1984: Starting from a bankrupt Sichuan restaurant

Chapter 96: Even if the factory manager arrives late, he won't be able to buy any!
The rumor about Sichuan people keeping pandas at home has actually existed since this time.

Zhou Yan smiled and patted her head, saying with a smile, "When you go to Rongcheng, you'll ride a panda to school every day."

"Really?" Zhou Momo's eyes lit up, and she turned to look at Aunt Zhao: "Mom! Let's go to Chengdu! I want to raise a giant panda too!"

“Why go to Chengdu? We have land to farm in the village, a place to raise chickens and pigs, and the land is our own. It’s where we’ve lived half our lives, much more comfortable than Chengdu.” Aunt Zhao shook her head and said with a smile, “When we build the house later, we’ll widen the courtyard. We exchanged that piece of land with your third uncle two years ago. We can plant garlic sprouts, chili peppers, patchouli, and scallions in the yard. We can just pick them whenever we want to cook. It’s so convenient.”

"Okay, make it wider." Old Zhou nodded with a smile, his eyes full of affection.

Zhou Yan didn't say anything after hearing this. In this day and age, how many people would be willing to leave their hometown if they could earn money and live a comfortable life at home?
He had asked Uncle Lin a few days ago while he was jogging. He said that the country had just liberalized the sale of private houses, but there were still many restrictions. Public houses were strictly prohibited from being sold, and the better buildings were all public dormitories.

Zhou Yangang had just paid off his debts, but he still owed his parents more than 500 yuan, so he didn't have many thoughts about it.

He wanted to earn his first pot of gold at this shop near the textile factory.

If we earn more money in the future, what's wrong with rebuilding a house for them in the countryside?

Comrade Zhou rode his bike back to repair the house, and Zhou Momo followed closely behind Zhou Yan, constantly asking:
"Brother, are you going to Chengdu? How about I go with your family?"

"Brother, how many giant pandas should we raise?"

"Brother, can the giant panda sleep next to me at night?"

"Pot..."

"Okay, okay, I'll definitely buy you one!" Zhou Yan's mind was buzzing. He gave her a dime and told her to go buy some candy.

"Great! I'm going to ride a panda to school!" The little guy skipped away with the money, already lost in his daydreams. His little ponytail bounced along with him as he disappeared into the factory's small shop next door.

Zhou Yan, now with some free time, lay on a chair under a tree, enjoying the breeze and gazing blankly at the river in the distance. It was a cloudy day, and the wind had already picked up a bit of a chill.

"Zhou Yan." A voice rang in my ears.

Zhou Yan turned around and saw that Zhao Minghui had already moved a small stool and sat down next to him. He grabbed a handful of braised peanuts from his pocket and stuffed them into Zhou Yan's hand, then peeled one for himself and popped it into his mouth. He said with a smile, "I saw that your braised food was selling very well at noon. I didn't know you had this skill."

"Life is tough, so you need to be multi-talented." Zhou Yan sighed, peeled a braised peanut, and popped it into his mouth.

“If you’re selling braised pig’s head, you need to be wary of Yang Laosan and Zhu Feng. They’re not good people. They teamed up to wage a price war against me before. No matter what price I sold, they would sell it for three cents less, which forced me to stop selling my braised pig’s head,” Zhao Minghui said, lowering his voice.

Zhou Yan glanced at him and said with a smile, "It's alright. I'm wary of people, but I'm also full of malicious intent. If they dare to do something bad, I'm definitely much worse than them."

Zhao Minghui was stunned. Why was Zhou Yan talking in such a contradictory way now?

"Besides, my price is already three cents more per pound than theirs. The tricks they used on you failed before they even got a chance to work on me." Zhou Yan said with a smile, "If they want to lower their prices, let them. I don't care and I won't follow suit."

“That’s right!” Zhao Minghui suddenly realized this as well. Zhou Yan’s situation was completely different from his own back then.

Even though it costs 30 cents, customers still scramble to buy it. What does this tell us?
That must taste delicious!

It tastes so much better than those three restaurants that I'd buy it even if it were three cents more expensive.

"My mom said you gave the guests your homemade braised peanuts, how was the effect?" Zhou Yan asked casually while eating peanuts.

"The effect is amazing! I just wanted to thank you." Zhao Minghui was still a little excited when he said this. "I sold two or three jin, and the remaining ten jin were all sold out by noon. Several people have also asked me to pre-order for tomorrow. Many customers have said it was good after eating it."

"That's great. Once the business stabilizes, that means a stable income," Zhou Yan nodded with a smile.

Zhao Minghui and Zhou Yan chatted for a while before heading home. He was in a hurry to get home and cook another pot of braised peanuts so he could sell a batch after get off work that evening.

He lives in Suji Town, not far away. Braised peanuts don't take too long to cook, and they'll probably be served hot when they're done, which is even tastier than cold ones.

People are always full of energy when they can make money.

Zhou Yan took a short nap, played rock-paper-scissors with Zhou Momo for a while, and then went back to the kitchen to cut pig's head meat and pig's ear slices.

There was no other way; the lesson learned at noon was very profound. We had to cut up the pig's head and ears in advance so that during the evening rush hour, Aunt Zhao would only need to weigh and pack them, ensuring efficiency.

When the workers finish get off work in the evening, they are waiting to take the braised meat home for dinner. They don't have the time to wait for you to cook several dishes before cutting it for them.

The chicken has already been chopped up; if customers order it in the evening, all you need to do is prepare a cold salad.

You need to bring your own lunchbox to order cold chicken salad; this rule is written at the entrance.

There was nothing Zhou Yan could do; he couldn't find a usable takeout box, and he didn't even have a plastic bag.

Braised pig's head and braised pig's ear slices are packaged in oil paper bags, which is a common packaging method for braised food nowadays.

In this regard, Zhou Yan does not pursue being unconventional; as long as it is sufficient, costs must be controlled.

"Mom, I'd like to hire a helper. Do you have any suitable candidates?" Zhou Yan asked as he saw Aunt Zhao, who had just woken up from her afternoon nap, come downstairs.

Aunt Zhao has a much wider network of connections than him; she might be able to find a suitable candidate.

"Dunzi?" Aunt Zhao rubbed her eyes, still a little groggy from just waking up, and looked at Zhou Yan, who was slicing ear pieces, and said, "Are you too busy slicing braised meat?"

"Yes, I have to cut braised pork, stir-fry vegetables, and make cold chicken salad for lunch today. I'm so busy I'm going crazy," Zhou Yan nodded.

“I’m a bit busy, let me think…” After thinking it over carefully, Aunt Zhao shook her head: “I don’t have any good candidates. If you’re talking about the best knife skills around me, it’s your old man. During holidays, he’s the one who helps your grandma cut braised meat. Your grandma always asks him to cut it, and he’s the one she’s most satisfied with.”

“My old man has to slaughter cattle and sell the meat.” Zhou Yan shook his head. Comrade Zhou, who had slaughtered cattle all his life, would never work as his butcher. “Forget it, I’ll write a job posting and put it on the door later, and see if I can find a suitable person.”

The farce at the factory canteen is beginning to calm down. This noon, the factory director and two deputy directors appeared at the canteen, ate communal meals with the workers, and repeatedly promised that the incident of diseased pork would not happen again. Deputy director Liu Yusheng will be directly responsible for the canteen.

The factory leaders' attention and determination restored some of the workers' confidence in the factory canteen.

There's no way around it, we still have to eat.

The factory canteen is cheap and plentiful. They serve big pot dishes, and a serving of twice-cooked pork is only 45 cents. Vegetable dishes are 10 cents a serving. You bring your own lunchbox to steam the rice. Two or three people can share a meal, and a meal with both meat and vegetables costs only 20 cents.

The stir-fry section in the factory canteen has been eliminated, and all the chefs can now focus on preparing large-batch dishes for the workers. The previous situation where head chefs cooked stir-fries while apprentices cooked large-batch dishes will no longer occur.

After lunch, the workers generally gave positive feedback on the communal cooking. Even though Chef Xiao had left, the factory canteen still had three level-three chefs who would cook the communal dishes carefully, so they were sure to make them taste good.

If I want to eat stir-fries or something nice in the future, I'll have to go to Zhou Erwa's restaurant.

Zhou Yan was quite happy to hear the news from the workers.

He didn't bankrupt the factory canteen, but he ruined the stir-fry section.

The culprit, Wang Defa, has already been arrested. It is said that his alliance with Sun Meili has broken down and they have entered a dog-eat-dog stage, each throwing mud at the other. They don't even need much interrogation; they confessed their crimes more thoroughly than the security officers could find out.

With the amount involved exceeding 50,000 yuan, in this day and age, the perpetrator would almost certainly spend the rest of their life in jail.

How many households in the entire country have ten thousand yuan?

How audacious!
Zhou Yan thought of Xiao Zhou. When their memories merged, he was Zhou Yan, and he was also Xiao Zhou. Perhaps there was no difference between them.

He quite likes this era.

He prefers the people here, this home.

The restaurant is doing even better business tonight.

The news that Tuesday's braised pig's head at Wa's restaurant was incredibly delicious spread by the afternoon.

One worker packed up some braised pig's head meat, intending to take it home to enjoy with drinks. However, his colleagues in the workshop smelled the aroma, and it was impossible to hide it any longer. It was all taken up during the lunch break.

The worker, holding a pile of coins, was on the verge of tears. These women were nothing but bandits!

After tasting it, word of mouth spread rapidly.

Moreover, some of the factory's veteran employees tasted the flavor and remembered it all; it tasted just like Zhang's braised food stall that used to be located at the Shibanqiao Bridge.

"Boss, who taught you to make this braised meat? It tastes just like Zhang's braised meat from the old bridgehead!" An old worker said, holding a lunchbox, his voice still a little excited.

"My mother-in-law set up Zhang's Braised Food back then, and Zhou Yan learned how to make it from his grandmother now," Aunt Zhao replied with a smile.

"No wonder! You did a great job, I've mastered the technique." The old worker handed over the lunchbox: "Give me half a pound of pork head meat, and a serving of cold chicken salad."

"Zhang's Restaurant! It was so famous back in the day!"

“My old man still often mentions it, saying that the best braised food in the whole of Jiaozhou was Zhang’s, but it’s a pity that they stopped selling it later.”

The old worker's words evoked memories for many, especially the older generation in their families who would always mention it when buying braised food, making Zhang's Braised Food the pinnacle of braised food in the hearts of the younger generation.

The workers, who had come specifically for the braised food, placed their orders even more decisively:

"I also want half a pound of braised pig's head meat!"

"I want a pig's ear!"

"Auntie, here's your lunchbox, I want to pack up some cold chicken salad!"

Customers packed up takeout braised dishes and lined the restaurant entrance to buy them. Many customers who came in to eat also rushed to order, some still holding bottles of liquor they had just bought from the convenience store.

Braised pig's head is the perfect accompaniment to alcohol. Having a drink with colleagues after work is just so satisfying.

As a result, the remaining pig's head meat was quickly sold out.

Looking at the few pieces of pig's ear and pig's head meat left in the bamboo basket, Zhou Yan realized it wasn't enough for one serving, so he instructed Zhao Hong to put all the braised dishes into the clearance section.

The rest we left over, we'll pack up and give to Comrade Zhou to take home and eat.

The work of reinforcing the house and replacing the tiles must be quite substantial; he hasn't even arrived yet at this hour.

"I'm sorry, we didn't prepare enough for the first day. We'll definitely prepare more tomorrow. Please come back and buy some more then." Aunt Zhao apologized as usual, expressing her regret to the customers who didn't get any braised meat and promising to do so next time.

"Is the braised meat sold out?" Wang Hongliang stopped his bicycle at the door and asked as well.

This afternoon, he heard that Zhou Erwa's restaurant was selling braised meat. He heard that the taste was almost the same as Zhang Ji's braised meat from back then, which piqued his curiosity. After get off work, he went to check out the canteen and came out a little late.

"Factory manager, I'm so sorry, we're sold out for today," Aunt Zhao said with a smile. "Come earlier tomorrow."

"Okay." Wang Hongliang nodded, slightly disappointed.

Even if the factory manager arrives late, he won't be able to buy any!
The workers immediately felt much more at ease.

　Asking for a monthly ticket! !
　　
　
(End of this chapter)