The Era of Hard Work

After being busy for a while at noon, Yang Feng was about to leave work. Before leaving get off work, he deliberately boiled a large pot of stewed chicken soup. There are many people in the back kitchen who can make this dish, but he always makes the ingredients for the soup base himself.

There were not too many customers in the store, and it was not too busy. Yang Feng told the apprentices a few words, greeted the head chef, went out to change clothes, rolled out a bicycle from the shed in the back courtyard, and rode towards the east.

Someone made an appointment with him in the afternoon, so Yang Feng simply left work early.

Anyway, I don’t know how long the store hasn’t paid a bonus. The salary is the same amount every month, and it’s often suppressed and not paid. It doesn’t matter.

He has the means to fire him for such a trivial matter? Impossible.

To put it bluntly, it is harder to get rid of his establishment than it is for outsiders to pass the exam and enter the Grain Bureau.

Along Jingqi Road, head east to Ganshi Bridge, turn into Shengli Street in the south, Yang Feng’s home is next to the dormitory of the old post office, a tube building with red bricks exposed, this is a building in the late 1980s, Thailand Fengyuan's welfare housing allocation in those years.

Compared with ordinary tube buildings, the condition of this building is much better. Each household has a small bathroom and small toilet, so there is no need for several households to share it together.

However, no matter how good the welfare housing was in those years, it could not compare with the commercial housing that has emerged in recent years.

Yang Feng pushed open the door of the house, and there was a kitchen and bathroom, and then there was a small living room and two bedrooms. The house was built more than ten years ago, and the white and gray leather on the wall was like the hands of some people who are prone to skin irritation when the seasons change. It was horrible. .

The living room was so small that there was only room for a dining table. Yang Feng took off his coat and casually put it on the round stool. His partner came out of the room and asked, "Why are you back so early today?"

Yang Feng sat down on another round stool: "Come back early, come back late, it's the 700 yuan a month."

His partner curled his lips: "It's fine if the money can be paid every month! You haven't been paid for several months."

The rest of Yang Feng's words were stuck in his mouth, he couldn't speak, so he simply lit a cigarette and started to smoke it.

He went to another bedroom, dragged out a bag full of clothes, and was going to set up a street stall on the overpass of the Grand View Garden.

He cleaned up his mouth but didn't stop: "My child will be admitted to university next year, and including tuition fees and living expenses, at least tens of thousands of yuan must be prepared."

"I know, I know." Yang Feng couldn't continue to remain silent, exhaled smoke, and said with a sense of helplessness, "Just treat it as saving in the work unit, and we will come out together..."

He said to the other: "Don't be afraid to come out. I heard that Jufengde is carrying out shareholding system reform. Taifeng Garden is not dead or alive, and it may collapse at any time."

Yang Feng waved his hand: "Why don't you look forward to it?"

He packed up his things and said, "If you're okay, come and set up a stall with me."

In the past two years, Yang Feng had to be impatient to ask Yang Feng to do this, but in the past few years, it was difficult to pay wages, and most of the time he relied on the income from his partner's street stalls to maintain his daily household. Feeling guilty, he often went to help.

Without money in your pocket, you will naturally not be able to stand up. In order to live, you will naturally have to put your face back.

Yang Feng said: "I have something to do in the afternoon, and Lao Zhong from the Grain Bureau invited me to meet."

"Old Zhong..." He remembered this person: "He is the section chief of the Grain Bureau, and Taifengyuan is not a subordinate of the Grain Bureau? You can ask him, can he be transferred to the top?"

Yang Feng shook his head: "It's easy to get down from the top, but it's difficult to get up from the bottom! Let me ask."

Seeing that it was about the same time, his partner was about to go out, and Yang Feng also went out together, helping to carry the package and put it into the tricycle downstairs.

In addition to his partner, there are many people riding various tricycles to set up stalls in the red brick Tongzilou.

Yang Feng picked up his coat pocket, walked towards the north step by step, entered a newly opened cafe on the north side of Ganshi Bridge, and met his acquaintance, Lao Zhong.

"Lao Yang, introduce two friends to you."

At the table of Lao Zhong, there were two women, one tall and one short, the tall one was wearing a suit and was a bit strong, and the short one was wearing high heels and was only 1.6 meters tall. A big one can blow away.

What's going on today? Old Zhong said before that Yang Feng knew something in his mind, but he didn't expect that it was two young girls who came over.

Lao Zhong introduced: "Old Yang, this is Xu Man, this is Xue Tian, ​​they are all executives of Lu's Catering Company."

Yang Feng quickly shook hands with the person: "Hello."

The two women were obviously dominated by the short Xu Man. The first impression she left on Yang Feng was quite deep, mainly because her lips were crooked when she smiled.

Xu Man smiled and said, "Mr. Yang, hello."

After Xue Tian also said hello, Lao Zhong took out his mobile phone and said, "I have something to do, go make a call."

With the recommendation of an acquaintance like Lao Zhong, Xu Man and Xue Tian at least have considerable credibility.

Lao Zhong, who was the middleman, left, and the two sides were silent for a while.

Xu Man dealt with people in the company, so he spoke first: "Mr. Yang, Xue Tian and I are here on behalf of Lu's Catering Company."

She is no longer the simple student she used to be, and complimented without blushing: "Ms. Yang is a pillar in the catering industry in Quannan. In Qingzhao University City, we often hear some old gourmets mention Mr. Yang from Taifeng Garden." , this time I also came here admiringly."

Yang Feng spends the whole day at the restaurant at two o'clock and one line at home, and occasionally has time to set up a street stall for his partner. He has vaguely heard of the name of Lu's Catering, but what exactly does this company do and which stores it opens, he can't figure it out for a while. stand up.

"Don't dare to do it, don't dare to do it." Yang Feng waved his hands modestly: "There are endless chefs in Quannan, my ability is nothing, and I have won the honor of the older generation in my family."

If his father hadn't retired early and let him join Taifeng Garden, he might not even be able to make up the staff in this life.

Xu Man twisted his mouth again, and got to the point: "Mr. Yang, although our Lu's Catering Company is a new company, it has developed extremely fast. It is currently the largest chain catering company in Taidong..."

Xue Tian cooperated tacitly, took out the introduction materials of Lu's catering that he had prepared a long time ago, and placed them in front of Yang Feng.

Knowing where the goal is early on, Lu's Catering will naturally not fight unprepared battles, Xu Man said: "The dish research and development department of Lu's Catering has always lacked top masters with profound Chinese food background and enterprising spirit in research and development. , We have learned about Mr. Yang's situation through the Food Bureau and friends in Quannan's catering industry, and with great sincerity, we would like to invite Mr. Yang to join Lu's catering company."

Yang Feng didn't speak for the time being. He flipped through the information and looked at it. It was a bit eye-catching at the beginning. This company was established in 1999. Those old-fashioned catering practitioners who still have traditional thinking, especially the chefs in time-honored brands, pay attention to inheritance Orderly, such a new company, or a place like Qingzhao, is not very attractive.

But looking further down, Yang Feng's pupils dilated unconsciously. In more than two years, he has established nearly 300 chain stores, covering every prefecture and city in Taidong, and at the same time entered the market of five provinces around Taidong. 100 million……

It can't be fake, can it?

Yang Feng himself rejected this idea because he suddenly remembered that in many places in Quannan, there are Burger King, Lu's Hot Pot and Lu's Malatang shops mentioned in the materials.

It seems that Ximen has it, and my son was arguing to eat it last time.

Yang Feng closed the documents in front of him and said, "You guys are in the fast food business, and you also have Western-style fast food, and I, the restaurant chef, are actually two different industries."

Xu Man said with a smile: "Mr. Yang, the catering industry is common. Hot pot and Malatang are typical Chinese restaurants. Burger King looks like Western-style fast food, but it is actually a localized Western-style fast food. Teacher Yang, are you in Taifeng? Didn’t the garden once advocate innovation in dishes and tastes? Lu’s Catering R\u0026D Department can give you the greatest degree of freedom. If your new dishes and tastes are suitable for marketing, we can make them new products in the store.”

Before she came, she carefully studied the relevant information collected by Xue Tian, ​​and all of them were targeted: "Lu's Catering has completed the layout in the six-identity market, and is about to enter the Shanghai market. Next year, it will go north, south, and west. If you Join in, and people all over the country will be able to eat your dishes in the future."

These words fell into his ears, and Yang Feng was stunned for a moment, remembering the time when he first entered Taifeng Garden until the mid-1990s.

At that time, he had a strong drive to make some achievements, and even had a plan to improve some Shandong dishes, but the atmosphere of the public work unit, coupled with the increasingly sluggish business of the work unit, and the pressure of life, wore away too much. many ideas.

Life makes people real.

Let him, like most people in the restaurant, become a person who gets paid to dawdle.

Perhaps the only thing I am proud of is that I have improved the yellow braised chicken handed down from my family, making this dish more suitable for the taste of today's people.

Yang Feng believes that the seasonings in the market are constantly changing, and people's tastes are also changing, so the taste of the dishes must also be adjusted. Blindly sticking to the so-called traditional inheritance and so-called ancient secret recipes can only be eliminated in the end.

You can see this by looking at the time-honored restaurants in Quannan. In the past, when there were a lot of customers, was the service good?

Besides, with the development of society to the present, even if the life of the bottom-level people is not easy, there are not so many good things to eat. People's mouths have long been spoiled. Have a good result?

In the past, when stewing a chicken, as long as you simply put some ingredients to cover the fishy smell, you can eat it with a full mouthful of meat.

Doing this now will definitely smash the signboard!

This person is sometimes very strange. Yang Feng is not conservative when it comes to dishes, but he is very cautious when it comes to work.

Xu Man glanced at Yang Feng, and didn't rush to continue. She could see clearly that this Yang Feng is a relatively pure cook now. He has been squatting in a work unit for twenty years, and it is not easy to jump out and move around.

Yang Feng quickly came back to his senses, smiled embarrassedly, and said, "What you said is too far away."

Xu Man replied: "It's not far away, and it will be realized next year. Mr. Yang, you are a pillar-like figure in Quannan's catering industry. You have made a lot of friends. If you ask around, you will know that what I said is true."

Yang Feng was silent again, Lao Zhong had known him for decades, he was a reliable person, in fact, he probably wanted to give him a hand.

Yang Feng understood this feeling in his heart, but he had doubts: "Manager Xu, I want to ask, what kind of unit is your company?"