“Master, is there a problem with my dad’s medicine? This was all prescribed by the best doctors at the county hospital. My dad said it’s been quite effective and he hasn’t had a recurrence of his chronic illness lately.”
Old Sir He lifted his head to look at her.
Lin Chuxia blinked guiltily, as she was thinking of how to gloss over the issue, Old Sir He rewrapped the medicine package, “The medicine is good, keep taking it. You could also use some Chinese medicine for conditioning. If you’re interested in that, I can write you a prescription later.”
Lin Chuxia let out a sigh of relief and smiled, “That’s great. If you could write a prescription, I’ll get the medicine according to it later.”
Old Sir He looked at her intently, “No hurry, you can come to my place to get the prescription tomorrow.”
For some reason, Lin Chuxia felt that there was more to his words.
After dinner and a chat, it was getting late. Mrs. Qin asked Qin Han to take Old Master He back home.
The family watched Old Master He leave, and Lin Chuxia gazed at the moon above, seemingly in a trance. It seemed like a long time since she had seen such a beautiful moon.
Mrs. Qin, thinking she was preoccupied, sighed, “It would be nice if Yangyang was home,” on such a Mid-Autumn Festival when families reunite, yet the two of them were still apart.
Lin Chuxia came back to her senses and smiled at Mrs. Qin, “Qin Yang has a special job, and he is very responsible, so he can’t come back easily. Don’t worry, we write to each other often. I’m thinking of visiting him for his birthday at the end of this month.”
Upon hearing this, Mrs. Qin’s face brightened with joy, “You’re going to see Yangyang? That’s good, it’s the same whether he comes back or you go there. I haven’t celebrated Yangyang’s birthday for many years. It’s the first year of your marriage, if you could celebrate his birthday with him, he’d definitely be happy.”
Can a mother not know her own son?
She claims she doesn’t need a daughter-in-law, but after finally getting one, his reluctant gaze when leaving home said it all. God knows what he’s been thinking for these past months at work.
“Mom, keep this a secret, let’s not tell Qin Yang. I’ll surprise him when the time comes.”
Mrs. Qin clapped her hands and laughed, “Okay, I won’t tell him,” how could she possibly spoil it when her daughter-in-law holds her son so dear.
Although it was Mid-Autumn Festival today, Mrs. Qin had a knot in her heart the whole day, which now had finally been untied.
Urging Lin Chuxia to go back to sleep, she happily went to her room to speak with her husband.
…
A few days after Mid-Autumn Festival, a meat grinder was delivered from the machinery factory.
This machine was manufactured according to the blueprints provided by Lin Chuxia, yet with some differences.
“Our director said to let you try it first to see if there’s anything lacking, and we’ll make improvements based on your feedback,” the young master who delivered the machine told Lin Chuxia.
Lin Chuxia inspected the structure of the machine; her blueprints had been very basic, and there were indeed many improvements to the machine.
“Third Brother, get some fresh meat. Brother Su, power up the machine.”
Su Wensong, Sun Bingnan, and Pang Yongli gathered around when the machine was being moved in.
Currently, the stuffing for the cooked food and buns in the shop depended on these three men. Hearing that it was an electric meat grinder, all three of them were filled with anticipation.
At Lin Chuxia’s command, Sun Bingnan loudly acknowledged and went to the back kitchen to fetch a large piece of pork belly with a mix of fat and lean meat.
Su Wensong placed the machine near the power outlet and plugged it in.
The pork belly was skinned and cut into smaller pieces, then after powering on the machine, directly fed into the funnel.
As the motor spun, the minced meat came out from the bottom of the machine.
“This is great, this really is fantastic.”
Sun Bingnan’s joy was evident in his expression. He had grown tired of chopping meat recently.
Not only was the work tiring and monotonous, but with a meat grinder, he would be relieved, and the shop’s operations would greatly reduce.
Lin Chuxia picked up a piece of the minced meat with chopsticks for inspection and then stood up straight to address the young master, “The machine is fine; we’ll keep this one. Please tell Director Xu to rush the remaining two as fast as possible.”
“Sure, I will relay the message to Director Xu.”
With the meat grinder, the work in the shop became much easier.
After the Mid-Autumn Festival, their cooked food business had already made a name for itself. Many people were committed to buying from Qin’s Cooked Food, even if it meant cycling several kilometers. The demand for varieties of cooked food was increasing, so Lin Chuxia decided to add soy-sauce beef and smoked chicken to the offerings.
The soy-sauce beef raw material was easy to source; the meat market under the meat union not only provided pork but also beef and lamb.
However, since the smoked chicken required whole chickens, Lin Chuxia decided to visit a chicken farm near Ancheng County.
This task was assigned to Sun Bingnan.
Sun Bingnan was familiar with Ancheng County, and he was also sharp-witted. Allowing him to negotiate this matter was also a test Lin Chuxia set for him.
Her requirements were clear: a stable long-term partnership with guaranteed quality and quantity of whole chickens, and importantly, they had to provide processed white-cut chickens.
Most of the whole chickens sold in the city were live chickens. If they had to process them themselves, that would be too laborious and occupy too much manpower.
Sun Bingnan took this matter seriously. Having been in charge of procurement for the Bun Shop for a long time, other shop operations were always handled by Lin Chuxia and Su Wensong.
Now, it was finally his turn to be involved, and he wanted to show his capabilities to Lin Chuxia.
In less than three days, he had visited several chicken farms around Ancheng County and ultimately fixed on one with a medium-sized individual operation.
At this time, individual businesses were competing with state enterprises for a living. To get ahead, they needed to tackle the details and undertake tasks that others looked down upon.
With that in mind, this farm was quite in line with Lin Chuxia’s requirements.
Lin Chuxia went to check it out personally and was rather satisfied. After negotiations, both parties signed a contract.
When Lin Chuxia brought out the contract, the other party hesitated for a moment, since at that time contracts were not commonly used as a form of agreement, and signing a contract felt like signing away one’s livelihood.
Lin Chuxia’s contract was very explicit, not only binding the chicken farm to provide qualified products on time but also binding her to not refuse the products provided by the chicken farm without good reason.
Once she explained this, the chicken farm owner had an epiphany.
They were providing white-cut chickens, not live chickens. If the other party went back on the deal due to poor business, dead chickens cannot be brought back to life.
Then it dawned on him that the contract was very necessary.
“Boss Lin has really thought things through. Rest assured, we’ll abide by the requirements of the contract and will not delay your business.”
“It’s because I trust Boss Shi that we can reach this cooperation,” Lin Chuxia replied.
Once a contract is signed, she can trust anyone. If the other party breaches the contract, they will compensate according to the terms. What does trust or distrust matter then?
After signing the contract, Lin Chuxia asked Sun Bingnan to return to the Bun Shop, and she herself went to the machinery factory.