Chapter 185: The Marvelous Kitchen, Chapter 186: Storeroom

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Protagonist:

Song Miao

After eating this breakfast, almost everyone who had volunteered felt their hearts settle slightly.

Even the free breakfast was this generous; surely the wages wouldn't be withheld?

Some even felt a bit aggrieved: why not put me at noon? Morning isn't a proper meal after all; lunch would surely be better?

After the meal, a group of people washed their bowls, rolled up their sleeves, tied their legs, and began their respective tasks.

The areas each team was responsible for had been made clear early that morning, the digging spots marked by stones, lines drawn with lime, and long vines given as measuring rods for how deep to dig.

Each team broke down their tasks and distributed them to the groups; everyone took them without a word, and then some swung hoes while others used shovels.

Hua Prefecture had seen a month of rain; even though it had been sunny for several days, the ground looked nearly dry, but the hoe hadn't gone deep before the wet mud gripped it tightly.

Once they finally broke it open and went to shovel, the mud that had soaked in water for a long time, some mixed with broken stones, was especially heavy on the shovel and exhausting.

Not long after, everyone on the "He Dao" was drenched in sweat from head to toe.

Around the Start of Summer, with the sun high in the sky for a long time, just being baked by it felt hot, let alone working nonstop at such a grueling physical labor where no shortcuts could be taken.

All were used to it and naturally knew to bring water.

Gourds and waterskins were placed in a cool spot to drink cool, but after a couple of small sips, only a little thirst and heat was relieved; before long working again, they were drenched in sweat once more, and that water might as well have been drunk for nothing.

Yet they had to be sparing; it wasn't close from here to the river, and the round trip wasted effort anyway, and after so much rain, the great river was still yellow soup—impossible to drink directly.

After just an hour or so, someone started complaining.

"Sigh, if I'd known, I'd have brought two gourds of water! This gourd looks big, but it seems gone after a few swallows!"

Someone echoed him: "Exactly! It wasn't this hot yesterday; how did the sun suddenly become so unreasonable!"

Those in the same group and team mostly knew each other, so an acquaintance kindly said: "My father gave me his waterskin; this one is big, and there's still plenty left. I'll pour some for you later!"

"Forget it, bear with it; there's still half a day left. If I drink yours, what do you drink?"

Water was indeed hard to come by.

A big waterskin, after less than half a day, had gone flat; seeing the hour was still early, making it to noon was tough enough, and even if they made it, walking back would take another half hour.

The young man with the waterskin couldn't help but suggest: "When I came, I saw a village on the road. Why not have someone bring our tools over later and fetch some water back?"

Someone objected: "Three or four li—don't think it's close; a round trip takes nearly half an hour. Not only would you be tired, but the work would be delayed, and that's hard to make up!"

"We can't not drink water, can we?"

"Just swallow some saliva; you'll learn your lesson tomorrow and bring more water."

"My mouth is all dry—where's the saliva going to come from!"

"It's all that thieving Old Heaven's fault: says sunny, it's sunny; says rain, it rains. Not only did it flood the crops, now it's tormenting us!"

"Say a few less words; the more you say, the drier your mouth gets!"

Everyone was complaining when they saw the inspector come over; from afar he called out: "The kitchen has sent drinking water; those who want water, go get it yourselves!"

As he spoke, he pointed with his finger in two directions.

"There's one in front and one in back; look for the one with the umbrella shed."

A group of people tiptoed, squinting in the sun, and indeed saw an umbrella shed in front and one in back.

The young man who had brought the waterskin immediately said: "I'll go get water; I'll get water for everyone!"

Being young, he said this while lifting a large winnowing basket for carrying dirt, scooped up the gourds and waterskins on the ground haphazardly, shrugged his shoulders, wiped the sweat from his chin and behind his ears, and ran off.

Not long after, this person came back carrying the basket, walked up to the crowd, his face full of surprise, and said: "This kitchen! They actually gave boiled water!"

Hearing this, everyone grabbed their gourds, came back, pulled the stoppers, and gulped two mouthfuls, all amazed.

"It's really purple perilla boiled water!"

"Purple perilla isn't worth much, but they even put salt in it! Quite generous!"

"Who cares if it's worth money or not; having something is better than nothing!"

"Firewood costs money too, right?"

"Drink quickly, before the person in charge of the kitchen gets chased away in a couple of days!"

Purple perilla is warm in nature and pungent in taste, able to dispel summer dampness; better than ordinary water for quenching thirst and relieving fatigue, and with salt in it, after several big gulps, though strength wouldn't return immediately, it made people feel much better.

After drinking water, the group puffed and panted as they resumed work.

Song Miao, the one in charge of the kitchen, had naturally calculated the costs before making such an arrangement.

At this moment, her twenty-plus kitchen maids were all experienced hands; once they understood what they had to do, as long as assignments were proper, there were almost no mistakes, and because they knew each other well, they would even cover for each other where things weren't going smoothly.

Those cutting vegetables only cut vegetables, those kneading dough only kneaded dough, those tending the fire only tended the fire, those chopping firewood only chopped firewood—everything done according to Song Miao's arrangement, no nonsense, working steadily, the whole kitchen ran very smoothly, busy but not chaotic.

In the world, to get things done, nothing more than managing three things: managing people, managing things, managing matters.

Now people were easy to manage, and matters were managed too; in the choice of ingredients, Song Miao had a little more leeway.

All the dishes she bought were especially seasonal and especially cheap; whatever was left over, combined with the portion allocated, was saved to regularly buy meat and eggs.

At this time, the kitchen's funding sources were varied: besides the silver allocated by the Court for famine relief and repairing embankments, part of the silver and grain from Hua Prefecture Government Office, and another part was money Han Li had solicited from Cen Dezhang.

This last part was originally for recruiting militia and purchasing grain. But relying on the Zhang Family and Yuan Family of Weizhou, they had used very little to secure both grain and manpower, and the remainder was directly allocated to the kitchen.

Time was tight, the task heavy; with insufficient manpower, to get the existing people to work as hard as possible, besides coercion, there was only enticement.

The budget was fixed, given according to the number of people working on the river channel, plus this additional subsidy; but once in hand, how to distribute it, as long as it was justifiable, was entirely up to her own decision.

Eating meat once every five days, even if just a bit of meat, was a huge benefit for those who lived by their strength.

A little subsidy, plus a full meal, was already enough to attract refugees and real laborers, and keep them.

The greater the personnel turnover, the greater the management difficulty; if existing laborers could be kept as much as possible, it would reduce familiarization time and speed up the river-digging progress.

Song Miao drafted the construction site's menu here based on seasonal affordable dishes, but Wang Shuji arrived at the "New He Dao" at the crack of dawn, bringing his subordinates and nephew along.

Yesterday Cen Dezhang personally came to the door, so that matter of being shackled was naturally dropped; he proposed wanting to see how Hua Prefecture's water affairs were handled, and Cen Dezhang readily agreed, even offering to arrange subordinates to host him.

Wang Shuji refused, only saying this trip wasn't official business, he just wanted to come take a look himself.

After some back-and-forth politeness, in the end they merely called a minor clerk to help run errands.

Wang Shuji arrived early in the morning, tethered his horse, and walked along the river channel, looking and asking as he went, occasionally having his nephew note down certain details, and now and then finding that clerk to question him.

In just a few li of road, Wang Shuji walked for half a day; he had just sent someone to ask where Han Li was when he saw a small squad pushing carts approaching in the distance.

"What's that?"

The nephew ran over and soon ran back, saying: "It's the kitchen sending lunch!"

Wang Shuji knew it was that Song Xiaoniangzi from the official post station managing the kitchen, and he had also seen the fifty-two rules she made, plus a simple charter.

The writing showed considerable substance, but what's on paper and what actually works in practice are two different matters.

He had managed construction projects of several hundred up to over ten thousand people, so he naturally knew that once headcount grows large, the meals are absolutely not about cooking skill — after all, no matter how good the culinary art, one person cannot cook for thousands upon thousands; it depends on the manager's ability.

Hearing his nephew's reply, Wang Shuji's mind instantly sprouted an urge to inspect, so he said: "Come, let's go take a look!"

He headed forward first, standing to the side watching the queue — though not perfectly orderly, it wasn't chaotic in the least.

The meal signal already had a sequence, people took time to walk over, and there was a slight gap in between, letting the two servers handle things very easily.

This serving point had only a single line; rice buckets and vegetable basins were laid out in a row — staple food first, then continuing forward to get dishes, no backtracking.

The staple was bean-and-rice.

Various beans and mixed grains boiled in two huge pots; though somewhat coarse, one look showed they were very filling.

There were two dishes: one was cornelian cherry tofu — not much cornelian cherry, but the tofu differed from ordinary tender tofu; it appeared to have been lightly pan-fried first, the outer layer slightly yellow, with extremely sparse bits of minced pork.

One was vinegar-sautéed cabbage, white stems and yellow leaves; this dish keeps well, and one look told it wouldn't taste bad.

Also paired with a beverage: mung bean water, extremely dilute, as if the mung beans had only taken a hot-water bath inside before coming out — but in the end it wasn't plain water.

Wang Shuji glanced around; not far off a woman was tidying a pushcart and its contents, so he walked up, greeted her, and asked: "What rice and dishes are these today?"

That woman recognized him at once — she was the one who helped Song Miao block the bailiffs yesterday — and hurriedly stood straight and answered, calling out "Master Wang."

She introduced today's rice and dishes in a few sentences, finally saying: "Song Xiaoniangzi said this bean-mixed rice has too much mixed grain and is coarse; though filling, it'll definitely scrape the throat, so she set this cornelian cherry tofu to go with it — she had us dip the tofu in egg and pan-fry it haphazardly, strangely fragrant; besides sesame oil, she also added a bit of lard base and a bit of minced pork; when eating, you press the tofu with chopsticks and mix it with that cornelian cherry bean sauce spicy soup, the tofu inside is tender, crumbled into the rice, and in one go it blends with the rice and slides down the throat, not a trace of coarseness felt!"

Wang Shuji was hungry and didn't want to hear how to cook, but could only listen to the end with a bitter smile.

Seeing someone not far away who had already finished eating and was drinking mung bean water, he walked up, learned to squat on the ground, and asked: "Brother, how's the taste of this rice and dishes, can you eat your fill?"

That man was busy drinking; from the corner of his eye he glanced over, saw a man with sparse hair and beard, wearing a coarse cloth robe, covered in dust and dirt — though he didn't look like a laborer, he assumed he was some distressed refugee forced to seek work, didn't think much, and casually replied: "Tasty, really flavorful, just a bit little — barely filled me up; more would be better!"

Another person beside him also drinking mung bean water chimed in: "This time the meal is all real grain; though not much, it counts as willing to spend the capital!"

The man in front then urged: "Older Brother hurry up and go; in a bit the queue will grow, careful you'll be left with only bottom-of-the-pot dishes."

Wang Shuji acknowledged, indeed stood up, but walked to the other side and asked a few more people.

The minor clerk wanted to follow along, but was stopped by that subordinate; with difficulty he caught up, saw Wang Shuji so interested, and said: "Master Wang, why don't I have someone notify the kitchen first, ask them to quickly prepare Master Wang's meal?"

Wang Shuji waved his hand, saying: "I'm an outside official; I won't recklessly spend your river works' food money."

And said: "I want to see the kitchen — I know a xiaoniangzi inside, I'll just go find her myself."

That minor clerk didn't dare agree, and just honestly led the way ahead.

The group soon reached the kitchen.

By now the room was already being swept and mopped; Wang Shuji was about to enter when a woman mopping the floor spotted him at a glance and shouted: "That person, don't come in."

The minor clerk behind hurriedly squeezed forward, saying: "This is Master Wang from the Six Routes Transport Commission, wanting to inspect your kitchen — where's the person in charge?"

Seeing he was about to step a foot inside the door, whoosh whoosh whoosh — several people suddenly jumped out from left and right.

"Don't step, don't come in, the kitchen can't be entered casually!"

"Song Xiaoniangzi said, unrelated people wanting to enter the kitchen, unless led by yamen officers or a few construction managers in person — this whatever Transport Commission official, if you want to look, better wait for Xiaoniangzi to come and talk to her yourself?"

"We barely got this job, we're counting on it to make a living and eat; Sir, don't blame us!"

Seven mouths eight tongues, quite a speech.

Song Miao was in the side room organizing things; hearing the clamor outside, she handed off the matter and came out the door, saw several people standing outside the kitchen, the one at the back looked very familiar, so she called out and asked: "Is it Master Wang?"

Both sides exchanged greetings; learning the other came to inspect the kitchen, she brought people to stand briefly at the door and first explained: "The floor inside was just washed and mopped, Master Wang is wearing cloth shoes, it's slippery when wet; how about just taking a brief look from the doorway?"

Wang Shuji agreed: "Guest follows host's convenience; I'm the guest now, this is Xiaoniangzi's turf, I'll listen to your arrangement."

Then asked about her manpower, how it was allocated, and if any problems had been encountered.

Song Miao answered each in turn, then gave a rundown of how the kitchen was laid out, how the traffic flow was arranged, and why she did it this way.

After answering, she also brought people to look at the storeroom next door.

Wang Shuji looked through everything one by one, already very satisfied in his heart, and asked: "I saw they ate two dishes at noon plus bean rice; asked a few, all said the taste was good — but is it really good? How's the cost?"

Song Miao smiled: "The taste is definitely ordinary; it's just everyone's easy to please, able to eat a hot meal and have dishes — nobody picks at it."

The two spoke a few more sentences; Wang Shuji called his nephew and asked: "Did you bring the invitation card?"

The latter hurriedly took it out.

Wang Shuji took it and personally handed it to Song Miao, saying: "That matter from yesterday, Xiaoniangzi think it over carefully; this is my name card — when the time comes take it to the door, the official residence will naturally have someone to receive you — with your ability, at the Transport Commission you won't suffer a bit of mistreatment!"

Song Miao accepted with both hands, politely thanked him.

Having personally invited twice, sincerity was already given enough; Wang Shuji naturally didn't persuade further, and left with his people.

In the following days, the batches of newcomers Ma Shenzǐ and the others recruited memorized the rules and took their posts one by one; the previous twenty-odd people also naturally each became a minor headman.

At the same time, people on the river channel grew more and more; by the day Song Miao received the next day's shift roster, the total population eating was 2,800-odd.

Early morning, still before the mao hour, she and Dabing arrived at the kitchen.

Opened the door, saw everyone at their posts; suddenly, a person walked out briskly from the neighboring storeroom.

"Song Xiaoniangzi, do you have a moment? The storeroom seems a bit off."

The comer looked anxious; it was Zhang Siniang.