Courtyard House: My Wife is Xu Huizhen

Page 80

Yi Zhonghai was furious. He had personally asked Sha Zhu to cook, but Sha Zhu just wouldn't agree.

As soon as Li Fugui spoke, He Yuzhu came running over without saying a word, which was really infuriating.

He Yuzhu didn't bother with Yi Zhonghai and got straight to work.

Since I've agreed to help Uncle Gui, I can't let anything go wrong with this meal. If anything goes wrong, Li Fugui will be held responsible.

He Yuzhu was mainly in charge of cold dishes, while Li Fugui was responsible for preparing some dishes that needed to be stewed in advance, and then preparing the ingredients needed for hot dishes. He was in charge of the preparation work.

Picking up the meat, Li Fugui frowned and called to Yi Zhonghai, who was about to leave, "Old Yi, this meat isn't right?"

Yi Zhonghai returned and asked, "What's wrong?"

"This is not enough. It's supposed to be a 10-jin (5 catties) long-cut piece of meat, but this is less than nine jin (4 catties)."

"No way?" Yi Zhonghai's heart skipped a beat, and he said in surprise.

He repeatedly instructed Zhang's wife that this was a joyous occasion for Jia Dongxu, as he only had this one son, and that she absolutely could not skimp on the weight of the food to avoid making the feast look unappealing.

Granny Zhang spoke so sweetly, almost swearing that she wouldn't skimp on ingredients and would definitely buy enough.

Uncle Gui said, "We haven't left yet, and I haven't even cut this piece of meat. Go find a hook scale, and we'll weigh it and find out."

Having bought meat and weighed it every day, Li Fugui had long since mastered the skill of accurately judging the weight of a piece of meat by no more than three ounces with a slight error.

If they say this piece of meat weighs less than 9 jin (4.5 catties), then it definitely won't exceed 9 jin (4.5 catties).

Yi Zhonghai still didn't believe it, so he turned around and went to get the hook to weigh it.

Liu Haizhong's wife said, "I think Old Zhang did this on purpose, shortchanging us."

"He probably just wanted to save money, so he put less meat in a dish and no one else knew."

"That's really stingy. Qin Huairu is such a beautiful girl, to end up with such an old woman is truly the worst luck imaginable."

"Yes, if I were to marry off my daughter, I would definitely find out about this formidable mother-in-law before I let her marry into the family."

Yi Zhonghai quickly brought over a scale. When he weighed the meat, it was only 8 jin (6 catties), which was 1 jin (4 catties) short of the required weight.

Li Fugui turned to He Yuzhu and said, "If you're going out to prepare a feast for someone in the future, the most important thing is to check the weight of the meat. Generally, no one skimps on the vegetables."

While talking, they weighed the hind leg meat, pig's head meat, sheep's head meat, and donkey meat. The weight of each was insufficient, less than what was on the menu.

Old Yi was extremely embarrassed. Zhang's wife was worried about him going to buy meat, and she didn't buy enough of each type.

He Yuzhu said with a smile, "I guess she didn't buy enough vegetables either."

Yi Zhonghai said awkwardly, "I'm really sorry, but since there are only a few people coming, you can just prepare enough food for seven tables instead of eight. That way, it won't seem like too few."

"Alright, the problem of not having enough meat is yours, don't blame me."

Yi Zhonghai said, "How could that be? It's all my fault."

Yi Zhonghai sighed. Who told him to take Jia Dongxu as his apprentice!

The meat shortage was just a minor hiccup. Since there weren't enough guests for eight tables, we changed it to seven, which saved us some meat.

Noon arrived quickly, and suddenly the sound of suona horns came from afar, gradually growing louder until the suona horns entered the courtyard, where a bridal sedan chair was carried in by porters.

Although it has been more than two years since liberation, the traditional customs of marriage among the people have not changed much. New brides still need to be carried into the home in a sedan chair.

Hearing the commotion coming from the Intermediate People's Court, He Yuzhu didn't have time to watch and hurriedly made the final preparations.

After the cannons were fired and music played, the wedding ceremony was held, and the couple entered the bridal chamber. Yi Zhonghai came over and asked, "Can we begin the banquet?"

Li Fugui nodded: "That's fine."

Yi Zhonghai went out to call over the long tray, and He Yuzhu first put the cold dishes on the tray and asked them to take them to the front.

Then I'll lend Li Fugui a hand and start cooking the dishes.

The first dish I made was shredded pork with sweet bean sauce, a representative dish of Beijing cuisine.

He Yuzhu said, "Uncle Gui, can you teach me a few authentic Beijing dishes?"

"Okay, no problem."

Li Fugui just tasted the cold dishes made by He Yuzhu, and to be honest, they tasted really good, no worse than what he made himself.

At first, I thought he was just a junior colleague, but later I treated He Yuzhu as an equal.

After all, He Yuzhu is only 16 years old. Think about it, when I was 16, I was still helping my teacher's wife change diapers for her child.

Sixteen-year-old He Yuzhu's culinary skills are already at the level of a master chef. No, even ordinary chefs who have already completed their apprenticeships are far inferior to He Yuzhu's level.

Li Fugui was very open with his knowledge and casually gave He Yuzhu pointers on the key techniques and skills of the dish, sharing his years of experience.

After teaching two or three dishes, a system notification suddenly flashed before He Yuzhu's eyes:

You have mastered a new cuisine – Beijing cuisine, at level 1.

He Yuzhu was overjoyed that he had learned Beijing cuisine so quickly, which was the most popular cuisine in the entire capital.

He Yuzhu asked, "Uncle Gui, do you know how to cook Shandong cuisine?"

"Yes."

He Yuzhu said, "Then I will learn more about Beijing cuisine and Shandong cuisine from Uncle Gui."

“Okay, no problem. It’s just that I don’t have any restaurants to work at right now. Otherwise, I could have taken you under my wing for two or three months, and you would have been able to get the basics down. Once you get the basics down, you can practice the rest on your own.”

He Yuzhu's heart skipped a beat. Zhang Zusheng hadn't gone to work at Taifeng Restaurant until now. He had fallen ill because of his son's anger, and now that he had recovered, he was busy taking care of his son's affairs.

How about I introduce Uncle Gui to Taifeng Restaurant?

However, this matter still needs to be discussed with my master.

In fact, He Yuzhu disliked Taifeng Restaurant, especially since Manager Hu had sided with Zhang Yong when Zhang Yong framed him last time.

If it weren't for my master still working there, and me needing to learn some high-end cooking techniques from him, I would have left long ago.

Introducing Uncle Gui to a job is somewhat like aiding the enemy.

Unable to make up my mind, I was just about to hear a commotion in the front yard. The noise grew louder and louder, and it was clearly an argument.

He Yuzhu's heart skipped a beat, and he guessed that the police officers had come to see Jia Dongxu.

By this time, all the stir-fried dishes had been served, except for a bowl of sweet soup and egg drop soup. He Yuzhu said, "Uncle Gui, I'll go see what happened."

"Okay, go ahead, we'll talk later."

He Yuzhu passed through the moon gate and saw that the people who had been eating at the banquet had all left their seats and gathered in the middle of the courtyard.

The people in the middle were none other than Dapeng and Tiedan, whom I had met at the police station before, and of course, two other police officers I didn't recognize.

As He Yuzhu approached, he heard Yi Zhonghai's face turn deathly pale with fright. He asked in surprise:

"Officer, are you sure you're not mistaken? How could Jia Dongxu have broken the law?"

Da Peng said, "Is there some mistake? It's not something you can just say. Quickly, please bring Comrade Jia Dongxu out of the house."

"But...but today is his wedding day." Yi Zhonghai's words were slurred.

Da Peng said, "Whether he gets married or not won't stop him from committing crimes..."

Suddenly, Jia Zhangshi rushed out of the house, locked the door behind her, and then shouted:

"Today is my son's wedding day, a joyous occasion. I'd like to see who can take him away without stepping over my dead body first."

She then sat down in front of the house and wailed, "My dear old Jia, who died so young, come up and see! Someone is bullying your family of orphans and widows! Heaven, open your eyes and see..."

Da Peng frowned and asked Yi Zhonghai, "Does your institute still have such feudal remnants? What are you doing? Are you turning back the clock of history?"

Yi Zhonghai said helplessly, "Comrade Ye, she lost her composure because you wanted to arrest her son."

Yi Zhonghai was also extremely angry. Jia Dongxu had been on several blind dates, and finally found a wife that satisfied both parties.

He then tricked Sister Zhang into agreeing to Jia Dongxu and Qin Huairu's marriage. Today, they successfully bowed to heaven and earth and entered the bridal chamber. Even that scoundrel Sha Zhu didn't cause any trouble.

While the banquet was in progress, four police officers suddenly rushed in, claiming they were there to arrest Jia Dongxu.

There were many people drinking in the courtyard, and they rushed forward and stopped the four police officers. Jia Dongxu scrambled into the house.

Yi Zhonghai asked, "Officer, what crime did Jia Dongxu commit? Is there a mistake? He works at the steel factory every day; he has no opportunity to break the law."

"You can't break the law if you don't leave the courtyard house?"

Ye Dapeng said, "Qian Datong's house in the front yard has been rented by Jia Dongxu?"

Yi Zhonghai glanced at He Yuzhu, then forced a smile and said, "I rented his house, is there a problem?"

"Who rented it? Who paid the rent to? Who signed the contract?"

When Yi Zhonghai heard Ye Dapeng ask these three questions, he knew things were in trouble.

Previously, I had also thought of having Jia Dongxu talk to Qian Datong about renting the place for a period of time at a very low price, and then canceling the lease after we got married.

Even the rent for the past few months was not paid by Jia Dongxu, who refused, saying he needed to save money for his wedding.

She also mentioned that she had spent most of her savings on repairing the house and buying a sewing machine.

There was simply no extra money at home.

After Jia Dongxu said that, Yi Zhonghai didn't know what else to say.

This implies that Jia Dongxu had secretly forged a lease agreement and shown it to He Yuzhu.

They also claimed that the house was a rented courtyard house and no one in the house had any doubts.