Siheyuan: Me! He Yuzhu defies fate and changes destiny

"That's it, you're so stubborn! You always make things difficult for me."

"Every time we are unable to get out of bed!" Hearing their words, He Yuzhu felt very sorry for them and said gently:

"Xue Ru, Xiao Di, it is my honor to meet you two in this life."

The next day, He Daqing and Song Ziyu, introduced by He Yuzhu and Yang Xiaodi, visited the Yang family to discuss the marriage. Yang Zhili and Hu Shuzhi, members of the Yang family, learned about the situation and canceled some arrangements to stay at home and wait, fully prepared to welcome them.

The two families had a very pleasant meeting and soon decided on the wedding date. In today's world, etiquette is simplified, and everyone agreed to hold the banquet at the famous local restaurant, Hongbinlou, and He Yuzhu was responsible for the specific arrangements.

Although Hongbinlou has been a joint venture between the public and private sectors, the private manager is still Manager Gu. He Yuzhu rode his bicycle to Hongbinlou and met Manager Gu.

Manager Gu saw He Yuzhu and said:

"Zhu Zi, I'm sorry, now that the public and private enterprises have been merged, I no longer have the final say on many matters. I tried my best to fight for it, but the manager insisted on not agreeing. In addition, all chefs have been rated and paid, and their salaries are fixed."

"Many chefs are complaining now, but it was a wise decision for you to go to college!" He Yuzhu responded with a smile:

"Manager Gu, I have always remembered your care for me over the years. Besides, you should know my cooking skills best. No matter where you go, you will not go hungry!"

After listening to He Yuzhu's words, Manager Gu nodded and said, "You do have this skill, but it's a pity." Then, Manager Gu said nothing more. Seeing this, He Yuzhu comforted him:

"It's okay, let's not talk about that. By the way, I want to tell you a good news. I'm getting married soon. I came here today to discuss the wedding arrangements with you. I want to hold it in Hongbinlou, should that be okay? If it's not convenient, forget it, I'll think of other ways."

Hearing this, Manager Gu replied with great joy:

"That's great. I haven't seen you for several years and you're getting married soon. No problem, you can definitely hold the wedding banquet here. Even though I'm just the private manager, I still have to give you this bit of face!"

So He Yuzhu smiled and said, "In that case, I will notify my friends to attend the wedding."

Then Manager Gu made the decision and said, "Leave it to me. Don't worry about it. Go talk to your master. I guess you haven't seen each other for a long time, right?"

Hearing this, He Yuzhu nodded and said, "It's true that I haven't seen him for a long time. I only saw him once during the Chinese New Year. Then I'll go visit Master and the others."

Seeing this, Manager Gu waved his hand and said, "Okay, go ahead. Come back and talk to me later."

After getting the reply, He Yuzhu nodded and said, "Okay, I'll leave first." After that, he went to the kitchen to find Tian Zehua. At this time, Tian Zehua had just finished his work and saw He Yuzhu. He asked happily, "Zhuzi, why are you free today?"

He Yuzhu then explained the reason to Tian Zehua: "Master, I am here to arrange the wedding. Manager Gu agreed to hold it at my house."

Tian Zehua asked in surprise:

"You're going to have a wedding? You mean you're getting married?"

He Yuzhu nodded and replied, "I got the certificate yesterday. After graduating from university, I was assigned to work in the confidentiality department. I'm a level 5 engineer with a monthly salary of over 170 yuan. How is it? Not bad, isn't it?"

Seeing his apprentice looking so proud in front of him, Tian Zehua sighed sincerely: "You are really capable. Fortunately, you chose to go to college to have the current glory. If you chose to give up studying and continue to work in the kitchen, you would be similar to me now. At most, you would earn more than 90 yuan a month by cooking, plus a little extra allowance, and earn about 100 yuan a month. Now it seems that the current situation of the chef industry is really unsatisfactory." Tian Zehua continued:

"It's okay. I was just thinking and talking about it. Otherwise, I wouldn't have mentioned it to you. Okay, let's not talk about this anymore. Who are you going to marry, Chen Xueru or Yang Xiaodi?"

He Yuzhu touched his nose: "It's Yang Xiaodi!"

After hearing this, Tian Zehua asked meaningfully, "What about Chen Xueru?"

He Yuzhu smiled and did not answer. Tian Zehua looked at his expression and understood the reason. After all, he had seen a lot of such things, many officials had lovers outside. Therefore, he was not surprised by He Yuzhu's behavior. In this era of advocating monogamy, there are still many people who secretly have multiple partners, but now such things are no longer public.

However, this behavior is illegal after all. As long as no one reports it, everything will be fine; but if someone reports it, then there will be trouble.

Tian Zehua said to He Yuzhu: "She doesn't care about her status and is with you, so you must treat her well in the future!"

He Yuzhu nodded: "Okay, Master, don't worry, I will definitely do it."

Tian Zehua continued, "In that case, I will be your chef on the wedding day. Although my cooking skills are not as good as yours, I can still be ranked among the best in the imperial capital now!"

He Yuzhu said quickly: "Master, how can you do this? You should sit in the main seat!"

Tian Zehua shook his head: "On such an important day as the wedding, sitting at the main table is just for eating and drinking, and I have eaten your dishes countless times. Just listen to me and let me be the chef. If you don't mind, you can cook for me yourself after the event!"

He Yuzhu knew that he couldn't convince his master, so he could only nod and say, "Okay, Master, I'll trouble you then."

Tian Zehua said, "Don't be polite. Go and discuss the wedding with Manager Gu. After you've discussed it, just let Manager Gu tell me."

He Yuzhu nodded: "Okay, I'll go take a look."

So He Yuzhu came to Manager Gu's office. Manager Gu saw He Yuzhu and asked him, "Why did you come back so soon? Didn't you talk more with Master?"

He Yuzhu smiled and replied, "We talked for a while, but my master insisted on cooking for me, so I had to agree."

After hearing what He Yuzhu said, Manager Gu said, "This time the guests are really blessed. Since the reform, my master rarely takes action, unless it is an important person, then he will personally take action."

He Yuzhu certainly understood this situation. Although these were excellent chefs, they still had pride. Even He Yuzhu used to only cook small pots. As for big pot dishes, it depended on his mood.

Therefore, in the entire imperial capital, in fact, in the whole of China, most high-level chefs are like this. After all, the skills of those top masters in the past were paid at least two or three hundred yuan a month.

Excluding the money earned privately, after the reform, the income is now less than one-third of what it used to be.

The idea that one should do as much work as one can get paid is deeply ingrained in their bones.

Since the salary has been reduced, the workload has also been reduced accordingly. This is true not only for Tian Zehua, but also for other chefs.

This situation caused a sharp decline in the income of major restaurants. Many wealthy families preferred to hire chefs to cook at home rather than eat in restaurants. This situation would continue until at least 1958.

After all, by 1958, crop yields had dropped significantly across the country, and many people were starving. At that time, only those who had nowhere else to turn would eat at state-owned restaurants.

But in that situation, state-owned restaurants did not have enough ingredients, so although many people came to eat, only a few could actually eat. Slowly, the situation will improve. But the current public managers have no effective management methods at all, and it can even be said that they don't care about management at all.

These people were only concerned about the personnel struggle, and even He Yuzhu learned about the situation from Tian Zehua.

The whole environment is like this, and no one can change it. After He Yuzhu and Manager Gu agreed on the food standards, they went home. Watching He Yuzhu leave, Tian Zehua sighed:

"When Zhuzi first came here, he was just a child. I never thought that he would have started a family and built a career now!" Manager Gu said with emotion:

"Indeed, after dealing with this matter, I will step down and the future of this restaurant will be in your hands!"

Hearing what Manager Gu said, Tian Zehua replied:

"In fact, I think it's pretty good. After all, I'm almost ready to retire now. By then, I'll have a pension, and I won't have to work to earn money. Plus my private income, my future life won't be bad!"

Manager Gu smiled and asked:

"Would you be interested in a pension of a few dozen yuan?" Tian Zehua replied:

"Why do you despise me? You should know that I don't get dividends like you. If we are not even satisfied with this, we will really be left with nothing!"

Manager Gu didn't believe it. He felt that with Tian Zehua's skills, he didn't have to worry about financial problems. Tian Zehua was just too low-key. Otherwise, who knows how much money he could make.

If Tian Zehua knew what Manager Gu was thinking, he would be so angry that he would want to slap him.

"I'm busy here all day long, how come I'm so low-key?"

But the two of them didn't say much, and chatted about He Yuzhu for a while before leaving. They both understood that this time He Yuzhu was really proud of himself.

When he got home, He Yuzhu told his family about this. Both Yang Zhili and He Daqing were very satisfied with the arrangement He Yuzhu made. So the three of them started to send out invitations to invite guests.

He Yuzhu invited friends in the same industry as well as friends and teachers he knew at school.

He Daqing invited some celebrities to attend.

Yang Xiaodi invited her classmates and friends.

Yang Zhili and Hu Shuzhi invited their colleagues separately. After all, they met during the Anti-Japanese War and were both alone in a foreign land with no relatives or friends.

Therefore, only his comrades and colleagues were present, no one else.

The ceremony was scheduled for a week later, so everyone was busy for about six days and then went to the restaurant.

He Yuzhu did not deliberately make things difficult for Yang Xiaodi. He simply asked her to put on new clothes and took her to the restaurant on his bicycle.

The restaurant is decorated festively today.

He Yuzhu had been waiting at the door to welcome the guests...

He Daqing and his wife, as well as Yang Zhili and his wife, also greeted the guests at the entrance.