Chapter 226: A New Dish
Translator: Xiong Guoqi Editor: DesTheSloth
Yuan Zhou’s idea was quite practical. Besides, he always thought of himself as an awfully considerate boss. His customers deserved some pastries that can be eaten cold in such a climate.
Therefore, Yuan Zhou received the new snack decisively and prepared to try doing that.
"The pastry is fairly interesting." Yuan Zhou wasn’t clear about each dish either. Only after he received it did he know about it.
However, It was destined to be an extraordinary day today. Somebody came to apply for the vacant position, which was well-received by Yuan Zhou.
This time, there were two people at a time for the interview. In sequence, they started to make their self-introductions.
"Nice to meet you, boss. My name is Shen Min and I’m from the university town nearby. I am a freshman this year and major in costume studies. You are recruiting attendants, aren’t you?" The girl was dressed plainly with a white T-s.h.i.+rt, blue jeans, and a pair of white clean canvas shoes. Apparently, she was a girl who loved cleanliness.
"Yes, I am. Have you ever worked before?" Anyhow, Yuan Zhou had also applied for jobs by himself after graduation and hence had no problem in asking a few question.
"Yes, I have. I work every summer vacation and have been to restaurants, clothing store, and supermarkets, etc." Shen Min pinched her palm with a slightly nervous tone. Her voice was clean and clear.
"Humm, that’s great. Is there any problem with the working hours? I need someone who can work at night." After thinking for a while, Yuan Zhou felt he still needed an attendant to work in the pub at night.
"Night s.h.i.+ft is no problem for me, but I have to go to cla.s.s during the day, except for the weekends when I can come to work all day long." Said Shen Min eagerly.
"How many days can you come per week?" Yuan Zhou asked the most important question.
"I can come for night s.h.i.+ft every day and work all day long at weekends. But for others, well, eh..." Shen Min lowered her head with a little embarra.s.sment, her voice becoming lower and lower.
She was desperate for a job. However, as the course in the freshman year wasn’t as easy as those in the second year, third year or final year, she didn’t have any spare time to work five days per week.
Nevertheless, Yuan Zhou offered a very high salary of 100 RMB every day, therefore Shen Min still decided to come in and have a try after hanging about the door for quite a while.
"You wait a moment, please." Yuan Zhou didn’t refuse Shen Min immediately.
"What about you?" Yuan Zhou pointed to the boy behind Shen Min and asked.
"Me?" The boy was dressed in a light blue coat and beige pants and appeared to be a lively person. When he heard Yuan Zhou’s question, he pointed at himself first before answering him.
"My name is Hu Kai and I’m twenty years old. I’m looking for a constant employment now. Formerly, I worked in a western restaurant." Hu Kai stood straight and earnestly made a self-introduction.
"Thank you. You can go." Yuan Zhou considered for a while and then refused.
"Gee? Why?" Hu Kai was a little puzzled. The girl in front of him obviously didn’t conform to the recruitment requirements. Why didn’t the boss hire him?
"Who do you think would like to see two men stay together and talk nonsense everyday?" said Yuan Zhou suddenly.
"Well.... Er..." Hu Kai understood what Yuan Zhou meant only after thinking quite a while.
"Alright." Luckily Hu Kai didn’t really care about that. He just shrugged the shoulders, turned around and then left.
"Your problem is clear to me now. But I need an attendant who works all the time." Said Yuan Zhou primly to Shen Min who stayed.
"Ok, I got it, boss." Shen Min answered with a nod, knowing he was about to refuse her.
"But if you can get a person who comes to work from Monday to Friday, you’ll be hired." However, Yuan Zhou agreed to Shen Min’s application in the next breath.
"Are you serious?" Shen Min raised her head and asked in surprise.
"Humm. Salary will be settled once per week. Every week, you can get 1300 RMB and can split it with your partner." Yuan Zhou nodded and stated the payment of the salary.
"Thanks, boss. I will definitely get that person. Don’t worry. Shall I bring that person here tonight?" Shen Min was so happy that she almost bowed to Yuan Zhou. She appeared to be deeply moved by this kind boss.
"No need. You bring him here at 7:30 tomorrow morning." Yuan Zhou made an early appointment.
"Ok. Don’t worry, boss. I promise to bring someone here tomorrow." Shen Min clasped the hands together and guaranteed.
"Humm, it’s done." Yuan Zhou indicated that he had finished and she could leave now.
"Goodbye, boss. Thank you." Shen Min shrewdly reacted and said goodbye to him right away.
"Bye." Yuan Zhou nodded the head.
Shen Min walked out the restaurant steadily and only got excited after some distance. She leaped and muttered to herself, "That’s great. I finally found a satisfactory job."
Having settled the recruitment issue, Yuan Zhou walked out and tore the recruitment notice down from the door.
He carefully folded the notice in case he would use it again in future.
He raised the head and looked at the time, "There are still one and half hours left. It’s supposed to be sufficient." After a nod, Yuan Zhou turned around and pulled down the door with a sound of "Hua La".
Then, he sighed with emotion, "It’s finally quiet now."
Now that he had time, he could settle down to study making the Colored Small Pastry carefully.
The most urgent matter was naturally the selection of the ingredients while the most important one was certainly the selection of the glutinous rice, which happened to be a breed that wasn’t lacked in China.
Yuan Zhou searched around in the kitchen and as expected saw the fairly conspicuous words of Glutinous Rice written beside the cabinet of rice.
"Does the glutinous rice have any advantages?" Yuan Zhou asked curiously.
After all, the glutinous rice must be the best to make the most qualified pastry, as was introduced in the recipe.
The system displayed, "The area where it is produced is to the south of the central part of China and the north of Dongting Lake. It’s surrounded on three sides, the east, west and north, by mountains. In the central part of this place is the Jianghan Plain that’s regarded as the "land of fish and rice", where the Changjiang River and its largest tributary, Hangjiang River lies. The rivers have moistened the land of the ancient ‘Chu Kindom’ and the abundant water brings about a great number of water networks and numerous lakes. The hilly area in the northeast of Hubei Province is dominated by low hills, where the hypsographic feature is mild and the cleuch between hills s.p.a.cious. The soil is quite thick and is suitable for the development of agriculture and forestry....."
"Wait. What I need to know is the glutinous rice, not the introduction of the geographic surroundings." Yuan Zhou supported his forehead helplessly. Why did the agreed acting cool become the popularization of theories on geography? It was simply a torture for Yuan Zhou who could only get a score of 40 on the subject of geography. The system introduced the place in such details as if Yuan Zhou were able to find the place.
The system displayed, "I’m telling the host the geographic surroundings required to plant the glutinous rice."
Not knowing why, Yuan Zhou felt his usual solemnity from the words displayed by the system.
"Alright. I have known the geographic surroundings quite well. You can talk about the glutinous rice now." Yuan Zhou pinched the translucent glutinous rice, of which the l.u.s.ter was like the jade.
The system displayed, "According to the circ.u.mstances, this place has an excellent geographic surroundings and is most suitable for planting the glutinous rice. The system has selected the ancient breed that is highly edible and the official value as written in the ancient materia medica. The yield is low while the quality is very high. The glutinous rice is suitable for most people to eat."
"Alright, I’m fully convinced of that." Yuan Zhou was forced to read a lot of introductions to geography, hence was lost in a daze. Only after pulling himself together did he begin preparing to process the glutinous rice.
As the glutinous rice had all been screened by the system, Yuan Zhou only took out a bamboo basket and made a secondary screening. Then he started to make the preliminary glutinous rice flour.
Yuan Zhou rolled the stone mill patiently with a uniform velocity in order to grind the uniform flour, making the stone mill emit a sound of "Zhiya, Zhiya".
A foodie without patience was not a good big eater.