"Are you done that work yet? You have been working on it for hours," asked Jean Chung. "No, I am sorry, I have been talking on the phone," answered Joanne Fu. As you can tell, Miss Fu likes to chat rather than do her work or what needs to be done.
You might think that Mrs. Chung was always a worker, but she was not always a worker. As a young lady Mrs. Chung used to sell food at a food market. During her working she would always talk on the phone (just like Miss Fu does). This became a routine every day. Instead of working, she would talk on the phone, and these calls were not all business calls. When this happened, she got so distracted that she did not help the store's customers. One day her boss was told that she was spending all of her time talking on the phone and was no help to the market. After hearing that, her boss decided to do something about it. On the same day her boss told her "talk does not cook rice," and her boss fired her. So she went home and found out what "talk does not cook rice" meant. That night Mrs. Chung learned her lesson, to do work instead of talking.
Mrs. Chung decided to tell Miss Fu this story so she could learn her lesson. So she began, "When I was a young lady..." At the end she added, "'talk does not cook rice,' so go get that work done before I fire you."