Chapter 149: Dried Abalone

The next day, Lu Guofu returned to the city early, not even staying for breakfast.

Last night, Zhou Yimin had clearly told him to have breakfast before leaving.

But Lu Guofu really did have tasks to take care of. He needed to hurry back to the factory and then head out to screen films elsewhere. On top of that, he felt he ought to go home and talk to his two sons about the rice cooker.

“Uncle Lu already left?” Zhou Yimin was taken aback.

Luo Dapeng nodded. “Yeah! We couldn’t stop him no matter what.”

After breakfast, it was just about time for them to head back to the city as well.

But Zhang Lu didn’t want to leave. She kept pestering her mother, begging to stay a couple more days in Zhoujiazhuang. After all, she didn’t have school.

And not just Zhang Lu—even Zhang Yu and Zhang Yan felt the same. But since they were older, they felt embarrassed to ask, unlike their little sister, who was young enough not to care.

“Uncle Zhang, Auntie Zhang, if she wants to stay, just let her stay another couple of days! I’ll take her back for school later,” Zhou Yimin said to Zhang Jianshe and his wife.

The old lady also spoke up.

Zhou Yimin’s words alone might not have convinced Zhang Jianshe, but with the old lady weighing in, he had to consider it. In the end, the couple allowed Zhang Lu to stay a few more days, reminding her not to trouble the old lady and so on.

Zhang Yan and Zhang Yu wanted to speak up too, but their mother’s single glare was enough to shut them up.

So, after breakfast, the four of them rode two bicycles back to the city. Tagging along were Luo Dapeng, Li Youde, Zhou Dazhong, and others.

Zhou Yimin didn’t rush back. There wasn’t anything urgent waiting for him in the city anyway.

That day’s one-yuan purchase had earned him 100 catties of lotus root and 100 catties of dried abalone.

There wasn’t much to say about the lotus root—high in starch, it could be classified as a staple food. Typically, it’s used to make lotus root starch or for making soups. Lotus Root Pork Trotter Soup was a favorite of Zhou Yimin’s in his previous life.

But 100 catties of dried abalone—that was valuable.

Dried abalone is just sun-dried abalone. As is well known, abalone is one of China’s traditional delicacies and is considered the top of the four premium sea delicacies. It’s often seen on the menu at state banquets.

Zhou Yimin checked the quality. Though it couldn’t be called “two-head abalone,” it was still decent in size and definitely of high quality.

Before long, Master Quan and the two helpers came over to say goodbye.

They had also stayed the night to watch the movie. After the screening, Zhou Yimin had arranged for them to stay with other villagers.

Zhou Yimin stuffed 10 yuan into Master Quan’s hand—after all, the man had cooked two meals, and 10 yuan was reasonable.

However, Master Quan returned 5 yuan.

“Five is enough. If I charge more, wouldn’t I be overcharging an old friend?” Master Quan said with a smile.

Besides, he still intended to take Laicai as his apprentice. How could he take more? Even taking none would be justified.

Zhou Yimin didn’t argue. He took back the 5 yuan and asked them to wait a moment.

He went inside and packed up 1 catty of dried abalone, 3 catties of raisins, and 6 catties of peanuts.

“Master Quan, just a small token of appreciation.”

Master Quan opened the bag, immediately closed it again, and tried to return it. “This is too valuable.”

As a chef, he knew just how rare dried abalone was. Frankly, in all his years of cooking, he’d barely had a chance to work with it—especially during these years of material shortages.

He didn’t mind accepting the raisins and peanuts.

But the dried abalone?

It looked like there was a whole catty in there. This kind of ingredient could be bartered for quite a bit down the line. And if he ever needed to impress a leader with his cooking, this would be the ace up his sleeve. It was incredibly useful.

“Master Quan, please take it! A friend gave it to me. If you don’t accept it, how can I ever ask you for favors again? That’s it—no more arguing. I won’t see you off,” Zhou Yimin said, pushing the bag into his hands again.

Master Quan couldn’t refuse the gesture and accepted it, silently resolving to do anything Zhou Yimin asked in the future without hesitation.

“Then I’ll respectfully accept. Thank you, truly!” Master Quan clasped his hands in gratitude.

After expressing his thanks, he left Zhoujiazhuang with the two helpers and returned to the capital.

Once they were far enough away, Master Quan divided the raisins and peanuts into three portions. As for the dried abalone—he couldn’t bear to split it. But the raisins and peanuts, he chose to share equally.

He also gave each of the two helpers 1 yuan.

They were his apprentices, so he didn’t have to pay them—just giving them raisins and peanuts would’ve been enough. But Master Quan wasn’t the type to exploit his apprentices. Whenever he took them out on jobs, he always shared the income.

“Master, this money…”

The two of them had wanted to say that they were already satisfied with a pound of raisins and two pounds of peanuts.

That much alone was already quite valuable—taking money on top of that felt a bit ungrateful.

“Take it! You have families to feed. And when your junior apprentice joins us, you both need to take care of him,” Master Quan said.

Of course, they knew who their master was talking about.

It was little Laicai, just a few years old.

Even without Master Quan’s reminder, they would’ve looked after the kid anyway. Besides, with a big brother as capable as Zhou Yimin, it wasn’t clear who’d be looking after whom in the future.

The two quickly promised and silently remembered their master’s kindness.

Both of them came from poor backgrounds—if they hadn’t, they wouldn’t have apprenticed as chefs. Each of them was the eldest in their families, with heavy burdens on their shoulders.

Especially Chen Youzhi, who got married last year. He had a blind mother to support, plus three younger siblings, and now his wife was pregnant.

Honestly, if Master Quan hadn’t brought him out to earn some side income, the factory kitchen wages alone wouldn’t have been enough to feed his whole family.

This trip had been hugely rewarding—not only did he earn a yuan, but he also got a pound of raisins and two pounds of peanuts.

…

Lu Guofu, upon returning home, began by praising his two sons.

This surprised not only his wife but also left both sons confused.

“Didn’t you say the other day that you wanted to invent a rice cooker that could cook on its own? Your senior brother Zhou Yimin said such cookers do exist abroad,” Lu Guofu said.

At those words, the two boys were ecstatic.

Yesterday, they’d mentioned this invention idea at school, only to be laughed at by classmates who said no such thing could exist.

But now that their senior brother had confirmed it was real, and even said it had already been invented abroad—they wanted nothing more than to race back to school and shut their classmates up.

“From now on, you two should ask your senior brother for advice more often and learn from him,” Lu Guofu continued.

“Dad, I’ll go right now,” Lu Xuezheng said eagerly, wanting to ask their senior brother how that rice cooker worked.

Lu Guofu scolded him: “Go where? Your senior brother’s still in the village—he hasn’t come back yet.”

Then he recounted a few things Zhou Yimin had said yesterday, whatever he could still remember, hoping it might give his sons some inspiration.

But both boys just stared at him in confusion, completely at a loss.

Their foolish, clear-eyed expressions made Lu Guofu wonder if maybe he was expecting too much of them. Maybe it’d be better to just teach them how to screen movies. As long as they didn’t starve, that would be enough.

(End of Chapter)