Chapter 366: Birthday and "Grasshopper Head"

In the Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

When Dean Lu heard that Wang Mengde wanted to leave work an hour earlier tomorrow, he said without thinking:

"It's okay. If you have something to do, go back first. Don't attend the meeting tomorrow afternoon. It's nothing important anyway."

There was originally a meeting tomorrow afternoon, and President Lu was going to talk to the heads of each department about some recent developments and give them some advice.

Recently, many doctors and staff in various departments have been distracted from their work due to special circumstances outside.

Some young people even want to do the same thing in the research institute and Guang'anmen Hospital.

Fortunately, as mentioned above, the health department also issued a notice asking all health units, hospitals and schools to stay at their posts, otherwise this situation would have happened long ago.

Among all the departments, the internal medicine department headed by Wang Mengde was relatively stable.

Therefore, President Lu was relieved and did not let him participate in the meeting.

"Thank you, Dean. I won't attend the meeting tomorrow afternoon then."

Wang Mengde said with gratitude.

"Haha, don't be so polite." Dean Lu laughed loudly, and then asked curiously:

"By the way, do you have anything to do at home tomorrow?"

Over the years, Wang Mengde has been a model worker and has only taken leave a few times.

Generally speaking, it is when there is something urgent at home that you will be asked for a day or half a day, and you will not be asked for more than two days in a year.

"Dean, tomorrow is the master's 79th birthday. As a disciple, I am going to invite other junior brothers and sisters to have a meal with the master."

Wang Mengde explained with a smile.

Mr. Pu was born in the late 1980s and is one of the oldest famous Chinese medicine experts in the Chinese Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

In traditional Chinese culture, an old person’s eightieth birthday is celebrated when he or she is seventy-nine years old, which is also known as “full birthday celebration”.

The main purpose of celebrating the 80th birthday in advance is to avoid the taboo of the number "ten", which implies a long life and good fortune in the future.

"Mr. Pu is seventy-nine years old, so we really need to celebrate.

But you also know the recent situation, so don't make a big fuss, just have a meal with your family and disciples."

Dean Lu said in surprise, and then quickly gave another instruction.

The current domestic situation cannot be publicized too much, otherwise it will attract the attention of those with ulterior motives and it will be very troublesome.

Although each of them has great energy and ordinary people with ulterior motives cannot do anything to them, they are afraid of meeting people who have both energy and ulterior motives.

"Dean, don't worry, I understand this principle. Tomorrow night, Pu Lao's family and several fellow apprentices will have a simple meal together.

Have a meal and chat, say a few festive words, and definitely don’t do any fancy activities.”

Wang Mengde quickly assured.

The next afternoon.

Around four o'clock, Wang Mengde pushed his bicycle out of the office and rode directly to Donglaishun on the Wangfujing side.

Although he had already contacted Donglaishun by phone, he was still a little worried, so he came over in person to take a look in advance.

After all, today is his teacher’s 79th birthday party. Even if he can’t have a grand celebration, at least he has to make sure nothing goes wrong.

In this day and age, very few people can live to be eighty years old. If you don’t live well this time, you don’t know whether you can live well in the next decade.

Therefore, he was worried about others and took a leave to go to the scene in person.

I arrived at the entrance of Donglaishun Restaurant in Dong'an Market, parked my bicycle, and went straight into the lobby.

It was not yet dinner time, nor was it the weekend, so there were no customers in the hall yet. There were only a few waiters chatting while cleaning out of boredom.

When the waiters heard the door open, they immediately stopped chatting. One of them looked up and said at the same time:

"Sorry, it hasn't started yet..."

After seeing Wang Mengde's face clearly, she subconsciously changed her words: "Comrade Wang Mengde, are you here to eat or to see someone?"

As a service staff, in a restaurant as big as Donglaishun, the number of people I see every day can be exaggerated to the point of being 'a sea of ​​​​fish'.

Most of the people here only come to eat once a month at most.

After all, as one of the 18 restaurants in Beijing where you can dine without a ticket, the food here is extremely expensive.

A month's salary of an ordinary worker, if a few people come in and eat as much as they want, the money may not even be enough to pay the bill.

Therefore, even for high-income people, they can only eat this food two or three times a year to satisfy their cravings.

Especially in the past two years, those who used to rely on large industries and had a lot of money before liberation have gradually become afraid to show up, and have even fewer acquaintances.

Therefore, there are only a handful of people whom he can recognize and accurately name.

But there is a small number of people who left a deep impression on her.

For example, this handsome young man in front of you is one of them.

"Looking for your Manager Cai. I called him yesterday. Is he here?"

Wang Mengde said with a smile.

After the public-private partnership more than ten years ago, restaurants like Donglaishun had two managers, one public and one private.

Manager Cai is the official manager of Donglaishun.

"Manager Cai is in the back office. I'll take you there."

The waiter stuffed the rag in his hand into the hand of his colleague next to him and said with a smile.

She was so happy in her heart. She was so lucky today. She didn't expect to look up and answer the question earlier than other colleagues, and she actually met Comrade Wang Mengde.

"Thank you!"

"You're welcome. This is what I should do."

"By the way, Comrade Wang Mengde, you haven't come to eat for a long time."

"Haha, I've been a little busy at work recently, and I only have mutton at home from time to time. But I will definitely come back in the future. I always feel that the mutton at home is not as delicious as the one you have here."

"Comrade Wang Mengde, our restaurant borrowed some mutton from your unit.

The butcher directly said that the breeds of sheep from abroad and in China are different, so of course the taste is different.”

The waiter said with a smile.

The Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine receives a large amount of supplies donated by foreign patients every month, among which beef and mutton account for a very large proportion.

When Donglaishun Restaurant was short of mutton, they would borrow some to use as an emergency measure.

The Chinese Medical Research Institute was also quite happy to do so, since it was a matter of borrowing and returning. Especially in the summer, meat can easily go bad.

Even if it is kept in a cold storage, it will lose its taste after a long time.

So, it is better to lend out the extra meat and then return it with fresh meat after a while.

In this way, we can not only support our brother units, but also solve the problem of too much meat that has been stored for a long time and is not fresh, killing two birds with one stone.

Arrived at Manager Cai’s office.

Seeing Wang Mengde coming, Manager Cai quickly stood up and greeted him warmly.

Not only because he often borrowed mutton from the Chinese Medical Research Institute, but also because of his superb medical skills. One of his relatives had previously suffered from what other doctors called a "terminal illness" and had been to all the major hospitals in Beijing, but was judged to be incurable and could only return home to wait for his funeral.

Or he had heard from other friends about how good Wang Mengde was, so he decided to give it a try and took his relative to Guang'anmen Hospital on a flatbed truck.

Then I slept outside the hospital the night before and finally got a number for Wang Mengde.

In the end, the relative stayed in Guang'anmen Hospital for a month, and when he was discharged, he walked home by himself.

Even though several years have passed, his relative is still in good health. Apart from being unable to do heavy work, he is not much different from other people.

After this incident, he decided that if he or his friends or relatives got seriously ill in the future, he would go to Wang Mengde.

After Wang Mengde explained his purpose, Manager Cai said with a smile:

"This is a simple matter. There are nearly twenty of you. I think it would be better to arrange two tables in a large private room.

This way, we don’t have to crowd together with other people, and it’s more lively when we get together. We can also avoid being disturbed by others and have more privacy.”

"Manager Cai, thank you so much. Let's arrange it this way."

Wang Mengde stood up and said, "By the way, today is my teacher's birthday, I would like to trouble you to prepare a bowl of longevity noodles."

"It should be."

After two tables were set up in a large private room, Wang Mengde started ordering dishes.

When you come to Donglaishun, shabu-shabu mutton is a must-order.

After half past five, Li Xiang, Zhang Qiaoyu and several other junior and senior brothers and sisters also came together, and several of Wang Mengde's disciples also came together.

After a while, Pu Lao, accompanied by Wang Mengde and his family, slowly walked into the box.

"Oh, I told you that we can just have a simple meal at home today. It's such a waste to come here."

When Pu Lao saw more than a dozen disciples gathered together, he had a smile on his face but kept complaining.

"Sir, we are also relying on your light to come out and satisfy our cravings.

I haven’t been to Donglaishun to taste the food for almost half a year, and it’s even worse for them. Some of them haven’t been here for a year or two.”

Wang Mengde stayed beside Pu Lao and said with a smile.

"Then I'll pay for today's meal, and you just need to ask for it."

"That won't work. Today is your birthday, so just sit here and don't worry about anything else."

"You, don't waste it like this in the future."

"Sir, we will follow your instructions. We will not come unless it is a special situation."

While they were chatting and laughing, the door of the private room was opened, and Manager Cai came in first, followed by several waiters, pushing a cart, carrying two large copper pots and some dishes.

"Comrade Wang Mengde, and this old man, Master He from our restaurant happens to be free today, so I'll ask him to come to the private room and cut the lamb slices for you."

Manager Cai said to the host with a smile.

"Master He actually came in person. Oh, what an honor."

Wang Mengde quickly stood up and said with a happy look on his face.

This Master He is really an extraordinary person. A few years later, the leader of the United States came to China and had mutton hotpot at Donglaishun. It was he who cut the meat.

In the hall of Donglaishun, if ordinary people come to eat, the young chef will usually cut the meat for them, and the mutton slices can be cut into 0.9 mm thickness.

If it is served in a private room, a skilled chef will usually do the cutting himself, and the slices will be 0.6 mm thick.

However, the mutton slices cut by Master He are only 0.4 mm thick.

For traditional shabu-shabu mutton, the meat should be cut as thin as paper, crystal clear, smooth as thread, and beautiful as a flower.

Simply a work of art.

Moreover, Donglai's skill in slicing meat is considered to be unique in China, and Master He has contributed to this.

This kind of person generally won't do things himself unless there are important guests, then he will be invited over.

Wang Mengde knew his own business. Although he had superb medical skills, had made countless contributions, and knew many powerful people, he was not sure if he could invite this master.

In addition, he didn't want to make it too public, so he didn't mention this matter to Manager Cai before.

I didn't expect Manager Cai to take the initiative to get the job done.

At this time, behind Manager Cai, Master He was holding a knife in his hand, with a smile on his face, and whispered:
"Comrade Wang Mengde, you're welcome. You're a guest today. Just treat me as a service staff."

After saying that, he started cutting the mutton on the cart.

The knife in his hand was called "Grasshopper Head" and was specially used for cutting lamb slices.

The front tip of the knife is flat, and the shape of the knife is narrow in the front and wide in the back, like a grasshopper.

In later generations, many restaurants used kitchen knives to cut mutton, which was really unprofessional.

After this meal, everyone had a full belly.

The only drawback was that because everyone had to go to work the next day, they only drank two or three bottles of wine.

Before leaving.

Wang Mengde went to Manager Cai’s office specifically to express his gratitude.

Unexpectedly, after entering, he saw Master He was also there, and it seemed that he was waiting for him.

Sure enough, when Master He saw him, he said a little embarrassedly: "Comrade Wang Mengde, I have something I would like to ask you for help."

"Master He, please tell me. I will do my best to help you in any way I can."

"It's like this, I have a nephew who is in his forties. He was diagnosed with diabetes a few years ago. Due to the lack of timely treatment, his condition has now become very serious.

I asked around and heard that you have developed a drug that can treat severe diabetes, so I would like to ask you to help show it to my nephew."

Master He said with hope.

Since his nephew was diagnosed with diabetes, he has been to the hospital for treatment frequently.

But there was never much effect. Recently, the condition became more serious. The multiple wounds on the feet could not heal, and it was very painful.

Doctors in many major hospitals in Beijing even recommended amputation.

He also asked the doctors and learned that even if he had to amputate, the situation would still be serious and it would be very difficult to cure it.

But if amputation is not done, the wound will not heal and it will be extremely painful.

Just when he was at a loss, Manager Cai accidentally learned about this situation and recommended Wang Mengde to him.

He was skeptical at first, but then he inquired about it privately and found out that this young man was so capable and had even developed a medicine for export abroad.

Many people say that the medicine works wonders for diabetes.

"Master He, you must be talking about synthetic bovine insulin, which does have a relieving effect on severe diabetes.

However, I still need to personally take a look at the patient's specific condition, so you can ask the patient to come to Guang'anmen to see me tomorrow."

Wang Mengde thought about it and then said.

the next day.

When Master He's nephew exposed his legs in the clinic, Wei Ming and others were shocked.

(End of this chapter)