Free Web NovelChapter 48: Chapter 48: Nothing, Just a Matter of Practice
This really was absurd.
Boss Su had said he wasn’t cooking for the next few days, so when Aunt Fang returned to the kitchen, she started sorting and storing the various items she’d bought.
Some things needed to be frozen, which she had to sort out for Xiaobin to take to the cold storage unit.
Just as she was getting busy, two uninvited guests appeared in the kitchen.
"Aunt Fang? Hehe, we’re here to help prep the ingredients. Boss Su said that if we get them ready, he’ll come cook for us later!"
"Mhm, that’s right. Boss Su promised us himself just now. He also said that if we don’t know what to do, you could give us some pointers." Wang Rui was being very attentive. After scanning the kitchen, he asked, "Is anyone not at work today?"
’Why don’t I see Sister Hai Shi?’
Aunt Fang was a little dumbfounded at first. Only after going to the office to ask Su Chen herself did she understand what was going on, leaving her at a loss for whether to laugh or cry.
’What kind of customers insist on doing the work themselves just to get a meal?’
But to be fair, the design department that had moved into the Delicious building alone had over twenty people. And on top of that, employees from other departments also wanted to come over for lunch.
With over seventy people in total, there was no way Aunt Fang, her son, and Su Chen could handle it all by themselves.
’It’s good to have help, I suppose.’
Aunt Fang directed them to start peeling and chopping scallions.
The primary ingredient for the lunch’s stir-fried noodles was scallions. Aunt Fang could handle beating the eggs herself.
As for the dough, thanks to the new dough mixer, that step no longer required manual labor.
Wang Rui was a guy and had more strength, so he was put in charge of chopping the cabbage.
But even these two simple tasks made Aunt Fang’s forehead break out in a sweat just watching them.
"You have to cut the cabbage ribs and leaves separately! The ribs need to be chopped finely, and the leaves should be a little bigger. Hey, the boss would yell at you for doing it like that!"
"Xiaoli, that’s not right. You should slice the scallion down the middle first, then cut it on a diagonal. Don’t you people ever cook at home?"
After a long time and a lot of practice, Wang Rui and Zhang Li were finally able to chop the cabbage and scallions to the required standard, albeit very slowly.
Outside, the other colleagues from the design department finished moving their things and tidying up their workstations. It was getting late, with less than half an hour to go before the lunch break.
A few employees with nothing to do were wandering around, and when they came to the kitchen, they saw Zhang Li and Wang Rui.
Their mischievous side immediately took over!
Cabbage Choppers +2
Scallion Choppers +2
Where there was a first batch, a second followed. Ten-odd minutes later, Aunt Fang’s head was throbbing as she looked at the bustling crowd of over twenty people in her kitchen.
"You’re all college graduates! This... this is..."
Some people voluntarily took over Bai Xiaobo’s former job, massaging fish fillets in the corner.
A few other young men were bizarrely meticulous about stewing the pork hock, even weighing the star anise and bay leaves on a kitchen scale to ensure the exact weight before adding them to the large pot.
On the other side, a few young women were chatting while washing pickled greens. The sight left Aunt Fang completely stunned.
’Didn’t I make my son study hard so that he could have a desk job like you all in the future?’
’But you all graduated from college, and instead of doing your jobs properly, you run to the kitchen to fight with me for work?’
’What has the world come to?’
Not only that, but these white-collar office workers all looked like they were having the time of their lives!
"This is awesome! It feels like shop class back in elementary school. By the way, I think they canceled those classes for kids nowadays, right?"
"It really does feel great. But on another note, you’re Xiao... bin, right? Come over here, I want to ask you something!"
"Shameless!"
"So, Xiaobin, what do you all do for work here every day? Don’t tell me it’s just prepping ingredients in the kitchen and stuff?"
Xiaobin was just a high school sophomore, about to become a junior. Surrounded by a group of worldly, garlic-peeling young women, he felt a bit shy.
"Um, I’m just a summer hire, so I do odd jobs. Brother Xiaobo used to be a copywriter, but now he’s the product manager.
And Sister Shengnan, she used to be a cashier, and now she’s the Director of Finance. Um... Sister Shuting is a huge streamer. She helps our company with live-commerce sales! freewebnσvel.cѳm
That’s my mom. She’s the company’s cleaner, but now I think she’s a beautician."
Xiaobin’s honest answers left the employees of Xinghui’s design department completely dumbfounded.
"Do people get promoted this quickly at your company?"
Xiaobin scratched his head. "No, they all gave themselves those titles."
Everyone was stunned.
’You can do that?’
’So if I go out tomorrow and say I’m the CEO, that’s perfectly reasonable, right?’
Then Xiaobin, ever so honest, continued, "We don’t really have much to do at work. When there are customers, we help the boss prep ingredients. When there aren’t any, we all just chat, play games, take naps, that sort of thing."
Zhang Li, who had come over at some point, asked, "And your boss doesn’t care?"
"Why would he care?" Xiaobin was confused. After all, he’d never had a real job, so he had no idea what it was really like. "Isn’t it normal to do your own thing when there’s no work to be done? As long as it doesn’t cause any problems, it’s fine."
The group of designers exchanged glances.
’That sounds... about right.’
’I’ve finished all my work, there’s nothing left to do. Isn’t it normal to do my own thing?’
’But why does it also feel so... not normal?’
The thought of being at Xinghui, having to pretend to stare at an open document even when there was clearly no work to do, and then looking at the "work" here...
Xiaobin’s description completely upended the Xinghui employees’ entire concept of "going to work."
"Xiaobin? The ingredients for lunch are all ready. Go get the boss."
"Okay~"
Xiaobin dropped the half-peeled garlic and ran out.
The remaining employees were still reeling from the shock. They didn’t snap out of it until they saw someone walk in from outside and all looked up.
"So that’s the boss of Delicious?"
"It’s my first time seeing him. He’s so young! No wonder the atmosphere at this company is so great. It’s just different when a young person is in charge!"
"Zhang Li, go ask him! See if Delicious is hiring. I feel like I could do this job!"
"Give me a break. If President Ling hears you, you’re dead meat!"
"He’s here, he’s here! Boss Su is here! He’s going to cook for us!"
Su Chen walked past under the focus of everyone’s gaze, feeling a little awkward.
’Once again, I’m sure of it. The employees of this company are all a little weird.’
’The first day they came to eat, when I walked through the dining room, they stood up and stared at me. Here we go again.’
’Am I the only one who doesn’t think I’m that handsome?’
’Besides, it’s not my fault I’m good-looking. Is there any reason to stare like that?’
Su Chen walked up to the stove.
"Aunt Fang, thank you for your hard work."
Aunt Fang laughed. "What hard work have I done? Look at all these people helping out. There’s strength in numbers! They’ve even prepped almost everything for tomorrow morning and lunch!"
Su Chen didn’t say much more. In that short amount of time, he had already spent nearly a full day in the Gourmet Practice Room learning a new dish.
Right now, all he wanted was to hurry up and cook, eat a bowl of noodles, and take a nice, long afternoon nap.
"Boss Su, I’m sending you our department’s payment now~" Zhang Li waved her phone. At the same moment, Su Chen’s phone, in his pocket, chimed with a payment notification.
[WeChat Payment Received: 550 Yuan]
The design department, including Ling Shuyu, had 25 people. At 22 yuan for a large bowl of noodles, the total was exactly 550.
Just as Su Chen was about to start, Wang Rui chimed in again. "Boss Su, um... the people from our other departments are coming over in a bit. They all just transferred me the money, so I’ll send that to you as well."
[WeChat Payment Received: 1100 Yuan]
Wang Rui had previously sent Bai Xiaobo’s business card to the company-wide group chat by mistake, leading the employees to believe this was the administration department’s solution to the cafeteria problem!
So, as the lunch break drew near, everyone had very proactively sought out Wang Rui to place their lunch orders.
people, for a total of 1100 yuan.
Su Chen froze for a second. ’I just made sixteen hundred?’
’I only used two employees, Aunt Fang and Xiaobin, and Aunt Fang was basically just the general commander.’
’Then I come into the kitchen, cook by muscle memory, and gross sixteen hundred?’
’This money... it feels like I earned it for no reason.’
This wasn’t the time to be thinking about that. Su Chen just nodded and looked toward the stove where the eggplant was steaming.
"Aunt Fang, let’s fire up all the stoves."
The kitchen had a total of four high-powered wok stoves. Su Chen usually used two at most.
At the moment, one stove was steaming a full basket of eggplant, leaving the other three empty.
"Can you handle it?" Aunt Fang was a little worried.
"I should be able to."
Su Chen took a breath and silently equipped the badge from his system inventory.
’Making three pots of noodles at once? How hard can it be?’
