Annie came to visit Jiang Ruyu and brought her a lot of things. Jiang Ruyu didn't know when Annie would leave or whether she would go to other places for inspection, so she could only prepare the gifts she had prepared in advance.

There were handkerchiefs she had embroidered herself, which she had bought herself by walking around the streets and alleys; a piece of silk embroidered fabric; dairy products from the northern grasslands; felt, blankets, and scarves from there; and finally, beef that Jiang Ruyu had specially braised for Annie.

It was delivered to the State Guest Hotel where Annie was staying and handed over to Annie's assistant, but Annie was not there.

Life went on in an orderly fashion, and more and more people started their own businesses. Jiang Ruyu's business was still doing very well because her prices were fair. As long as the price of raw materials didn't go up, she wouldn't raise her prices. Also, because the food tasted great, she didn't add any random ingredients, and she never sold leftovers, her reputation grew.

Moreover, Jiang Ruyu is not static. At first, she only sold head, tail and internal organs. Later, she gradually added braised beef, poached chicken, and even developed her own way of eating seafood cold dishes after seeing many ways of eating seafood in Guangcheng.

It involves soaking cooked seafood in a prepared sauce until it's fully infused with flavor. Jiang Ruyu named this dish "Laozhi Seafood" (literally "Seafood in Sauce"). (Hehe, don't scold me.)

This dish requires fresh seafood, but their local area is not very close to the sea, so sourcing the seafood is a big problem.

Because of this, Zheng Yang had the idea of ​​starting his own business, but since it's difficult to own trucks now, let alone refrigerated trucks that can transport live seafood, he had to put his mind to it for the time being.

Because of the long queues every day, Jiang Ruyu opened her first branch at the end of the year. The shop is located on Nanluoguxiang Street. This time, the shop is rented, and the annual rent is 300 yuan. The layout of the rented shop is the same as that on Xidajie Street. She doesn't plan to expand the business too much; she just wants to slowly accumulate funds.

In September 1982, Jiang Hui and Han Ling had already graduated. Jiang Hui went to work at a research institute, and after a few years, he would most likely teach at the university. Han Ling also stayed on to teach at the university on the recommendation of her teacher.

They were assigned a house right on the campus of Yenching University, which gave them more time to take care of their children. Jiang Ruyu entrusted her children to Jiang Hui and Han Ling and prepared to go abroad with Zheng Yang.

Zheng Yang resigned. After returning to China this time, he will probably do something else first. Jiang Ruyu's main purpose in going there this time is to see how business is done abroad. She also wants to learn something different.

Upon arriving in Anne's country, Anne settled in Los Angeles, the second largest city. Anne's home was a very large estate. She had two children, both daughters, who were currently in school and had no husband.

Jiang Ruyu and Zheng Yang spent a month abroad. Jiang Ruyu had already found what she wanted to do next, and so had Zheng Yang.

After returning, Zheng Yang obtained several military trucks that had been phased out by the army through Jiang Lin and Jiang Tao. He then brought along Hu Bei and a fellow transport team member who also wanted to start his own business. Together, they opened the first privately owned transport team in Yanjing City.

Zheng Yang knows all the major factories in Yanjing in the transportation industry. After all, he has been in the business for seventeen or eighteen years. Moreover, state-owned factories are showing signs of decline. However, they dare not close down easily because they are related to the livelihoods of tens of thousands of employees.

Zheng Yang started by running back and forth between neighboring cities to place small orders. Later, Jiang Ruyu reminded him to try running south. Even if there were no orders, he could bring some goods available in the south to the north to sell and make a profit from the price difference.

Zheng Yang followed the advice and first went to Yancheng, which is not far from Beijing, to bring back a truckload of various seafood. He did not sell it himself, but instead found a vendor near Xidan Department Store and sold it to him at 20% more than the total price he paid, making only a quick profit for himself.

Taking advantage of the lower temperatures, he also went to the south and brought back a lot of local fruits to sell here. In the early stages, the number of orders was small and there were few customers. If they wanted to make money, they could only bring back some local specialties when the truck was empty, trying to earn enough to cover the fuel costs.

As for Jiang Ruyu, she was preparing to do something big. Over the past two years, her shop had earned her two tens of thousands of yuan, which was quite a lot of money at the time.

What was she planning to do? Jiang Ruyu visited many industries in Anne's country, and the place that interested her the most was called the shopping mall. That place was really eye-catching.

It sells everything; it's practically a treasure trove. In that place called a shopping mall, you can buy whatever you need in one stop.

However, as good as it is, the cost is too high and she doesn't have that much money, so she can only do it on a small scale first.

Jiang Ruyu spotted a three-story building in People's Square. It used to be a dance hall, a place for government officials to hold meetings or relax before the reform and opening up. Now it was empty, and Jiang Ruyu wanted to rent it.

She asked Liu Xiangxiang for help and found out that the annual rent here is only 800 yuan. She didn't know why it was so cheap because the location was excellent and the three-story building was quite spacious.

According to Liu Xiangxiang, this is a preferential policy given by the government to support individual entrepreneurs. Jiang Ruyu knew that Liu Xiangxiang would not lie to her, and after thinking about it, she decided to bring Liu Xiangxiang, who had some connections with both her own family and her husband's family, along with her.

"Xiangxiang, how about we go all out for something big?"

Jiang Ruyu's tone was tempting. Liu Xiangxiang had long wanted to do something on her own, and now that Jiang Ruyu had extended an olive branch, she took it: "If you're interested, tell me about it."

Jiang Ruyu showed her her ideas and a simple plan, which made Liu Xiangxiang look at with some doubt: "Isn't this just a general store?"

Jiang Ruyu rolled her eyes: "What do you mean by a general store? I'd call it Carrefour Supermarket. There are many such stores abroad. It's like a one-stop shop for all your shopping needs: food, drinks, clothes, household goods, fresh produce, daily necessities, rice, flour, and cooking oil. But I have limited savings, so I can't go all out. I can only start with a few items. I'm thinking of clothing, home textiles, fruits, seafood, vegetables, poultry, and meat. Just think about it, if there's a place like that, wouldn't anyone come?"

Liu Xiangxiang thought about Jiang Ruyu's description for a moment, and then became excited: "How can we cooperate? What can I do?"

"Well, I don't have enough capital. To do this, I need a lot of funds. How much can you contribute?" Jiang Ruyu has a lot of money. Apart from what she earned from opening a shop in the past two years, the majority of it comes from her and Zheng Yang's savings. When they first got married, their combined savings were more than 10,000 yuan. Over the years, her salary and the money Jiang Ruyu secretly earned from selling supplies also add up to more than 10,000 yuan. She should have more than 50,000 yuan in savings now.

This money isn't enough to open this big store, so Jiang Ruyu plans to sell some of the jewelry and other items she got from signing in, but she doesn't know if she can get a good price now.

After careful consideration, Liu Xiangxiang said to Jiang Ruyu, "I can offer 20,000 yuan. I'll go back and discuss it with my husband, and then I'll give you a specific answer."