1984: Starting from a bankrupt Sichuan restaurant

Chapter 139 [Zhang Shufen's Fragments of Memory] (Bonus chapter for 4.8k6000 monthly votes!)
Look at that, what a sharp mind!

“I see his business is doing very well. We’re in the same industry, so I wanted to see how his braised meat tastes. If I were to develop my business in Jiaozhou in the future, I’d have some idea of ​​what to expect.” Zhou Yan said without batting an eye, “Miss Duan is right. It really is terrible. His business is good because of the location, not the taste.”

“You want to resolve the old lady’s emotional issues and take her to Hong Kong to enjoy her retirement, while I want to buy the Qiu family’s old house and move my whole family to the city. We have the same goal, so we are friends.”

Duan Yuyan seemed to be deep in thought, while Zhou Yan's words were quite frank.

“Miss Duan came to my door today, and I didn’t expect it to be such a coincidence. But since you’ve been so direct, I’ll be frank with you as well.” Zhou Yan looked at her and said, “If Miss Duan can give me a definite answer, and I help you get the old lady to agree to go to Hong Kong, you can decide to sell the Duan family’s old house to me at a fair price. I will definitely do my best to help you.”

"You really have a way?" Duan Yuyan looked at him.

“Jiazhou is only so big. Miss Duan may not be able to understand some things because of the language barrier. But I am a native of Jiazhou and I have a thick skin. With my help, I think things will be much simpler.” Zhou Yan said confidently, “Besides, you came here for Zhang’s braised beef, and I happen to be the inheritor of Zhang’s braised food business. Perhaps I can get some useful information from my grandmother.”

After a moment's thought, Duan Yuyan nodded: "It's a deal. If you can really resolve my grandmother's worries, I'll sell the Qiu family's old house to you for ten thousand yuan."

Her father had already discussed this with her before he returned to Hong Kong. If the old lady resolved her inner conflict and went to Hong Kong, she could stay at the Duan family's old house when she returned to Jiaozhou for a short stay. The Qiu family's old house would be sold directly to avoid it collapsing due to disrepair and causing trouble.

If the old lady doesn't come back, they might not return to Jiaozhou for another ten years.

Although the area around the Qiu family's old house is somewhat noisy, it is indeed a good location for doing business.

Zhou Yan most likely wants to buy this house and move his restaurant there in the future.

Duan Yuyan was no stranger to exchanging favors, and she preferred this method, where everyone openly and frankly discussed the terms.

Cooperation leads to mutual benefit and each party gets what they need.

She doesn't like owing favors easily; favors are too hard to repay, so it's better to just discuss terms directly.

"It's a pleasure doing business with you." Zhou Yan smiled and extended his hand to her. Ten thousand yuan was exactly what he had expected.

"It's a pleasure working with you." Duan Yuyan reached out and shook his hand lightly.

At the restaurant entrance, Yan Fei narrowed his eyes slightly, staring at Zhou Yan like a cheetah.

Why are we shaking hands?!

It seems we need to be wary not only of blond-haired people, but also of people with buzz cuts.

Zhou Yan asked Duan Yuyan for more information about Old Lady Qiu.

Duan Yuyan's grandmother, Qiu Qi, is seventy years old this year. Her grandfather, Duan Xingbang, was a missile engineer before he retired, but it is difficult to say exactly what he did, as it is classified information.

Her father's generation consisted of two brothers and a sister. They went to Hong Kong in the 1950s and only returned this year to reunite with their relatives.

The information had been quite comprehensive, but Zhou Yan still felt a chill after hearing it.

He felt that the social circle was too high-end, and that the old lady who sold braised food probably couldn't possibly make friends with such people.
But, it doesn’t matter!
Let's take on the project first, and figure out the rest later.

If he doesn't seize this opportunity, where will he meet a capitalist's daughter like Duan Yuyan?
I'll acquire the Qiu family's old house for 10,000, and then slowly save up to demolish and rebuild it. It faces Jiaozhou Port and benefits from the tourist resources of the Jiaozhou Buddha. Opening a restaurant in the city is just around the corner.

“If you have any news, you can come to the Qiu family’s old house to find me anytime. I usually don’t get up before 10 o’clock. If I’m not home in the afternoon, I usually read books and sunbathe at the riverside teahouse about 500 meters downstream of Jiaozhou Port,” Duan Yuyan said to Zhou Yan.

"Okay, goodbye." Zhou Yan smiled and nodded, then added, "Your makeup looks beautiful today."

"Thank you." Duan Yuyan nodded, a slight smile playing on her lips as she turned away.

He even knows how to do makeup!

However, communicating with Zhou Yan was quite pleasant. His Mandarin was very standard, and he was very straightforward.

She doesn't have much patience to argue with others over trivial matters and waste time.

For example, some distant relatives of the Duan and Qiu families would come to her door under various pretexts to chat for the first few months. Their purpose was actually very simple: to ask for money.

I don't need much, just a few tens or a hundred yuan.

At first, she tried to give her money to get rid of her, but her grandmother stopped her and wouldn't give her a single penny.

When his father came back at the beginning of the year, he had already given each of his relatives a red envelope of 500 yuan, which was equivalent to a factory worker's annual salary.

The old lady said: "A small favor is appreciated, but a large one breeds resentment. If you give more money, all your relatives will become enemies."

Later, the old lady called the clan elders to hold a clan meeting. Her attitude was very clear: if anyone had real difficulties, they should come to her. If they went to the younger generation, she would just throw them out the door with a stick.

Duan Yuyan finally got some peace and quiet.

Don't be fooled by the old lady's elegant and dignified demeanor when she goes out; all her relatives are afraid of her.

Although I didn't manage to buy any braised beef, the trip wasn't entirely fruitless; at least I gained a business partner.

Yan Fei quickly followed, keeping a two-step distance from her, without asking a single question.

……

"What were you talking about?" Aunt Zhao couldn't help but gossip as she saw Zhou Yan return.

This girl looks very elegant, but her tone of voice sounds a bit strange. She's not a local, and she's a female college student.
How did you meet Zhou Yan?
"We chatted for a bit about the inheritance of Sichuan cuisine cooking techniques. Mom, I have to go back to the village for something." Zhou Yan casually replied, went into the kitchen to cut a pig's ear and wrap a pig's trotter, then pushed his bicycle out the door.

He bought a pot of wine at the bridgehead and headed straight for his old house in Zhoucun.

Zhou Yan rode his bike home, and the old lady was locking the door.

"Grandma, where are we going?" Zhou Yan stopped the car and asked with a smile.

The old lady turned around, looking at Zhou Yan with some surprise: "We were about to go next door to play mahjong, why are you here?"

"I got you some wine, and also a pig's trotter and a pig's ear. I have something I want to ask you." Zhou Yan took the items out of the bicycle basket and said with a smile, "It won't take you long."

"You're here, and you've brought so much stuff. Come on in, anyway, playing cards is just a way to kill time, it doesn't matter whether you play or not." The old lady reopened the door and walked into the yard.

Zhou Yan followed him in, carrying his things. On the courtyard wall, the tabby cat stretched, glanced at Zhou Yan with its eyelids raised, and then turned its head back to sleep with its paws tucked in.

The old lady took a bowl, poured the braised pig's trotters that Zhou Yan had brought into the bowl, and then covered it with a plate to seal it.

Pig's trotters are her favorite food. She adds a spoonful of braising sauce and heats them up before eating, so she doesn't need to cook any other dishes.

Zhou Yan placed the wine on the cabinet next to her, looked at the black and white photos hanging on the wall, and greeted her like Zhou Momo: "Hello, Grandpa."

Looking at the photo, the old lady smiled and said, "Next month is the anniversary of his death. If you have time then, let's go to the Martyrs' Cemetery at Laoxiaoding to sweep his grave together."

“Okay, I’ll close the shop on weekdays to go.” Zhou Yan nodded, looking at the middle-aged man in military uniform in the photo frame, his face resolute. His eyes revealed a fierce and ruthless aura, and the black and white photo still looked very dignified.

When he was a child, his grandmother told him about his grandfather's anti-Japanese war deeds. In recent years, she has talked about these things less and less with the younger generation, as if she has gradually sealed these memories away.

"Tell me, what secret do you want to ask that requires you to bring braised pig's trotters and wine?" The old lady poured her a cup of tea from a thermos and asked with a smile.

“Today we have a guest who came back from Hong Kong looking for relatives. She said her grandmother…” Zhou Yan sat down at the table and told the old lady about Duan Yuyan and Old Lady Qiu’s situation, without deleting or changing any information.

The old lady is an organized person; haphazard processing will only affect her judgment.

"Qiu Qi and Duan Xingbang from Jiaozhou City? Or missile engineers?" The old lady thought seriously for a long time, then shook her head: "I don't remember having such two guests. Apart from the first year when I went to Jiaozhou City to sell braised meat and got to know some restaurant owners, they all came to pick up the meat themselves after that."

When I go to Jiaozhou, it's mostly for fun and shopping. The only people I know are restaurant owners and knife makers. I definitely don't know Qiu Qi or the missile engineer; they probably ate braised meat at Feiyan Restaurant and wouldn't make a special trip to Suji to buy it. I don't think there are any prominent families with those surnames in Suji either. I'm not familiar with the people in Jiaozhou city, but I do remember the names of most of the prominent families around Yang Wharf.”

After hearing this, Zhou Yan felt like the sky had fallen.

He ran there full of confidence, hoping to hear a touching love story from the old lady, but...

We didn't get a single useful piece of information!

Thankfully, they didn't bring Duan Yuyan along, otherwise the partnership would have collapsed immediately.

“She knows I sell braised beef, maybe someone brought it to her before, but she usually eats at Feiyan Restaurant.” The old lady speculated: “There were many wealthy people in Jiaozhou City back then, including silk merchants, salt merchants, landlords, and dockworkers… Feiyan Restaurant was very successful, and all the customers were wealthy people.”

Zhou Yan nodded. It seemed he would have to go to Jiaozhou to conduct an investigation when he had time. The simplest way was to find the elders of Old Lady Qiu's family, who would likely be able to pry out some secrets.

Of course, such behavior could also lead to the Qiu family arresting and beating someone under the pretext of malicious intent, so there is a certain risk involved.

"By the way, do you know an old man named Wang Ran? He's tall and thin, probably around seventy years old now, and works as a librarian in the town library." Zhou Yan then asked, "He said he used to come here often to buy braised meat, and he also asked me when I'd make braised beef."

"Wang Ran?" The old lady thought for a moment and shook her head. "I've never heard of that name before. Besides, in those days, people who were tall were generally tall and thin. Only wealthy men were usually chubby. The young masters of those wealthy families all wore modern suits and had their hair styled with hair wax so thick that even a fly would slip on it."

The Wang family is a prominent family in the town, with several wealthy members. The largest courtyard house near Yangmatou belonged to Master Wang Zhenyu. Back then, the largest silk factory in Suji was owned by the Wang family, and many silkworm farmers in Jiaozhou relied on the Wang family for their livelihood.

What I remember most vividly is the young master Wang Yu, the fourth son in their family. Every day when he went out, he would carry a birdcage with a talking bird inside, something like a parrot.

Every week he comes to buy a serving of braised beef. He doesn't want my oil paper packaging; he brings his own beautiful blue-and-white porcelain bowl with a blooming peony flower at the bottom. It's filled with about a pound of beef, and he even had a wooden lid custom-made so it fits perfectly. He says he's sending it to his fiancée in Jiaozhou City, who loves my braised beef.

Later, when the Japanese invaded, your grandfather wanted to leave Sichuan to fight them. But Wang Yu, instead of being a proper young master, insisted on climbing over the wall to escape from his home and join your grandfather in the army.

Later, his fiancée remarried. Some people said he became a traitor, while others said he joined the Kuomintang. During the turbulent times, the Wang family was targeted by warlords because of their wealth. They were persecuted and their family was destroyed. Old Master Wang, his three older brothers, and the younger generation were all burned to death in a fire.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, your grandfather even wrote two letters to exonerate him. Your grandfather was conscripted to go to Korea at the time, and I was the one who delivered them to him. I don't know what happened to him afterward.

Oh no…

When the Wang family was mentioned, the old lady sighed a few times.

After hearing this, Zhou Yan also expressed his pity for the fourth young master of the Wang family.

The older generation experienced turbulent times, and even a few words from them can be described as tumultuous and unimaginable to the younger generation. But when the old lady spoke of them, they sounded rather nonchalant.

Many memories have become blurred, but she still remembers the beautiful blue and white porcelain basin with a peony flower on it from back then.

The old lady has always had such an optimistic attitude.

Otherwise, how could one person raise five children?

In 1937, she was only twenty-eight years old.

My grandfather left Sichuan and only returned home once every few years. Later, he never came back.

Zhou Yan finished his tea, smiled, and stood up: "Grandma, why don't you go play cards? I'll head back now."

"Did I not tell you anything useful?" The old lady got up and gently patted her head. "I'm getting old, and I can't remember many things. I'll think about it slowly these next few days. If I remember, I'll tell you again."

"It's alright, just have fun, none of this matters," Zhou Yan quickly said, not wanting the old lady to worry about this.

Zhou Yan's memories from ten years ago are all blurry; he can't even recall three of his elementary school classmates' names.

Asking an elderly woman to think about things from forty or fifty years ago, especially since she might just be a customer who bought braised meat from her, is truly difficult.

After returning to the hotel from Zhoucun, Zhou Yan thought about this matter all day.

After finishing his accounting that evening, Zhou Yan lay on the bed with his eyes closed, pondering solutions. If he had nothing to do the next afternoon, he would go to Jiaozhou to investigate Old Lady Qiu's family background.

[Ding! Over 500 servings of braised food have been sold, successfully reviving the delicious memories of Suzhou diners. Under the name of Zhou Erwa Restaurant, Zhang Ji Braised Food has once again become famous in Suzhou! The mission of passing on Zhang Ji Braised Food has been completed!]

[Reward: Perfect Braised Beef Recipe +1]

[Conversation with Zhang Shufen triggers a special reward: Zhang Shufen's memory fragments]

[Note: One-time consumption of props]

Zhou Yan suddenly opened his eyes, glanced at the pop-up reward, ignored the braised beef recipe, and stared at the memory fragment.

What the hell?
Fragments of memory?

The old lady said she would help him think about it slowly, so perhaps...

Should he take a look himself?
Zhou Yan got up and locked the door. He lay back down on the bed and used his mind to access Zhang Shufen's memory fragments.

He thought a video playback interface would pop up.

The next second, everything went black before his eyes, and he instantly lost consciousness.

……

"Rat poison~ rat poison~ once the rat eats it, it can't escape..."

"Sharpening knives~ Sharpening scissors~ Sharpening kitchen knives~"

"By turning your eyes around, you can save tens of dollars..."

A cacophony of hawkers' cries filled the air, with shouts of price and haggling echoing everywhere.

Zhou Yan tried blinking and found that he seemed to have no eyelids, but his vision gradually became clearer.

The familiar yet unfamiliar Suji stone bridgehead is filled with small vendors setting up stalls everywhere, wearing coarse cloth jackets, sitting on the ground, or hawking their wares along the street.

There were also men wearing long gowns and women wearing cheongsams, who looked much more presentable.

The busiest stall was a braised meat stand with a long queue of more than a dozen people. Next to the stall was a handwritten sign: Zhang's Braised Food.

Standing behind the stall was a woman who looked to be about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old. She was pretty, with short hair that reached her ears. She was wearing an indigo blue floral top with Chinese knot buttons, black pants, and an apron around her waist. She looked neat and efficient and was smiling as she collected money and gave change.

Zhou Yan had seen photos of the old lady when she was young, but she wasn't as pretty as she was in real life. His grandmother was really beautiful when she was young; she had a clean and neat appearance.

No, she should be called Zhang Shufen!
On a small table next to him was a thick, round wooden cutting board. A tall, sturdy young man with a buzz cut was slicing pig ears with a cleaver. Wasn't that his grandfather, Zhou Yi?!
He looked to be about thirty years old and resembled his uncle by about seven or eight points, but was more robust. He had a smile on his face and a somewhat honest and simple look, lacking the fierce and murderous aura that naturally emanated from him in later photos.

"Sister Zhang, please pack me a pound of braised beef and arrange it nicely. If it's too messy, I won't be able to give it to you."

A voice caught Zhou Yan's attention. At the front of the braised meat stall was a tall, thin young man wearing a suit jacket, trousers, and shiny leather shoes.

He was handsome, with thick eyebrows and big eyes. His hair was parted in the middle and combed upwards. He had applied too much hair gel, making it shiny and oily. Even a fly would slip on it.

He carried a birdcage in his right hand, inside which was a brightly colored parrot, and handed over a blue and white porcelain basin with a blooming peony at the bottom of the basin. The glaze was so beautiful.

Zhou Yan's eyes widened in surprise:
"Great...Master?!"
-
PS: Bonus chapter with 4.8k words! 10,000 words update, please vote with monthly tickets! Third place now, let's keep pushing up the rankings!
(I'll most likely finish writing the memory fragment storyline all at once tomorrow before updating, so don't worry about it slowing down the pace.)
　Asking for a monthly ticket~
　　I've been working on this plot for a long time, and after much deliberation, I've decided to develop it this way! I'll finish writing it tomorrow!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)