After Sister Lu left, Qian Qing finished her fried vermicelli without any taste. After hurriedly telling Xu Ahhua to look after the store, Qian Qing returned to the tube building.

Zhou Hao had just returned from the cafeteria after getting his meal. He saw Qian Qing coming back angrily and didn't understand what was wrong with her. After hearing what Qian Qing said, he also frowned.

"You said you bought it at a stall at the Oil Field Night Market?"

Qian Qing nodded: "I asked several times, and they said it was sold at a night market stall, and the price was NT$4.50 a bottle."

The price of Qianmu's chili sauce was cheaper at first, but later it was fixed at five yuan. A bottle of chili sauce weighs about 350 grams, which is more than the 300 grams of chili sauce sold in the supply and marketing cooperative. It is understandable that it is one yuan more expensive. The counterfeiters also know that their products are not genuine, so they sell them at four and a half yuan. People who are not from tube buildings can be fooled by the fifty-cent discount and buy them without asking a few questions.

Qian Qing was not angry because Qian Mu made less money, but because this chili sauce had ruined the reputation of Qian Mu's chili sauce. Qian Mu never hid the chili sauce from her family, but the process was extremely troublesome. Counterfeiters could only imitate the shape, but it was impossible to replicate the taste. Over time, Qian Mu's chili sauce would be regarded as "unstable in quality" when it was sold. Who would be willing to buy it?

Zhou Hao took Qian Qing's hand and pressed her down on the stool, rubbing her shoulders and asking her to relax as much as possible.

"What do you think about Mom's chili sauce? If you plan to make it for a long time in the future, then register a trademark and customize the packaging. With packaging and trademarks, those who want to copy it have to think carefully."

Zhou Hao mentioned this before, but Qian Qing didn't know much about trademarks at that time, and she was also unsure of Qian's mother's intentions. Now that Qian's mother is still in good health, what's next? What are the plans for this brand after it is registered? Will Qian's mother stop doing it for a few years and sell the trademark and formula? Or will she expand this brand in the future?

"...I'll ask my mom. It depends on what she thinks. But I have to find the counterfeiter. There's no point in letting him do business under my mom's name."

Anyone who can sell the same chili sauce at the Youtian Night Market stall is most likely someone who knows them in the tube house.

Qian Qing thought about it and thought it was Wan Zhenzhen next door, but then she thought it was impossible. Wang Hua went out last month, saying that he also went south to look for sources of goods. Wan Zhenzhen was already six or seven months pregnant, and she hardly went out. Didn’t Wan’s mother take Wan Baojin away? She was afraid that it would bump into Wan Zhenzhen’s belly. Old lady Wang was circling around Wan Zhenzhen, calling her grandson at her big belly, and she rarely even talked to people.

It shouldn’t be Wan Zhenzhen.

Zhou Hao poured her a glass of water and said, "Why don't we go to the night market stalls tonight?"

That's right. After the Chinese New Year, Qian Qing rarely went to the night market stall. Qian's mother's business was more stable. Except for going once or twice at night, she was busy with the canteen business and taking care of Qianqian. If they hadn't been there recently, they wouldn't have let anyone take advantage of them.

"Okay. Let's go at night and bring mom along."

If this wasn't exposed on the spot, the people in the hospital behind her would really think that her mother's craftsmanship had declined!

*****

At the same time, Song Xiaohong's home in the same building was filled with the pungent smell of chili peppers.

Song Xiaohong's mother-in-law was scolded so much that tears welled up in her eyes, and her exposed skin felt burning.

"Xiaohong...cough cough cough...Xiaohong, why don't you open the window? Xiaoduo will be out of school soon. You can't let the child be exposed to the fumes like this, right?"

Song Xiaohong's face turned red. She coughed into the pot while stir-frying the peppers in the pot desperately.

"Stop talking! What if someone else smells it when the window is open?!"

Song Xiaohong was not afraid of irritating others, but she was afraid that Qian Qing would come over and continue to pester her, ruining her good business. This time, someone came over and asked for a hundred bottles of chili sauce! That would cost several hundred yuan!

She has to make this chili sauce quickly.

Song Xiaohong felt a little guilty, and she persuaded herself that she would stop selling chili sauce after she finished the big order. Although Qian Qing rarely came to the night market stall now, and few people in the compound knew that she did this, it was not a long-term solution.

Zhou Hao is a leader now. What if she ruins her man's future again?

Speaking of which, after Song Xiaohong got a stall last year, she opened a small stall to sell fried noodles and fried rice, selling them for one yuan a portion. The price was expensive and the taste was average. At first, there were still people going there, but later, the number of people gradually decreased.

Especially before the New Year, Qian's mother opened a small stall selling hot and sour noodles, wrote the ingredients of the hot and sour noodles on a small board, and sold them together with her daughter's vermicelli. This directly attracted half of the people who came to eat. Later, even though Qian's mother stopped setting up the stall, those customers who were led away never came back.

After being baptized by Qian Mu's hot and sour noodles, the young men and women who often patronized the stalls in the factory all became "picky eaters". After all, a pound of vermicelli only cost a few cents. In the dormitory, several people got together to make a small coal stove. In cold weather, they would prepare the ingredients given by Qian Mu and eat the vermicelli or noodles with the chili sauce they bought. The taste was just as good and it saved money. There was no need to go downstairs to the canteen or the night market.

Song Xiaohong was so angry that her nose was about to be crooked. She thought that all the food vendors on the night market would share the same hatred as her, but who knew that the owner of a halogen stall on the street also learned from Qian Mu after he closed his stall. He also made a small stove and placed it next to Qian Mu according to Qian Mu's ingredients and chili sauce, and sold the same price as Qian Mu. People often ordered a steamed bun with halogen and served with hot and sour noodles. A bowl of noodles in a cold day, plus a steamed bun with meat, it was delicious no matter how you looked at it. It saved the business of the halogen shop owner and even brought it up to a higher level.

Song Xiaohong was so angry that she didn't know what to do. Qian's mother had written down all the ingredients, but she felt embarrassed to ask her to learn how to make hot and sour noodles according to Qian's mother's recipe.

The owner of the salty food stall learned the craft from Qian Mu openly. It is said that he even brought some things to see Qian Mu and shamelessly asked Qian Mu if she wanted to take him as an apprentice, but was rejected by Qian Mu. Then he proposed to sell hot and sour noodles to make money. Although Qian Mu gave him the recipe, it is still different to take the recipe home and make it yourself and sell it to make money. Qian Mu had the money from the chili sauce, so naturally she didn't say no. Anyway, no matter what the other party did, it couldn't be done without her chili sauce.

The behavior of the halal shop owner seems to have become a benchmark.

——If you want to learn other people’s skills to make money, you have to explain it.

But if you want Song Xiaohong to give gifts to Qian's mother and say good things, it would be better to force her to death. When Qian Qing first started to be a self-employed person, she often said outside that Zhou Hao was a gigolo. Everyone in the building knew about it, and some gossipers even said that she had a good relationship with Wan Zhenzhen in the past, so she couldn't stand Qian Qing.

Song Xiaohong's relationship with Wan Zhenzhen is not that good now. Since Wan Zhenzhen got pregnant, Song Xiaohong rarely visited Wan Zhenzhen. Anyone with a discerning eye in the building could see that Wan Zhenzhen's stomach was not right. Song Xiaohong was not stupid, so how could she send herself to be with Wan Zhenzhen?

Song Xiaohong was still hesitant and resentful until the end of the year. She had almost decided to change her career last month. Then one day, she saw someone looking around in the night market. When she asked him, he said he was going to the oil field to buy chili sauce.

Song Xiaohong was going to just turn around and walk away, but somehow that day, she told the man that Qian's mother's chili sauce was left at her stall and asked him to pick it up the next day.

Song Xiaohong compared it with her mother Qian's chili sauce and could only vaguely taste sesame seeds, soybeans, dried red beans, and peanuts...

She gritted her teeth, got some ingredients, and made a few bottles based on her previous experience of making chili sauce.

Not to mention, the chili sauce actually looks pretty good. You can only tell the difference when you eat it.

In Qianmu's chili sauce, the dried red beans are fried more than once, cut into small pieces, and have a bean fragrance when you bite them. The peanuts are also fried first, and the sesame seeds are roasted before adding them. The soybeans are also specially processed, so you can't tell the shape of the soybeans when you eat them, you can only taste the fragrance of various ingredients...

Song Xiaohong's chili sauce only imitated the appearance. The dried red beans had a bean smell, the peanuts had a burnt smell, and the soybeans were not crushed...

Song Xiaohong trembled as she gave it to yesterday's customer, who gave her the money without even opening it. Song Xiaohong was stunned as she held the five yuan in her hand.

Can you earn five dollars just by fooling around like this?

Recently, more and more people seem to know about Qianmu's chili sauce, so more and more people come to the oil field to buy chili sauce. Song Xiaohong took advantage of this trend and quietly sold dozens of bottles of fake chili sauce.

Yesterday, a customer suddenly came to order 100 bottles, saying that he had a relative on the railway, and after he was given a bottle, he thought the sauce was very good, so he wanted to order 100 bottles first and take them back to find someone to try.

It was obvious from the other party's accent that he was not a local. Song Xiaohong was thinking of stopping after this deal, so she agreed readily and took a deposit of 100 yuan from the other party.

She will stop doing it as soon as these 100 bottles are sold.

Song Xiaohong called her mother-in-law, "Put the bottle over to me. We'll have two more after we finish this pot. Go pick up Xiaoduo and take him to the cafeteria for lunch. Don't let him come back."

Song Xiaohong's mother-in-law was frightened for a moment. This daughter-in-law was really too ambitious. Looking at the materials on the table, there must be dozens of them. But she didn't dare to say more to Song Xiaohong, so she could only go to pick up her grandson with two empty lunch boxes in her arms.

*****

As soon as it got dark, Qian Qing went to the night market with Zhou Hao and Qian's mother.

When Qian's mother heard Qian Qing say that someone had counterfeited her things, she was furious. She insisted on bringing two bottles of homemade chili sauce, vowing to find the counterfeiter and give her a good beating.

She has always been generous when it comes to recipes. After all, when she was still living in the match factory compound, countless neighbors came to ask her how to make certain dishes, and she told them all. But later on, wasn't it that few people were able to make the same dishes as hers?

It can be seen that cooking requires a certain amount of talent, and the same recipe may not produce exactly the same food.

Last year, in order to help her daughter sell vermicelli, she specially asked Zhou Hao to time and calculate the quantities while cooking, and finally came up with a relatively "accurate" recipe for hot and sour vermicelli. She wrote down the quantities of the ingredients and put them out, and she didn't care about the salt stall owner who directly used the recipe to make money. Because no one could imitate the chili sauce, Qian's mother didn't worry at all.

Now someone is ruining her chili sauce business. This is simply unbearable!

Moreover, she heard from her daughter that this man was most likely from a tube-shaped building, so Qian's mother could not tolerate it even more!

Living in a big compound, he still dares to sell fake goods under her name. He is so shameless.

Qian Qing and Zhou Hao followed the imposing Qian's mother, both alertly looking around. Before coming here, they asked the neighbors in the same building, and they all said they didn't know anyone selling fake goods. It can be seen that the other party is very cautious. Combined with what Sister Lu said, it is estimated that this person is looking at the person to serve the dish. The sellers are those who buy for the first time, or those who come from outside to the night market stalls, deliberately avoiding people in the compound.

"Wife, look over there..."

Under the dim lights of the night market street, a gentle man wearing glasses was squatting on the ground counting things. In the two baskets next to him were bottles of what looked like sauces.