Xu An packed up his stall and returned home. In the courtyard, his third grandmother was chatting with his grandmother.

Xu An went into the kitchen, made two cups of tea, moved a small stool and sat down with the two elderly people to listen to their chatter.

The two elderly people started by talking about everyday matters in the village, but somehow the conversation veered towards the shaman of Majia Village.

"That sorceress was beaten up a couple of days ago," Third Grandma said with a sigh. "It's said that the family took a child home after listening to her advice, but couldn't conceive after more than a year. Later, through an introduction, they went to see an old traditional Chinese medicine doctor in the city for treatment and then got pregnant. Now they're getting more and more resentful, feeling that the sorceress wasted a year of their time, and now they still can't get rid of the child, so they went and beat up the sorceress."

"It's such a tragedy. If you can't get pregnant, you should go to the hospital for treatment instead of seeing a fortune teller." Grandma Xu's tone was worried: "How is the child you took back now? Did you send him back or continue to raise him?"

“Keep raising them. Once they're registered, it won't be so easy to send them back. That family is alright; they just vent their anger and curse at us, but they haven't skimped on the child's food and clothing.”

"This is better than being homeless." Grandma Xu sighed, then suddenly thought of Xu Juan, who had been married for seven or eight years without conceiving. She quickly asked, "Which hospital and which doctor did that family go to?"

"It's not a regular hospital, he runs a clinic, everyone calls him the Old Miracle Doctor. He's not a local, he settled in Haishi more than seven years ago." Third Grandma didn't know much either, so she only told what she knew.

Upon hearing that it wasn't a legitimate hospital, Grandma Xu gave up on the idea.

Grandma Xu hadn't read many books and wasn't very educated. But she understood one thing: how could someone with such extraordinary abilities be content to live in a cramped place?

Even if he were willing, there would be an endless stream of people wanting him to come out of retirement; how could he possibly only have a little fame in Haishi?

People are either wicked or evil.

Wang Qiang spent three days wandering around Qianhai Town before finally finding the processing company selling cheap meat that his cronies had mentioned.

The door was half-open, and a robust man in his thirties was sitting in the doorway playing on his phone.

If it weren't for the strange row of faucets outside the house and the faint smell of rotting meat, Wang Qiang would never have guessed that this seemingly ordinary house was actually a food company.

When Wang Qiang was about two meters away from the door, the man who was sitting and playing on his phone saw him, put down his phone, stood up, and asked in an unfriendly tone, "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to buy some goods," Wang Qiang replied succinctly, stopping in his tracks.

The burly man raised an eyebrow and asked in a softer tone, "Who introduced you?"

"Old Liu from Hao You Duo Fast Food Restaurant."

A customer introduced by an acquaintance.

The man breathed a sigh of relief, pushed open the slightly ajar door, and said to Wang Qiang, "Go in."

Wang Qiang was immediately struck by the sight of the neatly arranged shelves filled with all kinds of meat as soon as he entered the room.

There was so much meat that it couldn't fit on six large shelves; the shelves were piled high with it.

Blood seeped freely from the carcasses, soaking most of the floor. The room became a haven for flies, their buzzing causing a headache.

Wang Qiang felt an urge to leave; he was only greedy for money, but he didn't harm anyone.

The meat on this shelf looks like it's been sitting there for days; it's rotten and infested with maggots. It's not fit for human consumption.

A middle-aged woman standing behind the door saw Wang Qiang enter, picked up a flyer and a pen, and handed them to him. She said expressionlessly, "These on the shelves outside are for cats and dogs; the food for humans is in the cold storage. Everything on this flyer is available in the cold storage. Fill out the form as much as you want. After you've filled it out, give it to the man in the leather jacket, and he'll take the meat you want from the cold storage."

The old man in the leather jacket could see Wang Qiang's hesitation, so he beckoned him closer and took out a bag of meat from the small refrigerator under the table and handed it to Wang Qiang.

"The cold storage inside is all of this quality, no different from that in the wholesale market."

Wang Qiang looked at it twice, and apart from the date being wrong, everything else looked pretty much the same. His heart, which had been hanging in suspense, finally settled down.

"This was purchased for government purposes, and I need an invoice for reimbursement. Can you issue an invoice here?"

“We’re a legitimate company, why can’t we issue invoices? But if you want an invoice, the price per pound will be 50 cents more.”

Wang Qiang quickly scanned the flyer, mentally calculating the price difference between the wholesale market and the prices listed here.

I consume about 50 to 60 jin (25-30 kg) of various meats a day. The average price at the wholesale market is 8 yuan, while the average price here is 5 yuan. That's a saving of 3 yuan per jin, which means I can save at least 150 yuan a day.

It takes two days to reach 268, and five days to reach 648!

This is something I can do!

The number of boxed meals at the Zijing Garden construction site remains at twenty, while the number of boxed meals at the Shanghai Library construction site has increased to sixty per day.

Even when we're closing up shop each day, people keep coming over to ask if we have any more boxed meals. Sixty meals are far from reaching our sales limit.

In recent days, in addition to Xu An, seven or eight more stalls have been added to this street, truly forming a food street and attracting consumers other than workers.

This street used to be passable by tricycles, but now if you arrive late, you can't even get in, as the street is packed with vendors.

In order to make their stalls more noticeable to passersby, many vendors do not place them near the edge, but rather further out towards the back.

At the street corner, four people can walk side by side, but at the back, only two people can pass sideways.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!