Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 102 Guesthouse

After the boss left, Xia Maosheng sensed something was wrong and said, "Damn, could you have actually been right?"

Xiao Wei ladled out a bowl of soup and said while drinking it, "It should be right. The taste of dishes with bone meal is something I'll never forget. Eat up? Are you full?"

Xia Maosheng glanced at the back door of the restaurant, then at the dishes on the table, and looked at Xiao Wei, asking, "Is this still edible?"

Xiao Wei asked in confusion, "Why can't I eat it?"

Xia Maosheng pointed at the dishes with his chopsticks and said, "Didn't you say you added this and that?"

Xiao Wei chuckled and said, "Don't you usually eat bones? You know, you are what you eat, right? If it weren't so tough to chew, do you think I would throw these bones away? Don't worry, they're good stuff. Bone marrow is for blood production, and bones are for calcium. Plus, bone meal really smells delicious."

Xia Maosheng thought for a moment and said, "That makes sense. That's exactly my mindset when I'm gnawing on bones. It's a shame I can't chew them. Even after I've eaten all the meat, I still have to bite a few more times and suck it out. You're right, bones do taste good."

Xiao Wei pointed towards the kitchen and said, "The boss must have an electric grinder in the back. After we finish eating, we can just take the bones back, wash them, and grind them for tomorrow. It adds flavor and doesn't cost any money. This boss is amazing. Do you think he might have eaten pig feed like me?"

Xia Maosheng sprayed a mouthful of soup all over the ground beside him, choking and coughing repeatedly. His face turned bright red, and he pointed at Xiao Wei with a look of utter amusement and exasperation. It took him a while to recover before saying, "Can you stop laughing like that? But this boss is really unlucky, haha, the secret recipe, just like that, someone ate pig swill and discovered it. I'll try it when I get back tomorrow. By the way, you also mentioned wild hawthorn. Isn't it just hawthorn? Does that stuff add flavor?"

Xiao Wei nodded and said, "Yes, it enhances the flavor, but it only works on meat. It will ruin the flavor of other things if you put it in."

Xia Maosheng asked, "Any kind of meat is fine?"

Xiao Wei nodded and said, "Any kind of meat will do, especially beef. Normally it takes an hour to stew, but with wild hawthorn, it's tender in forty minutes and tastes good. Hawthorn can neutralize the odor in the meat. Actually, we're used to it and don't notice it. Pork is fishy, ​​beef is gamey, mutton is pungent, and dog meat is both fishy and pungent. Adding some hawthorn not only makes it tender faster, but also removes most of these odors, so it tastes better."

Xia Maosheng asked, "Then why did you emphasize wild hawthorn?"

Xiao Wei said, "Wild hawthorns are the fruits of hawthorn trees that grow naturally in the mountains. They're naturally grown and have better effects than cultivated ones. Cultivated ones might taste good raw, but they're not as effective for cooking. How so? You know hawthorns can treat frostbite, right?"

Xia Maosheng shook his head and said, "I don't know. Hawthorn can cure frostbite? Wouldn't that make it a medicine?"

Xiao Wei said, "Wild hawthorn is a traditional Chinese medicine. Take five or six wild hawthorns, bake them in a tile until they're cooked, and then apply them directly to the frostbite. This will cure it completely and prevent it from recurring. For treating frostbite, wild hawthorn only needs three or four applications, while homegrown hawthorn needs six or seven applications, so it's definitely less effective."

Xia Maosheng frowned and asked, "Why is that? What's the reason behind it?"

Xiao Wei shook his head and said, "I don't know, as long as it works, who cares about the principle? If you have worms, eating some sugar will get rid of them, why would you need to study the mechanism?"

Xia Maosheng said, "That's different. Sugar pills are medicine. If you eat them and get bugs, what the hell are you talking about? I'm eating!"

Xiao Wei laughed and said, "What's the big deal? It's not like I'm playing with bugs in front of you. When we were kids, it was common for us to take our rice bowls into the latrine. What's the big deal?"

Xia Maosheng asked, "Why? Why are you carrying a rice bowl inside? Where are you going?"

Xiao Wei gave Xia Maosheng a disdainful look and said, "My brother is scared if he goes alone, so I just go with him. Sometimes I'm eating, so I just bring it with me. What's wrong with that? There aren't so many rules in the countryside. I've even seen people eating fried dough sticks while doing their business. That's what's interesting."

Xia Maosheng was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter, shaking with laughter.

Xiao Wei continued drinking the soup and said, "This soup is really fragrant, so rich and delicious. Actually, no matter what happens, don't think too much. The more you think, the more complicated it becomes. Why make things so tiring? Eat, eat. After you finish eating, quickly find a place to lie down for a while. Once you're warmed up, you just want to sleep for a bit. You said you wanted to go to your house, but oh my, this is such a hassle."

Xia Maosheng said, "I didn't go home to be with you either. The key is that I don't want my family to know about this. If they find out, they'll start saying all sorts of things, and then the money I earn won't be mine. I need to save up some money. Look at you, spending your own money, so confident. I have to give my salary to my mom, and I usually secretly ask my sister for some money."

Xiao Wei nodded, then ladled out another bowl of sauerkraut soup and said, "Eat up. Anyway, I'm not going to any more weddings except yours, not even if you kill me. I'm traumatized by it."

Xia Maosheng also drank his soup and said with a smile, "Okay. I'll call you over after I've made some money and bought myself a house, alright? My old man is so old-fashioned, he always treats me like a kid. I'm already twenty-one, and he scolds and hits me whenever he wants. Not many of my buddies dare to mess with my family, even though they're all in their mid-twenties. But my old man just doesn't treat them like adults, what can I do?"

After a satisfying meal, the two men, patting their bellies, called for the bill. The owner didn't come out, but a young worker in a filthy chef's uniform ran out and said, "Brother, the boss said he won't charge you. Just leave when you're done eating. Are you satisfied? If you are, I'll collect the bill; I have other work to do later."

Xiao Wei looked at Xia Maosheng, who wiped his mouth and said, "Let's go to the guesthouse and eat again tomorrow. It would be great if they didn't charge us anymore, hahaha."

Under the bewildered gaze of the laborer, the two left the bone restaurant and walked east along the road. Xia Maosheng pulled someone in the distance and said, "The municipal government is over there. The labor bureau is there, the personnel bureau is there, and the guesthouse is behind this."

Walking east along Liucheng Road for a few hundred meters, past two intersections, you reach Chaoyang Avenue, where the municipal government is located. Chaoyang was historically divided into Longcheng and Liucheng. Longcheng was the imperial city, while Liucheng was the hometown of An Lushan and Li Guangbi.

They found the guesthouse and went inside.

The Chaoyang government building consisted of several three- or five-story brick buildings, arranged around a courtyard like a large traditional courtyard house. There was a small square near the main gate. At that time, government departments did not pay as much attention to appearances as they do in later generations. The guesthouse was an old building, or rather, half of it, which was an extension of the government building.

An old iron signboard, two wooden-framed glass doors, with red characters pasted on the glass: Guesthouse, Open to the Public.

Pulling open the heavy door and lifting the even heavier curtain inside, the two entered. It was quite bright, with four fluorescent lights on, unlike the dark interiors of typical government buildings. Against the wall stood a wooden counter, behind which two middle-aged women sat, talking and knitting.

In the center of the side hall next to the counter, a coal stove was burning brightly, with its chimney lying across the middle of the room and extending out through a side window.