The General's Delicious Wife Chapter 048: How to Convince All
Elder Sister Shan's eyes suddenly lit up, berating angrily, "You from Liu Cheng's family, is what I said before in vain? Everything that happens in the kitchen is up to Xiao Xia to be in charged, so you should just do what you are told to do."
Everyone else was silent, but they were all expectant in watching from the sideline, as everyone was more or less unconvinced in their hearts. Now that somebody was heading the protest, they were naturally gleeful in their hearts.
Xia Yue Chu did not waste time talking, she walked up to the cutting board, picked up a kitchen knife, and appointed the one from Liu Cheng's family with the tip of her knife, commanding her, "Go and wash me a cucumber."
She spoke with so much authority, that before the one from Liu Cheng's family could react, she had already obediently picked up a cucumber and washed it.
She did not come back to her senses until the cucumbers were washed, and suddenly her old face felt like it was burning, and since it was already washed, she threw the cucumber on the chopping board, crossing both her arms, and waited to see what sort of tricks Xia Yue Chu could come up with.
In her previous life, Xia Yue Chu was selected by her master. In the beginning, she could not even come into contact with the stove. She was spinning around the chopping board every day for two full years, it was for the practiced of the most basic knife skills.
Even as she started learning as a cook afterwards, her master would check on her knife skills every three to five days, so her skills in cutting had never been neglected.
She placed the cucumber horizontally in front of her, lightly raising the kitchen knife, turned it at forty-five degrees against the cucumber, cut down and bring it back up speedily.
Everyone in the kitchen looked on with their eyes widen, but they were all very confused in their hearts.
It was strange that there were no changes at all after cutting the vegetable, and after cutting for a while, the cucumber on the chopping board was still the same cucumber, nothing had changed.
The kitchen helpers could not help but started murmuring again. Only those who were standing near, Elder Sister Shan, the one from Liu Cheng's family, and Xue Qin, were able to see Xia Yue Chu's actions clearly.
The cucumber was covered with small knife cuts, but it was not cut through, the thickness of each slice was uniform.
Xia Yue Chu flipped the cucumber was over. This time, the kitchen knife was perpendicular to the cucumber, and her knife went down quickly again.
After cutting down to seventy percent, she lifted her knife again. The blade never touched the chopping board from the beginning to the end. Her movements were like flowing clouds and water, stealth and silent, and her wrists flew up and down, dazzling others.
Xia Yue Chu placed the kitchen knife down, pinched both ends of the cucumber, gently lifted that cucumber, and shook with her hands. There was an exclamation of surprise all around the kitchen.
The cucumbers were cut into even thin slices, but they were not disconnected, they were chained in links, and even the depth of each cut was exactly the same.
Xia Yue Chu dished the cut-up cucumber in a porcelain plate, and it immediately appeared as if it was a living snake, the white and green gradients were particularly beautiful.
Elder Sister Shan was the first to yell well done, and everyone else praised her.
Despite being impressed by Xia Yue Chu's kung fu, the one from Liu Cheng's family was still a little upset, and continued grumbling. "Just because you cut it well doesn't mean that everyone else cuts it well. Everyone is the same here as a helper, what is it based on that they can cut the ingredients, while I have to wash the vegetables in the cold water."
Xia Yue Chu wiped her hands with a handkerchief and began to speak slowly, "It's not based on anything, if you don't want to wash the vegetables, it's also very simple. We don't need you anymore, you don't have to come tomorrow."
The one from Liu Cheng's family's expression soured in an instant, and her first reaction was to turn her head towards Elder Sister Shan.
"It should have been like this from the beginning!" Elder Sister Shan said mercilessly, "You from Liu Cheng's family, since you treat my words as a passing wind, there is no point for me to be taking care of you anymore, you can find your own way back to town, and you don't have to come and beg me for anymore work allocation in the future."
The one from Liu Cheng's family was recruited by Elder Sister Shan from the town to run errands and complete chores, but now she had yet to earn any money and she was actually fired, and she had to go back to town by herself.
If it was just a one-time occurrence, she would grit her teeth and forget about doing this chore.
But Elder Sister Shan was the famous event organizer within these ten miles and eight villages, and many families would employ her services if they wanted to hold a banquet.
If you offend her, it would be tantamount to losing all future job opportunities.
The one from Liu Cheng's family softened her tone immediately, she begged for mercy consecutively, and looked at the other kitchen helpers in hope for a kind support.
But when everyone witnessed what had happened to her, they did not dare to speak on her behalf, fearing that if it did not go well, they would end up following her back to town.
After such an incident, no one from the kitchen remained unconvinced anymore, and they all agreed to follow Xia Yue Chu's arrangements honestly.
On the way home, Xue Qin was still recalling the manner Xia Yue Chu used to suppress everyone, she quickly took two steps forward chasing after her, "Sister-in-law, you are really getting better and better. Your action just now has also put me in shock!"
"This is all taught by your brother. He was afraid that I would not be able to hold the fort since I am young, so he taught me a few tricks." Xia Yue Chu lied spontaneously. "Actually, I was barely holding on, I was so nervous that I could die!"
Xue Qin thought about it and believed so. It was not as if she had not seen how Xia Yue Chu was like before, the image of her being weak and timid, frightened like a helpless quail.
But ever since Eldest Brother came back, she has been becoming more competent day by day. It seemed true that Eldest Brother was giving her ideas from behind the scenes.
That night, Xia Yue Chu went to sleep early, and after breakfast the next day, she took Xue Qin to the Cui's house.
The Cui family originated from digging ginseng. When it comes to ginseng in Seng Head Village, people of the higher ages could say a thing or two about it, it was well-known in the town and even in the regional city.
Now that, the eldest of the Cui family became the village leader, and on top of that, Cui Shu Qing was studying in town.
Thus, when his family was organizing the birthday banquet, people from the range of ten miles and eight villages* and all the way from town came to celebrate the birthday.
The Cui family had set up many long tables and long chairs in the sun drying grains field opposite their gate early in the morning, and two large fire pits were erected, with two large pots of soup in rolling boil.
Next to it, was a few working tables, a few neat and tidy madams were kneading the noodles, whether it was people from this village or otherwise, as long as they had the desire to eat when they passed by, they could take a seat and have a bowl of longevity noodles.
There are four large pots on the table, one with fried meat sauce and the other with pork and citron daylily braised soup for the noodles.
The other two contained side dishes, a mixture of cabbage and radish.
The newly rolled out hand-made noodles, were tumbling and boiling in the milky white stock, they were picked and raised high by a pair of long chopsticks, landing into the off-white porcelain bowl, surprisingly the noodles were even whiter than the bowl itself.
Ladling a scoop of braised soup, and then another scoop of soup stock and immediately the aroma overflowed.
The kitchen helpers who came early in the morning saw that it was still early, so they all chose to take a seat and eat a bowl of hot noodle soup before work.
On the morning of early April in the northeast, stuffing the belly with a bowl of hot noodles soup, would make their whole body warm, even their hands and feet felt energized.
There were also greedy madams who loved to take petty advantages, they dragged their whole families over to eat the noodles without washing their faces clean.
The Cui family was not stingy, as long as they did not waste the food, no matter how much they ate, they were welcomed with a smile.
"The Cui family really holds up their status of being a big family in the village. They were using excellent white flour for a free flow buffet. Tsk, tsk, how much they would have used just for this day alone!"
"White flour noodles are so much more delicious than maize noodles, and they have a strong chew. The meat sauce is also full of flavor, and I don't know how it was made, I have never eaten such a delicious sauce, which end up making me add another half a bowl of noodles."
"My braised noodle soup is also very delicious, with shredded meat and citron daylily in it, which is extremely tasty."
"If you ask me, everything is delicious with meat!"
The few kitchen assistant madams were gathered together eating the noodles, and their mouths were not idle, continuously chatting idly.
"I think these two side dishes are tasty, but there is no meat in here, right?I've never tasted anything similar to this before and I don't know how Xiao Xia cooked it. These were the exact vegetables I cut yesterday, which is the most common cabbage and radish, and they could be made to such a flavor."
"It's not strange that people like Elder Sister Shan admires her so much, we have to perform well today. so that we don't get driven back in disgrace like the one from Liu Cheng's family, that would be such a big lost."
When the kitchen madams had their fill on the noodles, they returned to the kitchen in pairs and in groups. They saw that Xia Yue Chu was already there, wrapping the longevity peaches in the pastry station.
It was unknown to them what juice she had mixed into the dough, kneading a portion into a consistent light pink dough. Grabbing a small ball of pink dough and a larger piece of white dough, pressing it together and rolling it out, adding on a big spoon of stuffings, shaping and a little molding by her hands, and it became like a peach, with a soft pink shade coming through the white skin.
"Gulps--"
The kitchen was so quiet, they did not know who swallowed a big mouthful of saliva and made a loud noise.
Only then did everyone came back to their senses, and they admired Xia Yue Chu's craftsmanship even more. So she did not need to say more, they followed in accordance with the previous arrangements, each stationing for their duties and soon became busy.
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Translator Notes:
*Ten miles and eight villages. You are seeing this a lot, the distance isn't literal, it just mean as far as ten miles and as wide as eight villages.
Translated by YellowBean.