She then addressed everyone else, “Brother Su, later on, distribute some of the cooked food from the pot. It has been a tough day, and it’s all thanks to everyone’s efforts that our cooked dishes sold so well on the very first day. This food is a reward for everyone.”
When Lin Chuxia finished speaking, everyone was polite in their words, but they were genuinely delighted inside.
Especially Pang Yongli and Ma Yingzi, who had been jobless since returning to the city and had little savings. To save money, they had been eating cornmeal, with one pancake split into three meals, and only their child could eat wheat flour, meat had not been touched for a month.
Now they not only had salaries, but the shop provided lunch every day with white flour buns, and today they even got some meat to take home to satisfy their son’s cravings. They hadn’t dared to dream of such good days.
At that moment, both of them unanimously decided to work hard. The boss wasn’t stingy, and they knew they had to give a lot more to reciprocate the kindness of their employer.
After arranging the work at the Bun Shop in the afternoon, Lin Chuxia returned to the small courtyard.
Now in the courtyard, she had a separate office all to herself. She took out paper and started drawing plans from memory.
She had surveyed the market, and currently, the small meat grinders available were all manual. The electric ones were only the large types used in food factories, which were unaffordable and unfit for use in their Bun Shop.
She urgently needed a domestic electric meat grinder. Since it was unavailable in the market, she had to come up with a solution herself.
Busy with this task until a voice distracted her; it was Sun Lanlan’s voice in the courtyard. She then put down her pen.
It was already dark.
Sun Lanlan and Sun Bingnan had finished work and returned to the courtyard for rest, where their dormitory was located. Seeing the light in Lin Chuxia’s office, Sun Lanlan knocked and came in.
“Why haven’t you left? It’s already dark and you haven’t had dinner, have you? We were just about to cook some noodles, come eat with us.”
Lin Chuxia hadn’t realized it was so late and, being alone for dinner if she went back, accepted their invitation and ate dinner with the Sun siblings.
Just after dinner, the room suddenly went dark—it was a power outage.
Electricity supply was still underdeveloped in the country, and even cities experienced outages. It was normal in rural areas, where power was stable only during holidays.
This was exactly why many small household appliances couldn’t become popular.
With high costs and restricted use, Lin Chuxia knew this situation would soon improve.
The street lights went out too, and everything outside was pitch black. Sun Bingnan quickly volunteered to walk Lin Chuxia back home.
Lin Chuxia didn’t refuse; in such darkness, she wasn’t afraid of people—she could defend herself against bad intentions, but was wary of something other than humans.
She wasn’t an atheist; after all, she herself was a reborn person.
Before they reached Qin Family Village, they encountered Qin Han who had come to meet her.
After saying goodbye to Sun Bingnan, Lin Chuxia thanked Qin Han, “Big brother, you’ve worked hard in the fields all day too. You needn’t have come specifically to pick me up. The people at the shop are very nice, and if it’s too late, they would have escorted me.”
Qin Han shone his flashlight on the departing figure, confirming it was a man, his expression a bit somber.
Turning back to Lin Chuxia with a smile, he said, “I’d just be idly sitting at home anyway, it’s kind of refreshing to take a walk.”
He thought to himself – exactly because people in the shop are too kind, it makes one anxious. As the saying goes, unsolicited favors mean ill-intentions or betrayal. A weasel paying respects to a chicken is up to no good.
With the shop staff being so earnest, he had to step up. If by the next time his brother got back, what if his wife had been lured away?
His brother had asked him to take care of the family before he left; he couldn’t just lose someone.
But as an uncle, he really couldn’t express these concerns directly to his sister-in-law, nor did he know what exactly his brother wrote back to her, or if he had stressed anything particularly.
This was truly worrisome.
Lin Chuxia didn’t know Qin Han was secretly worrying, and asked about the situation in the fields.
Qin Han also narrated everything one by one. The eggplants were ready for transplanting, and the green beans could still hold on for a bit longer. Recently, the price of green beans had risen a little, so they just needed to deliver to the vegetable station every day and it wasn’t too busy in the fields anymore.
He also talked about the plans for the fields. They, as farmers, relied on the land for food, and normally wouldn’t leave the fields fallow. However, Qin Han wasn’t sure what to plant next; under the market economy, he had no idea what would be profitable.
Especially this latter half of the year, which had diminished their confidence in farming to almost none.
Lin Chuxia listened, and it was not until they reached the front door of the house that she suddenly said, “My Bun Shop business is on the right track now. After Mid-Autumn Festival, I want to open another branch in the county.”
…
It wasn’t until they entered the house that Qin Han was still pondering Lin Chuxia’s words. Seeing his son had fallen asleep, he woke his wife up.
“Help me analyze, what does little sister mean by this?”
He repeated Lin Chuxia’s exact words.
Zhang Guilan was silent for a moment before asking him, “Do you still want to do business?”
Qin Han scratched his head, “Who doesn’t want to do business? But as you said, Dad alone can’t manage so many fields, and we don’t have the knack for business,” mentioning that not everyone has the skills and capabilities like some siblings.
Zhang Guilan also knew that if it weren’t for her intervention, her husband would have long been involved in the Bun Shop business with his younger sister.
“When all the vegetables in the fields are done, let’s just plant wheat.”
“All wheat?” Qin Han was puzzled, “How much yield can that bring?”
Even if vegetables were not valuable, they shouldn’t just give up like that. What if they got lucky?
Their land was limited, growing grain wouldn’t earn much money.
“Aren’t you thinking of joining little sister in her business? When little sister opens a branch, she will definitely need manpower. Let’s go with little sister and sell buns, I will talk to her when the time comes.”
Zhang Guilan was aware that her little sister-in-law had said this to see their reactions.
But since they had declined the initial invitation, even if the little sister-in-law was still interested, she couldn’t repeat what she had said back then.
What if they were still unwilling? There needs to be some face-saving among siblings, right?
Hearing his wife’s words, Qin Han suddenly saw the light, “Alright, let’s do that.”
He smiled, showing a big white grin, a smile of genuine joy.
……
The next day, Lin Chuxia watched several people clean the offal in the small courtyard, watched them put it into the pots, personally added all sorts of seasonings, and explained the fire control to them again.
Of course, when adding seasonings, besides her secret seasoning packet, she did not withhold any information regarding when and how much of the other seasonings to add.
She couldn’t always keep an eye on this aspect, she trusted Su Wensong, but even if Pang Yongli and his wife Ma Yingzi mastered the technique of cooking ready-to-eat meals, they couldn’t replicate their flavor without her secret seasoning packet.
This was her magic weapon for success in her past life and the foundation of her prosperity in this life.
The seasoning packet contained powder already processed, and even with precise instruments, one could not discern what seasonings were included or the quantities used.
In her space, these kinds of seasoning packets filled a basement, and as she used them, the space would automatically replenish, saving Lin Chuxia a lot of trouble.
After arranging everything, Lin Chuxia returned to her office. She shuffled through the clothes in her space and pulled out a set of understated professional attire, paired with a white shirt.