Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 180 Lei Zi

"What are you guys chatting about?" The boss chuckled as he came over with a thermos to refill everyone's water.

Xiao Wei thanked him and asked, "Boss, what's your surname? I've been here so many times and I still don't know your surname." He then handed him a cigarette.

The boss chuckled as he took the cigarette, lit it in Xiao Wei's hand, and gently patted Xiao Wei's hand, saying, "My surname is An, just call me Lao An."

Boss An asked, "You know someone surnamed An who does bone-cutting? Which area is he from?"

Xia Maosheng said, "It's not Fengtian; they're in Longcheng."

Boss An said, "Longcheng, that's right, it's the birthplace of my An family. Our ancestors should all be one family. You know An Lushan, right? We're all An, and now we're all Han Chinese. Actually, we were originally Hu people, Sogdians, Turks, have you heard of them? Later, the Xianbei and Turks all became Han Chinese."

Xiao Hong said, "An Lushan's surname was Kang, right? He changed his surname to An himself."

Boss An glanced at Xiao Hong and said, "Yes, he is of the Sogdian ethnicity. His original name was Kang Yaluoshan. His mother remarried to a Turkic family surnamed An. The An family was powerful, so Kang Yaluoshan changed his name to An Lushan. As a result, he really became a high-ranking official and almost ruined the Tang Dynasty. You know quite a lot, girl."

Xiao Hong blushed slightly, and Chen Hui said, "He's a top student from Northeast Institute of Technology, so he must know a lot."

Xiao Hong said, "No, it's just that I like history and have read some books."

Xia Maosheng said, "Isn't 'An' a Han surname? Don't ethnic minorities often have multiple surnames like foreigners?"

Xiao Hong said, "Yes, it was simplified. Back then, the Han people had good living conditions, which the Hu people admired, so they all adopted Han names. An Lushan should be Alexander, right, boss?"

Boss An shook his head and said, "I don't know about that. All I know is that there used to be nine Sogdian clans. That's what people talked about when they were compiling family genealogies. Kang'an was one of those nine clans. The An family was a big clan. They used to have a kingdom called Anxi. Later, it was destroyed by the Abbasid Caliphate, so they submitted to the Tang Dynasty and became high-ranking officials. That's all I know. Hehe, I didn't go to school much, how would I know these things?"

The kitchen curtain was lifted, and a young man with a square head and big ears came out carrying a pot. Boss An reached out and moved the teacups of several people to the side, saying, "Make way, don't burn yourselves." The young man put the pot on the earthen stove, bent down and lit the fire.

Xiao Wei asked, "Who's this? Boss, did you hire someone?"

Mr. An said, "My little shop doesn't do much business each day, so why would I hire anyone? This is my son. It's almost winter, and the pigs are almost ready for slaughter, so he's come to help me for a few days."

The boss's son lit the fire, stood up, nodded and smiled at the five people, then turned and went back to the back.

Xiao Wei asked Boss An, "Boss, how much do you make in a year, running this shop and raising pigs?"

Boss An said, "What's the point of making money? Just enough to live on. It's hard to find a job these days. You've all been to my shop several times, and as you can see, there aren't many customers. If it's too expensive, no one comes; if it's too cheap, I lose money. That's just how it is. I just muddle through. The pig farm is just so-so too. This year, we've only raised less than twenty pigs. We can't manage more than that. We make a pittance, just enough to live on."

Xia Maosheng said, "Boss, want to make money?"

Boss An chuckled, took out cigarettes and offered them to everyone, saying, "That's an interesting question, kid. Who doesn't want to make money? It's not like you can just decide to make it whenever you want!"

Xiao Wei nodded and said, "If you want to earn it, then earn it. Really, I'm not kidding you."

The boss paused for a moment, lit a cigarette, and asked, "How do you make money?"

Xiao Wei said, "If I close this shop, I'll raise pigs. I guarantee I'll make more money than you are now."

The shop owner shook his head and said, "There's no such thing as a free lunch. What can you do by raising just a few pigs? My little shop can at least earn some more income."

Xiao Wei said, "I'm serious, I'm not joking." He pointed at Chen Hui and said, "He's about to open a big restaurant, 1,500 square meters. We were just talking about this. We also have a restaurant and a chef training class in Longcheng. We came here today to discuss with you whether we can expand our pig farm specifically for us."

Boss An asked, "Is this true?"

The five people nodded in unison, a remarkably synchronized reaction. The boss believed them and said, "1500 square meters? That's quite large. That means you'll use a lot of meat. How big is your restaurant?"

Xiao Wei said, "It's a three-story building with about ten tables. It's not as big as this place, but the people eating there are all government officials, so it's high-class."

The boss thought for a moment and said, "I'm afraid that won't work. There are too many pigs to take care of. Besides, my pigs are made from leftovers. Where am I going to get so many?"

Xiao Wei pointed at Chen Hui and said, "His father is the director of the Northeast Electric Power Bureau." Pointing at Xia Maosheng, he said, "His aunt is the mayor of Chuanzhou. She can extract lees from the wineries on both sides of Fengtian and Longcheng. This is no big deal."

Xia Maosheng said, "We're planning to find a large plot of land on the outskirts of town to build a pig farm, and we'd like to entrust it to your family. Is that feasible?"

Xiao Wei said, "Let's consider the pig farm a joint venture. Your family owns half, and the price of pork will be based on the market price, maybe a 10% increase. How about that?"

Boss An asked, "How many are you planning to raise?"

Xiao Wei said, "It will need to be at least two or three hundred people. We also need to set up a farm in Longcheng, but it's not finalized yet. It will definitely be bigger than this farm. We trust your farm because you have experience raising livestock. We'll be more confident in entrusting it to you. It will definitely earn you more than you are now."

After thinking for a moment, Boss An asked, "What are the conditions?"

Xiao Wei said, "You just need to raise the pigs, and first of all, you have to guarantee the supply to our restaurant. That's the first thing. Secondly, how to sell the pigs, who to sell them to, and how much to pay is up to us. To put it bluntly, you just need to raise the pigs well, and we'll handle everything else. If you make a profit, you can take half of it back with you."

After doing some calculations, Boss An asked, "What about manpower? We definitely can't manage to support four people like this. We'll have to split the workload between the two groups."

Xiao Wei said, "Just hire them. They'll pay you a monthly salary, and you'll be in charge of everything at the pig farm."

The boss slowly nodded while smoking, then turned and called out after a moment, "Lei Zi, Lei Zi, come out here."

The boss's son, wiping his hands, came out from behind and asked, "What are you doing?"

Boss An pointed at the group of guys and said, "They want to set up two big pig farms so we can close this shop and focus solely on pig farming. They'll give us half the shares. Do you think it's feasible?"

Lei Zi asked, "How do I raise it?"

Boss An said, "We'll still use the slag. We don't care if others mess it up. We don't need to worry about selling it; we just need to take care of maintaining it properly."

Lei Zi turned his head and asked, "Is there a market for it? Retail sales in the market definitely won't work."

Xiao Wei said, "Sales are not a problem. Two or three hundred pigs are not many. It would be good if we could supply them. In the future, we might have to expand."

There will be more tonight, I'll take a nap.

(End of this chapter)