Uncle Ding and Uncle Ding II have been very busy and happy recently. Qian Qing's idea was indeed a good one. The support for lunch boxes from the students of Wutong University was beyond all of their expectations.

After Qian Qing settled the matter of building the house, Uncle Ding spontaneously took over the responsibilities of "supervisor" and chef.

I thought that since the restaurant had not opened yet, it was enough for him to bring one apprentice with him. He cooked for more than 20 people every day and made a few dozen lunch boxes to sell at the intersection.

Who would have known that after just three days, the students who came to eat almost drowned Uncle Ding.

Scrambled eggs with tomatoes, stir-fried shredded potatoes, stir-fried pork belly with cabbage, and mapo tofu. These were the four dishes at the beginning. Uncle Ding ordered one meat and one vegetable, with rice, for 40 cents.

The cafeteria sells food at about 30 cents. Uncle Ding raised the price by 10 cents, thinking that not many students would come to eat. After all, other cafeterias allow students to sit down to eat, but he doesn't have the conditions here, so he can only let students bring lunch boxes to get food.

As a result, all the students ate until tears streamed down their faces.

This is what food should be! This is what a real chef should do! After eating in the cafeteria for so long, their sense of taste, which had been almost damaged by the poisoning, finally saw the light of day again!

The skills of Uncle Ding Da and Uncle Ding Er are both at the level of regular restaurants. They have also honed their skills in village banquets for many years, so they are very good at cooking a large pot of dishes in one batch. The finished products are delicious and stable in taste.

The students were excited. The cafeteria's low floor level made them feel that most of the food tasted delicious, not to mention that Uncle Ding and Uncle Ding's cooking skills were above average among all the chefs.

Being blocked by the students, Uncle Ding called Uncle Ding and an apprentice. He specially made a large tricycle and hurried to prepare meals every day. He left part of the food on the construction site and asked the apprentice to serve the food to people. Uncle Ding and Uncle Ding pushed their bicycles to sell lunch boxes.

From a dozen servings a day in the beginning, to dozens later, we can now sell more than 200 servings per meal, and this number is still rising.

Uncle Ding Da and Uncle Ding Er reluctantly gave up breakfast and expanded the dinner supply. They pulled an electric light from the construction site and tied it to a tricycle, and they could still sell more than 80 servings every night at Dongmen.

By this calculation, 300 boxes a day is conservative. A lunch box sells for 40 cents, and the actual cost is only about 20 cents, so the net profit is 20 cents. You can earn 60 to 70 yuan a day, and excluding weekends and holidays, you can make thousands a month!

Uncle Ding and Uncle Ding II were very happy. They went out to book tables, which was hard work and stressful. They could only earn about eleven hundred yuan each time, and they didn't necessarily have business every day. If they had five or six times a month, it was considered good business.

Now, selling lunch boxes alone can bring such a huge profit! Moreover, the hard work of selling lunch boxes is completely different from that of serving a table. When serving a table, I have to worry for about three or four days, but when selling lunch boxes, I can take it easy, buy ingredients and clean up in the morning, and be busy at lunchtime and dinnertime. Compared with serving a table, I don’t know how much easier it is!

Qian Qing heard the excitement in her two uncles' voices and felt happy for them.

Uncle Ding slapped his head and said, "Oh, I wrote down the account book of all the expenses on the construction site. I'll show it to you."

Uncle Ding Er took out a primary school student's exercise book, on which the daily balance of grocery shopping expenses was written crookedly. Uncle Ding Da and Uncle Ding Er were very clear about everything, and they always settled the materials used on the construction site and the materials for making their own lunch separately, and wrote them down clearly.

Qian Qing was very satisfied and went to check the progress of the house construction. It is now the end of February. The foundation of the house has been laid and the bricks are being gradually laid. It should be completed in half a month. Later, it will need to be plastered, decorated, and doors and windows added. If everything goes well, it can be opened in April.

Uncle Ding and Uncle Ding II no longer take charge of booking tables. They are planning to bring their second uncle's cousin over to expand the business.

Qian Qing thought about it and gave a reminder: "Why don't you let the students order food? Don't let the school scold you if you keep blocking the door."

This is what it’s like to do business in front of a school. You have to consider the school’s opinion at all times. Otherwise, what if the school thinks it’s not good to block the door and doesn’t let the uncles set up shop?

"I see many students have their names written on their lunch boxes. You collect the lunch boxes. After selling the food, leave someone waiting at the door. Students put a note on their lunch boxes to tell them what they want to eat. You also set the daily menu in advance, so you can figure out the exact portion size after the students choose. Once the food is ready, pack the food 20 minutes in advance. At mealtime, split into two teams, sell the food, hand out lunch boxes and collect the money. Isn't this much faster?"

I'm not worried that the students won't give me money. Their lunch boxes have been deposited here, so can they give up their lunch boxes for four cents?

The main reason is that it can save a lot of time queuing, and it can also sell more. The only drawback is that there is no space, so students have to take their lunch boxes back to the cafeteria to eat, wash them after eating, and then send them back, which is quite troublesome.

Fortunately, the cafeteria is not far from the east gate, and it only takes five or six minutes to walk there. It saves the time of queuing at mealtime, and I believe many students will be happy to accept it.

Uncle Ding's eyes lit up. That's right! Why didn't they think of that? Now the restaurant is not built, and the students have no place to eat, but they can just send the lunch boxes in advance and pack them in advance!

Just write down the dishes you want to cook on the blackboard one meal in advance every day, and ask the person who delivers the lunch boxes to prepare a stack of paper and rubber bands. Write down your choices on the paper and tie them up with rubber bands.

Isn't this clearer than asking them one by one and serving them food one by one?

Uncle Ding sighed, "Qingqing is really a business savvy. We would never have thought of such an idea even if we waited a hundred years."

No wonder Qingqing was able to buy such a large piece of land and build a two-story building.

Qian Qing didn't come here just to check the progress, but to prepare to put up the house for rent. Otherwise, if she waited until April to start renting out the house, the two-story building would be too empty.

When doing business, it is best to open in a lively atmosphere, so that it can create a grand scene and attract people.

When I was telling my uncles Ding Da and Ding Er about my plan, Uncle Ding Da's apprentice asked in a low voice: "Can I... can I rent a room?"

Fearing that the master might misunderstand him, he quickly explained, "I just want to open a shop to sell some snacks, mainly maocai and boiled food. It has absolutely nothing to do with you, master."

Uncle Ding threw a peanut shell at his apprentice's head in annoyance: "Is your master so petty?"

After a moment of silence, he said to Qian Qing: "Your second uncle and I have several apprentices, each of whom has several specialties. Don't look at this boy as stupid, he is an expert at cooking Sichuan cuisine and Gansu boiled food. You see..."

Qian Qing responded with a good temper: "Of course you can, as long as the two floors are not the same. And you'd better spread out the stores a little bit, if they are next to each other, they will be too concentrated."

Uncle Ding got the promise, looked at his apprentice with a look of disdain, and said, "Go talk to your fellow apprentices, if anyone wants to open a shop of their own, come and tell them, the rent still needs to be paid. You should also agree not to repeat yourself, and do your own specialty. If there are any who don't want to start their own business, just help me, and I will pay you wages every month."

Some masters like to use their apprentices for free without paying them, but Uncle Ding and Uncle Ding are not such people. Every time they take their apprentices out to book a table, they pay them as much as they should. Over the years, the relationship between master and apprentice can be said to be very solid.

The disciple beside him burst into tears: "Thank you, Master!"

He was lucky to have met good masters and uncles who taught him everything they knew without keeping anything to themselves. Even after he graduated, he still worried about the whereabouts of each of them and thought of them when good things happened to them.

Uncle Ding was so disgusted: "Stop crying! Go and see if the green bean soup outside is ready. If it is, share some with the workers."

This idiot is his apprentice. He has skills, but he is shy. His family is poor, and he can't even afford the tuition for him to learn a skill. If he can open a shop to sell snacks, he might be able to improve his family's poverty in a few years. As a master, he naturally hopes that his apprentice will do well.

Qian Qing posted the rental information she had written on the bulletin board of Wutong University, and waited until the evening to observe Uncle Ding and Uncle Ding's lunch box business.

When they heard that lunch boxes for the next day could be ordered in advance, most students agreed and agreed to come back after dinner to pick up the lunch boxes and choose the dishes.

There was a student in the middle who looked flustered. For some reason, he kept asking Uncle Ding and Uncle Ding if they could not order lunch boxes.

"We just added an alarm. If you continue to do this, we will be delayed again..."

Uncle Ding and Uncle Ding II were completely confused. They were just lunch box sellers, so how were they related to staying after class?

Student (in deep sorrow): ...You don’t understand...

****

By the time Qian Qing's clothes hangers and clothes rails arrived one after another, Qian Yu had also finished the production at the vermicelli factory. As the weather gradually warmed up, it was very difficult to freeze the vermicelli at night. If it was not frozen, it would not be elastic and the taste would be affected.

So Qian Yu made a prompt decision and announced that the first half of this year would end here.

The machinery and equipment of the vermicelli factory were handed over to Huang Laoer and his wife. Huang Laoer and his wife were also very flexible. It didn't matter if they only made vermicelli for three or four months every year. They could farm the rest of the time.

Qian Yu also encouraged them to do so, saying that it would be best to plant more sweet potatoes so that they could make vermicelli next time. With so many companies competing with each other, they would definitely raise the price of raw materials. If they could plant more now, they would make more vermicelli in the fall.

Huang Laoer simply rented a piece of land. Sweet potatoes are easy to grow and it wouldn't be a big deal to plant more.

After everything was settled, Qian Yu went to the pig farm to check the situation.

At the beginning of the month, Qian Yu recruited a technical secondary school student majoring in animal husbandry and offered him a price to work at the pig farm. Then he began to build a house and a pig pen, waiting for the next month to be completed so that he could catch piglets.

Mr. Qian had just quit his job and went to work at a pig farm. He was busy all day keeping an eye on the workers and tracking their progress.

Qian Qing gave Qian's father a few words of advice, asking him to take care of his health, and roughly checked the progress before leaving the pig farm and going to the oil field.

Now, compared with the match factory compound, the oil field compound feels more like home.

When Qian Qing saw her sister, she remembered what Qian's mother had said some time ago about Qian Yu's daily pain, so she quickly took out the sanitary napkins to explain.

By the way, she also made a request to her sister: "Aren't you going to the provincial capital to ask the professor about fungus cultivation? Then you can go find Lao Ding and ask him to help you get an expert appointment, and you can also go for a check-up. Your body is the capital of the revolution. If you lose the capital, you can't do anything."

Qian Yu was a little helpless: "My mother is too frightened. I have always been like this. I have been to the hospital in the city before, and the doctor said it was fine."

Qian Qing still insisted: "How can we know if the doctors in the city are not good enough? You should go to a big hospital in the provincial capital for a checkup. It will be reassuring if the checkup is OK."

Qian's mother also chimed in: "That's right, if we see that everything is fine, we don't have to worry about it anymore, and we don't have to worry every day."

Qian Yu had no choice but to agree and told her the time she would book her train ticket: "I'm going to go in a few days. Mom, please tell me what goods the canteen is short of and I'll bring them back to you when I come back."

Qian's mother's grocery store is seriously out of stock recently and will be in trouble if it doesn't restock.

Thinking of this, Qian Qing also told her plan: "Mom, I think we should let Lao Ding take care of the replenishment in the future. My sister and I are both busy in the city, so we can't handle it. Lao Ding will give him a little agency fee every time, and Lao Ding will order and send a package whenever he sees something rare. Small things usually don't take up much space or weight. It won't be much more expensive with the postage."

Qian's mother's income from selling chili sauce has long exceeded the revenue of the canteen, so she didn't think there was anything wrong with hearing this.

"Sure, forget about the price increase, it's only a few cents anyway."

The canteen is more like a place for Qian's mother to kill time. On weekdays, some women like to come in the afternoon with their needlework, chat and watch TV, making Qian's mother's originally boring life more interesting.

Mrs. Qian's life now is better than she could have imagined at this time last year. Every day after getting up and taking care of her granddaughter's schooling, she can rest for a while before getting up, then leisurely buy groceries, boil a pot of brine at home, sell it all before dinner time, and then go to the canteen to wait for the noon hour.

After picking up Qianqian, I waited for another 20 minutes before closing the canteen door and going home. After lunch, I could rest for a while before sending Qianqian to school. In the afternoon, I watched TV in the canteen. A few women who were easy to talk to came in wearing sweaters with shoe soles to chat and watch TV. After school in the afternoon, I hurried to sell some more, and then I turned on the TV for Qianqian to watch for an hour, and then I went back to cook dinner. I took some free time to make chili sauce.

Qian's mother is extremely satisfied with her current life. She only hates herself for being so stupid and making her life so difficult.

****

At the beginning of March, Qian Qing had all her clothes hangers and clothes rails in place. She hung up all the clothes and wiped the windows clean. Considering that it would be uncomfortable for Xu Ahua to live with Qian's mother all the time, Qian Qing placed Xu Ahua in the attic of a store on the shopping street.

The attic was not big, but it was more than enough for Xu Ahua to live in. Qian Qing bought a new roof for Xu Ahua, pulled an electric wire up there, and installed a desk lamp and a wardrobe.

Xu Ahhua felt that everything she was experiencing now was just like a dream. She was always scolded by her parents when she was at home. She was able to go to junior high school because she was beaten one by one. She was beaten when she asked for a pen or an eraser. She was beaten until she graduated from junior high school. Her parents said that they would not support her education even if they beat her to death, and all the money would be left to her younger brother.

Xu Ahua ran away and didn't go home for a year or two. No one in her family asked about her or looked for her.

She thought she would be a drifter forever, but now Qian Qing gave her a job and a place to live. Although it was just a small attic, it was a small attic where she lived alone.

Qian Qing was still chattering: "We have few employees now. There is Ding Jie, employee No. 001, and you, employee No. 002. When our stall is bigger, we will have dormitories to live in..."

Xu Ahhua said excitedly: "I don't want a dormitory! I just want to live here..."

Seeing Xu Ahua's appearance, Qian Qing, who had already known Xu Ahua's life experience a few days ago, was touched.

"That's not right. When our sanitary napkins are popular, and we open a factory and sell them all over the country, you may not be interested in this small attic anymore. By then, you will definitely be able to buy several houses, and you won't be able to live in it even if you split it into eight pieces..."

After hearing Qian Qing's words, Xu Ahua's originally excited mood immediately relaxed, and her heart was filled with great pride.

"I will!"

But when that time comes, she will definitely still miss this little attic, which is where it all began for her.

On the opening day, Qian Qing, Xu Ahua, Qian Yu and Qian's mother who had not yet left for the provincial capital, Zhou Hao who had changed his shift, Li Hongmei and Chen Xinran who came to show their support, and Uncle Ding and Uncle Ding...

Everyone helped to clean the shop, and then picked a good time to start setting off firecrackers. After the firecrackers were set off, Qian Qing lifted the long bamboo pole in his hand and peeled off the red cloth on the sign. The big and vivid words "Qingyue" appeared on the sign.

Stepping on the red whips on the ground, Qian Qing invited people into the store.

Li Hongmei and Chen Xinran came to show their support, so they picked out a few pieces of clothing each. Chen Xinran picked out two sets of clothing, both of which were dresses that suited her temperament. Qian Qing gave her a discount and gave her a pack of sanitary napkins.

Li Hongmei took a coat, which was seen by Qian Qing, who tactfully changed it for her.

Qian Qing chose a Sunday, and soon there was a steady stream of customers coming in.

If for nothing else, just because of that huge window.

Looking down the entire street, this is the only shop with a big enough window! And behind the window there are two clothes hangers with complete sets of clothes on them.

One set is a white shirt with some ruffles on the upper body, and navy blue wide-leg pants on the lower body. There is also a wide-brimmed hat on the head, which is eye-catching at first sight.

Another set is a knee-length skirt with a half-high collar shirt on the upper body and a coat on the outside.

These two sets of clothes attracted a lot of people to come in, and after entering, they discovered the differences from other stores.

Clothes are hung in rows on long poles, and you can flip through them to find the styles yourself, instead of asking the salesperson to find them like other stores. You can touch the fabrics directly, and if you like them, you can take them behind the curtain for an interview. There is also a mirror as tall as a person when you come out. Even the items you bring with you can be placed on the counter at the entrance for someone to look after.

You don’t have to worry about looking at too many styles and getting rolled eyes by the salesperson, nor do you have to worry about having to return something if it doesn’t fit you when you get home.

There is a big light bulb above the fitting mirror. Under the light, I feel like a completely different person when I put on the well-fitting clothes.

Uncle Ding and Uncle Ding had to go back to cook, so they gave Qian Qing two pots of tall bonsai pines and left. Zhou Hao was the only man in the store.

When Qian Qing settled the bill for the Nth time and handed over a pack of sanitary napkins, the other party looked at Zhou Hao shyly.

Qian Qing couldn't bear it any longer.

"You, get out of here."