Her Cultivation Diary
Chapter 678 - Chapter 678 678. Construction site Zhai Xiaoe_1

Chapter 678: 678. Construction site Zhai Xiao’e_1 Chapter 678: 678. Construction site Zhai Xiao’e_1 The construction site was still quite a distance from home, and Song Tan hurried out, quickly catching up with Wu Lan.

While trying to calm her down, he said, “Mom, don’t be mad. If she can’t cook well, at worst we’ll let her go. We’ve already given her a chance before.”

Last time there was an issue with the crew, it was Wu Lan who dealt with it. After all, it was someone they knew who recommended her and they wanted to handle it amicably for that reason.

The meat and vegetables were ordered from the town and delivered here every day. Feeding nearly twenty people, the help involved merely washing dishes and cooking meals. Such tasks, for the villagers, were nothing much to speak of.

After all, all they had to do was cook in large pots; it wasn’t like they were preparing for a banquet.

Moreover, the salary of four thousand yuan was considered quite high by the construction crew. They offered such a wage because they hoped to find someone skilled and ensure everyone ate and drank well while on site.

But Zhai Xiao’e, on her first day cooking, did so earnestly, and her skills weren’t bad either. Her grasp of the heat was quite good. Once that bean paste was stirred into the dishes, there was no way the flavor would be amiss.

However, from the second day on, two worms were found in the dishes.

It was hot, and given the large amount of cooking at their worker’s camp, nobody made a fuss; they just pretended they hadn’t noticed.

After all, even when cooking at home, things can sometimes get overlooked.

But then, she didn’t even bother to pick the old leaves off the vegetables! And after that, when eating cabbage, they even found the tough, inedible bottom part included…

How much does cabbage cost per pound? Even the poorest families wouldn’t stew that inedible bottom part with the meat, right?

Not to mention the potatoes, which weren’t properly peeled…

Old Xu, the person in charge, had plenty of work experience. Seeing this, he didn’t delay any further and directly approached Wu Lan, bringing the issue out in the open.

Wu Lan felt humiliated.

The construction team had placed their trust in her to handle hiring a cook–this was for building their own factory, after all!

How could the chef she hired behave like this?

Whether the skills were good or not was one thing, but the attitude was quite another.

She had spoken to Zhai Xiao’e, using both carrot and stick. The latter had tears brimming in her eyes, claiming she was just too tired that day and had tried to take a shortcut, promising it wouldn’t happen again…

Wu Lan mentioned this, and Song Tan, beside her, became a bit curious:

“Mom, you’re not usually so easily fooled, are you?”

Wu Lan didn’t reply but quickened her pace up the mountain again.

Song Tan followed her closely until they reached the construction site’s area, and only then did he suddenly understand why his mother had been so easily deceived–

It was because Zhai Xiao’e looked so incredibly deceptive!

At only five feet tall and possibly around one hundred and fifty pounds, with her dark skin, she appeared both honest and simple.

Especially when her weathered face showed a look of grievance and fear, with tears in her eyes…

Anyone who saw her would think she was a poor, simple village woman who had been badly bullied!

Song Tan: …It goes to show, you can’t judge a book by its cover. This Zhai Xiao’e, she might not necessarily be a delicate little maiden.

Looking over at Wu Lan’s face, indeed, she seemed extremely upset.

Song Tan had no idea there was another reason for Wu Lan’s anger.

The fact was, initially, there were two people recommended for the cooking job.

Both were from the neighboring village. One of them was tall and thin, with a slender figure. When she came, she wore a skirt, her slightly dark skin was covered with a layer of white powder. Her eyebrows were drawn on, her lips painted red, and she wore a pair of gold earrings.

Though her appearance was flashy, she was incredibly efficient. While preparing and washing vegetables, she would gather her wide skirt between her legs and get straight to work.

When it came to skills, the two were on a par with one another.

The reason she didn’t choose the other person wasn’t that she thought those dolled up wouldn’t work hard. Rather, Wu Lan took into account that this construction crew was all men, and having a young and pretty woman around would inevitably lead to idle gossip in the village.

That was why she decided it’d be less troublesome to have Zhai Xiao’e, who stood before her now, come to work.

But she had never imagined that the woman would be such a piece of work!

At this moment, she approached the makeshift stove and asked,

“What’s going on?”

Old Xu, the person in charge, had his own bellyful of grievances. Without saying another word, he lifted the lid of the pot to show her:

“Big sister, look at our breakfast!”

What was revealed under the lid was something that was supposed to be either porridge or rice, but it was sticky, thick, and mushy.

Then there was a big pot of cold mixed cabbage on the side.

The leaves of the cabbage were cut so big and rough that one didn’t even need to stir with a spoon to see the tough roots of the vegetables still sticking out in the pot.

Old Xu had also been holding back his anger: “First thing in the morning, the workers start complaining about the food. In this scorching heat, they’re doing heavy manual labor, and you give them this to start their day with, how are they supposed to keep working?”

Not to mention this sticky mess that’s not filling, what’s the meaning of this cold mixed cabbage on the side?

It didn’t have a trace of oil in it!

If they really had to eat this, they would probably start feeling hungry even before they got to work.

Wu Lan was seething with indignation:

“Zhai Xiao’e!”

“Just last night you promised me you’d work hard today. With the temperature over thirty degrees, and people working so hard, can they get full by eating this? Do you eat this for breakfast when you have to do farm work at home?!”

“Yes, I do!” Zhai Xiao’e hung her head, her voice filled with grievance. “We don’t even make cold mixed cabbage in the morning, we just eat pickles.”

Wu Lan sized up her all-encompassing frame: “I refuse to believe that this is what you fill yourself with by eating pickles.”

“How can you say that?”

Tears streamed down Zhai Xiao’e’s weathered face, her rough hands fidgeting with the hem of her clothes, making her look awkward and pitiful.

It also made Wu Lan seem arrogant and overbearing, simply unreasonable.

Even the construction crew, when observing the situation, couldn’t help but turn their heads away.

There was nothing they could do. That’s just how she appeared; when people were initially dissatisfied with the first meal and Old Xu symbolically mentioned a thing or two, she became like this, leaving the men feeling uncomfortable, as if they were some sort of terrifying demons!

Now it seemed, that was just her way!

No matter how aggrieved Zhai Xiao’e felt, who was Wu Lan?!

When Qiaoqiao used to be ridiculed, she did not hesitate to grab a broom and fight and curse at those people–

She wouldn’t rest until she made them respect Qiaoqiao; otherwise, they would never say a kind word about her Qiaoqiao.

Now, seeing Zhai Xiao’e looking like this, she didn’t even bother with further words:

“I don’t care what you eat at home, here we provide and match everything you need for the meals. If you insist on making these half-hearted dishes… that won’t do. We don’t accept this kind of work, you can go back.”

No sooner had she spoken than Zhai Xiao’e had already begun to wipe her tears clumsily, sniffling and stooping as she headed toward the little resting cubicle:

“…How can you be so ungrateful? So many people eating, how much money does that cost a day? I try to save you money and it turns out to be the ruin of me…”