Siheyuan: Seventeen-year-old He Yuzhu

The next morning, He Yuzhu came to Cuihua Building to go to work.

When he entered the kitchen, his master Li Mingde had already arrived.

"Zilla, here we come."

"Well, good morning, Master."

He Yuzhu and Li Mingde greeted each other.

Li Mingde is He Daqing's friend. He is a nice person and a great cook.

He is good at Sichuan cuisine.

I am the head chef in Cuihualou.

He is quite strict at work, but very kind in private.

Normally, apprentices don't have much money, but Li Mingde saw that He Yuzhu's family was not easy, so he explained the situation to his boss and asked the boss to take some care of him.

He Yuzhu only gets seven or eight yuan a month.

He was still very grateful to Li Mingde.

After a while, all the kitchen staff arrived and they were busy with their own work.

He Yuzhu is an apprentice and cannot cook. He usually just washes and cuts vegetables.

He picked up the kitchen knife and started cutting the potatoes on the chopping board.

[Ding, you are cutting vegetables. Your understanding of cooking has deepened.]

[Cooking Skills +5]

He Yuzhu thought, indeed, cutting vegetables can also improve one's proficiency.

It just doesn’t increase as much as cooking.

But this is enough. If I continue like this, upgrading to level four won’t be difficult.

He is full of energy and works non-stop.

When a few of his fellow apprentices saw how hard He Yuzhu was working, they said disdainfully, "Who are you pretending to be working so hard for?"

“Even if you chop the vegetables well and in large quantities, can you still be a chef?”

"You've been here for less than a year, so you're definitely not qualified."

Another person asked, "We are all apprentices, why does he get so much money? The boss only gives us two or three dollars a month as a token of appreciation, why does he get more than us?"

One person said: "His family is in financial difficulty, and his father is a friend of Master Li, so he took care of him."

"I don't think Master Li took any special care of him. Apart from getting him a little more money, he treated us the same as before. He didn't give him any special treatment in private."

One person said disdainfully: "That must be because this idiot Zhu has no talent and is not worthy of Master Li's serious teaching."

"That's right. They say his family cooks Tan's cuisine. I don't think he's much better than us. Didn't he start out as an apprentice like us?"

"No matter how hard he works now, he can't change anything."

"..."

Near noon, He Yuzhu breathed a sigh of relief.

Because just now, he heard a voice.

【Cooking skills have reached level 4.】

He felt that he had a deeper understanding of cooking, and he could cook not only Tan cuisine and Sichuan cuisine, but also other cuisines.

He Yuzhu practiced with the knife twice and his knife skills became perfect.

He glanced at the panel and saw that it would take 5000 points to upgrade to level five.

This requires quite a few points.

However, as long as you are in Cuihua Building, upgrading is not that difficult.

He cut a potato again and found that he could cut it into any shape he wanted.

It should be thin, as thin as a cicada's wing.

If you want flowers, you can carve them intricately.

In short, compared with before, it is a big step forward.

The apprentices around noticed it, and at first they saw He Yuzhu still cutting vegetables and didn't care much.

As a result, when I looked at the potatoes he cut.

Everyone was a little dumbfounded.

Could that thin thing be the potato chips he cut?

It’s so thin, it’s almost transparent.

And that thing with clusters of flowers was also cut out by him.

This is too outrageous. Are you still an apprentice with your knife skills?

I didn't see you so awesome in the morning.

Why is it like this now?

Li Mingde also came here at this time and saw the various kinds of potatoes on He Yuzhu's chopping board.

He stopped, also very surprised.

This knife skill is quite amazing. He thought that his knife skills were pretty good, but he was not completely sure if he could cut the potatoes like this.

He looked at He Yuzhu: "Zhuzi, did you cut this?"

He Yushui said: "Master, I cut this."

Li Mingde couldn't believe it. He hadn't paid much attention to He Yuzhu for some time, but his knife skills couldn't improve so quickly.

"Cut it again and show it to me."

He Yuzhu smiled and said, "Okay, Master."

He picked up the potato again, and cut it easily.

Li Mingde's eyes widened. This speed, this skillful technique, to be honest, was better than his own.

He comforted himself in his heart, maybe Zhuzi was only good at cutting potatoes and he wasn't that good at anything else.

He Yuzhu picked up the radish, tofu and cucumber beside him, and started performing again.

He knew that this was an opportunity. Li Mingde's words carried a certain weight in Cuihua Building. If he could leave a good impression on him, it would be easier for him to be promoted to chef in the future.

The improvement in proficiency in cutting vegetables is too little, while the improvement in cooking is more.

Before long, the chopping board was filled with all kinds of ingredients as thin as cicada wings and ingredients of various shapes and exquisite carvings.

Li Mingde was stunned. This, this, this...

Not just potatoes, anything can be cut.

He took two deep breaths, and his gaze towards He Yuzhu changed.

This kid can't be hiding his true intentions.

Haven’t you shown your true strength before?

The apprentices around were also dumbfounded. This was too outrageous.

Is this still an apprentice like me?

If you say you are a great chef with your knife skills, I would believe you.

Some chefs were also stunned, and they asked themselves if they had the ability to do so.

I suddenly felt ashamed. The apprentice had such good knife skills. I was a chef and earned more money, but I was not as good as him.

Li Mingde asked: "Zhu Zi, tell me the truth, did you have this kind of knife skills before you entered Cuihua Tower?"

He Yuzhu thought for a moment and said, "Master, no, I learned all this in Cuihua Building."

Li Mingde felt very unhappy. You have mastered the skills in less than a year, but I have been using it for many years and my knife skills have not improved so much.

However, He Yuzhu was still happy that he had made progress.

After all, this is his friend's son.

Although He Daqing is not a good person, Zhuzi is a good person, down-to-earth and steady.

I don’t know what He Daqing was thinking. He actually ran away with a widow and left his son and daughter here.

Li Mingde cursed He Daqing in his heart.

Then he looked at He Yuzhu and said, "Zhuzi, cook a dish for me. I want to see how good your cooking skills are now."

He Yuzhu quickly said, "Okay, Master."

He knew that this was an opportunity given to him by Li Mingde. There were so many people in the kitchen now. As long as he could make a dish that would leave everyone speechless, then no one would be able to say anything about him becoming a chef in the future.