The clatter of a wok and a spatula, the clatter of a kitchen knife on a cutting board, the subtle sound of footsteps scraping against the floor, the snapping of buttons on an electronic calculator in a small shop, the muffled conversation of customers sitting at the door, the joyful screams of children, and the dull sound of falling beer bottles......
In the early hours of the morning in Yuxi City, Yunnan Province, in a barbecue restaurant, these sounds remain the same every day. The clerks who work here don't hear these voices. They are deaf and mute and can only speak to the store manager through sign language before bringing the food ordered by the guests to the table.
Speaking of this gastronomic landmark, known as the "Silent Hotel", we must mention its founder, Luo Juan. She opened this restaurant in 2018 to help her younger brother Rory, who is deaf and mute, live. This shop has accumulated a lot of popularity in the past few years, and has even become a local Internet celebrity dining location, and it is also a place where many deaf and mute people gather.
Luo Juan is 41 years old, and opening this restaurant is precisely a promise to her father. The hardships she experienced as a child made her often choose to remain silent in the face of difficulties, and first thought of ways to solve them. "I have to support my family now", she has a high sense of responsibility.
In the past six years, almost all the goods and equipment of the "Silent Hotel" have been purchased by Luo Juan from the online shopping platform Pinduoduo. Pinduoduo accompanied the growth of the small store, and witnessed the changes in Luo Rui and his life with Luo Juan.
Now, Rory has a family and children of his own. Luo Juan felt a little tired, she wanted to take a break and find a partner to manage the store together, "maybe, we can do more for the deaf and mute."
Silent Hotel. Liu Hao | absorb
The following is Luo Juan's dictation:
promise
My promise to my father was to open this silent restaurant.
My brother and I have had a good relationship since we were kids. He was deaf and dumb when he was three years old, but our family treated him like a normal child. When we were kids, we were together every day, sharing a bed, and going to school together.
My father taught us three children that "you can't cause trouble to others." I still remember one time when our class went on an outing, I bought a bowl of cold rice noodles for my brother to eat for five cents, and my brother patted his stomach while eating, and I understood that he meant that he was full. I knew he was trying to give me the rest, and I was a little sad to think about it.
My brother was a deaf athlete. When he was in a special school, he was very good at sports, first by the provincial team, and then by the national team. He is a T60 800m and 400m hurdler and has competed in many countries and won more than 50 medals. In 2008, he was elected as a torchbearer for the Yunnan Provincial Olympic Games.
He was so handsome at the time, we didn't see him once or twice a year, he was always on TV, like a star. In 2016, he retired from the army, got married, had children, and opened a car wash in Yuxi. But he had difficulty communicating with ordinary people, and finally chose to divorce. My sister and mother also passed away, and the whole family atmosphere was very depressed.
My husband and I opened a restaurant in Jianshui. One day I received a call from my father, who told me that Rory had locked himself in his room and barely ate or drunk. He wanted me and my husband to help Rory out of the slump.
I asked my younger brother to come to Jianshui, and my husband taught him how to cook. He studied very seriously, but the people in Jianshui didn't know sign language, so he had no friends. A month later, he wanted to return to Yuxi. So I discussed it with my husband and decided to go back together.
In May 2018, we opened a barbecue stand on a night market street in Yuxi. rented a 3,000 yuan tin house, purchased tables, chairs and benches, various barbecue equipment and spices, and spent a total of more than 10,000 yuan. On the first day, we only made 85 yuan, but on the second day, business picked up and we sold 2,000 yuan in one night. Our Jianshui tofu is particularly popular.
This month, Rory was particularly dedicated to his work. Despite the language barrier, he worked hard. We finally decided to open a barbecue restaurant for him. The address of the store was chosen by my husband, and it is a large neighborhood with more than 20,000 people. The shop has three floors and is about 180 square meters, but everyone likes to drink and eat skewers with tables in the open space at the entrance.
Rory is obsessed with sports, so we chose to open on August 8, the opening day of the Beijing Olympics, and named it the "Silent Hotel".
After the opening, Rory's friends from special schools often came to the store. They can't find a job and have nowhere to go. When the shop is busy, they come to help. When it's crowded, there are more than a dozen employees in the store.
My brother is kind-hearted and righteous. He wanted his friends to have jobs, and asked me to give them jobs as much as possible. They just need to have food and shelter.
Now, there are three other permanent employees in the store: Shi Hao, who is responsible for stir-frying and making snacks similar to rice noodles; Xing Wei, who is in charge of the barbecue; Luke, he is in charge of serving, running the hall. I rented them a house nearby, and they were all deaf and dumb people, living in the same place and being able to take care of each other.
I once promised my father that I would let my brother have a good life and start a family business. So, my husband and I have been helping him with the shop for six years.
Every afternoon, after dinner, we started to go out at six o'clock. At 10 o'clock in the evening, the streets of Yuxi are still very lively, and everyone likes to sit around for supper or order takeout. This will go on almost until two or three o'clock in the morning, or even four or five o'clock in the morning.
Sister and brother Luo Juan Luo Rui work in the silent hotel. Ran Zhenghong | absorb
perk
When I first started in business, it was just me and my husband most of the time. My husband stays in the kitchen cooking, and I run back and forth. Each table has its own needs, and I feel like there's a string of things waiting for me to do right next to my ears: napkins, rice noodles, toothpicks, grilled fish, chopsticks, drinks, ......
Because my brother and they couldn't hear me, and I didn't know sign language, they could only watch me go about myself. Sometimes the guests have something to trouble them, and they may be puzzled when they see that their brother does not respond, and the kind guests will also help to remind: "They are deaf and mute, they can't hear, you wait." ”
When I was done and lay in bed, I was so tired that I could barely move. I couldn't take it anymore and started learning sign language from them. But because they don't have formal language training, the order of words when writing sentences is often reversed. For example, "leeks", they would be written as "vegetable leeks". They don't understand the meaning of some abstract words either. I started learning one or two words a day from one person, and after more than a month, I gradually mastered the words and sentences that were commonly used in the store, and I was able to arrange for them to do certain things.
In the beginning, there were deaf people who came to work in the store. Those little girls love beauty, wear skirts and wear heavy makeup. When pouring water for guests, I couldn't hear the sound, so the gesture was too heavy, and the cup "popped" on the table, and I could even tell by the sound how many guests came to the table. When pouring water, the water is almost flush with the rim of the cup, almost overflowing.
I taught them that it is best to wear convenient clothes when working, and try not to let their hands touch the rim of the cup when holding it, as the guest may mind. They asked me in sign language, "Are my hands clean?" "I patiently explained the reason to them.
Making a heavy noise when holding a cup can make guests feel uncomfortable. Place the cup in your hand first and slowly move it to the table so that the sound is soft. The cup was only two-thirds full, and they asked me, "But we're a barbecue restaurant and our customers need a lot of water." "Seeing them like this, I know that they are actually very kind and innocent.
Luo Juan Luorui prepares the ingredients for the evening. Ran Zhenghong | absorb
Slowly, they began to understand how to better serve their guests. I sat at the front desk and when I saw a customer in need, I told them in sign language. Sometimes, they don't notice me. So a deaf friend gave me an idea: use a laser to get their attention.
Now, I'm going to "call" them to work in this way. The idea was come up with one of Rory's classmates, and they were actually quite smart.
From the beginning of learning to turn the pot and spoon, it took Luo Rui and Shi Hao more than a year to cook before it took a little shape, and Xing Wei's barbecue skills can be regarded as finding a feeling after more than half a year of hard work. As for cutting the side dishes, it takes time, at the beginning of the shredded potatoes, the size is different, and when the heat is quickly cooked, the thin ones are already cooked, and the thick ones are still raw. My husband specially prepared a large cauldron with sand in it, and then broke it down to teach them. At that time, I would try every dish they made and point out what was not doing well. When the guests leave, we will analyze together why some dishes are left behind.
For ordinary people, after being criticized for making small mistakes at work, they can quickly forget about continuing to work. But for the deaf and mute, what we need more is encouragement. If you get angry with them, it will make them feel down, remember the feeling of being criticized, and they will be prone to make mistakes in the rest of the work, either forgetting to add salt or slipping on the plate.
After six years of operation, the "Silent Hotel" has become their home. Sometimes, guests can sit down for the whole evening with a small dish or a few beers, and they still do their best to arrange it. Sometimes guests order a lot of dishes, and they will happily make an extra plate of tofu or potatoes to send away.
When the "Silent Hotel" first opened, there were many curious guests who watched how the deaf and mute communicated while eating, and although they couldn't understand it, they laughed when they saw them. Later, there were also people who failed the college entrance examination, failed in business, and couldn't find a purpose and meaning in life to come to eat with us.
They told me that it would be inspiring to sit there and have a meal and watch how hard the deaf and dumb people try to live. In fact, these deaf people are very optimistic. For example, when he is particularly tired, he can still dance between work.
accompany
Now, there is no problem with the operation of the "Silent Hotel".
I wake up at 7 a.m. every morning, drop my daughter off at school, and go to the market to buy the ingredients I need for the evening. After coming back, take a short rest and wait for Rory and the others to prepare the dishes. We had dinner at 5 o'clock and left the stall at 6 o'clock. I just had to sit on the sidelines and help bake the tofu and they could do the rest. At around 10 p.m., I went home to sleep with my daughter, and they continued to work until the early hours of the morning. Rory's classmates would come to the store to pass the time in the evening. They sat together and used sign language to exchange interesting things about what they had seen today.
There is more to life than just happiness. At the beginning, the time when he was in charge of the spoon was very hard, and he couldn't sleep for a few hours a day. Once I saw him draw a tearful pig's head at the cash register and wrote, "It's hard, my sister won't let me sleep." "I burst into tears when I saw this, thinking that I hadn't taken good care of my brother. But I have to tell him that, like the running he loved before, you can only become a champion if you keep going. Being a champion in life is especially important to him.
I've been through sports training myself. When I was a child, my father sent my sister and me to a sports school to learn basketball, and we got up at five o'clock every day. Before the person fully wakes up, the brain is already nervous, because it knows the next training. At the end of the training, my body and hair were covered with salt stains left by the evaporation of sweat. Every night when I go to bed with the lights out at 10 p.m., I bury my head in the quilt and cry.
Silent hotel staff travel. Ran Zhenghong| absorb
After going through rigorous physical training, I developed a character that does not complain and can endure hardships. Later, when I was running a business, I had to deal with all kinds of people, and even the part of my weak personality changed. Later, when my mother and sister died, and my father left my younger brother in my care, I hardly complained or felt sorry for myself. I must, I have to be the one who can support my family.
I really enjoyed using Pinduoduo at first because it was convenient and affordable. I am busy running a business, I don't have much time to go shopping, and everything I need is solved on Pinduoduo. After a long time, I found that the quality of Pinduoduo's products is really good. The same store, the same clothes, on other platforms may be more expensive than dozens of yuan, I received the goods and found that the quality is exactly the same.
Now I buy most of the things in the store in Pinduoduo, such as tin foil for barbecue, bamboo skewers, spices, etc. Every season, I also customize uniform work clothes for employees in Pinduoduo, embroidered with the words "Silent Hotel" on the front. Now my brother also wears it a lot. Pinduoduo has accompanied the growth of our store in this way, and it has slowly become better together.
Now, my brother and his wife have just received a new life. At night, when the children were crying, they couldn't hear them, so they bought voice-activated night lights on Pinduoduo. As soon as the child cries at night, the lights will come on and Rory will wake up to take care of the child. Starting a family, I feel like I've fulfilled most of my promise to my father. I also want our employees to start families.
After all these years, I'm starting to feel a little tired. I wanted to write a job ad for "Silent Hotel" and find a caring partner to continue running the store together. Maybe we can do something more meaningful so that more deaf people like Rory can live a happy and fulfilling day, so that they can become champions in life.