Rebirth at 82: Starting from Selling Braised Food Outside the Movie Theater

When the leaders came to Qin Wanshan's home to solve his problems, Qin's mother, as his mother, naturally had to accompany him.

However, Qin's mother was very good at knowing her place and did not use her status as a mother to boss people around. Apart from adding tea and water, she sat quietly next to Qin Wanshan with a smile on her face, occasionally nodding in agreement with everyone.

After enduring this torment for a full hour, once the sound of leather shoes completely disappeared from the alleyway, Qin's mother pulled Qin Wanshan and rushed home, slamming the door shut with a loud bang, her voice trembling uncontrollably.

"Did you really sign and put your fingerprint on the loan documents just now? Did you really borrow a thousand yuan in one go?"

Before Qin Wanshan could answer, tears welled up in Qin's mother's eyes, and her tense, slightly shrill voice rang out again.

"Wanshan, do you even know how much a thousand yuan is?"

A thousand dollars is enough to build a three-story red brick house with a yard in the suburbs, and even furnish it.

Your older brother Jianghe only earns a little over forty yuan a month, including bonuses. He would have to save up this thousand yuan for two whole years without eating or drinking. Two years!

Mom doesn't deny that your braised food stall is doing quite well these days, but business is like that, good one day and bad the next. Once this boom is over, you'll be lucky to earn ten yuan a day.

Even if I could earn ten yuan a day, it would still take me almost half a year to pay off this loan!

As Qin's mother spoke, she grew angrier and angrier, shifting her focus from Qin Wanshan to the group of people from earlier.

"And that factory! A factory of more than 200 square meters! We can put our few iron pots in a big yard, why give them to such a big factory?"

And what about that supposedly leading thirty unemployed youths to start their own businesses? How could they even bring themselves to say that?

Why don't you just take care of all two hundred-plus unemployed youths in our area all at once...?

Inside the house, Qin's mother was still wailing, while outside, just a wall away, Aunt Hua was frozen under the window, clutching a handful of unwashed edamame.

Aunt Hua lived in the same courtyard as Qin Wanshan. After picking up the ingredients from the neighborhood office, she still had to come back to the public water tap to clean and process them.

Just now, a large group of commune and street leaders dressed in Zhongshan suits and carrying black leather bags came to the Qin family's house. They sat there for a long time and talked for a full hour. Finally, they all left with happy faces and light steps.

Aunt Hua's curiosity, which had been nagging at her for over an hour, was already raging. The moment the leaders left, she rushed to Qin Wanshan's house, eager to find out what was going on.

Before they even had a chance to knock on the door, they heard such explosive news.

Aunt Hua couldn't hold back and listen to the whole story. When she heard that a thousand yuan had been borrowed, she gasped and took a few steps back. She didn't dare to listen to another word or linger at the door. She turned around and rushed back to the public water basin, pretending to be nonchalant as she continued washing the ingredients.

Aunt Hua was sitting in the bowl of edamame, but her thoughts were still swirling around the words "one thousand yuan loan." Her hands had been soaking in the water for a long time, but she couldn't rub a single bean out of the bowl. Her face was fluctuating between pale and flushed.

Several women nearby noticed that her expression was off, so they immediately draped a rag over the edge of the basin and started asking her what was wrong.

"Sister Hua, did you find out some big news when you went to the Qin family's door? Why do you look so lost and confused?"

Aunt Hua's lips moved, as if she wanted to say "it's nothing," but the words "one thousand yuan" were like a fishbone stuck in her throat, and she couldn't swallow them down.

After glancing around, Aunt Hua lowered her voice to a whisper and gestured "one" to everyone.

"I overheard it at the Qin family's door. There were bank people among that group; they approved a loan of 1,000 yuan for my in-laws' second son!"

The moment the words left her lips, the area around the tap fell into a deathly silence. Seven or eight women simultaneously stopped what they were doing and turned to look at Aunt Hua, gasps rising and falling in unison.

Meanwhile, inside the Qin family's house.

After Qin's mother had vented all her pent-up complaints, worries, and resentment, and her tense emotions finally eased, Qin Wanshan handed her a cup of tea before slowly speaking.

However, Qin Wanshan did not answer any of his mother's questions. Instead, he asked her a question in return.

"Mom, do you know how much money my stall made yesterday?"

Qin's mother had no idea what Qin Wanshan was up to, and after hesitating for a long time, she carefully brought out a number.

"Business was really good yesterday, I estimate I made... sixty or seventy dollars?"

Qin Wanshan didn't speak, but instead held up four fingers to his mother.

These four fingers, like nine wooden wedges, pinned down the tangled mess in Qin's mother's mind, finally allowing her to regain her voice. Her voice trembled as she asked, "You earned... four hundred yuan?!"

"The income was over 410 yuan. After deducting costs and expenses, the net profit was 324.92 yuan."

Upon hearing this, Qin's mother slid her hand down from the edge of the table and placed it on her knee. She glanced at Qin Wanshan, lowered her head, and after a few breaths, she raised her head again, her brows furrowed with worry once more.

"But this is just thanks to the newspapers; at most, it'll only be lively for two or three days before it all falls apart."

"I won't go into other things, but just take that claim of creating jobs for thirty unemployed youths in three months. Even state-owned factories wouldn't dare guarantee that. Do you, a self-employed individual, think you're more capable than a state-owned factory?!"

"Mom, you have to believe me. How could I agree to something if I wasn't sure?"

Immediately, Qin Wanshan leaned close to his mother's ear and whispered the entire plan to her.

Qin's mother received far too much information today. First, she was entrusted with cleaning the ingredients to the neighborhood committee, then there was the 3,000 yuan loan, then the shop in the commercial district, then the 500-square-meter factory, and then the solution to the employment problem of 30 unemployed youths.

Finally, with the plan Qin Wanshan mentioned, Qin's mother's mind was already in complete chaos, and she temporarily lost her ability to think, so she could only act according to Qin Wanshan's requirements.

Qin's mother returned to the tap, rinsed the basin of freshly boiled eggs with cold water, deftly tapped them against the rim of the basin, and gently broke them with both hands. The eggshells snapped off, and the tender white eggs fell into another basin.

In no time, Qin's mother had peeled four or five eggs. However, the women around her, who were already distracted, kept glancing at Qin's mother after she arrived.

The group looked at each other, their expressions a lively display of suspicion, each trying to urge the other to ask for clarification. In the end, it was Aunt Hua who couldn't resist speaking first.

"Guihua, I was just about to ask Wanshan something when I got to your window and overheard something..."

Aunt Hua met Qin's mother's gaze, pursed her lips, and then lowered her voice to continue speaking.

"I heard Wanshan borrowed 1,000 yuan, is that true?"

Upon hearing this, Qin's mother paused in her peeling motion, her gaze sweeping across the faces of everyone present before she managed a weak smile and nodded, saying, "It's true."

Before anyone could gasp, Qin's mother straightened up, tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, and her earlier panic and helplessness transformed into composure.

"They not only approved a low-interest loan of 1,000 yuan for my business, but also allocated a standard factory building of more than 200 square meters, plus a 20-square-meter storefront in a street-side commercial area, specifically for Wanshan to process braised food and open a shop."

Upon hearing this, the crowd erupted in uproar. Some thought Qin's mother was talking nonsense, some asked for specific details, and others rolled their eyes for a long time before lowering their voices to ask if Qin Wanshan had hooked up with the daughter of some big leader.

No matter what the others said, Qin's mother remained silent. Only after they had finished talking, were tired, and could no longer speak did she slowly begin to speak again.

"You've all tasted Wanshan's braised food skills, so I don't need to praise them further. Since the stall opened these past few days, business has been booming day by day. It's really busy and tiring, but you can still earn three to five yuan a day."

The conversation started suddenly and had nothing to do with what we had been talking about, but the phrase "you can earn three to five yuan a day" still attracted Aunt Hua and the others.

"Three to five yuan a day, that adds up to over a hundred yuan a month!" Aunt Hua's voice suddenly rose a beat. "That's higher than the wages of many factory leaders, could it be...?"

"If you don't believe me, try it yourselves and you'll see," Qin's mother interrupted calmly.

"I don't have that skill," Aunt Hua said, shaking her head.

"You may not have it, but my Wanshan family does!"

"Do you expect me to have your Wanshan cook braised dishes for me so I can sell them?"

Aunt Hua blurted out this remark without thinking, and as soon as she spoke, the other aunties around her burst into laughter.

Amidst the laughter, Qin's mother nodded.

"That's the idea. Wanshan will make the braised dishes well and sell them to you at wholesale prices. You can decide for yourself how much to sell and where to sell them."

"All the profits are yours, and any losses are none of Wanshan's business. You are solely responsible for your own profits and losses..."

"..."