…When Xiao Baozhu came back to the kitchen her face was still beaming.
Ye Xiaoxian was currently busy, but seeing that Baozhu was back she hurriedly said to her, “Baozhu, hurry up and help me to stir the fire.”
When Xiao Baozhu heard that she had to stir the fire she became reluctant again, with her radiant smile being replaced by depression.
“What’s wrong?” Ye Xiaoxian asked her while waving the spatula.
“Noth…nothing…” Xiao Baozhu went back to the stove and started tending to the fire. The fire was burning merrily now and the flames warmed her face, making her feel a little sickly. She suddenly thought, ‘Am I going to spend my whole life idling in front of the stove?’
Ye Xiaoxian was doing sweet and sour ribs and taught Xiao Baozhu while cooking. “Baozhu, look at how I stir-fry these ribs. It’s pretty easy so you can do it the next time I’m not around. You just need to put the marinated ribs into the wok with some oil…”
Ye Xiaoxian taught with her full passion but Xiao Baozhu was learning without any spirit and forgot as soon as she looked, making an “mhmm” sound from time to time.
Ye Xiaoxian noticed that Xiao Baozhu was not very keen on cooking so she did not force her to learn.
Firstly, everyone had their own ways and secondly, Ye Xiaoxian very much a busy bee. There were so many dishes she was yet to cook and so many orders being put on hold.
…They did not have fridges in this era and as they were in the southern area they had no cellar with which to save food. Because of this the ingredients would easily go off, so Ye Xiaoxian and others would purchase quantified ingredients in the morning and once a certain ingredient was sold out, guests simply could not order those dishes.
Sometimes they were short of certain ingredients and sometimes they had extra to store up.
Ye Xiaoxian would cook the extra ingredients for others including the two hired hands, Little Five and Little Six.
“The Xiaos’ Cuisine” also provided dinner and after they had seen off the last group of customers, by then the day had usually become completely dark and all of them would have their dinner by candlelight.
The days just flew by once they were fully occupied.
The restaurant had been open for a month and Ye Xiaoxian calculated and checked the accounting book for the current month. After expenses their net earnings were forty tales of silver that month.
While Ye Xiaoxian was doing her accounts, Xiao Baozhu bent over the counter admiring the abacus as it made its “popping” noise in Ye Xiaoxian’s hands.
“Sister-in-law, you’re brilliant. You know everything!” said Xiao Baozhu sincerely.
Ye Xiaoxian smiled. “A smattering of everything.”
“Sister-in-law, can you teach me how to do the accounting job?” asked Xiao Baozhu tentatively.
Ye Xiaoxian stopped moving the beads of the abacus and asked Xiao Baozhu, “You want to learn accounting?”
“Mhmm, is that okay?” Xiao Baozhu asked shyly.
“Why do you want to learn accounting all of a sudden?”
“I think doing the accounting job requires me to learn more and it looks great. I also can be in contact with more people in the lounge and bring in more guests together with Ma,” said Xiao Baozhu.
Ye Xiaoxian hesitated. She meant to teach Xiao Baozhu her cooking skills.
It looked very good to do accounting but Xiao Baozhu would have no other way out once she left “The Xiaos’ Cuisine”. It was different from being a master chef which allowed one to make a living everywhere.
Still, different people have different aspirations, so since Xiao Baozhu had her own idea, Ye Xiaoxian chose to respect her decision.
“I can let you do the accounting,” said Ye Xiaoxian. “But for now, during the daytime, you still have to tend to the fire in the kitchen and I’ll teach you during evening. When you master it, I’ll allow you to take the bills and do the accounting job.”
Xiao Baozhu was cheered up and said excitedly, “Sister-in-law, thank you, I’ll learn hard.”
…Li Hongmei was tidying up tables and chairs in the restaurant and had heard everything that Xiao Baozhu said.
Li Hongmei could not help turning around and saying to her daughter, “Baozhu, it’s actually better for you to learn cooking skills from your sister-in-law. You should know that little Ye’s cooking skills are unique and nobody else knows of them. If you learn them well you can give a hand to your sister-in-law, right?”
Xiao Baozhu was not pleased by this so she retorted directly, “Sister-in-law has promised to teach me accounting, so I don’t have to learn cooking skills.”
After Xiao Baozhu had finished speaking she became afraid that Li Hongmei was going to lecture her, so she ran off to the backyard.
Li Hongmei shook her head and said to Ye Xiaoxian, “Look at you. You’re always doting on her.”
“It’s up to her,” said Ye Xiaoxian.
“She’s just vain, thinking that being a fire-tending girl or a cook is indecent, so that’s why she wants to be at the counter doing the accounts. Baozhu is going really la-di-da lately and thinks too highly of herself.” Li Hongmei was deeply worried.
Ye Xiaoxian just smiled. “She’s only human and it’s understandable, so long as she knows how far to go and when to stop.”
Either in these ancient times or in the modern era, who doesn’t want to be comfortable in an office, and who would wish to be a fire tender in a kitchen?
“Ma, I’ll go to the city gate again tomorrow and hire a fire tender,” said Ye Xiaoxian light-heartedly.
Li Hongmei was already done with Baozhu but began talking about Baoshan. “Little Ye, Baoshan hasn’t come back home for a while, has he? Will the work he’s doing at the dock be dangerous?”
“Well this…I’m not sure about.” Ye Xiaoxian stopped what she was working on.
“I keep feeling a bit uneasy in my heart,” continued Li Hongmei worriedly.
“Baoshan is capable and good at kung fu so he should be fine.” Ye Xiaoxian comforted Li Hongmei.
“Little Ye, aren’t you worried about him a little bit?”
Ye Xiaoxian also asked herself: Am I worried about him?
She seemed not to have time to worry about Xiao Baoshan. They had not made much progress in their relationship and back when they were still living together they weren’t intimate at all. Now, as they had stopped living together and she was busy all the time, how could she spare any time to worry about Xiao Baoshan?
“Ma, I’ll go to the dock someday to ask what Baoshan is busy with,” said Ye Xiaoxian.
“You two…” Li Hongmei sighed.
…The docks at Qinghe County.
All three sides of the place were surrounded by the river and the waterway was well developed. There were all kinds of ships coming and going along the river.
He was charged with a shipment of goods and the goods hadn’t been loaded on board. He was told that these goods belonged to a northern businessman. He needed to take care of the shipment and loading, and his job would not be completed until the cargo ship left the dock.
One needed to hire some strong porters to load the shipment. As Xiao Baoshan was standing at one side and looking over, that northern businessman thought that Xiao Baoshan, being tall and strong, was also one of the porters so he directly shouted to Xiao Baoshan. “Hey, what are you standing there for? Come over quickly and help to carry stuff.”
Xiao Baoshan was pretty honest and was not used to refusing others so he only paused for a split second before going over and starting to help.
Others could only carry one box at a time but he could carry three, doubling the efficiency of the job.
Those porters had been doing this work for a long time. Knowing that Xiao Baoshan was not really one of them but still just worked hard without getting the pay, those porters felt rather pleased and none of them stuck their neck out to say anything on behalf of Xiao Baoshan.
Not far away, Third Xing was looking at Xiao Baoshan.
Third Xing’s man, the one called Skinny Monkey, was at his side.
“Skinny Monkey, I wonder, why is this Xiao Baoshan so stupid?”
“He really is. They aren’t paying him for carrying stuff and he didn’t even think to say no.”
Third Xing was playing with two pebbles in his hand and said to Skinny Monkey, “Go and bring him over here!”