Chapter 1: Refusing Yi Zhonghai

1961, the kitchen of the Rolling Mill canteen.

Shazhu, who was lying on a recliner to dodge work, suddenly began to twitch violently in his limbs. A moment later, the violent twitching stopped, and Shazhu slowly opened his eyes.

He Yuzhu felt speechless inside. He had originally been a corporate slave in the later generations, and he never expected to have his soul transmigrate into the body of Shazhu from *Siheyuan*.

Immediately, He Yuzhu closed his eyes. He felt that the spatial energy that had caused his soul to transmigrate had not dissipated; instead, it first strengthened his body to the peak of human capability, then transformed into a 10,000-cubic-meter consciousness space.

He Yuzhu clearly felt the muscles on his body become as refined as fine steel, and his strength was even more incomparably powerful.

"I could take on ten!" He Yuzhu could absolutely make such a bold claim.

To verify his strength, He Yuzhu casually grabbed a rolling pin and squeezed it lightly, leaving his handprint on it. Then, with a thought, the rolling pin instantly vanished and appeared inside the consciousness space.

He Yuzhu moved his mind again, and the rolling pin appeared in his hand once more.

The law of the consciousness space was that it could not contain living things, but any object touched by the body, as long as its volume did not exceed the size of the space, could be instantly taken into the consciousness space.

He Yuzhu narrowed his eyes; suddenly, he had an idea.

He Yuzhu gripped the middle of the rolling pin with his hand and, following his thought, moved his mind. The rolling pin instantly split into three. The middle part held in He Yuzhu's hand was taken into the space, while the two ends broke off and fell to the ground.

He Yuzhu hurriedly picked up the remaining parts of the rolling pin from the ground and looked closely; the cut surfaces were extremely smooth, without a single burr.

Spatial energy, terrifying to this degree!

"Heh, does this count as a disguised Dimensional Space Slash?" He Yuzhu thought to himself.

Afterward, He Yuzhu put the remaining parts of the rolling pin into the consciousness space.

He Yuzhu tried to combine the three segments of the rolling pin into one within the consciousness space. As soon as this thought arose, he saw the three segments instantly diffuse into countless particles, then synthesize into a rolling pin exactly the same as the previous one, and furthermore, the handprint on the rolling pin had also disappeared.

He Yuzhu moved his mind, and this rolling pin appeared in his hand again.

Through constant experimentation, He Yuzhu discovered that any item taken into the consciousness space could be decomposed and then reorganized, and it could change into a thousand forms according to his thoughts.

However, once an item left the consciousness space, it would follow the laws of the real world and could not be manipulated by consciousness at all.

After He Yuzhu realized all this, he stopped the experiment. A moment later, a flash of inspiration struck his mind, and he had another idea, so he shouted toward the outside: "Pangzi, come here."

Pangzi immediately lifted the door curtain and ran in, asking: "Master, what is it?"

"Come here, close your eyes, I have a surprise for you," He Yuzhu said, patting Pangzi on the shoulder.

"What surprise?" Pangzi asked.

"Less nonsense, close your eyes," He Yuzhu said.

Hearing this, Pangzi immediately closed his eyes.

He Yuzhu did not take his hand off Pangzi's shoulder. He Yuzhu moved his mind, and the clothes on Pangzi's body instantly vanished without a trace.

He Yuzhu couldn't help but be overjoyed; he could be a clothes-stripping maniac in the future.

He Yuzhu then moved his mind, and Pangzi's clothes appeared on Pangzi again.

"Alright, go call Ma Hua over," He Yuzhu said.

Pangzi was a bit confused, only feeling that it had been a bit chilly just now, but Pangzi didn't think much of it and went to call Ma Hua over.

"From now on, I will officially teach you how to stir-fry. We'll start with stir-frying big-pot dishes. Once the big-pot dishes are done well, I'll teach you small-stove cooking. Of course, the basic skills cannot be neglected; practice whenever you have time. I'll stir-fry first, you watch from the side, and ask if you don't understand," He Yuzhu said indifferently. "Really, that's great, thank you, Master, for the grace of teaching," Ma Hua and Pangzi said excitedly, and then they were about to perform a grand bow.

"It's a new world now, that old set doesn't apply," He Yuzhu said, waving his hand.

He Yuzhu was not Shazhu; he didn't have the concept of "teaching the apprentice and starving the master." In the later generations, those gourmet programs were all eager to teach you hand-in-hand, completely breaking the traditional barriers.

Ma Hua was loyal to him, so He Yuzhu would naturally teach him.

As for Pangzi, although in the original show Pangzi backstabbed Shazhu in the later stages, there were extenuating circumstances. Pangzi had followed Shazhu to learn cooking for more than ten years and still hadn't graduated; let alone backstabbing Shazhu, even taking a knife to kill Shazhu would have been justifiable.

Now, whether it was Ma Hua or Pangzi, both were respectful to him and flattered him in various ways. By reason and etiquette, he should teach Ma Hua and Pangzi some real skills to settle down and make a living.

Of course, another important reason was that once they were taught, he could be lazy. As long as the disciples did the work, he only needed to maintain the core technology.

Just as Pangzi and Ma Hua were frantically flattering He Yuzhu and expressing their loyalty, Yi Zhonghai ran toward the canteen in a hurry, as if chased by a dog.

"Master Yi, it's not time to eat yet, why are you here?" Pangzi asked curiously.

"Zhuzi, your Brother Dongxu has been seriously injured in the workshop, hurry and come to the hospital with me," Yi Zhonghai didn't pay any attention to Pangzi, but said urgently to He Yuzhu.

The reason Yi Zhonghai ran to find He Yuzhu in such a hurry was that after Yi Zhonghai saw Jia Dongxu have an accident in the workshop, he was afraid.

To be precise, Yi Zhonghai wasn't afraid because of Jia Dongxu's miserable state, but because the person he had worked so hard to cultivate to support him in his old age was going to die, and he felt afraid because there would be no one to support him in his old age.

Yi Zhonghai thought of his backup for old-age support at the first moment, which was Shazhu, so he went to the kitchen as if possessed.

This was a subconscious, instinctive reaction. His first-priority old-age supporter, Jia Dongxu, was gone, so his second-priority old-age supporter, He Yuzhu, could not have any more accidents.

If it were the old Shazhu, he would definitely have rushed to the hospital with Yi Zhonghai without a word. Unfortunately, He Yuzhu was not Shazhu and remained completely unmoved.

"Great Uncle, Brother Dongxu is seriously injured, you should go find a doctor. What's the use of finding me? I still have to stir-fry. If the workers are delayed from eating, will you take responsibility?" He Yuzhu said, spreading his hands.

Although He Yuzhu was smiling and acting like a loafer on the surface, he was actually narrowing his eyes, with cold light flashing in them. Others were fooled by Yi Zhonghai's sanctimonious appearance, but He Yuzhu would not be.

The reason Shazhu had such a miserable life was that he was pitted by Yi Zhonghai and Qin Huairu's family. He Yuzhu would not repeat the same mistakes. In He Yuzhu's eyes, Yi Zhonghai was the fish on the chopping block, and he himself was the knife and the board.

The anxious Yi Zhonghai clearly didn't notice the cold light in He Yuzhu's eyes and said with a flushed face: "Shazhu, why are you so insensible?"

"How did I teach you? We are a collective, we must be united and help each other. Your Brother Dongxu is already like this, and you are still here making trouble..."

Yi Zhonghai directly started his preaching mode. He Yuzhu couldn't be bothered to refute, nor could he be bothered to pay attention, because you couldn't wake up a person who was pretending to sleep, no matter how reasonable you were.

Yi Zhonghai's thinking had already set. His desire for control was extremely strong, and whenever you went against him, he would use his set of specious "Will of the Courtyard" to kidnap you.

This wasn't the most terrifying part; the terrifying part was that he deeply believed in his twisted "Will of the Courtyard."

"Pangzi, go call our canteen director over," He Yuzhu said.

To deal with Yi Zhonghai, never reason with him. He would use his crooked ways to pull you down to his level, and then defeat you with his rich experience.

To deal with Yi Zhonghai, just use power to suppress him.

Before long, Pangzi brought the canteen director, Niu Fen, to the canteen. At this time, Yi Zhonghai was still babbling on and on.

Pangzi gave He Yuzhu a look; clearly, Pangzi had already told the canteen director about the matter.

"Yi Zhonghai, what do you want to do? Don't think that just because you are an eighth-grade worker in the factory you can do whatever you want. This is the canteen, and it's almost time for lunch. You call Shazhu away, and there's no one to stir-fry the big-pot rice. Can you take responsibility?" Canteen Director Niu Fen roared loudly.

(End of chapter)