Chapter 44
Yunzhou Subdistrict Office.
Street cadre Xiao Zheng walked into the office yawning, picked up a thermos and fetched a pot of boiling water, sat behind the desk, and flipped through the newly delivered newspapers and magazines.
When Xiao Zheng came across an article titled "Why is the road of life getting narrower and narrower?", his originally nonchalant demeanor suddenly changed.
This is a letter from a young woman, she tells her own doubts. When she was young, the author was full of beautiful visions and fantasies about life. She read "How the Steel Was Tempered" since she was young. The sentence "A person's life should be spent like this: when recalling the past, he will not regret wasting his years, nor will he be ashamed of being mediocre..." became her motto, but the older she got, the more contradictions she found.
The various movements, the house searches, the fighting, the crying during the time of going to the countryside, and the pain of being unemployed all made the author feel extremely confused.
"Some people say that the times are advancing, but I cannot touch its strong shoulders; others say that there is a broad and great cause in the world, but I don't know where it is. Why is the road of life getting narrower and narrower?"
Seeing this sentence, Xiao Zheng almost cried. It was so true, and she felt the same way. Now everyone says that the Special Administrative Region is a great change of the times, but she has not noticed any changes after working here for several years.
On the contrary, her former high school classmate now works in the Construction Office, where he meets guests from all over the world and handles various investments every day, and has a bright future. Alas, she shouldn't have been assigned to work here!
Everyone else is making progress, but she is standing still.
Xiao Zheng sniffed and suddenly heard someone knocking on the door. It was a very nice female voice.
"Excuse me, is anyone there?"
Is there someone here who speaks English?
Xiao Zheng immediately stood up, wiped his face hastily, and agreed: "Hey, someone's here, please come in."
The door was pushed open, and the pouring sunlight came in with the visitors, three women and one man, all dressed in modern clothes, and they looked extraordinary at first glance.
The beauty in the lead wore sunglasses that covered most of her face, leaving only her pretty, delicate chin exposed. A pearl necklace around her neck made her skin look even whiter than snow. She wore a pair of high heels and carried a leather handbag. She was dressed exactly like the beauties in the Hong Kong TV dramas that Xiao Zheng had secretly watched.
This must be the boss from Hong Kong! Xiao Zheng excitedly stepped forward and asked, "Excuse me, what can I do for you?"
The big beauty was silent, as cold as ice. The little beauty next to her smiled gently: "This is Mrs. Chen. We are from Hong Kong. We want to give back to our hometown and see if there are any investment opportunities. Someone just gave us directions and said you are a responsible cadre?"
Investment should be negotiated, and no one knows who did good deeds to attract these true Buddhas. But it was not easy to get in touch with the rich Hong Kong boss, so Xiao Zheng was not willing to let it go. Even if she got to know the boss well, she could bring him to negotiate, which would also make her look good in front of the leader.
So Xiao Zheng smiled brightly and said, "Yes, I am in charge here. Please take a seat and I will make you some tea."
The beautiful girl looked around the room and didn't move.
There was only one chair in the room, and it looked shaky.
Xiao Zheng was a little embarrassed, holding the kettle and not knowing what to do. Fortunately, the beautiful girl was very considerate and smiled and said, "Mrs. Chen is wearing high heels and her feet are tired. Please sit down first. It's comfortable to stand for a while after sitting in the high-rise office for a long time."
Then the very stylish "Mrs. Chen" sat down coldly and gave the order: "Lock - Sophia, you come and talk."
Tsk, it’s a foreign name, so fashionable.
Xiao Zheng poured tea for them as enthusiastically as if he were serving his own mother.
“I wonder what the boss wants to invest in?”
The beautiful girl folded her hands elegantly and started to speak in a way that was hard to understand but sounded very sophisticated: "We got off the train and there was no restaurant, not even a small cafe. We couldn't even find a place to have lunch. We asked people and they all said there was only one restaurant and it was quite far away. It was really inconvenient."
What is this? As expected of someone who grew up in the capitalist world, he speaks like a foreigner. Xiao Zheng complained in his heart, but still agreed with a smile on his face: "Yes, yes, it's inconvenient."
"So," the little beauty said with a smile, "We want to open a snack bar in your neighborhood, closest to the train station, to make it convenient for Hong Kong people passing by."
Xiao Zheng nodded repeatedly: "Okay, let's open this Slack, what is it for?"
"Oh, sorry, it means fast food restaurant." The beautiful girl patiently explained to Xiao Zheng with a series of words like "importing ingredients from Hong Kong so that our compatriots in the mainland can also taste the fresh food and strengthen the ties between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait."
For the first time, Xiao Zheng felt like he was truly part of the trend of the times.
"No problem. There are two houses over there that happen to be owned by our street. Are you renting them?"
"We want to cooperate together." The little beauty said, "You can only get a limited amount by just paying rent. If you are willing, we want to join hands with the street. You provide housing and preferably a few workers. We will split the profits 70% to 30%. How about that?"
Cooperation mode. Xiao Zheng hesitated.
As if she could see her concerns, the beautiful girl added, "We are not doing this for money. Mrs. Chen doesn't look like she is short of money, right? We just want to make things convenient for ourselves and other Hong Kong people, and to help our fellow countrymen."
Mrs. Chen looked at her watch and said impatiently, "There's not even air conditioning here. Hurry up. If you don't want to, forget it."
Having said that, she stood up and walked forward in her high heels.
"Hey, please stay, Mrs. Chen." Xiao Zheng was anxious and said quickly, "Yes, of course we can cooperate, just as if we were making friends!"
Under the blazing sun, the distinguished guest from Hong Kong slowly walked out of the street office. After turning two corners and confirming that there was no one else behind him, Mrs. Chen, that is, Chen Fengjun, took off her sunglasses, revealing a pair of beautiful eyes shining with disbelief.
"She agreed? Second sister, we can open a fast food restaurant without paying a penny for rent?"
Chen Lanjun smiled and showed the letter of intent that had just been signed: "Yes, if you don't like it, just look at the black and white."
After taking stock of the available resources and analyzing the market, Chen Lanjun decided to follow her sister's many years of experience working in a tea restaurant and open a fast food restaurant to make quick money, and then do other business after accumulating a certain amount of money.
They pooled together a total of 1,000 yuan, and the sisters settled the bill clearly. Chen Lanjun and Chen Fengjun agreed that the shares would be 55% for Chen Lanjun and 40% for Chen Fengjun. Zhao Hong also put out some money, accounting for 5%.
They scouted the area in advance, selected a few suitable houses, and then went to discuss the matter.
Before the discussion, Chen Lanjun packaged several people. The setting for the elder sister is a mysterious "Mrs. Chen" who is rich and bored and wants to invest money for fun. She is the first secretary, A Jing is the personal secretary, and Zhao Hong is the bodyguard. Don't say it, he looks quite like that, and looks even more imposing.
Chen Lanjun personally edited the costumes of several people, and even taught them the lines one by one. Originally, they were afraid that things would be complicated and difficult to handle, so Ajing and Zhao Hong also assigned a set of excuses, but they didn't expect that they would be used, and the matter was settled.
Chen Fengjun covered his chest and said, "My heart is beating very fast right now. I'm afraid I'll say something wrong and cause you trouble."
"Don't worry," Chen Lanjun took her arm and smiled, "I've thought about it beforehand. As long as you're smart, it'll be hard to refuse. The house is theirs, and that won't change. Even if we're scammers, the house is just vacant for two days. But if it's true, not only will we have income, but as the first store in this neighborhood invested by a Hong Konger, that's also an achievement."
Chen Fengjun smiled and shook his head: "You are getting bolder now. How did you come up with that?"
Zhao Hong interrupted, "Actually, I just had a feeling of déjà vu."
Chen Lanjun glared at him and said, "One trick can do anything for you. Do you have any objection?"
"I dare not, haha."
Several people went straight to Xin'an Hotel, the only hotel in the city, for dinner.
This is also a time-honored brand that has survived all the ups and downs. And because of the opening of the special zone, it is difficult to get a seat. It was not until the sunset appeared in the sky that Chen Lanjun and others managed to grab a table.
Today's special dish is oysters, freshly caught from the sea, fried in oil over low heat and drizzled with egg liquid, they are incredibly fragrant.
While eating, Chen Lanjun was thinking about the food in the fast food restaurant.
Different from formal restaurants where you order one dish and cook it, the core element of a fast food restaurant is "speed", so the dishes must be few but fine and served quickly.
In addition, the source of ingredients is also a problem. It is no problem to get some raw materials from Hong Kong, but if all the meat and eggs are supplied by Hong Kong, the cost will remain high.
If we choose to use vegetables from local rural areas, the production volume will be questionable. We may only be able to sell the vegetables we can buy, which does not fit the positioning of a fast food restaurant.
After discussing with her sister and taking various factors into consideration, Chen Lanjun finally chose the signature set meal - instant noodles.
It is very convenient and worry-free. The raw material instant noodles are shipped from Hong Kong, and each bag does not cost much. The side dishes are fried luncheon meat and fried eggs. Luncheon meat is very simple. You only need to buy canned luncheon meat. The shelf life is also very long and it will not go bad easily. Eggs are collected by people from various villages. You can also buy some green vegetables. If you want to eat green vegetables, you have to pay extra.
"No, why do I have to pay extra for the vegetables?" Ah Jing expressed her confusion.
"Most of the customers are from Hong Kong, so they are used to it, right, sister?" Chen Lanjun asked.
Chen Fengjun nodded: "The tea restaurant where I work is like this. If you are from Hong Kong, you should be able to accept it."
In addition to the instant noodle set, there is also a sandwich set. The ingredients are easy to get. Just buy a large bag of toast bread, and the ingredients can be shared with the instant noodle set.
Due to the simplicity of the ingredients and the low requirements for cooking conditions, the preparation progress of the fast food restaurant was particularly fast and it was ready to open in just a few days.
Before the opening, Chen Lanjun and Chen Fengjun specially brought a box of sandwiches to visit the cyclist.
"Wow, it's opening so soon?" A Rong was surprised and took the sandwich from Chen Fengjun.
Chen Lanjun smiled and said, "Yes, you know the location. If there are customers who want to eat there, please recommend it."
She whispered to Arong, "It's two cents for every customer you bring in."
Ah Rong smiled and said, "With your brain, this fast food restaurant will definitely do well."
"I'll lend you my good words."
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