The two really waited for fifteen minutes, and only reacted when the water dried up and black smoke rose. Looking at the pot of burnt beef and potatoes, Amandine was dejected. Uwa comforted him, "Brother, don't be discouraged, we can try again."
This time, the two were very alert and kept an eye on the heat. After another twenty minutes, a plate of curry beef and potatoes finally came out of the pot. Amandine said to Uwa, "Try it first! If it doesn't work again, I won't be a chef anymore."
Uwa picked up a piece of potato with two fingers and put it in her mouth, "It's quite soft, not too bad."
Amandine also tasted it, but he picked up beef. He bit it twice, but it seemed hard to bite, so he tried another piece, and it was still hard. He said angrily, "This must be fake beef, made of tree bark, otherwise it wouldn't be so hard."
"Brother, this is just bought, it's real beef, not tree bark."
After failing twice, Amandine was no longer interested in being a chef. He thought about whether to hire a chef and be the boss himself, but he was a little embarrassed to explain to Uwa. After thinking for a while, he had a plan in mind, "Big Buffalo, I want to recruit an apprentice to help me, and you two listen to my command."
"Okay! You really should find someone who can cook, otherwise the restaurant won't be able to run."
Amandine got annoyed when he heard it, and shouted, "Shut up! You have to listen to the key points. I'm looking for someone to help me, and he has to listen to my command. I'm the boss."
"Then when are you going to recruit people?"
"Of course it's now." He found paper and pen, wrote a notice to recruit a chef, and posted it at the door. The next step was to wait for the chef to come. The two closed the business and lay in the small room watching TV all day. They still had more than 8,000 shillings and were not in a hurry to make money. The two watched TV all day and night and completely forgot about opening a restaurant. It was not until four days later that someone knocked on the door. Uwa got up to open it. The person who came was a short young man in his twenties. He asked, "Are you hiring a chef here?"
Uwa nodded, "Yes! Can you cook?"
The short man was speechless for a moment, thinking, "Isn't this nonsense! Why would I come here if I can't?" But he still answered politely, "I can cook. I have been a chef for five years."
Uwa shouted to the room, "Brother, someone is looking for you!"
Amandine got up impatiently and asked the short young man when he saw him, "What do you want to talk to me about?"
"Brother, he is a chef and wants to find a job here."
"Oh! What can you cook?"
"I can cook Italian and Mexican food, sir," the short man replied.
When Amandine heard that he could cook Mexican food, he was very happy, because he himself was Mexican and had not eaten hometown food for a long time. He decided to hire this person on the spot and pay him 400 shillings a month. That night, he asked the short man to make a "crispy rice roll." When it was ready, he ate it all by himself. Of course, Uwa would not snatch food from him.
The next day, the three of them were ready to open the store. The short young man was called Ryan. He had worked as a chef in a big city for several years. Now he returned to his hometown to find a woman to marry. He wrote a menu by hand and hung it on the wall. There were more than 20 dishes on it, including Mexican dumplings, barbecue chicken steak omelette rice, honey-roasted chicken legs, Mexican roast beef, bacon and egg sauce pasta, Italian cabbage meat rolls, Roman pizza, cream bacon mushroom pasta, etc.
On this day, there were four waves of guests, a total of nine people, and Amandine also stood in the back kitchen to learn from him. Uwa was busy running around, helping the kitchen and taking care of the guests outside. At the end of the day, they earned a total of 226 shillings. Amandine didn't care about the money and put it all in Uwa's hands. Uwa didn't know how to count and didn't know how much she earned that day. She hid all the money in the drawer of the small room.
Ryan was a local and lived nearby. He had to go home after getting off work every day. At night, Uwa asked Amandine, "Brother, how many shillings can we earn today?"
"Why do you have to calculate so clearly? It's very troublesome, anyway, it's okay as long as we don't lose money."
Uwa smiled foolishly, "That's right!"
With the business, the two of them felt much better and then lay down to watch TV series. Although there were two rooms, they still slept in one room. This has become a habit for the two of them.
When they saw the exciting part, the lights on the TV and the ceiling suddenly went out, and the surroundings instantly became dark. Uwa was afraid and got close to Amandine, so she asked, "Brother, why is there no electricity?"
"Is there going to be an earthquake?" Amandine said casually.
As soon as she finished speaking, the room kept shaking, and things on the wall fell down. The whole process lasted for more than ten seconds before it stopped. After a while, there was a commotion outside the door, and people ran out of their houses for fear of another aftershock. Amandine and Uwa also went out and saw that the streets were already crowded with people, some running out in pajamas, some shirtless men, and children crying. There was a store not far away that was on fire, and everyone was carrying buckets to put out the fire.
Uwa saw it and asked, "Should we help?"
"Why should we help? I didn't add to the fire, which was good enough."
Uwa smiled, "Brother is a bad guy."
Amandine saw that her face looked uglier when she smiled, and turned back to the house. There was no light in the house, so he could only grope his way forward. After finally entering the small room, he lay down and went to sleep. Uwa also came in. She saw that Amandine was suddenly unhappy and thought that what she said just now hurt him. "Brother, did I make you angry?" she asked twice in a row, but she didn't hear a response. It was not until the third time that Amandine said, "Don't laugh anymore in the future, you look so ugly when you laugh." After a long time, Uwa said, "Okay! I won't laugh in the future." If the lights were on, Amandine would definitely see tears in Uwa's eyes at this time, but she tried hard not to cry out.
Amandine certainly didn't know this; he had already fallen asleep. The next day, it was already bright. Uwa got up first, packed up the items damaged by the earthquake last night, and then opened the store for business. Ryan also went to work on time at nine o'clock. He always thought that Amandine and Uwa were brother and sister. Seeing Uwa busy alone, he asked, "Is your brother still not up?"
"He was too tired last night, let him sleep a little longer."
Short Ryan returned to his hometown to find a girlfriend. He was not in good condition, and no woman in the big city would marry him. Now that the brother and sister were running a store, their family conditions were pretty good. Although Uwa was unattractive, she was a perfect match for him. With this idea in mind, he decided to pursue her. There was no one else around, and he thought the time was right, so he walked over and asked, "Do you want to learn how to cook? I can teach you."
Uwa was overjoyed when she heard it, "Really? But I'm just a kitchen helper, you can teach my brother, he wants to learn."