Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle-Chapter 1140 - 549: Xu Nuo (Part 9)_2

Xu Nuo nodded helplessly, "Alright, alright, I'll give you more. Flawed cloth is easy to exchange, and I don't need to exchange that pork for anyone else. I'll buy it all from you at market price. Three pounds of meat is just right for making a plate of braised pork."

"Okay, it's settled. On the thirtieth, you get off work early. I'll wait for you at your dorm at 4 PM. Anyway, you're working overtime without pay for New Year's, so no one in your department will say anything about you leaving early. Since you're the only one working in the finance department, I say you might as well take the thermos from your head of department."

Xu Nuo got up to leave, and Wang Gen Sheng escorted him to the door with a word of thanks.

"What are you thanking me for? It's just business."

"I know you're not making any money off me," Wang Gen Sheng said, "You're helping me change the money tickets, taking risks and might even lose money. I know that."

Xu Nuo didn't say anything, just smiled and left.

After Xu Nuo left, the coal briquettes remained. Wang Gen Sheng used the briquettes left in the coal stove to boil a pot of hot water, mixed it with cold water, washed clothes piled for days, and then went to sleep.

The briquettes burned in the coal stove for several hours before burning out. In Wang Gen Sheng's memory, Qin Huai couldn't feel the temperature, but judging by Wang Gen Sheng's smooth sleep, the originally icy room should have been quite warm after burning coal briquettes for several hours.

The next day, Qin Huai found out the current date from Wang Gen Sheng at work, the twenty-seventh day of the first lunar month.

Three days remained until New Year's Eve.

In the following days, Qin Huai tagged along with Wang Gen Sheng to work the entire time.

To put it bluntly, it was very boring. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

The young version of Wang Gen Sheng was a rather dull person, without interests or hobbies, with no material pursuits, and certainly no spiritual ones. His social circle was very narrow, usually only interacting with a few people from the same department.

From idle chats between two other people in the department, Qin Huai discovered that the cotton mill had more than one finance department. Including him, there were four ordinary financial staff and one head in the department where Wang Gen Sheng worked, all there due to connections, not to actually work.

The workload for five people was borne by Wang Gen Sheng alone. Hence, even if there wasn't much work for the department, Wang Gen Sheng had a lot of tasks. From morning till night he spent his time either eating or working, leaving no time for anything else or socializing.

This diligent, Old Huang-like work ethic of Wang Gen Sheng was not without rewards. Though all in the department were connected hires, they had their advantages, such as being able to get the best benefits when distributed.

Furthermore, because they all relied on Wang Gen Sheng for work, during benefit distributions, the others would only take a symbolic portion, leaving the rest for Wang Gen Sheng. The joke Xu Nuo made about Wang Gen Sheng taking the head's thermos could indeed be carried out; after observing over these days, Qin Huai believed the head wouldn't mind.

Of course, a Law Beast in pursuit of fairness and justice wouldn't stoop to pick up what Mayfly dropped.

At most, Wang Gen Sheng would take the newspaper from the head's desk every afternoon, read it, and then put it back.

This plain, monotonous, office-worker lifestyle continued until the morning of New Year's Eve. Even the most overworked employee would put aside unfinished reports to cheerfully queue up and collect New Year's benefits.

The cotton mill's New Year benefits were very generous.

Each person received 3 pounds of pork, 1 can of food, 8 pieces of soap, 2 pounds of bulk candy, half a pound of pastries, 12 boxes of matches, coal tickets, 2 toothbrushes, 1 towel, 2 rolls of flawed cloth, 10 bath tickets, 2 movie tickets, 6 eggs, and some odds and ends.

Wang Gen Sheng's colleagues from the same department gave him all the less valuable items like bath tickets and flawed cloth. The head was particularly generous, handing over the canned food and bulk candy, illustrating just how much the department needed diligent people to do the work.

After collecting these items, instead of returning home immediately, Wang Gen Sheng went back to the office to work until 3:40 PM, then carried the large bags home stuffed with goods.

Anyone who saw it would have to lament that he was truly a chosen hard worker, a diligent, loyal employee.

By the time Wang Gen Sheng made it home, Xu Nuo was already waiting in his dorm.

The coal stove was burning with coal briquettes.

"Did the finance department distribute so much this year?" Xu Nuo was amazed at the pile of bundles Wang Gen Sheng had, "This morning I helped Xu Mo's team collect theirs, and they only got half of what you received."

"Did your big leader in finance go robbing? Won't the workshop have a problem with this much being distributed to you?"

"The head and others are nice, they gave me a lot," Wang Gen Sheng said, setting down the things and starting to sort through what was for Xu Nuo.

Looking at the heap of various items, Xu Nuo shook his head repeatedly, "Stop, stop, don't bother sorting right now. I'm in a hurry, my granny is waiting for me to come back and make braised pork for her."

"I'm just here for the meat, I'll pick up the rest another day. Just sort them out. See the two lunch boxes on the table? Those are my parents' old lunch boxes, I'm giving them to you, exchange them again next year if you get anything."

"Don't eat in the canteen during the New Year's, I'm not belittling the cotton mill's canteen, but for such a large mill, the canteen master's skills are really lacking. All he knows how to do when cooking is add oil and nothing else, even boiling yellow soybeans in lard, which makes no sense, wouldn't it be better to sauté some vegetables with the extra lard?"

"I originally wanted to make you some meat dumplings, but Shan City is technically in the south where they don't eat dumplings during New Year's. You may not know, but in the north, they do. Master Jing at the state-owned restaurant is from the north and makes dumplings every year. The dumplings in the lunch box were made by me this afternoon, I ran out of meat so I used another filling, just make do with it."

"Happy New Year."

"And a note, I think you should still go home for New Year's next year. The factory can arrange with the railway to ensure you get a ticket back. Being from out of town, if you want to go home for New Year's, your leave request will surely be approved."

"New Year's dinner tastes best when you have it with your family."

"I'm off, eat while it's hot."

Wang Gen Sheng stood there a bit dazed, took a few seconds to react, and then said towards Xu Nuo's retreating figure, "Th—thank you, happy New Year."

Xu Nuo didn't turn back, just waved a hand.

Wang Gen Sheng cast his eyes on the lunch boxes on the table.

Two old, but relatively new-looking, tin lunch boxes with a few dents but not many.

Wang Gen Sheng opened the lunch boxes.

One contained side dishes, the other a staple food.

In the box for the staple food, there was half a box of fermented rice with steamed buns and half a box of dumplings. The fermented rice with steamed buns were probably bought by Xu Nuo yesterday at the state-owned restaurant, as the buns were already cold. The small lunch box had three fermented rice with steamed buns packed tightly, squeezed by the dumplings into a sorry state.

The dumplings, on the other hand, were clearly fresh from the pot and still steaming. Each one was plump and round, made from pure white flour, with beautifully pleated edges that showed the good skill of the dumpling maker just by their appearance.

The other box of side dishes wasn't exactly lavish, just two items. It was obvious they were made with lard-fried greens and scrambled eggs.

The presentation wasn't great, and the greens were slightly cool, but the scrambled eggs seemed to still be warm. Compared to his daily meals, these two boxes were indeed considered very rich.

Wang Gen Sheng picked up his chopsticks, took a piece of green veggies, then a bite of scrambled eggs, silently closed the lunch box, seeming to intend to savor the dishes slowly, living up to the spirit of austerity to its fullest.

After tasting the side dishes, Wang Gen Sheng put down the chopsticks, took one fermented rice with steamed bun from the other box. The originally squashed fermented rice with steamed bun slowly puffed up in his hands, soon returning to the shape of a standard bun.

Poor Wang Gen Sheng, who had never seen something like this, was very stunned, staring at the fermented rice with steamed bun for a long time, poking and squeezing it here and there. After confirming that the bun would return to its original form no matter what he did, he showed an expression of amazement and then took a big bite.

Although Qin Huai had never tasted cold fermented rice with steamed buns, Qin Huai believed that with Master Jing's skills, the buns should be delicious even cold.

Wang Gen Sheng showed a satisfied expression.

Qin Huai admired him greatly.

No matter what Wang Gen Sheng did when no one was around, it was like acting in a silent film, never making any noise, not even while eating, and he didn't make chewing sounds. The room was so quiet that Qin Huai suspected the memory itself was muted.

Who turned the volume down, why was there no sound at all.

While Qin Huai silently complained, Wang Gen Sheng had already finished a whole fermented rice with steamed bun and picked up the chopsticks to start on the dumplings.

Then, Wang Gen Sheng said his first words since Xu Nuo had left.

"P-potato dumplings?" He eyed the half-bitten dumpling with potato cubes filling, looking puzzled.

"I see... so this is what dumplings are like."

"Wrapping vegetables in dough is a dumpling."

"Northern people are really odd, why not just have noodles with vegetables, why wrap them in dough."

Qin Huai: ...

In times when information is not widespread, it's people like these creative snack masters who have tarnished the reputation of dumplings!