table again.

He snorted through gritted teeth.

But there was no one around, only her.

She ate in small bites, and for some reason, her thoughts gradually drifted away.

She thought of many things. She thought of her mother's earnest efforts to teach her to be smart and learn to read people's expressions when she was a child. She also thought of the day when her father called her to the study and told her that "he needed her to marry the son of one of his servants for the family."

She is very smart and understands the meaning behind her father's behavior.

But when she saw Xu Damao, she couldn't be happy no matter what.

But she got married anyway.

Lou Bancheng's daughter married a worker. This was big news at the time. Everyone around her who knew about it gave her a thumbs up.

But she couldn't be happy.

When she finally cheered herself up and wanted to get along with her husband, she found that no matter what she did, it was all in vain.

In Xu Damao's words, "Don't use capitalism in this era, it will kill people."

She didn't understand what the way people treated each other had to do with capitalism.

How could he, a man who couldn't see that he couldn't get promoted, deny her?

Later she realized that he was not denying her at all, but was denying her knowledge, her education, and everything about her. From then on, she learned to keep her mouth shut.

Although her mother had told her long ago that it only takes a moment to learn to open your mouth, but it takes a lifetime to learn to close it.

She didn't understand at that time, until she understood it, then she realized the weight of this sentence.

She began her daily life in silence.

At the beginning, Xu Damao would talk to Lou Xiao'e about things in the factory, and Lou Xiao'e would analyze them for him in a serious manner. Later on, the two of them would often quarrel over the analysis, and eventually they would fight each other. Finally, Lou Xiao'e chose to shut up.

Xu Damao still felt quite happy. After all, the Lou Xiao'e who used to like to compete with him was gone, and was replaced by the quiet Lou Xiao'e.

This was good for him, and he even said to others, look, he had trained the capitalist's daughter well.

Lou Xiao'e felt that she would be angry, but in fact she was not, she was numb.

Everything was different from what she had imagined. Her world seemed to have turned gray.

Never mind, let it be gray. Days passed one by one, and she felt that she was becoming more and more peaceful, so peaceful that she even lost consciousness.

Until Cao Wei appeared.

Thinking of that damn guy, Lou Xiao'e couldn't help but grit her teeth again.

"Cao puppy!"

"Rude!"

"Shameless!"

"abnormal!"

Vulgar words came out of her mouth one after another, and she bit the white flour bun in her hand fiercely. The bun tasted salty when she put it in her mouth.

She frowned and looked down. She felt liquid sliding down her cheek and falling onto her bun.

"Tick, tick..."

A feeling of inexplicable grievance surged in my heart.

She shouldn't cry.

She told herself so.

Because there's no point in crying.

She shouldn't have emotions.

She told herself so.

Because emotions only make you miserable.

But why?

Her throat seemed to be blocked by something, and she couldn't speak. Even breathing became difficult.

She thought a lot, thought a lot, and thought a lot.

But when she thought about returning to those gray days, the feeling of suffocation made her feel desperate.

How do you say that

I could have endured the darkness if I had never seen the light...