Chapter 323 - Many at the restaurant were excited like it was New Year day. (2)
Tong Xuelu first brought Guo Weiping with her to the CSMC.
When they arrived at the CSMC, the two employees at the meat stall were expressionless when they saw Tong Xuelu.
That did not bother Tong Xuelu. She walked over, “Master Wu, are the meats for our restaurant ready?”
The government-operated restaurant had partnership with the CSMC and the government-operated restaurant had the first right of refusal.
Master Wu pointed at a table inside with his chin, “They are all there.”
Tong Xuelu looked over and saw a few pieces of pork bones and a small piece of meat on the table. Not to mention that the piece of pork was of the worst cut.
Guo Weiping’s face turned beet red when he saw that. His expression obviously said that: They had gone too far!
Master Wu and another employee glanced over at Tong Xuelu out of the corners of their eyes. Their looks filled with mockery.
Tong Xuelu blinked. She did not look upset at all. She turned toward Master Mu and said, “Master Mu, I have a favor to ask.”
Master Mu was a bit surprised that Tong Xuelu didn’t seem upset at all. “What is it? Let me be clear about one thing. If it is good cuts that you want, there is nothing I can do about it. You are not the only CSMC that buys from us.”
In addition to Tong Xuelu’s restaurant, there’s another government-operated restaurant that got their pork from their stall.
Back when Liu Dongchang was the manager, the two restaurants were about equal. Now Liu Dongchang had left a mess for everyone.
The restaurant’s reputation was in shamble and there had been no businesses. As such, the CSMC stall reserved all of their good meats to the other government-operated restaurant.
The smile on Tong Xuelu remained unchanged. “It is not the pork that I wanted to talk about. I heard that Master Wu had been in this line of business for almost 20 years and is one of the best in your field. I would like to have an interview with you, write an essay from the interview, and post your story at our restaurant for all to see.
“I am sure someone like Master Mu, who had always been on the frontline of his line of work, must have a lot of your hardworking and inspiring stories to share. Sharing stories of yours would certainly inspire many others to be hardworking like you and become a constructive part of our society!”
Master Wu, a man who was 1.8 meter in height, his eyes turned red like those of a rabbit after he had heard that.
He was so emotional and his nose sore. He had so much that he wanted to share.
Everybody thought he had a great job. It looked great from the outside, being able to have as much meat as he wanted. But nobody saw the difficult part of it.
Butchers had to go to slaughterhouse to slaughter pigs at 3~4 AM. Then they had to rush back to the CSMC to sell the pork.
Slaughtering pigs was not just a skilled job, but also required physical strength. It was an exhausting task.
As he got older and older in recent years, he started to worry that he might not be able to do this for much longer.
As such, how could he not be touched when someone finally understood how much work he had put behind it.
Master Wu forced his tears back and cleared his throat. “Manager Tong, are you serious about this?”
Tong Xuelu nodded. “Of course I am. I am going to make it into a series and interview many others modern frontline workers much like you. Only the modern ones!”
Master Wu became even more emotional. “When do you want to do the interview, Manager Tong? I am a little dirty right now. Perhaps I can go home and change first?”
Tong Xuelu waved her hand. “No rush, Master Wu. I need to buy some other items as well and today is a busy day for me. How about tomorrow? I will come back tomorrow afternoon.”
Having said that, she turned to pick up the meat on the table.
Master Wu came hurrying over to stop her. “Manager Tong, there was some sort of a mix up. Those are for someone else. I haven’t prepared yours yet.”
Tong Xuelu smiled and said, “Oh, I see. Then can you give me some big bones, pork liver, and pork intestines, etc.? Some less fatty parts of pork belly. I don’t need too much of that.”
Master Wu said yes to all of her requests. He was fast and accurate. He gave all the meats that he had saved for the other restaurant to Tong Xuelu, and the best parts of all of them no less!
Tong Xuelu handed him the money and tickets and was about to take off.
Xiao Sun, another worker there walked over with a fawning smile on him and said to her, “Manager Tong, I have many stories about my hardships that I have to share as well……”
He wasn’t even done talking when he was interrupted by Master Wu, “You haven’t even had 10 years in this field yet. What kind of bullchit do you have to share?!”
What a joke. Only those who had experienced the most hardship and were the most advanced in their field deserved to be interviewed. Someone like himself, for example.
What did Xiao Sun have to do with any of these?
Putting their stories side by side would only trivialize his.
Tong Xuelu smiled and said, “Maybe next time. We will stick with one person representing their field for now.”
One person representing their field!
When Master Wu heard that, he felt complacent and confident all of a sudden and he stuck he chest out like a rooster who had won many victories.
Xiao Sun felt regretful when he heard that. “Then you must keep me in mind for future interviews, Manager Tong.”
Tong Xuelu reassured him that he would be on the top of the list and Xiao Sun finally broke out into a big smile.
Coming out of the CSMC, Guo Weiping, carrying the pork with him, were still stunned by what he had just saw.
Wow, Manager Tong was simply incredible.
He had been here with Liu Dongchang in the past. Even Liu Dongchang had to butter up to the two masters at the meat stall.
Manager Tong, on the other hand, was able to get the masters to give her their best cut of meats with just a few lines.
Amazing!
Tong Xuelu paid no attention to Guo Weiping’s respectful look and brought him with her to the vegetable station.
She repeated her performance and also had Manager Zhou from the vegetable station on her side in no time.