Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 172 Guanyuan

The group paid and left.

Chen Xiao said, "Xiao Hui, why don't you come with me to Sanhao Street? I'll tell my brother I'm not going. Let's go check out some big restaurants and then that pig farm."

Chen Hui said, "Okay, but I need to go report first. I've been gone for several days, I need to show my face. Quick, ten minutes. Xiao Wei, where are you two going?"

Xiao Wei said, "Lao Xia and I will go for a walk around Shisanwei Road, and then we'll go back to the Cultural Palace."

Chen Hui said, "Please keep track of the costs for me, and buy it for me directly when the time comes. I don't know anything about it."

Xiao Wei said, "If you don't understand, just learn. Don't just think about playing all day. What do I know? Before coming to Fengtian, I already knew how to farm and lay bricks. Aren't you all better than me? We walk around all day, and when we encounter something, we think about it and observe it. Wouldn't that make us understand everything?"

Chen Hui thought for a moment and said, "Who cares about things that don't concern us?"

Xiao Wei said, "It doesn't matter what? You guys are just too comfortable. You have everything you need and the conditions are good, so you're too lazy to think about anything. I come from the countryside, and I feel like I don't know anything or understand anything. I want to understand everything I encounter and think about everything. I'm afraid that I might not know how to use it someday and feel ashamed. Maybe it's a kind of inferiority complex. I always feel that you are city people and I am a mountain person. I'm afraid that you will look down on me."

Xia Maosheng nodded and said, "That makes sense. Xiaohui and I lack something like you, what do you call it? A sense of crisis. We lack that."

Chen Xiao said, "It's not so much a sense of crisis as a lack of self-awareness. It's like always feeling inferior to others, knowing less, and constantly in a state of seeking knowledge. Xiao Hui, can you be like that tomorrow? You're practically turning into a pig, you know that?"

Chen Hui nodded and said, "Okay, starting tomorrow I'm going to be a studious pig." The four of them laughed, and Chen Xiao kicked Chen Hui in the shin, making Chen Hui hop around in pain, clutching his leg: "You two come back this afternoon, let's go to the pig farm together."

Once outside on the main road, the four of them split up. Chen Hui and Chen Xiao went to the power bureau, while Xiao Wei and Xia Maosheng took a taxi to Shisanwei Road.

The area around Shisanwei Road is the largest distribution market for cookware, kitchen utensils, and hotel supplies in the entire Northeast region.

The two of them took a taxi, which cost ten yuan. This place wasn't far from Nanhu Lake; if it weren't for the dead of winter, it wouldn't have taken long to walk there. But in winter, there's no way around it. It's not far from the canal, right next to the waterway connecting Youth Park and Nanhu Park, and the breeze is so refreshing in the depths of winter.

One of the biggest advantages of winter in Northeast China is that there are fewer people.

Apart from the occasional passing car, there were hardly any people on the street, only the northwest wind howling and whistling as it swept past.

After getting off the bus, you can see huge red characters or signs at any glance: cooking utensils, kitchenware, stoves, pastry tools, hotel supplies. No matter which direction you look, these are the same few items you'll see.

At that time, there were no buildings yet; it was just a large, single-story market.

The streets here are much busier, with people buying and selling goods in various accents gathered around the market, and rows and piles of machinery and equipment neatly displayed along the roadside.

The two of them jogged into the market. It was actually cold inside, with no heating. Each household had something to warm themselves by, but there was no wind inside. You know, that's a huge difference.

Most of the business owners there are from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, a small number are from eastern Guangdong, and very few are locals.

The two of them had no particular destination; they just wandered around, looking at the styles, functions, and uses of the equipment, and checking the prices. They learned about various things, including dough mixers, noodle cutters, fermentation boxes, ovens, carpets, clothing knives, egg beaters, gas stoves, molds, and all sorts of small tools. Their horizons were broadened; they realized there were so many things they didn't know about but could buy and use.

Xia Maosheng held up several molds and said to Xiaowei, "These are a good idea. When we get back, we can press all the dumplings and steamed buns into these shapes. They'll look nice."

Xiao Wei was looking at a noodle press. The kneaded dough was processed into noodles, the width and narrowness of which could be adjusted at will. Xiao Wei looked it over and said to Xia Maosheng, "I remember Sister Zhang said that Sister Shang can make instant noodles, right?"

Xia Maosheng put down the mold he was playing with and walked to the noodle press, saying, "Yeah, I did say that. But it only makes the dough, not the seasoning." Instant noodles these days don't have vegetable packets, oil packets, or flavor packets; they just have a small packet of salt, MSG, and five-spice powder as seasoning.

Xiao Wei pointed to the place they had just passed and said, "That machine over there is a seasoning filling machine. You put the seasoning in after mixing it, and then seal it yourself."

Xia Maosheng asked, "You want to make instant noodles?"

Xiao Wei said, "We'll definitely be running a food factory in the future, such a big building, but we haven't decided on the specifics yet. Bread, cakes, biscuits, instant noodles, basically those kinds of things, we'll see. We need to go back and check out the market to see what sells fast. If we're going to open a factory, we can't just sell retail, we have to wholesale. We can't just look at the profit, we have to look at the speed and volume."

Xia Maosheng said, "What's there to be afraid of? Just get a truck and bring it from Fengtian. We can get approval on Er Ma Road. It's still better than Longcheng."

Xiao Wei clapped his hands, stood up, and said, "Hmm, that's something to consider, but we can't rely solely on this method of shipping. There are too many limitations. We also need direct sales channels like grocery stores and shopping malls."

After nearly two hours of walking around the entire market and looking at clothing and supplies, the two of them finally headed towards Er Ma Road.

Upon reaching the Cultural Palace roundabout, the two headed directly towards Lanzhou South Street, where Guanyuan Company is located.

Right now, around the Cultural Palace area, there weren't many tall buildings. It was mostly two- or three-story concrete buildings, with all sorts of signs hanging on the upper floors of the buildings lining both sides of the road. The streets reeked of additives. All the storefronts looked dilapidated, but as long as they had a full stock, nobody cared.

Guanyuan is considered to have a relatively well-maintained storefront, with newly installed glass doors and the company logo displayed on the walls inside.

The woman who greeted Xiaowei and Xia Maosheng was in her forties. She called herself Second Sister, and everyone in the shop, regardless of age, called her that.

My second sister is forty-five or forty-six years old, a little over 1.6 meters tall, with short, wavy hair. She wears a blue work coat and a blue and white floral scarf around her neck. She laughs first when she speaks, and her voice is somewhat shrill.

There's only one desk in the shop, which is where my second sister works: issuing invoices, collecting payments, and serving customers.

"Has the goods left for Fushun yet? Hurry up, it's so late, the truck will leave soon, hurry up, put down what you're holding and deliver it over there, remember the license plate number, and call Fushun when you get back."

"Whose white cream is this? Did you pay for it? Hey, that's not white, that's yellow. The white one is over there, over there, right, right, it's in there."

"What do you want? Leavening agent? What are you using? Biscuits? You use this for biscuits, but that's for making fried dough sticks. Who taught you that?"

(End of this chapter)