Chapter 183
The good thing about the people in their compound is that once they decide to do something, they will do it with all their strength. As for the consequences, it's not like they have never done anything wrong, so the worst that can happen is they can just start over again.
Because Jian Chu and his friends really wanted to buy it, they were not like the others who just asked for the price and then bargained. Plus, it was Song Jia's brother Wu Zheng who rode his bike to take him to the neighborhood committee that day. He knocked on many doors that day, but only their door was opened. Although the doctor was not there, he helped him to the best of his ability. So the two sides negotiated very amicably and finally set the price at one thousand.
Jian Chu borrowed three hundred yuan from Xu Ming, and each of the three families took out one hundred yuan. The last four hundred yuan was advanced by Qin Huai and the finance department of the game department. They did not take out a loan because it was slow and troublesome. They had to come to the house to see the mortgaged items, and then take the items away for evaluation, review, and then lend the money. It would take a month or two to get the money. This small amount is not as good as an advance on his game share.
Renting a store went smoothly because the market there was still there and one could set up a stall without paying rent, so many people did not plan to rent a store. Jian Chu and his friends applied early, so they were lucky enough to choose a store in a good location and of a suitable size. The store had two floors and was over 90 square meters, which was enough for selling noodles.
The shops in this row were all newly built, and they were sold in bare-shell condition. They did the renovation themselves, and they didn't hire anyone. Jian Chu knew how to lay bricks himself, and it wasn't difficult to putty on the wall either. He asked Mu Nan and Song Jia to put on one layer first, and he would then put on the second layer to make it smooth.
Except for the tables and chairs that needed to be custom-made, everything else was easy to solve, and Mu Nan's specialty was also put to use here, which was to paint directly on the dry wall, just as if it were decoration. However, paint was not easy to get right now, and they posted a purchase information online for more than a week before someone came with paint that was almost dry and asked if they could trade it.
Of course, it was a deal in the end. Mu Nan secretly mixed some private goods in it. The paints were too dry, so he could only secretly mix in his own paints and mix them together. Fortunately, the result of the wall painting was good.
Cartoon versions of various kinds of noodles, tempting side dishes, a rich variety of emoticons, and a bunch of messy chicken soups and anti-chicken soups are colorfully painted on the wall. They are not too fancy, but brightly colored, and make people feel happy just by looking at them.
The shop they have here also has a specially managed market. The monthly fee is not expensive, which is considered the garbage removal fee. In addition, if there is a need, you can purchase an additional insurance premium. The insurance premium is first estimated by the market management in the store. If there is any loss to the store, such as being robbed or stolen, there will be no compensation for natural disasters, but in the event of a man-made disaster, the loss will be estimated and compensation will be made.
Mu Nan felt that this was indeed necessary. Things were different now than they were a few years ago, especially since they were still running a food store, so they had to get insurance.
As for the share distribution of the noodle shop, Mu Nan said that he would not participate in it. When Jian Chu and his family made a profit, he would pay back the money his family had contributed little by little. He would pickle some side dishes and sell them to the shop when the time came. In order to avoid having three owners in one shop and not being able to settle the accounts, he decided to let Jian Chu and Song Jia work together.
Seeing that Mu Nan was really not interested, they naturally did not force him, but Song Jia also unceremoniously hooked Mu Nan's neck and said: "Although you don't participate in the shares, if you are too busy at that time, you have to come to help. As a reward, I will treat you to a bowl of noodles."
Mu Nan rolled his eyes at him.
Everyone in the yard knows that Mu Nan doesn't like eating pasta.
After nearly a month of hard work, the store was finally opened, but it was not a good time to hold a lively opening ceremony, so it just opened quietly. The name of the store was chosen quite casually, just called Youjian Noodle Shop, with hot pots, a variety of condiments, and a colorfully painted price list outside, which made it easy to understand at a glance.
There are not many varieties of noodles, including soup noodles, fried noodles, ramen, sliced noodles, and dry noodles, but they are all vegetarian noodles. The price is two yuan a bowl, and if you want to increase the quantity, it is fifty cents. There are side dishes starting at three yuan, such as kimchi, potatoes, and diced green peppers. Potatoes can be bought outside now, but kimchi and green peppers are hard to buy.
Some families grow green peppers and can eat them, but they are a minority after all. Not every family can grow cabbage to make kimchi, and even if they do grow cabbage, there are not so many ingredients to pickle it, so this side dish is the biggest feature of this noodle shop.
In any case, the noodle shop opened successfully. Some people couldn't help drooling when looking at the side dishes drawn on the price list outside, but seeing that the shop was brightly lit and clean, some people were embarrassed to go in, yet they were a little greedy.
Jian Chu shouted directly and enthusiastically, "The new store is offering a 20% discount for the first three days after its opening. Why don't you come in and take a look? We have a menu. Although we don't have the braised pork now, we have side dishes, diced cabbage, green peppers, and shredded potatoes. You can get a full meal for only three yuan! Today is the opening discount, so you can get a full meal for only two yuan and forty yuan. After these three days, it will return to three yuan!"
The man who was hesitating at the door at first was not craving anything else but the side dish, and he had the few dollars in his pocket, so he thought about it, gritted his teeth, turned back to get a bowl. It was clearly written at the bottom of the price list that one must bring one's own container for takeout, and he wanted to take it home to eat with his family, so he had to go back to get a bowl. Anyway, he was only eating it this once, and if it didn't taste good, he would never come again!
It certainly won’t taste bad as long as you are willing to add oil and salt. For people who lack oil and salt nowadays, good taste means sufficient flavor.
As for the seasonings and raw materials for making noodles, they found a buyer through Yu Feng. Although it was expensive, the price of their noodles was not low either. Jian Chu calculated carefully and found that after deducting all the material costs, including rent and electricity bills, they could still make a net profit of 30 cents by selling a bowl of the cheapest noodles.
Although labor costs are not included, they are the least valuable nowadays, so as long as there is profit to be made, this business will not be a loss.
The first day of opening was fine, business was not bad, and we sold about twenty bowls of noodles. Food is not cheap now, and because of water restrictions, poor harvests on farms and other reasons, there have been rumors of famine, so many people would rather spend three dollars to stock up on a few pounds of unpalatable multi-grain cakes than spend the money on a bowl of noodles.
But there are still people who eat it. They are all from relatively wealthy families, or those with average conditions but are willing to spend money. Plus, there is a discount today, so they can buy a full set of side dishes for more than two yuan. Those side dishes can be taken back and eaten as pickles with meals for a few days. When they think about it this way, they immediately feel that they have made a profit.
Mu Nan helped them in the store for a whole day. Qin Huai didn't go, but the yard had to be left alone. Although the security conditions had improved a lot with the patrols of the Self-Defense Forces, there were all kinds of rumors outside, about drought, famine, melting glaciers, and ancient viruses that would eventually kill everyone. There were so many such messy rumors on the Internet every day, which could easily provoke people with fragile hearts to do irrational things, so there had to be someone at home.
Wu Zheng and Yu Zibai went directly to the noodle shop after get off work. The time when people get off work at three or four in the morning is the busiest, so business was boosted a bit, but they were still not willing to spend too much.
The first day the store closed, Jian Chu and Song Jia were both a little dejected. This noodle shop was much quieter than their original dessert stall. Although they knew that their prices were high and had anticipated this possibility, it was still a little worrying when it was really so quiet.
Mu Nan comforted them by ticking off each item with one hand: "The store has just opened, and word of mouth hasn't spread yet. Let Song Jia edit some videos and post them online tomorrow, maybe a lot of people will come. Besides, today's sales are pretty good. We can only buy so much raw materials. If the business is booming, we will have to close tomorrow after opening today. Now we can't buy whatever we want like before, so it's better to have a steady flow of income than to have a sudden success."
Jian Chu turned and looked at him: "Does your brother know that you are so good at comforting people?"
Mu Nan smiled: "My brother never needs comfort!"
Back in the courtyard, Song Jia and Wu Zheng followed Jian Chu and the others to check the accounts and make a summary. Mu Nan didn't have the patience to get involved in this, so he just asked them to agree on how many side dishes they wanted tomorrow. Anyway, the price of his side dishes was fixed, and it didn't involve their share, so it was much simpler.
When they got home, Qin Huai had just finished cooking the last dish. Mu Nan smelled the aroma and moved closer: "Is this dinner or midnight snack?"
Qin Huai pushed the head away and brought the spicy hot pot to the table: "Dinner and midnight snack, are you going to the store tomorrow?"
If they hadn't been helping out in the store, they wouldn't have had dinner just now. Normally, they would have had dinner around one or two o'clock, and would have gone to bed at two or three after digesting the food. Today, they were a few hours late, and if they had to go to bed after dinner, it would probably delay them for a few more hours. If they had to go again tomorrow, they would have to adjust their dinner time. It would be best for them to come back from the store, take a shower, and go to bed directly.
Mu Nan shook his head: "Let's not do it so late. There won't be much business later. But Jian Chu said that business is built by perseverance. Whether there is business or not, they will close at about this time in the future. I'll just go over and take a look when I have nothing to do. Business is so bad today. I only sold 23 bowls of noodles, and they were all for the discounted side dishes. But with the discount, I won't make any money at all. I don't know if I can sell them after they go back to the original price later."
If the market price wasn't there, Mu Nan would have wanted to lower the price of the side dishes for them. But if this was a long-term development, it wouldn't be appropriate for him to lower the price to the point where he had to subsidize himself. If his space was to produce continuously, there would be nothing wrong with such subsidies, and he could afford it. Unfortunately, there were too many space restrictions and conditions were also limited.
Qin Huai: "It's useless to think so much. Whether it's a profit or a loss can only be seen in the future. Besides, in the past, many businesses closed down after opening for a few days."
Mu Nan covered his mouth with her hand: "Today is the first day of opening, you are not allowed to say such discouraging words, even in secret!"
Qin Huai smiled and said, "Okay, I won't say anything. Let's eat."
Spicy hotpot is also Mu Nan's favorite. Although Qin Huai's is not spicy at all, at most it has a slight taste of sauce, but it is rare to get to eat it, so Mu Nan went to wash her hands happily and went to the table. Unfortunately, Qin Bing didn't allow her to drink any beverages, saying it was too late and she had to go to bed soon. It was not good to drink carbonated beverages, so she could only drink iced mung bean soup.
Mu Nan sighed as he ate: "Although the world is not so good right now, I don't know why, now that they opened the store, I feel a sense of security."
Qin Huai poked him lightly on the forehead: "It turns out that your peace and stability is given by others."
Mu Nan said, "It's not that kind of stability, it's the stability of the environment. But now thinking about it, it was not easy. When we were trapped in the house, they had a hard time. They had no money and couldn't afford the expensive vegetables. They were hungry every day and smelled the fragrance in our house. Later, the weather was hot. Although there were subsidies issued by the government, it was still miserable. They ate instant noodles until they vomited. They migrated here with nothing and accumulated assets little by little, but were emptied by disasters again and again. It was not easy. Now I have opened a store. I hope it will go well this time. This store will run steadily. I don't ask for great wealth, but a comfortable and safe life is enough!"
Qin Huai was not pessimistic about their opening a store. Since the government had opened up the leasing and sale of storefronts, there would definitely be some support in the future. However, as for selling food, once the raw materials for food were restricted, the store would not be able to operate. And now, although farms were being built continuously, the crop yields had been unsatisfactory.
He had analyzed these things to Jian Chu and his colleagues when they opened the store, but in the end they decided to give it a try. Now that they had made the decision, they might as well give it a try, as long as they could afford the consequences of failure.
After dinner, he took a shower and lay comfortably in the air-conditioned room with doors and windows installed and cleaned up again. Mu Nan couldn't help but sigh: "It's still more comfortable at home."
Qin Huai said, "You will start exercising tomorrow. I stopped running because I saw that the doors and windows at home were not installed properly and you had to sleep in the storage room. I was afraid that you would not sleep well. You will continue running tomorrow."
Mu Nan snorted, "I know."
Qin Huai was just about to say something when the phone next to him rang. He picked it up and saw that it was Shi Yuanfei.
Mu Nan leaned over to take a look: "He's back? When did he come back? Why did he look for you?"
Qin Huai responded to Shi Yuanfei's invitation to meet him tomorrow, but he didn't ask for details. He would know what happened tomorrow. It was too late now, so he pushed Mu Nan onto the bed and said, "Let's go to bed. We'll talk tomorrow if there's anything."
Although Mu Nan was a little curious, it was only a little bit of curiosity. He was really sleepy and yawning at the moment. He didn't struggle anymore. Instead, he rubbed into Qin Huai's arms, found a comfortable and secure position, and fell asleep.
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