Chronicle of the 70s-Chapter 361 - 345: Return to the Capital (Double - )

Li Xianglu was somewhat hesitant. If she let the driver and Hu Zi stay downstairs, with the elderly and children staying upstairs, wouldn’t that be a bit unsafe? But she couldn’t just let the old folks settle downstairs either.

During Li Xianglu’s moment of hesitation, Su Yan laughed and said, "Well, why don’t we all just stay upstairs together."

The attendant at the guesthouse wasn’t happy though, saying that they had to fill up the first floor before they could arrange rooms on the second floor—that was their policy.

Li Xianglu couldn’t help but laugh out of irritation, "Who made that rule? Let me see it. You’re a government-run guesthouse, all your policies should be written down and posted for everyone to see. Empty talk doesn’t count. Or maybe you just don’t want to bother and are making this up."

The attendant was a girl in her early twenties. As soon as she heard Li Xianglu say this, she abruptly stood up from her seat, and with a smack, she slammed the keys down on the table and said, "Who do you think you are? If you don’t want to stay, then don’t. Nobody’s begging you to stay. If you’re not happy, just leave!"

Li Xianglu snorted and also slapped her hand on the table, "Where’s your manager? Bring them out. I want to have a good talk about this service attitude. I want to file a complaint!"

The girl was startled when she heard this. Usually, when she was this aggressive, people would just do as she said. She didn’t expect to run into such a tough customer today and said indignantly, "Our manager isn’t here. What I said about the guesthouse’s policy is what it is. If you don’t like it, don’t stay!"

Li Xianglu snorted coldly, "Hu Zi, go and see if there are any other staff members around. I don’t believe for a second that after staying in so many guesthouses, we aren’t allowed to choose our rooms. If we can’t find the manager today, then go to the County Committee and see who’s in charge here!"

Hearing Li Xianglu speak so fearlessly, as if not afraid of trouble at all, the girl felt deflated but still tried to act tough. The manager had gone home to cook for her son and wouldn’t be around. Such people wouldn’t really go to the County Committee to find someone, would they? If that happened, she could kiss her job goodbye.

Thinking this, the girl considered softening her stance, but then she saw Hu Zi come in from the back door, accompanied by a woman in her forties wearing a military coat, her face full of anger.

The employee put on a pleasing smile at the sight of the woman but failed to utter a word.

The woman said nothing either; she had already heard what happened from Hu Zi. After a brief inquiry, she opened up three rooms at the far end for them.

Before leaving, she said to Li Xianglu, "I’m sorry, my subordinate is new and isn’t very familiar with the guesthouse rules, so I hope everyone can forgive the oversight. Next time, we also have pots for rent, so you can heat up some food."

Li Xianglu’s face lit up with surprise. With a pot, that was great; they had brought a lot of food in the car, and she could also take some things out of the Storage Ring.

Thus, everyone went upstairs. Almost as soon as they reached, they heard the sound of shouting from downstairs. Li Xianglu didn’t feel a bit of sympathy. Poor service had become a widespread phenomenon in this era. Government-operated guesthouses were also iron rice bowls. It’s 1984, and they had just had a pay raise. Staff at guesthouses earned a monthly wage of twenty-seven or twenty-eight yuan, which was considered a high income. Yet this high income did not make people feel they should work properly and have a correct service attitude to earn their pay.

However, after the liberation, a kind of attitude was formed, as if having an iron rice bowl meant being much superior to farmers, from big government departments to small state-run guesthouses and restaurants.

After settling in, Li Xianglu had Hu Zi rent an iron pot, which cost 20 cents to use once.

They also brought their own stainless steel pot, which could be used to heat up steamed buns, so they heated up a whole half-pot of steamed buns and buns.

Li Xianglu then stewed a pot of mixed vegetables in the iron pot, steaming hot with cabbage, vermicelli, meatballs, and crispy pork. To make the flavor even better, Li Xianglu added an entire chicken soup to it, filling the entire corridor with the aroma of meat.

The two children had eaten biscuits on the road and were already hungry. They sat on the bed eagerly watching Li Xianglu busy herself.

In the other room, the second pot of buns was already heating up. They had brought four lunch boxes. Su Yan was a bit of a clean freak, so she and the grandfather used their utensils, while Hu Zi and the driver used two large iron bowls rented from the guesthouse.

The stew was ready quickly, and as Li Xianglu served the dishes, she said with a touch of regret, "Grandpa, it would be perfect if we had some tofu!"

The grandfather took his and Su Yan’s stew, took a sniff, and smiled, "Ah, this is already quite good. If you want to eat, we can buy more when we go back."