The canteen is right in the middle of the last row of rooms in the big yard. The left side of the canteen is the large conference room, the right side is a small boiler room for drinking water, the right side of the small boiler room is a row of offices, and a large boiler room has been newly built opposite the canteen. The room may be used for heating, which has not been activated yet.
Pushing open the two wide doors of the kitchen, the room was full of thick "white steam" blowing towards her face, her vision was hazy, and when she saw the surroundings clearly, a huge and incomparably large chopping board stood impressively in the center of the ground. The size of two ping-pong tables put together is as big. The chef is using a corner of the chopping board to roll out a large piece of dough. There are several people waiting to eat around the chopping board, and two of them are wearing the uniforms of tax collectors. On the north side of the chopping board, close to the north wall is a long row of stoves. The stove runs across the east and west. There are two huge iron pots at each end, and three slightly smaller pots in the middle. The wide stove is full of All kinds of cooking utensils, large meat forks, large fences, large iron spoons and so on are hung on the wall. On the right front of the stove and on the left side of the large chopping board, there is a large meat table that is half a person high and round like a tree stump; the walls of the kitchen are inlaid with white tiles, and the tiles are covered with greasy dust, and some places can no longer be seen It is what it is.
This is a large kitchen covering an area of 70 square meters. To the left of the kitchen is a large and spacious dining room. There are more than 20 large purple-red dining tables in the dining room. on the right side of the kitchen is a private room, the elegant purple wooden door of the private room is tightly closed, she curiously pushed open the door of the private room, and there are two elegant mahogany round tables inside, each about fifty The 20-year-old man was sitting sideways in the mahogany chair in front of the round table by the door. The old man was smoking quietly. Her intrusion obviously interrupted the old man's contemplation. The old man stared at her with the mouse eyes embedded in the big head, and after a few seconds, the old man said in a condescending tone: "Are you the college student who was just assigned?" She said, Yes, the old man took a puff of the cigarette, slowly exhaled the smoke ring, paused, and said in a lukewarm and orderly way: "The meal is not cooked yet, come and sit down."
The old man made her feel extremely uncomfortable. She thought it was probably a leader, so she moved forward a few steps and stood behind the chair opposite the old man. The old man asked again: "Where is your home?" She answered truthfully, the old man took another drag on the cigarette, and slowly exhaled smoke rings. Finally, in a arrogant tone, he said slowly, I have been to that place before, Poor places are full of saline-alkali land.
The old man became more and more repulsive to her, she stared at the old man's big, oily face with contempt and disdain, and remained silent. After a few minutes of silence, the old man said again: "Sit down, aren't you tired from standing?" She touched the back of the mahogany chair in front of her, which was as smooth and round as silk, and stood still.
"Do you know what kind of wood this is made of?" the old man said showing off.
She said nothing.
"It's made of high-quality mahogany. This set of tables and chairs is worth more than 10,000 yuan." The old man asked himself proudly.
She exclaimed in her heart, secretly wondering, such expensive tables and chairs in such a poor town are only for eating!
She couldn't help observing the room carefully. The room was very spacious, even if there were two more tables and chairs like this, there would be more than enough space. The walls of the room are wrapped with light brown wood, the ceiling is made into a beautiful shape, and a large chandelier hangs in the middle of the roof; there are purple-brown velvet curtains hanging on the windows, with long tassels hanging down, the whole The room looked magnificent, much like the drawing room of a wealthy noble family in the Middle Ages.
"The rice is ready." The chef shouted.
She went out immediately, and after she went out, the old man came out from the private room, and then locked the door behind him.
There were eight people who came to eat, because the restaurant over there was too cold, and everyone stood by the big chopping board to eat noodles.
After the meal, the weather became more severe, and the wind blew violently. She had just come out of the kitchen, and a gust of wind with gravel and scattered snowflakes almost knocked her down. She wrapped her coat tightly and folded her arms under the help of the strong wind She flew back to the hut of the guest house. At this time, the room was already warm, and the fire was burning angrily in the hearth, making a roaring sound. Standing beside the stove to warm her shivering body, she found that the curtains were not closed. Pull it up, it's pitch black outside the window. Today, she was the only person living in the guest house, and she suddenly remembered that maybe she was the only one in the whole courtyard. Suddenly, an inexplicable sense of fear came over her. Living in the dark and gloomy courtyard was still a bit creepy, and some lingering horror images could not help but circle in her mind, and she couldn't help thinking about it for a while, so she hurried over to draw the curtains, fastened the door carefully, and took out the luggage. He found a book in his bag, dragged a heavy chair, sat by the stove and read it. This is a philosophy book, titled "The World as Will and Appearance", which was given to her by a good college classmate when she graduated. The content of the book is so obscure that I lost it after reading only a few pages before. Opened, and at the moment I don't know what to say.
Suddenly, there was a rush of footsteps outside, and the ringing of the key, followed by a knock on the door. She thought it must be the elder sister who managed the guest house, so she stood up excitedly and opened the door. It was the elder sister. .
"Oh, I'm freezing to death, what a snowstorm!" The eldest sister yelled loudly as she stood on tiptoe by the fire as soon as she entered the door.
"Are you afraid of living here alone?"
"Of course I'm afraid." She said without concealing it.
She carefully looked at this eldest sister, about thirty or so years old, slightly taller than her, with broad bones, thick hands and thick feet, a well-proportioned figure, short hair at the ears, a round face, a pair of shrewd big eyes under bushy eyebrows , revealing that she is a capable housewife.
The eldest sister told her that she was the only one left in her house today, and she was deserted, thinking that it was scary for her to live alone in the guest house, so she came to stay with her.
She was very grateful to the eldest sister in her heart, but she didn't express anything.
The eldest sister has a very cheerful personality and is very talkative. After only a few words, it seems that she has known her for a long time.
From the conversation with the eldest sister, she learned that the town government has refused to accept personnel assignments for several years because it cannot pay wages. daughter.
She was very puzzled. Wasn't it her father's word that the daughter of the deputy county magistrate wanted to go to which unit in the county? Why did she come to such a remote, poor, and harsh climate
She also learned that the short and fat man who helped her with her luggage was called Qian Jun. His uncle was the director of the County Labor and Personnel Bureau. He is currently the director of the finance office of the town government. The chief steward of the town government.
The old man I met while eating in the canteen was the administrator of the canteen of the town government. His name was Ding Guanghui. He was a well-known, popular, and extraordinary person in the town. It is said that the old man was originally just a driver hired by the town government. After driving for several years, he became a collective worker with no establishment. He was nicknamed "Tumbler" because he served several leaders. Ordinarily, "one emperor, one courtier", changing the leader according to the routine will inevitably replace the follower, but old man Ding has not been replaced, and later became a veritable national cadre. After early retirement, he was hired back by the town government. Canteen manager. The old man owned several properties on the streets of the small town, and bought several pieces of land from the county government. All five children were arranged to work in the county government's agencies, and all of them lived in high-rise buildings.
These "achievements" of Lao Dingtou are said to be beyond the reach of some deputy department-level leaders of the township government. This is the sign of the old man as a capable person, and he is also the envy of the local people.
After listening to the elder sister's story about Lao Dingtou, she murmured again in her heart. The job of the canteen manager is to put it bluntly as a grocery buyer. What technical content does it have? Why do you want to rehire? Could it be that there are so many cadres in the township government that no one is competent for this job? Is there no objection? Of course, she just thought about these questions in her heart, and didn't tell her elder sister.
The eldest sister also told her that another important figure in the town government was a young man who held a talent exchange meeting in the county that day and owed the town's recruitment work. The young man's name was Liu Xu, and he was the town's office director, secretary, and civil affairs assistant. . Speaking of Liu Xu, the eldest sister was quite critical. On the one hand, she believed that Liu Xu's government was very deep and good at "command affairs", and that he would have a bright future in the officialdom. On the other hand, she expressed disdain for Liu Xu's unprecedented style of working as a secretary. According to the eldest sister, Liu Xu graduated from the technical school in the county. He didn't have much ink in his chest, and his handwriting was like a standing tadpole. When I come to the office very early every day, the first thing I do is to clean the long concrete ledge in front of the office in the middle row, and then wait quietly for the two main leaders to get up. They poured two iron pots of hot water, and then poured out the dirty water after the leaders finished washing, and cleaned the leaders' office and the bedroom connected to it. It can be said that it is spotless. Professionals are hard to come by. And it is very persistent to do so year after year.
The elder sister also talked a lot, and then she was so sleepy that she fell asleep in a daze. The snoring was too loud, and the howling cold wind outside made her sleepless like a symphony, and she became more and more awake.