Chapter 45: Second Update

Lin Xuexia recruited Xue Lingjun as a new employee. Once Xue Xiaoshan brought his younger sister over, Lin Xuexia introduced Xue Lingjun to Zhao Hairu and the others right at the stall.

"Aunt Zhao, right now you are the only experienced veteran. In the future, please guide these two newcomers well, and I will make sure they listen to you," Lin Xuexia said to Zhao Hairu with a smile.

Zhao Hairu was overjoyed. "I will definitely teach them well! Lingjun, my dear, come over here. Call me auntie too, and whatever I teach you to do, you just do it."

Xue Lingjun nodded.

Lin Xuexia had them engage in simple communication and cooperation. Since the current headcount was still small, the division of labor was not yet strictly defined. In fact, Lin Xuexia planned to divide them into two pairs, forming a simple sales department and a simple production department.

Undoubtedly, she herself belonged to the production department and also served as the management supervisor, while Zhao Hairu was assigned to the sales department.

Of course, talking about a production and sales division of labor for an ordinary street stall might sound a bit far-fetched, but such a division was absolutely necessary. As the boss, she could not possibly shoulder production, sales, and management all by herself; she had to assign specific people to specific tasks.

Take Zhao Hairu, for instance. Lin Xuexia positioned her in the sales role. On the surface, Zhao Hairu might look like an ordinary middle-aged woman with little education and no special skills, but she was warm, cheerful, and could strike up a chat with anyone. The moment she was recruited, she enthusiastically helped Lin Xuexia spread the word and brought in many customers, proving she had genuine sales talent.

Lin Xuexia intended to encourage her to develop further in this direction and earn commissions on sales in the shop in the future.

As for Chen Miaorong and Xue Lingjun, Lin Xuexia had not yet decided what they were best suited for, so she was currently observing them.

Chen Miaorong seemed to genuinely enjoy dealing with customers, selling goods, and keeping accounts, which was the exact opposite of Lin Xuexia's initial expectation; Lin Xuexia had originally hoped she could help watch the fire and cook the braised meat.

After helping Xue Lingjun get acquainted with the others, Lin Xuexia took her to the market to choose vegetables and buy meat. The two of them pushed a cart—a cargo trolley Lin Xuexia had "borrowed" from Fu Wei yesterday—which was the absolute best tool for marketing and purchasing ingredients.

Lin Xuexia had also ordered a freezer, which had already been delivered to the newly rented storefront that morning. The merchant said it could be plugged in and used by evening. After buying the freezer, the money in Lin Xuexia's hands was once again reduced to very little.

She led Xue Lingjun in selecting ingredients and explained the various preparation methods for each one. Once they arrived at the "back kitchen"—which was the newly rented storefront on the ground floor—Lin Xuexia taught her how to wash vegetables and make cold dishes. She had prepared many seasoning packets in advance and taught Xue Lingjun how to use them, down to how many grams of water and spices to match with every gram of ingredient.

Xue Lingjun learned very earnestly and rather rigidly, but the cold dishes she made were already up to standard. Of course, making these was not a difficult skill to begin with, and Lin Xuexia had never intended to keep the cold dish recipe a secret anyway; no matter how delicious it was made, it was not worth much money.

"Lingjun, you are so smart and capable!" Lin Xuexia gave her a thumbs-up.

Xue Lingjun's cheeks flushed slightly, her eyes gleamed, and she lowered her head with a hint of shyness, not daring to meet Lin Xuexia's gaze.

This was the first time anyone had ever praised her like this.

Had she really done a good job?

Lin Xuexia then taught her how to marinate and braise meat. With Xue Lingjun assisting her by her side, Lin Xuexia felt much more relaxed. However, with two people working together, they could produce even more braised meat every day, and she worried that supply might exceed demand and the stall wouldn't be able to sell it all.

At this location, they could sell at most three to four hundred meals a day. It wasn't some rare exotic delicacy with a far-flung reputation that would make people travel thousands of miles to taste it.

If one lacked ambition and just wanted to run such a small-scale business, it was naturally viable, earning a few thousand yuan a month—that was the upper limit.

If she wanted to make more money, she would have to hire people to increase production, and then hire more people to drive sales. Of course, haste makes waste; one had to take things step by step.

When the money in her hands accumulated further, she would open her first fast-food restaurant, starting simple and later expanding into high-end dining establishments and banquet halls.

Seeing that Xue Lingjun performed quite well, Lin Xuexia planned to train her first so that when she took some time off to return to her hometown, she could prepare and portion out all the various sauces and seasonings to leave behind, letting Xue Lingjun hold down the "back kitchen" here.

"You can help out in the back kitchen from now on, Lingjun. You learn very fast!"

After processing the ingredients, Lin Xuexia prepared forty to fifty boxed lunches specifically for Fu Wei's side, having Fu Wei's workers load them into several foam insulation boxes on a cargo cart and deliver them over.

Fu Wei had said that making a dozen or so would be enough, but Lin Xuexia thought that making only a dozen would show a complete lack of social grace—being petty and stingy. Sending more was always better than sending less.

"Brother Wei, these are the lunches the sister-in-law had someone deliver over." The worker helping to deliver the meals rubbed his nose. He really couldn't hold it back; he looked on with eager eyes, wanting so badly to eat. Lin Xuexia had shoved a portion into his hands and told him to eat before leaving, but he had felt too embarrassed and rushed over to deliver the food instead.

He had watched the boxed lunches being packed; there was so much meat inside, and it smelled so good! There were even eggs!

Fu Wei took a boxed lunch for himself. Knowing his future wife was delivering meals at noon, he had specially rushed back to check on the progress. "Take the rest and distribute them among the brothers. How many portions are there? See if it's enough."

"Forty to fifty portions."

Fu Wei was surprised. "So many?"

This silly girl, could she possibly be planning to give them two portions each?

The boxed lunches were handed out one by one. Many workers didn't think much of it when they first received theirs. Working on construction sites nowadays, many places provided meals, but they were basically just green vegetables and tofu with the occasional speck of meat—definitely not something that could be called delicious.

Some workers who had spent a year or two on large factory projects had dedicated worker cafeterias, but ordinary decoration workers did not have meals provided. Occasionally, if they were treated to a meal by the homeowners, it was just a simple stir-fry.

Therefore, when many of them opened their lunchboxes at this moment, they found fragrant, warm braised meat inside. The sauce was rich in color, poured over rice that was soaked in savory gravies. Although the gravy was dark, it was completely free of that tongue-numbing, bitter saltiness, and its aroma immediately stimulated one's appetite.

Among these boxed lunches were char siu pork rice, braised beef rice, and braised pork belly rice, with the char siu and braised pork belly being the most popular.

"This is too delicious! I love this pickled vegetable. How do they make the pickled vegetables that go with the rice? It's so good!"

"You... you really don't appreciate good food. With so much meat, you don't praise that, but instead obsessed over pickled vegetables."

"The side dishes that come with this are truly amazing. My portion has sweet and spicy shredded kelp, and I am utterly in love with this flavor. Where can I buy shredded kelp by itself in the future?"

...

After the boxed lunches were distributed, there were still quite a few left over. Fu Wei finished his own lunch, took the remaining twenty to thirty portions to a self-built housing construction site nearby, and told the workers there to take and share them.

"Anyone who was too busy earlier and didn't get a chance to eat can come and get a share."

After finishing that delivery, Fu Wei went to the next site, continuing until every single boxed lunch was given away.

The moment he sat down on his motorcycle, his pager received a message from Jiang Shengan, another small engineering contractor:

"Boss Fu, where did you buy these boxed lunches?"

Fu Wei used a landline telephone to reply: My wife made them. Do you want to buy some?

The other side replied: "Call me back."

Fu Wei got in touch with Jiang Shengan, who complained, "Boss Fu, you really should buy a big-brick mobile phone..."

"Speak your mind." Once he made a bit more money, Fu Wei planned to buy a mobile phone and get a pager for his wife as well.

Jiang Shengan asked, "Are those boxed lunches really made by your wife? They are so damn good! I tasted a few bites, and the flavor suits me to a T. Is it really your wife who made them? I thought you bought them somewhere and wanted to go buy them from the same place. If it's really your wife who makes them, I almost felt too embarrassed to ask."

"What's there to be embarrassed about? Cash on delivery. My wife already runs a shop selling boxed lunches; if you want to order any, you can place your order with me in advance."

"Meat and vegetables included, one yuan and fifty cents a portion."

One yuan and fifty cents a portion? Jiang Shengan paused for a moment. Thinking of the portion size, quality, and taste of that meat and those vegetables, he thought it was quite a bargain. He had originally intended to spend a bit of money to treat the workers to a better meal, but now it seemed it wouldn't cost much at all.

Even buying fifty boxed lunches would only cost seventy-five yuan. If he took fifty people out to a restaurant, ten people to a table, what kind of meal could you get for fifteen yuan a table? A single meat dish would cost at least two or three yuan; serving a table of food worth fifteen yuan to a bunch of grown men—wouldn't that look utterly pathetic and stingy?

Boxed lunches certainly couldn't be considered high-end dining, but the braised pork rice tasted delicious and was cheap. Spending a little money to improve the workers' welfare was cheaper than going to a restaurant, and it earned him a good reputation. Why not?

"Alright then, bring fifty portions to my side tomorrow noon."

Fu Wei agreed.

That evening, Fu Wei met Lin Xuexia and told her about someone wanting to order boxed lunches. Lin Xuexia was very happy to hear this, not expecting such an unexpected windfall. "Comrade Fu, you are so capable! It just so happens that your future wife—me—went broke again buying a freezer."

Mentioning this, Lin Xuexia couldn't help but feel a bit melancholy. It seemed that every time the money in her hands broke the thousand-yuan mark, it would all get spent immediately, and now she only had two or three hundred yuan left.

"My wife went broke again? Then when will you ever be able to afford a pager?" Fu Wei held back a laugh.

Lin Xuexia kicked his calf a few times. "You're this happy that I went broke? Are you a class enemy?"

"Whenever you go broke, just mortgage everything you own to me."

Fu Wei smiled and pulled her into his arms. After the two of them playfully wrestled for a bit, Lin Xuexia talked to him seriously: "If anyone asks you to order boxed lunches, you can accept the orders for me, but cap it at a maximum of one hundred portions a day. Any more than that and we can't manage it right now."

"Got it."

Lin Xuexia looked up at him and asked, "When will you have time? I'm planning to head back to my hometown in a few days to figure out how to transfer my household registration. We—"

"We'll get our marriage license!" Fu Wei stared into her eyes and said with unwavering certainty.