He Wenlin checked the time; it was already 6:45.

"It's getting late, let's go to the fast food restaurant for breakfast, and then we can get back to what we're doing."

His family basically never cooked breakfast; they always ate at the shop. Before the food factory moved to Baijia Village, they also ate lunch at a fast food restaurant.

After moving to Baijia Village, I started cooking lunch for myself there, and sometimes I cooked dinner myself too, but I still ate breakfast at the shops here.

"What are you standing here for? Come on!" Old Mrs. He shouted angrily when she saw that Mr. He was standing still.

Grandma He added, "You have time to play cards all night, so you must not be tired. After breakfast, come with us to the food factory. Don't think about staying here alone!"

Mr. He: "How can the fast food restaurant function without me? Xiaofei can't manage it all by himself."

“I can train new people,” He Wenlin said. “Li Xuehua and Tang Caihong can make fried noodles and fried rice, and now they can even stir-fry vegetables quite well. Lin Fei only needs to focus on the other main dishes. If he is too busy, I can come and fill in. You don’t need to worry about it.”

Mr. He choked for a moment, his expression turning somewhat unpleasant.

But the other family members looked even uglier.

Aunt He said sarcastically, "You, Mr. He, are so busy, how could we dare to trouble you?"

Grandma He: "Stop talking nonsense! Get out of here! Stop dawdling around. Forget about working at the fast food restaurant. Either you go back to your hometown and farm, or you go work at the food factory making egg rolls and selling them. You have to work fifteen hours a day!"

Father He: "..."

Having not slept all night, Mr. He yawned repeatedly as he followed the women of his family to the fast food restaurant.

"Uncle Ming, why do you look so tired? It's like you haven't slept all night," Lin Fei said, puzzled. "Are you sick?"

"Hmph, sick." Old Mrs. He snorted coldly.

Lin Fei felt that something might have happened that he didn't know about, and his mind went blank.

He Wenlin addressed everyone in Mandarin: "Lin Fei, please keep a close eye on the fast food restaurant from now on. My dad won't be here anymore, so his word and all his orders are meaningless. Report everything directly to me. No one is allowed to take any money from the restaurant unless I give the order myself, especially my dad!"

Lin Fei was young, but not stupid. Seeing He Wenlin's serious expression, Lin Fei guessed what was going on and asked, "Uncle, did you go to play cards yesterday?"

Only He's father playing cards can make them this angry!

He Wenlin neither admitted nor denied it.

"Please keep an eye on this shop from now on, Sister Rainbow and Sister Snowflake. When you have free time, practice more. Once you're good enough, I'll give you a raise."

He Wenlin already paid them a good salary, and after they learned how to fry rice and noodles, they received a raise. Their enthusiasm for work and loyalty to the fast food restaurant were very high.

“Okay.” Li Xuehua and Tang Caihong agreed with smiles.

The pay here is good, and it's close to home. They plan to work here until they can't work anymore.

After breakfast, my younger brother went to school.

The morning rush hour was approaching, so Yang Gangyong drove over to pick up Grandma He, Dad He, and Mom He and take them all to the factory.

He Wenlin wanted to call Liao Jianhai, but when she looked at the time, it was still early, just past seven o'clock.

It's not a good time to call people, so I'll just stay at the store and help out for a bit.

He Wenlin rarely appears here during the morning rush hour anymore, so many workers from the Bosi factory who came to pick up their breakfast today were quite surprised to see her.

One by one they joked, "What's Mr. He doing here today?"

"You're the big boss, do you really have to do the order processing and pickup yourself?"

"This rich girl, instead of enjoying her life at home, is out working early in the morning."

"Boss He, do you still take on apprentices? I'd like to learn from you too."

...

He Wenlin laughed and said, "Don't make fun of me, everyone. What big boss or rich woman? I'm in debt right now. My house and car were bought with loans. I'm more like a debtor, but in a negative way."

Li Haibing, a fellow villager, said, "You're too modest. You've sold so many vouchers, you must have made tens of thousands of yuan at a time."

A man from Jiangxi Province said, "There are four factories, so many people, each time it costs tens of thousands, each sale costs tens of thousands, in the past six months it has been at least three or four hundred thousand."

"That's good enough. Not everyone buys vouchers; many people buy them in bulk."

Moreover, we sell the vouchers cheaply, so there's not much profit to be made; they're just a way to deter competitors.

We sold tens of thousands of vouchers, not made tens of thousands. We sold these vouchers, and we didn't have any money to put in until the Chinese New Year holiday. We sold vouchers to everyone, but the food and beverage standards in our store remained unchanged.

Business looks good, but there's actually not much profit; it's just enough to feed the few people in the family. Buying cars and houses seems like a lot of money, but it's all from loans from the credit union.

“Where do you have any competitors? You’re the only shop around here. There used to be some other stalls, but now there are fewer of them.”

"You're amazing, you've driven away all your opponents."

"Yes, you also do breakfast business. Last time I heard the steamed bun seller say that their business has been doing poorly and they are thinking of transferring ownership."

Before He Wenlin started selling xiaolongbao and steamed dumplings, the steamed bun shop did fairly well. After all, people can't eat fried noodles and rice balls every morning; they need to change things up. But after He Wenlin started selling steamed dumplings and xiaolongbao, the steamed bun shop basically lost all its business.

A fellow villager from Qidong said, "But I heard that a fast food restaurant is going to open over there, around New Year's Day."

Upon hearing this, Lin Fei immediately felt a sense of dread: "Really?"

He Wenlin said, "I'll go over and take a look in a bit and I'll know."

Even if it does open, it won't have a big impact on He Wenlin. She has sold so many vouchers this time that the other party can't take away her business anytime soon.

But it's hard to say next year; it will take away some of the business.

Once the morning rush hour was over, He Wenlin and Lin Fei processed two boxes of chicken wings. Today at noon, they would add a spicy braised chicken wing to a boxed lunch, along with a stir-fried vegetable dish and a side dish to go with the rice.

The chicken wings are made of real meat and taste great. Compared to other fast food restaurants, He Wenlin's place is more affordable.

At 8:15, all the chicken wings were put into the braising liquid to simmer. He Wenlin set an alarm clock for Lin Fei to keep an eye on it.

The fast food restaurant was crowded and noisy. He Wenlin returned to her empty rented room, took out her mobile phone, and called Liao Jianhai...